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Cam tree coming along quickly. A real one Patterns

Short version of the story goes, the guys who sold me the pallet of 18rg parts to help me repair the corona engine also had a Lotus Seven replica also running an 18rg on twin weber 40s. Has been in their barn for the last 14 years, but recently they dug it out. Some fresh fuel and a slight fiddle and it was running again. I heard through the grapevine that he was was looking at selling it, and it had my name ALL over it. So several phone calls and a bit of time passed and a deal was struck. So a car I've always liked but never thought I'd really be able to own was mine, even better it was RG powered. Traikered it to the ferry, drove on, drove off, allegedly a quick fang through Picton and onto another trailer back to chch. From what I can see, the webers will need a rebuild kit thrown at them, an oil leak from the sump plug, probably just a new copper washer, and the wiring for the lights repairing. Then wof time! Included in the deal was a roof, doors than can also zip in half, and a torneou cover which can also zip in half speedster style. I love it so much, even my wife admitted it was really cool, and she's usually indifferent to my cars.

Right, I have spent the last half an hour fucking around with this and I am pretty sure I can make an adaptor to mount the turbo directly beneath the manifold. This means the sump drain is 100mm straight down from that. It will mean moving my clutch line away from what's going on in that area, but it also means I can have a lake pipe if I want to... Thanks again to @mjrstar for the quality steer on this. Edit; it means I can probably use the standard dump pipe now as well. Yay! Second edit; thanks for all the useful advice on this one chaps....I will update soon.

Want a Rolls Royce but can’t afford one? Then buy a Vandenplas Princess 1100. Connelly Leather seats, fold down walnut trays in the rear, twin carb 1100cc motor, walnut trim. Luxury front grill. Only two on the road in NZ ABSURD and therefore awesome ill be recommissioning it but it’s an excellent start point - I couldn’t help myself Bring it on runamuck - hit me in the comments Need to get it re checked as plates dead but will apply to keep black plates. 85000 odd kms. Strangely only first registered in 1971 even though 1965 - but not an import

Well I’ve got her home and some books and receipts came with it - check out the bound vdp owners manual and brochure . The first owner was 200metres from my house ! It was actually first registered in the uk which explains the 1972 rego.

Entries as of 5-11-19 @johnnyfive @Vintage Grumble @MopedNZ @GuyWithAviators @Shakotom @cletus @tortron @datlow @keltik @Truenotch @TimShadboltfan27 @WankBankA100 @BLIZZO @MaxPower @Dolan @Mitch.W @Tumeke @Tumeke's brother Brett @UTERUS @Ned @RUNAMUCK @Zeubin @Atex Lee Dan Shannon @Deano Mike @mark105 @Geophy @Duke Blackwood @Geophy's Dad @peteretep @Beaver @Archetype Lance/Julio Ryk Chris/Tofa Guys plz, thats enough

Not a chance. There was a significant waiting list for new cars in those days. I've been told that it was not uncommon for a year old car in good nick to sell for more than the new price purely because it was available.

Did you know those high voltage generator things they sell on ebay are actually really good for low revving engines as ignition parts? The increase in fuel economy is slightly better than the electronic ignition i am using currently. I suspect they burn away the spark plug electrodes over time though. I might explore better power supplies in the future & re-visit this idea. Do try it.

Damn over 3 years and no updates... Got the escort down to Chch, bought a mk1 escort, sold a mk1 escort, bought a house, was away for 8 months overseas with work, sold the courier, bought a ranger and life has just gotten in the way while projects have taken a back seat. But back to it... Pics of the MK1 I had to fill the void Back the MK2, so i sold the Courier diff as it was just too big and im not planning on making heaps of power. Went and got another standard escort diff which ill put a quaife ATB LSD into and if i end up breaking axles ill buy some off the shelf semi floating axles. Still planning on rear disks of the P11 primera type as palmside sell a kit. Had a wee tinker with the front brake set up as im not too happy with the princess 4 pot calipers, they are so damn heavy. Bolt on yes, bigger pad than M16 yes, heavier yes. Ive had some FD rx7 4 pots sitting in the corner for ages so decided to cut up some angle steel ive had lying around and see if i can adapt them to fit. Was super easy with some crude measuring and managed to at least get them mounted. They fit pretty well and the pads contact the 260mm disk bloody well. Will change from KE laser disks to BMW E30 vented items as they are 22mm thick as per rx7. Best thing is they fit inside 13inch wheels! Gearbox is finally attached to the dummy block and comes out of the original gearhole which is a plus

