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Trucks been pretty much parked up since the above post pretty much Slowly acquiring parts for a down the track makeover on this thing as deals pop up. Have picked up a S2/3 Jag front end with a freshly rebuilt by PPG Hydraulics LHD Steering rack, these are getting near on impossible to find now it seems! Picked up a 90s Holden solid rear LSD diff with disk brakes thats the correct width to use without narrowing Have also picked up a bag setup, Slam bags, Viar Compressors and a Airlift Performance 3H management kit. Next to find is a suitable motor/box. Likely LS something with auto to make it easy cruiser.

Small update, I figure I keep doing this to keep myself motivated. Seatbelts are now in, got the new retractable sets from oldscoolautos. After getting the fitting kit, it all seems to work well, just need a single extra 7/16 UNF nut. Clutch res, I've ordered a 45mL motorbike one to make it as compact as possible as the current setup is a bit bulky. Also the master to res connection is still leaking, not badly but something Ill eventually get to. Ideally something like what the E30s had with the dual brake/clutch master res would solve my problems. I need to paint the IAT bracket I made, but itll work for now Got a speedo cable extension from a 4WD supplier, as the cable was a bit too short to reach the cluster, allgood now! Made use of the Stealthride Japan/discount promotion and got some wheel nuts so theres actually 4 on each wheel. Over the diff exhausts are now banned, what a nightmare when trying to work off jack stands. Im trying to rework the one I had, but the marking, cutting, holding to tac weld with just 1 person is difficult. I cant really drive it until thats sorted and tow trucks to RSL are $. But it is the main thing stopping me from a test drive.

This morning I cracked into the fitting of the replacement a/c compressor. First step was to remove the manifold from the old compressor. It looked a bit manky, so I gave it a quick spritz of degreaser followed by a light dose of sandpaper before fitting it to the new unit. It's not mint, but it looks better than it did. There is limited space between the engine and the chassis rail as can be seen here: So the process for refitting goes as follows: Step 1 - Stick the 4 mounting bolts through the compressor (there is not enough room to fit these bolts later) Step 2 - Reverse the compressor into the gap and push it hard against the chassis leg like so: Step 3 - Reverse the mounting bracket into the gap between the compressor and the engine like so: Step 4 - install the 4 bolts that hold the bracket to the side of the engine. Step 5 - Tighten down the 4 previously inserted compressor through bolts. I then chucked on a fresh drive belt, connected the hoses to the manifold and connected up the clutch engagement wire. And that's the compressor done and dusted. She's a pretty tight one as can be seen in this photo: With that done, all that remained was to replace the reciever/drier bottle with a fresh one: Last step was to reinstall the radiator, engine box lid and side panels and the air deflector plate and she is back on the road. I'm booked in for a re-gas at 10am on Friday, so hopefully that goes well.

Third and final update for today, my custom one off bridge came in and boy am i stoked. this was the right choice and i love it. the surface finish wasn't super polished before plating (because i didnt pay for that) but its really only notible on these close up photos, im 95% sure i will leave it as supplied and once furnished will hardware and strings it will all just look pretty and remain a real center piece to the instrument. Gosh i love it. My 5 year old daughter who loves making noise with me (little digital drum kit) just about died from adoration of the cartoon. As you can see the adjustment screws are too long. this is just what i had on hand. i also need to clearance drill and tap all of the adjustment threads and source some M2.5 brass grub screws, probably from aliexpress. I think ill leave them "as cast/printed" on their own they look a bit rough but next to all the shiny the contrast really works. i also will paint the two recessed bolt areas with black wrinkle, which was always the plan but does happen to be where the machining marks are that i wouldn't have been happy to live with, win win. you can also see the four holes for the mute pad kit, which you can buy from Music Man... if you live in america... didnt notice that part before i included it. It remains to be seen wether i fork out for freight forwarding the kit or make my own.

