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That is all, thank you for your time

Did a minor brake upgrade, 320mm disc and a caliper spacer on the front and a new standard size disc on the back, mainly because I wanted them to match, there was nothing wrong with the rear rotor. Pads are not that old so re used them Once they bedded in, it made a huge difference (on the front anyway) Instead of the front brake being a gentle retardation device, it now actually works as a brake, that stops! How novel. around town it's one finger on the lever to pull it up. Two fingers you could probably lock the front,if you wanted to fall off, which I dont. I had thought about doing twin discs on the front but the parts are quite hard to find, and expensive HD used to do a kit but that is NLA, the main reason for wanting twin discs was mostly cosmetic . I'll keep an eye out for the parts anyway but it stops good enough that it's not a must do

bump, next meet sunday at Purau bay, meet at npd port hills 11am for a convoy etc

It's cute that you clowns think I don't already have range rover diff centres in the parts bin along with a billion other parts that I'll never use.

Hello Damian, I join you from deepest nigeria in the hopes that you will help me move my great fortune. I currently have an early model discovery which may have the 3.54:1 diffs that you so require. thanks cammy longcock

More rewinding, I was put in contact with a nice fellow in Auckland got in touch about some black leather bits he had available. Now that the car is going to be grey, I'm even less enthused about a grey interior, so I snaffled it up. The leather is in decent condition, or at least MUCH better condition than the cracked and damaged original grey leather stuff. The catch: it must have been introduced to a flood at some point in time, because the metal bits in the bottoms of the seats are absolutely fucked. Fortunately, the grey leather seats' metal stuff is in good condition. So I get to add upholstery to my list of fun things to learn and suck at. I disassembled the black and grey passenger seats early on and set about restoring the bits. It immediately started to pay itself off. The top half of the seat is alright. There's corrosion on the bottom brackets, but nothing crazy, and I didn't feel the need to disassemble much here. Just the back of the seat, which revealed further rusty bracketry, but not enough to really do much about. I simply painted what I could see with rust converter, and the main brackets got wire wheeled, masked and painted black. The rails are all riveted together, and I just don't want to deal with that stuff (yet). So I simply dunked it all in evaporust, cleaned, rust converter'd, wire wheeled and painted it. I made sure to move the bits around after painting so nothing bound up, and vowed that I'd fill it with grease later. The black seat leather was then carefully extracted from the base. The leather at the site of the bolt holes etc is pretty rough. Mostly intact, some thin or ripped bits. The rust impregnated itself quite well to a lot of it. I used a combination of careful evaporust dipping and some soapy scouring pads to remove the crusts. You can see where some of the internal seams (where wires once laid) are torn, I'm curious as to what physical stuff went down to cause that. There'd be some mechanical forces involved, after all fabric doesn't like moving across jagged rusty wire, but I don't think that explains all of it. Fortunately, theres very little of these places actually visible once all the trim etc is on. The... uh... leg thingy also got some treatment. I was going to use the grey seat's bracket but it was such a straight-forward hunk of metal that I just re-used the black one. A long pause happened here because of life and procrastination, but eventually I put my A back into G... and pressured girlface to help. There are a few wires that run through the seats in loops to pull the centres of them in, and these loops had mostly been destroyed by the rusty wires. Girlface fixed these by hand-sewing new fabric in. Gorgeous. The black vs grey base, uncovered - I was really impressed at how good the grey base was. I didn't do too much to the grey base; just slathered on some rust converter and used our steam mop to restore the foam. Then it's time to use my aliexpress upholstery set! Was not looking forward to this part but it was probably one of the easiest parts tbh. The clips are surprisingly non-fiddly. I managed to re-use stiffening wire from the grey seat and get things buttoned up okay. The hardest part was actually just wrangling the leather (which has shrunk with age) onto the base (which i'd fluffed up the foam on). Getting this lever into the hole took half an hour alone. Eventually, after a lot of cross-referencing the other seats and some repeated steps, the bracketry was on and lubricated with lithium grease, and the top went back on it. Looks great I need to fix up a couple things, the leg thingy lever is a bit tight and doesn't want to disengage. Also the slide-everything-forward-for-passengers-lever is a bit touch and go. For the driver's side I might just be a bit more frugal with the paint as it could be adding extra friction, but I'm hoping it's just a spring or something that I've mis-configured.

