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More progress was made on the old TVR today. Just small, but important things, again. I had a weird thought last night as I was falling asleep. What if the alignment is OK, but the wheel isn't on straight?! I previously mentioned that the steering wheel is way on the piss, and I thought it was the alignment, but hey, with everything else wrong with this car, could it just be the steering wheel wasn't positioned correctly at some point after being removed? This is a reasonably easy thing to check. First I marked the center top point of the steering wheel, with the wheels straight. Yeah, that doesn't look right! Next, I turned from center to either lock and counted the turns. Both sides had the same amount of turns to each lock from center, so that indicates that the steering rack is centered. Hmm. Also note in the above photo that the steering wheel bolt pattern lines up perfectly. I decided to take the wheel off and see if refitting it correctly would help, so I grabbed a hex key and started to remove the FINGER TIGHT screws from the wheel. Yes, finger tight. The leather wheel is a genuine Momo from '86. Not original to the car then, but still period correct. It's in very good condition really. Plot twist. I changed to the Momo Futura from Effie. I love this wheel, its so nice in the hand, and looks great. This is a much newer wheel, at '96, but still works. It looks sublime Moving right along, before I spend way too much time admiring my wheel, I changed the spark plugs. I whipped one out earlier to check and it was both black as anything, and the wrong heat range. Just a quick note on heat ranges. The number in the spark plug model is the heat range. The ones in the car were a BP6ES and I replaced them with BPR5ES (the R is for Resistor, to reduce electrical interference). Going to a lower number means the plug is "hotter". A hotter plug transfers heat from the plug into the head slower, meaning the plug runs hotter. A hotter plug is better for lower performance engines that rev lower and don't have forced induction. The higher heat in the plug helps to clear carbon and keep the plugs from fouling. There is a science to it all, but that's the basic premise. Love the ease of access. The old plugs came out with no issues. Very black The other bank wasn't much better, and plugs 4 and 6 were wet with fuel I had to remove the intake tubing and air filter to get to the plugs, so went the next step and also checked and cleaned the metering plate (silver bowl looking thing) The intake piping has been split before, but sealed up and had no other obvious splits, so that's good. The metering plate was nice and clean, but the throttle body was oily. I gapped all the new plugs down to the correct 0.6mm and fitted I haven't run the car yet, so it will be interesting to see if the new plugs make a difference to how it starts and runs. I have my fingers crossed. The next thing I attacked was the windscreen wiper. The original wiper arm was removed from the car before I got it, and I suspect someone had intentions to convert the arm from a pin fitting to J-hook (who knows how), as they had butchered the fitting on the end so it couldn't be used. I had to find a replacement. I knew I had a couple of arms from an SD1 in my piles of spares, so dug one out and had a look. The length was bang on, but it had a pretty solid kink in it, unlike the original one which is dead straight (come to think of it, the tailgate wiper is straight, I wonder if I have a spare still. I suspect its way too long though). Hmm, not ideal. Sure, it wipes and works, but its pretty well in the middle of the driver's vision when parked. Apparently, the original arm is a rear wiper arm from some ancient version of the Ford Festiva or similar. I could probably order one online, but I wanted a more local and readily available solution. I went to Pick-A-Part with one goal in mind; Come home with a new wiper arm. And look what I found A rear wiper arm from a MK3 (00-07) Ford Mondeo liftback. It's not perfect; if it sits as low as the above photo the wiper will hit the bonnet. This is due to the arm being slightly bigger at the spindle, and if it sits lower, it doesn't clear the cutout in the bonnet when its shut. I found this the hard way by taking some paint off the bonnet >_< Raising the arm up on the screen slightly means it clears the bonnet, but puts it at the bottom of the driver's vision Even at that height though, it's barely intrusive in the driver's vision. I'll see if I can live with it, otherwise, I'll have to visit Pick-A-Part again. Its an option though, which is more than I had. The last thing I had a go at today was the rear window. It's cloudy as heck and almost impossible to see through. I had seen on YouTube that you can sometimes polish the plastic clear using elbow grease and some Plast-X. I tried elbow grease a while back and got nowhere. Today I tried a couple of different methods. First, as a proof of concept, I used a small buffing pad on my drill to polish a small section with Plast-X. It's hard to see, but there is a slight difference. The arrow points to the line where the "before" is on the right and "after" on the left So the concept works. Now to scale it up. I was meant to sell my spare buffer ages ago, as it just wasn't as powerful as my bigger one for dealing with paint, but as it turns out, it was perfect for this work. I started on the driver's side, with Plast-X on the pad and this was the result Still pretty cloudy, but now you can see through it. You can just make out the steering wheel, but if I move over slightly, no sign of the steering wheel I worked it some more, but moved up to using Ultimate Compound. It's more abrasive than Plast-X, but seemed to take a bit more oxidation off. Polishing both sides made a big difference, clearly it was oxidised on both sides of the plastic Unfortunately as far as i can tell, the yellow sections cant be removed. It's pitted into the plastic, and nothing seems to touch it. I'll just be happy if it's clear enough to see a car behind me, as previously it wasn't. It was like having a white sheet instead of a window. And just because I can, here is a photo of one of the few times the bonnet has been down since the car rolled into the garage

