Leaderboard

Starting the repairs where they're most obviously needed, I got stuck in replacing the front passengers side floor. I still had the template from doing the same job on my Mk2 so I used that to bead roll up a new panel. This was welded in pretty roughly in hindsight, but I was hoping to get the major repairs done pretty quickly and not get too deep in the weeds as had happened on the red car. I also made a start cutting out the rotten parts of the outer sill ready to weld in a reproduction panel I'd already bought for the Mk2. I can't remember why exactly, but this was when I paused and went back to the Mk2. Shortly thereafter, the house flooded and a lot of reprioritisation happened. Moving house meant I no longer had space to store both cars. Given how much the red car meant to me there was never a question about it taking priority under cover, but finding a home for the Mk1 was trickier. Eventually I had to resort to a kind family member offering up a corner of their paddock. It was far from the ideal place to preserve the car, but it's better than losing it entirely. There she sat for three years until last week when I moved it once more. This time to my old man's place. The time in the paddock has definitely not been kind to it, but my resolve to fix it is unshaken. I'm still going to finish the red car first, but hopefully by then we'll have saved up enough for another new place with enough space to store both cars at the same time. The plan is to make the red car as good a daily car as I can (efi, modern seats, more extensive suspension changes etc), and keep this car fairly standard with period mods, I.e. Standard interior and steats, carbed 2L pinto and type 9, standard suspension with lowering blocks etc. I think it'd be cool to have both versions of essentially the same car. Don't expect any updates here any time soon though, but definitely one day. Give me another few years.

So besides the nostalgia, the reason I jumped on this car was old mate who owned it had already had the thing repainted in the original colour, had the interior re dyed, put a carpet kit in it, aswell as new front and rear window rubber at the time of the paint job. It came with boxes of parts, an almost complete second interior including a dash, and a bunch of receipts. And my boy math told me I couldn't have all this work done for the price I was paying for the car, and it was all stuff I didn't have to do.. so it was an easily justified purchase. When I got the car it didnt have a wof and old mate told me he could sort one, I told him not to bother because I knew the yearly wofs were becoming a thing in September. I took the car back to the same place old mate had been going to and the same mechanic who had been doing all the work on the car. It almost past with a clean sheet but on the drive there the plastic grommet on the throttle cable broke and so started sticking intermittently. I took it for the wof anyway and to my surprise it was the only thing I needed to fix. Got the part in a couple days offline and fit it one day after work. Took it back the next week and got a yrs wof, WOO! First thing I did after getting the car even before the wof was lower it, not for the lols but because like most landcrabs it had sagged on one side and it was easier to go down then up.. I also took out all the trinkets and stickers oldmate had left on it, they werent for me.. The next thing I wanted to fix on the car was some brown trim that was left behind. The carpet was done in black and the seats had been dyed from brown to white. Snagged some black trim from work and smashed in out. (Also misses got me some playmat floor mats 😅) After that, I had a friend's father gift me some sound deadening he had left over from his build. It was a pain in the ass to get in the doors due the limited access but totally worth it. Luckily enough there was enough do all 4 doors

While digging all the shit out of the interior I found an old bus ticket from a Ruakaka school with a name on it. I found the person on Facebook (now somewhat older) and sent them a message asking if they knew any history about the car. They put me onto their mum who told me about owning the car from 86 through to the early 2000s before they couldn't afford the repairs anymore and had to park it up. She deregistered it and it ended up passed along at some time or another. She even found an old photo of herself and the car from back in its heyday. The rego starts HG which has special meaning for me anyway (related to my username), I have contact with the last registered owner, and it used to drive around where I grew up. This all points to this being a car I have to save.

So the boat is done and back onto my beloved chev. I ended up having one of my trademark changes of heart and after some nagging from my cert man went back to the original plan of the death by a million sensors bmw. Started off by taking out the old crossmember and gearbox mount. Then time to get this thing prepped for mock up. Well that aint good. Apparently a common fault. What seemed to be 5 billion nuts and bolts later it's as good as new. Then time to put the torque converter on the exchanged gearbox (I still dont know which TC and box I have but it now fits). Usual faff around with the TC to flexplate bolts that everybody has to go through and she's ready. I'll put the front wheels back on and then wiggle it about to see where it best fits. The alternator is a little close to the chassis but not fouling it. Next thing will be to get the gearbag crossmember sorted out and then try and get the cert man to make the trip out to advise me on the mounts. I'm going to try and use the chev rubber mounts and chassis bracket. But I'll let him figure that out. My kingdom for a rolling gantry!

