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Got my plates back from being smoothed and painted by a mate, Dummied it up with housings and front cover last night and pretty stoked on the outcome. Off to Revolution Engine Services to get assembled, the rest of the parts are ready for assembly.

Made a new parcel tray out of some 2mm aluminium and mounted some Pioneer TS-X8 box speakers on it. Also fitted the rear window, just waiting on some new chrome filler trim to arrive, hopefully it fits right. Straightened up the bumpers and bumper filler panels. The filler panels are originally covered in rubber and they had a few spots where they had formed rust bubbles underneath and just looked terrible, so stripped that all off and tidied up the steel panels. Made some mounts for the radiator. Need to get the engine in to see if there's clearance between the fan and engine before I finish mounting the shroud. Finally got the engine back from being built. Basically it's got big cams, CNC ported head, uprated valve springs, TRD headgasket, Toda cam gears, then just all the usual stuff to freshen it up. Will try and get some proper specs soon. Got the throttle body's and manifold vapour blasted and then went through and replaced all the zinc socket head capscrews that everyone seems to send with their aftermarket parts, with some nicer stainless button heads. Gave the gearbox a coat of silver metallic basecoat and then since it was getting some clearcoat sprayed over the top, I thought it'd be rude to not throw some metal flake in too. Need to decide on something cool to paint the cam covers in now!

More frustrations The StuScience(TM) Alternator bracket turned up and worked perfectly! So I got the alternator working fine. So I could run the car for longer and take it around the block. The gearbox isnt shifting very well, I suspected air still in the clutch line but bled it again and same deal. So the gearbox might be a bit stuffed perhaps. It's fine when in gear just very clunky shifting. Maybe there were some other parts that are also different with the different box. Will do some homework. Also I'm getting a crazy amount of trigger errors, the ECU thinks the RPM is spiking high. I'm not sure why yet. It's possible I've upset something with my wiring butchery. Or maybe the alternator being close to the crank trigger is causing interference. Or maybe it's big cams/stiff springs/light flywheel causing some trouble. Not sure yet. It's an annoying issue to troubleshoot because there are clear symptoms but not a clear link to the cause. So as frustrating as it is, I just need to keep eliminating possibilities. The trigger scope results look fine, nothing crazy going on. In any case I was happy to go for a bit of a drive around the block, even though its running like crap. When it's not having trigger errors its good though, definitely feels way different ratios with that new box. 4th gear feels like what 2nd or 3rd used to haha. It might be a good idea to ditch my bodged together loom adapter, now that there's no chance of reverting to the factory ECU. Which is a fun-ish job but just annoying it'll take more time. Ahh well!

Yay , got the brakes done , the other side was actually easier after a couple beers, found the lack of brakes for the rear, one cylinder let go so thats cool. anyhow started bleeding it... spew. And the new stuff And a couple pics of the interior Chur

On the bright side, it might result in more posts in this thread - and I'm OK with that.

After doing a few miles the motor needed the heads being retorqued After the heads were retorqued i fitted the MSD ignition system i bought. i also bought a black msd cap and leads. And replaced the high beam headlights as both inside ones had clouded over. these current ones were cheap ones from repco but they didn't last. then got the car ready for OS drag day in 2020

I've just gone joined a classic trucks and wrecks facebook group (well fuck me - there's another rabbit warren of shit to look at) and the barries are already barrying furiously.

