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oh, hi!! so yea things have been great with this car. except the output bushing on the gearbox is flopping around and subsequently the output seal is leaking and flinging oil all over the exhaust. this is shit. the gearbox has only done a couple thousand Ks since it was brand new from Toyota. apparently this is fairly common on the new R154s which fucks me off even more. I've fucked around with changing the seal multiple times and all the other usual checks but it just keeps on leaking. cool. so to fix it i have to take the motor and box out because of the whole massive drive train/small car thing so out the motor comes. its fairly depressing taking a motor, that you have worked very hard on to make as new and shiny as you can, out of a car and seeing all the road grime and shit on it, as well as all the crap that goes everywhere when you start taking things apart. well, its what has to be done so away we go. not sure what else ill do while the motor is out. im not 100% happy with the clutch i put in it. its juddery and grabby at take off which sucks so that may change. fuck knows.............. anywho, first step, jack up your car. 2021-05-04_05-59-44 by sheepers, on Flickr

Cut and reinforced some better speaker holes in the parcel tray. And purchased all new seatbelts so was able to make and have Matt Tig in some OTT anchor plates.

Still chipping away, have had a few jobs that held up other jobs, so progress hasn't been as quick as i'd like. Couldn't put brake master cylinder in till I sorted the clutch and couldn't put fuel tank back in till i'd sorted the brakes... Anyway, a quick run down below. Tried to start it the other week to make sure it still runs, it doesn't. Figured it was probably fuel as it will have been sitting for a while. So I dropped the fuel tank out to find the tube pretty blocked, so that hopefully answers that. Drained the fuel tank, turns out I put quite a bit more fuel in over time than I thought, fill the mower container and any lose containers I had. Took the worst to the dump eco area. Dropped the tank in to Hornby Radiators and they gave it a good clean inside. I grabbed some new hose while that was being done. Got fuel tank back and gave it a quick paint on the top half, only surface rust, but some was a bit pitted so worthwhile doing. Fuel tank. Hoses labelled for future reference, also labelled on car. After getting the insides cleaned. quick tickle up Then a coat of whatever rust paint was lying around. Was blowing a gale, can't beat a brush on product sometimes. Engine fuel supply pipe with some meths in it, sloshed it around a bit and left it overnight. Grabbed some pipe cleaners and it's good as now. Getting a new intank filter thing was too hard basket with my time frame, so I gave it a good clean and chucked it back on. Oh yeah and the new hose: While that was being done I went down to CBC in town and they made me a new clutch cable. The old one had been resting on the exhaust so the cover was pretty toast. No pics because I just wanted it installed. But it was a pretty sweet cable. I had it made 50mm shorter than the one I had, as I couldn't route the one in the car without it hitting exhaust and steering. So with the new cable made I made a bracket to hold it clear of everything. Factory they have a bracket, but it's NLA so I had to just guess it. Asked on a FB group dedicated to these cars but no one could be bothered taking a photo for me of how it's run factory, boo. Anyway, the bracket, which is part of a realtor sign I chopped up. Gave it another tweak with the rivnut tool after this photo and got it compressed a bit more, shes solid as fuck. Bolted to the firewall and installed a P-clip on it to hold the cable. Bolted two clips together to keep the clutch and speedo cable apart and keeps it off the fuel line on firewall from filter. No idea how much of this junk is legit, but none of it's under pressure, it's just done to keep things apart so nothing can rub through. Seems legit enough to me, guess i'll find out soon enough when it gets checked. Just need it together for now and worry about the details later. For those that don't frequent the spam tech thread, I asked about bleeding my new master cylinder and went with this solution. Which when installed worked like this. Didn't leak bugger all when being bled, and I just clamped the pipes with vice grips when done so brake fluid didn't go everywhere. So then I bled the rest of the car, gave up doing it by myself and installed someone in the car to pump for me. It was after I had done this, I realised I had fucked up... I pulled the pads out as I was getting a bit of fluid leaking while trying to bleed the nipples myself (no euphemism). So I thought rather than potentially fuck the pads i'll remove them. I'm sure you can work out the rest... thankfully the pistons are long enough for this rookie mistake to not be an issue. They pushed back in fine with a nipple released. Was going to rebleed the whole system again tomorrow anyway with new fluid. But that is a must now as i'll have air in one side of each caliper. No biggie. Next time I'll have brake pad shaped bits of wood to install. Quake safe on axle stands with enough junk underneath to stop it being able to fall on me. Next up will be work out why the dash sits too high to where the windscreen will struggle to fit on one side. Then book in a windscreen install. Then do my own alignment to the point I can get the brakes bed in a bit. Then book proper alignment. Then not sure... i'll worry about that another day, getting close.