Eventually got tired of the high life and found some cheap Hayashi Street CR mags with good tyres. Found springs at zebra that fit result: I think I'd like to bring the front down some more, the back sits just a little lower. I found some unknown mitsi shocks for the rear, and had bushings machined to suit. Such a huge improvement from the boat-like handling characteristics it previously represented. I just installed standard front shock inserts to get the front stiffened up. New Nolathane went in all round, too. On the lookout for a diff, this one has done nearly 300K and it makes some pretty terrible noises, not to mention both wheel bearings need replacing. The plan here is to sort another replacement diff (E312), new brakes and bearings/seals/clean and then install. To keep me busy until I sort the diff, I went ahead and tracked down a 1G-GE, courtesy of a fellow GX enthusiast. Sold in an unknown cond. I didn't really know what to expect. This should be a big improvement from the asthmatic SOHC 1G, having double the valves, bigger ports, and a cross-flow head. Although it won't be as simple as cleaning it up and putting it in, as it turns out it ran bearing number 2 and churned the metal filings from said bearing around the engine. Thankfully, the leaky SOHC 1G I pulled out earlier has put its hand up to donate the crank and rods. They have the same sized mains, too. (later 1G engines had different sized main bearings). That's all for now. Once the SOHC motor is pulled down and the crank and rods are test fit I'll send the block off for a dip and the head to be machined.

Moving on with our leisurely pace, we removed the rear deck and lifted the cab off. So much wood in the body! It will make rot repairs easy, but I really hope we have no issues re-registering it. From memory if we can prove it was on nz roads long ago enough a wooden body will be fine?

Picked up the injectors yesterday arvo. fitted them up just now. Car go VROOOOOOOM! /End thread.

It seems like I'm stuck in a never-ending loop of dodgy fuel hoses. The TVR is no different. After I paid for the TVR and whilst waiting for the transporter to collect it, I was let in on a little... issue... the car had. This is what I was told, as a little "oh btw" side note "And last but not least – I never cured a petrol smell from the tank and guess he hasn’t either … I couldn’t leave the car in the internal access garage cos it stank the house out." Well, that could be interesting, since my only garaging is internal access, under the bedrooms, and my driveway is too steep to park a classic car on (not to mention uncovered). When the car arrived, there was no obvious smell. I suspect that was to do with the fact the tanks were empty. Once I added fuel, a noticeable smell was present at the rear of the car. It wasn't enough to stink the house out, or even the garage, but with only 10L in the tanks I can only imagine it gets worse the more full they are. I have receipts for one of the tanks being removed and repaired in 2011, along with all the fuel hoses as the "recently replaced" filter was leaking. This dashed my hopes that it might just be a simple case of dodgy old fuel hoses causing the issue, as they had been replaced (we'll see). Today I jacked the car up and had a look. Unfortunately I found that due to differences in early and late chassis, despite seeing this car up on QuickJacks, I cannot line mine up with the chassis tubes to safely lift it. The later cars have body mount plates on the chassis, where mine doesn't. Oh well, the old jack and stands come out to play again You can spot the silver fuel pump in the top left of the above photo, behind the exhaust. The tanks are more or less above the pump, on each side. A quick look around and I suspect I found at least one of the causes of the fuel smell. The main feed hose from the tanks to the pump has horrifically perished The way the hose has been run also causes issues too, with the hose being squished flat in at least two places as it goes over chassis tubes (top and bottom photos are good examples). It's not cheap hose either, being Aeroflow. The Tee piece between the tanks has been replaced with Aeroflow parts. The small hoses from the pump are showing signs of perishing too. All in 8 years, and minimal use. So surprise surprise, despite being done before, it's all dodgy looking and buggered. I have my suspicions about the filler and balance tube couplers, but I'll deal with them if replacing the under car hoses doesn't help. They looked ok from what I could see under the car. I have ordered new 5/8" fuel hose for everything to the pump, a new brass Tee piece (to replace the Aeroflow one), a new fuel filter, and I still have stock of good 8mm hose for the other hoses. Once it all arrives I'll drain the tanks, rip it all out and start again. Hopefully that sorts the fuel smell, and may even help the system run better if the hose isn't being crushed. One last little thing; I gave the other side of the rear window a polish today too. Now you can see through both sides. It's far from perfect, but much better. Interestingly, from the inside, I'm pretty sure the clearer spot on the left was my test patch. I'm going to buy a foam polishing cone and try polishing at a higher speed and see what happens, especially with that pitted yellowing. Just need to take care with the surface heat, not to cause more damage.

