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Oh yeah, I also added this turd to the fleet. I have no idea why, seemed like a good idea at the time. Will likely move it on if anyone is interested. Its a 1985 EP70, that someone has spent alot of time/effort/money into squeezing a silvertop 4age into. Its quite hilarious to drive and unlike my blue car it doesn't try to kill you. Comes with a Link g4+, coil overs, si interior, rear disc brakes, etc. If I keep it I'll turn it into a track hack. It needs some new panels and a few bits so if anyone knows of a reasonably tidy EP70 going or not then let me know - just needs to be tidy.

Well fertan was cool. I knocked the top off with a wire wheel on the drill. Applied the fertan. It’s just like deck stain, very loose and dark. It comes in a wee bottle with a spray/squirt gun like household cleaner. Has a nice spray and really hammers it on well. it’s not there to ask how your day was, it’s ready to fuck. If it isn’t a textured/pitted surface it wanted to run off. the instructions said let it sit for about an hour and dampen with water (yeah aye, water and rust) but since I applied it as it was getting dark I figured the next best thing was leave it on the drive for a nice even layer of moisture from the air. ah shit it was -2 when I got up, lol. Frost is even so it’s still a win. Once it dried it was kicking off a blue powder. I was instructed to leave it 24 hours before painting, 48 if it’s cold..but can wait 6 months before paint.. that’s a ballsy claim! The last step is to remove the purple dust with a damp rag and your done. Your left with a black part, rock on. I’ll etch prime with 2K this week weather permitting.

Went gravel/adventure riding on the weekend. Man I need to go ride a bike more before cape. Also dropped Adv50 off for some work before cape / to get it ready for some pre cape missions. F I Z Z I N G

First of the inner sills done - had to go with functionality rather than a direct replica of the originals as there was just nothing left to use as a template.

i cleaned the things. then i put the motor back together. the cam gears have a slot in them for the dowel that is too big. the slot in the cam gear is 5.4 whilst the pin is 5mm. doesn't sound like much but its a good 5 degrees of play when you set up the cam timing. so to fix it i made some stepped dowels out of a 5.4mm drill bit. once id done that i re-dialed the cams to get them right. 2021-07-04_04-14-42 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-07-04_04-14-49 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-07-04_04-14-56 by sheepers, on Flickr 2021-07-04_04-15-02 by sheepers, on Flickr

The seats are immaculate in this car.. Its a shame to sell them and put race seats in it.. But oh well, skids If anyone is after a full set of matching seats, front and rear, door cards, door tops and under dash pad, I'll flick them up on trademe. Reclining High back super seats. Pic for you @cletus

And for shits n gigs, quad race seats

Snapped up this garage ornament. It’s a 1608cc 125 engine. Cams have rust on the lobes, so it’s definitely been sitting a while. Came with a carb (another Solex...) part of a starter motor, and a flywheel (which upon closer inspection has “Holden” cast into it) I’ll tuck it away and give it a good inspection in the future. The vendor alleges it “has good bores”. We shall see.

One difference the Pre-Facelift Carib has is that the taillights are big solid colour blocky things. I didn't really like them, so off they came. The original taillights always looked dated to me, which made the car look older than it is. The facelift model of both the Carib and Corolla wagon got a slight upgrade in the taillight department. Removing and replacing the lights is very easy on these, so I grabbed a pair of facelift lights from a Corolla wagon at Pick A Part and finally got around to replacing them today. With the tailgate open, it's just two screws to remove the lights. I guess this was designed to be easy as this is also how you change the bulbs. Remove the screws and then the light just pops out. There are two plastic pins on the opposite edge of the light, but these are often broken. In typical fashion, the lights on the Carib were loose, so that wouldn't be helping. With the light removed it uncovered a haven for grot A quick clean, and then it's just a case of swapping the bulb holders to the new lights, and slot the light into place. Rinse and repeat on the other side, give them a polish with some PlastX and that's the job done. They came up really well with a polish, and fit better than the old lights. Much better Nice and easy. I also gave the paint a quick going over with Bowden's Own, to get rid of more of the sunscreen on the paint. I was initially very sceptical about this, as it's well known how hard it is to remove sunscreen, but checking out reviews and Youtube videos of this stuff convinced me to give it a try. The difference to most other options is that this is oil-based and lifts the oil-based sunscreen out of the pores in the paint. Just over a month ago I gave it a quick test on a small spot that had some clear and obvious finger spots. Pour some on a microfibre, rub it into the paint and buff off. It's not rocket science. But sure enough, there was no trace left at all. And over a month later, there is still no trace. Despite what I've been told, I'm not an idiot, I know how bad sunscreen is for paint, but the results speak for themselves so far. If it lasts, awesome, if not, I'll try again. With that success in mind, I went around the rest of the car today and just spot polished where I could see sunscreen marks. The car looks a lot better now, with a more uniform shade of black. I still need to give it a clean and a proper machine polish and wax but that will come in time. The paint has a really nice flake, so should look great when polished.