Looking more 'house-like' now, glad they have it covered in to store materials, there is minimal room left in my shed. Likely to pick an RE agent tomorrow, will post up my process to do so.

Little bit more done today. starting to take shape

So more fails. My understanding was that if you swap the sump over, all of the bolt holes line up to the gearbox. But what it means is "At least the bottom half will line up" because literally nothing lines up to the engine block It looks like the best compromise is to drill the block. This means all of the bolts will work except for that center top one, which I guess is good enough. It's pretty meaty at the places I've drilled it. And yeah I literally just used a drill, thug life Ahhh well, still making progress I guess. Just need to file out one of the holes a little bigger then I'll have it all bolted up as good as it's ever going to get. Luckily the dowels that were in the motor came out super easily, it turns out that there is a position for dowels that's common to both the gearbox and motor. So that puts my mind at ease for making sure the clutch is aligned to the output shaft correctly, even if my bolts situation is yuck.

So another couple days of trying to get it running well... this time I actually got it started ran kinda rough as hell but it went. Untill i played with it more now I've gone backwards. Looking at a decent starter and maybe do away with the points. Also found out the guy I got it off didn't transfer the private plates 20 years ago so I've had to track down 2 deceased estates to see if I can keep the plates or just bite the bullet and get gross new ones Also gave it a bit of a clean looked like someone was hotboxing in it the windows were like tar sticky and so were the seats which are original I'm assuming no rips or tears so win. Basically meaningless cosmetic tidying so i didn't feel like i needed to shower by just looking at it. One of my mates is the local panel and paint guy so I've had him look at it. Without doing a showroom fancy job on it thats about maybe 5-6k if im lucky. Also heres a hose someone put on.... basically filled with cheese Also the original brochures and ownership stuff from when the dealer got the vehicle which is kind of cool Heres an idea forgot who has this one but its similar to how I wanted to do one of my escorts. Like a turquoise teal with white.

So a year and abit ago I was looking on trade me and someone was trying to sell a ford Sierra project and after looking and wondering I brought it next step was to get to the north island to get it ,so packed up the family and away we went and I got this!!! Its a Ford Sierra xr4i it has a 2.8V6 cologne engine the person I brought it off was going to make it into an RS replica so I’m going to continue with this theme

Bort Malcolm fucking Cooper Simpson.

Hiding it and fixing it are not the same thing Bort, you menace. bartdat

Sema ready

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/car-parts-accessories/performance/turbos/listing/3080040716?bof=AdygKDSk

They made it to Te Anau yesterday. No problems yet. Apparently people like it but are still calling them foolish for even trying

And that's why you don't buy cars from Christchurch

You didn't fix it, by the way.

You've got lovely boobs. Not sure I like your girlfriends hairy chest though.

Big mission today to get old motor out and get the new motor/box/clutch/etc assembled. I was thinking it would likely be best/easiest to drop the motor out the bottom, like I've done with MR2 in the past. However once the axles are out it's pretty easy to turn the motor 90 deg and pull it straight out the front. Ended up spending about an hour and a half playing Dentist, when the new motor and new box both had the same alignment dowel stuck in them. Took a lot of heat and CRC and filing some flats into it before the bloody thing eventually came loose. Once that was sorted I tried aligning the box onto the motor but it was just too dark and too tired. So will get that sorted tomorrow after work. I CBF with the power steering so I've been keeping an eye out for a manual rack Echo at Pick a Part etc, but havent seen one yet. Then one just popped up on Trademe so bought it. hopefully it isnt missing a UJ or something specific to the manual rack (probably is, and I'm stupid for buying this) "

FYI Moondiscs are coming soon.

I usually tweak the handbrake so it drags, go for a thrash around the block a couple of times hard on the brakes then tweak again.

id rather just weld it instead of a barry fix

Yeah this flat sheet thing is hard!!

sorry

So I skipped a few picture updates. After lots of cleaning, grinding, filing, and making up a seat stay I tripped this off at the paint shop for sand blasting and a coat of black. I picked it up today, really pleased with it. They used chassis black paint which looks spot on in my opinion. Not to bright not too dull. I got the rims done at the same time so next thing to do is rebuild the wheels.

