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Some shiny stuff arrived today. 3 months or so before i have something to attach it too.

I picked some new wheels. Might upset some purists but I needed the size to get the right look otherwise it was always going to be high rolling. At least they’re genuine Japanese rays wheels....

New rear brakes all sorted now, just need to make up some hard lines once I get it back to mine. Hand brake cable setup. Once again Chopper has done a great job. It ended up turning into a bit more of a mission but we got there. The axles had to be ripped out and spun down due to clearance issues and I've also got to run small slip on spacers to fit the modgies (will need to make up some hubcentric once when I put it through cert). The mounts he also had already didn't quite suit so we had to have the engineer draw up some new ones. At the caliper handbrake lever there's maybe 3-4mm clearance from the wheels. They're a neat, simple piece of kit these wilwood powerlites, pretty stoked to have wilwoods front and rear now. All that's left now is to have a steering box guard made up to deflect some heat from the exhaust and then it's coming home (should be this weekend). Once it's back here I'll have to go over my budget and work out where and how much money I can put into it next. Cheers

Ordered some jets off aliexpress, and a fuel pump for when I rage quit because I don't understand carbs and rip into the injection. Replaced the engine mounts today

Got bargain today. EL lightweight flywheel, clutch and pressure plate. $50 off workmate, his stockcar spare one. I'll have to buy bolts and a spigot bearing. Now I will HAVE to yank it out of the chassis and separate engine and box to get thread pitch.

This guy also looks like a good shout!

Same. (Snake. Snake)

Try searching 'seat belt barrel bolt' This was common in 50s and 60s cars when lap and diagonal belts became a requirement

I have an ali one for my Dax. Bike isnt running yet but build quality seems good https://flic.kr/p/2htBH7y Oh I did breifly mount it on my other bike, it isnt quiet but is better than no muffler

Not 100% sure mate...will have another look next time I'm out stripping it. I am going to take everything that is usable off and scrap the shell.. Then sell all the stuff I dont need. So I will let you know mate.

I see your scoot doing the rounds on insta now I think you’ve clocked the scoot game.

Are you fixing this too?

yay, came for the ACVW problems, stayed for the ACWV problems.

What’s the details on this.... (snake)

A+ work thomas!, id also agree with angling it back if the cables will allow it and some permanent purple underglows!

https://lmgtfy.com/?q=virm+motorcycle+mirrors

Google: virm motorbike mirrors Then go to the virm link which points to motorcycles, then on that link hit the legislation tab. You'd think with technology these days it would be easier to just do a quick google for such basic questions.

Plan is to bolt the plates that I have left onto the original Thames mounting plates. These are currently welded to the inside of each chassis rail. I will then poke the reinforcing rods through a 20mm hole that I will drill in the outside face of each chassis leg. A little bit of welding around the nub sticking out of the 20mm hole and I'll call the job done. Tomorrow I'll tackle the lower shock mounts. Thanks for reading.

And I ended up with this:

I took the kids to Jurassic Park in the weekend, and we got in pretty early. As I was in the ute we were parked right at the back, and vision wasn't a problem. They park the cars according to size, so if you go in early in something small/low then you'll likely be put up the front.

Got the visor fitted up and mounted properly yesterday. Looks so much better with it on. Set up a temporary booth in part of the shed for a mate to prime and paint the artilleries yesterday. Turned out mint as so hopefully get tyres sorted ASAP and they can go on the truck. Colour will be shown soon ha.

