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Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/08/20 in all areas

  1. phwoar could Geophy Sr get any cooler!? thats dreamy! Yea, the front brake is garbage, about as effective as an australian prime minister tbh. Was gonna try inspect the shoes etc this weekend but i guess they are just shit from factory. But these things engine brake so good you just gotta get used to riding them like quad bikes Another fred update: @00quattro00 bought a 95 XR250 out of pure jealousy of this thing. so we went for a nang into the Kawekas and up the Mangatutu road. Bloody good fun! River crossings, tight, winding gravel and the always exciting paranoia of "do i have enough fuel to get home". We did a 170km loop, most of it gravel, and i still had plenty of petrol in there so i expect to get a 200km+ range outta this thing.
    10 points
  2. This makes me excitable, Jeff Snr still has his xl250 from when he was a whipper snapper down south and he is keen to pull it out of retirement. Speaking to him the other day he said the biggest shortfall with them is the front drum brake, if you could find a disk brake front end out of another bike that would make a huge difference.
    9 points
  3. Intercooler pipes mostly done. Need to sort a bov and tidy/paint them Also sorted a water pump pulley and crank pulley combo- these I had bought ages ago as a box of parts off a marine engine which never fitted anything so had to modify a few things, now I can mount the alternator on the front of the lh head which is opposite to how they usually are
    8 points
  4. Not a huge update, but progress is getting made. front suspension is all Re-bushed and repainted, and has new ball joints. Had a mission with the upper arms. the arms that came out of the car I managed to get the ball joints out of, but the bushes were seized into the arms. So I dug through all my parts and found the Aussie upper arms that came with all my front brake parts. Confirmed they are the same at the factory stuff. Bushes all came out easy. But the ball joints would not budge (shitty home made roll didn’t help) so I ended up welding an old axle nut to the top of the ball joint and using that to get them out. Got there in the end. I’ve also started cleaning up everything that bolts onto the engine, inlet manifold is all done Still need to finish cleaning the sump then I’ll have everything sorted to paint the engine, still undecided with what to do with the rocker covers though in that photo you can see it’s got a cool set of finned rocker covers I’m tempted to paint them the same colour as the inlet manifold and paint the fins black however I’m yet to decide, when I first got the car I had thought about doing them wrinkle black and then knocking the fins back to alloy so am a bit undecided there Discuss here:
    6 points
  5. Brakes have arrived, as have new tyres, but still waiting on the ball joints for the WOF. In the mean time since the car hasnt been started since i drove to the WOF and back, i whipped a plug out to see how the KJet mixtures are... Pretty damn good i'd say. Maybe a little on the lean side, but I can live with that.
    6 points
  6. well i havnt build the new motor yet .....because i have other shit to play with.....but the old pinhoe has been getting worse......blows shit loads of smoke and sounds like a diesel... the mk3 parts car i bought had a mighty pinthoe in it... so i pulled it out pulled the clutch ,flywheel,pressure plate,inlet and carb , thermostat and water pump of mine and slapped it on to the other one.... reason being mine ran and i had done them last year. some new plugs and oil.....and man it starts first pop.....no smoke.....and so quiet . old pinthoe other old pinthoe blooody good
    6 points
  7. @1vaknd We have used the flat fibreglass heat gasket (that I got from bbqs and more) around most of the lid edges, we can't do the all the edges as it creates gaps in other areas. It actually seals quite well. Also forgot to mention we got a whole lamb boned and rolled. Bit of salt and pepper, rosemary, thyme and garlic. Cooked in the smoker at around 240°F for about 6 hours then rested for about an hour. Fuelled with kingsford briquettes and gum wood, with Manuka for smoke. The Smokeyness on the outside was nice but a bit overpowering but the inside was cooked mint! Moist as and tasty. I swapped over the weber temp gauge for the left gauge on the pitlord. The original gauge was showing about 10-15°F lower than the right, however with the weber gauge it was showing about 20°F above the right. Will look at investing in a proper internal probe, temp gauge.
    5 points
  8. This is nearly working. Lots has been done since ^^
    4 points
  9. I saw this on trade me recently. There is a guy on facebook who converted his with a BMW motorcycle engine. I think he produces parts for others to convert theirs. I was a member of the group for a while but not now. Shouldn't be hard to find it again with a search. Good luck with it.
