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Finished the other side 4-link mount. Bought some more wheels too. 13x6.5j SSR MKII's. Gave them all a beadblast and polish, still need some paint at some stage. Bought some new screws for the headlight trim, gave the trim and headlights a polish and assembled them. Made some new chassis rails out of some 50x50x2.5mm box section. It nearly perfectly slid over the existing chassis rails, which was ideal for plug welding it. The front of the rails/foot well section has gained 25mm of ground clearance now, which makes the sills and chassis pretty much flush, before the chassis was quite a bit lower. Also extended the rails to go all the way through the rear seat foot well and up to the rear chassis section. Should be way more rigid now! Cut out the floor that was hanging lower than the chassis rails and made some new panels and welded them in. The other side is a bit more work, as it will have an exhaust tunnel going through there as well. I should hopefully be able to tuck the exhaust right up above the lowest point. Once that's done the sills and chassis rails will be the lowest point in the centre section of the car. Might need to look at whether I raise the front crossmember or not.

After the prep there was some PAINT!!!! I took heaps more photos putting the windows and badges plus interior, headlights, bumpers (were a bastard to line up again) and all the other stuff back on but a bunch have corrupted so that's lame. So damn shiny!

pulled the pin yesterday and painted the exterior. the basecoat went down beautifully. but i really made a hash of the clearcoat. quite alot of sags, and in hindsight, the lighting in the garage was shit so i couldnt see them forming and i think i was holding the gun too close. really took the fun out of it, however all it means is a bunch more colour sanding which ill tackle in a while once its gone nice and hard. on the plus side, the thing looks dead straight, really happy with the sanding job. have un masked it, which was a tour of all my fuckups, but ultimately itll come up awesome. the colour is amazing and i cant wait to see it in the sun.

Looks like i should be able to fix engine back to pretty much 100%, lockdown spec The bad; it has spun 2 big end bearings, shells in pic below were worst. All the rest of the bearings in the engine look pretty tired as well. Crank isn't too bad, but would need a grind to be usable. plus seems it has already be ground in the past, so in the bin it goes. Oil pump hasn't let go or anything but some bearing material has gone through it, bin as well. from there onwards everything looks clean, oil filter has done its job Good news is I have a bran new crank and oil pump. Both are for another project Ive been collecting parts for. Means that goes back down the list, but rather have this thing running. Rods are all good. some very light marks on one of them, shouldn't be an issue. pistons and bores look perfect, although i haven't taken pistons out as may not be able to get hold of a ring compressor. Have managed to sort some new main and rod bearings, should be here early next week. Have also done the oil restrictor mod, to the oil gallery that feeds the head. keep more oil in the sump at high rpm Tl;dr : putting this junk back together with new crank, oil pump & bearings.

i might be making some progress with this. ive been vacuum bleeding the coolant system and then heat cycling it for about 4 days now and its taking a bit more water each time. the temp climbs a lot slower now and it almost can maintain temp. it still climbs with it sitting idling and the fan going but its a bunch slower. i will drive it around as much as i can as see how it goes. im also chasing a random intermittent coolant leak that comes and goes at the weirdest times. it coming from the bottom heater hose but it leaks weirdly, like when the system is at full pressure after its been running and its hot it doesn't leak, then it will drop some water over night when its cold. but not every night, its a bit unusual but ill keep fucking with it.

Had a crack at pulling the ding out of the roof without pulling the headlining out.. I bought one of those little 45mm suction cups from supercrap, they, are, shit. Couldn't even get any suction on a flat pane of glass let alone a flat panel. Decided to try the hot glue technique and initially it was shit too as it would barely hold on, then I discovered I had to warm the panel that it was sticking to as well now it sticks like shit to a blanket.. Had one more go doing it with the sca sucker and managed to pull half the ding out but that was it. That thing is shit. Welded a nut to a washer and glued that on, then screwed some threaded rod into it and made a rudimentary slide hammer. Works good but I ran out of time. This is the ding, have no idea how it got there it just "appeared" when I got it out of storage. This shot is obviously when I stripped it. And this shot is after I hit it with the strip disc. I did manage to push some of from the inside but the rest is to far up inside the structure to get to without removing the lining, not to keen on that. Today's effort, the bigger ring of glue is the attempt with the shit sucker. This is the first attempt with the washer that I heated up and melted into the existing glue, first pull definitely moved it but it takes 10min each time you reapply as you have to wait for everything to cool down. Works pretty well tho, I'll have another crack at it tomoz.

Gave it a coat of wd 40 before I wrapped it, tried to keep it away from the seams as much as possible but it did the trick, theres a couple of panels that I didn't do but even they aren't as horrific as I thought they would be. The worst of the surface rust is here, But is pretty minor. The roof on this garage was totally poked so mum had some new iron out on last summer.. Soooo much drier in here now which I guess helps with corrosion. This door wasn't coated for some reason.. Still, not bad really, just surface shit. Another shot just because.. Fuck I've got too much shit..

The clears a bit of a disaster really and reasonably gutted, so many things I'd have done differently in hindsight. But it's done. Drove it into the sun yesterday and it's not all bad news.

