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So the other side got the same treatment, during which the door was hung on the top hinge so that it wouldn't look silly before the channel was welded in place, we found that the door jams weren't far off but the tolerances were generous and once its in the place it can't go forward or backwards that much anyways. I was keen to get the shell out back home before last xmas and me going off to Nam. So I got my trusty steed and the trailer and I got it home.

Took the car to Hampton downs on the long weekend. Almost no prep as I had a busy week at work, but I got there and had an enjoyable day with the family popping by, before heading off to Nana & Grandads 5mins down the road which was sucg an ideal setup. Car ran well, worked through a few setup and basic changes, and learnt lots. Bonus to pit alongside Nick and Taryn, share some yarns and tools! Love the mantra behind the simple fun the Logo provides - intentionally the opposite end of the scale of the Levin. I thought the car was pretty fast, and it puts a massive smile on my face. Managed a 41.5 as my best time - didn't really go there to set any times, but it seems to be an OK pace. Quick Summary: Small track didn't really suit the C60/17" tyre gearing well, so basically used 3rd gear the whole track - but stayed in lift the whole time. Made me want a final drive kit. I found that being a gear higher than in a lower powered (i.e. 4age) car worked well - using the torque to pull out of corners rather than upsetting it with another gear change shortly after the apex. This is consistent with my learning at Manfield - something I need to adjust my driving style for. Had a few oil related cuts - tweaked the RPM limit tables a bit, but didn't want to go much further without properly understanding the data. I suspect I'm getting oil surge (all the corners except for 1 were the wrong way for my sump so good test at least). Played with rear swaybar a setting after the first session was a little slippery - but in hindsight, I could have left it because as the tyres heated up, it was manageable and gripped well. I'm starting a notebook to record all these setup changes and findings at each trackday. Brakes were the hardest thing to figure out, with too cold/no bite, then overheating - I don't feel like I was getting the most from them (which I think I figured out). NO MORE TYRE RUB!!!!! I was soo relieved about this - still have PTSD from that job, not ken to do again anytime soon. Soo now I have no more tyre rub... I can drop it another 15mm if only doing track stuff. Road height currently. Quick lunch time brake bleed. Need to revisit my brake bleed setup with some better hose, brake cleaner etc. After the trackday I found a loose fitting on master cylinder that was causing the issues - although not leaking enough to be noticeable. Home in one piece. Can't ask for much more than that. The more I drive this, the more I want to drive it. So next step is to focus on getting authority card and start out cert process, along with the odd low-key track day to test changes. Would love to street thrash this car on the regular. Will do some kind of cinematic compilation in the next wee while. CBF right now.

It wasn't too bad from cold, but realised afterwards the fitting on the outlet of the master cylinder wasn't all the way tight. Not enough to noticeably leak when in pits, but it would be bleeding off some of the brake pressure to the fronts. So I think the fronts never saw enough pressure to get properly warm, and the rears (Wilwood compound) were overheating. Considering whether I'd run the W3 for hillclimbs though. Grip levels are slightly different and runs are so short you need confidence right away. But I haven't got the Winmax's properly heated up to the point where they are amazing yet - so I'll get some temp paint next time to confirm if we're getting into the right heat range, and double check all my fittings!

I run W5s with bigger calipers and rotors (so more thermal capacity) than @Rhyscar and never have an issue from cold. They feel pretty simar up a hillclimb or at the end of a 30 minute race at Highlands. What rotors are you running Rhys? It could also be worth using some temp paint to see how hot they're getting. That thing is so solid. I reckon it has twice the fibreglass thickness mine does. Also Rhys, do you overfill your oil at all? I run an extra 500ml in my car. H6 rally guys run an extra litre in their engines... could be a cheap fix?

@Hyperblade graph shows the 3 & 5 have the same starting point with operation from ambient and don't really split away for a couple of hundred degrees. Some of the behavior of the pad will come down to your braking duration which at a hillclimb is generally pretty short, and at worst you might do the occasional 180kph to 60kph. You really want something that won't pinch mid bump or at a turn-in when you are doing a bit of trail braking. a circuit car with smallish brakes might see a bigger gradient if it's doing longer stops for multiple laps with marginal cooling. And things like slick tyres which means you can actually use more braking force. The biggest workout my brakes have had was at waitara street sprints where it was basically a bunch of straights followed by low speed 90 degree corners.