Hi all, I've been meaning to post this up for some time, but was finally inspired to put finger to keyboard after a sharncall with @yoeddynz last night. @PastyDynamite and I bought this for ourselves as a Christmas present, with the goal of housetruck conversion and living the pikey dream. She (the Hino, not Meg), is a retired Hino FF173 double cab. She was converted into a fire engine by Mills Tui in Rotorua, and served time in Bulls, Foxton, Ratana and Kaiaua and racked up approx 43000km in that time. She was listed locally on TM, and it turned out the guy selling her was the husband of one of my co-workers. He owns a heavy/ag machinery sales company, and bought this a couple of years ago and stashed it in his shed because he liked it. Unfortunately his wife didn't, hence the sale. As you might expect from a low-mileage ex-fire truck, it seems mechanically solid and drove really well on our test drive. By the time we took posession, she had been gutted of her pump, but its cradle and rad dials/hardware remained, as well as the beautifully constructed 2700L water tank/gear stowage section. Also missing are the beacons and siren, though there is still a sweet toggle that makes the front marker lights flash in a left-right alternating pattern. Deconstruction started in earnest - without any heavy lift gear we decided to remove as much bulk as possible. We also want to retain as much of the more interesting bare materials for exterior/interior reuse. Initially the pump cradle (all steel) came out in two bits. Thanks to @Goat for the assist and regular help/brainstorming! Next, the hosereel, ladder mounts, tank lid and baffles were removed. After much mulling, we removed the aluminium cladding and decided to split a third of the tank section (lateral to the chassis) off, then tip the remaining two thirds off of the other side. This brings us to the current state of play, where we have a rather stumpy looking doublecab on a bare chassis. Another job that needed doing was repair or replacement of the fuel tank. The old girl is pretty low on ferrous oxide, but had accumulated water in the (absorbable) padding between (steel) tank and (steel) tank straps, and rotted both sides of the equation out. Found a compatible, marginally better nick version from a breaker and tarted it up. On the subject of crusty bits, the cab has a few areas where water has sat beneath chequer plate and eroded the firmament beneath. Meg got to cutting and sticking. We have considered a number of designs for the body and its mounting method. The construction style that seemed most promising was a composite box, a la expedition trucks, chiller trucks etc, as they are strong, light, and really well insulated. Something like this: However, they're also super expensive; we got a rough estimate of $50-60k for the box alone from one place, others that would supply panels for self assembly were cheaper (but not significantly) and would come with the added logistical headache of assembling a monster structure. Back to the drawing board (aka Fusion 360). New-old plan is to make up a simple flat bed, then construct a frame-and-cladding house box on top of it. The old tank body was attached with 6x chunky bolts through the plate bridging the back of the chassis rails, and some monster sprung-bolts at the front to allow for chassis flex, similar to this but much heavier duty: Suspect we'll end up re-using this method for the bed. If it's good enough for a lump of aluminium and 2.7t of water it'll probably be enough for the house module. Some older versions of CADding that I've got screenshotted, the subframe between chassis and body is likely to be quite different to these, but it gives the idea... ...so that's where we are up to! Will update as things progress. Input and suggestions gratefully received! Discuss -

I ordered this last year during lock down, Then life went back to normal. Should really have another crack at it. FR Mack transkit from Auslowe. Mostly resin parts. Uses a freightliner conventional as a chassis donor. Goal is an 8 wheeler day cab Mack with 3 axel trailer in Mainfreight colours.

Barry- meet Barry. Hi.

OK as promised... my old collection I have just pulled from storage and dusted off. The Ferrari 246. Bought the kit cheap, apparently never opened, on ebay and discovered the windscreen is missing. Fuck. Will still build it and learn how to form some clear plastic. I think the kit is still available out there anyway. Not sure. Will be neat to have on display because I think they (well actually the non gts version) were one of, if not the most beautiful cars ever built. This Scania I built in my early teens. Its a bit broken and needs tlc but I'll always keep it for display. Funny how when I bought this kit it was a fairly new truck on the market.... Finally my big model truck project. Started with a sleeper cab kit but I wanted to do a replica so carefully chopped the cab down in all directions to suit the TNL freighting skip truck I wanted to replicate... I would ride my bike down to the TNL yard which was a couple of blocks away from home and take photos... "oh hey Bruce- here's that weird kid again, taking photos of the shitty old skip truck"... I also took loads of measurements and did drawings while there of the various bits. I really wanted to get the model as realistic as possible. "fuck me Wayne- that kid is back on that truck and he's measuring things".... Sadly (for me..) the truck is no doubt off the road now I imagine * Interior was detailed as per the original... Now I cant remember my exact age as to when I had last worked on this model. I now know exactly when because when just taking these pics I spotted inside that I had added a scribble on a fake notepad, some initials of me and my old girlfriend, Caroline. Hannah finds this thoroughly amusing .... I am totally looking forward to getting stuck back into these models but, like old Man down south, it will be a 'later on' project because there's so many other things I wanna finish first. I could see the value in some sort of easily movable hobby setup where I could just close a lid and put the whole lot away somewhere safe. Rainy days in winter be the perfect time for this me thinks. * Edit I just looked the plates up on carjam and this truck is still 'alive' Would be cool to work out a way of finding out where it is now? https://www.carjam.co.nz/car/?plate=ky905