With old cars, it always seems to feel like you're taking it for a WOF. Six monthly WOFs for old cars is a bit mean, but I wouldn't trust it any other way, with the state of the rubbish on our roads. So its been almost six months since my first WOF inspection after getting the car on the road, and according to the previous WOF sheet, I've done a grand total of 186 Miles in that time. That's almost embarrassing, but in my defence, we did have COVID lockdown, and carpet replacement in that time. With the car sitting for as long as it had, with minimal driving, I noticed last time I drove it that the tyres had gone a little out of round and the car shook quite badly at speed. This was to be expected, apparently on lower pressure big sidewall tyres like these they can get a flat spot from sitting on concrete, in about a month. To fix this, and check the car was ready for its date with my WOF guy on Saturday, we took the car out for a decent run around the back roads. Mid-winter with the top down, a clear sky, and rugged up from the cold, its always an experience. An assault on the senses. My Wife is incredibly understanding sometimes. Sure enough, the shakes quickly went away and the car ran and drove better than ever. Pulling well in all gears, and just a pleasure to drive. The improved shifter feel is great; very direct. After that shakedown I was pretty happy, and ready for the WOF the next day. Of course, if everything went to plan, it wouldn't be my car. Driving along the motorway, just cruising along, not a care in the world as I head in for my WOF. I get to a set of traffic lights, and as they go green and I pull away with some gusto, BAM, the engine starts to splutter and cut out. As I back off it comes right again. That was weird, so I give it another squirt, and sure enough, it's spluttering and cutting out. Oh no, I look around and assess my options just in case I need to pull over if it dies. I don't want to be that guy, stuck at the side of the motorway. But then I had a thought, I remembered something.... I have just under a quarter of a tank left. The wise words of my Wife pop into my head; "Does it have petrol in it?" Yes, but once again, no. Its the same issue I encountered early on, cutting out under acceleration as the fuel sloshes away from the pickups. Stupid design. I carefully nurse the car along, and it has no more issues along the way. I fill both the tanks, Fitting a total of 37L in before it starts ejecting from the opposite side filler. With a 60L capacity, It leaves me with about 10 litres or so in each tank. It's not a problem if the tanks are half full, but its maybe an issue I will need to look into later, by adding a swirl tank or the likes (as TVR did in later production). Anyway, the car gets inspected for its WOF, and comes away with a new sticker and a clean sheet. My WOF guy is very impressed with the car, and the work I've done since the last WOF. Because my WOF guy is awesome I was allowed to pop under the car and take some photos of its general condition and get some reference photos for where the exhaust could be run. Its a bit dirty, and oily, but otherwise very good. Certainly none of the rust issues these cars are known for in the UK. The rear diff and brakes are looking good still. Nice even wear on the rotors, and the diff has nowhere near as much oil on it as it used to. There appears to still be a small leak, as there was some moisture near the drain plug, but very minor. Nothing from the output shafts anymore. These are the main pipes, hanging down under the chassis. I'm quickly wearing down the front of these due to a lack of ground clearance Its a bit oily under the engine and box, but I've had worse. A good degrease would probably help, but I'm running it in an honest, "Its British" condition instead of pretending it doesn't leak. Up front looks pretty good too, although I really should clean up the mess from previous radiator overflows/burps And finally, a shot of the exhaust, back to front, including ugly clamp fitted when I cut the exhaust to refit the diff. I need to talk to a real good exhaust maker, and see if there is any way they could redo the exhaust so it would fit into the chassis backbone, instead of hanging down. There isn't much space, but I think I might know how it can be done, and not above the gearbox either. In the meantime, the car is still road legal, so I best make the most of it, and try and put more than 186 Miles on it in the next 6 months.

Had another track day go badly - 2 laps in, an o-ring on the oil cooler pushed out and pumped a sump load of oil on the track, without realizing we did a lap with zero oil pressure. I put it on the trailer and took it home, pulled the sump off and thankfully the crank looked ok, so I put a fresh set of bearings in and fixed the oil cooler issue. This weekend we made another trek up to Taupo for Drift Antics. The car went well all day with no hick ups, which meant I could focus on learning to drive instead. Here's a video showing a few laps.

Ok finally a moment to continue pulling things off the car #timepoor.