    3 points
  10. Last update for 2019 I got annoyed at my brain going around in circles about intercooling, between water to air, air to air, or doing water meth injection. Spent waaay too much time reading stuff on the internet I'd actually bought most of the stuff to do W2A but it adds a lot of weight and more stuff to do A2A means I lose the bonnet catch so I'll have to put up with 1x dick punch from @RUNAMUCK due to bonnet pins Water/meth is the easiest route but so much conflicting information on whether it works well or not plus the unit I was looking at was $800 So to stop going around in circles any more I stopped thinking about it and attacked the front with a cut off wheel and a hole saw Got some piping mocked up and the warm side, which was the side that looked like it was going to be difficult, is pretty easy using piping I cut up that was on the vg
    3 points
  11. Merry xmas people. Got the old man to come down with his truck and bring the pit up to theirs as we were heading up for Christmas, and present it to my brother there. Threw on a bit more paint as it got a little scratched up in transit and gave it a clean out on the inside. My brother was pretty Fucking stoked and all my family were pretty impressed with it so was pretty happy with that. I gave him a hand throughout the day and we got it roaring to burn it out. We created a fire in both the firebox and the cooking chamber as well. Got the firebox up to about 650 Fahrenheit for a bit and the cooking chamber up to about 400 for about 3 hours. Cleaned it out again then sprayed canola oil throughout and got it going via the firebox for another 3hours to season it with a drip tray and primarily Manuka to season it. It seals up pretty well once the exhaust starts extracting but it takes a little while to get it going. We also struggled to get the cooking chamber above 200 Fahrenheit when we seasoned it so we need to learn how to get it going hotter. Will try different brickettes and heat beads as we primarily just used wood when we seasoned it. Pretty stoked nonetheless. Will get some meat on it tomorrow hopefully and see what we can come up with. Cheers
    3 points
  12. Time is passing fast and not much is being done. I figured I might as well start piecing back together my 550 since the 750 is broken! For once in my life I’m glad I kept junk. I used the old race flipped upside down and an old fork lower as a driver to get the steering stem bearing in place. Worked a treat. There’s not heaps to do on the 550. The only thing I really want to do is get the carbs cleaned up, maybe vapour blast and rebuild and new fuel tap. I do actually miss riding the 550.
    2 points
  13. Sorry the pics are so shit. No quite wrinkle. But not smooth and glossy either. Mine were done by @LowTech.
    2 points
  14. got the dash support painted and put the rest of the dash together......very happy with it ... pre face lift GT dash now bog standard face lift. car has a new owner as well....i have my mk2 stored at a mates and he dropped the other mk3 seats off for me today and couldn't take his eye off it (it is a bloody good body) so we struck a deal and hes going to put it in storage until he has all the bits to put it back on the road.......its a good day...dash lloks mint....cars going to a good home
    2 points
  15. I'm not cool enough to start one. Only cool people can do that. But now that you mention it, who's going to kumeu 2020?
    2 points
  16. Re recker cover, You can get a sand texture powder coating. It's not quite wrinkle finish. But it more durable than anything out of a can
    2 points
  17. bunnings has finally got around to stocking the fire rope (also the flat stuff) so could try sealing the doors a little more or your chimney is rather tall so id say you a drawing too much cool air through any small gaps you have, try closing the chimney damper until you get some smoke seeping from the cracks around the door and your temp should rise
    2 points
  18. motor is 90% done had been waiting for parts which have got now but couldn't work on the engine due to it being at work and having the workshop floors being painted. plan is going for beach hop and Nats
    2 points
  19. got the re face lift dash support out of the parts car and the face lift one welded back in.....first time ive ever done it....this was the worst part...think the one going in my car will be easier. can start puting the parts car back together with all the shit i dont want/need and sell it on.
