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Decided to try and get this thing riding a bit nicer, previous suspension setup was a little soft and hit the bump stops a bit too often, and with the extra weight of a 4age it would of been worse. Went with a set of Fortune Auto's coilovers all around, since I'll end up chucking an F series or similar diff in and I have the skills to strengthen the rear strut towers. Picked up another pair of struts, cut them down and and blasted them. Wound them all the way down and the front ended up a little higher and the back's a bit lower. Might try and get the front down a bit more, to at least were it was. Made a stainless distributor blanking cover. Bought a Flo's upper water outlet, as it looked to be the much simpler and tidier way of doing the cooling system. Needed a RWD waterpump (inc pulley), thermostat housing and a little bypass pipe to complete the setup. And of course with everything else, when you change one thing you have to change something else. The FWD alternator bracket fouled on the thermostat housing, so I got a RWD one from Japan. Borrowed some Flo's 4age to K series engine mounts and made up my own. Sitting in the hole. Had to space the engine mounts out by 8mm, possibly because of the Cusco mounts being thinner than factory ones? Dizzy relocation kit installed, had to cut a bit of a hole in the fire wall for some clearance. Stripped the interior, pulled out the dash, heater, seats, carpet and scrapped off some sound deadening around the gearbox tunnel. Cut a big ol' hole for the J160 to fit. Probably didn't need to cut so much out, but to make it easy to drop out and fit, some extra clearance was needed. Also wanted it to sit up above the sills and chassis rails. Made up a gearbox mount. Added two extra body mounts further back so that it spreads the load a bit. Has heaps of ground clearance as well. The J160 shifter needed moving forward as it lined up with the end of the handbrake. Cut up the original shifter housing and welded it on to some ali tube and 12mm plate. Spent hours on our little lathe turning up the adapter bits. Works mint, barely any flex and feels like it should. Moved it 200mm forward from the Altezza position, 50mm more than the SQ kit and 40mm back from where the factory Starlet one was.

No it's not, but that's one way to come across as a bit of a dick.

Suzuki GT-185 This is my Suzuki GT185. It has more pistons than my other bikes. This is the inside of my GT185 after I exploded it. This is the GT185 after I fixed it again.

Still have a blockage somewhere in the fuel system but it is a intermittent thing. FFS. Anyway, got a WOF. Went to the Raza because Humber.

Thought I may as well start a thread on this raging beast, a friend of mine (may have been on here once) moved from hamilton to dunedin and abandoned it on my doorstep. He had had it sitting for quite a few years. Is a 1600 with twin strombergs & extractors - the motor has had some unspecified work done, apparently from a rally car. Body is in pretty decent condition, original paint is extremely worn and has surface rust for dayz, only welding required is in rear arches due to 3/4 inch coating of oil everywhere else. interior is 5/10, seats & dash have seen better days. lots of new suspension bushes in it which is nice. bodges required: weld rear arches where needed, sand & seal surface rust fill old badge, aerial holes etc muck around with ignition, it is totally pre-bodged and doesnt turn off with key until an electrical load is introduced i.e brake lights, horn (which to be fair is pretty funny) ideally obtain electronic ignition from chrysler. minimise ridiculous oil leaks put seats and dash cover on to cover wrecked originals wof treat with disdain as not proper leyland product. feel free to question my sanity on this thread, updates will be fairly slow as im only home a few days a fortnight!

Long time no update. Car ran super well over summer, minus a little incident where I struck some slippery stuff (oil?) on the way up the bombay hill heading to Auckland for a classic meet. Long story short, front of the car hit the barrier, was lucky it missed the wheel and didn't swing the back end into it! 100km on full lock doesn't feel too good. About a week later we were heading to Leadfoot fest so had to quickly turn a repair around and get it presentable again... Slide hammer and a few dollys helped with that.

Honda Country Calendar Collection.mp3 These are my 4t farm spec bikes for rounding up nangs at the shed. 2 x CT-200 Auto AG with pull-start because getinbehindyamongrel. 1 x CT-125 conventional I don't really know why I have these, other than cheap. One came with a thistle grubber which hasn't yet been useful. Will probably offload but keen on some @UTERUS Thomson's track action first if there are thistles up there.