Honed the bores they aren't 100% perfect some water marks remain but well down bore so they'll just retain oil and ive heard thats a good thing (thats probably bullshit) but im not an engine builder so from trash to not bad will do. 3 pistons down on filing rings fuck my life this is tedious im regretting not buying a ring filer its working though at least I have the ring expander thats saved my fingers no end. Photos before and after.

With the catches on the bonnet up, it looks like an RC car

In Wellington atm, working on getting it rolling might end up getting it running/driving as close to stock as I can. Trying to get some quotes to ship it over to Melbourne. But given it currently doesn't even have a handbrake going to be a task and not sure what my options are Sorting through what I have still and what's missing/boxing things up to ship etc Steve is happy to store, so may have to make some trips over as I buy parts, may see if I can track down a parts car Trying not to feel defeated currently Edit: been pillaging the ae110 at pickapart this morning (30/12)in the rain. 3hrs and more money then I expected to spend ive got a fair amount of interior, a very dirty ac/heatercore setup (with vents) various hardware and other bits. Debating going back later/tomorrow to get more, but need to take stock of what ive got, didnt manage to get any space savers. Couple of people wrecking cars around the place, and I need to organise someone to come do seam sealing over the seam welding and reseal the underside. Along with popping out a small dent near the fuel cap/look at one of the jacking points.

I was scrolling Facebook during smoko as one does, and up came a marketplace listing for a Mk1 Estate with FREE as the price. Assuming the price was just bollocks to get people to click, I had a look anyway cause it's not often Estates come up. Once I was actually on the listing, I realised it was genuine and ol' mate really was trying to get rid of this car for free. I also quickly realised it'd been listed literally a few seconds ago. Thinking it'd be useful for spares or even just as a reference for my Mk2, I flicked the guy a message to find out about what the deal was. He'd picked it up as a Covid project but upon collecting it realised it was beyond him to fix and he'd let it sit. As long as I could pick it up that morning, it was mine. He even had it on a trailer ready to go. I wasn't about to pass up that opportunity. Got the go ahead from the boss to take a long smoko and shot off in my trusty 1.8L legacy to do its best. After giving the poor clutch a good hiding I managed to get the car home and off the trailer. The rooted wheels and tyres that came on it were no good for getting it off the trailer, but with a bit of sketchy scissor jack action I got all the wheels swapped to my turbos and rolled it off. It wasn't in fantastic condition but after getting rid of all the dead leaves and general shit, it was actually in much better shape than I expected. Both chassis rails were mint all the way back, inner guards were fine. In fact, the only really unsalvageable panels were the front guards, front floors, door skins, rear hatch, and the outer sills. All panels you can either buy reproductions of relatively cheaply, or I already have spares of. Or I can make of course. Next I dug through the interior a bit. Everything was present in varying states of disrepair. There was some awful shag carpet in the back that quickly found the bin. The seats were all there, headlining, rear trim, everything. The only thing missing was the dash cluster. Given this car is a Super Estate, it would have had the six dial cluster which is sought after for RS replicas. I'm not totally surprised it'd been knicked at some stage. Feeling pretty stoked up to now, I had a look under the bonnet. True to word, there was a 1.6L Pinto with otherwise totally standard manifolds and accessories. I'm not sure if the 1.6 is standard for this trim, but I'd have to assume so cause why would you swap in the smaller pinto if given the chance? Even the wiring was fully intact in here, with only the battery missing. For a laugh, I hooked some jumper leads up to the battery terminals, pulled the plugs, and bridged the starter solenoid. Bugger me, it turned over. No smoke from any wiring, no awful noises. With the plugs back in it even sounded like it had at least some compression as well. I made sure there was at least some oil in it, cleaned the points a bit and threw some fuel down the carb. Kicked it in the guts again and fuck me, it caught! A few hours of fiddling later and I had it starting on the key first pop almost every time. Note also the dash cluster my father in law also had lying around which plugged straight in. With how well everything is going, this car is quickly making its way up from reference car to a project in its own right. Join the discussion

Should add some boot catches and buggy whip aerial you reckon?

Assembly is well underway

The top shock mount on the CRF frame was offset to the right and way too narrow for the new shock. I cut the left-hand lug off and repositioned it around 15mm to the left: With all of that done, time to trial fit the shock and see what it's like: Everything will be tidied up a lot when it's stripped down, but for now I can get it on it's wheels and design the seat frame and side panels.

