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The noise was hilarious, 2 stroke lawnmower followed by a car bonnet being dragged down the road.

I spent a while trying to get the bleed nipples out of the calipers.. I wasn’t successful and will get a tap to chase out the last part. Yesterday I blasted the hubs and dust plates, brunox layer and black zinc. put boots on the idler and pitman + wire wheeled and zinc sprayed the drag link. Stripped and labelled everything and whipped radiator out. Donk is out. Got top arms out too but had to cut the bolts. Then my thumb. I stopped for the day, felt like shit all morning anyway.

Im gonna write up a proper post tomorrow. But got home just after 6pm. Best fucking motorcycle trip ever

Fuck today was possibly the best day Ive ever had on a motorcycle !

Just got to Govs pub. Buggered.

i was struggling to figure out some electrical issues with this thing so send it to Kane at r twin works and he worked his magic and also balanced and tuned the carbs and made everything work as it should. went for my first proper ride and it bought up afew issues i need to fix. (i really need to take photos that aren't at my workshop soon) i had to add more brackets to my rear triangle anyway so am going to have to get that re powder coated but thats no biggie also i have to make a new mount for my numberplate bracket too. I mounted up the rear guard today which came up nice. am waiting for my front guard to turn up. need to try and get a wof hopefully then hopefully will be chopping it up again and i'm going to build some stainless high pipes 2-1. i am attacking a 7 day or so ride down to the brass monkey smashing a bunch of gravel and just taking this places i probably shouldn't be

Went up the WHK, wasn't a lot of water, it was neat. (Phone vid from inside waterproof case, so looks a bit weird) Also, turns out you need more than 20mm of water to boat. New high score on grate rocks too. Very keen to go waaaaay further up this bugger one day.

Yeah mine too, biggest day I've ever done on a bike!

still cant find any door rubbers. anywho today i made a parcel shelf. it goes without saying the old one was fucked but not as fucked as it should have been given that its 50 years old. as is the norm for this car with the old parcel shelf removed the steel was in perfect condition. i made a new shelf out of 18mm MDF because thats what i had. made it in two pieces because its close to impossible to get it in or out if its one piece. couple of bolts to hold it down and we're in business. tomorrow ill glue the carpet on and shes finished. 2021-03-06_04-00-50 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-06_04-00-44 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-06_04-00-37 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-06_04-00-29 by sheepers, on Flickr

Done. I suppose I should do some kind of leak test since there are eleventy billion welds on this thing. I also learnt that if you use the cordless drill on the nut for the v-band clamps, and there is no lube, and they are stainless, the thread eventually galls and welds itself on. Fortunately, my original design was going to use more clamps, so I had a spare. But still, they aren't cheap. I put a drop of oil on the threads now.

I got home just now. Dropped bart and karl home. Totally knackered. What a absolute stunner of a weekend

Rush of enthusiasm this week. Lots of cleaning, dismantling rims, Started cutting and notching tubes with my lathe tube notching attachment. Works really well. Laid everything out to get an idea of how it'll look. I'm very pleased. This weekends job is to rehabilitate the seat post lug.

Looks like a terribly boring and not at all exciting day fellas. Not jealous at all, not one bit.

Just got home Cruiser packed a sad just coming in to chch, managed to limp it to work, borrowed ute, left trailer and Aaron's bike there too, dropped off Aaron Big day

I HAVE NEVER FELT MORE ALIVE THAN I DID THIS WEEKEND!!!! It's a big call, but I think I enjoyed it even more that Nats11.

First riders were in Hanmer about 45 mins ago. They are currently enroute to Chch, young Bart would be there already.

Fitted an aliexpress cam cleat on one side to try keep the rope from going in the water and doing a mischef. IMG_20210306_191922 by John Bell, on Flickr Pretty keen on some aliexpress sponsor stickers tbh

Got air horns...yes I do!!

The dust is bikes

Most of the engine is here, so time for some cutting and tucking. Waiting on piston pins and some hardware. Also going to a fueltech ecu, so I have a link fury and 2 race tech dashes up for grabs if anyone is looking for one. Will try and update this a bit more regularly as I make progress. This is just mocking up, fitting everything in and then will do the engine build once that is all sorted.

Looks amazing guys, so jelly out of interest did anyone do it on a twist and go?

