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So we went back to look at the local cx sports on offer. When we arrived he made us some lovely strong coffee. Then we wheeled the 650 out into the sun and I had a better look over it. I asked him how set he was on prices and he told me he'd been thinking about this for while since we last visited. He'd decided he was going to give me the bikes on the basis that he could see I was going to be the ideal person to fix the potential tricky camshaft/water pump/weak oil control ring issues/anything else from being laid up since 2017. I was blown away by this and told him I would do the 650 proud. I still insisted we pay him some money anyway and that we did. He's since been around to visit us for coffee and is a true gentleman. He's now keeping and fixing up the GL500 Silverwing he'd been thinking of selling. I'll be more than happy to help him if needed. So we loaded the two sports onto my cousins trailer we still had use of, filled the van with boxes of spare parts he'd stashed away and carefully drove home - elated with the exciting prospect of having both a lovely original cx650E to restore and a cx400s to potentially use as the basis of a custom build. A lovely sunny afternoon to arrive home with new projects.. Unloaded them inside and that evening I could not resist but spend a few hours cleaning the 650 before snapping some pics. Its come up lovely and I'm looking forward to spending more time detailing it once its fixed and running ok. These models have a great proportions and fantastic 80's Honda style. It come with a black tank that he'd bought because the original white tank has some holes along the seam. He'd got the side panels too. Fork stanchions came up good after a polish.. Some books he gave us which will come in very handy!... A few bikinis.. There's a full set of panels on the rusty cx400 that I could re-paint for the 650. I have some colour schemes in mind. The 400 is complete but he'd stripped many of the parts off and boxed them up. The rust is localised to one area and luckily there's enough solid metal on the back that I wont lose any datum points when it comes to repairing it. The workshop was getting a bit 'bikey'.... So the 650 will be left alone until I clear out the other bikes. Starting with the 400 which I preceded to strip right down. But before removing the engine/forks/wheels I had to get these pics for future brain storming. Its really easy to see why these bikes, especially the single shock prolink models are so popular for customising. Such a neat clean powertrain setup, especially with the shaft drive. The 400 was stripped bare, parts given a quick clean as I went, then labelled and boxed up. We now had so many boxed up bike parts scattered about, along with many tanks etc that new storage was needed. So we bought some timber and built shelves into the beach bike/lawnmower shed... That original cx500 was robbed of a few more parts and I'll now pass it on to whoever might need it. So now I'm working at stripping the 400 engine down. I need the camshaft for the 500 engine and there's other bits that will be saved as spares. It appears to be in good condition inside.. I've made a few tools as I needed them plus Graham had brought around a clutch lock ring tool when he visited for coffee. Once I have finished stripping and boxing the 400 engine I'll get started on the 650 repairs. What I do know so far is that the water pump impeller splines have seen better days... Here's a good 500 impeller for comparison.. I can't just simply swap in a 500 impeller because the 650 unit is taller to move more water.. Sadly replacements are hard to come by. Before I commit to buying one the the beautifully machined alloy jobs available from Ralf in Germany I'll have a go at a repair I have in mind. I have yet to check the state of the camshaft but Graham had told me he thinks the thread is iffy. Again, I have some ideas about fixing that if needed. Its all part of the fun and I'll certainly post up how I get on, better or worse.

Dragged this boy off the rack the other day to give it some playing time, I made it about 25 years ago out of a Kauri? mantlepiece and a generic allparts neck, its heavy as fuck.

Well bugger me. 2 days and it’s pretty much spotless.

Also got this awesome period style trunk for the rack super cool

So while that brews I can get on with other stuff like, oh I dunno, patching more rust

Has been too cold and miserable out in the shed lately so yesterday i brought my trays of parts inside and got back into the carbs. All back together as a set now, no major issues, and only one minor one. Well two really as 2 of the 4 float needles had stuck springs. Managed to grab the pin with 'definitely not the wives' toenail clippers, and with a bit of twisting back and forth eventually cleaned all the rust and smout out of them. Set the floats to 15mm as per the jet kit instructions. Used the 120 jets from the kit and set the jet needles on the second slot to start with like the cheatsheet suggests as a starting point.