Discussion here ahhhhh the other mk3... as some of you know i bought a parts car for my 4.1 mk3 im building ...this one when i got it. i stripped every part i needed from that car done to the loom ,nuts and bolts and even the pre facelift dash... i did put the facelift dash back into it tho. i then added some seats i had sitting around and some random wheels and sold it off to a mate as he just had to have it......it meant that i got most of the parts for my 4.1 build for nothingin the end. as it sat when i sold it. (minus lights and grill....at best it was a good rolling shell) and i did get the bonnet for it as well.. so some weeks later my mate asked if i knew any one that would buy as he just couldn't be arsed having a car around that didn't run....i knew it was a good car and just needed a facelift mk3 or a mk4 or a mk5 parts car and it could be put on the road pretty easily....as reg on hold.......(origanal black plates) registered with the mighty 1300 xflow tho......not the big block pinto....bugger... i had sold my mk2 to another mate so i bought it back.....and put it in storage and kept an eye out for a parts car..... now i had seen a few around but they had been parts cars for others and i didnt want to have to find screws ,missing nuts and bolts ect ect....i wanted something complete that had never been pulled a part..........so i could pull it apart and then i found it on trademe the almost perfect parts car for my parts car ...i say almost because it doesnt have a 1300 and manual box......its an auto pinto.. so i won the auction and the car was in invercargill i had 20 days to collect...and we did that yesterday... a mate bought a fwd fiat ducato (ex ambulance) converted to transporter on tuesday and we decided to drive it to invercargill on Saturday....so we loaded up a vc valiant to take done for his mate got up at 5am and hit the road....the lights died just after asburton ...fixed that. the auto played up going into dunedin.....fixed that (kinda) .got to invercargill and droipped the vc off....drove back out of invercargill to pick up the cortina that was 3 feilds deep off the road in a barn....no tracks just knee lengh grass and massive mud holes where the 2 hedges we had to pass were.( the guy had a tractor but it was broken down next to the cortina we only just got the fiat in there we had to gun it threw the mud full on duke of hazard style ...he showed us where it was and asked us to shut the gate and buggered off.....justb then it started pissing down we tried to air up the tyre and only got 3.....winched it onto the truck and then backed the truck under cover to strap it down....had to strap the bonnet down as well and the rear door..as well as the passenger sided doors.....then we tried to leave....but wet grass,pissing down rain,fiat fwd ,,,,no lsd or locker just the 1 tyre fryer ...took us and hour to get threw the 1st feild and didnt stop till we hit the road....broke a head light,,ripped the sump guard off .....shut the gate and headed home.the auto was having a fit....by the time we got to gay old gore we had it sussed flick it into neutraland back into drive and it would select the next gear......down shift worked ok ish.. so after 1200 ks 17.5 hours door to door its back at my mates place and here is the little sweet heart. 1 careful lady owner ..never been raced or rallied rolled bowled or arseholed...has been on the road since 84 i think i know right ...what a wee darling .but its all there on the inside and what all i need....even put a battery on and all the lights work the motor turned over but wouldnt fire....sorry about the long read but cheers

Went down and have hacked out the old mounts as good as I can with engine in place. Need to get the 202/auto combo sold so I can plonk the 4.0l on the ground. I've only got so much room

All back together and you can barely tell, lol.

Had new bars for monkey turn up yesterday while I was sick at home sweet tiny narrow things, pretty stoked on them Now I think it looks a bit wack / fronts too high for the bars. considering lowering headlight/fork badge so the windshield top is same height/lower then the bars

Right, babies 2 weeks old now so can continue playing with this thing. Worked our I’m still not getting full throttle. It goes well but not as fast as it should. Had a look at the accelerator pedal, found the problem. FUCK OFF, seriously?! Never have I spoken a truer word..... Made a nice new one and gave it more pedal travel. Guess what, full throttle now actually makes power, real power! Wheel spinning, ear grinning neck turning power. I’m a happy man.

Pulled the heads and barrels today.. One very unloved motor.. Guess which one had 0psi.. Ruh Roh.... Somethings missing..

Bits and pieces..

This arrived today! I always wanted a really nice wooden steering wheel for a classic and after uming and ahing over a nardi I decided to go with this momo Indy. I think it looks the part. A shame the rest of the interior doesn’t match yet. also found some inspiration for what I would like to do with wheels and jdm lip.

couple pictures from doing more assembly. starting to look good now

It's going well.