They get a lot worse when you break the tiny bleed nipples off such a stupid design. I run W5 and I don't have an issue with them from cold. If your look at the coeffcient data they are actually pretty good from cold.

Those chrome type days make me nervous aye. Seen a few incidents where someone has put 100 points into horsepower and 5 points into suspension and brakes. Then had predictable outcomes, sometimes involving Gran Turismo style braking into turn 1.

So, about that pile of windscreens. The original or windscreen #1, last seen intact about the time it came back from the sandblasters, (who took a considerable amount of care to keep protected from blasting) met its end at my fumbling hands when I decided to remove it to be sure a rust patch wasn't creeping into something larger. This really stressed me out as I assumed finding new one may end up being a high dollar import. In a stroke of luck, the local auto glazer got me a new one for what could be considered pocket change compare for what I was bracing myself to pay. Feeling relieved but also cautious, that was installed with new seals and trim. Unfortunately...... while excitedly trying to seat the trim which did not like seating fully in the new rubber I pushed just a bit too hard cracking it in almost the same spot as #1 but from the other direction. #2 seen in the naughty pile over the back got a whole lot worse due my very lack of fucks to give removing it. Queue a very embarrassing phone call to the glass man to ask for another, but yes, they did have another I could pick up, write that down as stupid tax I guess. This made me much more cautious and observant the second time around, what I think happened is the new rubber wasn't shaped to the bottom of the frame like the old was that I had removed a number of times, this meant the screen was pushing hard against the top and in a position it didn't want to be in all made worse by me trying to push a seal into a grove it couldn't fit in. Second time round, noticing this and taking care to seat the screen down, everything went together just like in the youtube videos. Stupid rushed mistakes make for good learning? I did get to enjoy one moment from this episode, windscreens make a wicked noise when tossed into the concrete pit at the dump.

After a little more work to get it ready, it was time for Nuggie to venture out of the garage and onto the road, for the first time since at least 2012. The first job was to torque up the hub nuts and stake them. I jammed the brake pedal down, and then torqued them to the required 200NM-and-a-bit-more (the spec is 150-260NM). I then used a punch to stake the nuts so they can't come loose Whilst there, I also jacked the hubs up and torqued the swaybar end nuts too. Another quick fix was fitting three new wiper blades. One of the front ones was missing, and the rear was perished. I went with 450mm and 350mm for the front, and 350mm for the rear. Moving to the headlights, I wanted to remove and replace the brackets that the light units attach to. The RH side was OK, but the LH side was rusty, and the corner garnish was holding on by hopes and dreams As it turns out, the dreams were dashed, and the bracket came off with the garnish when I removed it The bracket is held in with one bolt on the slam panel, one nut in the engine bay, and two more nuts inside the wheel arch (liner needs to be removed or the front loosened). With it removed, I could wire brush the surface rust and give it a quick shot of black zinc The new bracket was then fitted into place, without the lamp or its mounting hardware. The bracket for the garnish is on the bottom right, sticking forward. I cleaned the bracket up and gave it a coat of black zinc, to hopefully keep the corrosion at bay. I replaced all the headlight adjustment screws and the plastic blocks they go into. I didn't replace the springs, and I probably should've; they're a bit ugly. The garnish was refitted. I had to recover the plastic grommet from the old rusty bracket If the mounting screws are good, the light actually just slips over them and then twists into place. This one on the car was wrong; the washer goes behind the light. There's no way to remove the light unit to change the bulb. This is the correct fitment After replacing the other side too, I gave them a quick setup, but I really need to align them before I try to take it for a WOF, at least to get them in the ballpark. With those replaced, I could refit the bumper, once and for all this time (or for a while, at least) I sourced some of the correct screws for the top edge. These have a step in them, so the head of the screw doesn't crush the plastic This is what happens when someone has replaced them with normal bolts in the past, the plastic splits With that done, I could finally install my new wheels and get the car on the ground for the first time since I got it, way back in October. The new wheels came with some Nankang AR-1 semi-slicks. They're a tad wider than the old 165 width tyres... They'll stay for a bit, just because they're near new and do the job, but longer term I'll get rid of them and fit the correct size Yokohamas. The 175/50R13 has slightly too small a profile, and the width is a tad extreme. Not to mention, an 80 treadwear tyre is madness for on the road. I won't lie, I'm pretty happy to see it off the stands and on its own wheels The Suzuki Sport Type-C wheels are perfect for it. I like the original mesh wheels, but mine are in very poor condition. The car was completely covered in thick dust, and still needs a good clean, but I used some waterless wash and got the worst of it off. The glass all got a thorough clean too It looks better than it is. I really need to clean it and then give it a machine polish. This is also the first time the engine bay has been completely together As a small side note, having looked into what the solenoids on the firewall are, one is something to do with the auto trans (only fitted to autos), and the other is the idle up valve for the AC. Neither of these are fitted anymore, so I tried blocking the pipes off to see what happens I'm not sure if the ECU will throw a code if I actually remove them, but we will see. So far, the car starts, runs and idles better than it did with them connected. It's no longer trying to fight the idle up solenoid, and relying on the cold start valve for the cold start idle up, and then the actual idle screw for warm idle - how it should be. Anyway, I connected the battery, turned the key and away the engine went. Good oil pressure, no noises it shouldn't be making. I jumped in, and for the first time, I drove my C-Chassis Alto Works. Because the engine, brakes and clutch are all minty fresh, I was taking it easy, keeping the revs down and minimal boost (it's hard, it comes on boost at the twitch of the foot), and lots of engine braking to seal the rings. Despite trying to give it an eye-lignment before I left, the alignment is well cooked, so the car was a little wayward to drive, but that is an easy fix. Everything did as it should. The gearbox is a little noisy, but nothing I wouldn't expect for its age, and it might get better as I use it more - No grinding through. The engine responds well, feels nice and strong, the turbo makes boost, and it makes all the right noises. I'm very happy with how the initial shakedown went. Now I need to pull it to bits again, replace the rear arm bushes, give it an alignment, touch up a couple of spots on the body, and then I think we're ready to go for a WOF and see how badly it fails. Of course, we got some shots of the car out of the garage. The last time it was out here, it had no engine and was being pushed into the garage. I'm hoping the reverse rake gets better over time. I'm hopeful that it's because the front springs haven't had any weight on them, probably since about 2012, when it came off the road. The lower profile tyres won't be helping the look either, but I can't do much about that right now. What a cool wee car.