Meet hunter #2.. This is the replacement to the RS legacy I had.. This o e is going to receive a cage, race seats, the 12a bridgey and other goodies.. The motor in this is a stock twin carb motor, that will go into the green hunter.. That'll complete the og hunter and get it usable again.

strip disc exposed the soft spots.. I need more dremel cutting wheels before attempting this one, as used last one the other day and forget to order during the day I lied, it wasn’t just the nose that rusted. for fox skates! Hate precision bonnet jobs. She’s had a wire wheel back and 2 coats of Brunox. I thought a round hole would be less likely to distort so used the step drill to open them up to fresh steel and zapped one weld at a time with a long cool down period in between. it worked, the important side is pretty flush and won’t need much aftercare. The brunox was a test, has a good name but haven’t used it before now. It’s all good, but doesn’t seem to go far and isn’t cheap. I’ve ordered some Fertan brand stuff to have a hoon on this time round, the inner of frame will be a great test for it. I got some front wheel bearings and 2L of 3M underbody Schutz for later on too. Stay tuned homos

I designed a device for you that bolts on to your pulley to stop it falling off and also supplied a scientific graph as I know how much you love them

Well that was never going to fix itself was it.. rust bomb with a lit fuse! Remember I said I spent ages with air and vacuum yesterday getting scale out? Missed a bit.. Thankfully the skin is 95% mint, it’s just the very front ‘nose’ section that’s let go. Plenty of hours in the frame though. I’ll clean it up and rust kill it and paint it then put the skin back on before I repair it so it doesn’t get out of shape.

Diff housing all primed and painted.

Trying to be sure I have the overall alignment right before further cutting. Pulled out the door lower wood piece and clamped it on. Looks OK I think? I'm a bit bothered by the way the reinforcing plate between the pillar and the floor is bent to less than 90 degrees.

Fucking dodgy wiring in that shit hole mate. Bikes shit too. <3

Built this for an old workmate who absolutely is the epitome of "everything is a hammer" so much so all torque wrenches got referred to as torque hammers on site. It still functions and will dampen shock if you adjust it down , pretty cool kind of dont want to give it to him.

This has been a bit of a sack. Blew a heater hose cos the coolant system was pressuring because the headgast was leaking. Then because of the blown hose i think the headgasket went properly and it started gushing collant out the radiator cap So today i replaced the headgasket. Was also lazy and didnt do the stem seals. Meh. Front brakes are also real grabby. Fuckin drum brakes Put some moreys in the motor to stop some of the smoke.... Also fitted a tach so i can see it doing 5000rpm at 100k Winning combo

so you know when you think its going to be a nice easy straightforward job..... oil cooler was mounted...all i had to o was put the oil sandwich plate on and run the lines.. i center bolt for the sandwich plate must have been put in a real safe place as i cant find it.....so after over nighting parts from Auckland i bolted the sandwich plate on ran the hoses and cut them to lengh...........then i put the inlet manifold on and it seems that all the IACV stuff is in the way and then so is the dizzy...there is next to no room under there now and also noticed that the dizzy housing is also touching the IACV ( will clearance that with the flapper disc) and it seems that if i turn the sandwich plate down it hits the block and no room..turn it to the back and the engine mount is in the way. so i thought about cutting and shutting the engine mount and then i remembered the rusty old parts wagon had some pinto mounts i had never seen before ...so out came the mount box and these are that mounts that came on the rusty wagon the problem area mount mount comparison and bingo......problem sorted......well that problem..i need to get ne hoses now as the ones i cut dont fit. on another note i made mounts for the radiator 9thats a 70mm dual pass rx2 rotary radiator). then pulled the oil cooler , intercooler and radiator and mounts out and gave them a nice clean paint. oil cooler in intercooler in radiator mounts in radiator in made a shroud for the 14" fan shroud and fan in now tha battary tray hits the inlet manifold no matter where i put it ..and luckily enough these came in right and left hand drive and the sides of the engine bay are the same ....so i moved it to the drivers side...trimmed a corner off to move it back a bit (dont worry about the booster as i dont have brakes yet but i am planning on cylinder bolted to the fire wall and run a remote booster) and the air filter.....i made a head shelf hole cut for filter adapter filter in had to trim the light bracket also had to clearance the grill for the filter and oil cooler works well ......cant see much at all unless you look hard intake pipe for the turbo and the engine bay is starting to look much fuller..just got to mount over flow tank and washer bottle and breather tank on the passneger side.

