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Witchcraft! I just replaced the original fusebox with a new magical one from the future which isn't all hot and melty and gives me more than 9 volts at the headlights! Amaze. Represent. Another year of legality. And since all my thread images are poked, here's one so you and I don't forget what she looks like. <3

So Hannah and I took the Imp for a two day road trip. Part business and part holiday. On Friday we drove up to Lake Rotoiti, Nelson lakes national park. On the way we checked out some old classic cars a fella owns who wants me to do a load of bodywork on. The Imp drove really well. The sun was out and the music cranking (some ambient tunes from David Tipper since you ask). We had a good coffee and then a nice walk on tracks around the lake. That evening we drove through to my olds place in Blenheim. A nice day out. Here's some photos... Chilled out at my parents, a feed of fish and chips, wine. A grand way to finish a day. Following morning we set to head home. Filled the Imp up, did some maths and allowing for a very optimistic speedo we reckon on around 40 mpg. Not bad considering the gearing at 100kph. Headed home, sadly into rain as a cold front was moving up the Island. Drove long way via Picton and Queen Charlotte drive because narrow twisty roads and go kart car... Over the Rai Saddle, sitting with the flow of traffic. I give the car some stick to pass a motorhome up the saddle and then when cruising down the other side the wee car does that thing.... 'JOLT!' The car does a small but very noticeable stumble. Like a tiny rev limiter. For those that have tuned megasquirt, or maybe other EFI, it felt like when you click burn. "What was that?" Hannah asks. "Shit- I don't know but it felt like an ignition thing, not spluttering fuel thing" I reply. We both go quiet. I almost want to turn the music down and listen for any untoward mechanical sounds that might be there. But I don't. I'll play it cool. Don't worry. Don't get Hannah worried. It was probably just a... fuck. I don't know. I'll just say nothing, drive a little slower and whatever it was will be a memory soon. The silence is piercing. Now I notice every bloody vibration. I'm watching all the gauges like a jet pilot. All the time my mind is going through all possible scenarios. What could that have been. What if we breakdown? 3km pass. It seems ok. I start to relax. Only one big set of hills to go. I pass another rental car, most likely the scurge of the kiwi roads, a Nissan Tiida. I dont know because I'm still having a mini stress.. 'JOLT'. Here we go. This is happening. This time its for good. The car dies and I have to quickly think where I'm going to stop to fix it and quick before I slow too much and that silver blob I just passed drives up my bum. I spot a forestry road on the right, coast across to it (whilst trying to make it look like nothing is wrong so saving face for all classic drivers who get the "oh old cars are so unreliable...") I pull to a stop and the engine splutters to its last road driven rotation with a bang. Bugger. Remain calm. Reception on phone? Not a chance. Tool kit in boot comes out and we go through all the obvious things, concluding that it is indeed the ignition. Annoyingly it was the ignition module, of which I didnt have a spare. If it were points I'd have fixed it. Such is life. Luckily the rain had stopped and double lucky that across the road from the forestry road we parked on was a farm house. The kind farmers wife took us in, let us use her phone and fed us tea and biscuits. I called a mate out with his trailer. We have AA membership however its the basic cover that would have got us to a garage. I knew a Garage wasn't going to fix this and we'd still have to get home. Yeah nah. Stuff that. Mate turns up with his trailer and we have a choice as chilled out trip home. We fed him dinner and it was all good in the end. Big thanks to @Sanfiddy for rescuing us! Oldschool spec favours. I only took one photo of the day... So that was that. On Sunday I removed the dizzy and then the module. It fails the tests as predicted. Here's the troublesome module... Come Monday and at my local wreckers looking for a module. I dont want to spend $120 on a new one when I'm about to fit full engine management. No luck locally but we were in Nelson on Tuesday and I found one at a wreckers there, cheap too. Fitted it that night and brooooooommmmmm The replacement was a proper Hitachi module whereas the one that let its smoke out was a no brand cheap one. Even felt lighter if that means anything. I took the broke one apart and it looks like a little cityscape inside- heck it would scare a Barry used to the kettering system... I also managed to score a spare couple of dizzies, converted with accuspark. My bench looks like a bomb went off in a hitachi factory... I'll need to fix them up, check them out and then I could always have a spare setup in case. That is until I fill the Imp with boxes of electronics and then there's no chance Mr AA man can help me. It'll be like every modern car- useless when broke. In other news- this turned up from China the day we left for the lakes... Its a brand new Hitachi 306 clone, all for not much more then a full carb gasket set costs. I had ordered this before I had scored all the other Megasquirt bits. Anyway- I'm still looking forward to trying it out because my worn out carb is about as good as I can get it. The new one looks so shiny. I'll report back with my findings on how deep the quality goes...