Always remember that oem quality, just means supplied by the lowest bidder with the best sales pitch.

According to the internet's the crank might need to be ground or the flywheel shaved a bit to fit. Quick eyeball and dirty calliper measurements say that the holes to locate the flywheel onto the crank are both the same depth and diameter. My two cents is the biggest difference in the flywheels will be the teeth for the crank sensor pick-up but as I have a tach terminal on the alternator and a mechanical pump I dngaf and have no use for them Sat the flywheels back to back and the bolt holes line up and ring gear is the same diameter and tooth count by eye Sitting on the bench the ring gear don't quite line up but that's not a fair comparison as I need to measure up with it bolted to the crank as the offset is slightly different. That money could have been spent on the Honda gearbox and towards a dyno tune but shiny new parts are exciting and ordering parts is about all I'm capable of doing at the moment

Got into the carb tuning. Haven't tested but it was an easy swap as I just changed metering rods. The chart below is for a 1403/1404 carb. Position 1 is stock 1....................1423 (.086")............................1460 (.065" x .052") ..............................none - stock calibration I wanted to go one step leaner in power and cruise which on the chart is position 6 6....................1423 (.086")............................1463 (.067" x .055") ..............................Rod This means only a rod change with a 1463 rod. First step is to undo the torx fasteners, no need to remove the cover, it just swivels out of the way. I put rags down the throat of the carb to catch anything I might drop but one moved just as my torx bit fell out of the driver. Luckily it was caught on the booster venturi and I could grab it with a magnet. The numbers are hard to read but the needle was a P/N 1460 (labelled 65 62). The piston holds the step up spring which is left in the carb and the rod is held in by a tiny spring so a bit fiddly to remove. The new one was selected and fitted and all put back together. Just need a road test now to see if it worked or if another change is required, the next step is the stock rod but a different jet. Springs and rods are easy but I'm not sure about jets. I don't know how you get them down the hole and lined up so hopefully my change is all that is needed.

I'll be dropping the bottom end off to the engine builder on Wednesday to go over. Hopefully I'm doing something wrong, but they'll measure it all and find out what's happening. It bugs the shit out of me because I can't see any logical reason why it's doing this, considering before I pulled it down it was a good running engine and everything other than the flexigauge is measuring fine.

So my goal with the prototypes is to get something that sits in the right location, and also has basically no movement in plastic, therefore I know the aluminum it will be ultimately done in will handle the loads (I don't have the skills or access to generative design at the moment.) So version 3 of the bracket. Printed in PLA 5 walls, 25% rectilinear infill (so close to overall internal geometry in how it would be printed in ali). I added another smaller cross brace which helped a lot. I then added fillets everywhere, and an outer 2x20mm edge to the side to stiffen it forward to back. Overall it's a lot better, there is however significant force with the gear lever (being longer then normal) which means you can see the movement. You can see the forward to back movement here. Interesting the twist is worse now as the front is strong, so the front of the bracket doesn't move, but the rear does. The front to back movement I know I can solve by bracing back to the webbing. The side to side is trickier challenge, because of the height of where the cup sits to the bolts. there isn't much angle on the side braces, which means it's easy for it to twist. The bracket is also overhanging a lot compared to it's mounting bolts, which does not make things easy. I also have to be mindful that I need to be able to get the bracket on, the cup, the shift ball receiver, the main shift plate and ultimately the gear lever, so just adding in braces across the middle is not necessarily doable. So the way forward. 3d Scan the new housing so I can get the position of the ribbing (old one had it all cut off) Try and get a more accurate picture of where it sits in the car, so I can work out how much ribbing is actually staying. Consider bracing the left side down to the next bolt lower. Consider bracing to the ribbing. Consider bracing to the gearbox cross member.