Touched up around the a pillar and front guard this eveing Will put the drivers door back on and do the doors and back guards at the same time

Righto, so Bess got over the Hedland before I did due to Covid spec lockdowns , no dramas. Old mate from Swan Towing ( the agent) had a chuckle on the phone and said there were very little brakes, I knew they were garbage so let him know I knew, anyway got over here to grab it and he then mentioned it had NO brakes I like " nah man the fronts are siezed and have no brake pads but the rear 100% works. him = " no they fucking dont, we had to stop it by slamming it into park" I was all whatever. signed the paperwork and jumped in... hrmm the pedal doesnt feel good.... oh , it has NO brakes at all . either the front pistons have unstuck themselves and leaked all the fluid out , or the rear cylinders have now siezed too, so it was a very exciting drive ~10k's to the place its staying , all while pulling on the handbrake release lever and using the foot hand brake to slow it down, so lol and it was terrible. So Put the whole brake system minus rotors and master on order from rock auto. Went about giving it a wash outside which got rid of alot of the rust stains and gave the interior some love too , so fucking gross. but it looks 1000% better and have been pouring interior protectant on it ( because i dont pay for it) its making a difference but i will need to re-do the dash and floor mat at some point. Anyhow, brake stufff showed up yesterday, being the smart person i am I forgot to order new brake pads and had thrown the old ones out when cleaning out the back of the FC soooo that sucks. but have new calipers, shoes,hoses,a/c bits, suspension bushes and a couple other bits and bobs, goodness Rock auto is neat! and well priced, the calipers were about $40 aus each , i cant rebuild the fucked ones for that!. In it's new home for now , its the dry season so will dry out all the moisture thats its got from sitting under a tree in brissy New parts!! should keep me occupied for a bit, currently trying to track down some oem spindles to put it back to factory height, they seem to be a bit harder to come by, but aill get there. One side of the cylinder and shoes done! OMG that was not a pleasant experience and if you have a keen eye , its still not right. FUUUU. These will be discs one day because fuck shoes. Thats it for now , will get up a pic of the intrior once the light has dropped a bit, besides the cracks which you cant do fuck all about its actually pretty good , need to go through and identify all the trim thats broken and replace it at some point. I love just stearting it up and listening to it rumble.. sooo gooooood.

Wow!!!!....

I guess by now everyone is tired of reading about my accelerator setup, so I'll close the subject off by sharing a photo of the new components with a quick splash of paint. I'm looking forward to working on something else tomorrow.

It’s coming home soon! As soon as I can get a trailer, good weather and some time organised. I have ordered a swag of miscellaneous parts from fiatparts.co.nz. I also ordered a refurbed bosch alternator for a 124 Spider from Rockauto with a view to going internally regulated. I am also dreaming of some new wheels. So a Poll is in order.. Panasport (minilite style) 13x6, +10 offset Reproduction Cromodora CD30 (available only in 13x5.5) +7 offset, which is the same as the stock steels I think OR Repro CD66 (13x7) +10 offset. I have a favourite, but I’m interested in your thoughts. All 3 sets are available currently on special from Midwest Bayless and would be $1400 landed (plus local GST probably). A bit ouch, but the cheapest I have found on the internet. If any of you have a lead on local (NZ) wheels I’m all ears too.

Started with the donor chassis and ordered a bunch of custom resin parts to build the truck. Engine, cab, suspension, extra steering axel, and so on are some of the components you can choose.

Hmm I have been in a couple 700r4's and they seem sweet as? just a 350 with a overdrive and cable control, buy the cable bracket kit for your carb set it up and off you go? The move is probably a T400 and gear vendors overdrive box if you have the cash.

I'm pretty sure @OSM Garage specializes in torque wrenches. He might be able to help you out/sus you a deal.