So last night I went for a night ride I realised the previous owner must have used a wiper switch for the headlight. The light was intermittent as fuck (i never noticed this in daylight) I ripped it down and noticed sparks coming from a jiggly earth wire on the bulb holder. I told the bike I was disgusted and went to bed. Tonight I did lots 1) fix jiggly wire. No sparks 2) test voltage at bulb, 6v bike, 12V at idle, 30V when at 'annoy neighbour revs' 3) fit 25ohm resistor (@raizer)in series with headlight circuit.. still getting 24V 4) have a beer and a think 5) jeremy suggested earth issue so I made a piggy back to earth to frame. Now Im getting 2.4V at medium RPM 6) Call Moray (@mo99) He got me doing wizzy things with multimeter and looking at wires Suggestion is charging coil is chooched I have a parts motor I will pull one off and give it a hoon. Pray for me, this is all new for this fella

It’s just got a massive slot so infinite adjustment. I’ve added some marks for reference 10mm apart so I think I softened it by 20mm and it made a noticeable difference. Thanks Dave, will keep smashing bumpers off my bingo card. In do have a spare tucked away in a shed in Hawkes bay for backup though.. Really keen to get as many people out for rides as possible, but finding track days that allow it is hard - I was thinking of stooping to one of those chrome style events where they don’t care about safety just to get as many people in the car as possible. Will keep you posted.

Right then. Mind made up and sticking with 2wd. It should save me 6-12 months and $6-12k. Looks like Ill need an air locker and a big fuck off winch however. Spoke with the engineer again and it's pretty simple and will modify the old V8 brackets.

