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So I went and found the absolute most polar opposite vehicle to something oldschool If mods think this is a boring daily feel free to delete. My now 1 month old Tesla Model 3 Standard Range +. I have been a Tesla fan for many many years and it has been a long term goal to own one. So this is the new daily. All I can say is what an absolutely phenomenal vehicle. All you need to do is drive one of these and you will be sold. I am still into oldschool so dont get me wrong but man, these cars are really next level. Thought I would throw a post up as probably a bit out of the ordinary for oldschool haha. Anyone got an oldschool sticker for the back window ha? Here it is on its maiden voyage down south from Auckland:

I'll send you a sticker when you tang and desprang.

Click the link to make Prius/Leaf owners shudder (video): https://photos.app.goo.gl/uRc2eN1EWPMey9Jp7

I have lowering springs for it already haha. Its not getting 35mm treatment like the Mark II as I am old an mature cunt now and it is my daily. It just sits at a slightly too rude height at the moment so the 1inch drop its getting should help fix that. Apart from that I will probably get the OEM performance spoiler for the rear as I like that look. Chrome delete and tints. That should probably do it for now. Maybe in the future when I get bored it might get some wheels. The wheels in the above picture are actually hubcaps ontop of mags. I kept them on for extra efficiency when I drove it down to Christchurch but they are long gone now. I dont like them. The wheels look like this after removing the aero caps:

We just cut the factory peg off it’s steel mount, drilled a hole through it and mounted an FXR foot peg equipped with its own shift and linkage which didn’t require any modification, they were even the same internal spline!

Stopped at SuperChargers in Hamilton, Taupo and Palmy for about 20mins at each. We went via Hawkes Bay for a night so had a charge up in Hastings on one of the Charge Net chargers for about 30 mins. One quick 20 min charge in Blenheim while we had a toilet break and another in Kaikoura while we had fish and chips and that was it. Basically every time we stopped we got something to eat or drink, had a stretch and a toilet break and maybe waited for 5 mins in the car and that was it. Very stress free and not at all an issue. Some of the charging we probably didn't even need to do it was more just piece of mind and it also meant I could give it a good thrashing from time to time with plenty of juice.

Sweet ride, pretty jelly. That article about lowering improving efficiency says tests were done at 150kph lol

Funny how this topic comes up, but a year or two on these are still working sweet, opening and closing several times daily. They are near impossible to move against the air pressure, and if you do, they will slam on you as you try. No locks needed, the air pressure even when low holds them tight as a mofo! I still use the timer overnight to stop the compressor from running at nighttime. In the morning it usually drops to about 100psi which is still plenty enough to open and close the gates all day long even if there was a power cut. It really is a cool system with no real issues. I've adjusted it to open or close in about 5 seconds now. The gate moves fast, then hits the air cushions and soft closes the last part of the stroke. Kind of like a kitchen draw... a lot faster than in that YouTube clip. Overall I'd definitely do it again. The only negative is if you leave it open all day and night it can flatten the battery. I always have a second one ready charged to swap over. If you're careful and only open close as you need to, the battery lasts about 6 months without needing a change. Another possible thing I'd do differently next time would be to use steel posts. The timber swells and shrinks with the seasonal changes. This lifts or lowers the gates about 20mm at the non hinged end. It fucks with my OCD and I find myself adjusting them about 3 times a year to line them up again to meet perfectly in the middle. The joys of OCD

Shannon who is on the list but not on old school has reached out to me re: the second night in Gisborne. He’s from there and has a house; he knows some of the Tauranga engineering crew from last year through work. Sounds like he may be having a wee congregation at his on the Saturday night and if people want somewhere to smoke beers and drink cigarettes then everyone on the ride will be more than welcome. May work out better than 20 hour waits for food and the staff being intimidated by burley bikers at Smash Palace. Each to their own of course; but the offer is there. Edit: Space for skids apparently.

What a fucking baller cunt. My brother will be jealous as fuck. Leaf ain't no Tesla.