Decided to try and get this thing riding a bit nicer, previous suspension setup was a little soft and hit the bump stops a bit too often, and with the extra weight of a 4age it would of been worse. Went with a set of Fortune Auto's coilovers all around, since I'll end up chucking an F series or similar diff in and I have the skills to strengthen the rear strut towers. Picked up another pair of struts, cut them down and and blasted them. Wound them all the way down and the front ended up a little higher and the back's a bit lower. Might try and get the front down a bit more, to at least were it was. Made a stainless distributor blanking cover. Bought a Flo's upper water outlet, as it looked to be the much simpler and tidier way of doing the cooling system. Needed a RWD waterpump (inc pulley), thermostat housing and a little bypass pipe to complete the setup. And of course with everything else, when you change one thing you have to change something else. The FWD alternator bracket fouled on the thermostat housing, so I got a RWD one from Japan. Borrowed some Flo's 4age to K series engine mounts and made up my own. Sitting in the hole. Had to space the engine mounts out by 8mm, possibly because of the Cusco mounts being thinner than factory ones? Dizzy relocation kit installed, had to cut a bit of a hole in the fire wall for some clearance. Stripped the interior, pulled out the dash, heater, seats, carpet and scrapped off some sound deadening around the gearbox tunnel. Cut a big ol' hole for the J160 to fit. Probably didn't need to cut so much out, but to make it easy to drop out and fit, some extra clearance was needed. Also wanted it to sit up above the sills and chassis rails. Made up a gearbox mount. Added two extra body mounts further back so that it spreads the load a bit. Has heaps of ground clearance as well. The J160 shifter needed moving forward as it lined up with the end of the handbrake. Cut up the original shifter housing and welded it on to some ali tube and 12mm plate. Spent hours on our little lathe turning up the adapter bits. Works mint, barely any flex and feels like it should. Moved it 200mm forward from the Altezza position, 50mm more than the SQ kit and 40mm back from where the factory Starlet one was.

Well its been a while since I've updated this thread. Mid July was where I last posted up anything of worth. Little Imp got parked up in the corner of the workshop so leaving anough space for our neighbours to make use of the shed while we took off to England for a decent holiday. Hannah got to catch up with her family, we both did heaps of cycling and running, had plenty of sunshine and beer plus I got to go along to the retro-rides gathering 2019! As I always do I had a fantastic time there and came away with boosted Mojo and lots of ideas. Before leaving the UK I ordered a few spare parts for the Imp... We got back to NZ in September, just in time for the start of spring. The Imp was sitting there tucked away, a tiny little puddle of oil under the sump just like a good little English car should have... First job was to fit the shiny new lenses. Hannah jumped straight into that, an easy but so very satisfying job to do... We then took the steering rack out and fitted the new centre gaitor. Hooray for a rack that holds oil... Having decided I was pretty happy with where the temp gauge needle sits once fully warmed up I carefully measured the resistance across the potentiometer I'd been using to adjust it. I then made a little joining lead fitted with a resistor of the same value. This replaced the adjustable item and should be it for the temp gauge. At some point in the future I may well make a new instrument cluster to suit the dash as I rather fancy having a rev counter in a place that I can actually see it ok. We have been driving the Imp since getting back to NZ as much as possible. On its first journey out since back I got this pic... We've had a few decent trips including a one really neat drive all around the local valley roads and hills, some gravel roads etc. Its so fun to drive. I'm really getting more confident with the handling and how to get the most from it. The engine seems fine and loves a good trashing. The carb is still a bit iffy with that worn out primary spindle still allowing some air to sneak in. I have ordered a new carb from China and will see how it goes. It was cheap enough to try and when I eventually fit injection I can sell the carb on. Whilst out on that really fun drive I got this photo. Shame I only had my phone as the sky was quite moody... After lots of driving I checked the plugs. They look fine with what I think looks to be a good colour... I thought it better to fit the fire extinguisher I bought before our holiday. It tucks away neatly behind the drivers seat... In other news I have been collecting many different parts needed for a conversion to fuel engine management. I just scored another megasquirt one (2.2) ecu plus a full loom and some edis bits - this time from our mate Rob in return for me doing some machining work for him... I need to decide on a few bits needed and also in which direction to go for the inlet layout. Maybe Itbs but maybe a plenum with a single tb. I foolishly dillydallied about when there was a full set of cbr900 ITBs on trademe for $55 including injectors and loom and subsequently missed out on them. At the time I wasn't sure about the suitability but for that money I could have made them work. Not sure on ideal throttle size but they were 40mm each which given the Datsun only has 30mm inlet valves I figure they'd have been plenty. Then I would have had all of the doorts! I'll keep looking... I'll be using a 36-1 trigger wheel, also supplied by Rob. Luckily there is ample room to mount it on the back of the main pulley. Both MS1 ecus I now have use the earlier version 2.2 board which don't have built in VR conditioner circuits. I can make a VR conditioner board and use VR sensor, of which I have many. Or I could use the Edis setup (which has a VR conditioner built in and uses a VR sensor) that came with the MS1, of which I suspect the ECU has been supplied already configured to use. I have never used Edis before. Hmmmm? Its a bit ugly and clunky though. I dont like the quite large ignitor box I'd have to sit somewhere. Or I can go with a Hall sensor but then I'll have to locate one from a wreckers- but what car? As usual I want to do this conversion as cheaply as possible because its just more satisfying for me that way. In my first few casual searches it seems that they are quite pricey and can be a bit frail or temperamental in use? More research is needed, of which I must say I do find to be one of the most fun parts of modifying! Oh also - I fitted a new speedo cable and now have a speedo needle that doesnt wibble-wobble all over the place. How thoroughly modern!

