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Got the intake all done with a K&N filter, looks pretty good I think. Took a guy for a drive that knows transmission things up the road and back and he reckoned the trans was sweet, shifting how it should, just the engine was massively down on power. Tried to diagnose the problem myself but I couldn't really figure much out. It was throwing error codes for the secondary throttle and knock sensors. Discovered the secondary throttle sensor was only used for traction control so I didn't need to worry about that one. Was hoping the knock sensors were just reading high because the timing was out, so I took it to Danny's Autos in Palmy to go on the dyno and see if they can tune it and figure out what's wrong. They got it on the dyno, they were just bringing it up to speed and fuel started pissing out everywhere. One of the fuel hoses going up to the fuel rail split, don't know if it just happened or if it's been like that for awhile, but we never noticed any fuel in the valley before, where as there was heaps in it then. So off came the intake and manifold to replace it. Whilst they had that off they had a look at the knock sensors and they had seen better days. The wiring pins were pretty corroded and the casings were cracked. They sourced some new OEM ones and chucked them in. They also found one of the breather hoses had a split, as well as one of the igniter modules was only firing 1 of 4 cylinders on that one side. So basically this has only been running on 5 cylinders all this time. Thought it didn't sound quite right haha. The steering rack also decided to start leaking power steering fluid out of a place the fluid shouldn't be. Beach Hop was the next week and the rack had to be sent to Auckland to be rebuilt. Managed to get the engine back together and drive it home on the Tuesday night and pull out the rack to be sent off on Wednesday. Luckily they got around to rebuilding it fairly quick and sent off again so it arrived first thing on Friday morning. Got a different igniter module from the wreckers off a SR20 and it ran waaaaaay better! Chucked the rack back in Friday morning and took it for a WOF, passed with flying colours, so went and got some rego and now it's all legal!!!! On Friday/Saturday the fuel pump must of came out about a dozen times, half of which were on the side of the road. Went for a bit of a drive and the fuel pump kept dying for some reason, thought maybe the wiring in-tank was a bit dodgy, replaced it all and soldered every connector, that didn't make much difference. Discovered that if I gave the pump a good smack it would start back up pumping a bit more fuel or just die completely. Decided to get another fuel pump from Repco and chucked that in. Turns out the brand new "genuine" Walbro pump I got off ebay was shit. Went sooooo much better again!! Took it to the 4 & Rotary Jamboree show and shine at Manfield on the Sunday and took home the Best Commercial Piston trophy. Then on the Monday took it back into Danny's Autos to get dyno'd. Made 100kw at the wheels which I thought wasn't quite right (should be closer to 200kw?), but he reckoned it was running right and just the reading wasn't that accurate, he had trouble getting into 4th, kept changing down, so had to do it in third and that was maxing out the dyno's rolling speed. It had good consistent 02 sensor readings. Took it up to Beach Hop on the Wednesday. Had no issues other than getting some brake fade through the windy bits between Waihi and Whangamata, we think there must of still been some air left in the lines. After that happened I was changing it manually between 2nd and 3rd gear through the windy bits, rather than just leaving it in drive as it engine brakes way more. Survived all through Beach Hop, including going up to Whitianga, Kuaotuna and Onemana as well as cruising up and down the main street lots, the rear bumper took a few scrapes, I think it needs some titanium stripes underneath! I think it was one of the cars that got some of the most attention. Managed to get all the way back down to Marton, then when I was overtaking up a hill, noticed smoke coming from under the dash, so quickly pulled over and checked it out. The transmission sump had either smoke or steam since it was raining coming off of it, also smelt very burnt and the oil was quite dark. My parents caught up and we decided to just keep driving. I then noticed it was revving at 3500rpm at 100km/h, where as it's usually around about 1800rpm. It was only changing from first into second gear and that's it, if I took my foot off the accelerator it would drop straight down to idle. It was a slow drive home from there at 70km/h. Next couple of days I pulled the trans out, pulled off the sump and it had quite a bit of metallic build up at the bottom and just smelt very burnt. I guess it's always been slipping, as to why it didn't make much power on the dyno. Dropped it off today to get a quote on being rebuilt, so hopefully it's not too bad. It used about $400 worth of petrol over Beach Hop, which I think worked out to be 15 l/100km. After driving it for about 1200km I have decided the seat definitely needs redoing, it's way too hard, would also be nice to sit a bit lower and further back as well. Also the accelerator pedal has your foot at too much of an angle back, so gets sore rather quick. Shouldn't be too hard to fix as the seat changes should help and just modify the pedal a little. Also the door latches + door seals are terrible, takes way too much effort to get them closing right. A softer door seal might help, and you can get bear jaw latch kits that are basically a bolt in thing for these which might be the go when I have the spare money.

