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Whilst working on acquiring parts for the motor, i figured tidying up the engine bay is worth doing. Battery tray was mangled in the past to fit a std size battery So removed it Made a template from the remnants and made some new ends and glued it all back together Came out pretty good - i'll get some matched paint and colour it blue at some point Also cleaned up the exhaust/inlet manifolds and gave the carb its 1st bath in 50 years Waiting on a new pump diaphragm otherwise the carb was good condition.

Back at work for the night. Next on the list is to do the cambelt and water pump. But that's it for now.

Assembly begins

Hemi orange , think they were mostly red from factory until the later ones .. mine was weird orange before I painted it

Holy bejebus, i forgot how cunty bodywork is. No large flat panels on these things. Lots of sharp lines and dents. Have finished the roof, pillars and one door on 3/4 tin of 3.5kg filler...most is now on the floor. The tailgate is in rough shape..lots of dents. No rust though.. Havent started on the guards yet. A mate was going to get onto these for me, but had been badly bitten by the black dog lately. Poor bugger. Have told myself to just coast on it, do what i can, when i can.. I picked up some keather seats for it though as the bench seat has collapsed on the drivers side, and needs some upholstery work. The seats i got are tan leather seats from a 350Z, and electric. Very comfy.. Engine bay situation: Got the radiator and coiler fitted. Need to figure out the oil line issue as the front line comes off the front cover and needs to make a sharp turn and downward, same with the cooler.. so hoping 2 x 45deg fittings will get them in the right angle. Rear line only needs to be shortened. That is all

After getting back from a Chris Smith trip it was back to the bleaching / sanding regime. Finally got all the frames cleaned up, epoxy sealed, sanded again, then evicted the Mercury from the shed for the finishing process. The finish was the same as the Morris, Altex varnish. 5 coats with light sanding between, then a more thorough sand to clean up runs etc before the last coat. I'm pretty happy with the finish - mucho shiny. Just waiting on some more epoxy for the plywood pieces, hopefully get that tomorrow.

Had a thought last night about wiring the new ignition, yep no way could I get the wires through the teeny hole, so pulled cover again and drilled out. Took it in stages to avoid breaching the casting, and 7mm does the trick... Cleaned up the swarf and put cover back on loosely. Should prob check the lifters next...

pinto.

Did a little bit of work to the old girl today. I needed to remove the metal that sits around the head light at the top of the wing. Drilled out all the spot welds on the wing to free up the curved inner pannel so I can make a new one. Dave's garage on YouTube shows you step by step how to make the pannel parts. Not much of a update but worked out well , amazing what you can do with the proper tools.

So it's just finished baking in the booth. Doors opened and time to take the masking off.

the clutch pack goes in here and the actuator pushes the pins up to clamp the plates together You can see there is a difference in height of the inner splines to the outer basket. I was stumped why the plates did not line up. I stripped the inner assembly and found the thrust washer and needle bearing clamp half washer thingys had fallen out I got it all together correctly and back into the case then put all the plates in. There needs to be the correct clearance under the main snapring otherwise it will either be locked or lazy as. I was close but not within tolerance so out with all the plates and measure them all and assemble with all the thinnest ones, but still too tight. Then i tried the thin base plate and all the thickest clutches and drive plates and it was too loose. The front plate can be ordered in a bunch of thicknesses from nissan but thats 3 weeks plus I ended up running the R33 shaft and basket in the R32 case as it was .3mm different depth and everything worked out. I had to play the thrust washer game again as it was different... But it does have a splash guard that helps stop the oil coming out around the gearstick. This was me for about 4 hours. Plates in, measure, swear, plates out, measure again, stick in different piles according to thickness, and reinstall and measure again etc. Then try with the R33 basket and shaft. Every time i got stuck, it was back over to the press to push it apart or back together, and repeat. Fortunately the shims for the front plate are within tolerance so i just need to clean it up and glue it on tonight. Progress might be slow now. Waiting on the head, and need to do some work on the wagon for wagnats

Offered up the 205 Speedlines... Not quite the right size tyre but I think they'll look great.