Bought this over Queen's birthday weekend, weather held out for the drive home but unfortunately it's pretty much rained ever since so I haven't got a lot of photos yet. Some photos from the listing: This is my third sierra wagon, still have one other one which has been off the road for over 10 years and will now donate a few parts. This one has the bonus of not having a sunroof. The sunroofs on these have a steel frame bonded to the glass and are extremely prone to rust. Saw a NOS sunroof sell on ebay a couple of years ago for over $1000 which is crazy. Used ones are either already rusty or the good ones being hoarded as replacements by people for when the sunroofs on their Cossies rust out, so really glad I don't have to worry about that with this one. This photo was taken during a lull in the weather once I'd got it home. This is actually the second time I've tried to buy this car, was up for sale about 4 years ago in Lower Hutt through a "trade clearance" car dealer. I had contacted the dealer but just didn't have the cash to make it happen at the time, mortgage, children etc. Suspected it was the same car but couldn't remember the plate, but had it confirmed when I went down and viewed it and the keyring was from the dealership. Older, retired guy had bought it back then as a bit of speculator investment, hoping it would appreciate in value like escorts have done recently. Had a good yarn to the guy, seemed a good sort. Had a '65 Mustang and a Morris Minor he and a mate had recently dragged out of a field and got going again. He was off on a rally the following day, hoping the Minor would hold up. Anyway, the Sierra, he'd originally listed it for over $10k! I know car prices have gone a bit nuts lately but found that a bit hard to swallow. Luckily, the price gradually dropped over several months until it was inline with what I could justify spending on it, just a little more than it sold for 4 years ago. It's reasonably tidy outside, got a few minor scrapes and dings about it but nothing major. Interior is very tidy. Been a few Sierras on here lately which is really good to see, @CPR's 3 door in particular really got me enthused again, definitely helped in confirming I did indeed want to go ahead and buy this car when it dropped into the right price range. Still waiting for an update on @R100's Sierra too In the short term, WOF is due at the end of the month. Let's see how that goes but I'm not expecting too many issues, maybe that's asking for trouble? I suspect the brakes are going to need some work, they feel pretty lousy. Once the WOF and any required work is done, will lower it and get it on some better wheels.

Diff head has been given the once over (steel plate type LSD 4.9 Ratio) bearings all good, pre-load checked, seals replaced. Once painted i will assemble the rear axle. Just need to rebuild the calipers...

Stick me down for 1 if there's any room left.

I use manganese bronze rod and gas. My frame joints look like his large fillets where he used the bigger rod. Never had one break - and they've been crashed too. They're mild steel tube and the big, softer fillet is a good match and won't crack. What is typical is the lack of mention of nickel bronze rods. They don't seem to be used in the US. Strength is a lot higher so a smaller fillet can be used. Where you're using high strength tube - like your CrMo tube - I'd use nickel bronze as the filler rod. It's a very good match for the material.

Shit yeah this is mean, bring around some scraps and ill give you a hand. You shouldnt need a pedal even though alot of people use them just use the right amperage and be more fussy on your torch angle. If your keen I have some tig brazing rods ive been wanting to use on a big project.

