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Ha, you already said that a few posts back, you silly goose VG. So I welded a nipple in the thing, Then I put a temporary tap on the plenum drain just in case, I took it out for a blast, and it ran beautifully, and now the breather air is filtered, so sand shan't be a problem anymore. I blasted around for ages, but got a bit carried away on a very rough section of road, and ended up bottoming out the back suspension very badly a few times in quick succession. Like tasting blood bad. And then a few moments later it started flooding again, so I guess a carb didn't enjoy the bashing. Yet to pull them off, but confident it won't be sand related this time. I also completely lost my mind, and purchased a friggen CBR1000RR engine!!!?!?!! So I'm going from 85hp @ 11000rpm & 53nm @8000 up to 172hp @ 11250rpm & 115nm @8500rpm, shits going to be whack. I have also listed this bad boy on TM, just to see what happens.

Have been a bit slack on working on this but have word the tailgate is almost done. As much of the bottom straightened as possible and then some filler to sort the rest. Purchased an old fiberglass fixed back to run in this as a bit of a tester to see how bad the shipping prices from Japan are for them. Who is Alex? I'm not sure but I have a vague memory of flicking through catalogue pages and seeing the name so went for a sift this afternoon. Listed in 1989 CARBOY sports tuning guide from Japan is the 'Mr Alex' fixed seat for ¥28000 Also found my old Bride reclineable which I didn't think was an original upholstery at the time

Working on Sundays. It's exhausting work. So I decided to pull the headers and make them tuck in a bit more. This has given the steering arm an extra 15mm clearance. I wasn't happy with 10mm clearance. Then set about making the rest, to include a flexi and 2 three bolt flanges. I have 2 cotton reel mounts in there at the moment and a hanger on the dumpy. About to make a 3rd cotton reel mount for just behind the resonator/flange to carry that load. Then I'll drop it all, finish the top welds and then spray it in high temp paint. I'm pretty chuffed with it so far, will also check for knocking and clearence issues, but so far it all looks good.

The ol girl realy punched over her weight at syds run. 2hr delay at ferry long day from palmerston north to christchurch. Bike had no issues just cleaned the plug half way thru cant really b happier with it. Now ill go home pull down and make her abit nicer roundbthe edges