This year has been a real rollercoaster. I've had far too many projects on my plate (and a lack of motivation to finish them), not much expendable income and a huge life change with my 5+ year relationship ending... So I've been planning on thinning the hoard, moving somewhere else and starting a new life. So when an old, rare 2 stroke bike showed up, the logical thing to do would be to pass on it. Right? WRONG. Enter the Wolf. This piece of Suzuki engineering is 1969-1971 Suzuki T90 Wolf. It's very closely related to a T125 stinger. My dad and I missed out on a T125 last year and we were gutted. It was a green one in "barn find" condition- but appeared to be missing the carbs: Then a wee while ago, @SOHC happened upon this old T90 Wolf that he and his friend used to ride around 15+ years ago. He said it would be available, so a deal was struck and I went to collect it over the weekend. It's a quirky wee beast and has some cool features like a seat that hinges backwards - I've never seen this style before. The seat has seen better days and needs a trip to midnight upholstery so @64valiant can work his magic on it. The frame, forks and motor are all bit dirty and there's some corrosion, but it's surprisingly good for a bike that's been sitting for this long. It needs a headlight, indicators, speedo cable (the thread is broken on the underside of the speedo unit) and the forks will need a bit of love to deal with the peeling chrome. I think a strip and re-paint will be good enough for starters. Eventually I'll strip this bike down and give everything a proper clean up. The frame could do with a blast and re-paint, the tank needs a small amount of rust cleaned up and a re-spray. Overall it's a very solid bike though! And runs amazingly well for something that's been sitting in a barn. All it took was a bit of fuel and it fired into life. Jeah! Rare, old, small capacity, 2 stroke, twin cylinder radness. This should be fun.

So I did the upper ball joints as well.. ..but it wasn't those. The push/pull play at 6 and 12 o'clock was still there. So I looked at how to adjust the wheel bearings.. I was expecting it to be horrible but it was easy, and now the play is gone. Should have done that first. Alas, the vibration is still not quite gone. It's probably just something I have to live with in a British car which has made it all the way to..... 200,000kms. So I got a new obsession instead. The engine doesn't run all that well - it has a random half-stumble at idle and low rpm.. You can see the misfires by watching the shaking of the motor, and although it appears to smooth out if you raise the rpm sufficiently, the higher engine speeds could possibly be disguising the problem. The car has also never really started that well from cold. I checked the spark plugs and they looked amazing to someone who has never owned fuel injection before. I looked for bad connections and vacuum leaks, since the ECU directly reads manifold vacuum (in V12 cars, the ECU is in the boot and its vacuum line has to run the whole length of the car, because why not... ). Nothing stood out though. Several tanks of fuel system cleaning pills didn't help either. Today I took off the airflow meter and cleaned it, and this did make an improvement. The raise in engine speed on startup is more pronounced, and the idle speed seems to have raised slightly which makes the car coast better / makes it not decelerate as aggressively when you lift off the accelerator. But just like my reduced 80kph vibration, the shaky running issue's still detectable. I'll try a compression test and then randomly change every ignition system part, idle valve, fuel pressure regulator and injector before giving up in 6 months from now. The Jag let me know what it thinks of my diagnostic skills:

2 months later i have all the bits to rebuild the bottom end. the heads are already finished and i have them back. parts, 9 to 1 CR Ross forged pistons (the cunts will not change the value of the parts on the shipping invoice so keep that in mind when deciding to use them or not) eagle H beam rods and ARP rod bolts ARP main cap studs and bolts new genuine Toyota oil pump theres heaps of other shit too but you get the picture. block will now be bored and honed to 88mm. rotating assembly will get balanced and ill get the short block back. then its reassembly time. good days. or maybe not good days. going in to hospital to get back surgery in about a month so that will fuck all progress for a while............... 2019-09-19_07-59-37 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-09-19_07-59-22 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-09-19_07-58-23 by sheepers, on Flickr

Inner patterns for the sump complete. Just got a couple of small cores left to do for the sump. Then move on to some cam boxes!

A Big Rig turned up today... To do this Which ended up looking like this A bit better after clean-up Next step, to the panelbeaters - hopefully soon.

ah haha spoilt for choice now. I mixed a bunch together.

short block is finished and back home. now its time to start the assembly. need to check a few things like valve/piston clearance and whatnot. i go in to hospital for back surgery on the 24th and id like to get the engine sealed us before then. 2019-10-04_08-00-51 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-10-04_08-00-40 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-10-04_08-00-32 by sheepers, on Flickr

So Al my work mate was good enough to give the intake manifold a bit of a tidy up with the die grinder while I was assembling the engine With getting the engine pretty much together I thought it was time to get onto a few of the bolt on items. I know from my mk1 cortina that I was wasting my time the orginal alternator. So I found a old Nissan alternator and fitted that. Redrilled the holes and it pretty much lined up. Changed the pulley over from the old Lucas alternator. Which just ment turning the hole out to suit the Nissan alternator. So it's pretty much together just have to sort the flywheel out next.

Off for the final blast, then refit the bonnet, doors and boot lid and then off to paint woohoo

Done a quicky on the painting, minimising the work to get it done, and by done, i mean water proof and ready to roll quick high build prime over the sanded back repaired areas then a blow over with the blue. i mixed a bit much paint and instead of waste it, I got a few sags instead Still, unmasking is just the best Front door bits swapsies. Its surprising how much lighter a car door is without all the trimmings! took bits off all three to make one 'good' one Again, this one fit straight in the hole a treat (after a shim here and a hinge shave there) and now opens and closes the best it ever has so ive decided i quite like the look of these doors and they can stay Tidied out the inside of various mostly empty boxes and various screws, trim and clips, that are now consolidated into one bin Put the grill and headlamp assemblies, nearly all the bulbs now mostly work after a wiggle or a tap. Still a bit of a list of things to do, - Exhaust has a leak, looks easily accessed - handbrake cable buzzes on exhaust - i messed something up when i assembled the rear door, the window snags on the door lock rod when its wound down - sand the runs, flies and dust out the of the paint once it hardens a bit more - polish - clean and install chrome trims I also put the interior of the doors in and gave the dash a wipe. . Looking forward to giving this thing a good blazz again soon! Its mobile and driveable now and only the exhaust really needs sorting for a WoF, and now its together it also means i can start sort a lot of stuff out of the shed and into storage etc

have been thinking about the air feed and was going to weld a recessed plate into the bonnet for the scoop but the bonnet has so many curves i think i might stuff it up.....so had a re think. made a card board airbox to see how much room i have to play with once i had marked out the area on the bonnet and drilled the holes for the scoop i took the bonnet off and flipped it over. the bonnet its self has indentations on both sides and they are almost perfect for the Porsche air filter.. i marked out the area needed for the filter and cut it out....needed to make a wee bit more room. trial fitted the filter again i then made some sides and back so that the filter can now slide in from the front and be held tight and sealed to the bonnet refitted the bonnet and checked the hole for placement filter in and scoop on. im pretty happy with it so far

Who knows about injector pumps? A bit smokey when you put your foot down (but otherwise fine) makes me think there is something worn in here... So whats the plan....? Firstly, I cant touch it until my mini is done... Last WOF was in 2018 so somewhat thinking of just putting it through seeing if the list is managable and using it from there. But long term I want to pull the whole thing down a do a chassis swap to a late model hilux/navara etc and build it up from there. Will respray and refit as much interior as possible to make as comfortable as possible. Only thing which would prevent that is if I have to rego as a 'scratch build' and do a cert from there. Otherwise would either repower or rebuild the running gear and do a disc brake/power steering modification. Time will tell.... Discuss