And heres a long and expensive list of things ive bought. however the amount of money ive spent is still less than buying the cheapest good quality instrument from a shop and this (should) be of far far higher quality. the most important first. Nordstand MM4.2 Pickup. This is one of two options i found for recreating the original sound faithfully (in conjunction with the correct preamp - more on that in a later episode) The the tuning machines. Gotoh Res-o-lites x3 and one Hipshot drop D tuner for the e string. this is unnecessary but i really wanted one. it allows you to pretune the E string to D and lets to flick a lever back and forth for the two tunings. just cool. Gotohs over Hipshots for the other 3 because they were substantially cheaper and look the same, still really high quality. StewMac truss rod Nickel Plated control cover Cool little stainless steel preamp battery holder. i dont want any plastic. and a set of standard but correct spec strings

I have been doing quite a bit of work (and purchasing) on this project. Firstly i finalised the 3d model, as seen above. threw some vaguely right colors over it but you'll see the hardwood blank looks quite different. next, i needed a bridge, the part which anchors the strings and affords various adjustments for string intonation. The problem is that i never really liked the orginal StingRay bridge. they were just a pressed steel thing and looks pretty plain, however i felt the overall footprint was important to the shape. i also really wanted something with the mute pads. I couldn't find anything that i liked until i came across this item from Sandberg, however they only sold within the EU and i couldn't find an NZ distributor. So.. i gave up and gave into my desire to just design my own. i took a leaf out of @Roman book and sent the design away for CNC machining from aluminium and nickel plating. i also had the saddles 3d printed from stainless steel This also presented the opportunity to include a little hand drawn sketch of my cat who actively loves listening to the bass. if i stop, she will demand i continue. She is very fluffy which leads to her looking perpetually angry, a great little logo i thought.

Good video of a 13B assembly - fast forward to 9.45 to see the huge big long bolts from one end to the other going in.

Getting close to shelving this chassis project and just roll static , yeah it’s a shit ride, but I’m over the non answered calls to “certifiers” and other “qualified” people in the trade. Just makes it so much harder than it needed to be. i just want to save everyone time and pain later on by getting advice now. yes i know theyr all busy, but Jesus, message back or even check emails once a while. (not directed at Clint- already chatted). anyway. This is where I’m going to leave it for now I think. got a set of wheels on it which I believe is around the same circumference as a 17” with a non rubber band tire. then sat it at optimal ride height. then started playing with bag mounts and locations. these utes are a bit dicky due to the arms sitting horizontal at near full lift as standard. but here is the 3 bag settings (close to full lift +/-30mm, ride height and full slam) it won’t get to full slam once I fit a bump stop. I don’t want the bag to be taking the impact at full slam. what I’ve had to do to get bag clearance is to use the base plate, then a 50nb tube to lift it above the BJ bolts. The pipe is angled inwards 5 degrees to find a happy medium for full lift/slam. the upper plate will still be gussetted. the back end can wait until I figure out the panhard/watts link set up but at full slam the diff clears the notch tubes by 10mm. i still don’t like the driveshaft travel with the 2 piece driveshaft, the rear section is quite short which makes it on a hell of an angle. anywho, here’s the pics.

Orthia has been sold and will be on its way to the new owner at some point this week. New daily has been acquired (E500 merc wagon)

So since iv committed to the bmw style 42s iv gotta sort out narrowing the diff 25ish mm each side, now work out a suitable dark silver to paint the centers with... any suggestions to some factory paint codes that would go well with my colour scheme, one possibility is the gunmetal of @Rhyscars lexus might be a bit dark tho, thinking maybe something similar to the mx grey with a bright flake in it

Built this for that exact reason

Got the housings back from Green Brothers late on Friday, CNC PP, Enlarged spark plug holes, CNC waterjackets, CNC water jacket sealing around the PP etc. Have chucked back together to go back in the car to go get the last bits of fab finished hopefully next week. Get it back in and a few other little jobs done this week before it goes.

To this.. 10mm height rise suits my height and stops guard rub.

Love the engraved cat logo.

yes, and also on decent builds there are equally extra long larger dowels to hold everything rotationally in line and not twisting. So the bolts just clamp them all together, and dowels take the strength. 4/6 dowels for 400+ and all dowels for responsible builders that just want it all haha.

My holden had a squeaky chicken chew toy sound under boost...... 3/4 of a tube of JB Weld grey sealant fixed that. +1 for a sharp edge whistling somewhere.

This is normally a rubbish Thursday for me, but I’m not going to that thing this month. Keen. (although I will have been in the city in the day time so not sure about a return trip again in the evening) Next Weds also works well for me and I will be in the city from 4pm onwards. Edit: Weds 25th evening may be no good now either. TBC.