Alright so this is the final in my punishing Car is up on stands series of posts. (maybe) Video first then nerd stuff second After all of the headaches and frustrations I've had from persisting with ethrottle. I'm finally starting to see some of the rewards. My ethrottle tracking is stable and reliable enough that I can start doing some part throttle tuning decently. Ethrottle makes it super easy because you can make it so any pedal travel over 20% limits the motor to 20% throttle, if you want to tune the 20% row. This engine has been real fiddly in a few areas at low rpm and low load where it goes atkinson cycle and/or transitions out of it. I've also got some bank to bank imbalance. Although that's annoying, it's at least consistent now. So I'll just build a compensation table for it. It might seem silly having the car up on stands compared to driving it or going to the dyno. But using the wheels and gearing as a flywheel allows you to reach some low load and low rpm spots that are very hard to get to otherwise. I spent some time going through the 3%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 50%, and 100% rows and the interpolated between. So it's good enough to take it for a drive without any surprises. It hasnt had any issues with vibration etc causing problems anymore which is great. Some of my previous VE improvements were a little misleading, because it had jacked up the injector spray time to pretty much fully open. Which doesnt flow proportionally as much as 85% or whatever. So with the new intake, diddling the ports a little bit, bigger injectors and the new exhaust setup. This is the full throttle VE table differences now that the motor is tuned back to target. Pretty hectic at 6500rpm for reasons unknown! But it does the same thing every time. Maybe adjusting injector timing or VVT angles will drop the number there to something more realistic. Supposedly you can estimate power increase by taking between 50% and 90% of the VE increase as % of power gained. So splitting the difference and on the basis of 75% of VE increase = power increase, it's probably maybe looking something like below. I'm guessing the 6500rpm thing is some sort of weird VE oddity and it wont actually make power peak there. I will be annoyed if it's peaking at 6500 on the dyno next time haha. Will be weird to shift to the next gear and end up with better power... If the rest of it is somewhat accurate, will be happy. I'm circling the drain towards having smaller and smaller problems to resolve which is great. I'm currently mucking around with the VVT PID settings a bit more, as one side is still oscillating slightly. Then both exhaust pulleys are a bit sluggish to reach target. This is what the intake is doing while cruising: PID stuff is annoying to figure out, so I've just taken a log of the results and dumped it into chatgpt along with my existing settings. It's given me some new numbers to work with, hopefully it'll hone in on some good settings in fewer iterations than using my potato brain to guess at it. I took the car for a drive up the road and nothing fell off, and all of my rockers sound like they are still in the right place. So, in the context of this absolutely snakebit project that is a huge win. Haha.

Finished.

The sumps came out of the molasses and were clean as a whistle. Exposed MANY patent numbers on the bottom of the trans pan, lol. Ordered black diesel-heater ducting for the other sizes required, installed sweet as. The Bailey channels showed up, was a perfect fit on the divider side, had to spread the latch side channel out as it was too tight but lush AF now. Ordered exhaust gear, one of the multi-bends is due tomorrow..never got close to chance to get started but was nice to have it for the long weekend? Right, rust time again. The sill was creased and with no good way to get at it, I had to chop it out. Thats the crummy stuff I can’t get at with the chassis under’er. Hoicked some pieces out of the rear wheel tub to replicate after work. Id say that should be dialled next weekend.

@Shandangles I couldn't find a discussion thread for your fine automobile... Was your engine fire caused by the rubber hoses between the fuel rail and the injectors, and is that why the distributor blew up? Congrats on being the first person on oldschool to have an XJ-S which is also V12 and manual and which ran for a reasonable length of time. I hope you're not pressured to sell it due to minor details like young kids and engine fires.

How much fun are Wilwoods to bleed though

Was gutted I couldnt come watch, looked awesome from the footage. What sort of adjustability do you have in the swaybars? Is it different holes in the rear bar? The Logo is bloody cool as well, there's something to be said for just getting a whole bunch of seat time. The enjoyment of those incremental improvements and gains is the same with everything I reckon. Please dont ever change or break the front bumper @Rhyscar its absolutely iconic for this car and looks mega.

I'm from west Auckland and I like to keep it in the family. The D16 I've had for the last year waiting is getting prepped and ready to drop in.

K swap logo you all heard it

Great to see you out there. But your presence and your car does make me want to level up a bit more from the practically stock car I have now. It's the just the natural progression of a track car. Definitely do it again sometime.

Other sides done.

Here she is

No doubt you've seen this. Hopefully some inspiration/motivation - shit it sounds fantastic.

He will be telling you to put Lego in it next

Wtf would you know? Bet you've never even put a bike engine into an imp. Fuck sake, if Subaru used a bag, it's meant to have a bag.

Next is the sill. Here’s a glimpse of the horrors awaiting. Spent the afternoon removing the sill from the other car which looks promising but that’s it for this weekend.

Weld it in Bit of work towards the front of the opening which I didn’t get a pic of except of the patch I had to make 4 times ffs First cause I made it in 1mm instead of 1.2. Second cause I made it inside out. Third cause it was 5mm too short. Forth to get it right. Sheesh.