Waiting on parts to finish the throttle & plenum setup. so pulled the radiator and intercooler out to modify the intercooler pipe. Then went full retard and cut up the radiator. cut a bit off the end and relocated the outlet pipes Why? more room for other stuff and that part of the radiator was mostly blocked off from airflow anyways. Redone the turbo side pipe, as well as the inlet side. the pile of pipes at bottom of pic is the old stuff that come off it. Yep that cast elbow looks horrible for flow ^ thats why i chopped it up, so goes from 2.5" to about same area as 3" pipe. The intercooler is on the list to go in the bin. because is heavy and junk. I brought the cheapest one i could get when originally built the truck. Staying for now but will go to a tube and fin one day. 2.5" hot side 3" cold side. old was 2.5" . even though the pipe is bigger have cut the length down quite a bit. so probably sill less area in the pipework than the old setup

We’d decided we were going to tackle 42 traverse. Which was a great choice for a shakedown ride imo. Adventure50 handled it quite well, 4t motor is just lazy and loves being held wide open to bounce up obstacles. Did a few jumps, bashed through a bunch of puddles, and succeeded at most hill climbs (let down by lack of rider skill mostly) apart from the really wet slippery clay ones (like picture) due to lack of tyre grip, as the SR241 trail tyres just clogged up. Cleared instantly though once back onto the more solid bits of the trail. relocating the airfilter into the frame was good, as it increased the wading depth. However we still had to carry/float the bikes across as a section of this was mid thigh deep. Even made it up to see some snow only issue on the day was I lost the exhaust nuts -my fault for not double nutting/using lock nuts. And could go for some firmer front springs as it bottoms out fairly easily. / less bent fork tubes might help too. however we only did 42 one way as on the way back Andrews bike broke and we had to walk it out. So I need to go back to ride it both ways again. #cape

Have sprayed a few more items. Battery tray, all door jams, bonnet and had redone the engine bay 'bubble' because it was easier to do the whole thing then to fix a couple of runs. Couple of areas had to be touched up as I didnt wait long enough between coats and had solvent boil. Aligned the rear doors for final assembly before paint. Will put some seam sealer around the hinges to lock out any water. Put in the new door pins on the drivers door and sealed in the drivers guard. The sealer is a soft material that will provide protection from the wheel well but wont 'glue' the guard on permanently. Originally the guards are welded on but I've decided to reattach it with sealant and bolts. Will align the passenger door with new pins then I can start prepping the body for paint. Also made up a new base plate for the subframe and welded that on.

I hit a bit of a brick wall with progress because at some point I want to paint the engine bay and underside, and was trying to do things in a way which meant I could get that done, get the engine sorted and painted and in for good and then do things like make the exhaust afterwards Then I realised that was stupid and I was wasting time mucking around trying to figure out things with the engine on the stand, and whacked the motor and box back in . I need to get everything done then I'll take it apart for paint last Shifter mounted, i wanted it up high so it's not far from the steering wheel to the shifter, @RXFORD/matt from tin tricks helped me out again with that by folding up a shifter mount and putting some fancy holes in it And put the carb and hat on, the bonnet doesnt shut so I'll have to figure out what I'm going to do with that

On to the flywheel. First remove the dowels Weld a stud to the dowels to attach the slide puller. Weigh it. Into the lathe. Sorted. I also machined the face in the lathe. I machined the outside area where the pressure plate clamps down .5mm to give the pressure plate more clamping load. Weighed it after.

After giving it another vacuum today to get rid of even more of the leftover blasting media (that shit gets everywhere) I washed it all down again and coated it in deoxidine which gave it a curious gold colour. Getting primed tomorrow.

Ardunio nano on a small board with some hall effect sensors. installed in the end of an old can, some melted plastic in the holes, light passes through the plastic so i know where to drill it to put the bolts through.

oh oh oh i forgot the coolest part. Had our resident PPSC pinstriper do some subtle tank art for it. PENNY PINCHERS SCOOTER CLUB BUY FOR CHEAPS SELL FOR HEAPS

Mounting the fuel tank was today's job, got it mostly done, little bit of welding left to do. Fuel filter and pump will go in the spare wheel well and I'll make a cover that goes over the top of the well I need to sort a sealed cap and a spill ring, and an extra fitting on top for a return

Dropped the head off at a local reconditioners for a leisurely soak in the cleaning bath and a very light skim (I suspect 3 & 4 cylinders had been talking to each other). Have to say I was blown away with how good a condition it was in once all the damn black rich running carbon had been dissolved. Cleaned the valves and gave them a light lap. Enlisted the help of an “Oldschool Holden Spring Compressor” I had lying around which made light work of the double valve springs and all it needs now is a fresh coat of the obligatory “Torana Yellow” paint.