    2 points
  20. Building the 1961 Datsun 310 Bluebird Floorpan - Tunnel trim completed and floorpan edge conforms nicely! Trimmed and fitted. Trim was three steps. First a rough cut with an angle grinder cutting disk to within 1/4 inch of the scribe line, then manual cut with tin snips the rest of the way, finishing with hand filing to clean and de-burr the edges. It's very tempting to just start welding it now. Just need to paint the underside and weld it in - finally! Discussion: https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/60267-marts-pl310-61-datsun-bluebird-sedan/
    2 points
  21. and all finished. im super stoked with how it all came out. the shape is really good and the passengers side wont need any bog i reckon, just some high build and it should come right. the drivers side needs a tiny bit of filler where a piece of the origional car is really badly fucked from previous welding. apart from that shes ready for paint. 2020-01-06_01-15-03 by sheepers, on Flickr 2020-01-06_01-15-12 by sheepers, on Flickr 2020-01-06_02-52-14 by sheepers, on Flickr 2020-01-06_02-52-22 by sheepers, on Flickr
    2 points
  22. Banged on the gt200 rear wheel along with shinko golden boy sr244 Wow Wasn't expecting such a difference. Does 80 in 3rd now, 5th is more like an overdrive, but will sit at around 105-110 comfortably. There's some more top speed but there's too many slow cars about to test. Feels like it has more power it absolutely sings through the revs. It must be that the rim and tyre are lighter than the original 16". Gets to, and likes being at red line alot more than before. Feels more like a farm spec DR than a city cruiser inspired tootler Has raised the bum up a little too, getting that triangle parallel to the ground seems to be key in improving looks.
    2 points
  23. when i bought this it was a shell and i was missing heaps of parts but the shell was the starting point for me. i did buy some seats and door cards as well as the rectangle lights and a few grills (i like the look of then and the 1st ones to come along)from a mate but still needed lights and lots of other stuff..so i all ways thought that one day ill stumble across a parts car.. being a face lift 76 it has the same dash as the mk4/5 and i dint hate it but lately ive been thing about after market gauges and maybe subaru b4 seats front and back or maybe bucket seats in the back as well. then a mate rings me on Friday morning and tells me he will around soon with a trailer......and later that day i had a parts car...........oh what a parts car. its got everything that makes a GT a GT in it. so i stripped it out on Saturday and got a pile of GT goodness. the seats are pretty bad and will need an expert but they are all there. the only part i dont need is the steering wheel and i have no idea how much they go for so i put it on trademe at $1 reserve.. the body of the parts car is pretty bloody good and has live plates and tags..so the plan is to take all the stuff i want and put all the stuff i no longer have a need for back on and sell it on to someone whos after a project.....far to good to just cut up...theres rust in the rear panel and i think thats it. the big job is the dash steel back part....the face lift and pre facelift are totally different as you know so they need to be removed and welded back in ..in the other cars. so i have removed the facelift from my car today i will fully weld up all the areas with it out now and clean and POR15 what i can before i remove the other one from the parts car and weld it in. cheers
    2 points
  24. Ok so we gave the girl it's first cook today. What a way to start, 7kg brisket the bro sorted out, the thing is a bloody unit. First we swapped out the left gauge for one off the weber to see what discrepancies there were with the budget ones I got from bunnings. We got the firebox going first of all with mostly kingsford Apple wood coals. Got the firebox up to about 700° and the cooking chamber right gauge was showing about 200 and the left weber gauge about 240 so I think the internal temp is really around 220ish, really need to get more accurate probes to get an accurate reading. This is what we ended up with. We had it on the smoker for about 7.5 hours, had a lot of problems trying to maintain heat. We ended up resorting to feeding it pohutakawa, manuka and gum wood to keep it up(we have no shortage of wood as the olds do firewood/tree felling). The brisket was removed after being wrapped for the last few hours with an internal temp of around 200-209 and let it rest for about 45minutes before serving. Slightly over cooked and not the ideal smoke ring but was still delicious and nice and moist. Pretty stoked to be honest, we still need to work out easier ways to maintain the temps, may look at grinding the opening between the firebox and cooking chamber to help draw more heat. Will see how it goes anyway. Cheers
    2 points