What, an update you say? Well, okay...... After many many miles (trips) in the Sierra the time came to front up for the WoF....and as expected, things werent overly flash.....lots of rust in weird and unusual places making it a health hazard to both those on the road and those inside. And probably to Albanian children as well (somehow). So for the last wee while she has been out at "The Farm" where @JustHarry has been working his magic on it (most usually when he's lost the will to live or wants to take out his anger on something). Noises are being made about it (hopefully) being ready soon for another crack at this mad WoF thing, we await with bated breath. On the minus side, Harry has found rust in a few more previosuly unseen places so it might be a bot terminal. But Cest Le Vie, lets just drive it like we stole it until the WoF guy says we cant (on its 2 litre Pinto and 3 speed slushbox) then go find another one. On a whim I splashed out on these. They are from an ST170 Focus but I fear there might be some shenanigans needed to get them to fit (if at all). For the record they are 17x7/ET49 (and that offset is probably the killer) with some 215/45 feet on them. Now I've read lots of conflicting stuff on the interwebs about what people have got to fit and what didnt, so I guess the best we can do is strap them on and see. Maybe some 205/40's might be better, either way i can see guard rolling in my future. Watch this space...

This weekend I fully committed to making this thing happen: The 1UZ is out of a UZS131 so has the right headers, oil pan and angle on the bell housing. Annoyingly the fan is broken, and MAF is missing. Spent a bit of time digging out the Japanese mouse nest from the valley. I've managed to rent a little space on a friend's farm up in Warkworth, seeing as garages don't exist in central Auckland unless you're extremely lucky. My plan is to tidy up the 1UZ on a stand while I continue to tinker with and drive the Crown. When the engine is good to go I'll take the Crown up and start pulling it apart. I'm pretty new to this but I'm lucky to have a few knowledgeable friends, and Bluebear's thread is absolute gold for me.

Nice, they probably fit a bit better than the 4AGE ones too. Looks like it has e-throttle? Dreamy. Progress has been slow, it's taken heaps of time to pick the loom apart. Which was mainly just to make the low mount alternator work. But I pulled a bunch of the wiring back through the firewall that's now unnecessary (MAF, IACV, etc) The wiring is still a bit grotty but the motor runs. I didnt fix the old water pump, a brand new one was only $150 so just paid the idiot tax. Good peace of mind to have a brand new one too I guess. Then I've had a few coolant leaks to sort out, nothing tricky but just annoying and time consuming. @Stu is an absolute GC and made me an alternator bracket, just waiting on courier to arrive with it. Exciting! Something funny though, I thought I'd just try get everything lined up and working with the plastic bracket in the meantime. But the alternator wouldnt run... I spent a bit of time troubleshooting before realizing that the alternator usually grounds itself through it's bracket which is currently plastic haha. Hopefully take it for its first drive later this week. The steering is a bit heavy with no PS at low speeds. But I guess I could retrofit the electric assist if it gets tiresome. Or just stop being a wuss.

2020 to 2021 / Had to park it up finally / couldnt get a wof. Was focused on the MR2. But aim is to have the 260z's rust removed/repainted and back on the road by summer. Not a garage queen but tidy and usable. This month will start the strip down etc. will post pics as it happens.

So after getting this home and then taking count on what I needed,I got on line and ordered me a RS500 body kit. When it got here I was quick to UN pack and mock up in place. I found out it didn’t fit to well, Especially the front bumper And the rear wing was badly warped I spent quite a lot of time cutting and fiberglassing and making brackets to hold everything on Plus trying to get all the gaps right on the front bumper. mais you do I spent quite a lot of time Looking for parts on the computer I managed to find a person selling a parcel tray on trade me I told him what I was trying to build and he told me he has 2 Parcel trays and if I want one then I’d have to buy 2 and he also told me that he has a fiberglass RS500 English made front bumper as well.......and because my NZ one didn’t fit to well ....... I’m now the proud owner of 2 parcel trays and two front bumpers. here’s a few pics of mock up