The rear pan was so dented up I had to hammer and sandbag it into shape then run it through my mini English wheel to smooth it all out. Starting to take shape now.

TWO JOBS IN ONE DAY WHAT THE FRANK! Fitted the tail light I bought in Japan. The one in the car was cloudy as fuck. 900$ well spent.

Wowwee thread dredge from page 8. I do still own thus. Failed its last wof on brakes. I had previously put in a new master but it never seemed to pull up properly so got the factory one refurbished. Threw some new shoes and cylinders at the front wheels too and damn the brakes feel way better. Still driving it a bunch. Almost every weekend. Unsure what ill do with it next year. Maybe move it on. Maybe put something with a bit more power in it. Unsure

Some pics for no reason,more of the same so don't look if you don't like pictures of this motor cycle

The stock bearings are Taiho, as are the OEM ones I got. I get what you're saying, but at over $250 for a set of genuine bearings, I want to make sure they'll be any different, and fix my issue, before I buy them.

Hey @dmulally, feel free to call in your way passed with the disco if you need to stretch your legs. I imagine you are already on your way to collect?

Been a month and slightly distracted with Mercedes stuff. Chucked a couple of gaskets and a coolant temp sensor in the order with the flywheel stuff for the tonner. Installed the temperature sensor so that's progress of sorts. Still procrastinating chopping the radiator support panel out and replacing it. The old seam sealer around the firewall has cracked and gone shit so I've wire brushed and squirted some brunox on. Will need to re seam seal it(find the seam sealer I purchased recently) and re seal it. Probably should order some paint matched aerosol cans so I've got one less excuse not to do it. Still need to get a bottle of gas for the tig welder but need to let the bank recover after the latest parts order

Not quite overnight parts from Japan but about a week from Latvia Conversion clutch kit and all the shifter bushes and clips, new release Bearing and slave cylinder. Honda genuine packaging feels a bit 'nicer' with its Honda branded bags VS Mercedes genuine in a generic plastic bag The clutch kit was a expensive gamble as it's designed for the newer common rail diesels and I've just seen a bunch of info saying they should work. First moment of truth /relief. Yes the plate fits. Thank you Mercedes for not changing the input shaft spline for 30 odd years of gearboxes Old om606 clutch disc VS the new one More bigger is more better right?

A mere 11 years after finishing this car and 1 year after finding the right badge for the boot I've finally fitted it.

Ok bbq it is. We could do Purau bay. Right on the beach spec? To help all our cars rust along nicely etc + shed/deck beers at baarts the week after

And of course the gunk at the top of the arch also gets into the bottom of it as well. For some reason i didnt do this area on the drivers side, and its not becasue its good! Drilled the dog leg out to reuse, its been patched (with braze) already, but i need to reuse it Doesnt look too bad but all these panels had sections with pitting and pinholes Didnt take many photos of the process of making patch panels and etc, but there is a lot of new metal here it was just easier to cut it out and remake than try to patch the rustholes. this is just after installing the lower third of the dog leg patch panel. Now the new sills will have something decent to join to. and cleaned up - ive left the original brazed patch in as it was still good, and i think cutting it out and letting in a new bit would have made it worse. Also for some weird reason it makes me smile to think that someone in the future restoring this might think this has only been repaired the once, way back in the day The back of it all got rust trated and primed etc before going back on, whcih is way better than it was so it should last another 40 years. and then a pic of round 27 of 58 fill 'n sands, still a few wobbles to smooth out... Apart from the drivers side rear dog leg that will need more or less the same work as this side, we are pretty much at the point now where the next step is to have the (bonded) windscreen removed to make a start on working my way down the A-pillars starting with the plenum corners, which i have patches for the outer - the inner will need some work too but ill make those. Anyway I dont think the rust has got up behind the windscreen and the surround and inside the door jambs looks good, but having the screen out will make it much easier to both know for sure and make a proper job of the repairs i already know i need to do. One bite at a time...