So what everyone has actually being waiting for, the final comparison between Toyota Altezza RS200 3SGE BEAMS and a Honda Accord Euro R K20a engine in the same chassis Still trying to get my hands on a single dyno sheet with the 2 different engines on it. So this will have to do. Modifications/Setup Toyota Altezza RS200 3SGE: 120,000 k's SQ Engineering Quad Throttle adapter plate 4AGE Blacktop throttles 70mm trumpets Combined Piper Cross Filter Stock Injectors SQ Engineering Slim line alternator (smaller Echo alternator) No Power Steering pump or AC Custom header (TRD Copy) to side exit exhaust 2.5" Adrenaline R muffler Link G4+ Storm (Blue) Engine internally stock Lightened flywheel HD Exedy Clutch J160 Gearbox 3" Driveshaft with sliding yoke into gearbox Oil: Castrol 5w40 Rev Limit: 8000rpm Dynoed in 5th gear 1:1. Honda Accord Euro R K20a: 108,000 k's Skunk 2 Ultra Street Intake Manifold 770cc FIC injectors Skunk 2 74mm Throttle Body. 3" intake pipe from pod filter. Custom header to side exit exhaust 2.5" Adrenaline R muffler Stock water pump replaced with EWP Alternator replaced with smaller Honda D15 one. No Power Steering pump or AC Stock Oil Pump and Balance Shafts replaced with ported Type S oil pump. New Timing chain Lightened flywheel HD Exedy Clutch Link G4X XtremeX Honda S2000 AP1 Gearbox 3" Driveshaft with sliding yoke built into shaft as gearbox has flange VTEC 4500rpm Oil: Castrol 5w40 Rev Limit: 9000rpm Dynoed in 5th Gear 1: 0.94076 Same: Tires 54cm Michelin Slicks at 21 PSI, on same Rims Same AE86 Diff (Brakes were changed from stock to AP with knock back) 4.5555 Crown wheel and Pinion. Same Dyno Different: Dyno retarders have changed from 110v to 220v. Results 3SGE : 201hp @7250rpm 173.6 lbft @5150rpm K20a: 206HP @8250rpm 167.9lbft @5300rpm Thoughts I'm a little bit disappointed in final figure, but I think my expectations were to high. You have to take all the HP figures that everyone posts with a grain of salt. Especially anything from the UK who like to give made up flywheel figures when they dyno there cars on a rolling road... Changing from a front wheel drive to rear wheel drive setup definitely has more drivetrain loss, from what I've read a factory stock S2000 AP1 with 240/250hp at the flywheel dynos 200hp at the wheels. Also a lot of people show "stock internals" figures which include changing cams etc. So the power figure is in the right ballpark really for the modifications (stock K20a has 220ps at flywheel) as rear wheel drive. Looking at some of the NZ figures I have seen, the engine would probably get quite a gain (20 to 30hp) from a set of drop in cams (no other valve train changes) But if you ignore the single figure and look at the dyno sheet it pretty much makes 200hp from 6700 rpm all the way to 8700 rpm which is a very significant power band. So overall, it's a good improvement. Shakedown So I then got it out to the track and managed 4 laps before the gearbox lost most of it's oil when a bolt came loose. Luckily I was going fairly slowly so no internal damage done hopefully. However a bigger issue is a massive driveline vibration. Plan A: Driveshaft is getting balanced at 5000 rpm (it does 9500 rpm in 6th) Plan B: CV Front joint on the same shaft, or a replacement driveshaft. Driveshaft is to short to go 2 piece and we think the angle of the engine and gearbox is impacting the universal joints. However aftermarket CV joints for these are supposedly not very good. So currently looking at options. Car definitely felt like it was pulling really hard, but with so few laps, and me just making sure everything was working, not a good indication of final result. Videos: First 2 Laps: Second 2 Laps (where it dropped the oil): Flyby (Potato Cam):

Chucked the diff back in a while back, fresh black makes everything else look worse. Had a bit of a splurge on ebay, got a NOS Pirelli windscreen rubber, which means i can cut the old one off eventually a NOS Sipea ignition switch a replacement (not NOS but made in Italy) passenger side mirror some NOS tail lights lenses for the 125p ute Ignition switch came with a nice note Thanks Hans, Installed, so van finally has some keys Also got this parts catalogue, good for practicing the italian, french and german But full of great diagrams like this, which has already proved invaluable taking a few things apart, and putting them back together. Also broke my crawler with the diff so that got new base wood - used some random ply that would result in the least waste - tuned out fancy!

With the rear suspension done, and reinstalled the handbrake cable, i started to unpick the front end. I want to clean all the greasy dirt that is still caked on everything (and has actually done pretty well at preserving stuff) and then i can clean, paint, regrease and reassemble. Im very pleased to say, the rust is all on the 'outside' of the van in the panels, and not the chassis structure. Took all the brakelines off first, including the lines from the reservoirs (they are up behind the drivers seat) to make later, they all unscrewed easy. I didnt have the right spring compressor so just used the jack under the lower control arm but i think ill need one for putting it back together! Some before and afters Drivers side after dropping the wishbones out, and then after a scrape and waterblast Same area immediately after dropping the suspension and after a scrape and a waterblast. The light brown is a mix of oil, grease and road dust that is anything from 1mm to 20mm thick. Usually clean paint or metal under it, so could be worse! Only surface rust really is where the greasy smeg wasnt - a lot of cleany shiny metal where the paint came off with the waterblaster. This pic show where one of the main bolts comes thought, the inside of the rail is minty mint mint The two wishbone assemblies and the steering rack. ALL of the tie rod ends! One of the suspension assemblies, give a good idea of the crust on everything. Ive water blasted under the van about 10 times. After a clean, still has factory (?) shim count stamps . I got some new CRC degreaser for the parts washer, stuff is magic, seems to have a slight derusting action too. The gear change linkages came lovely, and have no discernable wear which is another sign of low milage Pretty sure these would have been factory fitted (CKD built by Torino Motors in Otahuhu), but cant believe how clean they came up! Pretty sure thats a manufacturing date stamp, which also makes me think this van is also a later (66 on) one. I re-found this service sticker that was in the cubby in the van that i thought id lost put somewhere for safekeeping . Along with the Kelso address painted on the Hubcaps, I reckon she is a Southland Van Place is still going Im going to get some paint made up soon (i have lost my paint swatch) so i can make a start respraying the shock mounts and engine bay etc before bolting everything back in. Still a lot of cleaning and stuff to do first. Head is off at the machine shop getting looked at, and i have the rims in the back of the daily to get the tyres stripped and then off to the sandblaster, so progress is continuing.

A huge update for the car, but a shitty update when I try and write about it. theres only so many pictures you can take of an axle. I had the 3.54 gears and blackline Lsd sitting in the house since august. the supply chain is wrecked as we all know. so I had brake shoes, springs and wheel cylinders brand new ordered but they never arrived. got all the way to Auckland, sat there for 3 weeks then got sent back to the uk. go figure. so I fitted the old shoes, used a mixture of the best springs and clips I could make of the 2 sets and bought wheel cylinders again. I pressed new bearings onto the axles and bolted it all together. I just needed to get it done the old diff was knackered. I took the car out today to a motorkhana with a mate with the MG club today. had great fun and it was also a great test of the car, suspension and diff etc and I got a few hrs cruising to tweak the carbs and keep an eye on the wideband. I need to do more research. when the car runs best it reads about 12.8 cruising and 12.2 on full throttle. from what I've read so far that's too lean but I need way more reading up on it. anyway.. few pics. old new.

So the week before last I decided to do something about it. Looked through my pile of scrap and left over building materials and proceed to build a little storage shed which is right next to the pool. It's cunningly disguised to look like the fence that I built a few years back.

Before and after..

Bloody hell, the saga of these door handles! Definitely could have just bought a new set... I've saved a bit of money this way, but invested a heap of time in its place... Still, every part has a story, its something you touch every time you use the car, and this set is even better than a new set now with the aluminium cast handles instead of the factory plastic pieces. I got a local company to powdercoat the handles, and they did a pretty average job TBH. They said they'd re-coat them, but after waiting a month without that happening, I gave up and just collected them. The coat was so thick in places I couldn't assemble them without cutting bits of it away, and the finish was pretty rubbish... I re-blasted them to get it all off and was back to where I started. After watching a couple of youtube videos (to become an expert in the subject, as we all know that's what youtube is for...) I purchased Eastwoods DIY powercoating setup and some semi-gloss black powder. Wow, this is one of those rare occasions where the reality was actually as easy as it looked on youtube, and the outcome surpassed what I was expecting. Easy process, nice and clean, and super durable finish in exactly the right colour / gloss level to match the factory parts. Handles there ready for final assembly, with some other bits I've got on the boil. I made some better rubber stoppers to set the handle height correctly when the doors are closed. These are 16mm diameter m4 threaded rubber equipment feet that I trimmed down, chucked up in a drill and linished to about 2mm thick, while spinning them in the drill to keep things even. Time will tell if they're up to the task, but this thing will never be a daily again, so I think they'll be okay. Then assembly is simply the reverse of disassembly, with the addition of an m4 flat washer as a shim. Just to the right of the 'B' clamp there. Kind of a pain to get into place, but it removes all the play in the system. All the moving parts got a smear of grease so keep things smooth. You can see the stopper bolts there, but they're not engaged when the handles are fully closed, so are doing nothing whatsoever. With the larger diameter stoppers, the handles close down onto them properly. The original ones seem to small to really do much. One of them was missing on this handle set, and the other was pretty thin. Voila! What a faff for a set of door handles.... But dayum, they do look fine :-). I've blasted all the lock housings, but I need to take the tumblers from the original set so the car is keyed the same all around. Future job, these can get wrapped up and put away in the wardrobe for now. Back onto things the car actually need to run... maybe... I'll probably get distracted by something shiny ;-).

So legal size tyres that aren't race tyres don't appear to exist so I'll get some 195 stretched onto the teddies. I'll swap my re003 off the buddy clubs onto them as there's no point in them sitting in the lockup doing zero. On my pick a part mission i grabbed some components. Finally got around to installing them into the accord Annoyingly it sounds better than the stuff in the orthia. That amp sounded crap before so it could be my settings or the amp is just shit. I've got another couple of amps to try so that'll future Chris problem

Now the back of the van looks decidedly spacious. And that's my excuse for not having worked on the Thames for the last few weeks.

Over time the poor old Thames has turned into a bit of a storage shed the biggest items being our pool loungers which is a pain in the arse. Being red there is just no way that we can leave them out in the elements, so muggins here has to lug them out and back in every time we feel like lying by the pool.

Cert achieved! Next step is to make the exhaust a little quieter and then get a wof

In a effort to reduce future oil leaks, I wanted to improve the crankcase ventilation. There are a million opinions on this, so I've pretty much gone with the old school factory baffled oil filler and vented valve covers, which will be plumbed up to a catch can. Found some old air connecters, cut them up and welded them in. Had been wanting to do this forever. Unsure of the grey. Had to make this to screw in the big interior nut that holds the filler on. gunna kill me the first time I slide the bale's up and scratch that paint!

I have just discovered this thread - amazing. Alarmingly though, I’ve done a quick google, and i suspect there’s a body of water between me and the fun? That ain’t no ford haha. I’m going to start planting the seed to try and be there for 2022. I’m somewhat reliant on @anglia4 coming to look after me as I’ve proven many times I’m otherwise incompetent. I got lost dropping the kids to school last week and my 5yo daughter had to give me directions.

After I got my VVTI angles sorted, and the fuel map dialled in, everything seemed good - but it wasnt... Airflow was obviously up, fuel was right, why was it feeling sluggy and shit? I thought I might be imagining things, because everything looked good in ECU. But did some virtual dyno'ing to check. Confirmed I seem to have lost about 15hp pretty much everywhere. Did some basic troubleshooting, nothing seemed amiss with spark, etc. I thought maybe the tyres were getting flat so pumped them up. The motor also smells oily, but no visible leaks anywhere? Then I had a thought... ohhh.... I check the dipstick - yep I'd managed to overfill the engine with oil probably by about 2 litres haha. I forget these tiny engines take hardly any oil. I thought it would have been underfilled with the amount I put in, so didnt check because I am an idiot. Must have been absolutely beating the piss out of the crank to lose that much hp from windage. But now it's running good again after draining it. I might see if I can advance it 1 more tooth on the chain without hitting anything, but this will likely be reaaalll close. The fuel map currently looks like this, could definitely rev out some more if I put on my brave pants stupid hat

The seats came our easily, plan is to keep them looking scruffy and original. The leather is cracked and dry - any suggestions on how we should be treat it will be much appreciated by both Rigamortice and yours truly. Love the old leather, the kapok stuffing, the springs and the wooden frame – not a modern staple in sight.

@cletus What are the chances that one could build something like this and make it road legal in NZ.... If the builder were to do all the obvious cert things like the suspension arms are crack tested, bump steer is dialled out etc etc

Painted one strut in the ( almost ) correct colour. It's a British Leyland colour called Tahiti Blue. The closest to the factory Bilstein blue there is.

Wow

Found this rear sway bar on trade me. Vw never had a sway bar on the early cars. By 63 mine at least came with a front bar, but with little weight on the front, and all the weight in the ass, I always felt the car cornered better without it, sure it rolled more, in any case I still don't have one. This is a K-Mak vintage thing. It clamps onto the rear chassis frame horns and the ends mount to the lower shock bolts. All the fiddly bits went for a swim in the viniger.

since last time: Attached the bee to the rear garnish Sprayed the inner ridge of the grilles and touched up the wee slats between the ridge and the edge with black again attached NOS bee to hood Not much else really, still waiting in the queue for repair cert.

I decided I wanted a bigger bike, I'd been going over all sorts of different options for ages but ended up leaning towards something japanese and reliable I went into a harley dealer once but felt weird, like when your aunty sees you walk out of an adult video store Thanks to @MACKAZ for having a look at it for me , it was in whangarei so I got biketranz to deliver it Pretty happy with it, I always find it interesting to see how the type of vehicle it is, influences how you ride/drive it. I thought a big bike may encourage riding like a diddle and going 1 million kph everywhere but this is the opposite, because it's so smooth and torquey it's quite happy bumbling around at the speed limit, whereas DRZ kind of ends up brappp everywhere because it's not very smooth at lower rpm It's about as exciting to look at as a mid 00s camry though so I'll do some cosmetic stuff so it doesn't look like I'm on my way to a Ulysses club run

So I've been pining some wheels for a long time now, I found a set in America that had some on s a pre order. covid delayed shipping etc etc. Shop never replied to any communications (lucky I never gave them any money. I found another set on aliexpress but couldn't justify the freight. Nearly gave up on the pine then they popped up on trademe. Mrs Chrisr said I wouldn't shut the fuck up about them so I should get them. So I did

Syds run prep.... Got givn parts for my nf75. In napier so thought was good opitunity to take this contraption on a decent test... Ran from one end of napier to the other. Then threw into car droped of at the bottom of te mata peak. And road up...... she actually climbed up like a champ didnt even strugle pretty impressed.

Buy a bit of this for old leather, works a treat on boots. https://www.saddlerywarehouse.co.nz/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1050

And just to add, Feeling sorry for Red "The concrete mixer", so it'll probably get a rebuild shortly too, then We'll start attacking some some of their looks. Pic of Kempy Jr. enjoying his first ever motorbike ride, you kinda get the feeling he was enjoying it once he mastered the clutch.

In theory, yes. I can't think of anything like minimum dimensions or things like that that would prevent you from being able to do it However there's probably a lot of things that may trip you up, and make it a lot more challenging to build than a "normal" size car You would want to do a concept approval first before you start to make sure there are no legal issues with building something that small I doubt a Chinese made quad bike frame would get through cert, so you'd probably have to start from scratch there Because it would be registered as a new car, it would need things like a lap diagonal seatbelt, so it would need a suitable structure to mount it off, then you need to allow for interior impact zones, so that might dictate how small it can be internally tyres would need to be suitable for road/ car use and load rating, so you might be limited to what is available like 10" mini tyres? This is by no means a complete list of potential issues, just things that come to mind off the top of my head And at the end of it, it would still cost a similar amount to cert it as any other scratch built vehicle so there's a fairly high 'entry cost' despite the rest of the car being cheap to build There was a guy who tried for ages to get a quad bike legal that had been built from a wrx. From memory, the biggest stumbling block was , 4 wheels= ma class, car. So has to have a round steering wheel, and lap diagonal belts. Both of which change the whole look and design of the vehicle

I do love how much effort you put into a door handle! I'm expecting similar amounts of OCD in the engine itself too thanks

Nah. It's only a little smoke and isn't using any oil noticeably. After years of it being a project I'm happy for it to just work. When it finally throws a leg out of bed it'll be a good excuse to put in a diesel truck engine like I've always wanted to do. I'm just sick of it being a project. Plus whilst I'm building a cabin it it better than a box trailer.

Fan shrouds turn. Noice.

Now these are the lower tins that wrap under the engine and direct the air under and out the rear of the car. These are OG old-school vw parts. After paint stripping, they had a lot of bad surface rust, cracks and thing broken off. One of my favorite things about this never ending project is learning and trying new things. So the tin got a couple days soaking in white vinegar. Did my best with what I had to hand, check out the high tide line. And then after a wee swim in a baking powder solution to neutralise the acidic vinegar, gave them a good hoon on the wire wheel, shit looks good as new!

Spent an inordinate amount of time fettling the cylinder tin. These are shitty aftermarket parts like the fan shroud, and have never fitted anything very well. The tin on a vw engine is ducting for the cooling system. So poorly fitted tin is like having heaps of water leaking out of a engine. The big manifolds were always a struggle to fit, more fettling. The factory manifold preheating pipe holes were welded up years ago, Made a start on deleting the last remnant of the heater system as well as adding 5mm hear and there to close up the gaps between the cylinder tin and the rear plate. For some reason the 1-2 side tin doesn't even closely follow the shape of the fan shroud, But 3-4 was almost perfect? Removing the heater pipes is going to declutter the engine bay so much, love a nice simple looking motor.

And then the dreaded delta lockdown of 2021 happened a few days later. Dun dun duuuuun. I've gotten pretty good at removing the engine now, super glad I made that rear valance removable! Decided as I couldn't do much else, I'll use the time in lockdown to tidy up the old tinwear. The layer of black came off easy, but the 20 year old vht engine enamel, not so much. Got through in the end, nothing but time and pressure, just like Andy Dufresne. Sprayed it satin black to stop it rusting, kinda like it, might satin the tin instead of gloss black, that's how they were factory.

How it started. How it ended.

Had a bit of a crawl around under the old girl. No issues with rust in the floor pan above the diff, good old Pommy “self-lubrication”! I did however spot some rust where the body is bolted to the chassis, the black shiny stuff is under seal from some years back. I can’t complain, this is the first time the body’s been off the chassis in 70 plus years. Looks like I’ll have to bite the bullet and flip the body on to its side. First job is to remove the gas tank…..lots of baked on crud. Couldn’t believe the gas tank was only held in with tech screws! I suppose in 1947 after WW2 all fittings and hardware were at a premium.

Oooh what have we here? Postie brings stuff. I wonder what’s in it? If I was a maladjusted human I would make an unboxing video for youtube. Er, I am maladjusted but in a different way…anyhoo. VOILA! I think they were on Trademe for a few minutes tops til I stabbed the buy now so hard I almost punched a hole in the ipad. Good price for some very tidy carbs. Such fun!

Those pics were shot for this. It was a compromised shoot, as it was during L4 lockdown and I'm not totally chuffed on the photo results but here we are. I'm a bit embarrassed about it, there's a handful of other cars in the issue that probably should have been cover, instead of a lower cost lower power KP Starlet. But buy it if you feel like you'd be interested in reading the story, I tried my best to get the point across that I didn't really do anything on this car, I just made a bunch of decisions and was lucky enough to have a small group of very talented friends who sacrificed their own time to help me put this thing together. 20211019_154109-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr So, 6-ish weeks ago I took this in to see @cletusfor it's cert as mentioned above, and have been working towards attaining this. Overall, the initial check went pretty well, and was a good example of why you should probbaly talk to your cert guy prior to undertaking any sort of project of magnitude. In the interests of transparency and maybe helping other people, it failed on the following: Tyre rub on all four corners (fitted the Star Brights for cert and they're just a shade too wide at 6.5J -2 with a 185) - new set of 14x6J -10 SSR Longchamps XR-4 fitted Skid plate required for modified or custom fuel tank as it's less than 200mm from the ground - sheeper helped out and we've knocked up a little skid plate to cover A few extra fuel and brake line clips required - ew yuck I had to drill holes for rivnuts Return spring required on brake pedal - small bracket made up to fit a spring that goes to a small hole drilled in brake pedal webbing 2 of the 6xM6 bolts in the Recaro bases were missing so needed to replace those - bolts installed Seat rails to floor adaptor M8 bolts required nyloc nuts in lieu of threaded plate - nuts installed Heatshielding required for fuel line on diff (close to exhaust at droop) - DEI heatshield sleeve added to the diff, really neat velcro-baced split sleeve that makes life easy Camber to be corrected to maximum of -1.5 degrees - realigned by old mate Kieran to comply Right rear shock just fouling on 4-link bracket - bracket clearanced with ye olde flapdisk and repainted Trim adjustable platform threads on diff to allow bump stop to contact properly - again, ye olde flapdisk came to the party Here she is on her cert feet which are yet to be restored and shinied up, I've also given my stock KP fender mirrors a lick of factory charcoal and reinstated these. 20211107_195603-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Recheck is tomorrow so wish me luck.

Nearly finished. The sillyness is quite pleasing

With the differential out time for a dismantle and clean up Axles removed, can you guess which side came out easy and which side was a real bastard? However, this is the rusty side after a bit of a soak in some kero. it still had a gritty feeling even after being regreased probably pits in the bearing rollers from sitting in rusty grease, i hummed and hawed because the bearings are over $100 each and its not really mission critical, but ive decided Ill replace this rusty bearing while ive got it out, and because pulling the brakes and stuff off is such a pain in the dick on the van and im thinking of future me - however, the other side feels much nicer so it can stay. For reference, this is a RIV 9632 which is 35x72x27, which cross references to a 3207 bearing. Outer axle seals are 48x62x10, but thats an uncommon size so ive ordered 2x 48x62x8, as a bonus that puts the seal on a different part of the shaft, which is part of the hub Diff head off and cleaned up and repainted. Marked the pinion nut and pinion with a punch, installed the new seal (38x70x10/13) Another odd one, but is common across the 1100-1500-2300 family so had one already Other than dirty oil the inside was really good, hardly any wear nothing busted or chipped, and there anything i wouldn't have expected on the magnet. Diff is 43/7 ratio or 1:6.14 which is i guess how they managed to have the original 38hp 1100cc powered vans, a '1 ton' load rating! The 0-60ft times will be good, hah! Brake backing plates after a soak in teh parts cleaner and a quick sand blast Evaporust Paint Just evaporust on the patented (bevettato) 'AXIBLOCK' by RIV - magic stuff. Dug some likely candidates for replacing the rear shocks out of the stash. Ive already swapped the lower eye rubbers and bushes over, but did need to swap the upper pins for the eyes off the old ones. And a nice box of clean, replaced or repaired, repainted and thread chased bits to go back on OLD GROSSNESS NEW HOTNESS I did a quick experiment, rust converter and use up some not quite right coloured spray can just to see if some colour made it look better, and yep, sure does! I want to figure out a way to knock the surface rust/hard dirt/dry grease back without taking off the factory texture coating i have a few attachments on the grinder to try, but not looking forward to the days underneath that will be needed to do even a half ass job tbh Sand blasting is probably the way, but i dont really want to have it done in the driveway (can this even happen?), and cant really move it with everything off out of the way. Any idea on cost or not to dos from those that have undeside sandblasting done before?

Helicoil porn

I think this thread is due an update. Let's do it multi-part. If you look at the top of this page, you'll see where I got to with trying to have my tail light surrounds vacuum metalised. A bit of a stalemate in trying to find somewhere to restore the chrome on them. I ended up deciding to look in Aussie and found a place called A Class Metal Finishers, south of Adelaide, who said they could rechrome the ABS plastic. No one I could find in NZ told me that they could do this, or if they could, that they could guarantee it would work. A Class said no problem. I sent over 2 sets of surrounds, they chose the best ones and put them through a full rechroming process, similar to what would have been done at the factory. And I am very happy with the result. These pictures do not do them justice. I actually think these might be better than from the factory - they feel about 25% heavier than the ones I sent away! Now they just need to be repainted in the right places and I'll be ready to start cleaning up the lenses and other bits of the tail lights.

Lowered the front yesterday Waiting on 2" blocks for the rear to level it out. Found the voltage regulator way up by the wipers yesterday so need to figure out how to make a bypass loom in place of it

"question is, how far do I go with this?" Dunno how far to go, but something like this would be a good start at least https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/car-parts-accessories/volkswagen/new-listing/3133906103

Siiiik my mate who i scored the frame from actually found its original plate prety pumped. Ive also put on a k and n filter Rejetted carb Going real solid now feels good on decnt rides. Gona put tail light on and go down to Christchurch for syds run. Chosen this over the others purely cause how low it is. Fits in my wagon no fuss at all. Were the other require taking bits off. This one slides in.

Phil is now one of those blokes, Who's quite sick of my mitsi jokes. He saw no potential, in fully sequential, As fuel isnt why his car smokes.