Disassembled the engine a bit more using the lights in a garage after work. Cam chain pretty loose. Is a FIAT stamped one so probably original. The chain stretches a bit over time but the main source of increased tolerance, is the gears themselves wear. The chain had been slapping the inside of the aluminium cover too, and has actually worn a hole in one spot. This will be the source of the metallic crud in the centrifugal filter (which is on the end of the crank nose) Took the head apart, Something ive not seen in any of the old Fiat engines ive dismantled before, pretty bad valve recession on several of the intake and exhaust valves, a couple of the seats are also similarly rounded too. Some of them are also fine. Its pretty weird. Hopefully the head on the engine in the van is better. The block disassembled next, camshaft and crankshaft are good, piston big ends look new, main bearings could do with replacing. Pistons all look new as well, and all the rings freed up pretty easily. Cylinder 3 looks to have a liner installed and the cylinder itself looks the same but has F45 cast on it compared to the other ones which have F35. I wonder if the new head bottom end gaskets and very good condition piston bearings and bores are evidence of some work at some point? Could have had head issues too (dropped a valve maybe?) and they slapped a worn out but 'known runner' on the refreshed bottom end? Anyway, decided this bottom end looks pretty good and given the other engine is seized ill probably run this one, hoping that the other head is in better nick. Bit of a tidy up with some Phosphoric acid on the outside and the water blaster all up and though that to get all the rusty shite out of the block coolant galleries Put some engine enamel on the outside, which is good for at least 10 HP and because its smoke coloured on the outside the engine hopefully wont smoke as much from the inside Dang nang it! Better now than on the first start up i guess.

another cool find VF - 12 -1 ? these are probably the least thrilling bits to see in full. I’ll order some corners for the bottom of the rear window aperture because they are like $30 each and that will give me a good reference to start on. Will have to deconstruct the rear deck and have a tidy up. at least the rear panel is fairly flat /basic?

Stripped the many layers of paint off the roof today.

went for a cruze. it was great. 2021-05-16_03-06-24 by sheepers, on Flickr

Since the last update work had continued making the studio area a bit more finished looking. Boxed in the ugly steel framework and finished the ceilings. This really made the place feel more like a house and less like a shed... Few more little bits to add, trims around the chimney. Really looking forward to selecting paint colours and getting some colour in there. So we've now moved out of the little cabin and into the workshop mezz. The cabin was getting a bit chilly, the bed a bit tiny now that the cat has decided he wants extra warmth and snuggles in between the pillows. Plus its getting boring walking from the shed after watching a movie, late at night, in the cold or rain, to a cold cabin. So we have continued on at full steam building the frame work and a bedroom. First thing was to suss out the position of the doorway frame before we started the main framework. We rummaged around in one of the woodsheds outside where we had stashed a few old doors. Picked out this one here... We'd bought this and another door for $20 together. Bloody bargain because this door is brand new, never having had any glass fitted nor any door locks or handles. Solid cedar, made in NZ. Would have been an expensive door back in the day... I scribbled some pencil lines on the floor... thus working out where the door would work best because it was going to have three positions it could be left in. Then we started frame work... insulation... Then plywood lining. Now that there was framing in the way we had to get the plywood upstairs another way. We couldn't use the stairway. I knew this was going to be an issue, along with future furniture, fridges, ovens, pianos etc. I allowed for it like this... Sorted I didn't take any pics of the plywood going up onto the walls but you can probably use your imagination. I had an idea on how to frame up and hide the steel framework in the bedroom and also set the drawers in under the kitchen benches so that way we had maximum amount of bedroom space around the bed. Its not a large bedroom but big enough to sleep in! Pretty nice to finally have a bedroom you can stand up in. Opulence for a couple who have been living in vans/housetrucks/cabins for the last 20 years. Bedroom aint finished yet but works. Rimu trims to add, wardrobe to build and some bedside shelves/cabinets. But Kevin loves it and its his go to place to feel all snug. It has a cat door the leads from the kitchen into here, past his doorway. A bit of wiring went in to suit various lights, sockets and we had to work out a suitable doorway point for our boss, sir Kevin fluffcat. He likes his new cat door with a plank he has to walk across from the bank outside.. With a cat hole sorted we brought in one of the two stainless benches we had stashed away outside. One bought cheap for $40 and the other gifted to us by a customer. Sensible choice stainless bench and sink. No pissing about. They just work forever. I cut the splashback down removing the bit with two old wall mounted tap holes and then cut a new hole to suit a shiny new mixer tap... The kitchen is almost finished but for drawers and cupboards which we will custom make ourselves to suit. I'll snap some pics of it tomorrow. Damn its nice to make a cup of coffee/cook without going downstairs or up to the cabin. Not long from finishing this project and I can actually hook back into that flat six sitting on the bench under a sheet Whoop. Oh and also I suppose I could do some more actual paid work, which there is quite a long list of jobs from patient customers up on the whiteboard yay. Shed was well utilised over the last two days. There's a Triumph 2500 wagon that's been with us for over 14 months due to covid lockdown among other things stopping the new owner from collecting it. On Thursday four likely lads flew down from Auckland and after two days of solid tinkering, carb fettling, mild levels of bodging and number 8 wire thinking they got the old girl on the road and took off today to drive back to Auckland. The movie theatre got utilised last night with many old car adverts and classic racecar youtube clips being watched. Fun times.