Yeah that’s not great. This one’s not perfect but it’s a shitload better Easily the most tedious task in all this is getting the rust off pieces I want to use. All the abrasive type methods soak up hours on end and I don’t have hours on end so I’m running a chemistry experiment with the citric acid and sodium bicarbonate solution that seems to be the current hotness. Probably should have used something a bit more hardy as a liner but yeah. 1 day in and it’s looking promising

Do they also need a fake racing number and a plastic roll bar to get a wof?

Can't tell by your photos but there should be a rubber cover over the top of the carb that the cables go through. The carb won't run or run properly without this installed as it will be wayyy to lean.

My million dollar idea, I give you the Notch buddy HD Pro V1 Scrap Edition Plus, Benefits include but are not limited too: Perfect notch, every time. No need to change your skill saw back and forth from a full cut to 25mm depth over and over again. Unable to over cut. Shit tons faster due to not having to adjust skilly, no measuring, and only two cuts vs shit tons + chiseling/grinding. Less mess, rather than piles of thin wood wafers you just have one 100x100x25mm bit of wood, which can be used for other projects or thrown at cats. It seems my genius knows no bounds. Regards, V "retiring a millionaire due to this amazing idea" G

Bita progress on the ol girl last couple weekends front ends off to get it summer and sisters weeding ready New startermotor New waterpump Nexts to wire up lights and a quick wire wheel and rust kill couple spots that the guards hide nothing bad justa piece of mind thing And a good oll polish and clean inside

Ok, got my cert solution for the seats, I need to get the SRS sensor from an Executive as they dont have side airbags (you had to pay for that safety feature) ive already reprogrammed the dash to suit that then it wont be looking for those airbags. Hopefully thats as easy as it sounds the module is dirt cheap as no one wants them and enough of these are dead after been skid pigs im sure I'll find one easy as.

also once you have sorted this, check you have a oem-ish air filter and no leaks between. It might run without it, but you'll have a bad seize situation after a WOT blat.

https://www.cmsnl.com/products/covercarburetor-top_1144027201/ Pretty sure I paid closer to $30NZ for one from Webike using their genuine parts look up, but that was a while ago.

Cheers man, weve actually decided to bite the bullet and fly up this weekend to get it haha.

I have room , Central Lower Hutt

Heads back from shop getting intake seats cut done a diy head skim on the mill. this old junker head was surprisingly straight. .04mm pretty much cleaned the whole thing

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.

Working through the window hardware in my place. Pretty happy with the results. Phosphoric acid, watered down a bit and a soft metal brush bring it back. Paint gets the stripper treatment as wire brush wheel is too harsh.

Brother gave his old site radio the other day, with a buggered volume switch and no antenna. In standard builder condition covered in shit. Pulled it apart this arvo, desoldered the volume knob and pried the tabs open. And promptly realising my fingers are not designed for this sort of caper, dropped all the bits off the edge of the table and onto the floor. Cleaned and rebent the contacts then put it back together for a test run. Jammed a screwdriver in the antenna hole and it all works mint. So now all i have to do is order an antenna and i have a camping/boating whatevering stereo. Fuck yeah.