Lockdown progress. Been truing the wheel while waiting for documents to load remotely in my slow remote office, and put tyre on it last night. Was worried I had no rim tape to protect tube but found some in my hoard of old bits... And what I'm starting with... Widened the front fork slots to fit the motor axle... And stretched the forks out a bit, they were around 86mm and need to be 100mm... And it's not going to look too silly... Clearance on one side slim but ok... But the other was touching... And couldn't slide a washer on cos there's a plug preventing the nut coming off. So bent a spring washer open, slid on over the cable, and closed up again... Old pedal was a bugger to get off, had to get grinder out... And MKS pedals look sweet in white... Adjusted crank bearings and put new seat on too, plus slight panel beating of front guard. Starting to get close... Wasn't going to put seat and pedals on, I like putting new bits on last, but not much else to do until I get rear wheel made up. Hope to get on that this week...

Here’s the last exhaust I made for a VK commodore. Twin 2.5”. Made the mufflers/resonators as straight through louvred type. Sounded really good and not too loud.

Yanked the motor out of the red one, and swapped it into the white one, spent too much time on Instagram and ended up spending some coin to import some bits to make the jog cooler. sourced some bits from Yahoo Japan -8inch wheels (OEM is 10inch) -UnderCowl and Rear spoiler from Japan -OEM Yamaha Jog floormat -repro lower rear side panels Then lowered to a inappropriate ride height, and purchased a sweet helmet to suit the style.

Earlier this year I went for a 4wd mission to scope new hunting areas and came to the realisation that I was choosing spots based on where the Niva could go and not where I wanted to go, the big barrier on the east coast is rivers, and the fiat motor hates water! We managed 15min up this valley before being forced to cross the river, issue with the twin cam is the spark plugs are located in the valley between the two cams, any splash of water is directed here which promptly kills the engine, normally mid-current. We turned around and headed home, on the way back I was pondering methods to prevent water but nothing was simple or failsafe. What I needed was a snorkel, diesel, raised breathers, longer wheelbase and bigger wheels........ With this in mind I set to work.... The snorkel was easy, pretty much bolt on Diesel pump to fiat twincam was tricky, but with a big enough hammer it went into place Bigger wheels needed clearance, overload springs were installed This all took quite some time, and the result somewhat best enjoyed with a cup of tea in hand Unfortunately i've replaced the Niva with a more suitable vehicle for my current needs. I have access to a garage not too far from home that once lockdown is over it will be tucked into, My mind says I should sell it and move on, but I can't bear the thought just yet of parting, its been a great toy over the years and really is a hoot to drive, sadly I just don't have the space for so many cars! Before parking up, I plan to carve out some rust to be sure there is no deterioration, parked up in WOF condition is the plan, ready to hoon should the urge arise.

Just finished the first week in lockdown, and I have been out in the garage working on the Mk1! Managed to get a lot done, and took it for a test drive yesterday. ( to Pak N Save for groceries of course! ) First impressions are good, it feels much better than before. The steering box conversion has transformed the way it drives - previously it had a tendency to wander around a lot, and the steering felt very "disconnected" from the steering wheel, there was no feel or feedback. It tracks nice and straight now with no corrections required, it has a reasonable amount of weight, but is easy to park. The Merc electro hydraulic pump which feeds hydraulic pressure to the steering box is getting noisier, so I will swap that out with another one I have tomorrow. The new exhaust sounds so much better! No overly loud, but has a beautiful crisp V8 rumble. ) The trans was playing up a bit, it was leaving in second gear sometimes. I adjusted the bands this morning, and that seemed to fix it. Brakes are still very average, solid pedal but requires a very hefty push on the pedal to stop. I think the brake booster is still playing up, so I will get another one when the lockdown is lifted and try that. Carb will need some tuning, it was a new Edelbrock (Weber) straight out of the box, so might need some rejetting etc. but it is fairly close. So still a few things to sort, but getting there, and overall very happy with it

somehow fitting a new grill turned into painting the front bumper. as you can see in the photos above it was a bit fucked and bent and rusty so i gave it a quick bash and flicked some paint on it. its a long way from good but itll do for now. it looks good in the photos but its pretty rough IRL. when i paint the whole car the bumper will get dipped to take care of some rust on the inside so i didnt bother going to far with it. 2020-04-02_03-56-43 by sheepers, on Flickr 2020-04-02_03-56-50 by sheepers, on Flickr

Warning: No actual work in this post! I found some pictures of an L200 I really like though, thought I'd put them in here to keep track of them as inspiration. I'd go for slightly smaller wheels, and probably a box style flare. I like the bar in the back though, but a smaller diameter tube and not orange. :-).

Some more photos of primer etc. The shiny pic is an old repair on the right front guard that we left alone.