No wind but still had a good time drifting about and motoring.

fucking christ, what the fuck is wrong with me. i bought this thing off Tom @yetchh about August of 2018. it was at my house for about 13 hours until i shipped it up to Denham's house in Wellsford, which then became Chris's house. and there it has sat for the last 7 years. ive seen it twice since then. each time just long enough for me to forget how much work it needs. today NIck the sparky gave me a hand and we drug it out of its hole and now its in my workshop. why. why the fuck do i do this.... anyeho, i have no fucking idea what im going to do with it (apart from sell it, that's a definite, im not keeping this thing) it goes, well it did 7 years ago. its got a 5MG and its manual. i have no idea what box is in it. it looks way less shit in the photos than it actually is. it has no boot floor as is the fashion. paint is really fucked and there is some rust spots in the roof that need fixing. not much rust anywhere else which is nice. fuck.

Right, long time no activity.. I feel at this point its been so long I almost need to reintroduce myself... Anyway... when I was younger and most active on here I had an austin 1300 (amoung other cars), it was my first old car, loved it, learnt alot and meet alot of you good people because of it. I then ruined it and sold it regretfully. Fast forward.. years... and I am in a position where I am fortunate enough to live close to where I work and throught to myself "the misses has the family car... i could walk to work if i had to... it doesn't matter what I drive..." and them proceeded to sell my reliable daily and get on the hunt. I then found locally, a very nice and cared for example of the same car i regretted selling the most. So here we are, I'm back to where I started but in a lot better example. Ive owned it since August and have been daily driving it ever since, just like I did when I was 17.. the nostalgia is real and Im thinking at this rate ill do what I can to not get rid on this one.. Anyway, pictures? Old austin first New one Work progress in next post to come with less (more) waffle. discussion - https://oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/91917-greenies-1974-austin-1300/

With most of my work on the Galaxie being done now, it’s time for me to focus on George. The new drawbar has been welded on, and I’ve wire buffed and painted the chassis where I can access it while the floor was opened up. I got stuck in the other day, cut out the lower rail of the right front corner and made up a new one that’s a one piece routed design to be a bit more solid than the original 2 piece. Next I folded up some 2mm aluminium to reinforce the munted up bottom edge of the front panel. Plan for tomorrow is to put the right hand side of the floor back, then look into the left hand corner and see what needs to be rebuilt there.

Pretty good score really. What I am going to tell you is that you have set a really small font on the project page text.

The mount boss looks like this: There will be quite a few of these around the bike. They're an interference fit into the tubes and are seam welded round. Final bit of the swing arm (for now) is the shock absorber mount bush. Turned from nylon with a steel interior tube this pushes into the swing arm mount boss.

Stepped away from the table saw today as I really wanted to get the alternator sorted and the van back on the road. After last night's post I suddenly remembered that I don't have to pull the radiator to get the alternator out, just the lower radiator hose. So out that came and I was able to tip the alternator onto its nose and wiggle it out from the top. Here is my threaded rod bodge in all it's glory: As you can see it's bloody long. Anyhoo I've written down it's dimensions and on my next trip into town I'll try one of the other local bolt suppliers to see if they can help me out. But in the mean time I've removed the second locking nut and welded the remaining nut on the one end. Tidied my weld with a flapper disk and then spritzed a smidge of satin black on to make it look half decent. Chucked the "bolt" back in with a 1mm packing washer between the alternator mounting lug and the engine bracket and the belt alignment looks much better. Time will tell I guess as previously it was chewing belts out on the inside edge. Thanks for looking.

As expected the newly redded red bits are red, in fact much redder than the top of the windscreen and right rear guard. Similar(ish) to to the front left guard and the boot lid though

Just picked this jem up rego on hold Runs drives 1939 hillman Starters conked out and carb leaks but it dose run moved up drive ect can't wait to drive it