Hey team, small useless update. My boy is now at the point where he hardly fits / doesn't like being in the rear facing seat so he's been upgraded to a front facing and my daughter is in a booster seat. The consequence of this is now the whole family can fit in the Jag. You wouldn't believe it but the rear seats are basically useless for any human with legs so this stage will only last a little bit, but weekly family drives are on the cards for the next little bit. Which I guess is the whole point. Apart from that I took it out for the night recently, and somehow started it then locked the keys in as we were loading up bags into the boot. Very awkward. In the city with no tools and an old english car sitting idling in a underground carpark, locked.... With some rapid googling I came up with a plan. I went back to the hotel too and stole a bread knife and a metal coathanger. I managed to undo and remove the passenger side mirror, this gave enough access with the coat hanger to manipulate the lock mechanism open. So there ya go, jags are reasonably easy to get in to in a pinch! 👌 Cheers

Mildly uninteresting thread dredge. I nearly sold this. But I didn't try very hard.. I thought I'd need the money to fuel house things but I managed to find the putea elsewhere. So I basically left this in the old shed it's been in while I acquired house and built new shed, did concrete and internal constructions/wiring etc. I'm about to barn find my own car and drag it into the new shed, which is quite exciting. Such was my lack of enthusiasm for selling this I have continued to opportunistically aquire parts as and when they came up. I've picked up the missing rad support panel, another radiator and missing bonnet spring. Also got a triple carb manifold and a set of 40mm dellortos. The greatest score however has been this NOS rear valence panel, which the seller had misplaced then went cold on, but has now confirmed it's en-route. This was going to be the hardest bit to repair as it's a pretty funky shape so I'm stoked to have this piece of the puzzle.. Hoping there might be another update within the next 2 years!

I know clean filters are a good thing but that filter will flow better if you remove the bag.

@Vintage Grumble As a fellow Iseki TX 2160 owner, complete with a sickly lifter, I'm thoroughly enjoying your tale of tractor redemption. I hope you have many years of fun with it. Best of luck from this Welsh side of the planet. Hugh

UPS van came through with more goods from OldBuickParts Starter relay, battery cable junction box, steering coupler, heater duct in a diameter I couldn’t get here, + some body mounts. I was going to make some mounts work from off the shelf rubber pads but soon realised that was stupid and to just buy the thing.. Didn’t want poly bushes which are easily available and cheaper. In other news, I made some rubber gaskets for the lock and handles from some nice sheet id hoarded..last few cars I’ve assembled these seals perished really fast, ‘don’t make them like they used to’ etc. Started rust repairs! Have finished RH front of sill, opened up the LH + made the thick sandwiched reinforcement, along with the inner. (When I say finished I mean 90%, the other 10 happens when I take the floor pan out and replace, giving full access). I need to hack off the outer sill and planish it..it’s been a bit smooshed, then I can zap it all together. Made a piece for the kick-panel area but ran out of weekend. Have done some homework on the Bailey channel situation for the doors and I think I can make something from Basis work. Fine print on the proper stuff ex USA reads ‘comes as a rigid strip 72in long’. Fuck shipping that. As fate would have it, a rusty 57 Buick super 4dr HT showed up at work so now I have an excuse/opportunity to make duplicates of the repairs and I’ll be sorted at home too.