dragged it out of storage got a wof and some rego, and a well needed clean

I got this off Zac a few years ago, it's been sitting in storage but I'm getting the bits together so I can assemble it then it'll get sold. I bought some 0.5mm oversize NA (9:1) pistons and bearings from Rockauto. The block was bored by North Canterbury Engine Reconditioners to suit the pistons, he also decked the block and polished the crank for me. I'm converting an Evo 3 head to use the cam and crank trigger setups that some of the other 4G63s ran, I bought new sensors also from Rockauto. I've welded up the injector holes on an Evo 4 inlet manifold so I can use it with the Evo 3 head and have the throttle body facing the correct way. Still need to get lots of other bits, oil pump, sump, turbo and manifold, flywheel and clutch etc etc.

Compliance and WOF today. Dealer plated FTW spat some fluid on the way down - shite rad cap. Swapped it out as I had 2 with me in case haha. Gagging for a tune.

You lucky bastard. Got my documents & registration number back in a record 12 days. I've ordered some plates, Black & silver, Japanese dimensions with motorcycle size digits. Should look OK. Tyres are all fucked. Dry rotted on the inside. Little bit suss as they were fitted just before it was shipped. Date stamped 2005 so not a massive surprise, cheapy new ones on the way. Not sure which way I'm going to go with the wheel tyre combo yet. Can't really drop it any lower for our roads so no mad camber & stretch on the way. It's up on stands and that's where we get to the lucky bastard bit. It is still totally solid underneath and seems to be as original as I thought. A few little scabs on a couple of the doors but over all it's mint. Gonna need some brake parts & maybe a new clutch master and/or slave cylinder, anybody got any recommendations for parts suppliers, either in Japan or over your way ? Been asking around a bit over here but I'm not feeling the love.... Anyway, a couple of rust-free pics just for fun. Hopefully some decent, on-the-road pics in the next few weeks.

What happened was..... Had a big fuck off pizza for lunch & then got stuck into the car around midday. First job was the clutch, thought the master &/or slave might have been fucked but a bleed & adjust sorted it Brakes next. Calipers were a bit sticky but freed them up to a usable state. For the moment, at any rate. One rear was perfect, if dusty. Nice use of thumb... Other side fucked. Or so I thought. Cleaned it all up, took the cylinder apart and it all seems fine. Once I'd refitted & bled the system there was no sign of a leak, even with repeated pedal stamping/ continual pressure. Go figure... We''ll see how it goes. I wonder if the reason it was all damp and shitty was because on top of the drum was the fave spot for rats to have a wee. Put new plates on. Think I'm going to join the rear lights with a black panel edged with chrome trim. Mrs Shuzz said " Oh, FFH....Fucking Hot Hako ?" Good girl. Finished off as the sun went down touching up the paint on the rims & taking a blurry pic. Messed about with plug leads, etc and came in And that was a bloody good use 7 hours of my Saturday. Test drive tomorrow. Sweeeeet.....