Time To drop it all back in and see if my 12 hour day was a success!!! too right it was!!! In other down times I machined the universal joint/yolk off the driveshaft that came with my LSD head, as well has have some spacers Lasered for my callipers to mount. now I can say the diff is all but done!! Just a lick of paint, seal the head to the housing and install it ready to fill with oil

Got it all fired up and running, it sounds amazing. XR292r cam Lift 0.621 / 0.627 in, Duration 292 / 298, it has vic jr heads i have played around with, a super vic intake and an 850 pro systems carb. Ive got a moroso 7q pan and a melling hv pump in it. In the second photo you can see a clear line heading into the drivers door, this is connected to the trans and used to set up the line pressure for the AOD trans. I spent a good amount of time running it in, and have only in the last week changed that oil for some fresh stuff. It runs really well, but i need a new valvebody for the trans, as the shift pattern is 1 D OD meaning i cant hold second gear. With a 3.25 rear end it sits at 100km @ 2100RPM in overdrive haha, im thinking of going to a 3.9 ratio. From take off it has a bit of a flat spot, i dont have an AFR gauge so dont want to play around with it too much, if anyone knows a good dyno tuner/carb guy in chch please let me know in the discussion thread! Would be much appreciated. God i would love a sprintcar style air cleaner on it aswell, the single stack is only on there because its all ive got I also installed an oil cooler as temps were getting too high, its quite a small one and has given me an interesting problem. At cold idle it has 40psi, and at hot idle as its able to flow through it better, it has 50 psi i think ill have to get a bigger one anyway as temps climb too quick after a decent pull, ive heard shorter plates but more of are better than a few long plates for flow. of oil. Such a shame, i managed to get her all ready for the wedding to be cancelled, makes me a bit bummed that i rushed a lot of stuff together and now have to re do things, but i can definitely say, without the motivation the wedding gave me, the car would probably still be sitting in primer right now

Yeah wasn't happy with a single washer so pulled the spokes and built it again, loosely assembled here with 2 washers on each spoke... And after truing it up this happened... Took it for a blat up the street with no brakes, actually rides really well. Gotta take another couple of links out of the chain yet, surprised to find a new chain, hoarding pays off again... Then once I sort brake cables and see if I can get the gears working it should be a decent old bike. Could even get motoring this week...

It’s all just kit low

I'm a little behind on posting this, as I did this work a couple of weeks ago, but since I'm now stuck at home in a COVID-19 Lockdown, I thought I would give a quick update. When I first got the car there was a brand new Bosch GT40 coil fitted. This concerned me for two reasons, first, this isn't a coil designed to work with an ignition system that is fitted with a ballast resistor (which the TVR has. Bosch makes the GT40R for this use), and secondly, although they are great coils they are known to have issues with electronic ignition and prefer to be triggered by points (the TVR has an electronic ignition). Fail. At first, I tried to replace it with the 40 year old original Ford coil that came with the car Although this worked, when this didn't fix the issue I was having (knowing what I know now, it never would have anyway) I tried swapping it for a slightly newer known good coil from my SD1 spares (SD1 has both electronic ignition and a resistor, like the TVR). This worked fine and has been in the car until now, but being that it's from about 1983 its no spring chicken, so I looked for an alternate option. I've been chasing a slight misfire/stumble when at cruise at operating temp, which I'm hoping is ignition and not fuelling, so the three things in the firing line were plugs, coil and ballast resistor. The plugs that came in the car were a bit old and had seen some shit during my initial attempts to get the car running, so replacing them wasn't a bad idea. A new set of NGK plugs went in. I went back and forth regarding the ballast resistor and coil. Was it best to keep the system as is and just replace the coil with another resistor coil, or bypass the resistor and fit a 12v coil instead? In the end, it was the resistor it's self that made the decision for me. In the TVR/Ford use of it, its a section of resistance wire, not a traditional resistor. I believe in the Ford applications its run in a single length and kept in the air stream, but in the instance of my TVR, it was just a coil of wire floating around on the fibreglass wing behind the air box, with little to no airflow. This had obviously taken its toll over the 40 years of its life, as the coil of wire was looking worse for wear with sections where it had clearly melted the insulation (and zip ties). Keep in mind that a resistor generates heat by nature; This wire would get too hot to touch when the engine was running. A plan was hatched. I would get a 12v coil and bypass the resistor. The resistor wire is joined into the loom via two bullet terminals, so that was easy to do. Just get a short section of decent gauge wire, crimp two terminals on it, and plug it in. Now that there is a solid 12v heading for the coil it was time to fit a replacement. I went with a Lucas Gold Sports coil, DLB105. I know not everyone is a fan of them, but it was a reasonable price, and would do what I needed. This was basically plug and play. Remove the old coil, Check the terminals are around the right way on the new coil, bolt it to the car and wire it up with the existing wiring. The car starts, runs and drives OK, so I guess that's a win. I haven't had a chance to get the car up to operating temp and see if it still stumbles, and won't for about a month now thanks to this pesky virus forcing the whole country into lockdown. Oh well, that gives me time to do a few more jobs on the TVR that I have been putting off, like front brakes and carpet. No excuses now.