Loose torque converter bolts usually make a clattering noise.

Factory commodore hubs for hat rotors have bugger all from the od to edge of the stud basically just enough for the head of the stud on the back face

Yep my integra makes a whistle at certain throttle percentage (quite light) right the way through the rev range. Only really noticeable with an aftermarket intake, original intake with resonator eliminates the noise

Check the torque converter bolts. The other one, harder to do is the flexplate to crank bolts. If you get to that point, check the flexplate for cracks. Unlikely to be the box if it still drives OK.

It's interesting that the noise is present under both reverse and forward load. It could be as simple as a broken exhaust mount. Probably worth someone under the vehicle when it's running and in gear before you pull too much apart. In related news: I have spent weeks (off and on) trying to find a knocking exhaust over bumps in one of my Land Cruisers. I could have sworn the exhaust was hitting the gearbox. The sound was absolutely coming up from the transmission tunnel.... but strangely stopped when I cleaned the inside of the windscreen last week..... and it fell out onto the bonnet.

There is indeed huge big long bolts from one end to the other!

Apart from the odd gentle clean, this thing is going to be pretty hydrophobic and won't be seeing water. Its got a dedicated space in the garage and will only be driven on nice days. It's pretty well rust-proofed around the work I've done, but yes, I'll be doing as much as I can to slow down any creeping cancer it has. I thought the door drain holes were fairly reasonable size, but I'll go back and have another look and see if I can enlarge them.

Didn't realise the 'fat' plate of a 20b is the same width as a housing. I learnt something new today.

Just before morning smoko I got a message from Jeremy to say that my new a/c compressor was ready for pickup, so after a quick cuppa I saddled up the Moke and moseyed on through to his place. Returned home with this pack of goodness: Much bling:

Took the Mustang for a drive to Raglan with some mates, all went pretty smooth but was very fumey again. A mate in another car complained about it although his is a 2014 Challenger so maybe he is not used to the smell of a carby V8. I did think it was a bit excessive though. Might have to do a bit of a check of a few things Tune. Never checked so it could be a bit rich plugs and leads vacuum PCV Headers. I notice the shop said I had a header leak around 18 months ago but I forgot about it and it has passed a warrant. Worth a look though. Windows. Don't at all and the RH rear quarter need a new regulator as it slides down. boot seal. First noticed it at Americarna just after the paint so it might have been fitted incorrectly. other leaks around the boot and luggage divider tail pipe length. Ideally they would protrude beyond the bumper. Don't think this is the reason as I didn't notice it when we bought it. I also still have a slight shimmy so I might check the trans output bush for play as I've replaced the other main culprits. Will have a go at a few things this weekend maybe.

I made a tool to to spin the oil pump shaft with the drill and got some oil pressure into the thing. Obviously the motor wasn't turning, just the oil pump. It got pressure up and went up to 60psi on the drill. Then it was like a relief valve opened and it dropped to 30psi after about 5 seconds. I turned the motor 180 degrees and tried it again and it did the same thing. No idea why it did that tbh but I'm going to get the whole motor spinning on the starter and see if it still does it. Then I guess I'll have to figure out why if it's still doing it with the whole thing turning.

Hi, I have the solution to the whistle. Drown it out!

Some things have happened in the past 2 years since the last update. Have gotten a few wofs in it and taken it a few events around the place. It's basically "finished" now! Had the upholstery redone over the course of a year or so. Got the seats and door cards done, then a while later eventually got the carpet done. Because the NZ new spec Starlets came with the bare basic interior, the door/rear quarter cards needed some stainless trim to make them look a bit more up-spec. A quick road trip to Horopito and a search of their inventory, I came across a set of Zephyr side trim that could be cut and welded to the appropriate length, and then polished up. After hours of searching for the correct colour schemed tartan and where to acquire, I managed to order a roll from England and then matched up a tan vinyl to suit. Huge thanks to Mark D for doing the upholstery! Stoked with how it turned out. Took it to 4nR Jamboree and took out Best Toyota Drove around Autofest at Manfeild Made some KP friends Entered a Manfeild back-track drift day. Went really well all day with the thrashing it received, no issues, other than the lack of talent behind the wheel haha. Changed to some Bugeye tailights at some point too. Currently featured in the latest NZ Performance Car magazine (issue 310). Happy as with what @Snoozin and the NZPC team pieced together!