  25. Sigh, It seems like my life is a never-ending cycle of messing with KJet fuel pressures. But hopefully, this will help My quality German made KJetronic pressure testing setup arrived. Huge thanks to MissingParts on eBay, as this is some proper quality gear, and for less than I paid for the other setup. Nicely crimped ends, with quality rubber and fabric braided hoses The seller has a great sense of humour. "For oldtimer cars" I hooked the new setup up, which was a lot easier with the banjo fittings, rather than the generic screw fittings Now it was time to confirm the readings from the old gauge. Previously the cold control pressure was stone dead on the gauge, at near enough zero psi. This gauge, not so much. We want cold pressure here, near the green line (depending on ambient temp), otherwise it's too lean when cold So, what about the system pressure, which wouldn't go over 5bar, no matter how thick of a shim I fitted? Off the gauge; over 6bar And we want that at 5-5.5bar, on this green line. Too high and the control pressure will be too high also. Well damn. No wonder it still wasn't happy. I pulled the two additional shims out, and we dropped to 5bar system pressure. Better, but not perfect. I knocked the adjustment on the WUR to get the control pressure down to the required half bar, but the car wasn't running right. The next step was to step back, reset everything and presume that everything I had done with the old gauge was buggered. Because the system pressure was a tad low I wanted to add my small extra shim and see how that increased pressure (i carefully measured it when I made it, to add 0.5bar). Hah, perfect! I found this amazing step by step guide, which I followed and it worked perfectly. Big thanks to the author of that. The first step was to make my WUR adjustable. This is so that if I knock the pressure adjustment down too far I can use a nut to pull the pin back out, instead of having to remove and disassemble it to tap the pin back out by hand. I drilled and tapped the pin to M5x0.8 and using a screw, nut and washer, made it adjustable. The guide that I used is here. The basics of the mod are that you screw the screw in tight (or Loctite it in so it cant turn) and then tighten the nut down to pull the pin out of the body. To push it back down you wind the nut completely out, against the head of the screw and then use a punch and hammer to tap the screw/pin down again. It would be a lot easier to use if the screw didn't have a flange as there is limited space when mounted on the car, but its what I had on hand. With the WUR apart again I replaced the O-Ring for the diaphragm and flipped the thin metal diaphragm to the other side to even up any wear. Following the guide, I found that my initial pressure with no springs/strip was OK, and the pressure could be increased to the correct level by hand. Good. The next test had me checking the heater works, which when holding it in my hand with power applied, I could confirm it did get warm to the touch. Good. Next was to test the pseudo-warm pressure by reassembling the WUR with the springs, but without the heater/strip. This applies pressure to the mexican hat and diaphram, to emulate the warm pressure. This should be 3.5bar or HIGHER. I had just under 3bar. Not enough. This is where I had to get creative and work out how to adjust this. On other WUR, there is an adjustment screw under a brass cap on the base. You drill through that cap, and there is a hex screw to raise or lower the platform the springs sit on. I tried drilling what I thought was the cap, but turns out the base for my platform is actually a pin pressed into the housing. Its the recessed circle with a hole drilled in it. So, with callipers in hand, I tested/measured to see if I could use a hammer and punch to also adjust that like you do the cold pressure pin. Sure enough, some careful whacks of the adjustment tool, and I had raised the platform, thus increasing pressure on the springs. 4bar is perfect. I fully reassembled the WUR, heater/strip and all, and reinstalled on the car to test/adjust the cold pressure. I got this easily down to a solid 0.7bar (within the margin of error for the ambient temps, I didn't want to mess around too much getting it lower) I connected the heater and watched as the pressure slowly increased. The heater and strip were working perfectly. I got it near the required 2.9bar, but it was still a tad low with the engine running at temp, so I used the one last adjustment available; tapping the main circular unit on the WUR down. This is the part that the two fuel hoses bolt onto. This is also pressed into the body, and like the other two adjustments can be carefully tapped down with a punch. This takes very little to increase the pressure, but be very careful not to punch it down too far or the WUR had to come completely apart again to tap it back out. I alternated tapping the punch on both sides, where the arrows are pointing. This resulted in a nice 2.9bar when warm. Excellent. After some tweaking of the idle and CO screws, the results were immediate and obvious. The car ran and idled better than ever, including idling under 2000rpm for the first time. I set the idle to about 1000rpm, which is higher than factory spec, but it felt happier there than the 800-900rpm recommended. http://youtu.be/3VVylMr5BVI