Had a bit of a tidy up today so as to make some room.. Forgot to take a before shot but this pile of shit, Was all over this, Much like this, Under that pile of shit (and car parts) is another car.. Anyway, pulled some of the pallet wrap off that I covered it in to stop rust, And she looks pretty good considering the last time I touched her was almost 4 years ago, couple of bits of surface rust from a dripping roof but otherwise should be good to go. The only hold up could possibly kid duty in these strange times..

just had to finish a few things for the dash off.. 1st was the bracket/brace behind the ashtray ciggy lighter..also where i put the wiper motor...so needless to say it doesn't fit anymore i had to cut it up a bit so that i can fit the wipermotor, and heater ducting .not to worried as i plan on putting a usb socket whet the ciggy lighter is and a dock for my phone in the asstray, . made a small bit to weld to it and screw to factory mount on firewall made 2 more for the brace the dash top sorted the mounting points for the pedalbox steering column brace. all stripped back out and tomorrow on to another job .....but that was a big one for me to get all sorted.

Second was the first of a couple I need to do on the shit passenger rear 1/4, Ding coupled with a shit hole for holding the trim, they screwed right through to the tub on the other side so I plugged up that hole too, Had a small delay whilst test fitting the patch and dropped it through down into the sill about here, Took me fucken ages to try and get it out, thank god for dad's veterinary tools Not to fussed about these repairs, my panel work isn't good enough to replace the arch as needed so I'll just settle for getting rid of the rust and shit bits for now/ever.

All cells fairly even after a charge so wrapped battery in foam... Put some plastic card over BMS as protection, foam on all sides and some layers of heat shrink... And yes, fits in the canvas bag like a good'un... Very snug but I'll take it...

Pulled the tub off. There is decades of dirt here, scraping it off is almost like going through tree rings Rear crossmember has had a shunt at some point. Since I don't have access to gas during the lockdown I will likely cut to straighten back up again. Only bit of of rot I've found is this small portion on one of the outriggers, few older bits on the rear section I will also tidy up. Also top tip, this section is not suppose to be removable... rotted straight through (can see some older repairs...) The door sills, b pillar and this section are all one piece, but have rotted into 3.... but all fixable.

Stage 4: the engine. its tired, blowing more smoke than my grandfather and taps like Gene Kelly. So tbh i have been planing the engine swap fro a few months now, First i brought a whole land rover for the 4.6L V8. (yes that is another 3.5 and a Honda city turbo engine in the background) while stripping this down i was looking at cams and found a hot auckland cams cut that stated "Needs increased compression ratio" and well that is like saying go nuts. so i looked around at how rover mad both the 4.6 and 4.0l engines have the same 9.35:1 ratio. I then found that the only difference is the pistons and this is how they made the 8:1 ratio low compression ones. so well i brought a 4l bottom end so with my maths if the 4.6 pistons in a 4l block lower the compression ration then the 4l pistons with a 4.6 stroke will raise it to about 10.75:1 (only 0.25:1 higher than a stock 3.5L P6 engine) perfect armed with a box of bits that i got just befor lock down I have started the clean up process (Rods and pistons chilling on a jag) as a touch of madness hit... i removed the spot welds on the front rad support... less angle for the v8 to get in and out of the bay then i got bored and well may have made a starter fit in the body as the solinoid did hit the chassis... not no more with a slight tweek to its angle And some new mounting holes well now you are up to date hopefully more to come soon

did a bit of long overdue maintenance on this thing, I vibrated the speedo to bits with too much gravel riding on the motu, ordered a mmc speedo and slapped that on, waiting for my new headlight to arrive too. old new replaced the clutch which was long overdue, started slipping before distinguished gentleman last year and I packed some washers behind the springs to give it some more clamping pressure and just left it but as it worked I just never put my new clutch in, decided to smash that in and man it feels so much better, leaver is so much lighter new spring on the right vs old ones

Interior all back together. Next on the list is finding a suitable double din / two single din unit to ditch the current mismatched setup (have misplaced other half of stock radio) Also try sort out aircon (1geu pump has a v belt pulley and doesn't interchange with the ribbed 1gge pulley and both pumps have different fittings for the lines) Purchased a different offset pair of 14x8 ssr mark III to hoard and try find other singles to make a set. Also have this single ssr tomcat center I've had for a while in hopes of finding three more

nearly forgot this... i wasn't allowed back in the house! hence so much got done!

decided to have a play with something other than rust /welding/cutting/making.......turns out pulling a 44 year old front end isn't as easy as undoing some nuts. the front end most of the bolts had to be cut and studs pressed out..most of the bushes were none existent .(i have a set of bolts front another front end ) all stripped down after a couple of days with wire wheels on my drill press and some de greaser and a wipe down and coated in POR15. i bought a full bush kit last year and found 2 good condition steering boots in my parts shelfs and all rebuilt with what i have ...still need to get some new tie rod ends upper and lower ball joints and decide on discs and what calipers to use......and some split pins and thats the front end completely done.........once the world returns to normal. and the crap left over.