But wait there's more!!! I decided to finish stripping the engine because the mess from the cam bearing would have been a ballache to clean out plus I really needed to see the state of the bearings elsewhere. If they were ok I could also properly clean everything, check the valves and start a fresh. Gearbox is in fine condition..(I instantly pictured and started engineering in my head how this very neat compact unit could be used as the basis of a sequential box innards for a small car etc) Crankshaft is fine. Big ends still fine.. Popped it on some blocks and checked the clearances.. About .0025" (service limit is .0031") They could be used as is and I'd never be worried but if there's available bearings at sensible prices then I could pop some in. I couldn't see any obvious colour markings though. Before I get too excited I still need to sort out a camshaft/front cam bearing. So in the meantime I have bought some more plastic storage trays and I'll stash the engine out of the way. I can clean bits up in between other jobs/procrastination excuses/purchases.... ...like the following. Hannah and I took off in the Imp to look at two more local bikes - ones a 650E, rego on hold but needing some tinkering. We drove the Imp there because the fella selling the bikes, as mentioned in my first post is the brother of a friend and his parents used to own an Imp. Anyway - the bikes. I'm quite tempted. The 650E has a damaged impeller stud thread on the camshaft. I think I can fix it though. The other bike offered to me for free is a very rusty (holes in the lower frame) 400E spares bike. I could always pinch the cam from this in order to rebuild this 500 engine that's still spread all over the bench. Ideally I'll sort the 650 first because its otherwise all go, solid and rego on hold. Its really too rare/nice to do anything but restore back into use. I need to mull it over though because costs could spiral on a bike that has hard to get parts. I'm very tempted to repair the rusty 400E frame and fit the 500 engine. This could be used as a basis for a fun project bike. And if the 650 didn't exist this is simply the route I'd be taking - just imagine the entertainment for you all as I start having to restore a frame that's half in powder form. I'll report back with photos as soon as I've made the decision and have the bike/s in the workshop. 650E be all like this but in white and not mint...

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.

Hello welly boes. Made a stupid lowball offer on a 2009 fiat 500 and somehow old m8 accepted. Problem is, unless I can pull some shit together for next weekend, im tied up til mid July to come get it. The seller reckons hes not in a rush for me to pick up, but dont wanna push it. Anyone free to pick up and hold for a month or so? Its all completely drivable. Its manual as well if its any sort of useful info. Just states "wellington city" so fuck knows what suburb yet but I'll find out. The fizza in question Chur my mokos.

@Tumeke thanks boss.. better get fabbing something until I can find a real one

Yes if theres 2 of them

Last weekend I began to tidy the garage and wheeled this out. @Hunterkiwi01 had faffed about with it the week before for me (removed engine brace and juggled the spark plug boot) It started 3rd kick, ran for 30s and died. Once I get the slugs Gremlins sorted, this will get headlights and a tail light. It appears there is an indicator swicth (with wires) which will allow me to enjoy 2 stroke life with @Hunterkiwi01 and 'his' FR50. Cunning Lil bugger sold his FR50 to a mate who stores it at ours so he can come on group rides (but never has) and told him to take it out for a ride now and then to stop it chooching up from sitting. The owner came by on Saturday to look at his bike and @Hunterkiwi01 had taken it to his mates up the road to help him do an exhaust swap for his CT, but he can show you how thats gonna look on his C100 (It is sick as fuck)

Just repco. It's the same stuff used to remove light rust from panel steel. Some pieces I only had to dip in it then rinse. You're right, they do tarnish quickly. I haven't addressed that yet, potentially a clearcoat, but brasso would work in the short term as long as you were really keen.

Yes sir, demo blades make a nicer cut than that pictured, but wood blade is a bit faster obvs.

More goods from ROCKAUTO.. heater hose and some cheap universal exhaust hangers that were on clearance. Rose-tinted glasses backhanded off by reality of 68 year old car, lol. What id envisioned as a couple of hours in the back corner spiralled to 2 days and more to go… You don’t see this bit when it’s on the chassis… Hmm this corner is soft. No wonder, there’s practically a scallop directing road splash into a wee nook..it was full of heavy bitumen but didn’t suffice. Had to sandwich a layer in there for the future trunk floor (This bit does taper towards the latch, I didn’t F it up) The weird transition in the corner was seam sealed to hell but let go from behind the lead join on the outer I’ve yet to whip out. I’ll seal it up again because it looks goofy uncovered In other news, $3885 for a windscreen delivered here. What in Tarnation!! Have a couple of others quoting, hoping to scrape something back from that. I’m in no hurry at all and with their stock order would be fine, but didn’t seem to translate on the bottom line! Onward

The kids were happy as with it. My daughter kept pointing to it saying 'cool' and 'sick' hahaha at least it's got their approval. On the high of excitement I gave the engine bay and wheels a quick clean. Then I mocked up the front end. When I get a chance next, ill go through all the parts and make a plan to move forward. I’ll have a go at swapping the front end of the guards over (1300 front onto the 1000ute repro guards) and see what other rust work needs to be patched up. I'll also focus on the wiring, starting system and ignition and try get it running. Shouldn't take too much tbh but we'll see how we go. Maybe this will be the year hahaha. Chur

No doubt, but imagine what life will be like when it finally does becomes scrap in 3326!