Engine is going to be rebuilt with a few new bits Previous bottom end was a silvertop bottom end. Balanced with arp rod bolts and toda 82mm pistons. rest stock. This time: Same toda pistons : awaiting new rings Brian Crower rods: just some off the self rods. mostly because they are around 100gm lighter per rod than what was in there ARP mains Toda Oil pump gears The broken stuff; Crank seen better days. Block had some unrelated pitting in the bores, looks like it had water or something sitting around rings when it wasn't in use for some time. mostly at the bottom of the stroke, so probably wasn't loosing any power from it. Head: valves look ok, awaiting 2nd opinion from engine guy So yeh no more 20v parts, had a spare 16v ze block and crank, will be base for new bottom end. Suspect that the valves have been starting to float. so will be putting these fancy beehive springs in. at the moment it has supertech singles. which are borderline for what im doing No#3 toast

Engine crane.

Update for those interested Repair Cert PASS Compliance and WOF all PASSED apart from the below 2 points - tighten hand brake cable - fix slight leak in return line to gas tank brass fitting Cert Clint did the cert on Friday and I’ve attached the list. I just need to work through that list and take it back for the brake road test. I also need the old old owner from USA to email that he sold me the car - I keep in touch so that won’t be an issue. Now to work through the list and get this sled legal. Am I happy? Yes, the answer is YES!

Oh man I haven't updated this for so long. Six months ~ time fly's and all that guff. Didnt really do anything to the Hudson over the Summer. Messed about on the old 52 Buick a bit as it has been playing up but other than its all been work or play I guess.Anyway thats my lifes catch up hour complete. lets talk old jalopies & do a quick catch up on to where the Hudson currently sits. And then with luck I will pull my finger out so to speak and start updating this more regularly.I should warn you all now this might be a tad pic heavy. Photobomb you all since I plan to follow the old saying "A picture is worth a thousand words". Oh and images are all odd sizes due to camera settings at the time. dratted updates.First off the engine was put back in and tight tuck headers thrown on.Left hand side had clearance issues so we put spacers on the engine mounts raising the engine a fraction to cure the issues. Although we have clearance at the firewall it will get cut more to tidy things up and give a tad more room.Wheels on, engine in and sitting on the ground... better jump in and visualize cruising.Radiator slotted in. Happy that we modded the thing to have twin fillers and a central top outlet. Purely for aesthetic reasons really. Just hope it will work well.Was a bit concerned about the amount of space between the rad and engine at first. but once the custom fan shroud is on and other junk is in there the gap should fill up I hope.With the engine in and headers on next steep seems logical enough - fab up the front exhaust. Was surprised how easy it went. Heap of room on each side so no issues getting to the oil filter or anything else. Still is rock solid.Welded all up ready for a quick paint and fitting. H balance pipe just at the tail of the trans. the two extra out lets poking out the sides are for the lake pipes - I like the idea of them being functional if i want. Looking at the above pic and below you will note they are situated in a low spot. this is not just cus it is just where they should be body wise but also to stop the possibility of any water pooling.Shiny sh!tFirst off i will say IDIDIT sales are top blokes. Why they never just blocked my emails is beyond me. For two years one, two or 4 times a month I would email them asking when there RHD column shift steering column would be ready. Patient bunch always emailed back. After a year or so they made up a column - it failed Aussie testing as it was to strong and didnt collapse enough. Will point out NZ cert laws are also extremely tight around steering columns with only four or so aftermarket brands being aloud. Rightly so as it is a big spear that could impale you. Anyway im waffling. To cut a long story short they have now made up a RHD column shift column- although its still not on the website. Since I had to wait so long they gave me a huge discount.Was a happy boy unboxing all teh steering crap.Initial fit up. Wasn't to thrilled on how the column sat at the dash. column drop was to low(as pictured below) so decided to order in a new one. Slightly cutting up the dash but will be worth it to get it to sit up in the stainless strip more.Whilst we waited for the shorted column drop it was decided to cut up the firewall a bit more as next we would need to figure out the lower floor mount for the column that currently dangled in the air.Three double D universals will be used. Bit tight near the headers but still will be easier than some setups.Below looks closer to the headers than it really is. has near an inch I guess of clearance.Its all nice and tight no slop or wiggle and more importantly no binding.With the front exhaust and steering done its time to move to the gaping hole in the floor and firewall.Top of the firewall all buttoned up. Will get cleaned up down the track but for now at least we have an area to bolt the trans cover to. Heap of room to fiddle about on the distributor etc.Skellington framework being made up for the trans cover. Bit by floor mount will get altered as I dont want it to be incorporated into the trans cover. Who wants the bother of removing the column to get the trans cover out? Will get it all folded up. Note the columns new position up further in the dash. Tilt column so should be ace.Been teaching myself Solidworks. Designed up the fan shroud and got it cut n folded.A couple of Spall high performance fans sit on the the shroud. I figure if they are good enough to cool NASCAR and high end sports cars then they should suck air through the four core copper rad and keep the old donk chilly. The rubber flaps are for highway speeds to let trapped hot air out. Middle rivets hold a divider in place that separates each fan. Thinking here being air follows the path of least resistance. So if only a single fan is running then air would draw through the other fans opening and not through the rad. Being in separate chambers hopefully will stop this happening. So yeah thats me pretty much! All caught up with the Hudson project. With luck will be getting back to it more now its coming into Autumn.One side note is the missus has got her self a new car. Just a small grocery getter / run about. A 1956 Morris Minor split window series II coupe. Seems to be rust free and mechanically sound little car - totally road worthy and legal. Owned by a nursing home from new till the old couple who she purchased it off got it. Garaged and loved all its life.So what do you do when you get a honest survivor in good condition? Cut it up of course!TheMoose on HAMB photoshoped it doing all we asked. chop roof, fade-away fenders, skirts & lower it. Like an old 47 buick just compacted. Once the current warrant of fitness runs out (6 months) the fun begins. Oh and old 30HP factory engine will be going as well.