A little more progress. The side covers look BOSS!! Just ordered a bunch of other new parts, still a lot to do, all small shit, its just progress trying to figure out exactly what I need to buy. Next step is @kicker dragging his welder around to finish welding all the bits of steel together.

SUZUKI A100 I saw this at Kumeu with an 'offers' sign on it but CBF at the time, so grabbed the guys number. Rang him a week later to find he had been dicked about and wanted rid of it so I went and grabbed it. Motor was seized so separated with big hammers, cleaned up barrel and throw a new piston at it. Bike has decided it likes to seize after long periods of WOT. Will throw a bigger main jet at it one day. Is fine around the suburbs.

I have a Cigweld 135 also. Had been using sodastream co2 bottles as shielding gas, worked reasonably well. But this week I just picked up one of the Bunnings/Coregas ‘Mig gas’ bottles. Looking forward to not running out of gas so quickly! Seems to weld a little nicer too. Although I’ve only used it to make a mount for a motorcycle exhaust so far. Next step is to borrow some of the washing machine and teach myself to do panel rust repairs on the Austin.

Small win... 99% sure I can do my chassis swap as a modified production LVV assessed and not as a scratch built.... A series2 on a later chassis is an example given in this sheet.... https://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents/infosheets/LVVTA_Info_02-2018_Modified_Production_&_Scratch-built_Low_Volume_Vehicle_Definitions.pdf That makes me happy.....

Right - got more bikes, so updated thread to keep track. SUZUKI SEPIA Suzuki Sepia 2T. Was a sub hundy FB marketplace buy. Added go fast badges and Tongan flag. When it's not carving up the mean streets of Mangere, it's put to use collecting firewood.

I couldn't sleep so I carried on with the switch wiring for the cub. Soldered new longer wires on most of the switches in order to avoid having joins midway down. Yes the housings need to be cleaned and polished but that'll happen later I just need to extend the brake switch wiring and thats the controls done. I've kept the brake switch wires separate in case it ever needs to be replaced

One thing did bug me though, with the headlight on there was no tail light only brake would illuminate. Got home today to check bulb and looks someone in the past has jammed a 21w/12v bulb in there. Which was a single filament and double contact bulb lol. Will get the correct 6v bulb and then everything should work properly haha.

Definitions of what is scratch built has changed last year https://lvvta.org.nz/documents/infosheets/LVVTA_Info_02-2018_Modified_Production_&_Scratch-built_Low_Volume_Vehicle_Definitions.pdf

Taken the dive and have got a Cigweld 135 on order (store had ran out, but have ordered one in at the sale price for me). Next question, which may sound daft, where does one get sheet metal from? I see Mitre 10 and Bunnings have some, but seems very limited in gauge and material choice.

Slowly ticking small jobs off the list. Got speakers in front and rear in the factory locations. Did an LED dash light swap. Which doesn’t make a lot of difference to the dash lights themselves. But the illumination is now clearer and has a whiter glow to it vs the amber glow normal bulbs have. Also got some steely rims sorted that seem to work for me at the moment. shes due for a wof. Couple little things I wanna sort while it’s up on the hoist. But it’s mostly up to the fun stuff now. Really wanna set of wiper louvres. But I haven’t seen any anywhere for years.

I hit a bit of a brick wall with progress because at some point I want to paint the engine bay and underside, and was trying to do things in a way which meant I could get that done, get the engine sorted and painted and in for good and then do things like make the exhaust afterwards Then I realised that was stupid and I was wasting time mucking around trying to figure out things with the engine on the stand, and whacked the motor and box back in . I need to get everything done then I'll take it apart for paint last Shifter mounted, i wanted it up high so it's not far from the steering wheel to the shifter, @RXFORD/matt from tin tricks helped me out again with that by folding up a shifter mount and putting some fancy holes in it And put the carb and hat on, the bonnet doesnt shut so I'll have to figure out what I'm going to do with that

