MRWEST

Took the truck for its first major drive on the weekend did a 40km return trip out to Waihi Beach and she run flawlessly! Have had the Artilleries rebarreled as after sandblasting they had a heap of holes in the barrels. Wheel and Frame in Cambrdige rebarreled them with 7 inch barrels instead of 5.5 they were factory. Centres were riveted in from factory so they drilled these out and welded the centres into new barrels. Mate lined up to paint these this week then the whitewalls can go on!

$211 per tyre delivered which was alot cheaper than other alternatives (very limited) i could find.

Much success! Got a VIN, Wof and Reg today! All ticked off and ready to roll. Now time for a few mods, Artillieries, whitewalls, hub caps and beauty rings Split manifold and exhaust Fit the Fulton Visor Lower Then she be ready for summer cruising.

Havent done much for the last month or so as had a bit going on. Got the full new exhaust painted with heat paint and on this weekend, sounds primo and alot better than the one that was on it. Got some new Hawk HP Plus pads for the S6 Brake setup and have fitted that up, should be a good stopping package now! Just waiting on some new front brake lines and that can be bled up and car can hit the ground again. All booked in to get the rust sorted in a couple of weeks so will get that sorted next.

Getting through the list quite nicely. - Secure LH Interior door handle (had fallen off)- Front park lights not working-LH Headlight dim- Aim RH headlight correctly- Wipers to work (Will prob do 12V Conversion- Secure RH exterior mirror (loose)-Replace broken piece in exhasut and mount muffler-Secure fuel line-Replace rear brake hose and hard line-Repair petrol leak at pump-Repair cert sign off for rust repairs-King pins-Play in drag link Half way through doing King pins, got one side done, the other side is being a right PITA. have been soaking it with CRC last few days. Need a couple of fittings to fix the brake related things which ill hopefully get today and then we will be away with that. Just trying to sort a 12V electric wiper conversion for it currently, nobody in NZ seems to have stock..

Got the new tyres put on the 10" for the rear over the weekend. Much better and less strech haha.

Havent done much in the last couple weeks been sorting the truck vin and other bits. Ordered some new tyres for the rear, Have gone with 225/45/R15 Nexen semis (best priced tyre in this size by a long way) to go on the 10" rim. Also was putting a new speedo cable into the truck and realised the chev factory gauge end fitting looked similar to the autometer speedo i had with no cable. Tested it and sure enough it did. Had a mazda cable to fit the s4 box so sent it all down to CBC in Christchurch who made me a new cable to suit which looks to work perfectly. Got to sort the last of the truck vin repairs this weekend then ill be back into this to get it sorted and rolling again.

Vin Check went well, Mostly things i knew about and hadnt sorted in timeand a few other minor things. All in all pretty happy and easy enough to sort - Secure LH Interior door handle (had fallen off) - Front park lights not working -LH Headlight dim - Aim RH headlight correctly - Wipers to work (Will prob do 12V Conversion - Secure RH exterior mirror (loose) -Replace broken piece in exhasut and mount muffler -Secure fuel line -Replace rear brake hose and hard line -Repair petrol leak at pump -Repair cert sign off for rust repairs -King pins -Play in drag link Pretty easy to sort really so allllll good.

New speedo cable, wiper blades and now shes ready to go for a vin. Off in the morning. Also just got this today, bit of a drawing got done for the mrs xmas present haha turned up a bit late but shows the sorta look we going for this long term. Yarn away

Got the new exhaust last week, Good score for $350, alot better than mine and is well made. Had a mate come on the weekend and weld my muffler on so just need to pull apart and clean up and put new exhaust manifold gasket on and thats the exhaust sorted. Got one side of the front brakes on, front suspension wound up a bit and its looking good. Ordered some HAWK pads from SpeedScience a few weeks ago which turn up today so ill get those in and bled up and thatll be the front brakes/suspension sorted. All coming along nicely.

Yeah from my research most people iv found that run 15x10 run a 225/45R15 whilst not legal in terms of LVVTA tyre stretch rules they do look ok and have minimal stretch (1000x less than i had before) and can be had for a resonable ish (at the moment $211/tyre) Cheers man yeah always a bit frustrating having to tidy things up im just glad i havent found anything super scary or major its all pretty minor in the scheme of things really and most of i did know about. Just glad the bones/drivetrain etc of the car seem to be decent. Yep got a spring waser on there also! should of probably put a large flat washer as well in hindsight!

haha yeah trying to avoid rubbage cause well ya know not ideal haha. cheers mate happy with progress so far, hanging to get it all sorted out ready for some cruising!