Outer camtree patterns 1 of 2

Its certainly a far cry from anything oldschool and even a far cry from most brand new combustion engine vehicles TBH. Bloody outstanding vehicle, worth every penny. Might go and make a post about it, I am sure some people will be interested.

man i hope someone rings in some te urewera strippers

Ended up not going to training tonight so decided to get the cam installed and degree’d found TDC, then set the Dti gauge up on the lifter (Ended up welding two old lifters together to make it easier to get the Dti gauge set up) found max lift and set Dti to zero, wound engine back .100” and then forward to .050” before max lift, noted the number the pointer was at on the degree wheel, the wound engine over until the lifter was at .050” after max lift again noted the number the pointer was on again, added the two numbers together and then divided by two, this gave me 112.5° intake centreline. Cam spec card is for 102° so was a bit out. pulled it all apart and advanced the cam 4° and started again, ended up with an intake centreline of 101°, so that where it will stay. Tomorrow night I’ll get the heads on an confirm there is no clearance issues.

This is the slow one. 5.6 seconds. Although it got a 20HP bump in an update on Friday so might be lower now.

Thats the long term dream for sure. Some Tesla Powerwalls and a solid solar setup.

Have split that into assemblies, and had another go. Some observations: It works rather well (6" flames out the oil clagged expansion chamber just now). https://photos.app.goo.gl/t8qnrSrJkiMN4Fev8 The heat gun seems to work well for getting them started, but sometimes needs just a touch of butane into it to ignite the internals (WOOF!) say, about 1 second too much butane trashes the heaters on your heat gun in about 2 seconds (ask me how I know) That crap smells vile! Like creosote. The red band where I presume the internal carbon is burning creeps along the pipe at about 1 foot per 20 min.

https://cleantechnica.com/2019/07/16/lowering-the-tesla-model-3-increases-efficiency-an-astounding-7/ "Lowering The Tesla Model 3 Increases Efficiency An Astounding 7%"

Fuck that sheep looks maaasssive.

A much better lunchtime experience. I put yesterday's failure down to grabbing an old can out of the shed and not agitating it enough / not testing spray pattern before applying. Same can went mint today anyway... And some bits arrived from Simply Seagulls yesterday, should be able to assemble it over the weekend...

I just wired a relay up and used the existing ballast wire to trigger the relay when I did the electronic conversion

/strippers

1st half of the inner core pattern printed. Printer is running like a champ at the moment. Nice quality.

Cam tree coming along quickly. A real one Patterns

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.

Rockauto delivers again. This time I ordered parts Monday. Received them Friday. just for the size comparison here is the later model dodge starter vs the factory one. Fairly sizeable difference still plodding away on cleaning and painting suspension parts and replacing the bushes. No pictures as I’ve not actually finished any this completely yet. And now I’ve run out of etch primer Got the bill from the machinist for the engine work which ended up being a reasonable amount more that planned (there was extra work done to justify it) which has completely drained the bank account. Also my headers are in the country now so just waiting for them to clear customs etc, all in all still chipping away at it.

So I bought my Century last year as a Christmas present to myself... Have always been into Jap Barges, owned plenty of Crowns, and two Nissan Presidents over the years. I live in Australia but it resides here in NZ for when I visit home. I had intentions of doing up a 1984 Crown wagon GS126 that I had bought earlier but realised that being back only a few times a year, makes this very very difficult, so sold it to Bogangeof ...this allows me to drag out the Century and give it some attention. The Century is immaculate with 46,000km , even the interior smells new, one is the more desirable VG45 (long wheel base model) I bought it sight unseen and flew back at Christmas to pick it up, drove it down from Auckland to the Naki, Old school 4.0 pushrod V8 means this isn't a fast car but a great cruiser and will accumulate speed without you realising, just sails along. It also generates a massive amount of interest, if you are going chuck in petrol allow for an extra 15mins to talk to strangers who will try to guess what it is, and where it's from. What I have done so far is remove the massive CRT TV and VCR, retro cool but was bulky and uncomfortable to drive with it, and left no where to put your left arm. By the way in the VCR player was a video of The Godfather...dubbed in Japanese (no lie). I also found some paperwork in the door map pouch that is in Japanese with some English, suggests that the car was used as a Municipality car In Tokyo and as recently as 2011. The leather is totally unmarked and softer and more comfortable than the leather in my Lexus '06 LS430. I also imported a 15" factory alloys set from Japan earlier this year (Alloys were fitted instead of the Hubcaps after late '91). Bought some Michelins Tyres and I reckon makes the car look much much better, and certainly handles better. I want to keep the car 100% stock, so this and tinting the windows are as much as it gets. The struts that hold up the heavy as hell bonnet and boot lid I had regassed, nothing more annoying than being hit on the head. The Air con blows cold both front and back, but it does have small issues i'm going to fix: really would like to get my hands on a wiring diagram and drop it into the Auto Electricians... There seems to be some fuse or short as: The electric quarter windows work fine only two of the actual door windows do. The dealers tried to fix the windows themselves, and butchered the left rear window motor (I'll have to get on Yahoo Japan and order some more). The interior lights don't work The digital dash trip meter don't hold memory, so everytime the car is turned off they reset The digital clock and the stereo are also out, apparently these were working fine just before the car was sent over here from Japan, so need to do some trouble shooting. The TEMS doesn't work either - no lights on the dash and it is failing to soak up corrugations resulting in a thunk everytime you hit a pothole, anyone a TEMS expert?? i'm not sure whether to bother to fix the TEMS, or just replace to normal struts (apparently not too difficult with these things) but the most important thing from my point of view is that the ride is soft and dreamy as you would expect from this luxo barge behemoth. I am also keen to buy a GZG50 V12 century, I drove one when in Japan last and they are beasts, let me know if you come across one for sale here in NZ otherwise i'm going to import one (It can sit in the garage next to the VG45 as I wait for it to be old enough to get compliance)...

