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Not my best painting in the world, nor the best photos in the light but I got the roof done and back onto where it is suppose to be. Looking alot more like a truck now...

Last day off work today, till I'm back tomorrow, then its Easter break for 5 days. Wow, really didn't think that one through! Still, lots of students want meeting about projects tomorrow, so it should be a pretty fun day. The boot seal area of this car was a complete mess, and I thought I'd give it a bit of a cleanup while I was thinking about how to approach the rest of the project. See if you can guess which side I've done in the below picture: After cleaning it yesterday, I was pretty pleasantly surprised to find the body in good condition. The respray it's had is... not too bad. It was a door-shut affair for sure, and there is overspray and poorly masked edges everywhere that really makes it look shittier than it is. The paint that is on the panels is pretty decent. Overspray I can take care of, the edges I can polish down to lessen the appearance of. The interior is just trashed. everything is super dirty, there is mold, and biohazard levels of yuck in places, so that's also something to sort. I happened upon a complete series 7 interior for sale recently, so I snapped that up and most of those bits are in really good nick, so I should have the majority of pieces I need there. Weirdly, I'm not too worried about the engine / drivetrain side of things. I've heard through the grapevine of a previous, previous owner that the motor was rebuilt not long before HPA got it (lol, standard rotary story, 3000k's on fresh rebuild, bruh!), and it's been stored without water in it... So I should at least be able to get it running and driving on the keg that is in there. Plenty of spares came with it, certainly more than enough to piece together a complete turbo / intake system. The one piece that I hadn't seen was a complete throttle body, but I've sourced one from a GC down in Dunedin. Wiring wise, it's a mess. There is just shit everywhere under the dash, the engine harness is hacked up, and it looks like it's had the whoile catalogue of shitty late 90's alarm systems thrown at it. I'm looking forward to ripping alllllll that shit out. Plan as it stands: Exterior First (I like working on pretty things) Align the panels properly. The doors are pretty good, so I'll work from there forward, get the guards lined up, the bonnet, and the headlights. While doing this, clean all the overspray off. Pull off everything that is bolted to the exterior of the car (bumpers, mudflaps, mirrors, etc) and blend the masking edges / clean overspray. Align properly and refit. Interior Second (I like working in clean spaces) Pull pretty much everything except the dash out, working from the boot forward. Clean the ba-jeebus out of everything. The carpet can't come out as that involved removing the dash, but lift it and check underneath at the very least. While everything out terminate non-factory wiring with extreme prejudice. Refit cleaned / repaired parts from the front back. Engine Third Maybe I should be more worried about this, but I'm really not. The parts are there, I know where they go, I'll probably have to make a wiring harness, but I've got all the info for that sorted. Hell, there are atleast two spare wiring harnesses in the boxes that came with the car. Convert to late model turbo control setup, to go with the late model ECU that is there. Also came with a Power FC, and I've got a Link Fury kicking around, but would need to sort a turbo control system if using that.... This part of the plan is much less clear. Seems odd to focus on the exterior and interior first, rather than getting her running, but those parts of the project are the ones that are hard to find parts for, so I need to get on to it ASAP as parts supply is drying up at an alarming rate! Lastly Skids. Whoa, that was some rambling, but needed to put it down somewhere. For the immediate goal though, I need to take all the spares it came with to the lockup, so I'm off to do that!