Well the front tyre situation turned into a fail! Wound the suspension up 25mm and chucked the 9" with a 205/50R15 but due to overall tyre profile rubs at both locks. Didnt actually realise the Toyo was a 50 profile till after i fitted it. Will get a 195/45 put back on today and see how that is now the suspension is wound up a touch. Theres 1.2" of overall tyre diameter difference between the 2 so should help a decent amount Got the new gearbox crossmember painted and fitted last night. Great improvement there. Also removed the exhaust. The midsections not to bad on it but the headers aint anywhere near flash. Theyve been squashed pretty bad to "get them to fit" , managed to pick up a full exhaust minus a rear muffler off a rx3 in much better nick so nabbed that and will hopefully pick up this week. Thatl be good to get on before i get tune checked/touched up. Also had some pretty quality welding on the rear muffler which will be nice to get rid of ha!

Ended up with 2 x Sets of BBS RS wheels all with tyres. So had a range of tyre sizes and widths to choose from. Have changed it round from 10s & 11s it came on the car to 9s & 10s. The 11s that were on the rear had a streteched as 205/50/R15 Toyo T1R (nice tyre) on them. Have taken them off and put them onto the 9s which will hopefully go on the front. Look alot better not stretched to an inch of their life i think ha! Have been looking around for tyres for the 10s for the rear, Pretty hard to find tyres in a suitable size. From what iv found most people run a 225/45/R15 on a 10. Nobody makes a street tyre for them they are mostly reallllyyy expensive semi slick or slick type options. Have since found a set of Nexens in that size that are on special at the moment till the end of the month that will probably do the trick so will probably grab a pair of those for the rear. https://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-parts-accessories/wheels-tyres/tyres/listing-2619605509.htm?rsqid=53e4a84365c14a04902738400c3b0bc7-001 At least it should handle bloody well! Have ended up with 6 x 195/45/R15s left over that will fit on the 8s that can be chucked on the rear for extra curricular activites ha.

Aint that the truth haha. Have found some gems thats for sure. Cheers man i dont like things being done half arse drives me up the wall. Old gearbox mount is going on the wall in the shed thats for sure ha! A+ For kiwi ingenuity ill give them that haha

Been a busy few weeks of lockdown. One of the issues the car had i wasnt happy with was the fuel system. Someone had made new alloy hardlines at some point and instead of using a bender to form the bends they must of used pliers or something so there was a heap of crimped bends with restrictions in the fuel line which aint good for noone! To top it off one of the fittings decided it would leak on/off sporadicall, one day it would and the next it wouldnt. Decided to rip it all out and go new braided line system front to back. Got a full setup 247 fittings and black teflon lined braid from Motorsport plumbing supplies and set about remaking it all. Have relocated filter and regulator to boot (run a dead head type return system) and mounted it all on a alloy panel for tidyness. Excuse the disgusting looking boot it needs a repaint in there ha, on the to do list! Got it all back together and fired up last night, no leaks which was i was stoked about ha! The lines under the car where roughly attached previously with the brake lines just cable tied to them which aint ideal! Got a heap of black billet 247 Fitting clamps and clamped the fuel and brake lines under the car which turned out alot tidier. While that was all being done i whipped out the old gearbox crossmember which was a work of art! Someone had used a galv bomex type builders bracket (with logo and barcode still attached hah!) to construct the xmember Got my mate Gav from Precision Workz to fab me up a new one which is 1000% tidier and stronger. \ Anyways thats todays update!

