grimlok

Ugliest steering wheel in the world? Maybe. I’m kinda into it. Got a knob for a Mazda 6 5 speed on the way. The Mrs has the 6 speed Mazda 6 (Matching his and hers knobs. Cus that doesn’t sound weird) And I’ve got a bit of a plan to tie that colourwise to the wheel and gator boot. Hoping to find some proceed/marvie doors with factory leccyness I can pillage and liberate parts from.

Getting there. New keys and barrels all round. None of the old barrels matches the ignition. Got a set of 205 60 16s and the speedo is up 2 Kay at 100 clicks. So close enough. As soon we get to level 2 it’s going to get straightened out. Flip leaves to get some low. Got a slew of chrome things on the way. Door handles. Grill. Rear lights. Pinch weld. Door rubber. Universal keyless entry and leccy window kit. That’s how it will prolly sit for another couple of months while I decide on a colour. And chip away at the interior.

So. List of all the things... complete tear down of the block. Hone and Deck. New head. Valves and Cam. Frost plugs. Crank seals. Thrust bearing clutch and pressure plate. New rings and bearings. New shells. New oversized pistons. New water pump and timing belt. New alternator. serviced oil and fuel pump. New dizzy. Cap. Leads rotor and points. New rad. New fan belt. New brake and clutch master cylinders. New ignition. Door locks and key set. Got some bling equal length extractors on the way. Once they arrive I’ll sort the whole exhaust and do the underbody.

Real close now...

Been slowly working on this...

She's getting a little warm. Well, ever so slightly warm on the temp gauge. About a needle width. (Yeah I know, A needle width.) But she hasn't moved a mill since the engine was sorted beyond getting up to temp when the thermostat opened. Happens when I get into 50k traffic. It climbs over a couple of minutes shooting through town and settles back down when I get it out on the main road again. Doesn't like being stuck behind anything at 80k for too long, Signs point to a blockage in the rad or the thermostat, Could be the water pump. Not really in a rush to even pull the thermostat housing off, let alone the whole front if it's the water pump. Drained and refilled the rad. It's not using any water. But the water does look like the wrong end of a good curry. It could do with a back flush. Got it up to temp and gave the top rad hose a little squeeze. Nothing, No surge, not a heap of pressure. So. Not open at the thermostat, or the pump isn't pumping. Remember where I said I had a serious case of the CBFs over pulling the thermostat housing off? From memory the waterpump was OK. It was the best of the two waterpumps when we swapped motors in the driveway. Cannot be fucked pulling all the pulleys, The timing belt. Etc to get to the waterpump. Fingers crossed it's the thermostat just blocked up with dislodged crap from a motor that's sat the last 20 years. So Plan... Back flush the rad, pull the thermostat, check it's working like it should. Flush the water passages, reassemble, flush a couple more times over a couple temp cycles. Cross fingers and see what happens. Failing that the rad comes out, the front comes apart and I do the waterpump. It's less than a week overdue on it's wof. I knew it wasn't going to pass on the rims and tires it was on out back. And I've noticed something I don't quite like in the rear brakes under heavy braking. So I need to get them looked at. Again crud in the lines is the high suspect here. Everything else is pretty much new. Ass end is stiff as fuck. and still sitting high despite being on 2" blocks. I'm wondering if the leaves being from a single cab make a difference. Slightly longer possibly. Wondering if pulling a leaf out of the pack is an option.

Slowly ticking small jobs off the list. Got speakers in front and rear in the factory locations. Did an LED dash light swap. Which doesn’t make a lot of difference to the dash lights themselves. But the illumination is now clearer and has a whiter glow to it vs the amber glow normal bulbs have. Also got some steely rims sorted that seem to work for me at the moment. shes due for a wof. Couple little things I wanna sort while it’s up on the hoist. But it’s mostly up to the fun stuff now. Really wanna set of wiper louvres. But I haven’t seen any anywhere for years.

Found some rims. Factory Courier from a slightly younger Ute. So obviously the right offset. Dunno if I like them in black. Hoping thats a rattle can that will come off without too much drama. Tips for stripping rattle can off alloy rims? Paint stripper?

Suspension done. She’s sitting kinda high considering she’s on 2” blocks. So I figure reset leafs is on the cards in the future. Full brake rebuild done with new slaves and shoes in the rear and rebuilt calipers and pads in the front. Rocking the black steelies on the front and an alignment has sorted out the geometry issues. fuel leak has been nailed down to a gasket on the sender. Which will be replaced when the new sender is fitted. wanna recover a bit from the ass reaming my wallet has suffered before the next round of changes. rad. And rear wheels are next on the to do list. Door cards. And speakers and we should be all go for a while. minor bumps and scrapes are gonna be a weekend job with my best mates dad whom happens to be a panel beater. Then rock the primer gray patches of awesome for a while while the engine rebuild/replacement gets sorted so we can gun the whole thing in one go while the motor is out. That’s the rough plan anyway.