A whiles back I had a nice FD RX7 , and then I sold it, because of reasons. Always thought it was a silly thing to have done, so I have now un-done that decision... Sort of. FD's are in a bit of a bubble at the moment, with asking prices being sky high. It doesn't seem to me that many are actually selling at these inflated prices though... But, you can't argue that the prices on them are going up. I expect the bubble will burst at some stage and prices will fall to something more reasonable, but more than likely still more than I'd be willing to pay. I managed to do a deal with my former employer, High Performance Academy, (whom I still do work for on occasion, they're awesome guys ), to acquire this: They had purchased it to use for their tuning course, as a worked example on a rotary engine, but it just wasn't tidy enough, and would have taken too long to get there for their timeframe. They ended up purchasing the white FD I owned at the time, which was good to go for their needs. Towed it home (Christchurch) from Queenstown last night behind my 3.0TDI A4. Only a little dodgy... But actually towed with no problems. No scrubbing / scraping, and no weird handling, basically didn't know there was anything behind the car, except for the increased fuel usage and lack of usual grunt. Max slam. Spent this afternoon cleaning. So much dirt, bird shit and sap. The cover had blown off the rear corner, and because it was tucked away, no one noticed. Paint is a bit marked (it's had not completely shit re-spray in the original red), but it'll buff out. Plan for this is to tidy it up, replace the interior (most of it is thrashed), and get it going again on some factory(ish) twin turbos. I love the quirkyness of the sequential twins, and I know them inside and out (literally) from my time with my white car, so keeping those is a must. Most of the parts to put it back together are with the car. I'll be doing some hunting and scrounging for sure though. The wiring is roooooooted, but luckily I know a guy. This will probably take priority over the Starion, as it needs much less work, will be good to get it to a nice driver state. HMU if you've got a stash of parts! ;-).

Got a week off work for a nice break. Spent a few hours today wire-wheeling back the whole back underseat area, etch priming and then sealing that shit. It was fucking exhausting. #shutupoldman Also stripped down the 304 to pull the cam to send to Voldo for a new profile and new roller valvetrain. Only broke one bolt, which was surprising, no evidence of overheating and looks top have been fairly well maintained over the years. Probably just high mileage if anything. But its getting a rebuild anyway so wont matter. Tomororow I'll hopefully start on sound deadening, but judging from the state my back is in now, I don't think I'll be ripping into it too hard.

This car has laid dormant for a while. Back before when this was N/A...I had low oil pressure. I mean there was some oil pressure, I could drive it around but it never was as high as it should be. I had to swap the sump over on the motor for the turbo drain so out came the motor, thought i'd check the bearing caps. they weren't perfect and not perfect on a motor that had done 1500 k's since rebuild was not good enough. Took the short block in to the machine shop. Turns out the thrust tolerance was too loose and it was loosing a lot of oil pressure out of there. This was a good find. I had to get the block line bored too. that was expensive. Anyway, $4000 later for a short block rebuild. should be safe to run now. i'm just excited to have everything back and now progress is taking shape 20210124_172456 by phillipbaines, on Flickr How the cars been sitting for the past 6 months... booo 20210331_114925 by phillipbaines, on Flickr The motor went back in 20210331_162024 by phillipbaines, on Flickr I paid the front bar a nice white. 20210331_162040 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 20210331_174441 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 20210331_174505 by phillipbaines, on Flickr Yes, i'll fix the bumper. it annoys me too 20210331_174922 by phillipbaines, on Flickr Next, i'm getting the throttle body modified to get a ISCV sorted for it to be controlled by the ecu Then I save some money and take it to NZ Wiring in Petone to get tuned. Discussion:

Need to redrill a cople holes

Been running the V8 for some time now and it's been a ton of fun. Just did beach hop and the car gave no trouble. Ended up finding a standard inlet manifold and running a Quadrajet which goes good. Aside from some exhaust issues I've remedied, it goes nice and has been heaps of fun driving to work daily. As something else has come up I've decided to sell the car. I'll have an advert up in the buy/sell section here on OS but it's already on tm and fb. Had heaps of fun putting this together.

I'll get some pics of the completed subframes next time I'm out in the garage too as they look quite dashing in subframe black. Painted the trumpets front and rear in a nice grey also which (even though they're aluminium) came out looking pretty spiffy.