Did this this morning at work. Centre bearing was noisy and loose. Hilux centre with the crown housing bolted around it. Sorted Much quieter

The pink one looks alright

One part I neglected to address in my previous post about the driveshaft was the sliding yoke. It was seized, and no amount of pretending it wasn't was freeing it up. The sliding yoke sits at either end of the diff half of the drive shaft. Sometimes it's on the diff end of the shaft, or in my case, it's in the middle near the center bearing, depending on where BL felt like assembling it. Either way, it's a crucial part of the driveshaft. As the rear axle travels up and down in normal driving, the rear section of the driveshaft has to raise and lower with it. The problem is that the axle travels in an arc, which means the distance from the axle to the center hanger bearing increases and decreases slightly as it moves through its travel. To account for this change in distance, the driveshaft needs to be able to change length. This is done with the sliding yoke. Inside the yoke is a series of strong splines, which mate with another set of splines attached to the end of the driveshaft. This allows the shaft to transfer power through it via the splines, but also slide in and out to account for the movement. A cap, spring and seal stop the spline from coming all the way out. My yoke didn't slide at all. It was completely compressed at its shortest length and would not budge. I tried many things to free it up, including filling it with penetrating oil and hitting it with various hammers. Nothing. I even tried hanging it and seeing if gravity would free it up (it didn't). I tried a few other things with no luck, but the one thing I was lacking was tension on the spline. Hitting it to shock it was fine, but if there was no tension pulling the two halves apart then I was only going to get so far. So I had a brainwave (it hurt). Two ratchet straps and a very sturdy workbench later, I had this contraption I ratchet strapped each end of the shaft to a leg of the bench and put tension on the shaft. With one hand I grabbed the yoke and leaned back, putting even more tension on the shaft. With my other hand, I hit the flat of the driveshaft with a hammer. Sure enough, after a few hits, I saw movement and then with a POP it fully extended. I unscrewed the cap at this point, which reveals the cork seal and washer. The cork seal is known for being pretty chewed up and is unobtainable new now. Thankfully mine was in mint condition. And for the first time I could see the splines. The old grease was black and disgusting, and the splines had obvious signs of surface corrosion. One thing to make sure of is that both halves are clearly marked so it is reassembled in the same location. I scribed lines into the yoke and driveshaft and then marked it with a white paint pen. The spline isn't keyed, so can fit many different ways. The main thing to take care of is that the UJs are in phase, which means they both have to be in line with each other. With the spline removed it was time to get cleaning. All the old grease was cleaned off with brake cleaner and a toothbrush. Which revealed why it was seized together. All the teeth had surface rust to some degree. This was binding with the internal splines in the yoke. A good wiring brushing quickly got rid of most of it, showing the splines to be in good shape otherwise. The splines were then slathered in grease ready for reassembly. The internal splines in the yoke also got a good clean Once I was satisfied with the condition of the splines I packed the yoke with grease and slid the driveshaft back in. And wound the cap back down over the seal. A quick wipe to remove the grease ejected out the breather, and we're done. The joint slides freely so should do the job nicely. With that done, the driveshaft had been completely overhauled now and is finally 100% ready to go back in the car.

hi guys im doing a full restore of a ke35 i just picked up its missing a couple of parts i will need so if anyone has any or knows of any laying around please message me the parts are listed bellow main part is the dash panel that covers the gauges ... mine was stolen the drivers door trim that clips to top of the door beside the window and a boot lid with lock ..my lid is ok but missing the lock

Ooooooh yeahhhhhh

Brake master cylinder is cleaning up nice. Got a rebuild kit to go in. Trying to figure what intake to run. The potential performance advantage of the twin barrel car manifold over the single Solex 32 BIC is obvious But so is the size. Might rub on the cab. Fitting a different carb with the gubbins mostly facing the head would probably work too. Maybe later. Anyway, variations on the Solex BIC single carb was used in many small and medium cars from the 50s to the 70s, and much later in the third world so parts are plentiful (and cheap!) and so now have a 'Willys Jeep' full rebuild kit on the way so will start with keeping it originale.