About a year ago I was having a beer with some mates in Ohakune, and on the deck of the bar was this awesome outdoor fireplace...I was fascinated by it. I later googled it and it was this one: I'd never seen one like it, and thought it was pretty cool. That idea has been popping up in my head every so often, until this week when I decided to do something about it. I pinterest the shit out of outdoor fireplaces and there's an amazing array of ideas. However one just stood out for me. So I've made a version of that one. Here it is: So much steel... Making holes. Starting to take shape. boom!!! Took 5 hours from start to finish (10.00am to 3.00pm), beer time!

Well minus the razor wire, broken glass and pack of fierce Rhodesian Ridge-backs! Actually, its just a set of driveway gates to be honest and they wouldn't be that hard to climb. Anyway, I've had this on "my list" for a while now. Some cheap steel from a demolition site became available...nothing inspires me more than cheap...so let get cracking! Sadly, one's not enough. So take two: I like the term "double swingers", as that sounds fun. Anyway, two gates that will be setup on actuators and a remote. gate one is done, ready for paint. Gate two needs another half day to finish. Will post pics when all done. Kj

I do remember that yarn! Thanks man. Been a long road to get here. For sure would be keen to take you for a spin if I am ever up that way or just hit me up if you are ever down here!

Sick ride for a sick cunt.

I have the absolute complete opposite of an Oldschool car to bring to the next meet

sorry guys will get a meet up soon, its been a while

You need a h4nd?

Yup just ran a fused wire from the battery. I didn't want to mess with the factory wiring

No respect the youth of today would provide a house for 13 if they ever tried to dispose of it

Junk race cars?

Yeah that was from 2017, I caught up with Ben yesterday (ex student of mine) and he asked if I wanted them. I guess there's only so much storage space.

Don't lie. We all you know you've got their complete works stashed in your phone at all times.

My little ol town was covered in the sweet smell of Bogan(red neck?) perfume recently (tire smoke). The Waimate 50 NZs longest running street race was on for three days. Got to hand it to the drift boys – put on a wicked show. Primed up the old Nailhead. was so easy. With in 30 seconds oil started dripping and after a min or two of constant oil pressure we left it at that. Dropped the front seats back in – good old mexican blanket covers a world of horrors. Front fenders on, fluids added and it was time to push the old gal out the door to get a few pics and then finally turn the key. Oh My Golly it was an exciting time I tells ya. Sitting nice in low. Below is not even the lowest part of the car With the chief garage cat supervising on. We turned the key… engine turns.. oh so exciting ! the starter at least works and we have oil pressure!!! Then after VRROOOMMM it starts! no messing about it just roars right up. no feking about with anything at all. Happy grins as the un-capped exhaust loudly roars. …. hmm whats that I hear… Clunk! clunk! clunk! engine off. Kinds sounded like down below. hmm guess the crank weight was pointing up and wasn’t noticed when this was fabed up. bugger. Cat was about as impressed as I was. With that culprit removed and confidence high we start again. tick tick tick…. phuze nut! turn it off, shove some wet rags in the side pipe openings so we can hear better. https://drive.google.com/open?id=1KNN_1E4qhxXvlvvJkmMiKFL15qixBPxu Yip its ticking. cant seem to track it down and didnt want to leave engine running till we talked to engine builder. Drove it into the garage. Draining the oil. Builder says it could be the lifters. Doubts bottom end. But recommends we carry on with the Run In procedure. And see how it goes after. Will pull the pan and have a look. Will pull the rocker covers as well and run my eye it all as well. on the bright side… if it is lifters I can use it as an excuse to get a new cam ^.