So I got Hamilton windscreens to come and install front and rear screens back in, asked them to make sure its SEALED, (asked them to put heaps of sealer in) which they diddnt and it leaked . Fixed the remains of the fuel breather system as the car always smelled like it was leaking petrol ( hoses were perished beyond anything I'd seen) I brought a holly 350 off trademe and went to get it from tauranga with my brother(rip), fun trip, and the guy who was selling the carb also threw in a free 202 blue block and a bigger air cleaner with '308' on it, haha gc, so sold 202 to a mate for $50, and brought a fuel pump, balljoint, brake shoes, and some bushings, sticker for valve cover to get it up to woffable standard... Drove the car around after some carb tuning, diddnt take mutch and it was running great, took it to work a few times, drove to the mount ,diddnt get pulled over so lucky me.... And tried my luck at vtnz, fully aware that it was Rego'd as a 1.9 starfire, not a 3.3 202 motor lol, yes they instantly threw a shitty and so I was left to wonder ... do I cert it with a 202 or maybe something a bit more powerful.....

I think the only things I have ever shipped with youshop is auto parts - eBay rock auto or Amazon free shipping to Portland Oregon USA thanks - then youshop no problem even for used auto parts

Then I came across something too good to be true... A whole setup for a 304, on Facebook for 1200$! Not cheap for me at the time but I got caught up in the moment, so started messaging this guy with a 'legit' profile, older guy, friends, kids etc but lived a bit far away.. Long story short I paid the guy, and he dissapeared and blocked me haha Many visits to police, bank calls and still diddnt get money back, untill a kid by the same name as on the bank account was found and yea. . His mum made him pay back all my money! I didn't press fraud charges and yea props to the cops for that one. So I decided no more Facebook deals unless in person, lesson learned

I got charged $2800 to blast underneath and engine bay, paint the underside black and prime the engine bay. Then I spent another $250 at the painters for them to fix the primer overspray all over the black underneath Then I had to paint the parts underneath that they missed And fix the ripped hoodlining. Autoblast in glenfield should be avoided at all costs

Really loving these new rims. Car is also about an inch closer to the ground. Got the car all back together the other night and did a run in. Struggled to get good smooth rpm. Searched and searched for a vaccum leak. Timed it more than once. Messed around with the carb. Then I pulled the plugs. Not sure a gap of 0 is recommended (should have checked before assembling ) 3/4 were too close, re gapped to 0.9mm and boom perfect idle again. Took it for a test drive and forgot to tighten the accelerator cable and it cable loose after the first rev up . Really happy with the cam so far. over easter period will head up to my storage facility (dad's shed) and pick up my 4.3 diff. Currently the car has a 3.4 which I put in when I was poor student trying to save on gas. I also have a set of OG Toyota centre caps in storage so will try and steal @jackeo21s idea and see if they fit.

Got some longer wheel studs for the front. Painted the hubs and installed some new genuine Toyota wheel bearings and seals. Have also changed the front springs to some shorter 5kg ones and added some keeper springs. Need to find some 100-130mm long 4kg springs for the rear, but they're proving hard to find. Painted the inside of the hatch, doors and bonnet. Finally managed to finish prepping the rest of the panels and took them into work this weekend. Had a bit of drama with the base coat being the wrong tint, as I had another 2 litres mixed up since there was only about 1-1.5 litres out of a 4 litre tin left after doing the body and didn't want to run out. Turned out the new mix was a bit darker, but managed to get 2 coats of that on and then one coat of the previous left overs sprayed on top. So hopefully it matches to the body! Stoked with how it turned out! I sprayed the basecoat and then my coworker Justin came and sprayed the clear on, so thanks to him for doing such a good job! Assembled a few bits today. Could just stare at this thing all day!

Ive used youshop for plenty of car parts in the past, but always from the UK. Havent used youshop USA, but should be the same.

And so I found a 304 v8 that a mate had, unknown condition, brought off someone that said it did run but needed a valley gasket, but not in any definitive condition, $500, came with headers, basic block and some bolt ons, no wiring, but yea... why not Looking back I'd have brought a whole running donor car, but yea, not how this panned out So I threw some gaskets in it, cleaned it, painted some stuff and painted my window surrounds which came out great, to this day still great... rare for a rattle can job lol Checked the code on the block and it came back a vs3 or vt replacement engine...... still dont know if this is good or rare? Does that mean someone brought a new engine from aus???? Next up was to look for a gearbox, wiring or carb setup, basically all the stuff to convert the car to v8 specs (more than you would think)

Cut the starter snout off and melted it down into blobs then I have welded up the hole and the script with it using the oxyacetylene, you can use all the crap to your advantage, it works like a flux.