The only thing left to do was to put on my big boy pants and try taking it for a run. The last time it was on the road it constantly tried to die on me and left me blocking intersections. Not ideal, and no wonder I was nervous. This time, it started and was driving perfectly. It was pulling strong and felt good... until the hesitation kicked in again at high RPM under load. The exact same issue as before I rebuilt the Kjet system. I came home with mixed emotion. The car ran and drove well unless I got on the throttle. Kind of a win, but also a fail. Mrs Petrol and I were discussing the issue and she reminded me that her old Alto used to buck and hesitate if the fuel was too low... Surely that's not the issue? Nooooo If you look at the design of the tanks, the feed to the pump is at the front of the tanks, toward the front of the car. It's possible that under acceleration the little fuel in the tanks was sloshing away from the outlet and starving the pump. Maybe. The orange arrow is pointing to the fuel outlet on that tank, the other is on the other tank in the same location. Well, I guess I limp the car to the gas station and chuck some gas in and see what happens. Well, what does happen is that if you don't have both fuel caps open when you try to put any fuel in the tanks it all comes rushing back out and pukes down the side of the car and onto the ground. Oops. I added 20L to each tank, at great expense, and guess what, my Wife was right (like usual), the hesitation is completely gone, and it will happily rev out to redline under WOT. Amazing. The sound and feel of the car is crazy. It's so loud, but makes a great noise. You sit so low, but the car feels big. Even when it's not moving everyone is breaking their necks to see what it is. It's not a car for the shy. It does leave me wondering a little, if I had just filled the tanks when I first got the car, would it all have been OK anyway? The main issue I had before I rebuilt it all was that hesitation issue. In saying that, it's starting, running and driving better than it ever has since I got it, so the work was well worth it regardless. I'm stoked. Still some things to tidy, but it is almost ready to go for a WOF check.
    2 points
  26. The wheels went out to Pine engineering. I was not stoked with the old fasteners. One lip was suspect. Actually a lot of stuff not real flash. I was not disappointed I had them done by Pine either.
    2 points
  27. Hello peps finally managed to track down a Sunbeam Imp that was local after many years of hunting! pick it up from a fellow from out Marton way , he painted it to match a rally car imp from back in the days has a WOF and Rego but sadly its doesn't run and has a very bad head gasket or cracked head, filled bores with coolant and mixing fluids.. n plan is to get the motor going again ,found out its a mk1 motor so has the average engine with shit head so need to find a mk2 head then either look at hotting this motor up with possible a little supercharger and a blow through carb or do a motorbike engine swap 1000cc or up discussion/chats at https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/66481-sunbeam-imp-1969-michael0008/
    1 point
  28. I looked further into it, got a haynes manual and got excited. Measured up my mates bike in the UK. Came back to NZ and started building the housetruck/rotorising the Viva. That put an end to Imp stuff for ages. In the meantime a fella in Scotland called Clark Dawson ran with the idea and ended up with a successful conversion. He then went on to getting parts cast and machined and has since had many kits made up. I think he has passed that conversion onto another outfit. Its not cheap at around $2k and you have to wait until there's enough people wanting for them to do a run of kits. It really is about the most perfect engine for the Imp. Weighs about the same as the imp engine, lays flat, with the kit it just bolts up. starting with 90 bhp up to 125 depending on the bike you source. Wires in easy. Looks and sounds fantastic. I've been keeping a look out for a cheap bike but so far they've beyond what the moths in my wallet want to spend. Im still keen and would do my own adaptor parts , more just for the fun. I'll send you a link via facebook to the page you can join...
    1 point
  29. They had other colors too.
    1 point
  30. I'll grab some tonight. Did a pair of SBM rocker covers, and the cam cover of the mrs EF8 B16a. Looks pretty legit.
    1 point
  31. Great buy. Look forward to your strongly worded letters to the editor/boomer rants...
    1 point
  32. Is there some sort of rule stating that you can't start one? Does this 3 page thread not already suffice?
    1 point
  33. WOF rules for mudguards: https://vehicleinspection.nzta.govt.nz/virms/in-service-wof-and-cof/general/tyres,-wheels-and-hubs/mudguards see tables and images
    1 point
  34. bit of a update for Jan, been pritty quiet on OS to be fair. But i'v had a bit on. been putting a bit of effort in to get this to the next stage. Decided the bonnet is too much for me so it can go off to someone who knows whats going on.