The time has finally come, I need to put on my big boy pants and see if all the blood, sweat, tears and money actually worked. I started with a big milestone - I filled the engine with the startup oil. The temporary filter got binned, and a new, prefilled filter was fitted. I also poured 10 litres of the finest 98 octane fuel into the tank and flushed the lines. The final thing that needed to be assembled was the cooling system. The radiator that came with the car was from when it was auto, and unknown to me until a few weeks ago, the auto and manual radiators differ in one critical area; the lower hose fitting is on the wrong side between them The auto radiator that came with the car And the new Manual radiator The lower hose on the auto goes under the transmission up to the back of the engine, and crosses close to the bellhousing Looking from the front, back. Engine on the left, transmission pan on the right. Coolant pipe indicated. This is the absolutely wild coolant pipe used on the autos The previous owner butchered that pipe on my car to make it work with the manual setup. This meant he could retain the auto radiator. The manual cars have the coolant hose from the radiator go straight up over the gearbox and into the coolant pipe I mentioned in one of my previous updates Anyway, so once I found out that my radiator was wrong for my whole convert-to-OEM-MT parts thing, I frantically scrambled to see if I could source a manual radiator locally. Allegedly, one of the local radiator places could order one in for me, at a reasonable price, but I had this niggling worry at the back of my mind where putting a cheap knockoff radiator into the car was asking for trouble. Was it suitable for a turbo car? Would it cause overheating issues? Would it handle a track day or two? Not something I wanted to deal with. So, I spent a shocking amount of money to import the correct Manual Transmission Turbo spec Koyorad radiator from Japan After a quick clean and test, I transferred the fan to the new radiator Much time was spent wrangling the hoses into place. There is very little room between the radiator fan and the gearbox But finally, the radiator was installed and filled with demineralised water Wanting to be able to monitor the oil pressure in an actual figure and not just the idiot light, I quickly wired up the gauge and mounted it. I tied into the power feed for the 12v socket above it. It's pretty bright. I'm going to need to wire in the illumination, I think. It's one of the reasons I removed it from the BRZ Finally, it was time. I had disconnected the ignition coil and removed the fuel pump relay. I needed to crank the engine to prime the oil system and build oil pressure. I jumped in and turned the key for the very first time. Yes, the oil pressure gauge was useless since it turned off when cranking... but on the third go of cranking, the oil pressure light went out, so we were ready. I was getting a little worried with how long it was taking for the light to go out, but thankfully, the pump primed itself, and it wasn't an issue. Now it was time to connect the coil up and refit the fuel pump relay, and go for real. The first start of this engine after a complete end-to-end rebuild, and the first time I have ever heard an engine run in this car. It started like a champ! I had to cut it off earlier than I wanted as the revs were too high, but after some tweaking, I managed to get that to come down, and it idled fine. There was some lifter tick, which is obvious on the video, but nothing to worry about. Oil pressure was very good when running, dropping to about 20PSI when idling at operating temperature By some miracle, even all the gauges work, including the fuel gauge. I'll need to pull the bulb for the cat temp light, since I removed that wire and don't have a cat anymore. It didn't half smoke though, burning off all the various oils, paints etc After running it up to temp, I drained the engine oil and the water from the cooling system The coolant went brown from dragging old gunk out from the heater core and various other hiding places I filled the engine with proper run-in oil this time, and a 50:50 mix of coolant, which I spent time properly bleeding I checked and set the timing to the required 5 degrees, with advance locked by shorting the B and C terminals on the diagnostic connector After the oil change, the lifter tick got a lot better, and with the other tweaks I made, the engine ran and idled quite nicely There's still some setting up to do with things like the TPS and the weird idle valves, but for now, it'll do enough to get it driving. Speaking off, I need to reassemble the front of the car, get the wheels on, and give it a string alignment, but I'm pretty keen to take it for a closed road drive as soon as I can. I really need to start bedding in those rings. A huge milestone. The engine runs, and runs well. It seems to do everything it should, with no odd noises and no real leaks (only a small weep from the oil drain on the turbo).

Still chugging away on this project very slowly as fuel prices and work nonsense have drained my care factor. Managed to get the front brackets off the K10 chassis but there have been complications. Namely that the K10 steering box is rooted and is a rare type, so requires sending off to the states to repair rather than replace off the shelf. The transfer case needs rebuilding. Not a big deal as they have the kits on the shelf but it will be time/money. I haven't made my mind up yet but I'm considering just keeping it 2wd and getting a winch on the front for when I get stuck as well as an LSD or locker (if I'm feeling rich) for the boat ramp. The 14 bolt diff has a whine in it now owing to it being full of water when I rescued it from a 1980's square body so eventually it will have to be considered. Haven't made my mind up yet but if I stay 2wd, I can put the diffs under something else I have in the barn awaiting it's turn. In other news, I have ordered a new cast manifold (the factory ones all crack) and adapter kit in order to move the turbo to the top side. Should make piping a lot easier up that high too. I painted the transfer case so it at least doesn't look like a bag of shit.

Next job was a bunch of missions to retain my airbox filters, and to glue my strut brace together (fully functional now - no longer a show piece!) So I wacked an M4 rivnut through the carbon, coated inside and back with some epoxy (same as strut brace stuff), and made some nice stainless tabs to hold the top. I think it looks tidy enough? I also fabricated an alloy plate to hold the bottom of the filters in place. This attaches/removes with the grill. I also intended it to seal off the airbox entry from the area behind the bumper. I suspect this will funnel more air into the filters rather than filling the low-pressure void behind the bumper. I did a small test of the HPR25 Toughed epoxy on some spare parts I had lying around. Cleaned them coated both pieces with a small lick and stuck together. Went really well - after 24hrs I couldn't move/budge it (1wk to cure fully), and I found it cleaned up nicely with Acetone so I could manage any extra blobs. Made a few blobs (better to have too much than too little!). I glued in in-place so all the angles were exactly right. .... and the finished result tidied up. Pretty happy with the result and I can't wait to see how stiff it is when set.