So I've been somewhat pining for my old canvas topped Land Rover since I sold it a few years back.... the prices on these have started to get silly so I've been thinking I need to get back in the game or loose it forever.... But this time I've been on the lookout for a different model to allows the whole family to join in the LR fun and have been somewhat dreaming of overland camping trips in Central with the kids. So something along these lines popped up on a FB page a few months back, messaged the guy, seemed like a good option but had no funds at the time, others were interested so said thanks and moved on. Now I came into $$ and messaged again a low and behold its still available and they want to move it on.... Quick trip up to Timaru to inspect and back a few weeks later (today to pick it up....) So what have I got...? Its a 1962 SIIa (383th of the export model off the line, so early in the run) 109 StationWagon. Its been modified a fair bit (on declaration papers from '92) to run a Nissan ED30 diesel (my old one had an ED33..) into a 5speed Nissan box which is somewhat mated to a LR transfer case. It also has the (very good) later axles from a Stage1 V8 (basically a Dana60) to give 3.9 gearing with freewheeling hubs. A keen eye will note that the nose has been pushed forward - it doesnt need to be to fit the ED30, I wonder if it had an earlier 6cyl conversion. Body is a little rough (as we will see) but is largely complete. Got it home and first thing was to give it a waterblast, the lichen has gone to town on the paint.... Has a 'very period' winch.... I've figure out that most of the gauges work, has a wee heater with an exposed fan (watch the fingers)

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/48888-matts-81-kp60-starlet/ Discuss.

CT200 Auto-Ag?! What I would do for a tidy one of them as a daily. https://ag200blog.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/ct200.pdf

Been dailying it for nearly 4 months now! Awhile ago I took it to Napier and got Simon from Airride NZ to paint on some whitewalls. Looks so much better! A couple weeks a go I drove it up to Auckland. No issues, other than the speedo dying on the way up in Thames. Have been emailing Classic Instruments about the gauge, to see if they can find whats wrong. They have since stopped replying after I did some tests and they figured out it's completely dead. Not the first issue with it either. Have already sent it away to get fixed once, as the odometer wasn't working when I first got it. Not impressed, since they aren't exactly cheap! Brought back an engine and gearbox, a couple storage boxes and a set of wheels from Auckland. The Hoonigans also shared it on their Instagram. Some comments are pretty entertaining haha. Have some bear-claw latches to install one day, as the doors are a pain to get closing properly, keep popping open and rattling. Need to sort some electric solenoids to lock the doors first though.

It made it in a few magazines recently. Performance Car in the 4 & Rotary Jamboree section. Petrolhead in the Beachhop section. NZV8 Beachhop Edition. And the recent NZV8 in the editorial. Had the transmission pulled apart and the forward clutch was burnt out. After waiting a month for the trans to be rebuilt and getting a price back, I decided my Dad could have the rebuilt one and I'd pull out the one that was bolted up to a dummy engine in one of his projects. It looked to be in good condition from the outside. Grabbed the bits I needed off my old one and swapped them over. Hooked it all up and put some new oil in. Went for a test drive and it goes way better than it has ever had!! Has been my daily for the past few weeks (sorry neighbours! The 6-7am coldstarts with the compressors kicking in must get annoying haha), haven't had any major issues! Have done over 1000km in it since the new trans has been in. Went out last weekend and took some decent photos of it.

Hey everyone! I've been hanging around this forum since the Oldschool Nats were held in the Manawatu a couple of years ago. I haven't been very active posting, but attended a few events and posted some of my pics up on here. I thought I would post up my project I've been working on since mid June 2014. I acquired it from a friend who had gotten it green stickered for bald tires (pretty much full on slicks) and then snapped a couple of bolts on the half shaft mount (from my guess was trying to do skids or launches lol). He thought he had snapped an axle haha, since it wasn't drivable. We towed it back to my place and I got straight into it and ripped off all the "jdm" stickers, started to strip the interior and give it a general tidy up. Came with a 4AGE 20v silvertop which was near the end of it's days. The piston rings were pretty buggered from all the thrashing. Good side was that it had a full FGK (Fujitsubo) exhaust. I was pretty stocked when I noticed that since I scored the whole car for so cheap. I had previously bought some Tein adjustable coilovers for another car but decided against installing them, luckily they fitted this car as well. Installed the coilovers and realised it had lowering springs as well. Sold them for some money back haha. It looks so much nicer after a good tidy up!