It feels like it's been a huge uphill battle getting a working tacho in this car, but I think I have finally mastered it. Over the past few months, I have somehow ended up with a few different clusters, including two with the elusive tachometer module, and the one with the non-functioning clock I previously made a post about. The first three dial with tacho I bought from Trademe. It was the correct Aus cluster, with the lower 5500RPM redline, and a couple of other small differences as I would later find out. Eager to get the tacho in and working I started to dig around the wiring diagrams to work out what I needed to do. I had heard rumours that the wiring was already in the dash, behind the cluster, and sure enough, after some poking around, I noticed a white wire tucked away with a joiner in the middle of it. This tracked with what I was expecting to find based on the wiring diagrams. It was a big loop in the harness. I fished it out from behind the duct and unplugged it. A couple of quick checks and I was sure it was the coil trigger for the tacho. On the cars without tachos, this is just looped in the dash but needs to be connected or it cuts power to the coil. I guess it made it cheaper and easier, to just use the one harness. The back of the tacho unit has corresponding bullet terminals So I plugged it into the dash, and bam, nothing happened. Well, the alt/oil lights worked as they should, but the tacho was dead. I was a bit miffed Nothing more to do then but to get to disassembly and find out what's wrong. The tacho unit is held into its housing by a couple of screws through the back, and the fascia/glass in the front. This is what the module looks like removed. Having already googled "why does my Smiths RVI tacho not work" I could already see something was wrong. Those four holes in the foreground, under that red wire? Yeah, according to google there should be a transistor there, and it's crucial to the operation of the unit. The solder pads had clearly been messed with too. It looked like someone had desoldered the component with a blowtorch. I hit the seller up and asked if he knew why it's been molested, and he just pleaded ignorance and fobbed me off with a "oh well, it's an old part". I suspect the capacitor or transistor had failed at some point (which is common) and someone tried to fix it. Failing to have the right parts on hand or something, they just chucked it back together and set it aside. As fate would have it, a fellow classic car sufferer on a forum I'm on knew I'm suffering the Marina affliction and mentioned that he had come across some Marina bits as part of a garage clearout, and would I be interested in a cluster he found? Heck yeah I would! The legend donated this to the cause, so a huge Thank You. So, this was the second tacho cluster I have. It came in a tidy surround, but it was brown, not black. No issue, They are easy to swap, and I only really needed the guts. Differences to observe. The silver rings around the dials, instead of the black the Aus cars have, the 6000RPM redline on the tacho face (ignore the askew tacho, I had already started to disassemble it), and the different markings on the fuel and temp scales (0 instead of E, and adding the N to temp). One final difference I didn't notice initially, is the warning lights are different, with some either doing different functions, or in the case of the indicator telltale lamps, not there at all. The UK cars seem to use one single green light to show the indicator is on, whilst the Aus cars use the two spaces above the center dial as left and right signals. *removes anorak* Right, so this cluster. Excitedly I plugged it into the car, and we had some success. The tacho moved! But it barely exceeded 1000rpm when revving the engine. I think this one may have been suffering from the known issues Smiths RVI tachos suffer from (bad capacitors), but instead of messing around with the old inductive RVI style guts, I spent a hefty whack of cash on the Spiyda RVI-RVC conversion board. The original RVI tacho is current sensing, so it intercepts the power feed to the ignition coil, and by some wizardry senses the pulses and creates a signal for the tacho to output. The issue with this is apparently the tacho only works with points, and in the future I want the option of upgrading to electronic ignition without having to replace the tacho again, so it had to go. The Spiyda board removes all the existing guts from the tacho, and replaces it with a new board that reads the signal from the negative terminal on the coil (like 90% of tachometers). Heck, it can even be fed a signal from an ECU. It's pretty swish stuff. I stripped the second tacho out of the housing, and you can see the missing component of tacho one here; the silver can is a special transistor. I started with the guts of the first tacho since that one was dead in the water anyway. Spiyda has extensive instructions on its site, here, so follow those, but this is how I went about it. The first step is to remove the needle. You don't need to mark where the needle sits, just make sure the mechanism is against its stop when you refit the needle. To remove it I used an old business card with a notch cut in it, and a sturdy fork. The business card is to reduce the risk of damage to the face. A swift lever upwards popped the needle off. Two little screws secure the face. The kit comes with a tiny screwdriver to remove these. Now cut the power feed wire, and the two thin wires to the mechanism and remove the two screws holding the circuit to the frame. It should pull off the front. The new board then gets screwed in place Now solder the wires in their respective places (in my case the black and red wires had to be swapped). and you're ready for testing and calibrating. Now, I did make a mistake in the above photo. It turns out that the video I was following, made by Spiyda, was out of date, so you no longer calibrate the unit by putting the red clip onto the tacho feed (which I made from the old RVI tacho feed, by cutting a section off and soldering it to the board). Instead, you need to clip the red clip to the solder pad on the far right, closest to the big chip (on the other side of the board), or solder pad number 4. With 12v connected to the spade terminal on the back, the red clip on the solder pad and the black clip on the metal frame, it's time to calibrate. Now, this was a real ballache for me. In the end, I don't know why it suddenly started to work properly, or what I did differently, but it was chaos. The instruction and files to download for calibration are on the Spiyda site, here. Basically, you play a square wave audio file at a certain frequency through the cable at full volume. That frequency should correspond with a certain RPM reading on the tacho. Since I was using a low revving 4 cylinder engine, I used the 100 and 200hz files as this should read 3000rpm and 6000rpm on the tacho. I had various levels of success depending on what device I was using. My Macbook, no good. My phone, initially average. My windows based Dell tablet, good but with some issues. I could get it to read 3000rpm, but doubling the frequency would either make the needle drop or only increase by a small amount. There was also a big jump in the needle at the start and it kinda crept down. This Gif shows the issue I was having. This is the 100-200 sweep, where it starts at 100hz and then shifts to 200hz. You can see the 100hz once the needle settles down, but then when it changes to 200hz the needle drops to just under 2500RPM. I had been in contact with Spiyda support for a while, since even before calibration issues I had issues getting the unit to respond in the first place, and they had been very helpful in getting to where I was, with prompt replies, but then the support suddenly went cold and I heard nothing further from them. It even got to the point of stripping down the second tacho and seeing if the issues were limited to the first one; they weren't. I persisted with various things, and eventually I had great success using my phone. I don't know what changed, or why it worked now but didn't earlier, but suddenly I had 3000RPM at 100hz and 6000RPM at 200hz. It needed a small tweak of the calibration pot on the back, but it was rock solid. With much excitement, I rushed to the garage and reassembled it into its housing. And with a temporary wire run outside the car from the coil negative to the cluster, I fired the engine up. Nothing. *Sigh* And then I remembered there were options for the input. There was a high voltage and low voltage signal option. In hindsight, if I had paid attention initially I wouldn't have wired the input to the high voltage "sports coil" option, and should've used the "normal coil" option. Oops. It was easy to fix once I removed the guts from the cluster and moved the white wire one pad to the right. I reassembled the cluster and plugged it in. Success! I've run the car a couple of times since, and the tacho seems to be fairly accurate. It doesn't need to be 100% accurate, just within the ballpark is good enough, and better than Leyland would've done. It responds quickly and is very stable. I still need to run the tacho wire inside the car, but that's easy enough to do. I should probably fit the surround back on the gauges too since they are more or less done now.