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

Just been through some of this..... If it has black plates and you want to keep them with the car come re registration time email: reuseofplates@nzta.govt.nz All I did was supply a picture of the car with the plates on front and back and they were happy. Get some sort of signed document from the previous owner (or their son) that you legally own the car. Chat GPT Could probably draft you up one. Screenshot off the NZ Police stolen vehicles website to show its not stolen or whatever. Stat declaration from Justice of da peace to say you legally own the car. Fill out a CA03 Alternative Docs form If you want to front foot it (If I was to do another I probably would) is go see the gc Brad at VTNZ Pukekohe and get him to fill out a form that basically verifies any tags, oem labels or otherwise already on the car (Mine had a build plate). I think its called a ca12 form? Doesn't matter if its painted over or whatever. Then send all of this (screenshots, scanned copies, and your old photos etc) to exemptions@nzta.govt.nz and wait about a month. They came back and said I had to get an inspection from the VCC. A DOMAS report I think is what it was called. So organised for one of the local VCC Barry's to come round and verify it hasn't been plate and tag swapped or put together out of two cars or anything like that. It was about $100 from memory. He put together a big report to say its all legit, sent to VCC offices in CHC and then got that approval mailed back to me. I also had to get the tags verified by a testing station official. NZTA came back and were sweet and said I could now get a 17 digit VIN Number. So another trip to see Brad and he whacked one on. It was at that stage I got the repair certifier out to check out the rust and did an initial report (obviously skip this step if its not rusty). We are halfway through rust repair, so I can't tell you how the rest goes. But AFIAK. It's another repair cert report to say he's happy with rust repair and then another visit to Brad for compliance inspection, LVV Cert for mods (if any) wof/reg and then skids. Only thing I'd say is if you have the stuff to return the car back to factory and its in ok condition, then do it before anyone lays eyes on it. Will make your life easier in the long run.

I loved seeing this at Syd’s

It didnt make the whole of syds but gave it a good shot. Manage to go from halswell to the meet in new brighton and make it back to hornby where it started to not idle and have no guts down low. Not bad for motor that sat for over 20 years. Amazingly the rest of the bike didnt fall to bits lol Picking up a v50 frame soon to start building a proper chopper, this wont be retired yet but instead will build version 2 for picking up fish n chips and doing driveway burnouts

On we Crack with the channel and the pillar... welded in the rear end and kept checking door was flush or where we put our reference point. Before the front pillar gets chopped out we welded the channel in place. It moved slightly once the pillar was removed but will be adjusted once the new piece is put in place... nothing fits or lines up so getting it near perfect which is better than factory in some instances is time consuming. I redid the side panel as it sunk and was another questionable patch. Ran a straight edge under door and could tell it was 10 mm too low and needed to come up to be flush. Ran a cut through and took a slight wedge out and massaged it up to be same as the passenger side. Here are the pics

Got back into it with the drivers side heater channel, we offered it up and managed to screw it into place few areas seen better days but was expecting that after the previous repairs weren't exactly done to a high standard. Regardless of the current state we plug on. I also need to replace the lower door hinge section of the pillar so we had to fit the door to make sure welding the bottom channel kept things square and that gaps were looking pretty. Also means that when we hack the lower hinge out that things are where they should be alignment wise. On top of that all the measuring done underneath wasn't the same as the new channel or the floor pans so new plan for that. Don't weld the floor pans in yet. Wait till shell is back bolt pans to it then fit the floor pans once the shell is sitting in place. I've come to the conclusion that trying to fit based on current references shit is out by a lot. My assumptions are new panels are identical measurements and after a few measurements that seemed to be the case. Another thing I expected was that panels wont fit as per original ones and that I'd need to adjust them accordingly.Back at home I hacked the passenger fp out. Here are some photos...

Been a while last rode this a few months back beat the shit out of it broke a few things off. Has sat since. Got offered reasonable money for frame so have sold it retaining the engine for a cunning road legal project. She's done me well.