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Making progress. Completely std build using good S/H parts and all new bearings/rings. Once I got all the required parts it’s gone together reasonably well.

I have finally sorted gearbox with a stock ctsv cadillac tune for the trans, it is like butter now... Will attempt to get to a night speed dragwars meet one night see what she does down the 1/4. I have put 4000 ks on it so far and back to daily driven...

Like all my previous previous projects I've cut it in half and made it longer and lower. Turbo has plenty of room but the exhaust will need a guard over it to prevent skin grafts been needed.

My exhaust had a terrible bracket on it that sucked! My OCD couldn't handle the fact that the two pipes weren't parallel. Over a 400mm section where they run along side each other, the gap was out by 10mm from front to back. I saw this as an opportunity to fix two problems. 1) make it look right to the eye 2) raise the lower pipe by 15mm and the upper pipe by 5mm. This will really help with ground clearance, maybe not completely solve it...but certainly won't hurt. So: Marking out, lifting the holes by 10mm. And looking at the pipes for nice sweeping parallel lines. Success!!! So, lower pipe is now 15mm higher than before, with nice clearance around all the bits you don't want a hot exhaust touching. Happy as fuck! I'm probably going to cut the lower pipe mid span and shorten it by about 40mm to bring it inline with the upper pipe and my frame angle where it heads up to meet the axle. But that can wait for another day.

Sorted! I put little 5/16 cap head screws at the end of each shelf, to stop any round materials from rolling off, though I doubt its really needed (better safe than sorry I guess).

guard all done ,on to the front guard and door frame next

back on the ground now , its 50 inches from ground to top of roof .

Took Friday off to get a 4 day weekend and make a serious push on the crown. Some rain and some socialising took a chuck out of my time but still managed to get the shell, hood, boot and gaurds in fill primer. Found a few spots of rust on the bottom of the rear doors so will drop them round to the panel beater to have that sorted, then the doors will get the same treatment. For now, here's way too many photos of a car in primer, but given its never been this straight or single colour in my ownership, I'm getting excited. Blocking back will take a while, but the end is in sight! Then I can start on the manual conversion which I've been slowly gathering parts for and aside from a driveshaft (will get mine modded to suit hopefull) I've got all the bits there. Including a hand brake centre console which is sitting in Japan still and I really need to pay for the shipping to get it here for when I need it...

Oh and also - Vin would not approve of such things...

got the sill tacked on today finish it tomorrow

Ran it for a bit longer today to get heat into everything exhaust and turbo. VGT is weird when you muck around with the vane control it goes from silent to fucking loud! Turbo is doing its thing but engine has got an electronic rev limiter so cant give give it berries to see what it can do, will disable it. Need to get the SU on and some plumbing done

I'm a total storage slut! Love to have a place for everything...and everything in its place. So: Steel/storage racks. I can fit anything from 0.6m to 3.6m lengths of steel/timber. The racks start at 1225mm so I can fit a sheet of plywood or whatever under it leaning against the wall. I feel another shed tidy up coming...

rear guard welded on fits great

new rims

chassis work

didnt do the sill today cut the front chassis off instead

took front guard ack to bare steel

Speaking of which this is as close to new as it can get!

Finally got the wheel tubs spotted in place and sealed against the quarters. I was told by a number of people don’t weld them completely to the quarters as they need to have a bit of flex to them. i haven’t spot welded them to the frame just yet as I need to lift the body one more time so will do that once it’s on for the last time.

The hardest part about driving an EV is telling your parents you're gay. In another 30 years I'm going to be no different to the old Barry's with their bib overalls and trucker caps at tractor/steam carnivals. Burning dinosaurs and telling Barry sharns about the golden age of gasoline. (Meanwhile the much hated and maligned millenials will be the new boomers in training, pissing and moaning about whatever handle they bestow on the pesky kids of that era) Dont forget who you are Alex. Burn dinosaurs till the end..... /ling.

Yup home has been found. Going to need a bit of lengthening to fit turbo and free up room for a jackshaft. It would work as it is though.

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I needed to install the oven I fixed up from a few pages back. Kitchen Tax is real though, people talking about spending all sorts of silly figures on kitchen reno's. I decided to throw it in myself, bar the gas plumbing. I quite like the old cabinetry so I just built up a new cabinet to match the old, save replacing the lot. I also uprated the range plug & switch & shifted the outlets to suit the new benches. A bit of tiling and edging to finish off, but now we can get stuck in to cooking up a few feasts!

small rust repairs

400 and 727

few pics of my new build, this old wagon has been siting here behind my shed for 10 years , so time to do something with it , too rusty to fix for the road so drag only

Simon at Airride NZ has been around for a while, has owned some sweet air bagged vehicles. The kit I got from him (for my 61 Belair) was basically a bolt In kit, which came with the bolt in mounts that meant I didn’t need to modify the spring pockets, only thing I really had to make was front shock mounts which weren’t too hard. im using a very basic system for now, 8 valves and a 7 switch controller. However to get certified I basically ran all the 3 front and 3 rear switches through relays so even if you try to change the corners, it just controls the whole front end. It’s good for cert, but not being able to set the corner heights is a pain, good for cert, but a pain none the less. I have a weak LF shock and to get the ride heights correct I have to raise the car fully up and then lower it to the correct height. Pain in the ass, when I get around to try rebuilding the Belair I’m planning on running an E/Level to make it easier and accurate

Forgot to post this - cheers for the hoon in the imp Alex and Hannah! Was awesome to see you guys in December. that imp is a rad AF little sled and as for the shed set up on the land - epic. that Mazda Ute on the hoist was a thing of beauty too @maxted

Have decided to make a more conventional style plenum to try on this, will make it with runners slightly shorter than the blue run. maybe some magic will happen, maybe not. when i tested the current plenum on the starlet it really didn't like it, so that was pretty good sign somethings not right. Made a vid on the same thing a few days back

Inspiration.... It all fits surprisingly well. I'll be adding the length back in the middle of the bike so foot room is better and legs stay clear of the exhaust and forward of the output shaft. Axle is burly enough i think it'll spin rather than hook and go to be honest its still pretty light.