Decided I didn't like the stainless trim around the windows enough to keep it, so swapped in the standard one I had. Suits the style better anyway. Then I could put the inner windscreen surrounds in, as well as the sun visors and rear view mirror, but I don't seem to have a photo of them. Took the seat to the upholsterers and got some Mexican blankets put on. Will only be temporary until I can afford to get it done properly in leather or something. Had the center dash panel straightened and polished up, as it was a bit warped. Then I polished up the glove box to match. Cut up some black vinyl strips and put them in the low spots, still need to do the glove box. Got the engine back from being rebuilt. Was mint inside and no other damage other than the piston and conrod. Chucked it back in and assembled everything back together. Started first pop and ran very well! So bolted together the whole front end and put the bonnet back on after a long time it's been off. Made a new intake pipe to get in going in the opposite direction than the standard one. Made a coolant overflow and power steering reservoir, they both seem to work pretty well so far. Attached some peep mirrors onto the doors. I think they look good, although rubbish to see anything through. Bought some tyres, ended up with BF Goodrich's, 205/65/15 front and 225/70/15 rear. Apparently 15x8's with 225/60 tyres don't fit on the front of this without massively rubbing on the fenders. Managed to return the tyres and swap them for some 205/65's and got the wheels split and narrowed to 7" wide. Had it through the cert check the past week and everything was good! Had a wheel alignment and that also went well. Just waiting on the cert plate now and then can take it for a WOF! Drives really nice and smooth, although the transmission seems to be slipping. We think it has something to do with the secondary throttle sensor that doesn't seem to be working, so need to have a look at that.

All the bits are clearcoated. Came up alright, got way too many runs on the cab, but that's okay as I'll be re-coating it all again once it's assembled with some flatter clear. At least it's all sealed up now. Installed some black fender welt between the bed and the guards. Started installing some of the parts. Put the door latches in, had to replace one of the springs behind the interior handle on the left side as it had snapped. Squeezed some Dynamat on to the outer skin of the doors and wooow what a difference that made to the whole door including the inner skin. Couldn't wait to see what the gauges looked like, so in they went. Got the door windows and quarter windows in, what a frustrating time that was, since they had to be installed in the right order and it all has to be fitted through the small slot in the top. Put an LED in the original interior light housing, wired it up and fitted. Puts out some decent light. Pulled apart the old headlight surrounds and put in new spring and seals. Gave them a bit of a polish up as well. Bought some new sealed beams, no-one could seem to find any semi-sealed ones with the domed glass when I was looking. Found some in America after I bought these though, but will try these out for now and if they're rubbish change them later. Fitted one of the inner guards when the engine was in and realised that trying to make headers was waaaay too much effort, time consuming and there really just is no space in there, plus the factory ones already fitted perfectly. So cut off the ugly heat shields on the factory headers, tidied up some of the welding, ground out the lumpy weld on the inside of the flange, painted them with high-temp paint and then wrapped them in heat-wrap, look much better. Would of really liked to build my own headers, maybe on the next project, as I have 20x 1-5/8" U-bends arriving from America next week haha. Put the cab on so I can see where the brake and fuel lines can run. Looks like it could actually be finished sometime soon haha.

A bit overdue on an update. Undersealed the cab, came up pretty good! Flipped the cab back over and sanded all of the inside and door jambs. Then put some epoxy primer on. High build primed the dash and a few of the panels that will be visible once done, so they sanded up smooth and just sprayed the primer as a surfacer on the rest. Once I got it all sanded down and filled the little bits that needed doing sprayed some colour on. Pretty happy with how it turned out, other than a couple of small sags on the dash, but I'll sand them out later. Picked up a couple of boxes of Dynamat and covered it everywhere I could get it. Made a decent improvement, just need to get some inside the doors somehow and also do something with the gap in behind where the top seat belt mount is. I needed to sort a radiator as the original one wasn't in the greatest of condition. Tried searching for a couple of weeks to find somewhere to buy an aluminium core the sizes I want, but seemed to be pretty hard to get anything. So went and bought one of those universal Chevy cross-flow things that had a core close to what I needed. Cut off the tanks, drew up the radiator and support in solidworks and designed the mounts and new tanks from there. Top tank is angled at the front and with the gap at the top allows me to bring the air intake through there, as there's not really anywhere else for cold air. Drew up some aluminium brackets to mount the electric fan as well. Should clear the engine if I trim some of the pulley bolts that stick out a bit much. Started on prepping the rest of the body panels for clear coating. Left side is sanded with 800 grit which seems to work pretty well, cleans it up nice. The seam at the back was pretty rusty so gave it a sand, rust kill and then seam sealed it. The blue colour I was using for the rest of painting was quite the same as the patina'd paint some had some different stuff mixed up and used it to blend in the repairs. Came out really well! Fixed up the patches where I welded up the old mirror, spotlight holes and the area around the cowl vent.. The sanding brought back some of the original pinstripping around the cab which is cool. Had to clean up this seam on the tray as well since it was rusty and needed touching up.