So, in February I was at a shop in Bangkok looking at Honda Wave 125's. I've had a bit of a crush on Honda Waves since living over that way. My bike history in Thailand started with a rental Honda Dream 125cc. The 125 version was pretty rare and only usually seen up north for some odd reason. I remember the owner giving me 2 locks for it as they were sought after among local thieves. I had actually never ridden anything other than my highschool era SJ50 and a rental twist and go a month prior in Vietnam. A couple of days before renting the Dream 125 I had gone with another foreigner on the back of their bike to check out a local job and when we got there another person needed a ride. The girl who owned the bike didn't want to ride 3 up. I noticed her bike had no clutch lever - I asked if it had gears and she said yeah - told me how to use them and I jumped on; with 2 grown adults squished behind me; stabbed it into first gear and rolled straight into the thick of Thai traffic. I was gentle with the throttle at first as because I hadn't ridden the bike before. The weight of us 3 and the lack of momentum caused us to start swaying left and right through a intersection as we left the first traffic light. After 500 metres I had it figured out and the 250kg's of human on this poor wee mechanical horse were hurtling along at 60KPH. Anyway, back to my first bike there - the previous experience and our apartment location made me instantly decide to get a rental bike - with 'gears'. After a run through I took it for a hoon and it became my daily rider while I was in Chiang Mai. Here she is in all her glory: BIKE: Honda Dream 125cc SET UP: 125cc, 4 Stroke. 4 Gears, no clutch lever. FUN FACT: Still available brand new to this day in Cambodia - they're the main bike of choice for towing the little chariot Tuk Tuks common through out their country. I only spent a month riding this thing around before I finally realised I wasn't getting work in that city and I had to make a hasty decision which involved leaving. I was gutted - I'd fallen in love with the city and this bike was a big part of that. Having freedom when you're so far from home and unable to really organise regular, cheap and precise public transport due to a language barrier; this thing opened up my world and changed what could have been an intimidating and isolating one into a period of growth and awesomeness. It was the first time I had really 'gotten' 2 wheels. Yeah, it might have been a piddly little 125 family wagon but the feelings it bought were something I hadn't experienced before. It was this bike that started to form the beginning of a new obsession in my life. Before long I'd found work south of Bangkok and the recruitment agency we had been in touch with sorted out a rental bike for the tiny province I was now in. I hunted everywhere but no locals rented their bikes - it was buy or nothing. Eventually the agency bought a couple of bikes and offered I rent one. I had no say in what they were. But I obliged as I had been stuck in a tiny shoebox apartment for a month already. This arrived: BIKE: Honda Click 110cc SET UP: 110cc, 4 Stroke, CVT twist and go. (14" wheels) FUN FACT: Underseat storage and a massive footwell mad these popular for locals. You can still buy them new - the latest model is a 125cc fuel injected bike with idle stop. This thing was a pile of shit. The odometer was at 0km but the thing was flogged out. It couldn't idle no matter what you did, the transmission was jerky and shuddered constantly and it felt like it flexed badly over each bump. I told the agency and they offered to swap it with the other one they bought - I gladly accepted their offer. For the second time in a week I had a new bike: BIKE: Honda Airblade 110cc SET UP: 110cc, 4 Stroke, CVT twist and go. (14" wheels) FUN FACT: Same running gear as the last bike but with a underbone chassis and no footwell - the Click outsold these easily and once the PCX150 came out the airblade disappeared from shops. The Airblade was only half as shit as the click. But it was good enough, it would shudder severely on take off. I took it to a few mechanics and they just said it's normal. No one wanted to open the transmission on it and figure it out. Back then I had no idea it would probably just be flat rollers and a shoddy clutch. Despite having 0km on the odometer I figured out pretty quickly it was older. Under the seat was a service sticker saying 40,000 KM so it had done at least that and probably more. In hindsight I got completely ripped off renting this bike. I found out later on the agency had been charging too much. They charged as if they were new, but about 2.5 months of rental charges would have bought the bike. I was super clueless in my first year living abroad and just accepted that people were always acting in my best interests for a long time. I soon realised people wouldn't hesitate to make a few extra $$$ here or there if they could. I had this for almost a year before I moved to Bangkok. So now I lived in Bangkok. I'd made friends with a Scottish fella who had a few bikes. He lent me one to use till I could buy one myself a few months later. This was my new hoon: BIKE: Honda PCX150 SET UP: 150cc CVT Twist and Go FUN FACTS: First year of the 150's, my friend had been on a waiting list and got one of the first in Bangkok, got it stripped and repainted, stretched slightly, added those weird rims and one of the only 'legal' exhausts available in the country (most mods are band) I rode this to and from work for 3 months. It was an hour each way. Somewhere along the line I lost the plate for it and Thai bureaucracy meant it took 6 months to get issued with another one. This was the first 'modified' small bike I'd ridden and despite looking back on it and not enjoying the style what so ever it planted a seed that grew. The exhaust was semi loud and deep, you could hear it coming from a mile away. Eventually I decided on my own bike and got this: BIKE: Honda Zoomer - X SET UP: 110cc Twist and go FUN FACTS: Successor of the Honda Ruckus/Zoomer 50. Similar open under seat storage area that hinged sideways. I bought this second hand from a fella in Bangkok with about 7,000km on the clock. It served me well. I bought a leo vince exhaust for it, lowered it slightly and rode it every day. At one point I added a plastic chrome cooling fan because shiny. One day when riding home I head a massive THWACK - but the bike kept going and I couldn't see any issues so I kept riding. 30 minutes later by the time I got home the heat warning light was flashing on the speedo. 