All my engine parts came yae ! love new engine parts

Yeah the plan was to do French Pass OR Kenepuru. Agree not possible to do both in a day! Best overnight options are: The Rai Valley Tavern (now called The Millers Rest) - camping only I think, will have to check. Bonus, it's also a pub! Pelorus Bridge (Kahikatea Flat) - DOC campground, but with a kitchen facility. Sweet river for a swim. Havelock Holiday Park - cabins and campsites. Probably most versatile location, and a proper little town for supplies etc. Is just another 30min down the road. This would be my pick.

Probably need to figure out how far you want to go and what the intended use will be, and that will help decide Not just engine,but how far you want to go with steering and suspension mods to go with it. Ie if you want to stick with easy bolt on brake upgrades,then a mx5 engine for example might be a good swap,but if you want to put a turbo k24 in then you probably need to do a bit more work on handling etc.

Putting the carb on an angel was a stupid idea. I realisedthe oil tank I have is a Featherbed tank with a tab welded on to fit a Gardengate frame, it dosnt fit properly and clashed with the gearbox top mount. A friend of mine is giving me an early rigid frame tank witch will look better to.

Then sorta...

2.0 and gearbox from NC MX5. 2.3 from Mazda6 on NC Gear box. 13b and box from an RX 8 if you can find one that's not stuffed. Be prepared for major firewall and tunnel mods. Escort front end swaps can work well and offer rack and pinion steering, better brake and strut options.

Punched a hole through the firewall for the loom. Its safely grommeted. Ecu is wired up, new fuse box and relays set. I only need to source some suitable ballast resistors for the injectors, finish wiring connection for this. Also need to get a power distribution post to connect the stock power feeds aswell as the starter cable to the battery etc. Ive refitted yhe battery tray, and will use a small drycell battery like what i used in my stockcar and rallycar. Ive even mounted the hard fuel line and return. Fuel pump will now mount under the car without a surge tank because i wont have time to make a "firewall" for the boot area.

It’s going to be great

3sge beams altezza engine, fairly compact 6 speed manual rwd , can run on the factory ecu standalone, can pickup a crashed altezza fairly cheap

Final prepsol and it's time for some colour...

Put nut back on main shaft and can rotate engine no worries, will sort timing next. And turns out that weld is a factory Harley thing, added after drilling out an oil passage during construction. Apparently HD put out a service note stating you can discard the shims as they can fail and send bits of metal through the engine. Will look into that. Also hit the case on the buffer wheel for about 5 mins...

And done Highly recommend Metal Polish Co in Hamilton for polishing, I was absolutely blown away by how they came out. Quick turn around and more than happy with the price ($80/wheel). Lastly need to secure some new metal valve stems and then throw the wallet at some tyres.

Xmas break.... too much time on my hands... No matter what i did the engine wouldn't budge so i figured it had to come out. and pulled it all apart as the pistons needed some gentle coaxing (BIG HAMMER) to get them out. Plan is to rebuild it with new pistons and bearings plus a tidy up.

Started cutting back the shit paint/bog etc yesterday. Flooded the roof with filler today. Also hit the drivers door and both pillars. Passengers door has a nice gouge in it, but no rust. So i beat the ugly out of it, well as much as i could...its still better looking than jacinda, so thatll do. Paint stripped the top half of the tail gate and front sections of the deck. This deck is a shortened b2000 deck, so the front where its welded is gank. Itll bog out. In other news, the e-w/pump is awesome.. just need to make a mount for the pump and get some ss pipes made up. Wiring is simple even i could do it. And the bonus is that it runs the fan aswell. Ive got with an out the gate colour compared to the yellow version..i really like it on the lid in the sun..should suit it. That is all for now. Need to sort the welding of the guards so i can this paneled in aswell.

Got this all printed but as expected it's a bit silly. I dont want to drive the car with no bonnet, and I cant cut my spare one as this covers the bonnet latch. But physically seeing something there gives some inspiration anyway for how things might work. I think I'll switch back to putting the throttles closer to the head on the shorter manifold, so I've got more room for airbox activities. In aid of trying to find an air filter that will be appropriate, I've decided to brute force the problem. Some poor hungover person at Repco Morrinsville is going to really hate my click and collect order