Gave the exhaust a paint with some high temp paint and then tried to assemble it all with out getting too many scratches, wasn't too bad. Bought some new braided rear brake hoses from Australia. The steering rack rebuild kit I got from England was the wrong one so just left the current seals as is and hope they are alright. Sanded it all back and gave it a coat of paint and assembled it back together. Made a new filler tube for the fuel tank and added a drain plug. Since it then needed painting again I sent it off to get powder coated instead. Cut some rubber up for the mounting straps. Just had enough rubber left over for the fuel pump seal. Pulled the engine out and gave it a good clean up. Still isn't the best as some of the aluminium parts are a bit oxidized. Whilst I cleaning the engine I got sick of looking at the hideous standard headers, and ages ago I drew up some exhaust flanges and cut them from 10mm mild steel. So I'm going to try and make some headers with the very little space available. There's heaps of room upwards so maybe try and do some high-rise ones. Started by making some ob-round to round transitions by bumping them on a pressbrake from two pieces. Worked really well, they were quite accurate to size. Need to put the engine back in, cab back on and fit the inner guards so I can build some jigs.

Went and bought a bunch of things to finish of the air bag system. Got a couple of water traps between the compressor and tank now. There's already a decent amount of moisture in them from a few fills as you can see. Bought a pressure gauge as well, just to check on what it's doing occasionally. Trying to get all the correct fittings for everything to work was a mission haha. The 3/8" line coming off the tee is for the huge air horns that I have, it's sooooo loud! Waiting on the laser cutter at work to be fixed so I can cut out some brackets to hold all the lines in place. Undersealed the running boards and the radiator panel. Split apart the grill bars that were all the riveted together so I could sandblast and paint the backside of them. No progress pics but here's some of them done. Painted the back ones cream underneath because they were originally that colour on top but they have some blue overspray on them. It should mostly clean off with a scotchbrite, as that needs doing all over the body panels before it gets clearcoated anyway. Started to assemble the front grill/radiator panels. All went together well apart from the fastener sets I got from America not having the correct amount or just missing things all together. As you can see in the above pics I also assembled the park lights, I had new lenses, bulb sockets, gaskets and chrome surrounds but no new housings. The original ones looked pretty bad before I pulled them all apart and gave them a sandblast, but cleaned up like new with some silver zinc paint. The new bulb sockets I bought were double contact ones to run park lights and indicators on a dual filament bulb, but I had some orange/amber LED's laying around that fitted, so may use them and just have parklights in the headlight housing and have these just as indicators.

Finished off the left side of the inner fender and have nearly finished the other side. Decided on where to put the fuel filler, so went and bought a flush pop-up filler cap so it can be hidden on the c-notch cover. Came with a steel weld-in bung, was really good quality over-all (unlike the chinese one I tried first), but didn't like how the cap had a slight roundness on top, so chucked it in the lathe which fixed that. Bung welded in and cleaned up. Wanted the c-notch cover to be painted some sort of satin black but also to be pretty durable. Decided to try and give some Hammerite a go. Looks pretty good I think. So went a head and painted the airbag tray with it as well. Since I mounted the two compressors too close together to fit standard 90° fittings in the intake ports, I had to make some of my own up. Turned the thread down so they wound all the way in and then cut off the female threaded end and added some turned down hose-tails. Finished fittings welded and painted. The original trim that held the rubber on the bottom inside of the doors were pretty rusty so folded up some new ones and gave them a coat of black paint. While I had the paint ready I gave the fuel tank a coat. Moved on to the latch for the bed that lifts up. Bought a coupe of bear-claw latches from Ebay and made a box for it to fit in, which then gets welded in to the box section frame. Made it that way just so water and crap wouldn't fill up in there. A package arrived last week as well. An Accuair E-level Air Management system.