Cab off and away last night for wood rot repair. We are thinking of not painting the cab until after it's re-registered so the chassis tag & WOF sticker etc are undisturbed to make the process as smooth as possible. Now that it's short enough it can fit in the garage and we can hoist the engine out & get the chassis cleaned up. Keen to do some laps in its current state!

More pics

Not immediately build related but after seeing this stuff article @myk00l ( https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/115722682/worker-to-clean-up-christchurch-hoarder-house-begins ) I managed to get in touch with those involved and a sad sight awaited me. Three 110R wrecks All realistically too far gone to save due to rust, the guy told me they had driven into the site three years earlier but I found that verrry hard to believe. There was also two 120L models (one half converted into a rally car) and one solid looking one that apparently only has ~50,000kms on it before the head gasket blew and it was taken off the road. A guy in Dunedin who I've been in touch with has a 120L that he and his son are doing up but were struggling to find parts (was quoted $2,600 for a windscreen from Smith and Smith!). I managed to save the white 120 and will be taking it to Dunedin this weekend when I go down to pick up the Sabre. It's surprising solid considering it's been of the road for ~ 20 years. Almost don't want to let it go! Would come up good with a proper scrub! Also found a loose half axle sitting in one of the cars that I'm reconditioning to put into the Sabre after the fuckery I endured trying to replace oil seals without the right tools / knowledge. Aim is to have it on the road in time for the Mcleans Island swap meet.

Hole in the exhaust was an easy fix, but is somewhere i think i will be visting again eventually Stuck all the many many chrome trims back on And backed it into the sun then down the road and reversed up the drive - this side has been drying for a few weeks so it got a quick polish with the big slow grinder then bunged the trim back on this side too, now its all back together. Last pic of a car in this shed got to be parked on the lawn in waiting for me to bung it into storage for a while sheds now starting to fill with boxes and about 2 vanloads of stuff taken to and from storage and the op shops

I'm no artist, but this idea has been floating around in my head. This is someone relaxing at New Plymboes.

One of the things i was busy with was a job interview, and i only bloody got it, so gotta prepare for shifting everything 1400km south So gotta get this thing ready to be transported, or maybe enven driven. So to access the drivers side mans turning it around. It only fired up and drove down the driveway and a lap of my test track, and even did a wee skiddy on the way up the driveway I uncovered this in the rear door in 2017 when i derusted this side. What the hell. There were a few other blebs on the outside and bottom so ive swapped the handles and interior stuff over to another door Its from the 125 i wrecked from Levin, ive used a few panels from it now. Rad stickers and brush painted light blue over midnight blue, actual patina! Fits real good I will repaint the rear quarter, front a-pillar and a couple of other minor primer spots on the body but im not touching the rear door so to the front door i think its more effort fixing the rust (and all the bloody bog and sanding that goes with) in the front and rear lower corners, and elsewhere, and the hinge is a bit worn or bent. so ill swap the interior of this over to the light blue front door to match the rear. It isnt much better shape really, but might fit and close a bit nicer.

Front brakes ready to bolt on VJ spindles, new discs with 3mm off the od thanks to @RXFORD, then @RUNAMUCK kindly supplied some wheel studs to replace a couple that got mangled on the way out, reco surf calipers, new wheel bearings, aussie valiant lower ball joints which have a shorter steering arm for more hektik drifts, and repco had some new dust caps

So this bad boy is all finished just in time for DGR, had a pretty lush day filled with a few ales and some quality @My name is Russell banter. tried to find some penguins to club, couldnt, so got a photo instead when i got home i packed my tent, themarest, sleeping bag and a shit load of clothes into my 40l bag to see how it will sit for east cape, perfect. Gunna be lush to be 100% self sufficient this year yea rad

did the bushes in the rear today. nothing special, usual shit of drilling out the rubber, cutting the sleve then smashing it out. new bushed just push in. haven't drive it on the motorway yet to gauge betterness but given how squishy and fucked the old bushed were i suspect it'll be a big step forward. 2019-09-28_06-51-37 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-09-28_06-51-27 by sheepers, on Flickr 2019-09-28_06-51-19 by sheepers, on Flickr

Took it for its first ride last night, even with the weird ergonomics, unstable idle and shitty brakes it was a success.

I actually like the rude rude as white bonnet look haha. 2pac likes it and that’s all that counts.