Making slow progress on this whenever I can be bothered. The control panel is covered in leather jacket, and we have volts! I bought a kitset of a motorised chain similar to a tank track, and used it to create a motorised curtain. The curtain grinds its way noisily open and closed, which adds to the cheese factor. It's lit by some Christmas lights: Hopefully the lights in front are sufficient to stop lights behind from being visible through the thin fabric. I discovered that my plasma globe causes my neon bulbs to glow dimly, which is kinda cool. I hope I don't have to ditch the plasma globe because it scrambles electronics in its vicinity. Next up on this project is puzzling out what the rest of the controls should do, and deciding how much effort to put in. I'd quite like a magic eye VU meter.

Bit more progress on this, Did some more panel beating of the front end, it had been chinned quite badly on the passenger side especially, and had a sharp bend just below the round bumper mount holes. Now its pretty even and roundedish, way better than before. Once the front bumper is on it will be hidden anyway. Again very finding very little rust holes, there is some, obviously, as well as surface rust, and there are a couple of tears as well, but its held up very well considering. Removed the handbrake mechanism so i could tidy up the handle, and the lower mechanism was scraping on the valance, so that all got removed for a clean paint and grease. its crossmember also got a light sand of the surface rust and a squirt of 'not quite body colour' spray paint as a test, pretty happy with that! Check out the factory cut out for the end of the mechanism, it as all chewed up around the tip of the pivot before Looked good, so did a bit more sanding Its starting to look way less shitty. Still shitty, just less I also got onto the brakes, i needed to pull the fronts to inspect and start parts hunting. 10" Aluminium drums front and rear. Check out the pile of dry dirt and grease i chipped off - its caking everything that pile is just off the backing plate. Ive only done the fronts so far, ended up having to pull the hub off, as the drum had differentially welded itself to the steel hub and the puny M6 spacer plate retainers that get moved to another set of holes were not going to shift it. Got it off in the end and its all clean and dry and no damage. Im glad the drums especially are ok they are simply NLA. Cylinders are rusted stuck tho but they are quite cheap, shoes less so (rears are cheap, fronts are $$$) I bought 16l of vinegar for about $24 and started chucking bits in after i water blasted them, ill check them in the morning. Someone had already taken one of the rear brakes apart already so i have those bits in a shopping cart already. The Brake and clutch master cylinders were already removed too, but praise be, they are not seized. The clutch master and slave is the same as my 2300 wagon, ie Lada stuff can work, so that's good. Im very very happy the brake master cylinder is ok. It is available but not cheap, because its a part that is shared with both Ferrari 330 and Lamborghini Espada, lol https://www.okp.de/xtc2/Ferrari/45-Brakes/Master-cylinders/Brake-master-cylinder-Ferrari-330-1-series-4-holes-flange::19478.html?language=en

Oldschool home entertainment circa 1940s(?) (edit: I now believe it was made around 1957): I didn't choose this project - my brother just turned up with it on my birthday in 2012 (a frabulous, grabulous, zip-zoop-zabulous present). It contained the expected Bakelite record player and reel-to-reel tape machine housed in the top, and a built-in valve radio. I set the needle to 88mph to see if I would be transported back to 1945: Nothing happened except a loud 50Hz hum. None of the other gizmos was fully operational either. I pulled the radio and speakers out: My plans were to use the cabinet for storing booze, and to put some electronics back into it which were more functional and decorative than the original stuff. Basically keep it as a man cave accessory / conversation piece.

So its been awhile still in WA australia and sold both my escorts, bought a house with a good sized shed thats empty... thought you know what goes in here well. Junk. So I ended up getting this 1970 Hillman Hunter Royal HE of this guy up in perth thats had it for 20 years collecting bits and pieces but got cancer and needed it to move on to someone who will do it up. Its a matt black spray can jobber someones slapped a wing on it for god knows what reason. Came with all new doors, front end, bonnet, boot lid, engine, transmission, and boxes full of unused and used parts aswell as badges lots and lots of badges so if people need parts and dont mind it coming from over here might be able to help So here it is in all its glory and the amazing bit of engine bay art Heres the discussion Forgot how to post and dont have a computer to bare with me