Just imagine the epic noise when you throw the rest of the Lada in the pit at the dump

Finished machining the last two castings. They are dimensionally the best ones so far. Surface finish not as great. Need to tune the feeds and speeds since its a harder grade material. Did billet Cam boxes and Follow Fingers. The followers are from EN36A and need to go through a few more processes. I need to have cams made. Theres guys in the UK that have been working on developing cams for this engine for the last 20+years and have a good profile to use. So ill go with that. I also used their high lift follower profile rather than the original. Once I have cams I can line bore the cam boxes to suit. Ive sent out the Follow Fingers for copper plating. Once theyre back I can remove the copper from the running faces the send them out for case hardening. Then ream and hone. The 'Follow Fingers' are cool. They're not a rocker as such, theyre a 1 to 1 finger that is basically taking the side load from the valve. Seems to be what is done on sports bikes and F1 engines. I was originally thinking I could so Valve Buckets but once I got into it it was pretty obvious they would be too heavy due to the spring diameter. That would mean changing springs, how its oiled etc, it was starting to re invent too much.

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.

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.

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.

Work on this stopped as we went away. Got back home and discovered I needed to buy or make some tools for dismantling. I dont mind spending time on such when I know there will be more of these engines to play with. I made a toothed cog holder. The usual thing I've read is to use a 2 cent/1 penny coin and jam it in between the teeth. Just doesn't seem right nor can I afford such extravagant throwing about of money when I have steel sitting here.. I also needed a really deep 27mm socket for the camshaft nut. It was the weekend and the only one available at Repco didn't look deep enough. I remembered I have an old 1/2" socket set I've robbed a few sockets from. Luckily there was still a 27mm so it got the chop and extension treatment.. Because my initial intention is to try and remove the camshaft without removing the heads I machined up some spacers that would replace the rocker shaft pedestals... This way I could carefully crack off the headbolts and fit the spacers, so hoping not to break the head gasket seal. From what I have read the original Honda gaskets will probably hold tight. At the mileage this engine is I presume they are original. If the camshaft is ok I will probably pull the heads anyway, buy a full gasket set and give the top end a birthday. Spacers installed, engine was flipped upside down and I was finally able to extract the camshaft, complete with its front bearing that refuses to budge.. Into the press... It still wont budge. I didn't want to go overboard with pressure. The damaged worm gear on the camshaft must be holding it but I didn't know how. Something really jamming it. I spun the remains of the spiral off... Now back in the press and the bearing housing finally popped off. Along with some small bits of metal. Oh dear. I actually laughed. Hannah was in the workshop and she gave the same 'faaaark - I didn't expect that' expression too. ZOOM IN.. ZOOM IN FURTHER...😐 Wow. How the fark?!! The bearing housing is understandably rooted as well.. So...I think I might need a camshaft.. I'm not surprised the engine made funny sounds/leaked some oil 🤪 I can only guess that it got super hot from a clogged oil way but you'd think the alloy housing would have disintegrated first? I don't know. I believe the camshaft I need has to be from a later bike as it has holds the valves open a few degrees longer than the early ones. If I can't find one easily then I could just skim this one down and shrink fit a sleeve, then re-machine. Its not a highly stressed cam and I was intending to make a new housing anyway so it can suit anything. Hopefully I'll find something plus I have yet to find out what of the bikes I'm hoping to secure locally. They could come with spares.