Wow. 5 years later and what a ball ache that turned out to be. It turns out that the closest engine reconditioned isn't always best choice.There were numerous issues with the above engine which only became apparent over time. The most obvious issue was that it wouldn't rev past 4900rpm. After much mucking around, buying parts, getting shagged around by Australian parts suppliers, booking dyno time, and sitting in workshops around Christchurch I discovered that my oil pump drive gear was slipping on its shaft as the load came on, causing a drop in oil pressure, not enough to bring the oil light on and too briefly to make the gauge drop This caused the lifters to bleed down and stop the engine until the gear gripped on the shaft and things went OK again. So the upshot of all this? A re, rebuilt engine, this is where the lid came off the tin of worms. Anyway. got it going all seems OK. After all the wasted time and money, as well as a couple of other factors this thing has been parked up since Hanmer last year. I've just got it back from 6 months to life to be served in a workshop in rural Canterbury. I haven't been able to decide what to do with it or the AP5, I thought about selling them but soon changed my mind, I've thought about parking them up and ignoring them for a decade or two. Neither option made me happy. Nats 2019 made me realize how much I miss having one or both of them running so now I'm back and have the VG home. It's time to make The VG awesome to again! I have a list of things to do. As you can see, some of those things are already done! I gave it a good wash and polish, now it looks much better. I think I need to add "Replace boot rubber" to the list.

Hell yeah. as much as i was not happy about the smashed window im so happy. the clean window is so good. such a better look with out the tint strip on it. very un happy but happy with the result. so brilliant. kass wanted to stay late and work on the buss and get it going as he has been working on his BSA during work hours, not that fazed but give some get some right. so we chucked the new second hand breaks on the front. new hoses and then moved to the rear. the first job was to fix the oil leak. we are running an adapter to suit the kombi engine mount off the oil pump and casing. we stripped the thread on the bottom to bolts and i said to kass fuck we should do that, his response was like nah it cant be that bad dw about it, lols. so yeah. kinda a pain in the ass. had to take the exhaust off and a bunch of other things. so yeah broke the other exhaust getting it off and well hey lets just fit this one instead. while we done that i also got into the rear breaks. Fuck me thats right, hub nuts........ 1.7 meter bar with a 46mm socket welded to the end piss easy mayte. oh hello we have a few missing peaces here. lucky i brought stuff from the vdub shoppe and it'll go straight in right. oh nice the pistons and shoes i brought are the wrong ones, so off we go back to the vdub shop and get the correct ones. its also missing a few peaces so ill scavenging through the scraps and wrecks to find the missing stuff. thats enough for today. hopefully we can get it sorted and drive it next week.