2 days later I finally figured out the aftermarket cooling fan had disintegrated and it had melted itself to the barrel of the engine. I went and bought a few tools, wedged the melted plastic off the engine with a screw driver; re installed the stock one and learned my lesson about checking the quality of aftermarket parts and not just spending money because 'looks good'. I had fun owning this but also had RAGRETS about not having bought a Honda Wave with gears as it would have been way better suited to my commute. While owning this thing as a daily I started to become obsessed with the classic scene in Thailand. I'd seen a few posts from the UK where people had started building "Street Cubs" - which were wide wheeled custom Cubs. I learned they had gotten their styling cues from a niche scene in Malaysia. Thailand generally went with a chrome gets ya home attitude when modifying Cubs more than adding wide wheels and stripping back other parts. I eventually found a local fella that would build me a "Custom Cub" with a 100cc engine for about 30,000 baht. I paid a deposit, waited a while and eventually I owned this thing: BIKE: Honda C70 Deluxe frame SET UP: 100cc Honda Dream (EX5) Motor - 4 speed, no clutch lever. FUN FACTS: I chose the colour, wheel style and colour, opted for the twin speedo set up and then just waited. This was awesome. I went and visited the fella who had made them a couple of months before I got my own. I was keen to be involved but they were built too far away from home. So I just waited and got it. Once it arrived I was chuffed. It ran first kick and was super loud! The original exhaust had been gutted of any baffling and it roared down the streets. Whether people liked it or not they were all turning their heads to see what the heck was making such a racket. The build quality was OK. Everything was there. But little things like the paint coming off around the fuel cap and the number plate mount falling off straight away or the indicators just disintegrating was normal. I made a video of me walking around it and starting it which for some reason has racked up 500,000+ views on YouTube. It's quite a shitty video. But I guess it was released at the right time just as these started to become quite popular again. Owning this cemented the need for a 4 speed daily. So I made a deal with the Cub guy and he sourced a Honda Dream for me - I was able to swap the Zoomer - X for it. BIKE: 1990 Honda Dream 100 SET UP: 100cc, 4 Stroke, 4 Speed (no clutch lever) FUN FACTS: This model was the immediate successor of the Honda Super Cub in Asia. Made from around 1986 onwards - they had a 100cc engine which Lifan eventually used as a blueprint for their horizontal engines. I had seen a few cool looking Honda Dreams around the show and started to fall for their 80's wit and charm. The squareness combined with easily available parts made it the perfect choice. I got black rims again, I got the disc brake front end added after as they only came out with drum brakes. I eventually got a kids seat added to it and I just rode the thing everywhere. It looked great and ran well but the motor was a slightly refreshed lump with 70,000+ kms on the block. It hauled me around for the remainder of my time in Thailand. After coming home I donated it to my daughters great uncle and to this day he can be seen rolling down to the local market on his BRIDE seat and neon stickered Honda Dream. Anyway; on this most recent trip I had found a few shops selling slightly used 2-3 year old bikes. I was obsessed with the Honda Wave 125i model produced between 2012-2017 as it had a fuel injected 125cc motor, a massive under seat storage area that can fit a full face helmet plus a decent sized tank. It's the ultimate Small Bike Daily for me. Leaving the last shop, I opened my phone to a message from @Willdat? - it was a link to Trademe. Get fucked, a 2015 Honda Wave 125i for sale in NZ - the only one I'd ever seen. Just as I was leaving a shop and had been chatting about organising importation for one - the exact goal was right in front of my eyes and already in the right country. A few phone calls, emails and a quick look from @Shakotom and she was mine: BIKE: Honda Wave 125i SET UP: 125cc, Fuel injected, 4 speed (no clutch lever) - same motor as Super Cub C125 - similar to Grom and Monkey 125. FUN FACTS: I own this. Nice. After Thomas had viewed it I sent the money through immediately. I wasn't even due home for a week. Upon landing in NZ I went and visited the beast in person a long with a great scheduled AKL visit from the great @Raizer and it was picked up - ready to come to NZ. When Thomas had viewed it - It had 1650km on the clock, next to no oil in the engine and it had been sitting for years. Imported by a fella who gave up half way through the process. I took the gamble and got it anyway. When else would I ever get an opportunity like this? I was so confident I'd pick it up that I bought a few parts for it in Thailand - I hadn't actually paid for the bike yet but the only shop I knew of with parts on the shelf was near my hotel and we were leaving shortly so I bought a full plastic kit for it, a new front basket and some maintenance items. The next day I got confirmation about the bike and paid for it. With the lockdown approaching and compliance not yet sorted I bought the thing home to play with. First things first I changed the shocks - I'd picked some 280mm shock up in Vietnam before I even knew this Wave existed. So I gave them a go: Then I started to change the plastics over. They are made by a company in Bangkok - stock style with rad colours. Here's the backside of the Honda plastic tail: And here's the aftermarket one: Here's the fuel pump set up in the top of the tank; quite cool turning the key on your small bike and hearing it whizz into life: The ECU is hidden under the seat - if you take the seat bin out it's sitting right there. These can be 'tuned' quite heavily which is cool. Theres the ECU at the top of the frame, below the fuel tank: I swapped the stock IRC tyres for Shinko SR898's. I've used 70/90-17 front and 90/80-17 rear. It's different to the usual Thai spec super skinny rims and tyres, we'll see if I end up changing the wheels or not later when the world is a bit more open again, the centre stand sits quite low to the ground now the rear is lowered too. But I love the colour; the bike looks so much better now! Here's one chuffed fella: So thats my story of how I got a Honda Wave. It took 7 years but I finally got there. I plan on dailying this bike for a long time. So there won't be many extra nangs added to the bike aside from an exhaust. Thai fellas are chucking 6Xmm pistons in their engines and doing sub 7 second 1/8th miles but I'm keen to keep this thing as reliable as possible. Thanks if you got this far. If you scrolled all the way here because this was way too long, here's a summary: I bought a bike I always wanted but didn't get for no particular reason. OS GC's made it possible. Cheers all.