Update on the open chequebook: It has been up North getting work done for compliance, and so far has 15mm to go until the chassis is completely straight, and the front inner guard has been cut off to straighten out any creases caused by the impact. The creases were a fair bit more than thought, up under the strut tower and the engine bay was pretty bent, but it's had a massive weight attached to it and pulled the creases out where possible, and then will be softly hammered with Billy Mavs back into place. But the headlight surround area is too smashed, so a new piece will be made and welded in. Coming along nicely, it's just a shame to not have any control of it as a project at the moment. Most of pics go to Instagram as I forget to update here so much. Feel free to follow along @theamyable.

HI @Tumeke YES LOVELY OF YOU TO POP IN HERES MY RX125 WENT LIKE CLAPPERS BACK IN THE DAY YES IT CURRENTLY DOESNT RUN WELL AND IS NOT REGISTERED BUT SHOULD GO LIKE JACK THE BEAR ONCE I LET ER RIP. I LOOK FORWARD TO CATCHING UP OVER A BROWN TIN AND BURNING SOME VALVOLINE GARDEN 2T. SEND LOVE TO GLADYS AND CO. AND THE OTAHUHU RAILWAY BOWLS CLUB HOW DID THERE FUNDRAISER GO REGARDS BRYAN

Been putting the front together. Added in heated elements inside the clip on tubes for those cold days. Indicators are now bar end indicators, they have a white LED and orange LED in them so we’ll hook the white to the headlights and the orange to the indicator relay. Connected all the cables up, we used short versions which were perfect with the clip ons. Found that the headlight bracket we fitted made the headlight stick out too much. On the hunt for brackets with shorter arms. May even use the factory ones as they are short. Ordering some gaiters to fit over the fork too. Anyways this is as it stands at the end of the evening.

Gave myself a bit of a scare looking at the date of my last update and how young my kids look in the pics. When did this become an annual update...? Amelia has been promised to learn to drive in Felicity and is pretty keen so time to get it done. Wife wants to move house again which may not help progress. Anyway that's enough waffling for context, time for pictures. Spent some time trying to setle the mystery package pinto properly into the engine bay. Removed the brake master cylinder to give more access for trying to get the headers to fit. Be rude not to have a look inside as yes, it's been quite a while. Coby extractors were being difficult and anyway I am pretty keen to get the banananana headers in there. How hard can it be...? Hmmmm, that's not going to work. And the sump is hitting the cross member and steering rack. Even after replacing the square rubbers with taller round donuts it was still not a happening thing. The wish list has included a World Cup cross member for a while so when one came past I grabbed it. And what do you know, it works! We have clearance, Double bonus! Will tickle up the ragged holes which is how I managed to get it in the first place. Here is the beautiful customised sump. I think I'll blow some black paint over it and call it done.

Asked a mate to carve out some foam core for a project, he declined as he didn't want the dust through his shed. He did however have a spare machine knocking about that I was welcome to make a mess in my own shed with! Gotta get me one of these toys, so simple and easy! Cores will be used for a carbon fibre rifle stock, hopefully pics to come.....

Painted the frame and got the motor back in the frame today. Lots of figuring out where all the bolts went as most of them were sitting in a bucket before buying. Front guard turned out perfect, so many hours spent to keep the rolled steel edge on the front. Stoked with how it turned out. On its feet for the first time! Placed all the pieces to see how it looks all together.. Big shout out to Eliav for doing the upholstery, leather with the dark blue stitching looks mint!

Enjoying the build thread. The whole 'accidentally bought a weird British thing now fixing it' is proper OS..

Since selling off my other projects and dedicating most of my available time to this barge I figure it deserves a project log. Nobody wanted this, it was for sale on TM for aaaggeess until I thought to see if the seller wanted a ute. Thankfully, the answer was yes, and a deal was made to swap cars later that night. However, arriving to collect this, the bonnet refused to open, the exhaust was half falling off, the tires were low, and she ran on 5, but I had to have it. The deal was done and it chugged along to the nearest gas station on as many cylinders as it could, where no visible issues were present. Air in the tires, and a quick window clean saw us headed over the harbor bridge back home wondering if we'd even make it. Sure enough we made it back late that night. First thing out was the huge "fart cannon" muffler, and since it's my only functioning vehicle, I used it for the following two days until the warrant expired on Friday, and then went and got a fresh WOF on the Saturday. First Order of business was to clean it, and investigate the misfire. After a week of diagnosis I finally found the issue - the wires inside injector plug 2 didn't reach the injector after that was sorted it was relatively smooth (but far from quiet) sailing. At this point it looked like this : Although that didn't last long. Pulled the window tints due to not enjoying having window tints. Replaced weird wrong 5 stud spare wheel with a 4 stud one. Power steering pump seal quit life and shat oil across the entire engine bay, fan assisted. Replaced pump. Gearbox rear seal and sump pan gasket, rubber trans lines, along with the engine front main seal thought it would be fun to leak lots and drain the entire gearbox overnight. Lifter tick got annoying Removed whole engine and gearbox with pleasure Installed 1G-E and auto from later model cressida = success Problems = solved Problems left to solve = shitloads lots