Also this is what the green menace once looked like, check the fucking epic supercharger setup!

I pulled the rear valance off the green menace, like actually pulled it off as it was so rusty I didnt need to undo bolts. Gave it a lick of paint and bolted it up to the blue meanie, came up nice. I drew up some more random shit, this time the little caps that go at the end of the top inner door trim, this was for Elliot but the X community at large was pretty happy about it. Speaking of Elliots black bitch, he came around today with some lowering springs and some new rear shocks, I smashed those in while he removed the heater so we could replace the tap and make it work...the springs took a 1/3 of the time the heater project did. I forgot to take pics but the results are pretty great. He is fucking stoked. Also, some artfully arranged X1/9's;

I bolted the diff back in and decided to have a good look at the rear brakes. The passenger side had been soaking in brake fluid for some time by the look, so I removed the shoes and cylinders and found the cylinder were junk. I did the drivers side as well as it looked much better. Once I got it out it wasn't. So now I need to find some new cylinders and get the shoes relined. It's become a theme for the for the weekend as the Tiger needed it's replaced as well, with replacements I could get from the car club. So, the Tiger is sorted which is good as we have the 60th anniversary coming up at the end of the month. Anyway back to the Avenger diff. Pic's of the brake cylinders. There is always that one bolt that causes pain.

The inner arch. This took ages to get the right shape. See how much frilly I had to replace. Fortunately it's not really visible so I'm not going to grind the welds down. POR15 really is shit on new steel and the surface has no 'tooth', just peels off.

Slazz applied with a hand cut new (not cork) gasket to hold everything together and it seems good. All back together fingers crossed this is actually a fix rather than bodge. Resisted urge to drive it any further then the end of street a few times to warm engine up and the stalling issue is now gone completely. Will let it sit overnight and test drive.

Then it was all welded back together: It's not quite finished yet. The welds will be smoothed off and the manifold sandblasted to give a 'cast' effect. It will also need to be faced top and bottom after all of those heat cycles. The work has dropped the total height by over 75mm which makes it far more 'bulge' friendly:

Moment of truth, getting a tune at HPR

So this showed up on TM and I put a cheeky bid on it, this was done without the knowledge or consent of the boss, but easier to ask forgiveness etc. It turned out to be just down the road. The seller had a similar story to mine, sold it years ago and it was a show car, hence the probable mad rear wing and hood scoop to ventilate the frunk. It had an uno turbo motor at the time. It got driven to Nelson from Tauranga and parked up, never to drive again until he saw it and bought it back, but its now dereg and turbo fucked so not worth doing anything to. Anyway, its mine now. There are plenty of good bits, uno turbo front brakes mostly, and lots of little bits of useful goodness that my car will benefit from. He had another rolling shell he wanted me to take, but it was way more fucked than this one altho it had ok lowering springs in it, so maybe I'll go back and pilfer those. I will now spend a week or two appeasing my wife....

The orthia is now on marketplace. I've got my eye on another car which is most likely a stupid daily and a liability but where's the fun in that

Some engine got built today. I pre lubed the lifters and got all the air out of them. Assembled the cams and valve drive train. Chucked a few random parts on. Hilariously this engine has 5 temperature sensor locations. Like that's going to fucking help. Also I have some other cam covers on the way for it, these are just too keep the shit out.

Part of the roof attachment mech is two hooks that are steel bits covered in rubber. After 40+ years this falls/wears off and the roof rattles like fuck. There are many fixes that involve packing shit with tape etc, but as I have the technology I thought I would solve it. First I just drew the boys up and printed them in PLA with carbon fiber, these looked pretty schmick. However the originals have a steel backbone and this was always going to be stronger. So I had the idea to trim all the old rubber off the originals and print a TPU sleeve to replace it. I gooped these on with some leftover windscreen glue, they are working well. The international X1/9 community got pretty fizzed about that let me tell you. I then printed some more plus some of the plastic pads that fit on the car in the same junction for the black X/Elliot. And while I am on a massive printing bender I modded the heater control faceplate by adding some lever detents to keep the levers in position, then drew up some vaguely factory looking knobs to interface with this detail. I made the top layer of the print a Hilbert curve, it gave it an interesting texture; And finally the rattle. More investigation found more shit in there in a completely inaccessible place; So I dumped a shitload of cavity wax (actually a bitumen ish thing) down there to glue it in place, and it kinda worked but not 100%. Shits quieter but still there. Sigh.

