kws

I've done option A before. If you use long bolts you can replicate that spring setup again, just with bolts instead of studs. I think you need those springs as that's a kind of flexi joint.

Since the VIN brings the car up in carjam they should be covered for that as it will say if there is a police interest or not. A print out of carjam was enough for VTNZ when i did it. The issue is when its not in carjam and then its a feck around as you say.

If you havent already, try checking the ABS codes and see what comes up https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/ae111_forum/abs-diagnostics-t6366.html

It's a 90s(?) Carib, surely it'd only have rudimentary abs and nothing fancy?

Thanks. They're huge fun and great value for money. Mine is still in regular use, not needing much more than keeping the tank full of 98. The new clutch has been bed in for a while now and is lovely to use. I toyed with modifying the intake, and my previous one had a Suzuki Sport intake/pod filter on it and sounded great. On this one I decided to keep the costs down and just whacked a K&N panel filter in it when one was on sale. No change in noise, but im thinking of removing the intake resonator and seeing it if makes a difference. The airbox has little to no restriction, so im happy to keep it in terms of performance. Aftermarket parts pop up on facebook from time to time, but you need to be quick as the demand is high.

I'd just get the stat dec signed by a JP anyway. Its easy enough to do and less of a ballache than having to go away and do it later when they suddenly decide they need it. The declaration is to confirm you are the legal owner of the vehicle.

I believe on post 1990 cars the inspection is the same as a fresh import compliance inspection. Pre 1990 is just a wof done slower than usual (which for vtnz takes days).

Its been months of struggling with little to no motivation, but the welding on the floor is finally done. Still need to tidy up under the car and then seam seal it, but that can happen another day. Once thats done I can turn the car around, and start work on the B pillar and outer sill. Then that will be the worst of the rust sorted (and the rust that could cause WOF issues).

Nothing off the shelf, but no doubt you could easily adapt something to work. These hinges had lasted almost 50 years as it was, so I can't see them wearing out again in my lifetime.

Oh hello again, it's been a while. No one likes sagging, so let's fix it. No, it's not work that anyone would have expected as my first update in months, but it's something I needed to do, especially whilst the car is in this orientation and I have good access (the car will soon be turned around to do the sill). Since I got the car it has suffered from the very common saggy door issue, where the hinge pins wear out and cause excessive movement. This mainly shows itself as a door that is hard to open or close, and thumps up and down when lifted. This will not pass a WOF. The easiest way to fix this is to find a good pair of hinges without wear and swap them in, and stick to regularly lubricating them. This will last a good while but it's getting harder to find good hinges as it was such a common issue. Fixing the issue in the first place is the better option, and in this instance, I've done it to one hinge, out of necessity rather than choice. There are two ways to fix it. One, is to get a steel tube that has a slightly larger internal diameter than the outside diameter of the pin and weld it between the two ears on the bracket, like so, I didn't have a tube handy, so went with the other, easier option; weld two nuts to the ears. Thanks to the relevant Marina Club members for the above photos, and the inspiration to fix instead of bin. Before I could get onto the welding bit, I had to get the hinges off the car, which meant removing the door. Thankfully it's on the side that has no door card, so that was easy. Three nuts to remove on each hinge (as well as a washer on each stud and a spreader plate), and the door shell can be removed. I used a jack to support the back of the door until all the nuts were removed. Much room for activities. Yes, there is still a hole in the floor; I'll get to that at some point. Hopefully during the next burst of motivation. The bottom hinge was easy to remove from the A pillar, as all three nuts are visible, so off that came. The upper hinge was proving to be a real pain though. I couldn't see it until I removed it, but the studs were slightly longer which meant my socket was blocked from completely sliding on the nuts, thus they were rounding when I tried to remove them. In the end, I grabbed a drill and drilled the heads off the studs and used a punch to push them into the car, nuts and all. Thankfully the forward nut came off easily, so I only had to do the rearward two. To get a clear shot at those I disassembled the hinge on the car, by hammering the pin out The top hinge was the worst one as this takes most of the weight of the door, and clearly had not been lubricated since it left the factory. The pin should be a snug fit in the hole And that's before you even get to the wear on the actual pin Thankfully I had sourced a good top hinge, in the correct colour, so all I needed to do, after freeing the seized hinge, was to thoroughly lubricate it and fit it. The lower hinge wasn't so lucky. I did get a replacement but for some reason, it's completely different (two bolts instead of three and a completely different design). This forced my hand into fixing the hinge I had. I knocked out the pin to separate the halves There is some wear on the pin, but it's minor The holes were slightly slogged out. This was nowhere near as bad as the upper hinge, but still had enough play that I couldn't just refit it. I found a couple of nuts that were just slightly too small to fit over the pin and drilled the hole out a little bigger, until they slipped on the pin with minimal play. I cleaned the surface up with a flap disc on the grinder and then zapped the nuts into place with the welder turned to 11. It's not pretty, but it ain't going anywhere A quick coat of black zinc should protect it for a while Once mostly dry, the nuts were packed with grease and reassembled. The pin was rotated backwards to how it was previously fitted, so the wear was on the opposite side of the pin. The nuts have two functions here. First, they support the pin along a larger surface area, instead of just the small area that wears away, which should hopefully mean the pin lasts longer and the current wear no longer matters. Secondly, it centers the pin again and stops it from moving in the worn-out holes. The tube would do the same thing, just along a longer surface. This fix works for both hinges as they are of similar construction, the only difference is that the upper hinge has the detent roller and spring to get in the way. With the hinge reassembled it was time to refit the hinges. They were easy enough to refit, trying to line them up with the existing dirt/witness marks. Interestingly, there are no gaskets to stop water from coming in behind the hinges, just hopes and dreams. If the doors come off again in the future I will make some gaskets, but in the meantime, I used heavy grease behind the hinges as a water repellent (and to reduce the chances of rust buildup behind the hinges; it was clean behind them with minor surface rust, but little to no paint). Refitting the door was about as hard as removing it, just remembering to support the back end of the door with the jack and wiggling it onto the hinges far enough to get the spreader plates on and start a couple of nuts. Aligning the door took a few tries, and it's probably still not perfect, but it is a BL product after all... The difference with the new hinges was obvious immediately. The door swings so much easier now, and the detent works correctly; it previously sagged so much that the detent roller didn't touch the spring. The door also opens and closes easier now too. It doesn't need a slam to close and doesn't thump into place before catching. There is zero play in the hinges. It's not amazing progress; it's still not finishing the rust work that I keep putting off, but it's progress nonetheless. Hopefully another burst of motivation will hit me soon and more will happen.