Might dab a bit of 'direct to rust' satin black on the bits that need it... Did some things today. Stripped the Villiers carb, not too bad inside, a few previous bodges made it tricky to get apart, but they're a simple beast... And cleaned, lubed, reassembled and ready to go... And assembled the ignition too. Didn't feed the brown wire corrrectly but didn't notice till I checked old pics. Should run under the insulation plate in the points box, but soldered now so she'll be right. There's a new Villiers condenser under there too... And araldited a new felt pad to the sprung steel arm... Looks good, hope it works...

ticked another off the list......heater well more so demister...( only ever use the heater in my mk5 for the screen).. once again it had to be made with off the shelf parts for ease of replacements. so i started with a 72 camaro heater core... so i made a box for it that will be welded into the firewall like a pocket. trial fit then i cut a hole in the firewall just behind the glove box. then put the box in and plug welded the front. (will fully weld the back once back on rotisserie ) made a front cover the fan i bought is a pc fan but will run on 12v and cut your fingers off......5200rpm and moves 253cfm of air. then put it together. im going to make covers to clean up and cover the back of the fire wall.so all will be hidden. this doesn't do it justice as the battery i used wouldn't even start a car

Today out of the electrolysis bath we have. The big chuck key and the vernier carriage stop. The carriage stop had filler/paint on the rough cast surfaces, but it was mostly chipped off. I decided to leave it bare metal and just rub it with oil. And not lathe.... but I got a little vice for $30 on trademe. I left it in the bath for a couple of days. Then used the wire brush on the drill. The casting was too rough to use the scourer pad. The casting is pretty rough, not much grinding/cleanup seems to have been done, so I suspect it was fairly cheapish when it was new.

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

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!

Plan is to finish wiring Richies KP then hit this thing hard. For now have swapped out the front carpet as it was a bit shit, and fitted the lights. Its back in storage now. There's a looooong way to go.

Last night's set up

Back yard starting to look the part. By the way, we bought this house 3 weeks ago. Very proud to finally be a home owner.

Since my last update I have re-kitted the P/S pump I’ve also shimmed the relief valve to lower the assistance given as the steering was too light at higher road speeds, I’ve replaced all the inner and out tie rod ends and the drag link, I dropped the block, crank and heads off to my machinist, block had been acid tanked, honed and had the cam bearings replaced. The heads have been checked over, machined, machined to take the valve springs, couple of worn valve guides replaced. The valve springs turned into a bit of a headache, the double springs supplied with my cam kit ended up having 140lbs of swat pressure which is was too high for a hydraulic flat tappet cam, We ended up ditching the inner spring and shimming the outer to end up with 100lbs seat pressure. A bit annoying but at least it didn’t turn into a major. Dont have any photos yet as it’s all plastic wrapped as it will be a couple of weeks before I start assembling slowly coming together, made another couple of orders from rock auto got a cam thrust plate with a tensioner (from a Dodge V6) as the factory 318 doesn’t have one, got some rubber lower arm inner bushes as apparently the complete polyurethane bush kit I got for the car doesn’t come with them (and no one lists a poly bush for it) ordered new rad hoses, bypass hose, rear spring shackles (as mine were too rusty) also ordered a starter motor from a 1992 dodge Dakota as with the headers I can’t use my factory starter due to the size. You can buy A/M mini starters but they are around $400, or as most of the guys in the states do you can get a Dakota starter and it’s basically a factory mini starter and at $71usd plus shipping it’s still way cheaper than an A/M unit. For now I need to let the bank account recover so ill be working on tidying up the rear suspension mounts and springs.