Another small job I wanted to take on whilst the car was in bits, was to check the valve clearances. I had no history of it being done, and its a fairly important thing to check on these engines, and not hard to do. Valve clearance is the small gap that must exist between the rocker arm and the top of the valve stem. This gap allows for expansion of the parts as they heat up (mainly the valve), so that there isn't either excessive space between the two (valve won't open as far or as long, and will make a loud tapping noise) or too little (valve may not close, and can result in a burnt valve). Some engines have the means to self adjust, usually via a hydraulic lifter (those things that make Mitsis go "tick tick tick"), but on these older engines (and even some modern engines, like Hondas) the clearances were a scheduled service item and needs to be checked and corrected. On this engine it's nice and easy to access with the intake piping out of the way. It's just a matter of removing the valve covers, of which mine were leaking anyway. It turns out that a few of the valve cover bolts weren't even finger tight, so no wonder the oil was getting through the gasket! With the covers off, you need to use a socket and ratchet to rotate the engine so that the crank timing mark lines up with TDC on the front pointer. If its correct, you should find that No 5 cylinder valves are "rocking" and this is when you measure No 1 cylinder clearances. "Rocking" is the term for when you watch the rockers on that cylinder and you will see the both are at the same height, but if you rock the crank one way, one rocker will push down slightly, and if you rock it the other way, the other rocker will push down. Ford Cologne engines are a little special, so the layout isn't quite what you expect. Take note of the layout of the intake and exhaust valves, they aren't always in the same order. The clearances should be as follows. These are done on a cold engine (about 20c ideally). The exhaust has a bigger clearance due to the additional heat the valve is subjected to. When checked with a feeler gauge, there should be a slight drag on the blade, but not too tight, or too loose. You kinda just do it by feel and get to know what it should feel like When one cylinder is done, check the list to see what rockers will be rocking next and turn the crank (in the direction of normal rotation) until those rockers rock, and check the clearances on the opposing cylinder in the list. Easy. If any of them need adjusting, there will be a screw on the opposite end of the rocker, that either needs to be loosened or tightened to open or close the gap. Most cars have a locking nut to stop it rotating, but the Cologne doesn't, so turning the screw will adjust it, and it self locks. Mine were very tight, so I used a six sided socket and rachet to turn them. A little goes a long way though, so sometimes even a slight tweak of the screw will be the difference between loose, and the right amount of drag. Five of six cylinders had valves that were too tight to get the blade into, and one cylinder was loose as a goose. I don't know what this means, hopefully it isn't a sign of valve recession due to a lack of lead, but time will tell. It could also just be bad adjustment from a previous mechanic....

Front end back together after a year and a half. Now she's out in the sun all the body issues are painfully obvious! I've got some rust to fix over the R/R wheel and in the boot, and the clear is coming off in sheets, but it drives sooo nice. It's like night and day from the old 5M, and definitely glad I went manual. I've still got a long list of small stuff to tick off before cert, but I feel I'm on the home stretch now.

Bit done over the weekend, tidied up the last of the wiring, stripped an internal thread on brake bias adjuster (bastard) , checked electrics, powered everything up, got radiator for supercharger heat exchanger mounted behind the diff, looked at trans cooler and put it back on the bench, got power steering half plumbed . One of my lads is a plumber so going to run 3/4" copper lines from front to back for the heat exchanger plumbing. And probably need to cover the front of radiator with mesh or something.

Brake lines sussed, and i got a box of stuff plated too. Also OCD me decided that mint condition inside the rear brake drums is a requirement!!!

left that alone for a while, i was in a huff and also busy with other stuff finally gave it a wet sand and filled all the shitty little fisheyes with icing, and put another pretty thinned coat of blue down and it turned out much better pulling off masking tape is the best. then lashings of dinitrol.

Righto, so ive been driving this to work every day for the last month ir whatever. Hasn't missed a beat. Its fucking slow. Fuck me is it slow but that's not such an issue, it's fucking cool and I like driving it. The front end is a bit all over the show If you have to hit the brakes on the motorway so ive replaced all the bushes. Castor arm bushes and upper inner bushes were completely fucked. Im fairly certain they were original ones. I'll do the back next weekend and put thre disk brake diff in at the same time.