Just waiting for a mate to come round and help set up the diff. Hopefully soonish. I made a start on the transfer case as i was on a roll. The clutches are inside the shiny drum. For some reason Nissan engineers built a great transfer system, then only set it up for about 60% of its capacity. These are the plates out of the drum. You can see they only have a friction plate installed between every 2nd driven plate. Standard there is 7 frictions and 12 drive plates. Max capacity is 10 frictions, 9 driven plates, Plus the 2 end plates. I had another transfer case in stock so i robbed the plates I have changed the bearings and seals over and cleaned all the parts ready for reassembly and done a dummy fit, but have found a bit of an issue with the inner-most friction plate running off the end of the splines. I was going to run the 32 transfer case as it takes the R32 cable speedo. but have a 33 case with some minor differences that make it a bit better maybe. Just waiting to hear back from some kebab shop owners in oz who know about these things before i slap it back together. When i pulled the transfer case off the back of my gearbox, i noticed a heap of magnetic sludge in the back of the box. I have all the bearings and seals to re-kit the box, but not the synchros and they are $$ plus waiting time for japan. A brand new box is $2700nzd in japan, plus shipping plus duty which is around $4500 all up. I wonder if i can get it bought over in a container?

I stripped the ring gear off the stock open front diff and installed it with some new bearings onto a quaife torsen lsd. Lots of guys on the SAU forums rate it as the best mod to their GTRs. @Bistro came round for a few beers and gave me a hand to install the adapter plate and test fit the sump. Had to come off again as there was a bit of extra clearance required on some of the adapter plate bolt holes Its all on now, and i fitted all of the diff parts with new bearings and seals everywhere. I jumped ahead a bit and fitted the pinion seal before i measure the end float so that might have to come off again. Fingers crossed its ok. I got the crown wheel backlash perfect at 0.15mm. spec is .13 - .18 Pretty happy with that. Need to paint the gears next and hopefully the pinion is ok and i can seal it up. Its a prick of a thing to fit the diff in so im hoping it does not need to come back out again. The hardest part is waiting for parts. I can buy all the seals and shims i need, but they are usually 3 weeks from overseas. Once the head comes back i can fit that and do some plumbing and fit it back in the car. I might do the transfer case next. Maybe overhaul the gearbox.... Its a slippery slope

I bought a RIPS sump extension and adapter plate to modify the sump. I have my original adapter plate, but it was a bit of an amateur thing done ages ago. The rips plate has an integrated oil pickup and a few extra features that are an improvement on mine. The plate also has a double o-ring seal, which might seal better than glue especially if im going to probably have it apart a few times - hopefully not, but RB's do love a good run bearing I got a wizard to do the mods to the sump and add on the extension. He made it look so easy and did a beautiful job. also drilled out the oil return holes under the axle tube as they start at 5mm but the last bit of the holes is around 2mm which wont do much

Christmas came early and its been painted - picked it up yesterday. Now the fun begins!

Working away on the wood refinishing. Seems to be taking longer than I thought (what a surprise). The first try with the A/B bleaching (Hydrogen Peroxide stuff) didn't go all that great, came out a bit patchy and greenish. After talking with the agent down in Invergiggle I picked up some water-based stripped and went over all the good faces with that first, then the bleach, then a round of sanding, then a scrub with Oxalic Solution, same as I used on the Morris, then more sanding. Worked out well I think. Five of the 9 pieces have been through this process and the epoxy sealer. The back sides need another coat of the sealer tomorrow then they can be sanded for the gloss varnish coats. The tailgate is all glued up, but I ran out of bleach so had to wait for another lot to arrive to do that and finish the 'final four'

This is the actual car on the Campbells stand at the 1965 Motorama - the wagon was last seen in the 80's by the old owner of mine. Possibly these two were the only ones sold here.

Sanding and cleanup round two completed. Next step on these is bleaching, I found what I wanted to do that (Rustins wood bleach) but it took me a couple of days to call the importer / distributor in the work hours of 09:00 - 15:30 GMR Imports NZ|Disposable Latex & Nitrile Gloves|Superplus|Rustins In the meantime I've started repairing the split joints in the tailgate. I'm not sure why so many have come apart, I did tweak a bit getting it off the car, but it also seems they weren't bonded very well. I don't want the whole thing to come apart at once so I've had a go at bonding the biggest one first. Cleaned up the joint and removed the old product. Used some clear tape to hopefully stop the epoxy spreading too much. Big gaps are preferred for this approach to give the epoxy some space. A visit to Burnsco for some West System epoxy and filler. The filler thickens the epoxy so it doesn't run out of the joint.