Ha, awesome. I've lived in Masterton for the past few years and have seen you driving about in this all the time. Sounds brilliant. Didn't know you had a build thread here. Good work with the a14 on Dell'ortos, I like. The homemade engine cradle is a nice bit of kit too, I'll remember that for future projects.

Swapped the 175/50/13 yokohamas onto the starsharks. It's so slammed now haha. It's also nicer to drive in most ways because it sits at slightly higher revs, apart from high speed cruising which still isn't too bad. Speedo is waaaay out now though!

Have finished the majority of the rust in the doors, just one little hole on the side of one to go. I have welded on a new folded over flangey bit and painted all in there on the photo below. Has come out pretty good. The other door was pretty much the same deal. Another thing I did was make the cowl vent bracket fit this dash. Since it's changed to the RHD dash and I'm still using the LHD vent bracket it ended up mounting in the same place the glove box hinge was, so cut it up and drilled some new holes. That's the vent fully opened, can also be set to be slightly opened. Needs a different seal as the current one is too stiff and doesn't allow the vent to pull down flush, otherwise it operates pretty well. Filled up the two holes that were left at the top of the firewall as well, probably should do the same to those other two. Hooked up the accelerator cable. Then did some average panel beating and bogging to fix where the panel warped when I welded the bracket to the back of the firewall. Might need a bit more work one day. The part that clips in to the firewall for the accelerator cable was a bit loose and needed some sort of spacer, so laser cut out some circlip sort of things. Cable ties are sweet to hook the cable to the pedal right?! It does work well though, has good travel, feel etc. Received the seatbelt mounts back from getting passivated. Today I made up this after work. It is to mount the steering column to the firewall. Making a cone that small out of 2mm stainless without using rollers isn't very fun! Pretty happy with how it turned out though. Don't think I could make the steering column any shinier if I tried! Haha Borrowed a wheel off the Mercury to see what whitewalls look like. They're a bit wider and higher profile than what I'll be using, looks so sweet though!

The dash now has all the rust fixed, really happy with how it turned out. Took maybe close to 10 hours to just weld it all up though. Should only need bog in a few places, the rest a few coats of primer will fill nicely.

Done a little bit more. Tried the x-flow underneath but there wasn't really enough room. Move it back to here and looks pretty good. Can be dropped out from here as well. Resonators go somewhere around here. Ran out of stuff to do on the exhaust since I don't have the pipe or flanges yet, so went and filled in some more holes in the floor.

Cowl vent patch is now welded in. Welded like crap because it was still a bit rusty and thin in places, but should clean up nicely with some paint. Gonna have to learn how to airbrush patina or something haha. Started a collection of dashes. Picked up the middle RHD one last weekend from a guy just 5 minutes up the road. Including mine there's now 3 50's Chevy pickup projects within about a 10km radius and that's out in the country haha. Bought the one that's been very badly modified to fit a commodore dash cluster a few years ago, not sure why because it's a hideous thing! At least it's in good condition where the unmodified RHD one isn't, so it's going to get cut up. Got it sand blasted and primed. The left side is mint, the right side is quite holey but it's fixable.

Filled 3 holes today, then got sick of it and attacked it with a stripper disk and an orbital sander.

Done a bit more. So glad I know how to tig weld! Added a swage around the brake booster mounting holes to add some rigidity and try to remove some flex. Also stitch welded a panel on the back to add some strength as well. Still 30+ holes to fill. Kinda over it now haha.

Tried on the bumper guard that my parent's bought back from the USA a few years ago. Might need some slight modifications if I want to use it, as it already sits on the ground even though it's not as it's lowest. Started stripping some of the inside. Pulled out the seat and fuel tank which still had about 10 litres of petrol in it. Had some decent lumps of something in there and the outlet was blocked up, which is probably why it never ran anymore. 65 year old sound deadening is the worst to try and remove! Also some steel that surprisingly doesn't have any rust on it. Re-mounted the airbag mounts in the correct place and did some tests.