One of the front wheels was quite tight, thought the wheel bearing might be up a bit tight. Went to pull it apart and the caliper was stuck on pretty well. Got it off and the piston was seized in the caliper and turns out the bloody bleed nipple was snapped off as well The brakes were single pot early rx7/rx2 etc slide calipers. Thought this would be a good opportunity to upgrade. Managed to find a set front FD RX7 4 Pots rebuilt and powdercoated with slotted rotors all ready to go on. Also came with a set of front adjustables that had been rebuilt with KYB RX7 inserts, Techno toy camber plates and roll centre adjusters. Bloody nice set up. Wasnt sure they would fit under 15s due to rotor size but sounds like it is wheel dependant. A test fit of my wheels and it fits perfectly filling out the wheel nicely! I thought my coilovers in my car werent body adjustable so thought this would be a good upgrade. Turns out once i got them out they XYZ coilovers which are body adjustable but someone had removed the spring perch locking collar, and the body adjustment locking collar to wind it right down as low as possible! Which is why the wheels rubbed at full lock on the inner guards i guess! So will probably sell these coilovers and keep the brakes. Should stop quite nicely now!

So when i got the car the dash topper, gauge cluster, centre console had all been black winkle painted. Had a modified factory cluster to fit a set of autometer guages. Black wrinkle paint not really my thing so decided ill put the dash and cluster out and clean it up and repaint it satin black. So pulled the dash out, tried to clean up the topper but wasnt having much success so a quick call to the man @64valiant and will be getting the dash topper over to him to trim in a nice black something. Will repaint the steel part of the dash top while its out too. Got the gauge cluster out to clean that up which also turned into a can of worms. Ended up finding a brown factory cluster with speedo etc to either run factory cluster and flick the volts gauge, mount tacho below dash next to steering column and change the gauges around in centre console so only the ones needed are left. But then after that also found a factory black cluster with no gauges so will have a look how easy its going to be to modify that one (tidly and not wrinkle painted) to fit these gauges back in similar to as they are now. Both of them are on their way to me so will see what happens when they get there and make a plan to tidy it up as best as possible without buying a heap of new stuff.

Best part being the price alright! Was scared to pull it off and find it was rubbish haha ah yes good to know will sort that out, need a few bits and pieces from auz so will add it too the list Sooooooo stretched haha. Bloody hell would of been a task getting them on. Cheers man looking forward to getting the tyres round the right way and getting flares on the back will look alot more together then!

So when i got the car the front and rear bumpers and the grill surround trim were plastidipped black. Not really my thing got to have chrome on a old school car. Managed to peel it all off to reveal very tidy and mint chrome which was a relief. Couple of before and after shots, very happy with the outcome.

Tonights up date. So the car came on 15 x 10 on the front and 15 x11 on the rear, which are ultra wide especially when they had super streteched 195 & 205 on them. I was a bit on the fence about running them as to make them look semi decent needed alot wider tire on it which could of been tricky space wise. Was browsing trademe for lips to relip them slightly narrower if some lips popped up, ended up finding a set of 15 x 8 & 15 x 9 BBS RS on trademe with Mazda stud pattern. So went and grabbed them , turns out they were the wheels that used to be on this car before it had the flares. Have put the 9s on the front and put the 10 off the front onto the back. Will switch tyres around to run a 205 on the front and get some 225/40 or similar for the 10 on the back.

Beautiful mate, bloody work of art! Better than factory!

Todays update now up

So got sick of looking the primer/bogged rear quarters so spray bombed them with some satin black cause it was hurting my eyes looking at it in the shed till i get it sorted properly. Took it for a drive, couldnt even get it out my driveway without the guard rubbing on the tyre and basically stalling the car. Turns out on further investigation all the load leaves had been flipped to lower it some more, so basically had no spring tension in the rear. Pulled the leave pack apart and put everything in the right place, slightly raised the car but made it actually driveable an doesnt come close to touching the guards now! Couple of pics of it and the springs before unflipping. Yarns here

Next up after getting busted buying flares i got back into working on the truck to get it sorted for Beach Hop. Had a week long break at the end of Jan to go for a boys roadtrip to Muscle Car Madness in Rangiora (if you aint been an like old cars and beers you got to go , its hectic as fuk) Anyway whilst i was away the mrs rustled some mates together to get the car and take it to another mate who knows a thing or two about rotarys to get it going (wasnt going when i bought it) . Long story short was a bit of a mess few things round the wrong way and what not and so got that sorted and got it running. Came home after a week long trip with the boys and got thrown the keys and told to go out to the shed to start the car haha. Nice crisp sounding motor starts mint as hot or cold so pretty happy with that. Will get it on a dyno and checked up and tuned before i go leaning on it too much. Couple of vids of start up and driving Next update coming soon