Roof mount turbo, end of story.

That silage bale green paint brings back childhood memories of garage cabinets that smell of mouse nests and have screws and bolts that have sat in there for 20 years without moving

Took the gearbox into work and gave it A good clean out. Then onto putting new gaskets through the 32/36 Weber I'd bought a few months back. I made one carb from two. Then fitted carb and manifold up. Found the old exhaust headers that came with the car and bolted them up. Then I took it down to Kennelly Cams to run it up on the dyno. Run it up and found air fuel ratio weren't to far away. The distributor was pretty average and the mechanical advance was coming in at 2000rpm so with the high comp it was det monster. So we backed of the static timing a bit and ran it up. It made a whopping 113hp. So I was a little disappointed. I was hoping to crack 120hp but apparently the intake manifold is the main reason for holding it back. The cam is pretty small so it was never going to make a big amount of power. With good low down torque it should drive nice.

So old mate Ben gave me a kick in the ass Saturday and we cracked into it. Counter sunk and drove the hex heads down, then planed the fuck outta it for a hour or two, made a lot of mess! Little bit of boiled linseed oil and looking good for a bunch of reclaimed recycled and remanufactured junk. Finished off the end bit today, very happy, can't wait to bolt the vice down. Thing is stupid heavy, solid and will keep everything inside tidy.

I've owned this car for over 20 years now, after buying it off my Dad while it was off the road. We stripped it back to bare metal, rebuilt the 1800 engine, and put it back on the road. Then came an engine swap to a 2L supercharged engine from a Lancia Beta Volumex. It was great to drive, but I have my gripes. Then life moved on and I parked it, as it wasn't the best daily driver at the time. Unfortunately weather triggered rust, it went into a state of disrepair before I found some dry storage. More than a decade later I'm ready to restart the project, with a number of changes. This seems like a good place to document the build for others. Immediate plans are to strip the exterior of trim, windows etc, pull the engine, strip the interior of the dash, carpet, seats. Then prep the rust affected panels. There is a lot of paint lifting straight off bare metal, so something in the original prep must have gone wrong. Will be addressing that this time around. Discussion thread here.

So I bought this old dear. It is so utterly ridiculous that I simply had to have it. I pick it up tomorrow and hope she’ll be a fairly straight forward recommissioning of this barn find. Motor turns over but doesn’t start - looks and sounds good though and was driven to the shed it was parked in clutch is stuck but I believe that will be the pivot - not a deal breaker hydrolastic a little saggy on one side but there has been new pipes on it and some no signs of a leak interior and body are bloody good - check out those leather seats - they are mint! Body looks very very good and will clean up beautifully dead rego but all the papers and plates are present

Bit gutted not to be heading up this year but cant do em all. Relieved im not gonna have to pass 30 of those riders 50 times over the weekend though. Looking forward to photos and storys See some of you lot at Whagnats

And other rad stuff such as corroded chrome tapware, yesteryear newspapers and wooden boxes of oldschool AF who knows whats

There is a reciept for extensive heat box work just before taken off road so all good - there has been work on the hydrolastic system but unfortunately the rear left unit is leaking dammit.

Yea thats good stuff. I had a wee chat with Al from the Skidfactory, he was pretty helpful. He reckoned a power steering pump wouldnt like the low flows, which is what i was concerned about as well. We also discussed using the WRX/Forestor scavenge pumps, which is where I am tending towards now. They are built for it and shouldnt be too hard to adapt to a V belt drive. I will see what sort of $$ they are going for.