Thought I would put up a build of my Ariel, have been lurking on here for a while and have really enjoyed reading the builds posted, both cars and bikes. I've always been interested in motor bikes and had a few in my earlier years, mostly Yamahas, and had always wanted an older bike. Many moons ago where I worked in Ch-Ch there were quite a few guys in the VCC. A couple of them went to Wellington and bought up a heap of bikes from an estate (Brook or Brock Motorcycles?) One guy got a bunch of AJS/Matchless stuff, and the other guy a bunch of Ariels. I had a look through the Ariels and chose a bit of stuff that would be the grounding of a 1937 Ariel Red Hunter. Engine was 1937 and not too bad, frame is about 1946 from memory. Pretty much enough for a complete bike plus extras, but everything needing work. Back then I got a few bits done, girders straightened, oil pump over hauled and most importantly got the engine done. Had it re-bored to suit a wiseco piston from a 350 Chev and new chev valves to suit. Didn't get much more done due to moving towns, young family, seperating from wife etc. etc. Usual shit. So recently life has settled down a bit and I have come into possession of another Ariel. This is a pretty much complete, bit rough, ex farm/hoons bike that has been hidden in the back of a shed for at least 40 years. It's a 1939 500cc Red Hunter. Frame and engine numbers show it as a 1939. It had been used on a farm for a bit here in Ashburton and thrashed, blown up, piston shattered! Then sold, engine removed and stripped, stashed in the back of a shed until a few weeks ago when I got it. Most parts from 1937 & 1939 are all the same. Will post a couple of pictures of the 1939 bike as I got it, 1937 is in bits and all over the place in my workshop.

Pretty much a couple stomps on the pedal will centre them

Deeper than the angle grinder you didn't use

But maybe not as good a starting point as fixing the original. Probably the same amount of work

The stock one looks like it has two pins but I have no idea what they output. Thanks for that and I'll check them out. Speedhut may work but as the mechanical shaft is bespoke, that's what I'm trying to ditch. It is essentially a mechanical output shaft brazed onto the original shaft. This is interesting. But not what I need. It would be good for redundancy though as it has GPS input as well as VSS.

Hey man. This does not answer your question, but I think SpeedHut sell adaptors to fit most gearboxes that convert mechanical gearbox output into pulses to suit their speedo's (and probably many others). Might be easy compared to factory stuff (Or exactly the same, no idea)

I didn't even get it in garage before waterblasting the shit out of it! Less greasy its obviously had some love in past as it looks ok. Now to plan, do i pull the heads and clean the ports up fit studs and new head gaskets........ or just get it in hmmm.

Tell me shes done? I had a 1978 99GL witha number of mods. Lowered on gas shocks, lowered, air dam up front, lumpier cam, and metric wheels and tires (220 front, 240 rear) from a Ford Mustang GT. Free flow exhaust. 35 years later, I still miss her

Right. I've been slack as shit on updating this. Where to start? Hilux diff has been sold. I have front and rear mx5 subframes siting in the garage, Mx5 d2 adjusties, steering rack etc. The gearbox tunnel has been finished. Engine has had a rattle can rebuild. Am going to start notching the rear chassis and floor to fit the IRS rear end. Car is going to get 50mm flares all around to fit the wider subframes. Have decided to keep the rota in it.

Also the sweet sweet number plate HUNTER HE So where all things start... seeing what doesnt work and what parts I have Bloke seems to think it was something to do with the dizzy and points so I have like 4 new ones to try out from his stockpile Also about 6-7 stromburg carbys aswell as being able to install two so who knows we will see how things pan out My partner doesn't want to keep the engine bay art either... she thinks her parents might not approve

Cheap small smoked indicators from Ali. Check out the size comparison!

In the meantime, I yolo'd other parts of the tank. As a reminder here's what I was dealing with. The pickup was so rusted that I almost threw it out. Even after finding out that they're basically unobtainable I still wanted to, but was convinced it was salvagable. Fine. The other stuff is OK but dirty and with splotchy surface rust - some bracketry holding the fuel pump on the tank, and the filler neck. So I decided to treat with a vinegar bath. I don't have many pics of the process, but it went like this: 1. put into vinegar 2. rotate every so often 3. hmm and humm about what to do, occasionally scrubbing rust and dirt 4. leave it in there because it can't rust in vinegar!* (* don't do this...) I decided I'd get it electroplated down the line and so topped it up with water and left it, figuring that it was better than open air. This was a mistake. The ascetic acid doesn't just like rust! It slowly ate at the surface of the metals and left pitting etc. I probably should have just left it all until immediately prior to electroplatey time. But whatever. After a quick wipe down it came out fine and the pitting is minor. The pickup tubes received extra wire brushing and a little sanding. So moving on. I had my first play with soda blasting! Super messy but it did a reasonable job. If it weren't for the pitting it'd probably be super smooth on all the non-pickup parts but MOVING ON. The soda killed all the weeds growing between the paving slabs so win-win. I wire wheeled the remaining black paint from one of the brackets then off to the electroplaters, a lovely pair of chaps in Petone, they praised my cleaning skills saying they usually get filthy trash in. I've never had this done before so the results are astonishing to me. SO FUCKING SHINY! Inside and out! The plating even seems to have filled in some of the pitting, or at least they psychologically look better - and the pitted parts still look nice and shiny. And the price was very reasonable. I'm probably going to be hunting for more stuff to make shiny now.