Made up the 4-link bars and tacked all the mounts on. It's now roll-able for the first time since I pretty much bought it. Lifted the cab and front end back on to check clearances and it all looks good. Won't need much of a gearbox/driveshaft tunnel through the floor. The engine wouldn't fit between the inner guards. Needs a little bit more of a trim, or a lot more if I want to make some better headers for it. So keen for some ITB's! Tray fits well, needs some cutting out of the side for airbag clearance. C-notch doesn't stick out too much

Made some coilovers. Ended up getting MR2 inserts I think, they weren't really short enough and 5kg springs. I shortened the struts and TIG welded them up. Applied paint Test fitted and the springs were too hard, didn't go anywhere low enough unless I pulled out the keeper springs and wound the collars right down. De-sprung the rear to see how low it could go. Removed the bump stops as well Did some calculating and figured some 3kg springs would be better and shortened the insert shaft a bit. Bought some cheap evo camber plates and drew up some new top hats to get laser cut. Cut another coil off the rear springs and installed some shorted shocks, so this is how it sits now. Hopefully settles a bit lower. Bought another K50 shifter housing thanks to enzee. Shifts much smoother without the one that's been brazed and welded!

Pulled out the old dirty 2K Friday afternoon. Gave the engine bay a clean, degrease and painted a few things that weren't very nice looking. Dropped the 4K in today. Also test fitted radiator. Still a decent amount of things need doing; make exhaust, radiator mounts, fit accelerator/choke cables, sort the water/heater lines, make a new coil mount, rewire the dizzy/tidy up the wiring, shorten braided fuel line, probably heaps more I'm missing.

Here's a list of the things that have been done: Got the flywheel back and it is about 6.5kg I think Also painted the grill and headlight surrounds again, this time satin black, which looks much better! Clocked to 88888 today

Not very much has happened since the last update. The rear springs got a bit of a "trim" so it sits a bit nicer now. Still want it lower so I'll try sort some shorter shocks at some point. The clutch has decided to give out all of a sudden, so I went and bought a new one (thanks Mark!). Will try and get it in this weekend. The 4K that is at the engine builders is now getting bored out as big as it can go, since he found new pistons for very cheap. Hopefully they start on it soon! I have made a start on making my own extractors, I drew up a flange and got it laser cut at work. Now to figure out how to do the rest of them.

Got most of the top welded up and a little bit of the bottom done. It didn't really take as long as I thought it would. Can probably flip it over now to weld the rest of it. Need to also start designing the crossmembers sometime soon.

Parts arrived from Toyota awhile ago. Engine is at Hartley's getting some work done to it. Second pair of starsharks hasn't arrived yet, hopefully this coming week. Gave it a polish today, came out pretty good. Also repainted the bumper end caps and fender mirrors satin black since they look average in gloss. Doing that I discovered one of the front end caps is actually a rear one, so is slightly different. So if anyone has a good r/h front bumper end cap they don't want, i'll take it.

Started to pull apart the 4K the past week. Looks to be in pretty good condition. Ordered some parts and a gasket set from Mark at Toyota, should be here soon from Japan. Need to get some bearings and piston rings at some point too. Gave the block and pulleys a coat of black engine enamel to tidy them up a bit. Started to polish the cylinder head cover and timing chain cover. They look a bit nicer, but will give them a bead blast at work and then another polish to get them looking better. Might take the head and camshaft to an engine builder this week and see if they can do some porting and give the cam a grind.

Got the front end centred and straight (hopefully). Made some mounts for it and tacked them on. Unsure whether to TIG or MIG them on. Opinions? Also had some air bag mounting plates laser cut at work. Going to weld the 3mm plates to the front end and then just bolt the 5mm ones to the bag, which then bolts up to the front end. Then to try and figure out how to setup the rear suspension.

I got the c-notch semi welded up. It's welded on the inside to the chassis and plug welded on the outer sides. Also has some reinforcing plate in the middle. Just need to fully weld around the top now, then cut out the original chassis and bend up the bottom piece. Also found a use for the rear bumper.

Next up was the rollcage. I got my Dad's cousin, Vern - Motion Engineering to build it for me. We just decided to go on a 6 point cage with the crossed side extrusion bars, since I thought the body was quite weak through there. More sanding and bogging. Picked up a GTZ Trueno bonnet for some airflow to the open trumpets. As well as some factory side skirts and spoiler.