Did I get a fair bit done this week? Yes. Did I start but not finish WAY more aspects? Oh Yes Got an organiser and sorted nuts bolts screws washers etc as opposed to piled into tins as they were; flash. Fuel line ran, had a shit of a time trying to find the route down the chassis, and the hardware to suit the holes..turns out they had rubber hose front to back with special clips that never made it to me! That won’t do in NZ anyway, ffs Never too late to start saving weight is it? Nutted out the heater and vents, hooked everything up and made a list of the (4!) sizes for the flexi tubes to track down. Found homes for some of the random brackets. Picked petrified sealer, dumdum and some corrosion, then brunox sprayed spots to put a halt to that until paint O’clock. Got up in behind the dash and cowl too. Chopped out the second row body mount braces from the floor to gain access to symmetrical rotten bits on inner sill. Have dumped them in the molasses to chooch. Measured up and Templated the pieces I need to make. A couple of mousepads provided the right thickness for replicating tail lamp and marker light seals. Pulled the tail lamps apart and cleaned, polished etc along with spiffing up the biiig outer housings. New screws This was the exhaust outlet side so was fairly tarnished in comparison. Got into the front markers too, split the whole assembly down to polish shiny bits, scrub lenses, mend some broken hardware, metal backers in molasses tank. Doors got a good scrape and vacuum inside then brunox’d, did any surface rust in jambs too, nothing to hide from repair certifier. Pulled the vent windows apart and polished, fit new rubbers and back together they go. Turns out the iddy biddy strip I was supplied needed bonded to the OE steel backing that has hold-down tangs, so had to snap off the plasticised old rubber first. Went to Rare Spares and pickApart looking for suitable Bailey channel but didn’t score.. vent side has polished beading on each side and the striker side is uber wide as the window has bonded chrome frame running in the channel. Basis might have something or I sack up and get the real, much darer stuff off ROCKAUTO. Also got the main outer weatherstrips fitted. whipped a door handle out to have a key made for them as too, the trunk lock. Motor dropped off to Frontline to see if she’s a contender. Front UJ and output housing dropped to MS Coombes to see if they can make a bushing work and see about sloppy staked joint. Left the spindle with them too incase they can make me a new LHT nut. Had some OK shock bushes in the hoard so stuffed them in the top of the rears. One was torn and dog-eared, looked ratshit. Quite a spot to get to when assembled so. I’ve just spent another weeks wages on more bits from OldBuickParts I simply can’t shake this ‘do it factory’ mindset I’ve got and fuck me, it’s hard on the well-being. Eg, run fuel line front to back with some P clamps like a human, or spend a day searching the internet and online manuals to see how it goes for the absolute fear of squashing it or having to do it again..sandblast and paint some clips that sorta work and find matching nuts and bolts small enough to clear the clip but not pull through the OE holes.. only to simply pop rivet them. Shrug Cummon you dysregulated cunt, stop making big jobs any bigger.

Also, this is a bit of humour. Every time I roll it over more sand pours out. Some buckets worth so far.

Sweet! Would love to get it back under the car but then I got to thinking perhaps I should run fuel line and exhausts and all sorts of things while it’s easy..

Fuuuu, that will give a man Drymouth. Ultimate sketch, too many stacked items prior to this photo, to gain height of about 770 but it’s all I had and I got away with it! Had the engine crane with a strop round the back, worked well but allowed some ass-clenching sway at times when working on the front. Frame is great as expected, some wee wobbles to tweak back from previous shady jackwork but they are moving happily with a kissa butane. Will strip and clean, fire some paint upon it and reattach the completed suspension this week. Trans went back together. There’s a leftover wee needle/rod that I found stuck to the scarf magnet on My vice.. I’ll re-read my manuals but it doesn’t seem to be mentioned. While the trans kit was awesome, Unfortunately was missing a seal or 2 which id have thought pretty important so I’ve made some inquiries, there’s one on EBay but it’s a bit dare. Still great considering how hard it must be to source these bits now. Always Disconcerting to have lots of leftover bits but kit covers many years and iterations of Dynaflow. (‘58 actually had a orphan version that’s very expensive to rebuild, remember mine is from a ‘60) I also had to remove a thrust washer that looked important to get the right end play so I might revisit that, but for now it’s all in one piece again and not precariously spread all over the shed.