Just did a clean up of all my posts and copied all the images from photobucket and re-added them as attachments on OS. FUCK YOU PHOTOBUCKET!!!! In the process of stockpiling parts for the 304. - video for parts reference for me later on. Reminder for later - thanks @64valiant Turned out the brand was kilmat and it was a crap load cheaper than dynamat. For example there is a dynamat kit on trade me for 369 for 3.3 square meters so around 110 a square meter or you can get kilmat for 43 a square. Or I paid to have it fast freighted and it still only cost me 58 a square.

Update - rod tune complete and now the 51 IDA is singing. If anyone is off to Reunion next week come say hi - I’m there Friday to Sunday. The brake master sht itself and leaked on the RH chassis rail.... I ordered another master (Mazda 808) and we bled it last night. That and found that I was missing a lower rear calliper bolt so I’ve replaced that. fresh VTNZ WOF today.

Also bought a $50 Chinese quad today.....

My options were Ali Express special at $60, genuine new for $470 or get some guy in Aus to rebuild it for $600. I wasn’t going to risk second guessing my diagnosis with a cheap part, but also keen to save some coin where I can. I wasn’t going to make it any worse, so it’s worth a shot to see if I can fix it. Lifting the board off and cutting open the main section reveals the tiny reflective metal diaphragm that two diodes stare at to work out air flow. Nothing appears broken, but the diaphragm is a bit sticky and stained. I polished it up and cleaned everything as carefully as I could, then put it all back together. I popped it back in and fully expected to have killed it, but I now have a perfect signal from idle! It runs smooth as silk and the o2 sensors are reading a nice lean mix at idle. Stoked with that.

camping was legit. we cruised on up the motor way and done a few stop offs on the way up. had to deliver some rx2 carpet and beth wanted to stop in at her Auckland office. we made it to kai iwi lakes and got a sweet photo set up camp and got straight into it a nice photo of @Mrs 64valiant happy to be camping in a kombi with a wof, reg and insurance. with our newly acquired fridge our battery we purchased for our house side of thing wasn't quite cutting it. So i ended up having to go for a drive each day while we were camping. this wasn't really much of an issue for me due to really enjoying driving the kombi and wanting to explore what we have to offer in nz. so one day you probably saw in spam i took @sentra for a drive to a romantic beach. old @manlymanman and @Mrs 64valiant 3rd wheeled our cute date. we also went on a group adventure up to Opononi and to see Tane Mahuta. bloody hippies in there old cars old Tane Mahuta is a pretty large tree! Liv was kind enough to get a couple of cool pics of the kombi driving through the Waipoua Forest Beth and i had a rough work out on how much gas the kombi is using on our way up to kai iwi lakes. i think it worked out to be around 9.4kms per letter which is what my subaru out back does on a average day. gets to about 11.5kms per letter on the open road but not as much smiles per miles thats for sure. while we were away we decided if we wanted to stay in one location more than a day we would need to go for a drive or we should get a solar panel. that comes to todays purchase. done some online looking and worked out that if we wanted one it would probably be better if we got one that was fixed to our kombi other than another thing we have to pack and unpack which is on the bottom of my list of things to do. my main reason of going with this one was the size and the fact i got it today. it fits perfectly inside out roof rack spot on the kombi. cant be seen form standing at grass height unless you are tall unlike me but also means i dont have to go drilling holes anywhere and having the possibility of water leaking in. so with wagnats approaching very fast ive got 3 days to mount this in place and wire it up so i can still service it or get to it when i need to. well thats me for now. we will see you later

Finally getting back into this after a few months away. Have decided to paint the outside in two sections which hopefully makes it a bit more manageable. The obvious way was to section off the roof. The other reason for doing it this way is to ensure there is plenty of paint in the gutters which are prone to rust. By sectioning it off, it gets painted when the roof is done, and again when the sides get done. This ensures maximum paint without making a mess. Have been sanding for the last couple weeks. My weak little office arms really struggled with painting the roof today but I'm pretty happy with the outcome.

one more

Not much happening with this, got it legal and drove it around a bit over christmas break. Had a few new wheel days Put the streets on for a change Finally fixed a front guard, to replace the one that had an incident with the wall at hampton downs about 5 years ago. pretty good for a spray can job Got another pair of 14x7 03's from old mate @Dudley . Finished polishing them, and some antique gold. after digging out the other pair i'd been hording, they needed same treatment. guard slightly different colour, but will do for now /forever. maybe in another 5 years will fix the bonnet Back to the OG look from 10 years ago except for 7's instead of 6.5's

Swapped the points out for an accuspark electronic kit and a new bosch coil. Bugger me, she fired straight up.. Smooth as and the idle was higher, so clearly a much better spark. Now I need to get some headers for it then send it off to get tuned/needle swap

Finally some colour....

Still plodding on this, bodywork progress doesnt make exciting piccies. Everything rubbed down And our first coat of primer, alot of sanding to follow. Did I mention this is my first attempt at a full body respray, and first go using 2K? Its new to all of us