So I've been somewhat pining for my old canvas topped Land Rover since I sold it a few years back.... the prices on these have started to get silly so I've been thinking I need to get back in the game or loose it forever.... But this time I've been on the lookout for a different model to allows the whole family to join in the LR fun and have been somewhat dreaming of overland camping trips in Central with the kids. So something along these lines popped up on a FB page a few months back, messaged the guy, seemed like a good option but had no funds at the time, others were interested so said thanks and moved on. Now I came into $$ and messaged again a low and behold its still available and they want to move it on.... Quick trip up to Timaru to inspect and back a few weeks later (today to pick it up....) So what have I got...? Its a 1962 SIIa (383th of the export model off the line, so early in the run) 109 StationWagon. Its been modified a fair bit (on declaration papers from '92) to run a Nissan ED30 diesel (my old one had an ED33..) into a 5speed Nissan box which is somewhat mated to a LR transfer case. It also has the (very good) later axles from a Stage1 V8 (basically a Dana60) to give 3.9 gearing with freewheeling hubs. A keen eye will note that the nose has been pushed forward - it doesnt need to be to fit the ED30, I wonder if it had an earlier 6cyl conversion. Body is a little rough (as we will see) but is largely complete. Got it home and first thing was to give it a waterblast, the lichen has gone to town on the paint.... Has a 'very period' winch.... I've figure out that most of the gauges work, has a wee heater with an exposed fan (watch the fingers)

Not even off page 1 and already time for an update! Whaka yeah! Bought a turbo manifold, seems pretty ok? Like is new, which is good but has obviously been sitting for a bit before being freshly powdercoated and sent to me, but will allow the attachment of the hairdryer for the turbo noises and that's what really matters. Is strong too so should be cool. Bolted manifold to engine, bolted turbo to manifold, clocked turbo. Bottom of both A-pillars looked like this. Then they looked like this... Cut the rust riiiiiight back. Most of this I am fairly certain was caused by poorly repaired rust at the top of the A-pillars, which allowed water behind the windscreen sea at the top, down the pillars, and then pooled in the wiper tray. Still needs a fettling and tidy up, but all 3 skins are in and replaced and strong af. didn't remember to get a photo of the passenger side but that's done too. Also in the above photo you can see the *ahem* clearancing needed for the turbo and manifold, this is fine as this area isn't occupied by wheel and tyre, as they stick way outside the factory guards. I will close this in with sheet steel shortly. Should be getting the pieces of steel I have had cut up for the body mounts today, been getting a really good deal on these through the engineer we use for work, he cuts them out of steel he has and just charges me the rate they pay for steel, no cost for cutting or anything. The labour may or may not get charged to whatever job we have going on at work at the time, but i wouldn't be surprised haha. A lot easier and more accurate than doing it myself, I don't have a bandsaw so I have to cut everything with an angle grinder, which isn't the best for parts I want to match perfectly side to side. Also bought my clutch, so will bolt the engine to the gearbox, and that will be that (here's hoping). Also bought a flange for the turbo to start the downpipe, and a heater matrix to try and start looking at where that will fit and how it will all work. Plans for the next week: - Get flywheel surfaced, bolt up clutch. If I get the body mounts tacked up, take off body, remove gearbox, mate together. - Tack in remaining body mounts. - Finish engine cover frame. If I have any extra time, start to close in with panel steel. Have teed up a guy at work to do the final welding for the body mounts for some liquid refreshments. He is a good/ticketed welder so will be good to have confidence that the body won't fall off while I drive it down the road. Let me know what I am doing wrong/I am a fool for thinking I can get this frankenstein done for Nats 2020. On a serious note, anyone who can help/has suggestions to do with tuning/ecus/wiring, please hit me up. I am no expert on most things, but wiring is something I worry may be a serious stumbling block, and I don't know if I will have the money available in time to just pay someone else to do it.

I still own this car

pulled the card board air box apart and changed a few measurements and made a steel one....just tacked for now but its a good size.. some pics so far.

Being a bit useless at keeping updates on track I realised that it's nearly 6 months since the last update. In short, the roof lining is in, looks 7 out of 10 and I should have got it done by someone who knows what they are doing. New reproduction bumpers bought and fitted (over-riders in the front and centre section of the rear are the originals re-chromed). Cold air box built and installed. Steering installed, rack fitted with new boots, cleaned and painted,with the original bus sized steering wheel I don't think the steering will be too heavy. I am having a couple of days away at Ohakune with the family and took a trip up to Horopito and got a replacement gutter trim to replace the one I destroyed with the polisher (that will get its own post), knobs for the heater and vents for the demister. Time now to start knocking off the half finished jobs, run some fuel lines and sort out the wiring. Make noise!!!!! Photos to come.

Finally got the sump back on. Remembered that I had another set of bolts when I bought the sump so I cleaned them up.