The Bluebird was used for gymkhana hence the note. Anyway the MGB next to it (same owners) was in work last week and it was mildly amusing informing the Police officer owner that the internet thought he was a salty old munter.

Cleaned up the big faceplate. I need to find a home for these things (close the the lathe because they are heavy).

OD: 76mm Wall 2mm 2.5m = 3.14kg pir2 halve your weight double your power and prepare to weld it back together when it falls apart : Aluminium

It did, and it still does until the plug fouls. Did a bunch of miles over the last 4 days and of course it fails on my day back to work. Heaps of compression, just the oil decided to vacate all of a sudden. Interested to see what the rings look like, I don't think I goofed them up, possibly just a QA issue but balls I really didnt want to pull it back down and go to eastcape on a 125

I posted this in the shed thread awhile back, started it nearly a year ago Started with OG native wood kitchen sink unit, circa 1950s state house. Pretty much just used the front and the old t&g floorboards on the side there, replaced and extended the frame as those old units are quite shallow. The bottoms of the drawers were worn down almost a centimeter in places from years of work, I squared it all up and replaced the thin mdf shit with this 13mm very sexy ply off cuts from work. Bottom won't full outta these! Painted the unit with the cheap dump shop paint I scored, got a little sidetracked sorting the whole shed out. And that's how it's sat for at least the last few months as life, work etc got in the way.

This thing goes still my boy has finally got the hang of properly giving it shit as of this weekend..... not sure whether i should be proud or shake my head.

I wanted to upgrade our oven for the wife’s 30th, but there seems to be some kind of kitchen tax on nice ranges. I had no idea you could spend so much on a glorified indoor BBQ! So I got a ratty old one of Trademe that was supposedly a good brand and got stuck in. It was in a poor state, looked like it had never been cleaned a day in its life! I found most parts needed replacing and there were a few mouse nests inside... Friends and family were keen to help out which was great. After a few weeks of scrubbing and some parts hunting I could put it back together. I lucked out with a UK crowd that were dirt cheap on shipping and had most parts I needed. I had to get some bits locally, like some lengths of towel rails for the handles. It came out mint, and a fraction of the cost of a new one! Now I’ve just got to shoe horn it into our small kitchen!

Printed

Turn off the form eh g. Hahaha dang. So many people to not be associated with. I look forward to randomly bumping into some people on bikes at the end of the month.

Wanna borrow a bike /some assembly required

Nothing wrong with complex if it makes things easier.

Find a coupe cluster. No, you can't have mine.

I think the warranty is void the second you take it above 60. Will get some new rings and do the exact same thing again in a few weeks

Ooh I might have to join that group! It was 1972 now that I look. THey we’re quite expensive and strange so it may have sat in the dealer for 7 years!

Tang, de sprang

They are so damn absurd that I love them - kind of like the ado16 better than mini in many respects. You would have your knees around your ears drinking whiskey off the picnic trays in the back ! i need a hydrolastic pump if anyone knows someone!

Yup oil rings are tight. Some scuffing on the skirt and bore. Didn't notice any change in performance Rode it up the Bombay's and stopped at the top and pulled the plug. A nice brown. Started smoking about 15mins later. I blame mopednz

Will AliExpress another set of $10 Rings and a $2 head gasket. I'm sure it was a one off

I know someone used a power steering pump /ling

And i have just the thing for you then....