I'd relocate it back to where it was too tbh, they're pretty clear that the sensors shouldn't be lower than 10 degrees upwards from horizontal. That engine is bloody spotless inside, despite the pickup chunks. In the photo with the oil filter, what are the big steel cables either side of the wood block for?

Pistons are out. Pistons all look good, no buildup in the rings etc. Bores all look like this, with scuffing at the top and bottom sides of the bores. It feels slightly rough with a nail, but only a couple of scratches actually lightly catch a nail. I'm hoping it's savable with a hone, not a bore. The block is pretty tidy otherwise. Burnt on varnish aside, the water channels are super clean and not even orange.

Well, it's most of the bits to make an engine, anyway. As part of the purchase agreement of the car, the seller said he had "Some spares" that would come with the car. I didn't know what and didn't really bother to ask (any spares are a bonus, and I have lots of spares as it is, so it's just more to add to my collection). When we were in good standing we were going to meet up a couple of hours north of where I live, as he was coming down to visit family, and I would collect the parts then. That all turned to custard once I realised what a bastard he was, so I decided to just write the spares off. A week or two ago the seller got in touch and said he had the spares and was willing to crate them up and ship them down, at no charge to me. This time he alluded to what the spares were "it's the original engine and some other bits". As this was the first time he had mentioned anything about the car not having its original engine, I was a little taken back by this revelation, not to mention this would have made collecting the spares a bit of a surprise if I chose to take the Swift that day. I would be stupid to say no, so after some back and forth on things like "how heavy is it?" "will I need a forklift to move it?", we arranged for the crate to be sent to my local freight depot and I would collect it with a friend that has a van. As it turned out, the engine was in more bits than expected, which made it much easier to work with anyway. It arrived in a big crate, but we ended up unloading it into the back of our trusty Honda. The block being the heaviest part, and even that is only 30 odd KG and can be (just) lifted by one weakling. It's funny how much space an exploded diagram of an engine takes, compared to the assembled unit. The Honda took it like a champ, riding low in the back but with plenty of suspension travel After work I unloaded the car and got my first look at what I had obtained. First, I could see in the photos, but it was good to confirm it was the correct stamped 31A engine, with the correct 9.75:1 compression ratio. I was wondering if it was the original stamping or not, but the layout and font style is consistent with the stamping on the 11A engine in the car currently, it just looks rough as guts. I purchased an engine stand, but haven't set it up yet, so I'm yet to remove the pistons from the block and check the bores, but from the top of the bores I can see, they look like they would go again with a light hone. The pistons appear to be the correct high compression ones too (shallower recess in the crown). The engine is completely stripped, other than the pistons being left in their bores, and the lifters all being stuck in place. The crank isn't looking too hot. It has light surface rust on it, but the journals are all scored to some degree too. It should be reusable with some machine work though, even if oversize bearings are needed. The cam behind it is looking quite tired too. I plan on replacing that anyway, so no issue. The first signs of issues began when I found the oil pump gears. I was told by the previous owner that "it looks like something went through the oil pump" and he ain't wrong. One of the gears is properly chewed up, but only one... The bottom of the oil pump housing looks fine, with only minor scoring, which is about what I'd expect for a high KM, somewhat badly looked after, engine The bearings were next. These were all nicely dumped into a cardboard tray, and they're all kinds of bad. The majority were through to the copper, and all of them had some scoring. They should be a nice dull grey with an even, smooth coating. The big ends were worn. Ignore the scuffing, that'll be from knocking around in the box. And the main bearings are really worn. This one even has