Hows that jam, this is just an accumulator spring, uniform the whole length lol I have 4 days in disassembly and cleaning but all done now. It would NEVER have functioned, glued right up. The trans bits arrived yesterday, jazzed. Plenty of Old stock bits in there.. got a cheap dial gauge n stand setup too. Transgear did a lovely job of the band re-line but an easy way to spend 150+ each. It seems that whole short to long tail section swap would work but since mine was so filthy and had to come all the way apart, I’d have had to buy these parts anyway, plus a few G for the other trans so I’ve just stayed the course and rebuilding my one.

Fuuuck this thing is filthy. Im about half way through pulling everything apart and cleaning it up/digging the resin and marmite out. Have just ordered rebuild parts from Trumpistan, so when they show up I’ll do final clean as replacing parts. I thought the inside of a torque converter was supposed to be clinical clean? Someone’s been partway in here before and instead of treating it to new seals etc they just use shellac. Things I didn’t want to pull apart. Things im glad I pulled apart. This is a variable vane thing but it didn’t move. I didn’t actually know it split apart and the centre was a ‘piston’ initially! 51 pce unit Note the galleries along top are chokka! More packed galleries. I almost filled this rattlecan cap from this part alone! I pushed a bit further along than I was comfortable with to get the bands out so I can drop them in to be re-lined tomorrow. Its kinda enjoyable at this point..

Back seat: Acquired A fellow ‘58 owner who has a fucking STELLAR collection of cars mentioned he had rear seats from a previous ‘58 Impala coupe project. Guy had car in panel shop for resto and it burnt down so he suddenly had a heap of spares and no shell. My man grabbed the seats. Gotta be close right? Close enough for this guy. Wee bit weird above my arm rest but I’m ok with that. Maybe have upholsterer add a piece of filler foam before covering. The middle arm rest is a bit seized currently but sits flat usually. I have a Riviera script badge off a 70’s car that I’ll put in the top cutout. Back it with some of that patterned retro caravan alloy sheet with a polished trim around it to meet the seat I reckon. titties. Today I fished more parts out of molasses and cleaned up, painted. Scraped the inside of the roof as it was a little surface rusty and had old bitumen on it still. Will brunox it 2moroday. Got some POR15 Buick Turquoise engine paint I’m gagging to spray on stuff but adult me says wait until engine is together so you know you have enough to cover. Bits are waiting in bare metal but shouldn’t degrade too much in the mean time. Sigh. That bloke I got the manifolds off has a mint transmission for sale. Only problem is that his was open driveshaft and mine torque tube. His is stumpy with a yolk out the date. From what Ive gleaned it should be possible to swap the tail housing sections and I’ll be laughing. yeah I’ll have to tear them down pretty far but at least it’s not a rebuild. Info isn’t hell prevalent but its aft the interesting bit of transmission so surely just the output shaft will be different length? There’s a guy in Iceland who reckons he’s done it so awaiting some input from him

A local fella on a Buick facebook page mentioned he motor-swapped his rad ‘61 Electra wagon and had spares, including manifolds he’d imported at great expense..These things are known to crack, designed to run no gasket. His car was the last gasp of the 364 before the 401 nailhead so had funky manifolds. I tee’d up a meeting and drove 3 minutes, plonked them against my cylinder head and they lined up! They dump in a different spot but I’m sure it won’t be a dealbreaker when installed in my non P/S car, and I have to make the exhaust anyway. He also had a pile of accessories and bits that I’ll probably end up buying, but one was the fan and spacer which my motor never arrived with..win!! Thanks heaps Pat, top man.

I got the POS running. Not very well but it runs. Sounds really quite good tbh. No rattles or ticks and no exhaust leaks. Hard to believe Now I'm going to pull the front of it.

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.

Broke the 2 into 1. Will fix it some time but at the moment I'm quite enjoying the look of the twin pipes. Been riding it a bunch. The old girls sitting about 108thousand ks and still going strong. Taking it up to the north island in a couple months so brought some hard bags for it.

Take side cover off. Undo bolt holding carb on using the hole in the engine case to get screw driver in. Slide carb off

Proof of riding. Did about 750 ks in the last 48 hours. Bike was flawless..... well so I thought. Thought I heard a but of a rattle. Turns out the muffler decided to Crack in half. Have ordered another so will weld that on when it turns up