(So brought it with out checking it, current West Coast petrol station wof, goes well. Shipped it up to AK and waited patiently for it to arrive. Towie said its not running, had to winch it on. Rolled it off and straight into the garage. First impressions weren't to bad. Rust bubbles, recent respray, and fresh black paint under it. Didn't expect it to be perfect so was reasonably happy. Pulled the points, dissy cap, and plugs out, must have being in there since the 1980s.Off to get new parts. Fitted and started straight away. A lap around the block in the pouring rain and was very happy. So this hi viz Escort is Australian assembled and come to NZ after a few years. Few things different to NZ ones. They made 4 door RS2000s and used the same body for the XL 1600cc. So it has a strut plate fitted, RS2000 gearbox, and a Scheel interior. Ford used Scheel as well as Peter Brock. Its an aftermarket company that tarted up cars. It's super comfy to sit in, well after a Mk1. Interior was dirty so hit it with the usual cleaners. Seat material cleaned up well. Fitted an old cd player I had. Got rid of the rotten aircleaner and ordered one from Weber spec's. Stripped the 32/32 carb and fitted a new gasket set.

Factory is OK. LVVTA is not.

Today's efforts. The certifier wants the brake pads contained tighter within the front calipers. They are GM metric calipers like on most chevys from about the 70's to 90's. From the factory they come like this, with a huge gap of about 17mm in the pads, and a 10mm pin going through it...so about 7mm of slop. The certifier wasn't happy with this, even though it's a factory part. But he suggested I make something up to take out the slop, but not hinder the functionality of the brakes or make contact with the rotor. If I was able to achieve this - then the brakes would pass. So time to make shit happen: 4x turned inserts. Milled slots to fit pad steel. Test fitting, yip...success! Took 4hrs....with lots off going back and forth between my lathe, mill and car. Mainly due to stamped steel the pads are made of was all different sizes, so all 4 spacer are custom fit to each pad location point. Cunt of a job getting it all figured out...but one less thing to do.

Got the front and rear axles installed! Starting to look a bit more complete... Rear axle and hubs are all back together with new seals, bearings, gaskets, fasteners and discs. New ball joint for the rear A-Frame load leveller thing. Man this took a bit of pressure on a friends press to get in. Seated perfectly in the end. Next up is rebuilding the front swivel housings. It took me a while to find a good set of original chrome swivels without any pitting. I then blasted and painted the swivel housings then proudly displayed them on the dinning room table... Waiting on some swivel shims and bearings and then I can get started on those. Another load of fasteners for the next round, all nicely sorted by part number

Some real progress! Photo heaving as I am fizzing. I stripped the body down some more. Everything apart from front window and steering column. Pretty light now and easy to push around! Some of the bagging and tagging, a bunch more boxes of bits to be powder coated, galvanised or painted. Then picked up by the team at R3 Fabrication. They then lifted the body off the chassis, broke the frame down into the individual bits and got stuck in! Bulkhead started then the rest will follow. So stoked on it so far. These guys are doing a great job! Chassis to be also stripped down, blasted and epoxy.

Started on the strip down. Find some good and some bad but overall pretty good. Hoping to get it into Auto blast in the next month to give the chassis a clean up. Meanwhile the other one waits in the corner.

Slow progress! I need to get more time to spend on this thing. Doesn't help another one I had stashed at my parents place in Canterbury has also turned up. Back to Red. Brakes are all on, little spongy still. Might need another crack at bleeding. I borrowed a polisher and got to work last Sunday. First time I have ever polished a car ha! Pretty amazed how the old paint came out. It's still shit, falling off in places and different colours in places but it has a sweet shine to it now! Makes me feel much better about the project. Also removed the vinyl on the C pillar. Last owner put it on to make it look like a later model. Super freaked out to what I might find behind the vinyl but I was pleasantly surprised. Paint is slightly different shade to the rest... Looking at getting the original radiator rebuilt for it. It has had a few patches and repairs and some of the corner folds are leaking. Brad from Auto Radiators in Grey Lynn blew my mind with his radiator knowledge. Priced it at around $950. Ouch. I kinda want to do it, I kinda don't....

I finished of the caliper rebuild. First time I've ever rebuilt calipers so I am pretty chuffed with them! Also front lights and grill are on. Makes the rest of it look pretty rough now.