an extra oil channel ground into it I don't know what on earth happened to this bearing, and if it was whilst it was in the engine or not, but its ugly From the numbers on the bearings, they appear to be standard size, original bearings. Likely the ones the engine was built with. The good news is that the heads are the original EFI heads This is most obvious due to the injector cutouts in the intake ports. I bet the heads currently in the car don't have these. Annoyingly as far as I can see, the rocker assemblies weren't marked, so I have no idea which side of the engine they were originally on. Same with the pushrods, they are all just dumped in the box, so I don't know if I can/should use those again. Probably not to the pushrods, but maybe the rockers will be fine with new pushrods? Pending inspection of them and their shafts, of course. The plan this weekend is to get the block on the engine stand, get the pistons out, and see what the liners/bores and pistons are like. If they aren't too bad, this engine will be saved. I will need to measure the heads, as going from the used composite gaskets in the box, they have likely been skimmed once already, and they can only be skimmed so far before needing replacement. I will also look into whether I can use the newer 3.9 heads as the valve stem seals are far better than the SD1 style. It looks like the engine was super tired, and not that well looked after, even before the oil pump shat the bed and dumped bits of metal throughout the engine. I did want to upgrade the car to a 3.9 or 4.6, but if I can put the original, numbers matching, 31A engine back into the car, I think that is best.

We have an engine. THE engine (pending engine number check). The proper 31A high comp engine that was in the car when it was built (or at least imported, see disclaimer above). Edit: can read the engine number in the photo, it is the engine the car was imported with.

Was said man a local man that does this for money?

I havent got a photo of my tank because its always dark at the moment, but you can see a fuel tank in the photo attached. Its on the left, ahead of the axle. Mostly flat on the bottom. Mine has a large dent in the bottom, right at the back, like someone has lifted the car from it on a hoist or jack. I guess i could try a plunger, but i have no idea how thick/strong the steel is

Does anyone have experience with getting a large dent out of the usually mostly flat bottom of a steel fuel tank? It looks like someone has put a jack under the sd1 tank and it's dented up right where the pickup is and it's causing me grief. The dent is more or less right below the hole for the fuel sender but i could only fit something like a broom handle in (small hole, only for a sender not pump) and don't want to turn the underside into a dimpled golfball-like mess. I have seen videos where they block all the holes in the tank and then use compressed air to expand the tank.

Cheers but i wouldnt buy another 3.5. If the original engine that im waiting to have shipped down here is toast and isnt economical to rebuild, i will go 3.9 or 4.6 instead.

I did see that, but not sure if its a 4.0 or 4.6, and the rest of the gubbins around the engine (body, chassis etc) are surplus to requirements. It is the right price though.

I find it interesting that you could just whack a set of these Mugen shocks in, pass wofs all day every day no issue, because they dont need a cert.... yet if you needed a cert with these fitted, it would fail, wouldnt it? Same with the KYBs i guess

No 3.9 or 4.6 has magically come up for sale locally, which sucks and all the good engines are either crazy money or miles away (like the one above). On the plus side, the previous owner is apparently shipping down a crate with the original engine in it, or something that might resemble parts of the original engine. Not sure what I will end up with yet, we will see. If there is enough to rebuild, and its not completely ruined, that might become the plan.

What about one with tweed seats?

Seeing the state of the current crop of early Evos coming into the country, id be far more worried about rust and damage than anything.

Yes, it becomes a personalised plate, as long as its done through the proper peoples (kiwi plates?)

It'll never sell for that money, especially after being butchered with gross interior and carb. It used to be a nice standard Vitesse; I have photos of it from a few years ago when he failed to sell it then.