Mattt

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....

For some reason this thing came with the wrong alternator pulley. It had a 13A belt pulley and the rest of the engine needs an 11A belt so I ordered a new dual row pulley from franklin engineering. Top notch stuff they make and seriously reasonable prices for quality Nz made products. Ordered an oil sender block at the same time to run my oil pressure and temp gauge senders. Will fit that in the next couple of days.

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.

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.

Got my fender mirrors on today. Really happy with how they look. Spaced out the accelerator cable so that I actually get the carby to open up. Wasn’t even pulling secondaries on the way home. Now she goes pretty damn well. Will get onto gauges and tidying up some of the little odd jobs next.

The sparky attacked it today and tidied up spaghetti junction. Got everything sorted really nicely and I finished off the bits I needed to. with some fresh fuel and a hint of brake clean in the air filter she sparked into life with a fairly distinctive Bridgeport brap. Once I’ve fitted the gauges and run the wiring well wrap the wires nicely. got to take it up the road very quickly, seemed to be running well. will drive it home tomorrow night and take it for a wof check on Saturday. It currently has a green sticker so will have to go to somewhere like vtnz. Yay.

Quick update driveshaft in oil lines plumbed exhaust bolted up heater hose plug in oil in the engine coolant in the radiator not much left now, basically mount and plumb fuel pump and do the wiring of which most of it’s there. Exciting times!

Fabricated a fan shroud bolted up radiator mounting properly drilled out sensor port connected accelerator cable bolted up starter motor removed heater fitting to get a plug

I managed to make some genuine progress on this thing today. I got about 3 doors worth of weather strips and bailey rubber in before getting a message the parts I had been waiting for we’re available for me to pick up. So I rushed over the other side of town and grabbed them. Fuck the weather strips, let’s get this bitch running! well, that didn’t quite happen. But I made a lot of progress on it. engines in and bolted up, I haven’t got proper engine mounts yet so I used a couple of blocks of high wear plastic to solid mount for now. Wanted to make sure it all fits nicely before ordering rubber mounts. New plugs, leads on, coils in, fuel line on, found the fuel line I had from regulator to carb was too short so will have to get some more of that tomorrow. Fabricated the oil cooler mounts and bolted in the oil cooler. Found the fittings from the oil cooler are -8 and everything else is -10 so will have to order new ones tomorrow. Positioned radiator to drill the mounting tabs. Modified radiator hoses to fit. Still to do before trying to start up: Fit starter drill out water temp sender to actually fit a normal sized sender unit block off various heater hoses not currently used bolt up driveshaft bolt exhaust back together fit fuel pump fit battery wire up coils fit radiator fan and wire up source and fit -10 oil cooler fittings Bolt up gearbox shifter seems like a lot but shouldn’t really take that long. Once I’ve got her running and I’m happy with it I’ll start tidying up the engine bay and make it look like less of a mess

80mm seems about right. I’m not keen on bags unfortunately. I need to actually measure exactly and get some accurate figures on paper but these are pretty close. I had considered looking at a GTIR rear set up which will convert to IRS at the same time but I won’t have time for that for quite a while and it doesn’t really solve the problem of the sill height. I had thought about cutting up the front cross member. I’ll have to talk to a certifier about what they would want me to put back into it to keep them happy.

So some of you may have seen my new project thread on my 1970 RT80 corona. I finally got around to doing some measurements today and it has occurred to me that I’m going to have issues with gravity. Details in short: Requires 50mm drop front and 60mm drop rear to bring guard in line with tyres. Wheels are 14”X6 and 7 wrapped in 195/45 tyres Front engine cross member sits about 110-115mm off the ground Sills sit about 130mm off the ground Front springs are aftermarket lowering springs. Not sure if they’re correct or off something else but they’re certififed Rear is hilux diff with what seem to be fairly flat leafs and 2” lowering blocks I expect to require Cert for anything I do. What have people done to sort out this sort of gravitational issue? I don’t really want to run 17s. I was planning to replace these wheels with some Oldschool jdm wheels but wanted to stick with 14s. If I have to I could go to 15s which would mean I could get around 15mm drop front springs. Could probably get 20mm if I made up new hangers for the rear leafs. Then if I go to 15s I may be able to go with a slightly bigger tyre and get add 10mm which would bring my gap down to 25/35 which I still feel is too much. This is my first time dealing with dropping a small old school Car on 14s so sorry if this all seems a bit noob. I am a fabricator by trade so I can happily cut and mess with things but just want some advise from the voices of experience.