I’m back, with another tale of scatterbrain and determination! Stoke the fire and Settle in with a choice beverage. With my whole life situation completely different to a year ago, having no decent old schooler to drive ( ‘82 isn’t my speed)..I felt I’d lost my identity. The late 50’s GM range had really taken my fancy lately. Not so big on the Chev range, but Oldsmobile/Buick/pontiac/Cadillac for sure. They are big, ostentatious and dripping in space-race atomic era mid century modernism. 58 was the year they could legally have twin headlights, which give them a meaner demeanour I reckon. The 58 Buick line had THE MOST polished trim you could get on a factory motorcar..just nudging past the Cadillac. Id been chasing 58-59 mercury and Edsel wagons but not finding much, and after studying the GM’s, the fords didn’t have the same edge I was after. Mopars are sick but stylistically a few years behind.. I needed a 195* this time. Marketplace scrolling start of June found me this 58 Buick special in Rotorua. Shit pictures, vague description. Its was 8k. Not looking too bad, don’t really want another project. Saved. I toyed with the idea of a 64 wildcat coupe that was local, complete and running. Needs some rust and compliance. Easy. Not the end goal, but something old and cool to cruise with a [for sale] sign on it. $13k and getting cheaper. But I couldn’t get past that 58. I did a deep dive and I couldn’t not have one now. Shame nobody had one for sale. One bloke had a Century but his neighbour had first dibs and ended up with it. However, he said he may know where a diff was. Start of august I Started asking questions about the marketplace 58, met with short unhelpful answers via the wife. Do you have any more pictures? Are car specific items Complete? Hows the chrome? … We’ll get back to you in a week or two. No rear seat, driveline. Best to get a container. Container hire and shipping $4k. And likely to turn up looking like a mixing bowl. Nah. End of august, how are you going with those photos? … Whole time I’m silently obsessing, looking for parts and generally in a frenzy with no decent info. Then I was searching random related things on trademe and found it actually listed on there, 6k and auction ending in a couple of days! No bids, one extra photo though! From the q&a section I found out the wheels were actually gone, gone too..bugger. More should I,shouldn’t I. Max Anxiety etc. With no bids the Auction ends, I’m thinking it will be reposted, no worries. Can always message the marketplace chat and sort something later if not. But Hot damn, now my shipping budget has squared up. I ring him and eke out more info, cracked screen…Totally stripped further than original photos. “Hire a container”. Ding. The seller has offered fixed price @ 5k’ A few days until offer expires and I’m searching the world for a screen now because that could be a deal-breaker for compliance. Found one, about $1500 landed. Looking like I’ll be running a small block chev and a 10 bolt as the Buick stuff is rare. September 1st, paid in full. Ok so I’ve got a few quotes from Wise Move.. I’ll fly up, drag it out and assemble it, fly home and someone will transport back to chch. I’ll have a wee tiki tour while there. The cars in a container on axle stands in a storage facility. The parts are in a house bus project at a transport yard other side of the lake. That’s fine I’ll rent a van and there’s a few towies in town. The big pisser is these cars were about the last GM to have a torque tube..the trans bolts to a tube containing a driveshaft that bolts to the quirky big diff pinion. Panhard bar and a couple of radius rods running forward to a mount on the torque tube itself. I’ll never find one complete and it’s common in US for people to do open driveshaft conversion with a Pontiac diff. I’m aiming for easy compliance process so want original gear or period correct..think 283/powerglide/10 bolt and make it look like factory? Same as a chev would have had. NZ got a fair few 58 checks. Message a few sellers, form some plans but still a bit early for this level of organisation. so I’m thinking marketplace again, change it to Rotorua with a 400km radius: get an old diff and strop it to chassis, buy some wheels which will be different front to whatever the back end would be. Doesn’t matter just needs to roll for shipping. Or shoot to repco for hubs and stubs and an engineer for some pipe.. make a trailer beam, some workshop will let me weld that quickly. I haven’t seen under a stripped 58 and don’t really know what to expect so won’t be able to sort much until Saturday morning. Maybe a couple of sack barrows from Bunnings to get it out of container and onto tow truck? Marketplace again fills me with hope - a lady selling parts from a 56 4 door special. She’s got a whole driveline,springs, radiator, refreshed 322 and a Dynaflow trans..it’s only 8 hours driving to get to levin & back but it will solve some problems. Much research revealed that it’s a pretty different setup. Have to run a smaller motor as trans won’t fit the 58’s 364, unsure if the tube will be too long or too short. Motor is 5k which isn’t bad but how will I get it in the van and out + into the chassis at the other end. Let me know when you are ready and I’ll book flights etc and come straight up: 2nd october “can do Saturday 11th” Turns out he’s actually crook so this wasn’t a priority despite being all I could think about. Woooo! Fights, accomodation, rental van, airport parking all booked in quick succession. Good ole oldschool, post asking about Rotorua residents gets me in