Another project!! loooong whistle boys here she is the stock agent special, the Country Calendar theme humming, fonterra payout whinging, river polluting, gate closing pinnacle of agricultural motorcycling. This bike was actually my dads, he purchased it in 1976 and delivered newspapers for the wanganui chronicle, and general pesting round the Rangitikei region. He gave it to his pal to look after for a while when we moved house many moons ago, ol mate wants it gone now so i have come to snap it up. According to jim the bike ran when parked, however that was many haircuts ago. Its sat outside for a very long time, The motor is seized solid, so it will need a proper birthday once we get to that point. Today i started dismantling it and taking stock of what it needs... pretty much one of everything. Taking it apart had its moments; plenty of snapped bolts, rounded out screw heads and a lot of rust. I have a lot of challenges ahead of me; the biggest one being finding a replacement tank. Ive seen some rooted tanks in my time, but this one is really up there... Yea that chrome will come up mint maaaaaaaaayte F Dagg Automotive and Farm Machinery Limited So this is where im up to. Once i can rig up a suitable stand for it i will proceed with final strip down. The fork uppers are fucked too so im thinking of swapping a complete Mudbug front end onto it. Parts in general are proving to be a bit tricky to track down for these too, ive found that these are very simila to the TS125 of similar vintages, only slight styling differences, and the addition of the Hi-lo gear box on the TC.

Windows pretty much fell out, (one did and it slipped through my fingers onto the concrete, somehow it didn't break) Its mostly pretty good except for the bottom corners of the front wondow, def needs new seals tho. Can also see where my sis side swiped a courier on the pass rear arch, can see above where Chris pulled it out somewhat. All fit on the back of my ute to be stashed under my house for now (along with tons of other shit) Not sure what to do about the motor, do I bother getting to see if the beetle motor runs or just rebarrel this one as it's the matching numbers engine, then rebuild the the beetle one and sell it for max profit.. Quite keen to get a twin carb kit for 3 more hp.

Pic dump..... Window seals have been leaking pretty much everywhere, Although I think this bit of rust is front the vent.. I think this floor has been rusting for a few years before it was parked up, its spent a long time outside in Brighton.

Spent a couple of hours this morning stripping the interior out so as to make it easier for Chris to do his magic..

Moved the kombi today.. All went pretty smoothly, started and drove it on with a flat tyre. Pumped the tyres up at a gassy on the way and drove it off at the other end. Starts amazingly easy for something that's sat for the last 8 years, straight off the the key. Where it'll spend the next few months having the rust cut out.. Good times..

Man this things got a history. I’ve spoken to the owner that originally fitted it with a 12A in 2004 that sent me some photos of some actual photos. Then I found a couple of market place listings with photos from 6 years ago complete and then 4 years ago as a rolling body. Then a friend of mine who is close with the couple I bought it off sent me some “photo shoot” pics they did when they had it painted. I’m not sure whether to feel honored or humiliated haha

As you can see it needs a bit of work. As my dad passed last year and this was at one point his pride and joy we collectively pulled finger and decided to get on with its restoration in his memory..

Some interior shots.. Bit of rust in the floor which is disappointing..

Well.... 6 years have passed and I've done totally fuck all to this besides drive from brotown to up in a far less corrosive environment on a section in Mt pleasant and then watch it fall into total disrepair. Needs a fair amount of rust cut out to make it road worthy again, and of course mechanical repairs. Have mate doing the body repairs as I have zero time to give it but went up there this arvo to try and move out from its resting place for the last 3 yrs. Bit of gas down the carb and a jump and it fired right up then died while it tried to prime the carb so three attempts and of it went. Took a bit to get it to move as one of the rear tyres was totally flat but again, once I managed to roll it over it propelled itself along as good as it could.. even idled after it warmed up.. Amaze Some pics...

I'm away next week, so won't make it

So much for a quick rebuild.... Split the case today, came apart with little to no effort. Didn't take a pic of the bearings, but had definitely had some shit through them. Crank journals are surprisingly ok.. could prob just get away with a polish, but I'm getting a new one anyway. Definitely some wear in the tunnel tho, took it in to car aid at lunch time to get it line bored and barrels fitted. These aren't the bearing faces by the way Gonna get spendy real quick.

Annoyingly, whoever the fuckwit was that hired the car transporter yesterday morning, decided not to bring it back when they were required to so consequently I was cut off. Reeeeally annoying considering how much would be done in the next 4 weeks.. *sigh