Pest checking in from Dunedin Rolla wont keep you warm, bring a swanni

https://www.vogtland.com/en/sport-lowering-springs-toyota-corolla-type-e10-e11-e11-u-up-to-85-kw-1820 Running these in my AE112R with KYBs. A ton better than shitty jamex and well priced, even with shipping. They were cheaper than a set of Kings. I got mine on special for about 155 euro shipped. its settled a little since this photo, but its a good height. -35mm all around.

Malt vinegar for a weekend did wonders. Quick rub over with a wire brush and it opens! Now sitting in the kero bath at work getting all the pins nice and free. the corrosion varies from patina stain to semi serious pitting. But progress is progress.

That reminds me of the time I was doing a WOF on a Land Rover. Did a 30kph hard brake test, pedal went to the floor and Landy kept rolling, handbrake stopped it eventually. A hard brake line burst open length ways.

Yeah that has been a consideration, one of the reasons for setting up my own workshop was to avoid issues around working at other peoples shops, we have to be careful on what we road test as well, if we find a fault that could possibly cause an issue then we cant test drive the vehicle or complete the road testing until its sorted out Stuff like that, and all the small procedural steps all adds time and dramas though, people get annoyed because we might get a car that for some reason cant be driven for a perceived small reason (ie a broken brake light switch) so they repair it and bring it back and then it fails the brake test so they have to bring it back again, meanwhile costs are starting to stack up because the speed limits in Auckland changed and it takes an hour to do a road test so before you know it, a cert that used to cost $400 10 years ago now might be $1000 and "it's just a 308 in a commodore, some came factory like that, why is it so hard " and so on Rant over, haha.

Yes, there are Lvv standards The car construction manual Info sheets Certifier email updates Newsletters Usually training twice a year NZTA sends a reviewer every two years to be present while a vehicle is certified, and the certifier has to show all their paperwork and recording systems to prove they are doing things properly Random jobs are desktop audited when they go through LVVTA for processing as well. So the shit/not shit assessment is like that adjustable spanner in your toolbox, you dont use it often because there are better tools available most of the time As for coverage, we have to have insurance policies for public liability and professional indemnity as part of our operating requirements

Bought a momo steering wheel for it. I am actually in love with it. Also I'm posting this from my spa pool.

Bought this for parts for the other yellow 200. Been sitting for a year and not running. So ideal for me cos I only want the brakes and a couple small bits. Check the gas. Full of fresh 91 Check the plug. Freshly wire brushed. Turn the key. Lights all work so must be a good battery Press the starter button. Nothing Kicked it over a few times. Nothing Kicked it over with the plug out. Dead. Kicked it over with a good plug out. Dead Remember that the last blue DR had a dicky kill switch. Press it a few times and its gummy as and not clicking in and out. There's some suspicious green growth on the bike so probably it was in the pond at some stage, or a south facing shed. Opened the switch up and it full of gunk, probably bovine in nature. Wiped it off on my jeans and clamped a bit of wire across the solder joints. Kick it over and there's a visible spark this time. Put the plug back in and kick it BANG all the unburnt fuel sitting in the exhaust ignites and knocks loose an ankle deep pile of the finest cow shit North of the bombays. Kick it again and it slowly chugs into life in a cloud of black smoke, clearing up after a couple of revs and settling into a nice tight idle, not a hint of the typical suzuki top end is fucked, so just send it rattle that these get if you even think about running them 1ml of oil below the level line. Once the black smoke cleared, the white smoke began, unmistakably wd40 that was coating the engine and header, so perhaps it didn't have a top end oil leak like I had suspected. Still no life on the starter but that will just be the same problem I'm guessing. Rode it around, shocks are still good, probably the forks are leaking but that's the usual. Also the brakes don't do anything which again is typical farm bike spec. Rotor looks well below 3mm. And the seat is torn and brake light isn't working. Now I don't feel like wrecking it $900 will ride it away today with a better seat and il probably fix the starter or I can do the brakes and bump up the price to cover parts