Did you ride the GN back from Hanmer as well? That's some serious km if so!

updates

Throw away the stainless nuts on the vee bands, use copper or zinc passivated.. Also you can salvage the old v-band by tig welding a bit of threaded rod or bolt thread, if you find yourself short.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_m074Zf5 Not great, not terrible

Oh, hey, 1 year. Have not been up to much, though have done a minor amount to the 250. Tyres and wheel bearings, front forks freshened up, front and rear pads, clutch plates and cable, speedo drive replaced, chain and sprockets, replace damaged original headlight with pretty convincing UFO copy, Brazilian seat cover (which kass kindly fitted) and tank cover (to hide the yellowing tank) and fender tool bag, set of white bar guards, aliexpress big footpegs. IMG_20210306_183151 by John Bell, on Flickr IMG_20210306_183217 by John Bell, on Flickr Things I'd like to do still, purple sticker for above headlight and sidepanels, possibly pull swingarm and rear shock and look at doing bearings. Still trying to figure out if getting it registered is viable, as I understand, due to the new ABS rules, and this being a '1st time' registration it won't be possible after a certain point later in the year (or possibly already isn't). Oh I picked up an XR100 recently also, its a bit of a sack of shit, so will start collecting parts.

Again... donor van came to the rescue, I did rust paint behind my fix and sanded the weld off, the surface looks bad with the filler, but it's at the most 2.5mm thick with most being under a mm. I can't feel any peaks lows or chips so I think it will come out good, I have good quality primers, paint, hardener and filler so shouldn't experience too many problems, will paint when it's a dry/warm day

Discussion: So I needed a ute, as I have purchased a house and am diving head first in to renos, and my Lexus wasn't the most practical of building material haulers. My Datsun ute is too many $$$ away from being finished plus all my spare time and money are temporarily tied up in the house. It had to be: A) a ute, B ) a flatdeck, and C) preferably a single cab. So my search criteria was pretty vague. I jumped on Trademe, and started with a local search, and this popped up: It fit the criteria, so I went and had a look. It has had new paint recently, with pictures taken of the rust work (as it needed them for a warrant). Pretty gutless 4G63, but had a tip tray! So I was sold. Haha It needs a few things: 1) Stereo hooked up- the stereo is there, seems like a good Pioneer unit, but they retrimmed the door cards as part of the tidy up, and forgot to leave the cutouts for the speakers in there. Plan to somehow fit in 4x speakers and a slim active sub, as I like a bit of bass, nothing too major. 2) Sound deadening/interior tidy- The seats/carpet are tidy, but the rest of the interior needs a tart up. Going to sound deaden and line the roof, and maybe throw some in the doors too. It really needs cup holders as well. 3) Tray modification- It is a flat deck, but at the moment the big bars on the back are solid as well as the sides. While this is good for tipping, it means it cant fold the sides down and load a pallet. I have a flat deck that I can steal the sides off, quickly modify to suit the size of this tray, then cut the big bars off and buzz them on. I may also need to strengthen the tray when I do this as those big bars add a lot of bracing, but it shouldn't be too hard. Also going to replace the ply on the tray, so will have lots of access. 4) More power (maybe)- definitely won't be doing anything major, as this needs to be driveable at all times, but may look at extractors, exhaust, maybe get someone who knows about carbs to freshen things up. Have already started using it, have done several loads of scrap timber from the renos, also made a temporary back board and loaded it with dirt pulled out for my new retaining wall. The ram couldn't quite lift that much dirt, probably had to shovel a third of it off and then it dumped the rest. Dad is going to have a look and see if it he can do anything, but there are no load markings on it so it's all a bit vague. I forgot to take a photo of it with the tray up, but safe to say it's a cool bit of kit.

Yeeeeh boi! Hello South Island!

See you soon, South Island!

Been looking for one of these tail bags. Found a place in Bolivia of all places making them, and a bigger version. But then this one came up locally, and it's new old stock, doesn't seem to have ever been fitted.

15 bikes registered. Good number for the first year.

Did an awesome trade today. I now have a T57 crankshaft. Pretty lucky that it was less than 2hours away from me and the guy was awesome. Traded a bunch of my Lotus stuff + few $, he definitely did me a solid! Crankshaft from Engine #210 Rods from Engine #293

Bought our first house (woop woop) so will be moving in a few weeks. Who have you guys used for rental moving trucks? Will be driving it myself, have class 2 but most seem to be class 1 trucks anyway. Cheapest is best haha. Chair bowls.

Ive been working away at the 550 with the intention to use as a commuter now the reg is 39$ a year! That means looking at old pics trying to figure out what wires go where, found some from when i done piston rings and head work.

Since I already had the clear coat I decided to re-do the hazy rear marker lamps too. Helped! and some stance inspiration

More kinda lame updates: After the rust converter cured I hit the bumper with hammerite silver, sealed the deal. Put the lenses through the dishwasher and gave them a polish. The rear side markers are half-fucked with an odd hazy crazing you’d find on the bottom of an old lady’s feet.. I gave them a wee tong up, hopefully passes the test. Can buy new for not bad coin. Polished the chrome (pot-metal craters, we all know how well that shit lasts), painted some housings, rust killed the screws, cleaning as I went. ^unmasked areas went satin black soon after.