Hi everybody. I have just registered for the ride. My accommodation is sorted. I will be bringing Gemima which some of you will recognize.

PLS POST A PIC OF YOUR RIDE. ONE LIKE = ONE PRAYER. My name is Tumeke and I will ride a 1967 B100p that goes very slow for what it is. It was ok last year. It's guaranteed to be v.slow on the hills, and middle of the pack generally. My Brother is joining us, and he will be on an equaly shit early Suzuki A100 that has yet to prove itself, but we have a couple of months to sort that: (not actual bike but close enough in every respect) I also have a back-up CT125 if needed from breaking one of the above before we leave. It is also shit, but has more strokes and goes a little harder for what it is. PLS POST BOOMER SPEC PHOTOS BELOW. THAMLS. X

Getting more bang for my buck All parts from classic car parts in wanaka except the colortune.

Ya can get vibes off AliExpress for cheap

Finally got the Chaly running with new exhaust/carb/head Had got sidetracked when I only noticed one of the intake manifold threads was stripped after I swapped the head. So then ordered some threaded inserts off aliexpress that were M6 inner thread and M9 outer. Then once i had everything attached it just wouldnt start, no compression..... checked all the headgasket and things Id done and couldnt fault it but when kicking it over it would just chuff air and fuel back out the carb. Did some thinking and decided to check valve clearences (which id set before I put the head on) and dontcha know it, the intake valve was tight as. Loosened it up a bit and first kick it started. So now its running and have ridden it around the driveway, need to order some jets of ali to get it right, idle jet seems a bit big and a unknown size, main jet is a 75 at the moment which shouldnt be far off. Have been using the spacy as my daily for the last 7 weeks or so (probably should register it...) and apart from blocking the carb a couple times it been good. Quite fun to ride and offers a bit more wind protection on the cold mornings than the DJ1 ever did. Hopefully be able to commit some finances to getting the Dax finished by the end of the year

The tail lamp was suffering metal fatigue. Not surprising, given its alloy. So i made one fitted for the electric light. (re-used the old glass) That's not paint, that's indian head shellac.

hey also, here's a technical tip for those of you interested in the finer details of auto trans setup, if you want it to not leak fluid out the bottom, do up the drain plug. you got that?

Got WOF today. Woop woop.

Anderson is common in industry. https://www.jaycar.co.nz/anderson-35a-sbs-mini-connector-grey/p/PT4484

This weekend I decided to go ask about getting some carpet underlay to whip under neath the carpet in the cabin to make it a bit more homely. Ended up getting a big slab of it for free! Thank god for useless offcuts.. I am no professional fitter by any means. it didn't really come out nice in 3 cut sections but it will all fit in well when the carpet goes back in 20190817_181032 by phillipbaines, on Flickr I also got sick of the awful looking dirt ridden seats that are impossible to find in any sort of 'good' condition so the cheapest fix is to show down to Super Cheap and get some car covers. Which look 10000% better, 20190817_143241 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 20190817_152236 by phillipbaines, on Flickr After installed, got some snaps. List hasn't changed since last weekend but now it's a bit more respectable. 3 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 1 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 11 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 2 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 4 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 5 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 6 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 10 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 8 by phillipbaines, on Flickr 7 by phillipbaines, on Flickr Build Discussion:

I quit my office job as a technical manager 8 months ago and am working on the tools as an engineer now. the quality of my work is going to go up with access to a proper workshop again.

Tried another carb. No luck, given up and moving forward with motor swap. mate 4 doors down had a Crain so walked it up the rd with beers in hand this evening. 34 years and multiple beach missions the motor had pretty much welded it self to the gearbox. Couple screw drivers and a dog bar later she’s out. I’ll need to wait till next week to get rid of the block as the head and bolts ons have already filled the bin. plan.. bolt motor to box on garage floor to test clutch release before putting it in. finish engine loom and change body wiring to suit, then take it from there, hopefully get some better weather so I can deal to the frame and under body