So that brings us to Coronet Peak Hillclimb Weekend. Hard to believe it's been a year since the last one! @GARDRB, @Roman, @Rhyscar and Josh flew down from the North Island for a dirty weekend in Queenstown supporting me and apparently driving my Legacy through terrain most people would think is impossible for that kind of car. I really enjoyed having people in town for it and they seemed to enjoy themselves too. I'm very keen to push for an OS weekend in Queenstown for next year's hillclimb. We kicked of with the car display on the Queenstown waterfront. Old mate from Luis Vuitton wasn't stoked about having riff-raff out front, but we had a permit so he can GTFO. Then we mucked around for a while, did scrutineering and had devil burger for dinner after 10pm. Check out this weird creation that was at scrutineering. A Smart car with crazy aero and a 1650cc+ modified Hayabusa engine. Competition in the 2L class was pretty tough this year. Brad Rule entered in his impressive K20 EG Civic and Andrew Gibson brought his K20 Lotus Elise along. Both cars had a power/weight advantage over me and I was sure they'd both be a few seconds up the road. Brad's Civic has a very spicy K20 that is rumoured to be from Reg Cook's Nissan NX Coupe land speed racer. I pitted next to Martin from HPA. We'd got him ready for the hillclimb and it was his first ever motorsport event! Pretty cool that he could get started in the wild little widebody B18C City: From there it was into the runs. I had 3 runs with a mildly moist run in the middle of the day. My times were looking good leading into the last run of the day. In the last run of the day I was on for a blinder! My lap timer said I was over 3 seconds up on my earlier run... When I struggled to get into 2nd gear and lost at least two seconds at the tight hairpin. Gah! Here's the video: It was still my fastest run of the day and now I know there's at least a 1.36 in the car next year.... The 1.38.3 sat me in 2nd place behind Brad's Civic and in front of the yellow Elise. The whole day was another great one yet again and I'm stoked to have been involved with organising it this year. ... Oh and after all of the time we spent together over the weekend, this is the only pic I can find that has all 5 of us (you can just see the top of my hat behind the car). Who's coming next year?

Another month, another batch of updates. things coming together quickly now. Given the state of the shell from when it was first blasted, super happy with how it's all coming together with everything substantial now fixed. Only minor things left to go f1696895-25d5-4ab1-abf0-0bfe5164bdd7 by phillipbaines, on Flickr d56dbad2-5bdb-421b-b3cb-ff398a9cdc27 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 932dba84-1ed1-417b-9984-93b24b2641de by phillipbaines, on Flickr 11d31d39-40f9-46a0-ab2b-445e3aad9d5e by phillipbaines, on Flickr 30eacb2d-d953-45f5-a881-8f87088aaae7 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 0c8dbef2-ecf2-46be-a74f-12cab18432a3 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 7e62f48b-8837-4728-b5f8-5f6ec843e19e by phillipbaines, on Flickr b1feeefe-63ed-4e1b-b9d6-2178101d64dc by phillipbaines, on Flickr 12b25a95-490d-4df4-a183-ca407aaa34ba by phillipbaines, on Flickr 5567033e-75f8-4009-a7fd-6f0c4ae2e11b by phillipbaines, on Flickr 7ed1df7b-b6f4-4d91-ab45-6a80e8875780 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 5573dac3-9078-438f-93a9-c844e28a816d by phillipbaines, on Flickr 7367c64e-f2c3-4306-9692-6b2c0eae54f5 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 1eb5fdcc-434f-45e5-bf01-51fa003883f0 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 53d1e9d0-d7fe-455b-bfb5-7470c86d56ff by phillipbaines, on Flickr 51c001dc-1d9c-4e71-85f7-e01a6fd2cd62 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 7d194afa-0ed3-4590-a458-744377dfbf9b by phillipbaines, on Flickr 71ce1853-209a-496f-867f-bd3a73541611 by phillipbaines, on Flickr a2af51bc-c711-441c-860c-896b46d50f62 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 80de8f22-e9c6-4122-ab11-814e1c35bbd5 by phillipbaines, on Flickr Discussion:

So in typical me fashion I was over thinking things and focusing on a detail that's important but not that important. Ring gear is important but I am comparing a auto ssangyong Btr flex plate to a Mercedes manual dual mass so things may not be identical there. I had a brainwave on the way home from work. No one likes a floppy unsupported shaft. A input shaft would appreciate a pilot bearing, a pilot bearing in the correct place. And this is my picture. The gearbag input shaft ends a few mm past the face of the bellhousing. The face of the crank is recessed from the face of bellhousing So therefore the single mass (with pilot bearing in the crank) will result in a floppy unsupported shaft. The dual mass has its own pilot bearing inside. Here's some pics of the conversion flywheel showing the pilot bearing being in the flywheel Which means me being 90% sure the gearbag I've got is single mass spec was wrong. That's also excellent news as I'm not hunting for rocking horse poo flywheels, the sprinter conversion kits use the larger clutch disc. The valeo conversion kits have been reported to hold up to 400 internet horsepower. In keeping with the every expense spared theme from the musso I'll be ordering the cheapest alternative kit I can find. Even if I manage to double the om662 stock output it's only half what the 606 people are pushing through the valeo kits so it'll do the job fine Yes dual mass is smoother but it's a 46 year old work Ute and has a old Holden red pushrod lump in it which isn't exactly the pinnical of smooth refined motoring

Bored of halftrack now. / couple of outside pics for Fred.

Almost done. I'm either going to take some outdoor shots inc. background, or add some figures. Also, the care package arrived from Canadia, photo etch for the 1/25 AMT D8 Cat. I've been main-lining Diesel Creek videos on YouTube so it's going to be proper fucked. / I may have to build the PBY for a bit of a rust rest // pic

It seems I have totally underestimated how awesome a quality set of brakes pads can be. just bed in the winmax pads, like holy shit, it stops like a motherfka now, and pin straight, no pulling etc. this thing is insanely fun to drive now knowing I can stop when I need to. pedal throw and feel is so perfect. $271 worth of pads and a change in master size. Worth it

Many camping trips later... Its that time of year when I vaguely entertain the idea of getting this thing ready for the holidays. I haven't actually bothered with a WOF for a couple of years but I might feel generous and get it one soon. The draw bar was a bit neglected and been showing its age. Its been in the back of my mind how much of a bitch it would be if it let go somewhere remote.. So I took it to work over the weekend and the front fell off: On close inspection the steel wasn't too bad but it was probably a good thing to replace it - better for my piece of mind anyway Ghost bar Then got some 75x50 duragalv, a new braked coupling etc and after a couple of hours: That aint going no where. I had a good poke around at the rest of the chassis and its mint so that's good. Towed it home and got to work with the black paint: Picked up a roll of brake line today, and am 3D printing some clamps for it and the LPG line, then assembly time followed hopefully by a wof. Plan is to make some sort of box on the front instead of having the fibreglass fairing which does wreck the original vibe, but the extra space will trump the looks. Will be something like this but custom made because I'm a sucker for punishment: Lovely.