    1 point
  35. CAD and CAM'd up the throttlebody flange, got into machining it, but the mill is half way through having its coolant changed, so doesn't have any in it... Thought I'd give it a go anyway, but the chunk of 6061 I nabbed to carve it out of seems gummier than I'm used to... The endmill is also a cheap chinese one, which might not be helping the situation, but it's chip-weld city, so had to leave off and will continue once I get some coolant in it next week when the rest of the workshop staff are back and can show me where it is, lol. Cut out a plate for the other end of the plenum though and tapped it into place. Got it sitting pretty flush after much back and forth on the belt sander. Gave both bit a quick vapor blast and cleaned them up with some IPA... Then buzzed it in. I haven't welded any aluminium in a couple of years, but it went well. The cast welds pretty nice. A little bit of crap bubbles out of it, but nothing that wont seal up. Was a welder I haven't used before also, and ESAB one. Seems like a bloody nice unit. On my old one you were fixed to 50Hz for the AC, but this one was adjustable. I cranked it up to 100Hz and it was nice and stable. Really want to get the throttlebody flange on there so I don't lose momentum, Things are progressing along pretty well at the moment :-). I reprinted the cam trigger housing in ABS, and printed a trigger wheel as well that locates on the 17mm stub of shaft sticking past the seal, as well as taking a small inserted piece of key-steel as a ferrous target. I'll wire it up and hook it to a drill, spin it up as fast as I can and see what it does. I'm hopeful I'll be able to just use the printed parts. Dunno if it'll hold up. Should be good for prototyping at any rate, and then easy to replicate in metal or something else stronger if I need to. Printed the cap with a little divot where it needs to be drilled and tapped for the sensor, but there will be a little bit of setup involved in getting it right, so I'll so that tomorrow when I'm a little fresher :-). Hopefully I can get the throttle body flange machined and welded on too! Then the last remaining bits will be getting the coil mount cut and folding it up, the water passages / plumbing, and a mount for the FPR. That will require a little bit of noodling to make it easy to mount and weld, but should be able to model something up so I can machine it and have it all sit in place nicely, hopefully.
    1 point
  36. Thought I had better set up the crane, it's come up good; Should do the trick.
    1 point
  37. So got the last bits sorted today. Cut some steel and made some grilles. Had to stuff around with the firebox grille to get it functional as the setup was different to the cooking chamber. Also because the rails I fitted to the cooking chamber weren't square I had problems getting the lower one to look right. Everything is kind of shortly but it is functional and looks pretty awesome. I've actually finished this and got it all together but we shall wait til xmas to get some better photos. Hopefully my brother is as stoked as I am with it haha.
    1 point
  38. With the KJet Cologne firing on all cylinders, the next step toward a WOF was to look into the brakes and why they shudder horribly. I had noticed the shudder on the first drive when I got the car, but hoped that it was just rust on the rotors from sitting and some heavy braking might scrape it off and make it go away. Sadly not, having done some heavy braking in the car now, it still shudders and shakes its self to bits when braking. It can be felt in the pedal and the whole car sort of pulsates as it slows down. I had originally planned to get the front rotors skimmed and see if that improved it much, but it was bad enough that I thought I should prepare for the worst, and check the runout. I like my WOF guy, so I try to pre-empt as much as possible so I don't send him rubbish that's guaranteed to fail. To check rotor runout (rotor warping basically, the difference between flat, and the high and low points) you use a dial indicator. A dial indicator is a gauge that moves when the little pin slides in and out of the gauge body, as the item its measuring gets closer or further away from the gauge body. A rotor should have very little runout, somewhere in the vicinity of less than 0.10mm is a good guide. I started with my rear rotors, as these are the ones I was most worried about, as they will be an arse to replace, and cannot be skimmed on the car. Even after some hard stops, the rotor wasn't looking great. Mounting the dial indicator was proving to be an issue initially. It's on a magnetic base, but it's heavy and bulky. I tried mounting it to the exhaust and suspension, but it just made the dial hard to read And then I engaged brain and mounted it to my jack as a solid base on the floor. Duh, much easier. Zeroed the dial at the lowest point And turned the rotor until I found the highest point. Uh. Crap. So yes, that's that rotor completely stuffed. 0.35mm runout. I didn't even bother checking the other side, if one is bad, that's a pair ruined. I checked in a couple of spots on the disc and came back with similar results. Hows the front then? I mounted the dial to the caliper and zeroed it Well, it's not great. 0.19mm runout. That's the sort of runout that could be skimmed out, except I also measured the front rotors, and found they're below minimum thickness (11.4mm) already, so cannot be skimmed. Well damn, that sets me back a bit, both financially and time wise. I have ordered a set of new rotors, with the fronts coming from the UK in the form of some lovely slotted and dimpled rotors, and the standard rears from Aus. I will be reusing the existing pads as they are all near new, but will give them a scuff up first. Not what I wanted, especially with the holidays getting in the way, so looks like we will be off the road over Christmas now too. Oh well, at least it should stop as well as it goes now. Someone will get a damn good car when I inevitably move it on.