Also re NA/B MX5 motors they have a rear sump, Anglia has a front sump, the Anglia steering gear won't clear the sump. MX5 gearbox also doesn't have a rear gearbox mount. There are threaded holes in the tail shaft that can be used to mount off but there is no mount as such. There is also a cam position sensor driven off the intake cam at the back of the head that adds to the length of the motor.

And now I'm out of materials and need to decide what I'll build rear wheel mount out of. That's proportions it'll be though could be stand up or fit a hot seat on top engine plenty of room for either.

Failed the COF on the handbrake - obviously, so I fixed it all up proper by taking the drum off and burning the crap off the drum with my gas plant and scuffing up the shoes, and even tested it on a 1:5 gradient. Then I realised I couldnt fill out the form they gave me as this had to be done by an approved service agent. Of which there is only one in Nelson. Fuckety fuck. So today I took it to Nelson Truck Repairs and Spares who took the drum off and burnt the crap off the drum with their gas plant and scuffed up the shoes, which really needed doing. I took it straight to the testing station and shes all legal beagle again, yay! They are going hard on cardan shaft handbrakes, its so dumb as a perfectly functioning cardan shaft handbrake will still roll over the dumb fuck who jacked a single wheel up on a slope.... And I have to get it serviced by the same boys every two years now. So fucking stupid. Anyway, we will go on a trip or two then it might be time to sell it...

Higher octane usually helps if you are unable to keep advancing the ignition timing, because the engine is knocking or very close to knocking. However in this case the motor made its best power on dyno without knocking at all. So there's a bit of margin on 98 octane. In which case I dont think 100 octane would help. E85 might give some tiny tiny gains from charge cooling or whatever but it's unlikely to be worth the hassle.

Okay sooo I just found a 2d CFD program that uses an MSpaint bitmap and a text file to set parameters Holy shit a brick I am going to absolutely pollute the internet with garbage now

Recently I decided that at some point next year I'd like to move this thing on. I never thought I would after wanting it for so long but I'd really like to track down an old supercustom or maybe even just pleb spec yh50/60 hiace with plans to 1gg swap. The liteace is a bit small for the family to enjoy especially since I changed it from 3 seats to 2 for engine clearance. This hasn't put a stop on mods at all. A custom winged sump has been made by a fellow OS member which should help get it on its guts again. A pair of bspeed cam covers are en route and I've also secured this bit of kit to test fit and see if it's viable It's an SK (sanyo-kiki) blow through carb turbo surge tank along with these early HKS cam gears I've sourced. I'd like to track down the hks cast turbo Manifold and some hks cams also. The shape of the plenum looks like it could be mounted upside down with elbow orientation moved and may clear the seat. If things get too messy I'll leave as is but it's worth a shot

It has some fantastic patina this car too - tempted to run it as-is

Mixed up the epoxy in 5:1 and brushed some on the joint surfaces first Then added some filler and mixed again. Came out fairly thick, filler ratio isn't very important, just get the consistency you want. Gooped some into the joint And 'clamped' it up. Will see how it looks after 24 hours. I've gone deep on the West System stuff, now everything looks like an epoxy project Epoxyworks - Building, restoration, and repair with epoxy

Radiator installed again with filler neck on passenger side Took two attempts because they missed my beveled cut on cardboard model where it meets radiator and assumed radiator sits level not on the 15 degree forward it has (V mount?)

Spec!

Purchased a new release bearing and installed yesterday. Pretty easy job with space for a ratchet behind all the bellhousing bolts. Having a look at my Gearbox rubber mounts they really need replacement. They are the items highlighted green which are no longer available new (genuine). Might use this opportunity to use something taller to lift Gearbox, there's about 20-30mm clearance above it currently. This would also help with the driveshaft angle since the diff is a good 4" closer to the body than stock. I'm guessing going to a taller rubber I'll have to weld and re-drill new holes, maybe even put a plate on crossmember so I can get the pin on the mounts in the sweet spot.

Tried the round dash but I'm not keen at all the modernisation is nice but doesn't suit anything else on the van