its coming along. im just tidying up all the little things that need doing. ive got some generic belt line rubbers coming for it then i can put the door cards back on. the bumpers are away being chromed and ill get them back in a week or so. not sold on the black center caps and i have another set on order should be here middle of next month. i drove it up the road to get some milk and i fucking love driving this thing, its fucking slow but its cool to just cruze along in and i can see myself doing a bunch of Ks in this as soon as i tidy u the last few things. believe it or not its still got a warrant! 2021-03-18_07-56-27 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-18_07-56-37 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-18_07-56-45 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-18_07-56-52 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-18_07-56-58 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-18_07-57-04 by sheepers, on Flickr

Amazing...

Yeah mine is non silly strut, with excel G all around. The ride is a little firmer than stock and no where near as soft as jamex.

Yes there is the technical advisory committee that meets once a month to look at design approvals, people wanting do do different stuff that isn't covered by the rules or is outside of what the rules say, things like that

Just picked up this body and chassis and aiming to build a Junior Rod/totrod Starting Point: Size comparison to her first hot rod stroller: Thumbs of approval: The fleet: Repping The Strokers shirt over here in Perth while out cruising: She keeps on growing! Wagon still fits for now but won't be long: Will strip down this week and start planning out the build

Before and after

Possibly a repost, i drink therefore i forget. Or something like that. Redwood table i made for my wedding. Rope bracing in middle and stainless chains on the ends. Roof rack for the wagon Fireguard for the minihuman. Since been painted and gate hung straighter. Picked up a free ute deck so built a trailer. Have nearly finished welding the extended front floor and sides on. Will paint with deckliner once done.

Wheels getting a refurb

The car was running super lean this morning and I needed to use the choke the whole way to work. So I did the good old carpark in the dark 8 minute carburetor rebuild. There was a piece of glove in the jet. It seems to be fixed now.

Hey, still got this Honda. I put it in the Ellerslie Classic Car show with the Japanese Nostalgic Car group. Pretty cool to be asked to take it along, I guess it makes all the minting up worth it. Pulled the front off, polished and re-cleared the headlights and generally spruced it up a bit more. Loads more OEM fastners and brackets have made it into the mix under the bonnet. But that's not important. I have a wheel addiction issue, and got these old TE37s off George. I needed to get one fixed, as it has a pretty gnarly bend in both sides (one thing I have learned from fixing bent wheels, is that if one side is visibly bent, then the other side will also be bent, regardless of if you can see it). Here they are, after being made round again. 20210312_074441 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Next, I take these to Creosote Charlie for a spot of acid dipping, and we always have a yarn about some aspect of his XR8 ute, every time I shoot down there to get the paint stripped off wheels. He always under promises and over delivers on the service, usually it's a "they'll be ready in a week" which turns into a phone call the same afternoon I dropped them off or the morning following. 20210315_154335 by Richard Opie, on Flickr And yeah they look nice all raw and aluminium and all that, but I chose to get GT Refinishers to slam a coat of jam on them. This is a close close match to an OEM Rays colour, it's called Magnesium Blue. Cool, in the know kids call it 'Mag Blue.' Haters like Tank will say it's black. 20210323_175153-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20210323_175213-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20210323_175236-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr It's got a pearl in it that goes pretty flippin' hard (see what I did there?) in the sun. Now awaiting gen-you-wine deckils from Japan, and some proper Rays blue valve stems to finish off the resto. Looks beaut I think. Expect photos some day. I might stop buying wheels.