    1 point
  39. 1 point
  40. 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.
    1 point
  41. Update time. Firstly there will be no more juggling around shuffling stuff to get the Imp on the hoist, or having to drive it down the slippery grass drive that heads to the back of the workshop to get it onto the hoist. We have the workshop back after having finished building this cabin on wheels. We delivered it to its new home where the owner will continue with the build , fitting windows, door and lining it out. It was a fun job but took up a big chunk of space. Well until we start the next build. We will have a 8 metre trailer to build for ourselves soon once we sell the housetruck. So we could now relax and enjoy the Imp. A few little jobs completed and a fair few miles clocked up. Most important thing to sort out was a leak from the nearside transaxle output shaft. After getting back from the trip to Blenheim it was discovered that oil was coming out from what I thought was the seal and getting spun out off the coupling, marking a perfect line of oil inside the engine bay. So the car ended up in this position getting its trans fluid drained. I removed the shaft, doubled checked the seal land which was fine, checked and tightened the seal by cutting a few mm from its spring because it just didn't feel quite tight enough on the shaft. I also checked the shaft too. The early Imps have a splined shaft that the output spider slides onto and is held on by a large nut. The design went through two revisions ending up with the later shafts being a factory press fit and no nut. I was sure that my late type was fine and solid but just to be sure I cleaned and siliconed the end of the shaft visible from outside. Just in case... Put it all back together, a few drives and the leak was still there. After some advice from a fella on the Imp forum I took the shaft out again and checked it in the vice. It was indeed loose. Loose enough that it could move in and out slightly and had broken the silicone bond so allowing oil to creep past the splines and out. It must have been getting worse as the oil was essentially lubricating the once tight fit of the splines. It knocked apart easily, showing the factory O ring fitted before they press them together. Once clean and dry I tried the fit. It was a touch too loose for my liking so out with the JB weld epoxy. It'll never leak again Yesterday we drove to Nelson and back and I'm happy to report that the leak has stopped ! Yay. Now the only real leak is a dribble from the rear main seal on the engine. I'll change that when I change the worn ring gear in the future. Another job was to sort out some sounds. I like my music and not having a sounds system in a car on long trips is annoying. I had already eyed up and sussed where I would mount some speakers. It seems a fairly common place after having looked at other setups out there on Imps. We had scored a JVC headunit from a customer after upgrading their setup. Then we had scored some speakers from a Nissan Bluebird SSS we had been given and passed on but not before robbing its sounds. I also had some ply left over from lining the rear of the Viva wagon floor. So sorted for a cheap as setup. We made some boxes in the sunshine on what was a cold day.... Later on the sun hid behind clouds so all three of us moved over to the warmth of the log fire.... After Hannah covered the boxes in black vinyl I mounted them under the parcel shelves and wired in the head unit, a neat little unit that due to not playing cds is shorter in depth so fitting under the shelf nicely. It all looks neat enough and sounds fine for the size. Just need to find some protective grills to suit those speakers. Next on the list is to get and active sub and mount it under a seat so we can have some fuller, deeper sound. Another job I had planned to do but kept being put off was to hinge the front number plate. I don't want to mount it any higher and block the grill so where it is makes for a great driveway crown sweeper. Driving along our 500m long stone driveway in a lowered Imp with an even lower number plate gets tiring! So I did this... I'll report back with whether it also swings back at 170mph so avoiding speed camera tickets. The other night we had a lovely sunset and the Imp was looking resplendent in the light. I took a photo.. Next jobs to do are fit some carpet and I'm still really keen on pursuing building a full EFI setup. But its going to be a very busy summer for us so that will have to be a project I pursue in the evenings. Alex
    1 point