Thought I would try a new look 17x8 d windows looks good to me just need white lettering on the tires

Soooooo. About 3 weeks ago. This happened.

Seat mounts done this morning Pushed it put of the garage for a fresh perspective

fix it til it is?

Last piece was to fit the 3pt seatbelts to rear outer seating postions And she flew through with no issues at all!! three days before Toyota fest, was a massive mish but we made it Still have a stack of things that i want done, climate control panel is toast which i have a replacement for, rear light seals need replacing etc. Have everything there to go but will slowly get through it all and get the car to where i vision it to be.

Since 'finishing' it in Janurary, Ive put close to 1000 trouble free km on it. Theres a few things I need to sort (raise foot pegs and replace the brake pedal as its rubbed through from dragging while cornering) but overall Im pretty happy with it. Its turned out pretty much the way I envisioned it. However, I have a couple of plans for changes to be made. Id like to sort the carb issues with its original motor and get that back in, A few asthetic refinements and as I get more confident with welding maybe some wilder bars... But theres a couple of other projects under way in the shed so stay tuned

Electrical issue turned out to be worn brushes in the distributor, after a solid tour of Chch looking for a replacement brush housing I ended up finding a young fella at Repco who took one look and said, you need bush set xxx, see, they can be soldered in right there. Not often you find someone at a parts store that has the right knowledge, he set me off to another branch with stock and the repair was made in 5 minutes for less than $10 Valvetrain tick investigating time...... Once again, couldn't find much, but one lashpad and rocker had a burr which I took off, unsure if it really changed much. After some more driving and a worsening sound I rechecked the gasket, turns out the new gaskets don't have reinforcement around the exhaust ports, didn't last long! Put the old one back in with a helping of sealant, so far so good. Whats really odd is the tick is most noticeable in the cabin, with the bonnet up it is there, but is drowned out by general engine noise and you'd struggle to pick it up. I'm starting to lean further towards i'm just being paranoid. The only thing I am yet to do (and probably should have done first) is check clearances when hot, that might offer a different view. Went for a hoon down Central Otago way Was a bloody good drive, midweek and late afternoon meant little to no traffic through all the fun bits, until overheating at lake Pukaki on sunset, I topped up with water and limped into Wanaka, unsure to the exact cause as it drank quite a bit of water, wasn't down on power or using fuel and the oil was all good. Turns out I had blown a heater hose and thankfully the old L series is a tough beast, a quick visit to tractor services for some tube to bypass the split hose and she was all go again. However I no longer had a heater. Calling around the usual suppliers and Nissan didn't provide any replacements, the hoses are all listed NLA so to the parts shelf I went Generic Gates hose 01-0005 covers the heater feed behind the block and a Holden commodore hose Gates 02-0912 was just enough for the return line. While in the mood, next on the list was to get the 3.5 R180 diff into place. Standard R160 top, R180 bottom. Quick check up, close enough. Out with the old In with the new. Needed a pair of sump plugs which were happily provided by pick a part and their solid collection of R180 equiped Subaru wagons. This should bring the 100k rev limit down around 3200rpm, it may be at the cost of of the line go, but the car is more of a cruiser than racer now, its worth a go. During the process I cut my hand on the wheel, not sure if its from being old or due to damage, but a new set of tyres is now on the list. Bloody happy to have found it here and not on the Lindis! Have also sorted CAD files for the badges, currently waiting on some tiny carbide end mills to feed the machine, this is so I can keep the actual badges on the shelf and not be paranoid of them falling off. Numb nuts put them in the scanner opposite which is why one is upside down!