Trucks been doing a fair bit of work over the last year. Taking out a tree for a colleague. Found a tonneau cover that fits very tidily. Found an LSD on yahoo japan, 6" 2-way clutch type 6.666 ratio from a slightly earlier model. Was good that I'd bought it as i discovered the pinion bearing was toast in the original diff while swapping the new one in. Tiny axles on these trucks. Picked up some more windows for the house. And found out that 6m lengths of wood "fit" on it, will be building some front and rear ladder racks shortly. Next mods on the to-do list. -Make the flares out of sheet metal -Fit the new wheels. -Replace the AM radio -Build some limiting straps for the tailgate -Look into importing some lowering springs.

got the bumpers back from chroming. these pictures do absolutely no justice to how good it looks IRL. 2021-03-23_06-53-44 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-23_06-53-54 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-23_06-54-02 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-23_06-54-10 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-23_06-54-17 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-03-23_06-54-24 by sheepers, on Flickr

I got told when my car failed on rust, I could either bring back a receipt from a panel shop for the repair or bring the car back with that area in bare steel to show the wof guy the repair. I paid a panel shop and just returned with a receipt and got a wof

got these high pipes made up today, turned out super sweet looking, only downside is they are wayyy too loud so i'm going to have a go at making some baffles/mufflers. once i get them quiet enough that i'm happy with it ill make up some heatshields for them and a-couple of hangers too. (please ignore the terrible car in background its not mine)

And the rest....

Got the front crossmember back from sandblasting. The bottom had a few scrapes and dents in it, so made up a skid pate type thing and welded that on. Also while I was there, added a bunch of stitch welds around the whole crossmember. Sprayed some 2k black over it and few other things. Slowly assembling a bunch of things. Diff with new seals and assembled back together and then lifted in to place. Hopefully one of the last lots of zinc plating back. The 4 round bits and top right brackets are for a front brake upgrade (two sets actually), just waiting for some longer wheel studs to arrive and that can be assembled.

FYI - everyone the Car Construction Manual is now available for free. As of 1st February (today), electronic copies of the Car Construction Manual are free to all. Get your copy here - https://www.lvvta.org.nz/.../new-zealand-car.../ Don't forget that there are also standards (which have always been free) - https://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents.html#standards Plus heaps of free infosheets - https://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents.html#infosheets The threshold which lists all modifications on your vehicle that DON'T require certification - https://www.lvvta.org.nz/.../LVVTA_LVV_Cert_Threshold.pdf For all those Frequently Asked Questions... FAQ 1 - Does my vehicle require certification? https://www.facebook.com/groups/168014270465260/permalink/632703203996362/ FAQ 2 - What should I do before going to a certifier? https://www.facebook.com/groups/168014270465260/permalink/632703977329618/ FAQ 3 - Where can I find a certifier? https://www.facebook.com/groups/168014270465260/permalink/632706003996082/ FAQ 4 - How much does it cost to certify my vehicle? https://www.facebook.com/groups/168014270465260/permalink/632706903995992/ FAQ 5 - How long does it take to get a vehicle certified? https://www.facebook.com/groups/168014270465260/permalink/632708517329164/ FAQ 6 - What are the rules in regards to my modification...? https://www.facebook.com/groups/168014270465260/permalink/647669915833024/

Done front brake seals, sump filter seal, just noticed the output shaft is leaking so ordering 2 seals for that. Done some more work on the ign lamps and that's almost done, probs wants a new battery, but it's kick start so who cares Taking swing arm off the 85 as the guard tabs have been ground off, rebuilding 2003 swing arm and putting that on. Kept an eye out and got all the parts for half price. Ver nicccccc Too much trash piled in shed so started putting the 87 back together. Have 99% of the parts once I took a few from the 2003 from cam. (Just ignore the condition of them when bolting them on and its fine) Needs front caliper, I got a probably stuffed master and line for $1 so will see if that will come back to life. Fork seals (Gona buy bulk and rebuild the 20 or so dampeners I have) Rear wheel bearings, rear brake shoes, springs, and rod. Will get the recently rebuilt swing arm from the 85 so that's all G. Got a few engines to look at but should have something there that will go hard. So should get that bike running for a couple Hundy in bits and pieces. Almost funds itself as I sell off the parts I don't need Two of the exact same bike. Max barry

Then placed it into the car to start to see what else needs to be made, gold top socks used to block up the intake as this is 6bucks not 6cents

Here's a few before and after shots: It's not perfect, but is good enough for this racecar owner.