Well she got washed and dropped off to the certifier. this paint just blings off in the sun, love it I know there will be a couple of things that I only noticed when I dropped it off. Couple of grommets around the front brake lines and 3 P clips instead of the factory metal fold over tabs. and I wasn’t aware that you need receipts for braided fuel line. of course I never kept that, so I just purchased 4m of -6an ptfe that I’ll swap out just to not be a Kent. for a hardcore hotrod guy he actually thinks it’s awesome. But he did also rate the hunter. hoping the list doesn’t get too big. Did supply a flash drive of the build photos for the seat mounts, handbrake set up and anything else that was cunty to remove or covered up.

Sorted out the last of the little jobs to finish off. wipers - check washers - check swap brake and tail light feed - check only things to do now is the bumper brackets (finally found them). and decking. so I decided to run the gauntlet and drive to Hampton Downs, passed atleast 6 cops just along Mercer-meremere. it drives so damn good. Smoothest ride and the 12a just hummmms along at 3000rpm @100kph.

She’s back home!!!!! 16 weeks of tidying up loose ends, rebuilding the entire driveline and making some things a little betterer. even got to take it out to Awhitu for a drive. holy heck, it drives so nice with the 4 link and coilovers. And comfy its happy place at cruising is around 3000rpm in 4th @80kph. Haven’t got near a 100km zone yet.

Got the call yesterday that the ute will be ready for pick up on Friday, woo hoo. Finally. Just over 4 months she’s been gone. Time flies. in that time it’s had the following work carried out: engine rebuild with machined o ring housings carb rebuild dizzy rebuild gearbox strip and reseal rear caliper rebuild handbrake cable manufacture fuel system work (level sender mod, tank finishing), tank breather/rollover valve. all new ball joints and tie rod ends etc new rotors and pads custom hub centric spacers new wheels/tyres brake master rebuild (cos stealth ride are cocks) diff rebuild bump stops full exhaust system electronic speedo sensor install and haltec calibration Wheel alignment once it’s back I will need to finish off the flooring in the deck do the pre cert wof check and a couple of small things like new windscreen washer hose. looking forward to the day I pick it up all legal.

Still no new pics. but it runs!! then the box got pulled out to be resealed as it was leaking from the split case joints. Doing shaft seals while theyr at it. internals looked good. wilwood master was sent to sterling to be sorted out. Stealth ride have been absolute homos and not even offer warranty at all. but now the brakes have pressure!! fuel tank now has a rollover valve thing located inside the wellside side panel. not much left to do now. handbrake cable will be shipped out next week, then the box will go back in. ive ordered 15x6 rims for the front cos for some reason the drivers wheel sits at -0.3 degree of camber while the passengers is -1.5 degrees with no shims. The drivers wheel pokes by 15mm more than the left. very odd, so well fit a +3p 15x6 to help this. once all of that is done it will get a wheel alignment and get road tuned. then it’ll come home to get the deck floor finished off before cert. soooooo close now

Update time: So insurance eventually processed our claim and lumped some cash into our account to pay for the repair with as the repairer isnt in their system. I headed to Hamilton very early in the morning a few days before Christmas to collect which was good timing as we needed most of the gear inside for our new years camping trip (with the camper trailer, not caravan). Dave had the old panels inside his shop which was interesting seeing how they are made. We had a good chat about all things caravan and I paid him some money and went on my way... however the first mistake I made was not pulling the caravan into the sun to take a look at the new panels. In the darkness of his workshop the new panels looked super straight with only a bit of workshop dust on them. However by the time I got back home and parked the caravan in the sun I realised that the paintwork is a bit patchy... Im annoyed at myself for not checking this out closer when I picked it up. It wasn't obvious in the workshop but yeah... silly me. Ive emailed Dave and he said it might need a cut and buff. In my mind its not my job to do having paid for a repair, so trying to work something out with him to get this sorted. In the mean time I took it for a long overdue wof and it sailed through with a clean sheet again. We took it away to Kauri Coast over anniversary weekend and we had an excellent time - we even won a campground competition for best setup. I still need to get the water tank out for a good clean and setup the electric pump so will hopefully get that done before summer is out. Away to Raglan for Waitangi weekend.