touch with Gaz who’s got a spot in his shed just out of town. I met him once at OS nats, shitfaced. Fucking legend! This was a huge help, as I was picturing working on gravel outside in a yard or driveway I hadn’t yet found. A few messages with Gaz, They are out of town that weekend lol… but the shed will be perfect, there’s a couple of jacks and a set of wheel dollies under the cortina. YES! Teed up a towie, all is good I pour a bag of bikkies into several bowls for the cat, pack some tools, head torch, fruitcake + a gedder dun attitude and fly up Friday arvo. In the rental, straight out to grab the Dollie’s. Blown away by the facility and setting! Trying to dial in the towie and he says he’s off to ozzy, might be able to get a fill in. Scroll marketplace again for the millionth time: Nailhead, Buick, chev wheels, HQ mags, diff, 283 v8, 5x5 rims, whitewalls, wire wheels.. (There’s also the lingering thought.. these use wheel bolts, not nut and stud. Some online things say one side is LH thread. If I don’t have any/enough that could mean derailment of any plan! welding a rim on?) Had a bit of a look around, ran around Waiotapu geothermal place an hour from closing time. Wicked! I’m pining the adventure now. The motel is fuckin grimey. Cheapest non-hostel room available but the road noise is horrific, hasn’t been updated or cleaned properly since the 70’s and the water pressure is wack.. booked it partly cause There’s a hot pool on site. Trying to dial in the towie and he says he’s off to ozzy, might be able to get a fill in. Cun+y. Hours pass, hes ghosted me. Rang another place and got the after hours lady, was going to check in with the guy on call. He rang and wasn’t too put off, said he’d ring in the morning. Up early after a shithouse sleep, grab two post off-cuts from the garden of the motel to use as blocks, and meet him and his son at the storage yard. Fuuuu, shes definitely stripped out. Has parts inside it but most are his sons! Some tins with nuts bolts brackets screws etc which look imperial.. He puts some wheels of his on the front, a dolly with wood stacked on under the middle-back of the chassis. It’s moving well! Where’s that tow truck at? Gave that number another call and he reckons he can have a guy there in 20. Sweet as, sort through the parts..Japanese vs not Japanese. Finally get a better look at this thing, it’s actually pretty fucking decent! More rust than disclosed but nothing scary. It’s bloody straight apart from RH sill having an indent and the front of the 1/4 has been pushed in a tad. That wasn’t a surprise, could see something was up in the initial photo. I might have won here! Truck shows up, initial fears allayed ‘just send it bro’. It winches on the pull-out bed fine. Looking janky but secure, I follow him out to gaz’s and nothing falls off. ART IMITATES LIFE/ foreshadowing Disembarking was a cinch on flat ground. Now off to the bus to get the rest of the parts. Oh Lordy Hey fuck these panels are really good! Jesus, there’s a set of hubcaps! Van loaded, his GMC loaded and we’re off back to the shop. Everything but the inner guards is now scattered around the shed, I’m on my own and I’m a pig in shit! Umm nothing is labelled. Nothing is bagged or labelled at all Ugh I tiredly yet excitedly pinballed around all the boxes taking stock and making piles of related items. Started sorting nuts bolts screws washers into groups, then splitting into sets. Right, I’ll start with windows and doors.. that shits pretty generic. About 5 hours of putting together/taking apart/distractions/adjustments and I’ve got glass in and moving. Doors hung and clasping. The rear glass rolls down and then pivots back real stylishly to tuck inside the body..fizzing Shagged and dirty I head back to the motel for a golden shower-spec wash up and some cans. Hot tub? so I investigate and it’s locked.. no relaxation for me. I message that guy who had a 58 century he sold to his neighbour. The diff in question was still available. Has the tube and a trans x-member too. Well…. What are you up to tomorrow, I’ll come and get it? I made some ear plugs out of wet napkin paper and get a better sleep but Up early and on the road, weather sucks so not much sight-seeing happening. I arrive in Napier, meet up. Holy fuck this is a massive diff! Some weird wasp stings my neck but it didn’t come to anything thankfully. Spot 5 wheels in the corner, investigate, turns out they are chev 15” with massive balloons on, but the centre bore fit the diff so a deal was struck. He threw in an old air cleaner he had no use for too, rapt. Back to Rotorua and 4 more hours assembling before retiring again. Hot tub locked again. Dang Trunk lid assembled and on, shes looking like a veee-hickle. How rad that the dealer badge was still amongst the parts! I’ve always wanted one. Thats a place in Manitoba, CANADA! Must have been their summer car cause it’s way more sturdy than it should be! The title is Washington state. Monday morning I shuffle in and sling more parts on, add some wheels..WTF the hubcaps fit hahaha. Much fitting and unfitting and now the dash is complete and all the trims around window secure. Many of the trim clips are rusty/snapped or missing so I can’t hang all the cool shit on for transport unfortunately. The diff is now under the car. Would you believe, it’s the one sold out from under my car originally! The snipped handbrake cable and brake lines confirm. How good! stuff piles getting smaller. Do you even have a factory 5kg Sonomatic valve radio..thought so Peep the details in the side flash! I spend what seems like 2 hours