Painted the door window frames in 2k matte black and then assembled them back together. Hatch assembled and back on. Finally found some factory fender mirror, in pretty good condition too! Sanded the tail lights and sprayed them with some clearcoat. Got it off the rotisserie in the weekend, after being on it for 16 months!

Gather round for a sharn boys Me and the ol miso soup went for a trip around Northland at the start of the year and camped out of her old mans AU wagon which was lush. While it was a robust and practical Australian sports car, it was cramped and not a functional camper. We caught the bug for camper life and started browsing trademe with mild enthusiasm and wild pinterest-fuelled dreams. The first takeaway i got from van shopping - fuck vans are expensive. In our budget all we were hoping for was a flogged out ex-tradie L300 with 500xxxkms. Until one night this bad boy popped up on trademe - the skylite roof piqued my interest immediately. It had everything we needed: fully self-contained, electric cert, wof and reg and a boot full of camping gear and was in our budget! I enlisted the service of fellow 3Y enthusiast @HighLUXto go kick a Kelly 70 for me, and confirmed it went hard for what it was. So we made a spur of the moment decision to go pick it up from Rotorua the next day. Its a lush spec import Liteace with pop-up skylite roof and is well specced up the front with monsoons, power windows and steering and a fully hektik JVC headunit run straight off the battery in true SCA carpark installation fashion. The 3Y-EU injected 2 litre donk actually doesnt disgrace itself on the flat, though it dislikes maintaining reasonable speed up hills. Suits me though, wagon time ain't no crime. Have taken it to TGA for a weekend since buying and it was smooth and comfortable but by gum it drinks 91 like Sumpson at Nats 13. It is an ex-backpacker rental van which explains why everything has been done legit - no doubt its seen a fair few dogging spots in its time. The interior was setup for a single with a tiny bed, which needed to go. Other amenities include a sink unit with water and waste, a compostable toilet and electric chiller. The electrics setup is pretty lush - battery and inverter setup with adventure kings solar panel thing, along with power point for camp grounds, complete with RCD and 3 pin outlet to run the breadmaker. There must be nearly a grand worth of electrics alone in this thing, stoked. I then set about the task of building a double bed, adopting a @Beaver approved design from his Vanette. A slat bed with additional pull-out frame so can be used as a single seat during the day, and pull out for double bed at night. I made it out of decking timber and ripped down some fence rails, as it turned out to be the most economical solution amidst this nationwide timber shortage. so its a little chonkier than i would have liked. I had an uneven number of slats so had to double up on long bois. Still, for a bumpkin with fuck all carpentry skills im sure Stevie Wonder would approve. OCD trigger warning I dismantled the old bed and left the electrics in-situ and then when i built the new frame had to play electrician and figure out how to put the RCD and gear back together. Tidied up a few cowboy spec installation foibles while i was there. Pretty stoked with its functionality, and still some room underneath for storage of bits and bobs. Next mission will be to build a storage solution on the otherside of the van to maximise space in this compact little rig. will be sure to document that too. The hugs and kisses is currently making some lush 70s floral print covers for the mattress squabs to give it a nice lil retro vibe. Then what? go dogging i guess oh and maybe slam and wheels hehe

Cd66 all the way, I've always loved the look of those on old Fiats...

Well dark, it's cold and it's raining.. But I got my free shake!

Oh here it is

Have 700r4 in my ute, it does all the correct things. Most people burn them up by not setting the TV cable up correctly

Been calibrating and repairing these things for about a decade now. Warren & Brown are about as good as it gets next is Norbar then Teng. I own w&b and Norbar, they can be rebuilt parts are cheap and available and are fully adjustable.