Moved it so time to get to work... And yep.... I suspect the bulkhead in his has been replaced at some point - 1) There are traces of green paint under the white and 2) the b-pillar and sill dog leg are quite rusty while the bulk head looks fine (so far). Like so.... Still putting bits apart, amazing how many rubber seals are needed to hold all of this together.... Only had to cut a few bolts out, will likely buy a bunch of new fasteners to replace the older whitworth fixings.

well then this covid-19 kicked in and beach hop was no longer happening and i didn't have any idea when i was going to be moving into the new shop. so i mentioned to a few people that i was going to try lower the kombi, had a few things to bolt in and hopefully lower it. @Beaver @bobby1930 and @Geophy popped over and well bolts didn't want to come off which wasn't really an issue just meant the kombi would be in the middle of the shop till i sorted it. no real drama didn't know when i was moving. i had mentioned to a mate a while back With beach hop on the way i really wanted to mix the kombi up a bit and add something a bit different to it. other than it been a white box. I had mentioned this style to a mate a couple of times in passing and he said shit i draw that up for you. wasn't to much longer he popped passed work and traced the wheel arch/door and said it'll cost _ _ _ _ _ _ _ amount. i said hell yeah go ahead which i wasnt really fused about happening any time soon now that beach hop was off. but then covi-19 really kicked in. 2 nights out he turns up and slaps this on the side. and now the kombi is stuck in the old shop with new graphics on it and no wheels or suspensions till lock down is off or till i can lest get over there to bring it to the new location.

So.... I tried to get an intercooler. but no go with lockdown. so brought a wastegate instead. In the meantime i made a video Then said wastgate showed up. Why? because loud noises. used to sound amazing with the old 2 bolt tial. but when i swapped to the turbosmart chasing boost creep it sounded a bit tame. turns out the Tial v band gate has the same inlet flange. and same valve style as the 2 bolts. just needed to weld on new outlet flange, easy. Chucked it on dyno to check boost. first run, sounds amazing again. making all the midrange power because wrong spring selection, 17psi but thats no drama tune is safe up there, carry on... then nunga nunga .. Caught covid 3s done the same as starlet run a big end, just number 2 instead of 3. turns out this engine is 8 years old. seen some abuse in my 85 before it made it into the hilux. Havent come up with a plan yet. probably pull engine tomorrow and inspect rest

*waits for barry to call asking if we can cert his 56 f100 he imported from america so he can take it to the supermarket *

Sat in the sun and laced up rear wheel today. Used spoke washers as the old Sturmey Archer hub has thin flanges, and new spokes have too big a bend radius... Threw it in the wheel stand and bearings were adjusted so loose it wobbled all over the show, so cleaned, greased and adjusted them... And all set up on the home office desk to tinker with... Quite theraputic doing this when stressed, wonder if I could get away with it at work... [Edit] might need 2 washers on each spoke to fit right. Dang, lucky I have time...

Put it back together today, really pleased with how it looks. I've taken a set of BSA pedals (which look shit in photos but are awesome IRL), and a better seat out of my hoard, beyond that it's just been decluttered.

stripped rear shocks removed rust and painted black, grinder might have slipped and cut the springs (weirdly the flats are at the plastic end and 21mm unlike all the YouTube vids) installed front guard fitted oil cooler (do they get hot enough to melt plastic??) installed air filter, which seems to have stuffed the jetting so will have to tinker with that again removed shit/broken og plate holder and made a side mount

I fitted up the front 3 point seat belts. I had checked with Cletus about the belts, the original top mounting is good to use and the lower mounts were put back in the original position on the floor. Here is the rechromed top bolt, complete with new gasket. I got a length of nitrol(I think) rubber from Para Rubber) and cut a gasket out. Belts in place. Front seat is right back. When I was scrounging seat belt bolts from Zebra I had grabbed a couple with a shoulder on them. They went into the top mount to replace the original bolts with separate spacers.