Long time no update, but that doesn't mean that nothing has been happening. I've spent hours and hours trying various things to get my gear shift to the point where I am 100% happy. I've shelved the option of using electronic solenoids for now as it would just add an additional layer of complexity. I'm seriously contemplating changing over to a 4 speed auto if I can track one down. Just so that I can keep the interior looking stock with the column shifter. The same model HiAces that I got my engine from were equipped with a A44DL auto, but they are pretty thin on the ground over here in Straya. I go all excited the other day as our local wrecker got in an auto Townace, so I raced around for a look see. Unfortunately it is the newer generation A46DE which would again just complicate things. In other news, late last week I decided to take a break from the Thames, so cracked into stripping down my second donor HiAce. I've harvested just about everything of value. The back axle still needs to come off, but I'll do that once its on the rollback when the scrappy comes to fetch it next week.

I picked this up yesterday: Its mostly completely fucked... But it does still have the rear apron section which has completely rotted off mine. Unfortunately I think its too dinged up to cut off and use, but it will at least give me a pattern to make a new one.

I think we are gonna plan a lowkey coast mission for the same weekend just for a change

Back into the guts and gore then. Passengers side rear 1/4, rear of door. I thought this side was better but it’s all soft despite being present. Have noticed a few things I’ll have to tweak on the side I’ve already done after seeing the complete area

Hoist.... Engage Finally got the hoist up and running, built a tyre rack. Looked under the car, she is mint as under there, not a hint of rust.. 50 years of British oil leaks did its trick

WOF passed, just a mention of a chip in the windscreen out of the drivers vision area, and the cracked fog light lens (which still passes because its not letting moisture in). Great success. Also got sick of the guard rub from the RH Rear, so jacked the rear of the car up and had a look. Found a clean spot on the inner lip where it had been rubbing, so took a small sledgehammer to the lip and hammered it in a bit. No more rubbing, so now I can drive the car harder, like it was built for. Next on the list is to replace the clock spring so I can fit my 3 spoke steering wheel, and replace and rekey the ignition barrel since the previous owner made a mess of it somehow.