Right there’s a bit of a delay with getting the engine in as I’m waiting for the previous owner to supply the sump and custom breast plate to go in her. If that goes on too long I’ll just modify the existing one as it won’t take too much to make it fit and the customize the breast plate but it will save me a bunch of hassle if I can just get the bits that were in it before. In the mean time I have been collecting goodies. I have all new bailey channel rubber arriving tomorrow, front and rear window rubbers arriving, door rubbers and weather strips. The hardest thing for me to find atm is the chromed plastic window rubber insert. Working through that with basis in Blenheim at the moment. Great company for all this old window shit. Fender mirrors arrive early next month. I have my eye on some advan a3a wheels but I need to try not to spend too much more for the next couple of months so may just keep an eye on them and see how they pan out. new oil cooler lines and fittings new Ali radiator and fan temporary gauges just to make sure engine has oil pressure etc. will replace with good ones when I redo dash completely in the future as I plan to build a new Ali fuel tank I have a new fuel level sender and gauge and various bits and pieces as required to make it all run like fuel pump and reg etc none of this is very exciting for other people but I don’t have much else to report at this stage........

None other than the notorious B.I.G. much disappoint that’s gone.

things is happening

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

If you have one I would love it. No I have no idea if it’ll fit im just assuming they didn’t get too carried away with changing the main body components for a facelift. If you do have one we can measure it up and hope for the best

I’m starting a slow hunt for one of these grills if anyone has one?

Right so a question for you 12A experts. I’ve heard you can “flip” the sump and run a front hump sump as a rear hump sump and just redrill the holes. I lined it up to test this theory and quickly found the oil restrictor at the front hits the sump. Is it just a matter of notching the sump for the restrictor? At this point I may just fabricate a whole new sump. I just need to sit the engine in the hole to check clearances before committing to a design. help!

Yes please! See what you have.

He didn’t even know what IRS is and when I explained it he want sure if the car was or not so not too sure he knows anything about them.

Too late. 12a Bridgeport it is. I went through the paperwork today and found the wof sheet from the end of 2018. Looks like the hilux diff may need Cert. It’s currently got a green sticker on it. Hopefully the reason for failure isn’t still in system and they overlook the diff for the wof

12A Bridgeport with mx5 gearbox. Complete, rebuilt then put into a project car that never got finished. Has been run but probably done 10km. Now to find a radiator, correct oil cooler to fill the hole the previous owner made in the valance, fuel pump, regulator and modify the front sump to a rear. Then just hope she starts.

First order of business today was to remove the stickers. next thing was to address the window they’ve “never been able to fix”. Found that the rod from the external door lock barrel to the door lock mechanism had popped out. Go to put it back into the plastic and found that the plastic was worn. Added a bit of tape for now and pushed it back in and it’s not going anywhere atm. Window now goes up and down. Sweet. found a few more things to add to my list of issues to sort. The felt tracks at the top of the doors are totally stuffed and the rear window has had something etched into the glass free hand. Not sure if you can polish scratches out of glass efficiently but when I go to do the rear rubber I may try find a new back window. Also my old sun visor turned up from Wellington today. This was on my old crown. Thinking I may try and narrow it a bit and fit it. Not 100% sure though yet.

Incoming photo dump

Ordered the new door rubbers and rear window rubber last night. Going to check out a running 12a J port today. Hopefully it’s a go.