  42. Oh I forgot to mention a while back that I managed to get my Mum to do a spot of sanding to when she visited. I doubt she would have lasted log though but I think she did like the fact she had a trapped audience to waffle on to while she did sand... However- that was obviously before paint. Now we are right into the fun jobs of piecing back together the big kitset. The trickiest thing is trying not to get too carried away with cleaning things but it always does seem such a shame to put messy, rusty or dirty items onto a clean shell. I think in the future I'll try to stick to ratty cars like the Viva wagon. Saves time when things can be messy So yeah.. cleaning things. First the bumpers. I straightened both as best I could and Hannah then cleaned the backs and painted the surface rust in Por15... I then trial fitted the front but once bolted up it was slightly wonky. I ended up having to whip up a bending tool to straighten out the slightly bent mounting points... All straightened I mounted the bumper and stood back to admire the first bit of bling... We then hauled in the other two Imps and went over them like a team of car stripping Piranhas and removed all the last morsels of useful bits... With bits removed they then needed cleaning. Hannah quite enjoys these jobs and did a stirling job of making things all shiny again... I filled the roofline and inner wings over the rear arches with cavity wax. Much more enjoyable this time round then the first time I ever used some back in Blighty on my Rx3, in winter on a very cold day. This time round it flowed perfectly... Together we fitted the head lining we removed from Imp 3- the one rescued from Christchurch. Its a bit discoloured around the edges where the contact adhesive that the original factory worker had brushed in place has stained it right through. Not much we could do with that. But its rip free, pulled up nice and tight and looks better then nothing. Its in keeping with a 54 year old car... I then made a engine cover stay. Because the cover is fiberglass and had no mounting points for a stay I had added some before painting along with a suitable point on the car with them further apart then the standard imp placement to take away extra leverage over a flexible f/glass lid. Now to connect the dots. I had a rough Idea of what I was going to make when I added the mounts and just went with it. I had a piece of stainless the right size and used a plastic knob from an old broken cafetiere I had stashed in my bin of 'might be useful one day' bits. I bent the stainless rod in such a way that when the lid is opened it slides up and drops over a stainless bolt then cant go further. To drop the lid you have to lift the knob slightly- this way a gust of wind cant lift it and make it drop. It works sweet as!... Next big job was to get the wee car back on its wheels because I had some work coming in that required the hoist. I refitted all the suspension and luckily had collected 4 decent shock absorbers with good shafts. However the springs were going to be too long. I'd happily pay the $200 for some Montie Carlo springs. For those not aware they are the popular lowering spring set for Imps that most people fit. However the freight costs for a set to NZ is too much for me to cope with and anyway- I have 3 full sets of springs I can play with for free. I like free. So out with the Makita... After doing a heck of a lot of web browsing I deduced that one coil off the front and half off the back would be a good starting point. Totally aware that I'd be raising the effective spring rate I reckoned this would still be OK. The car is going to be a touch heavier all round anyway but too much extra stiffness to the coils without adding extra damping would be no good. I definitely cant afford new posh dampers at this point so I played it safe... I then heated the cut ends up with the Tig in several zones, flattening the coil as I did. This worked well- the heat didn't travel very far. Its not optimum. Optimum was what I used to do back in the day when I spent 3 months of my apprenticeship working for a Blacksmith resetting leaf springs and shortening coils etc. But I dont have big furnace at my disposal nowadays so Makita it is Then cut the ends flat and they came up sweet. It will be really interesting to see how it sits on these and this I wont know until the car is fully built up to full weight. I reassembled the struts and finally I was able to fit the minilight wheels from the racecar on and lower the Imp to the ground. Ooooooohhhhh. I dont know when this car was last rolling but I suspect it was a very long time ago! It felt so good to roll it away from the hoist, stand back and admire it. Plenty of premium positive camber to come out as the weight piles on. I'll soon be ordering some better sized new tyres and getting them onto the rims. While the car is off the hoist Hannah can continue assembling interior bits and I'll be attending to some work on other peoples cars.
    1 point
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