wrestling the torque tube through the frame and lining up internal blind splines 300mm inside the diff pinion. The uni joint is fuckin cooked and the yolk was flopping around so it was pretty shit for a time. There’s a hole for greasing; filled with a bung so I could get my finger in and try guide it some. Started with long bolts and pulled it onto the spline then subbed out the bolts to shorter and repeat until married! Talked some shop and assembled the headlights/buckets/rings/bezels. One side was like brand new, was bizarre. I get a call from the motel saying they are upgrading water system so wont have any hot water for the week and did I want to stay or transfer to another place in town. There’s also a takeaway right across the street so they are getting my money. TRANSFER ME BABY! I showed up filthy and he understood I wasn’t going to come right with a cold shower so I moved into town. Instant stink of durries when I opened the door (smoke free suite), it was tidier but not by much. BUT they had a fucking spa in the room so I filled that bitch and soaked away my pains, I was feeling it after a few days of rolling around in the car and under it. Would have been lush to have a dart in that spa but didn’t want to push my luck. Instead I messaged a guy from a hot rod classified page that had a motor and trans out of a 59 for sale for ages. Listed as stuck piston unknown trans @ $1500 id be a fool to pass that up now I have the rest of the driveline to suit. It’s a rare factory 4 barrel so it can Chong more gas and still be slow, moving 1800kg of Buick. Awesome! Now I could take the van up to Hamilton and collect it but that’s pushing myself a bit far. Plus 300kg of dirty old cast iron making its way through the side of the rental would be frowned upon. Also, hard to get it out of van and into the car at Gaz’. Tuesday morning First thing, I had picked up the inner guards from a bloke in town and grabbed some huge bolts for the bumpers. Went to town hanging the front sheet metal and all the bits and pieces, wrangled the rear bumper up and on, same with front. Put together the marker lights and grill..160 chrome squares influenced by the designer looking at knobs for his new kitchen Reno! Shits heavy. By about 4:30 I’m relatively happy with progress, 6 boxes are empty; flattened for recycling and the last bits condensed into a couple of plastic crates, stainless trims methodically placed around the car so as not to chaff on the journey south. Had a sweep up, back into town..spa time nigga. Going back and forward with the transporter guy the last few days wanting to know the earliest it would be ready and he goes cold. Said I’d have it ready about 11. That’s ok there’s other guys quoting around the same money. I’m peaking out a bit ‘cause the she is up a gravel drive and across a bit of paddock then down to a lush pad but car needs to come out on a bit of an angle. Wednesday dawns and I go grab a 4pack of strops, head to partsworld and see if they have any coil springs I can put under the back..I used those aforementioned fence post offcuts but there’s a stud coming out of the body at the top and a stud on the diff housing..both accept a retaining plate. The wood was harsh and it would probably shake the car apart again on the way home if it didn’t split it into kindling. First thought was a couple of rugby balls? But the stitching terminating on the ends, the studs would probably penetrate and pop. Mr. man at partsworld wasn’t as onboard as me with my ‘i need a pair of random coil springs’ request, said they only did Mazda but he went and had a look and returned with a set, including rubber retainer isolators and one end was progressive/tightly wound just like Buick! Fuck mate I’ll have em. Chur Well they actually turned out to be perfect! Might even run them permanently..time will tell if an airbag makes its way in there instead. Used my strops to hold hood on (old mate can’t find the hinges at the moment), another around the torque tube to the X of chassis, and one pulling rear end back towards the bumper..having no trans mounted means the whole assembly could shimmy forward and tyres chaff the body. Not a biggie but nice to try avoid it. Message transporter at 9:30, good to go. No response. Sat here writing this whole blurb until he messages to say hes been out of service, can’t do it but a towie mate will.. he’s on his way from Hamilton. Ok cool, this is something. Mate rings and explains he hasn’t got the winch trailer but if there was a vehicle that could help tow it up ramps it would be a go. Hmm an added level of fuckery but let’s do it. He arrives around 4, we push it out and turn a bit, he’s backed in on the rise. Planned to tow it up with the van and come alongside the trailer and truck. Van has no tow hooks and the plastic bumper is fair flush with the diff..flag. Go pinch the diesel side-by-side and it’s all go, car rolls beautifully and it stropped down. See ya in a couple of days hopefully! I do regret not taking more before pics but I was on a mission and it will come apart again. Most of the car is virgin and remarkable for age. The rust has entered the chat in the front of inner sills, front floor pans, spare wheel well, rear of trunk. Behind the trim on front of front guards, Plus oddball hole on side of hood and beside tail lamp. Has also sweat a bit behind the side flash’s. Might be deep enough pitting to need a patch. Quite manageable. I do need to concentrate on the besties Hakosuka so will try limit myself on Buick .. but we all know how that initial dose of enthusiasm goes! Discuss:

It may have occurred to some that the monoshock Honda frame and dual shock Guzzi swing arm wouldn't work well together. Time to break out the tube kinker and TIG welder and make stuff happen. The tube is 25mm OD x 3mm wall aluminium tube. It bent really well considering.... The front upright triangular box section is made (in 4 parts) from 3mm plate. Shock mount is turned from 6061. I'll strip it out later and finish weld it then.

Yes definitely

Trying to get it to run. Got fuel into the pump and I've hit the injectors with a hammer. However I have discovered some modifications that have been made to the wiring loom, and I'm guessing that they were done by an unskilled worker.

Next one started. Not going to trash it though, I'll save the wrack & ruin for the load. / Keep On Truckin'

Bottom end is the old one out of the starlet. Smallport block, BC rods, Toda pistons, toda pump gears. ARP main studs. Has been sitting around waiting for about a year, wanted to get most of the fab work on the car done before going through it. Pistons have seen some shit but, same condition as previous rebuild. They are actually out of my og 4age build about 1 million years ago. and were even in the trueno for awhile turbo. complete with witness marks from running super tight piston to head and piston to valve this one survived a big end failure in the og build. thats an imprint of the chamber not machine marks. BC rods, Main bearings looked bran new apart from the cap on no5 which was just a little polished up. measured up the same as the rest, putting a new shell in resulted in same measurement. All good here, all in spec. main shells can go another round. These are some of the big end shells, they all looked the same, shiny but nothing terrible. the two on the left are from the caps, which makes sense. since na doesn't make much cylinder pressure, most of the wear is on the cap. All pretty good considering it probably has 1000 dyno runs on it and been spinning up to 10k for quite awhile. Oil pressure did get pretty low at idle with hot oil temps. Which was one of the reasons i wanted to check it over 0. 06mm on the big ends, a little loose. Just happend to have 2 half sets of big ends. on std one .025 oversize. Using combo of both 0.045mm clearance and all 4. So yeah the math says was really no wear on the old bearings. would have been like that the whole time. Obviously fine at that clearance. but some more idle oil pressure without running tar would be nice Bores arent super amazing but wasn't smokey or using oil and made good power. So all back together with all same parts other than the big end shells.

Its been a while bit sometimes life gets in the way. Been making some progress on the inside. Stripped out the interior including head liner. Stripped back half of the sound deading material and back to bare metal. Prepped the floor with rust converter as well.

Haha i remember fitting hot air induction to my first car too. One day you will look back and laugh at this thread. For me it is pretty nostalgic.