Ah man I looked at making a turbine out of a turbo, just need to sort the injection situation /probably a shitload more to it. Also using a waste oil burner to make steam to feed the same thing. So many dumb options, I should just choose one and run with it.

This is my Lister L and the noise is hard to describe. The below pic has the original exhaust but I swapped it for one that ran up and out the shed wall then down to a barrel of water. It sounds like an old washing machine on spin cycle rather than exhaust banging. It has a priming cup that is that small brass upright before the head. If that uses petrol to crank it, it'll run on most anything after that. With petrol it runs the strongest but with stale fuel or kero it just misses a few beats and the momentum keeps it going until it can ignite off another kick. That machine there ran Wellesley College in Wellington during WW1. It now runs a simple alternator. I haven't experimented with my diesel lister which is roughly the same size and runs a lot stronger. It's a lot more modern being from the 1930's. The L above is from 1912 iirc.

Got a bit of time to do a bit of wiring tidy up. I had left the alternator wiring a mess and ordered some fancy Painless Wiring split loom from Summit but I needed to get the light fixed for a warrant and ran out of time so I got the auto sparky to do it. they fixed an earth and another connector on the drivers side and i now have tow good lights. They also tidied up the loom without being asked. It looks ok but I'd prefer split loom to tape. When my gear turned up I didn't want to waste the good stuff for the 40cm to the solenoid so I just used some other junk I had lying around Put a boot on the alternator wire and a cover Probably should put a boot on the exposed +ve terminal on the solenoid as that pretty much runs the car. It does look a lot tidier. I also binned a random spade terminal and 3" wire off the coil. Not sure why that was there, I just removed it and put a ring terminal on the black wire. Not sure where it goes or why it follows a random route on the right hand side of the car. Maybe it broke years ago and was shortened. Took it for a test drive to Bombay and it ran mint. I'm not sure (of a lot of things apparently) what caused the fuminess when we drove to Americarna earlier in the year as we have done two big drives recently and had no issues. Runs mint and no abnormal smells, although that is relative in a 50 year old car.

I thought it might be the clutch line running front to back, so I damped it out and today went for a spin - no, not that. So I spent some time grovelling around underneath tapping things, and found a spot under the central tunnel that definitely had something bouncing around. I invesigated with the endoscope and what do you know! And after a ridiculous amount of fucking around with first a magnet taped to a bit of welding wire and then a bit of welding wire with wet silicone blobbed on the end to act as sticky because the second thing wasnt ferrous; I then tested it to be 100% sure and do you know what? It didnt fucking fix the rattle

There's a manifold design that would most likely solve your packaging issues...

Thought it might be interest to y'all, a little side project that's been going on at Shuzz Towers. Stepson is a bit of a blacksmith/welder so we thought a forge in the paddock might be a good idea to keep him out of trouble & off the PS4. Building it out of cob blocks with a lime render as it's a traditional method round here & we're also banking on getting away with it coz it's pretty. Planning wise, it's a "field shelter" so we may be OK but also hoping that Clarksons Law my help us avoid a bollocking. Built onto the bedrock/ well drained brash & ultimately it'll have a live roof. Last image is the rough coat of course lime applied today, followed by two smooth coats in a week or so Pics..

I have been really enjoying this car, driving it all over the show. Have got it tuned well, still running points for now but the pertronix has arrived. Couple more wee things on the list to sort out, the power steering belt squeals at full lock and i need to dig into the dash to get the original fuel and temp gauges working, they have a shared 5v voltage regulator that commonly fails so hopefully its just that and the gauges aren't fried - hopefully..

crazy that you trimmed some overgrown bushes and discovered an outbuilding, i commend you on your restoration

Took the truck for its first major drive on the weekend did a 40km return trip out to Waihi Beach and she run flawlessly! Have had the Artilleries rebarreled as after sandblasting they had a heap of holes in the barrels. Wheel and Frame in Cambrdige rebarreled them with 7 inch barrels instead of 5.5 they were factory. Centres were riveted in from factory so they drilled these out and welded the centres into new barrels. Mate lined up to paint these this week then the whitewalls can go on!