Bay...Bee.....Saab do-do-di-do-di-do.... Not much of an update, but thanks to the dynamic duo (aka @Carsnz123 and @JustHarry) Agnetha is now back safely tucked up at home. She is now up on stands at the front end and, with Haynes in hand, I have started disassembling the front suspension. Or at least I was until I ran out of tools and talent (will be on the scrounge for a breaker bar this week...and possibly some spanners). Oh, and the bonnet and front grill are now elsewhere to facilitate access to the donkey. If any one is interested, I have for sale some of the bits I no longer have a need for: Theres a suspicious amount of road gravel in this car....

More chemotherapy for the little Honda. Not the tidiest welds, I was very conscious of not putting too much heat into it. But its solid and straight and rust free.

Just tidying up all the loose ends. Added aditional brackets to the new rear soft brake hoses so that they don’t touch the diff. Venting the gas tank. Wrapping wiring. Bonnet on My rear brake diff hard line might need another flaring as I have a slight leak at one junction.

Finally went and got ol mate @EURON8 to ally weld the holes in the already hacked up side draft manifold so i could space the carbs apart about 4mm from where they were but without fouling on the dizzy or loosing room to seal or flow. some careful 'linishing' later Without any trimming the inner barrells will be 49mm apart, manifold spacing is 40mm, min i can get away with on the carbs is 45mm, max on the manifold is 44mm. its pretty flippin tight and doesnt add up... shaft need trimming by 3 to 4mm and the nuts thinned down a bit as well - i ended up spinning about 3 out of the vice, so i need some more M7 nuts to fit back on the venturi retainers i stole my spares from! no need for retaining washers :/ You can also see how offset the carbs are to the manifold Redrilled and tapped - had to open a old NOS packet to get a 5/16 NSP tap out that had been floating around in my grandads too box for who knows how long before that Fitting the o ring holders show where the manifold needs a smidge of smoothing, about 15 seconds with the belt file. The outer edge of the o-ring diameter is just inside the edge of the manifold face. linkage mod, toyota corolla cable from the old single carb set up to twin weber linkage, all this is sandwiched between the carbs boom AS mentioned in a previous post, these carbs came from a very hot mini, and apart from the drilled and soldered main jets, they all looked very close to what various books and setting tables suggest would be ok for 1500-1700cc engines. 32mm chokes, F9 tubes, 45 idles, 185 airs and random sized but soldered and redrilled mains I had previously ordered 125,and 135 mains so popped in the 125 to start with. old manifold off. Removed the (pretty new) old leaky mechanical fuel pump for good, and installed a factory engine blanking plate. Dumb photo cause it shows the old pump. installed and with new linkage mount and brake vacuum routing, both way better than before. Fuel hose routing will eventually be jiggled to look better (i had orignially wanted to have fule coming in from the firewalll side, but the double ended banjo is a bit long to have the hose make the remaining curve without a kink or rubbing. May try bending it a bit, or maybe just buy a bent one. Clearance is ok, but I cant install the bell mouth into cylinder 3, nor will the air filters i have fit - i will look into making an airbox - i have a Strada 125TC airbox with 'ABARTH' and a scorpion stamped on it that i really really want to make work some how but whatever, lets worry about that after! plugged the fuel in, then spend an age jiggled the timing around and carefully power filing the manifold, then trying to find the best combo of a limited ability to clock the dizzy (it fits in only two more or less fixed positions, maybe 5 degrees rotation?) and dizzy drive tooth alignment , and then it fired up and idled. and revved. Sounds good, and AFRs are ball park YAY! DOORTS!

OK so the motor is pretty much ready to drop in. @Stu popped in and finished up the wee loom for the front of engine bits, so the cam/crank sensors etc are all sorted out. Project KP61 2019 (6) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (10) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (90) by Richard Opie, on Flickr I've chucked all the brand new plastics/seals on the front (Toyota still carry a lot of things) and stuck the new 4AGE sticker on the front. Important. Project KP61 2019 (84) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (75) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (21) by Richard Opie, on Flickr This weekend the idea is to drop it back in the hole and then at some point wire it all up. Yay? YAY!