Hey man yup still working on this gear might be able to source you one on my staff discount. 1/2" drive top out at 350nM for the flash brands its basically because the square drive will shear off. the cheaper wrenches use softer metal so are lower capacity again, cheap or not they all do same job accuracy wise genuinely surprised how accurate some of the cheap wrenches are. In saying that steer clear of Toptul its the brand that gives me most issues. Teng are good but the ratchet assembly are a little fragile if you use them top of the dial all the time, so go overkill when buying.

Ok. Our plans for Thursday are totally up in the air ATM. So what do you weirdos want to do?

Gonna use this first post as a to-do list. Will keep adding and crossing things off as I go. Very keen on any suggestions or advice. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ After years of lurking, it's finally time to start a build thread for this. Some of you might remember this car from @japawagons and @Yowzer back in 2013ish. I bought it off japawagons and used it as a (troublesome) daily for a year or 2 before deciding to go back to school and hammer out an engineering degree. Student poverty meant I couldn't give the car the love it deserved and it wound up in dry storage with a friend while I studied. I graduated at the end of 2019 with big plans to give the Crown a refresh, only to be thwarted by Covid and then being sent down to Queenstown for a work contract. Tired of not getting to spend time on it, and feeling inspired by @Bluebear01's conversion, I've decided to go the 1UZ route. Watch me fall apart as I go. Discussion thread here: RE201's 1980 Toyota Crown Original build thread: Japawagon's MS110 Crown of Tax

Made these calf feeder trailer things yesterday. Not bad for one day's messing around.

coil packs ..i went for GM/LS cop (coil on plug) with built in ignitors ..just to get things simple lol i looked at the motor for hours wondering where to mount them as the throttle linkage is in a funny place and having 4 intakes theres a lot of moving parts and i had to think about wiring as well. so ended up with this.

Okey dokey, because its a bit rainy and glum outside we are chilling out inside and enjoying just lazying back in the comfy sofas and cosiness of our new pad. I have just taken some pics of the kitchen (some of which show off my superb culinary skills at the fine art of perfecting toast) Here is pretty much the most essential culinary toasting device... and a most essential coffee thing... The serving hatch (is that the correct name?) needed a nice surround. Remember that lovely bit of acacia timber we found in our pile of rimu? Well it was perfect for the job and looks sweet... Still loads to do but its now a nice usable kitchen and way bigger than any van/truck kitchen we've had before. We'll make a roll out pantry to fit beside the fridge, yet to be bought. Cupboards and drawers are the next thing to build though. The doorway, kitchen closed off... Whole lot opened up.. Looking down the hallway, bedroom door on the left... Super happy with the door, another bargain from a recycling centre. This one I have mounted on rollers and it opens into a hollow wall... I have ensured that there was enough storage space above the bedroom roof to fit a Lancia Stratos windscreen for my planned future dream LMP styled sportscar build. I can get a screen now and store it up there. This I see is a sort of way to commit myself to actually building said car (but a fair way in time before I can start that) Currently there is a Bedford TK headlining stashed up there - not really quite as exciting as a Stratos screen.... We also need to build a toilet setup in the space here. Will be a small vented composting setup which will mainly be there for emergencies/night time use because the existing outdoor bathroom is working so well.

i got a few things ticked off the list today. trigger 1..i bought a 36-1 trigger wheel for the pinto but it bolted in front of the pulley and i didnt like the look of it ...so i made the hole bigger and mounted it on the back...just a few tacks for now till the sensors turn up and i decide where to mount them. then it was on to trigger 2..i bought a 63mm 36-1 trigger wheel as it was just small enough to fit inside the pinto dizzy buuuuut.....didnt even think about the dizzy to inlet manifold being a problem....well it turns out it is. i thought about cuttng it down but remembered i had a xd falcon dizzy on the shelf that i had gutted and used with a drill to pump oil around the 4.1 in the other cortina. turns out it fits the hole in the block for the dizzy and it a wee bit smaller .so i trimmed all the stuff not needed off it and made a slot on the side to be able to bolt it down...i then cut the pinto dizzy shaft down and made a bush for it in the falcon dixy....made a mount to bolt the wheel to and all done...)will make a cap when the sensors turn up and i sort out mounting)....was told i could just use a 1 tooth wheel so see how the sensor works with this small wheel first. both triggers in place i also stripped cleaned and rebuilt the intake manifold repositioned the dipstick got the factory vacuum all together so i can even plum the brake booster in. managed to turn the full TPS setup upside down aswell for more room. still got to sort out idle air control.....the injectors are on the way and i need to mount the coil packs and also sort out a breather for the block under the inlet manifold .....and im thinking some sort of brace for the manifold aswell. but its strating to look pretty good.