The crates left LA on 7 September 2020, but didn't arrive in Auckland until 30 September, then down to Wellington by mid-October where I had to pay the shipping and taxes (ouch) Just managed to squeeze them into the Poojero for the trip home. They were very well packed. The smallest crate was assorted parts the middle one had the door pieces, even signed

It was a long process, we confirmed the order in September 2019. The framing is maple and the insert plywood is mahogany veneer. Also included a full set of the interior panels also in mahogany ply. These pics are from April 2020 which was of course Covid Time. I'd also bought a few necessary parts from Rick, and others from Tom Fritz (https://www.ccrod.com/home.htm). Got some new repro sill plates from https://cgfordparts.com/. These parts were all shipped to Rick in Tacoma who crated them up for me along with the wood parts. I arranged the shipping with Mainfreight / Kiwi Shipping including the Tacoma WA to Garden CA leg. They left Tacoma on 22 July 2020.

Been pottering away on this most weekends and stripped down engine etc. Block is at Parker's getting a measure and clean alongside the heads getting a skim and tidy up, Voldo is grinding the cam, I have bought new gaskets and roller lifters etc out of the US. As usual didn't take many photos. I did take my new headers to the blasters to take off the factory crappy paint and today I applied 2 good coats of VHT flame proof ceramic header paint. Will chuck on another coat next weekend. Between coats I chucked down a bit of sound deadening in the front. As an unfit mid 40 year old Rottweiler, that shit is hard work. Me arms are ready to fall off. LoL Pics for effect. Dunno, might delete later. Also, the keen eyed might notice the motor in the ground fully assembled, that's my old motor. New motor is in the works. Winkface.

I also paid $50 for Fairmont Ghia speedo (usually $200 plus) as this has the rev counter where my povo pack Falcon only came with an “Econo Gauge” which appears to work on vacuum when you plant your foot and shows you how uneconomical your driving is. What a great invention that was I gave the speedo a but of a clean up too and it's ready to be put in.

Bit of catching up to do... Bit of a road trip back in September to pick up a running 49 Mercury flathead. The Mercury engine is 255 cubes (stroked crank) and 110hp compared to the lowly Ford at 239 cubes and 100hp. It is stock as far as I know, except for the triple 94's on an Edelbrock manifold with dodgy air filters. It came from a 49 Mercury where the owner had already had a newly rebuilt C4 auto adapted (in NZ) and converted to 12V but was being pulled to be replaced by a Windsor 302 (or similar)

Big progress today. Now I need to figure out the drive system. I am planning on running an idler shaft down where the air conditioning compressor would be. This is necessary as the supercharger drive flange is positioned well behind the crank pulley. With this set up I will be running the supercharger via two drive belts but it seems like the most practical solution and will also avoid clearance issues when the distributor is reinstalled. Right now I am liking the look of this.

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.

First of the rear pillars done - the other side is much worse sadly.

Here you go @MaxPower The front springs were just a little loose with the car jacked so I made them secure the oldschool way with some locking wire.

Engine and box is mounted. Does need to come back out so I can chop off the factory mounts, thump in some clearance for the fork and slave 10mm if that. And remove the reverse switch. And believe it or not, the hunter gearbox mount bolts directly to the rx7 box. No mods at all on the gearbox crossmember or mount. Dafuq..??? Rx7 radiator practically bolts directly to the hunter bolt holes too. Just need to cut 100mm of the shifter hole out and spin it round.. Too easy. I would like to space the crossmember down 10mm to see if it gives enough clearance for the slave, and a slightly better yoke angle.

So trans started slipping really bad and mad some pretty awful noises. Feared the worst. Turns out filter was blocked. New filter and she shifts like new. Got filter and atf all wraped up sat morning so took for a spin out to ouruhia domain for monthly meet. Ft overly photogenic @- i5oogt -