So checking out new motor. Has water cooled egr valve and water cooled crank case vent tube. Guess they try do everything possible to stop knock or misfire with a big egr amount. Interesting stuff, that, can fuck right off. The electric waterpump arrangement looks easy to wire up, 4 pin plug with two big and two small wires. Will be 12v, earth, then i suspect pwm input and maybe a return signal or just voltage for pwm perhaps. It looks like it would be easy to retrofit a mechanical pump setup or vice versa. Id like to keep the ewp for nerdy reasons but i suspect mechanical is lighter and more reliable. It will come down to how tricky it id to mount an alternator I guess. As the belt arrangement might be better with the mechanical pump in place. As it gives more belt wrap and acts like an idler between aircon pump and alternator. The intake manifold is interesting with a tiny tiny e-throttle unit and a shit looking manifold. This too can GTFO obviously. The egr pipes are all in the intake manifold though which is good. Nothing intrusive in the head. This later motor has a flat response knock sensor so it wont max itself out by 5000rpm like the other one does. The main trickiness of this swap, apart from mounting an alternator. Looks to be figuring out the water lines and probably just blocking a bunch of it off. Will draw some shitty diagrams to compare to regular motor next time im up.

Boring up date on this turd Got the shits with stock ecu being a turd, and installed a g4x atom. wired it in to stock loom leaving the stock plugs in place as well. so could plug stock ecu back in. went something like this: had it running with basic tune in a day. then a while to get the alpha n tune and cold start, a/c idle up's with the stock isc to work nice. tbh i got lazy and never finished it properly and only has a road tune on it that spend an hour or 2 on. still, drives way better than stock ecu an uses quite a bit less gas. somewhere along the line i got sick of my 6 year old nephew mocking me about the jacked rear ride height. turns out someone had put cobra springs in the rear for some reason which sat higher than stock. so threw in some rsr low springs, not superlows so can still rally spec it. drove it for some time and was bit smokey. which i assumed was the exhaust valve stem seals. because again was too lazy to do them. only did intake. made some tools to do it in place and yeh that didn't fix it. drove it for about 6000k's before getting over the smoke and using all the oil. come to the conclusion it was something to do with the rings or pistons. was super unkeen to pull the whole engine and box out again. so pulled the head and sump off, which actually wasn't that much fun either, but better than the whole engine out. looking at this pic reminds me that the stock radiator top tank was weeping. so put in a cheap replacement, which actually looks super legit for the price. anyway. pulled pistons out. everything looked fine there, they looked better than the other 2nd hand ones i brought just in case, with about 20mm of carbon on top of them for about 18:1 compression. rings.. not so much. when i did the rebuild toyota rings with 3 week wait, and the 2nd option was out of stock also. so brought some acl/hastings rings. which were the most expensive also ?! they were pretty questionable, the gaps in the rings went square. by the time made them square the ring gaps were a bit over spec. but went with it because needed to get it running not piston out of engine, just there so could get camera to focus. this 2nd ring has 6000k's on it. can see the shiny bit is the only part been touching the bore. some places hasn't really been touching at all. so yeh either bore really oval or rings suck. im going with latter. engine running bit rich to start with on stock ecu probably didn't help the cause. but would not use these rings again So gave the block a dingleberry hone and wacked some japanese npr rings in it, which look to be identical to the toyota rings. were also cheapest. they were all bang on out of the box ring gap wise. so didn't need to even gap them. done probably 1500k's on it so far and got the seal of approval from my friend rangi re smoke. Think its still using a little oil but what 20v doesnt.. since i have to pay for my own gas for the first time in forever. stock ecu was doing about 9.5?L per 100k. with link 8.0. with new rings seems to be 7.8 ish. probably do better if i actually finish the tune.

Ended up needing to go into town so dropped pistons into block and started cleaning gasket paper off the sump etc. Wound motor over by hand 16 times with plenty of oil on the cylinder walls. Have always done this, was told by an ancient engine reco guy when i was doing my apprenticeship that after 16 turns the rings will be scrubbed in enough to just jump in and drive it without pussyfooting around. I thought he was taking the piss at first but i have never had a set of rings not scrub in since then. Front and rear crank seals next then glue the sump on and get onto the valve stem seals.

Then today at work we were all sitting around laughing about what the hell id bought and I thought I'd see if it was seized or not, didn't have very high hopes, but, it turned pretty freely, stoked! Then the obvious next step was to see if it started, cleaned up the plugs and points and hooked up a Jerry can to the fuel pump and it took a few tries but it eventually fired into life, soon after I had a gander and found someone had fucked with the throttle linkages and they were all round the wrong way and pointing in all directions so hooked them back up to what looked to be right and then it actually got off idle! Been thrashing it round the yard after work this evening. Shit it's a hoot to drive and runs so damn well too!! Have a video or 2.