WINDOWS UPDATE Yep- more windows. Yay for more light and some extra views. But before that happened we made the mezzanine a safer place to be by finally making some bannisters and removing the chance of plummeting 2.4 metres onto very hard concrete (or worse- a rusty car?). I had a particular style in mind from the very beginning of the build to tie in with the minimalist steel/wood thing going on. Started like this. We made a variety of steel uprights to suit... Ripped down a selection of nice Rimu timber, planed it, sanded it... Bolted up in place and we instantly felt safer... Next up was the stairway. Really didn't want to add too much here because I'm trying to keep it looking really clean and simple. But had to have something- especially for those nights when local friends are here and our brains are a bit addled... It was super fun going through the Rimu timber selection and picking out bits with nice grain to make rails from. Then the lower hand rail that had to be curved quite a lot to follow the stairs. Ripped down some 5mm thin strips of Rimu and laminated them, clamped to a jig welded in place on the big steel bench... Woke up the next morning and had a very strong curved rail to plane and sand down... Then mounted in place and given a lick of varnish... Really happy with it! We have decided against adding any extra steel work for now- its a nice strong rail that doesn't clutter up the stairway. Next thing was some more windows. One for the kitchen and one for the bedroom. These we chose from a pile of second hand windows from the local aluminium window place and they made new frames to suit our shed walls. Cheap way to do it. Cut a hole... New view... Stoked! Its really going to make the kitchen a nice light place to be (for when I make my super fine selection of cheese on toast creations... yep, I'm a bit of a chef like that..) View this evening looking down the space with new windows fitted... Here's a look at how the lounge is now set up. Scored some bloody nice Italian leather sofas cheap from a fella in Nelson. Totally the simple clean style (in elastoplast beige to boot) that we wanted. Wont be going back to cloth sofas when we own a very fluffy white cat. The sofas fit beside each other so you can sit 5 across in real comfort for movie nights (more can sit on bean bags etc in front). The sofas are light enough to very easily shift downstairs into the studio area if need be too. There will be some super plush carpet added in the lounge (oatmeal in colour because ginger/white cat...) and a couple of floor standing reading lights etc but otherwise keep it simple. More soon. Looking forward to the kitchen/bedroom build next.. its so fun!

Yeah man , its proper cancer now. buuut again. the rest is pretty solid. My fault, had the resources and did nothing to the poor thing. When i picked it up of @Camel about Port Macquarie i must have hit the vent to engage the a/c, didnt notice until cruising and the engine tone would change. I shat myself. then realised what was the go. that is amazing. Im amazed at this truck, aside from the mirrors and dumping it . its o.g . all the stickers , all the o.g jacks etc. i love it. Yeah it 100% need some love. Dont really want a show truck but i reckon a bit of love to treat the tumours and seal things and it will be off the chain. 100% want the overdrive , but watching videos to pull these apart and they are so simple so long as you know the couple important parts. i love it. just works. The 350 is lush and have no plans to replace it tbh , given the o.g of it and such i feel it would be rude to ruin it. Diddy did mention a cummins transplant , which i could 100% get on board with. but that soo far down the track , like the airbag route type thing. I know nothing about either of these cars mr. you should share. if that ute of your is anything to go by. they will be off the chain.

Got the body in primer about 6 weeks ago It then took me all that time to get it up to a reasonable state so that it could then be painted. So then a couple days a go we loaded it up on the trailer (only just fit!) and dragged it into the spray booth at work. Sprayed the base and clearcoat on, it turned out pretty good! A few runs around in places, but nothing that can't be fixed. Pretty stocked really! Could of easily gone wrong haha. Gonna leave it in the booth for a few more days to harden, then take it home and get some underseal on the underside. In the meantime get the rest of the panels ready for some paint too.

Oh, follow up on this. Got the BOC smootharc 180 multiprocess. I really like it, welds very nicely and the cooling fan only comes on when it needs to so its silent most of the time.