Hi thought id share my project even tho its nearing completion. I brought this 808 from a nana from ohope when i was 19 for a sum of $900 . I didnt really do much i owned for a bout 8months and when i got a chance to buy my repu i sold it to pay for the shipping of the repu . Fast forward the best part of 8 years i was in the middle of western Australia working in construction there wasnt a heap to do so i thought id buy another rx as the repu was done . I was scrolling on trademe most nights and i noticed a 808 with the same drivers side rear 1/4 damage the nana had done same plate but had a 13bt and dressed up as a rx3 . So i struck a deal with the owner kirk who i had originally sold it to so i put a deposit in his account and signed a contract to give the balance on pick up so i wired my mate the cash and he went and picked it up drove it back to his where it sat for 6months before i flew home for summer holidays . It had a basic 13bt set up no intercooler or bov a s5 turbo 2.5" exhaust an mint s4/5 5speed open rx3 diff the engine had been rebuilt and mildly ported that set up made 265hp on 5psi and showed promise with the right set up . Also the immaculate brown 808 interior had been swapped out with shit rx3 dash and gtx familar seats the door cards are rx3 and not too bad. I drove it around no cert for the summer . Then decided when i come back from perth ill hook into it so started collecting parts to update it and make it mine . I moved back in 2014 and pulled motor out and started working on upgrading it . And from there it all snowballed into what you see now . So the engine hasnt changed just swapped out the fd upper for a s4 and put a rotary works 80mm billet throttle body on and some green brothers rails with 1680cc bosch indy blues and 900cc bosch injectors and a radium pulsation dampener. The fuel system got changed about 3 times current set up has a jaz 40L plastic cell a Carter lift pump -8 to surge tank then a single bosch 044 feeding a -6 hardline theres 2 x filters as well which is dead head so we run the tomi reg in the boot and ive drilled and tapped a hole in the manifold run a -3 teflon s/s braide line to reg so its rising rate. Turbo is 60mm borg warner 300sx wastegate gfb ex50 tial plumb back bov and 2.5"alloy plumbing . 4" stainless steel exhaust with adrenaline r muffler vee bands ect , using a k&n with a greens water/meth kit as well. Cooling system is a green brothers set up and put together by us fab wise . Its 3" intercooler and oil cooler with a griffin radiator. Had a e & j electric water pump but due to room restraints i end up finding a billet mechanical pump from promaz heaps of room for the spal 16" fan . My mate todd has helped out alot with ideas and fab work he made the over flow and catch tanks Drive line got upgraded as well put a 12LB flywheel and single disk exedy clutch and auto counter weight. We used the fc bellhousing and got a greens bros r154 adapter as i scored a brand new box off my flatmates cousin as he went to tko magum box , i brought billet selectors and retaining plate, chromoly slip yoke 1350 ujs from driftmotion in the states so hopefully its a strong box then got greens to order in a slightly shorter 9" housing from quick performance and a yukon alloy diff head and full spool with 4.6:1 ratio and 31 spline moser axles,3" driveshaft with strange and spicer yokes . Suspension is xyz adjustable get up on s1 rx7 struts toyshop rca's and whiteline rx2 24mm sway bar on billet pro blocks and new superpro bushes back is stock leafs with one way adjustable ranchero shocks with caltrac bars. Wheels on it are simmons b45 16" 7s on front 8.5s on back , drag wheels are preformance challengers 15x4 front back 14x7s 24x8 tyre. Brakes are stock s1 up front with hawk pads and rear are u13 discs and s13 caliper . Electronics are pretty fancy run a link extreme and a blackbox pdm, sensors on everything fuel temp fuel pressure oil temp pressure water temp lambda run a pressure sensor on clutch to activate 2step . Have some autometer sport comp gauages and a microtech dash that is for speedo and tach shift lights ect will be set up for boost by gear ect its all running but yet to dyno due to the lockdown .smart coils and msd leads . Interior has a alloy center console with tin holder and drain , racetech seats momo wheel. Will do carpet and hoodlining black later on . Body is still as is from when the nana owned the green nose cone was nos from Melbourne ive got a nos set of door skins and sill chrome for when body work gets done along with window frame chrome and Savannah tail lights genuine not repos . A friends guna do the rust work ect but that will be further down the track . Alot of fab work and re-engineering had gone into the car The aim is to be reliable and run consistent times low 11s and maybe dip into the 10s and keep it fun, if it makes a 400hp ill be stoked . Will get it all legal at some point . Cheers

fizzed it all up today, been stripping out all wires/ all non essential wires/cables off of the bike and routing through tubes where possible to clean up the look gonna have a go at fibreglassing the seat base tomorrow which should be interesting

Finally got the front clip off..was a bit of a mission drilling out all the spot welds and there is a panel that runs inside the fender that attaches to the side of the firewall that I wanted to keep as it seals up that area but you need to carefully pry it away and cut the spot welds without wrecking it. does make things so much easier to work on and best of all it is really light. the other bonus was it revelled a couple of really bad rust spots that I wouldn’t of known about until further down the track.

Pillar Am thinking I want to ditch the sliding glass in the back and go fixed. Anyone know of aftermarket kits or if its the same dimensions from a 109 2door?