Need to lower rear

Lowerd the drivers side 3inches on front going to do rears asap

One of the reasons the engine came out all the years ago was the cracked sump. I probably mentioned it in a previous post, that the 15 year ago me moved the engine back from the factory location. And the current me decided it could stay as is. which means a factory 16v sump doesn't fit. Digging through my junk found a 7a sump. turns out it fits the car perfect. clears x member and sits about flush with the bottom of it. But not so much the engine . 7a and 20v have step in block, 16v blocks are straight. can be seen in the 20v windage tray below. speaking of windage trays, the 16v tray is a bit better design having toyota's attempt at a crank scraper all the way along. 20v item only the front half due to the step. 7a doesn't run one at all. Made the 16v version fit as the sump needed some butchery to fit either one and the 16v block. 20v left 16v right. bit to clear tray and fit block looks something like below. i cut it out and re did it after this picture as it pulled a bit. some ugly cast welds Had to grind material off here and there along with the section above, to get the windage tray to fit. but tray itself is untouched. My ss works 16v pickup (they used to be cheap, so wasn't worth bothering to make your own) happened to fit just right also. only having to relocate one of the legs. sits at correct depth and near back of the bowl. The little baffle tray, that is part of the 7a sump, just needed a little trim around one if the legs and fits back in place Drilled and tapped the j160 adapter, so the 7a sump bolts to it. Worked out well as everything is nicely braced and tied together now. along with extra volume and oil capacity

Heres a link of latest build update if anyone's interested of what's going on and a clip at end of replacement motor starting up and annoying the neghbours ie no exhaust haha cheers guys https://youtu.be/OAD2uie-gOo?si=NFXnelOwOxK4UpFc

Minor update, put all the engine bay back together. Replaced the knackered fan resistor. Starting prepping the roof, fenders & quarters for paint:

Similar state on the passenger side. Epoxy primer and seam sealer. Hopefully no more leaks! I learnt you shouldn't feather seam sealer edges because it will pucker up when painted over. I treated a load of light surface rust around the engine bay & under the radiator supports. Repainted everything. Stoked to have the rust repairs complete! Now it's time to start putting things back together and start on the exterior.

heres a video update if interested cheers

Just brought this motor set up i test drove the parts car monday started run well was alil loud no exhaust ect but was a fair price 1300cc suzuki 4 cylinder 5speed Jimmy motor Came with everything to run carb loom starters ect spear coil and starters Means don't need to modify frame or hopefully keep all steering breaks atlest to test drive engine bay verry small And cars light so should move along fine clutch felt good on test

Painted wheels black Sadly done a compression test and motor has f all compression makes sense why its so hard to start Also startermotor is fried and carb is junk had apart So I think I'm going to engine swap it with something still cylinder due to space and carby cause just be easiest more omph and easier to get parts Still happy with car just old car doing old car things Also decided it needs to be lowerd haha so watch this space

One. Two. Miss a few. 99. Paint! Came out good enough. Satin black for the pillars. PPG 2K epoxy primer, seam sealed & Deltron single stage. The previous repairs stand out quite a bit. There's a bit of dust in these photos from removing the masking.

I had a poke around at the passenger B-pillar. Yikes! These are the last bad bits of rust done. I had a peek under the car and was amazed at how mint it all was, seems like most of the rust was caused by wet carpets and the rest of the body is good. I'm not totally chuffed with that b-pillar repair, it's solid, but could be tidier. The rest I'm happy with.

Did some CAD. Happy days! This gap looks quite big, but it pulled away when I cut this panel, so attempting to put in the same gap.

I love a build thread full of rust repairs, so satisfying. But not something I want to spend my weekend doing... Oh well... I attacked what I thought was the worst. Years of wet carpet has caused this. The sill was sweet inside, lots of wax in there. I removed the rear seats to find this.... Eeeeep. At least the bottom of the tailgate is mint. The top is fucko'd... It really could be better / worse

Bloody Aussie repairs. Hey let's rivet a piece of galv metal over this really large piece of rust, no one will know. Looks like this whole bottom section will need to be replaced.

Also created the rear lower sill including the inner structure which I will also have to replicate on the other side.

Tacked in one of the new lower side sills today after replacing some more inner structure on the passengers side. Some more fitment refining to do but I think it's going to look really good once done.

New piece made up for the rear tailgate. Just need to figure out a way of bending a 2mm edge at the bottom of it, but I think some flat bar in the vice should do the trick.

Got a new addition to the wagon yesterday so had to test fit it. So stoked to have this and it's going to complete the look I'm going after.

Another busy weekend cleaning up the bottom sills and getting a length ready so I can get it all bent up to replace the rotten ones. Then spent a lot of time making up panel patches for rust repairs and the bad door repairs

Suspension is all finished and is now at a panel beater in Swanson for the repair certifier to go through and do his thing. The guy was really nice to talk to and was super helpful. Funny enough out of the 5 certifiers I contacted he was the only one to call me and talk me through the process. In this day and age with the economy the way that it is I thought people would be jumping at the work.