Being that I dont have too much time to keep my shed I went ahead and sprayed the front. I bashed out the main dents where there the best I could but realistically the whole front end needs alot of panel work at some point in the future - probably worthwhile to get a whole new clip. Ive got new bits on the way to rebuild the front axle so that's the next job on the list....

Not terribly interesting but making some progress.. A tube worth of sikaflex to seal up the roof join. Also replacing the rubber donuts for where the safari roof bolts on, hope to get this all in colour soon so I can mount it. Windscreen back in with new seals Going old school glazing with the butyl tape (which I actually like working with) Bought a roll of sound deadening off TM (cheapest option I found) and working through layering all the internal panels. The roll is better than the flat pack as have less wastage.

And the rest....

Started goin over the engine. Compression testing @ about 155-165 but cylinder 4 is at 145psi. So I gotta keep checking that and see if it is actually bad. Ignition was way off too. I had 35deg mechanical advance (excluding vac). So even with low static timing I was in the mid 40s which cant be good. So I got a new electronic dizzy and high power coil. Now running 16deg static and 38deg mechanical with 14deg vac. Works way better. It wasnt without its issues though. I didnt know the harness ran an internal ballast. So the coil was only getting 4volts and breaking up at higher revs. Then after I fixed that out the ignition key couldnt handle the higher current coil and started playing up after a while. Put a relay in and fixed that.

Two is better than one, right? Bought this 4-door project and had it shipped down from Hamilton. I was really after parts from it, particularly front end sheetmetal and things. Should be the same as the Woodie from the firewall forwards. A bit of a garage shuffle, 2.5 51 Fords. The 4-door has a valid NZ ID and will be for sale again soon, just waiting to get one of the guards back from the panel man.

Back track to day 1 of official Galaxie ownership.. Mike got her going for a trip around the block the day before, but unfortunately on the morning of picking up she decided not to play ball.. thankfully my trailer has an electric winch, and with I bit of finesse we managed to squeeze her onto the trailer.. damn this thing is big! Here is where she stayed for a day or two while I cleared the garage out enough for her to (hopefully) fit.. decided to give her a wash at the same time and she came up nice.. a buff of the paint I reckon would make a huge difference but I’ve never done that before so that’ll have to wait for some other things to be done first. So I was worried (not worried) about how long my garage was and whether the Galaxie would fit. The garage measured 5315mm long, and google told me prior to picking the car up that the Galaxie was 5330mm long. Hmmm. I fully expected to have to cut in a “shelf” for the bumper to sit in (still might do this), but thankfully real world Galaxie length was about 5290mm so she juuust squeezed in. I touch park her against the back wall, apply the handbrake and it clears the garage door by about 5mm as it comes down and the bracket stops above the front bumper. Perfect fit!

I had a cheap guitar practice amp kicking around, plus various old speakers and a hand-me-down micro system. I chopped them all up and made a new speaker panel, like so: I got some new fabric (the old stuff was rotten) and covered it up... Then I put the guts of the guitar amp in behind, and put the controls where the knobs of the old valve radio were. This meant I had to use rotary switches for on/off and for the overdrive button. I cut holes in the cabinet for the guitar input and headphones sockets. So in this photo, the original knobs are now controlling the guitar amp: I've also got a few vintage bulbs, a plasma globe and random junk in the hole where the radio dial used to be. This is just 'proof of concept' decorative electronics and I'll be developing this aspect further. =) I sat the micro system in one of the side cupboards, so that (in theory) I could play my music and jam along. The cabinet actually produces almost excessive bass for some reason, but anyway..... I put some lights in the back of the cupboards, and that's about where the project got to in 2014. Here are some staged photos: