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wof reg and cert done.

Mandatory stickers. Follow our shit adventures.

And of course did a mandatory park up at Tahuna Beach. So far so good. The NX Trans is giving issues. Sometimes it wants to go into overdrive, sometimes it won't. Trans is getting pretty warm so we were up til midnight fitting another Trans cooler to it. Fingers crossed we have more luck today!

Oh yeah, we made it to Nelson...

I'm still plugging away at the new radiator and a/c condenser install. I ended up sourcing a 23" x 14" condenser. It's a bit shorter than the new radiator, but the next available size was 25" x 14" which would have been way too big for my current opening. I've mounted the condenser as far left as possible for two reasons. First up it was easier to run the a/c lines this way as I didn't want them rubbing on the new radiator core. Secondly, I figured with the radiator inlet and outlet both being on the right-hand side and the radiator therefore having a natural tendency to push a higher percentage of the coolant up this side of the radiator it made sense to have the unrestricted airflow on this side. I don't really know if this will help, but hey ... it is what it is. With the condenser test fitted I made some templates for the two additional mounting brackets required and I also carved a little filler panel to cover the old a/c hose holes. Figured I'd refresh the front panel whilst I have the grill and valance off, so that is looking a lot neater now. A few "in progress" photos:

I thought I had done the form but not on the list so obv not! Done now. Blizzo is a yes in case he doesn't actually enter. Trust us to pick the one weekend it's due to piss down, again! Chur, bring on the nangs! P.s. bike build started last night - be all good, right?!

I’ll just leave this here… After toying with the injection idea I just couldn’t do it. picked up a pair of mikunis, slapped them on, hooked up the fuel line that was already there. found a wiring diagram for using the stock dizzy with a bim024 type module. found that the wiring I paid an auto sparky to do last year is cactus, so hotwired the module for now, pump isn’t running, great. got spark. Wouldn’t fire off tdc, so figured the module may have advanced it by up to 30degrees. Guesstimated that on the pulley. And pop goes the weasel. only ran it for this long. now can sort the wiring so shit works, finish a few other bits. order up a ae86 radiator. but holy shizzlnut, it’s way quieter lol

I'm not sure I've ever been less prepared for anything. I've never ridden my bike. I own exclusively leather riding gear. I haven't even grown a mustache yet. ... and the Mrs has already put up our Christmas tree.

Did some dyno runs..

All off now, bit faster on the second side as I knew what I was doing. There's a fair bit of sticky sealer on the body side, not sure that all that is necessary, will do some research before it goes back together. First side has been been stripped using a heat gun and given an initial DA sanding. I need to go over them again and check the details, then go down a couple of grit levels to 240 or so.

In prep for my bucket seats, I ordered the bloody bracket that I was loathed to pay for. it sits over the trans tunnel and allows the inner leg of the buckets to locate. Also it appears I need 2 x nylon 45mm bushes with 8mm centre bore as a spacer. $74nz for 2 off trademe or $8 if you c all a plastic engineering place in NZ haha. I also buffed the hell out of the 14x8 prostars and almost have got the clear coat off using stripper many many times….. that was some good sh!t they used back then. Sigh. I ordered repro centre caps from GT Wheels aussie and some ROH 45mm decals from Toyshop Engineering in NZ. I think you agree that they now are looking great and all for the cost of some 800 and 1000 grit wet n dry and elbow grease My spare mint 245 50 14 nankangs will go on the prostars as I want to save the Eagers as much as I can Carb was leaking fuel down the idle bleed valve and a mate popped in the other night, tore it down and it’s now fixed and runs loads better. The bloody dizzy cap was loose….which wouldn’t help the richness and bad idle Now to fit the buckets when the arrive, time it up and then I ca look to reset leaves 4” and super low front springs with new struts if anyone ha super lows to suit PM me.

Guess I should try getting this thing road worthy if I’m to take it to drag day.. Finally managed to install the rebuilt PS pump.. had a bent pin I believe. When I went to install I noticed how far out of alignment it was so that may have had something to do with it failing, so I’ve shimmed it out and it’s pretty much bang on in line now.. was about 4-5mm out originally and I noticed the pulley on the pump wobbling prior to the rebuild, hopefully this will help it all last a long time to come. Last thing to do was to put in the new filter, unfortunately I ordered the new one off the code of the old one without realising the old one wasn’t correct.. needs to be 2.5” diameter to fit in the cup in the base of the reservoir, but this one is 3” so sits on top.. probably not a big deal as the spring holds it down, but I’d prefer the correct filter so I’ve got it ordered and should turn up next week. Getting there..

Jim the sex pest Wiltshire approves...

Just did my test ride. Bike ticks along nicely at 75kmh now. Much happier!!

Rh c pillar dialed in sunk a bit. But no access to dress and it's pretty thick so a wipe of composit will sort that

@RUNAMUCK its interesting looking at the drive power curves, where it crosses over tells you where is best to shift. So in first gear, you lose so much wheel torque going to 2nd that it's worth revving the absolute snot out of it in 1st even though power is completely gone. If it had a slightly taller first gear then it wouldnt "ideally" want to go to 10k Then 2nd gear onwards, less need to rev it so high.

Yes hopefully back to dyno before drags. Rev limiter needs to stay at 9000 for drags, otherwise rpm drops too much on shifts. At trackday try stick to 8500ish. I will set the limiter lower when doing burnouts. As it was overshooting to 9200rpm a lot which cant be helpful.

Better add pics of the real boss entering his favorite car.

Ready for cert . Did a bit more fiddling around with tuning , removed bowl vent extensions again and swapped to a 3.5 power valve Getting the PV to open at the right point is a knife edge balance of too lean backfires and black smoke chooch

Got the guards mounted, they are old bits of shit I found, stays are recycled junkcut and welded I, made sure everything has heaps of super stud lock on it and is straight and its good to go, that rear number plate/ light thing is off a Bantam, I choped it down, I might invest in a can of paint to touch up hear and there, I want to fuck up the chrome on the tank some how, I think you can do it with some acid and a rag and a car battery.

I was about to say you have no sense of danger or adventure....but your current escapades suggest otherwise... Do you get extra points if you sell it at the end of the trip to some clueless 16 year old?

What the heck, the cars look great, I thought this was a shitbox tour Night pic for thr underglow?

I just stopped by to ask, if you'll be on the dyno before drag day? And also to say, Damn those god damned torpedoes! Dont you dare run a lower redline for a drag day. If you dont rev your engine to the moon, even for just that one day, I'll block you. Plus if you scatter the block, someone is sure to be filming. So we can all enjoy your offerings to the gods of speed. (Over and over)

Also I broke my ITB manifold trying to get it off, because I had to pooz it onto the head with heaps of silicone. Not for sake of sealing it from vacuum leaks. But because anywhere that wasnt covered in carbon fibre, needed to be sealed from fuel reaching it or it starts melting. hah. So, I thought I'd give it another hoon printing one from carbon nylon stuff, as this is much more fuel/temp resistant. Rather than fiddling with heaps of settings, just used PLA settings with hotter temps, and set extrusion rate to 80% I think most of my previous problems with it, were from extrusion rate being too high. As I think this filament is a little wider diameter than 1.75mm, it's harder to push into the tube than PLA etc. Turned out pretty good, lots of stringing but its easier to tidy that up than fiddle endlessly with printer settings. So meh. I need to print some trumpets for @Stu so this will hopefully work out well for that too

Winning, like a brand new box, no more anxiety on down changes, the crunches sounded pretty horrible

I think if I had to summarize this project with a single picture, would be this: But @keltik still gets the prize for best meme post in this thread, hahaha

Got a WOF today, super stoked about that! Also, for some reason the Dutch Top Gear website, and another Dutch site wrote some little articles about the Echo. This translation had me laughing out loud, ahaha "The combination, which you only dream about (mainly because it just doesn't make sense), apparently runs track-time sessions in New Zealand , and sounds surprisingly good too. We hope not to offend anyone here, but the Toyota Prius engine isn't the prime candidate for an ' engine-swap ' project. We will also not soon see a Toyota Echo among the registrations of a track day. Still, David van der Haas from Matamate, New Zealand thought it sounded good in his head to bring the two together." Thanks again to everyone that's helped me get the car going again with another motor. I'm now all set for OS drags in december, and getting the car back to the dyno in the meantime is now top priority.

Sup yo. So a group of us are doing another shitbox challenge thing next week. This year, buying and modifying cars for less than 1500 bucks in the theme of the Golden era, aka, early 2000s. So we're off on a roadie in our creations next Tuesday, cutting another lap of the south island. Gonna be staying in Nelson 8th November, hokitika 9th, queenstown 10th and invers on the 11th. Thought it'd be worth a post up here if anyone local wants to come out for a brew and a yarn when we're in each town. Will probs do a really shit park up and cruise in each town for a laugh and to be general pests. 4/5 of the cars we're using. And there's an EK civic hatch as well. Come hang!

Took it for a hoon in the weekend on some b roads Im happy with the wheel offset/width tyre size ride height combo I ended up with Not to menacing on bumpy roads

Yup, dont have a massive turnout atm, maybe 4 or 5 cars Started out on NZ Datsun but not much interest atm, so all welcome

Dyno day 19th Nov at Bombay, be cool to see how it goes compared to pushrod datsuns

The front tyre is barely legal, just how I like them So no weight on it means it should last the whole trip Probably take knobly off advgn

Made a bird house today

So yeah life sometimes gets in the way and the motivation slips a bit... Thanks to some GC's for getting me enthused about this again! I'm pleased to report some progress in the right direction finally - just a dummy reassembly after a few licks of paint and new head bearing, but having it look like a bike once more after months as individual parts has me keen to get it all back together and running again. Cheers

It’s panel steel you should always get 100% penetration

I hate to say it, but that Mirage does look rather fetching in its two-tone scheme....

Yep, sadly a nay. Next year.

Yeah man absolutely. We're currently in Nelson. Headed off to hokitika this morning. Will let you know a time and place!

yeah gidday, we'prolly got accommodation in most ports (USB, Serial ?) due to Leyland PI Esc. cancellation. [Could be anyone mate.] I can't actually remember how many beds I booked in any town, but hit one of the red flaggots up after we have signed in and we can let you know how many spare floors / beds we have. This message wasn't intended for anyone in particular, but will look after whoever, where we can. HOO ROO SEE YOU FRIDAY FOR SOME THIGH SLAPPING ENJOYABLE TIMES LOVE TO THE FAMILY AND BERYL NUDGE NUDGE WINK WINK TOOMEKIE

Good volumes of 2 stroke being burned this year. Nice

Details for this month. Last one for the year so would be great to get a turnout from the OS crew. I'm actually aiming to attend!

Mines 100% 50cc officer. Factory. Can't you see the Yamaha sticker on the engine case.

Wof level unlocked Am a bit torn on tyre sizes , I probably need to get used to it but they look a bit balloony Drives mint though plus extra ground clearance means I can attack speed humps with vigor

I've done a heap of stuff, but haven't really been updating this thread. I want to, as its a good way for me to look back over some of the stuff I've done. This popped up on the memory my phone auto generated. I'm happy with it, but turn signals, and handlebars are my main headaches on this bike. Nothing I've done to date I'm overtly excited about...but needs must. I'm sure this won't be the last time I change them, 5 sets if handlebars, 4 sets of risers, and 4 different types of turn signals and I'm still looking for better ideas.

Just a 1500 familia. So i believe we're safe with gearbox issues... hopefully. Mirage is a surprisingly un-smokey boi thankfully! I believe it's actually been a semi well maintained vehicle. 220ks on it and it's noice and clean under the freshly painted rocker cover.

And, that's the boot more or less sorted. The existing boot liner is a bit tatty, but new ones are available so I'll order a fresh one sometime in the future and will then cut up the old one to make a neat little battery cover. That should complete the look nicely. I'm happy with the new spare wheel position as it has freed up some extra useful boot space. Thanks for looking.

I whipped out the old bench seat, as I have some bucket seats from an XT Fairmont coming my way. the car needs the carb rebuilt and cleaned as the air idle bleed is leaking so it’s not happy when the car comes to a stop. I have to manually pull the choke to keep it alive. easy fix and the stromberg carb looks pretty simple. if anyone is heading to chch or Nelson from Auckland and has space for a bench seat holla. Cash paid for help with post. sh1t I LOVE this car.

Right then. WOF time is upon us and time to sort the things that could be a potential cock blocker and generally tidy things up. I did order a mechanical water temp gauge but it's the wrong thread for the block so I might have to get one of those ones which goes in the rad hoses. I've ordered four new tyres as one had a slow leak and they are all pretty old and cracked. Doubt they'll pass the WOF as is. So whilst I'm waiting for that I'll sort some minor things. I had to put some sealant on the fuel gauge sender so whilst I was there I coated the spare wheel well in POR15. It was a little rusty looking so this is the perfect crime. Also took this opportunity to get rid of the crappy pit bike pod filter and tarted up an original one. It's presently baking in my state of the art heated paint booth today. This is the heat resistant POR15 which takes daaaaaays to dry.

so I can keep track of what I've done: Things that did not work or made negligible differences 10" elec fansx2 Plastic flexalite fan 245 fan no shroud 245 fan with shroud 318 fan with shroud (probably most successful fan so far) Derale 6 blade stainless flex fan 180deg thermostat 160deg thermostat No thermostat Restrict flow through hoses Seal edges of fan shroud Make fan shroud 360deg Heat reflective stuff on rad tank, bottom of shroud Heat shield exhaust from bottom rad tank Bigger bottom pulley to speed up fan and pump Im getting tired of working on it tbh. Only options left are- auxilary radiator and fan mounted somewhere . Probably under left front guard. I think this will be the most practical /cost effective option to try Or Remove intercooler so it doesn't block rad and allows a fan on the front . I want to have/need some sort of intercooler though, so would need to redo piping and buy intercooler and heat exchanger for water to air ($$) or buy water meth system (also $$)

Will be an easy job, just bolt the door back on, check the lines, profit. Why are we such optimistic buggers? Good old bog cracking there, let's pick the scab eh? With signature gas welding I gave dad a call for some quality banter, yep, this was indeed his handywork, this door he repaired 30 odd years ago when commuting a fair distance with a young family and zero budget for the sole purpose of getting a clubcar running. While several methods uncovered are well scorned by the concourse crowd, for them to last this long is a sign that for my purposes, there is no need to get carried away, nothing really wrong with a quick tidy up, treat the rust, procure another 4l of bog and get that bloody front guard sorted. Anyhow, in 30 years time i'll be out to pasture and my kids can bitch between themselves about how poorly I treated their inheritance. Aaaaaaand OCD enters the room. Guided cut parallel to the sill showed the extent of the problem, releasing the stress in the panel, the lower half popped up 10mm. Removing the rest of the skin was easy thanks to Datsun's patented dissolving bodywork. Nothing too nasty, but I can easily see a few weekends of Tea and biscuits to get this back together!