Another picture free update. Because ute still at the garage. But we can tick brake rebuild off the list. New pads and shoes with rebuilt calipers and new slave cylinders. When the towie dropped it off at the garage he somehow managed to smash the drivers side tail light. And tracking down a replacement has gone from fly in my ointment to thorn in my side pretty quickly. And it's just escalated to pain in my ass. Hopefully a new one should be here tomorrow and then I'll finally get her back to actually do some more work on it myself. I've got the Rad shroud from the donor. So might be time to make a road trip to see a friend of mine at the local ford wreckers and sus out a courier rad and mountings that will take the shroud. Weighing up rebuilding the Original carby FE motor VS shoehorning an FE3 with an aftermarket ECU in. If I can even find an FE3. Apparently they came in early 90s 626s or another option is a kia sportage from the same time period. As they used the same FE3 motor.

Flying update. I hate updates without photos. I like the pretty pictures... I also read playboy for the articles. Things missing off the donor. IE things I’ve replaced... Engine. Shocks. Leaf springs. Bumpies. perches 90% of the right front corner. Lower control arm. Spindle. Hub. Rotor. Shield. Tie rod. Dash. Cluster. Door light switches. Door cards. Theres a few more things piled up in the garage. But there isn’t a lot left. List of new stuff: ball joints. Bushes. Shackles. gaskets. Frost plugs. Plugs. Crank seals. 2” blocks in the rear and reindexed the front to suit. still to go: Had a good look under the Ute While it was on the hoist and made a check list. Brakes need attention. There’s a teeny tiny fuel leak coming from somewhere. And the fuel sender needs replacing. The radiator/exposed fan needs sorting. Tappets need tweaking up. Rims and tires. Alignment and wof. gotta play musical rims/tires a bit with my bongo van (southern hospitality spec green and white turd) to get the rims and tires I want on everything but should all be done and dusted well before the more attractive half and I take on Fleetwood Mac and the v8 Supercars in Auckland.

So, the more I open up this vehicle the more shades of shit I come across. Those leaf springs that I didn't really have a proper chance to look at? Heated to lower... What fuckery is this? I've heard of Barry's doing it. I'd never actually seen it. If I'm completely honest with myself. I never looked over the car properly to begin with. So it's my own fault. In an attempt to find anyone else to blame for the vast amounts of money it's starting to cost me (And find someone else to share in pouring money into it) I decided to make a visit to the issuing garage. In general garages, WOF inspectors, And the LTSA really don't give a fuck what state the car is in. If it got a wof. It got it on the day because it was legit on the day. It's just on the day and it's pretty much damn near impossible to prove a car was bullshited through a wof. It's a system that protects the inspecting authority. And let's be honest. Fair enough too. Otherwise we'd have no inspectors out of fear of themselves being blamed for everything. I spent the entire morning with the NEW wof inspector at said establishment. And they admitted the previous wof inspector was "Let go" for "reasons we'd rather not go into"... The fact that I'm getting some kinda Grimmy discount on labour tells me that as much as they daren't accepted responsibility. They are wanting to keep me as a customer and are prepared to go an extra couple steps to fix the issue. And take some blame on board. So. The ute is now in the hands of the local Mom & Pop workshop. Brand new bushes and suspension all round. Spares are coming from the donor. New rubber. Alignment, Fresh wof. And all the half ass attempts to make it cool and low are being done the right way. Which was kinda my plan for it anyway Oh yeah... remember how the guy that sold me the donor was going to rip the flat bed off but couldn't be fucked? He's been in touch and keen to get the tray back. And he's a panel beater by trade. "Yeah, you can have the tray. My ute needs straightening out in a couple places. you bring your hammers and dollys when you come to get the tray and we'll call it a day." As far as my own recovery after the slam. At the time I didn't think I'd been hurt. I'm the sorta guy that walks shit off. Pain heals, Chicks dig scars, Glory last forever. Mumma didn't raise no sissy. But my back still isn't quite right. (Don't fuck around with your back guys, If it ain't right after something like a wheel falling off at 100 clicks... Get it checked!) So after checking in with my GP, having X-Rays, and getting some serious pain killers. I should be back to "normal" within the next week to 10 days.

So in an attempt to kill me today the lower ball joint on the passenger side decided to let go. Doing some bendy stuff to the guard. The hub and rotor shield, and lower wishbone. And wheel rim, nuts. studs. all the stuff you pray never shits itself at 100kays. (Which is exactly what happened) . Did it entirely without warning. Just dropped the passenger side and watched the wheel go racing up the fog line ahead of me. Had no choice but to call in the towie. Was an hour from civilisation, in the pissing down rain. with 3 wheels on the ute. I sooo hate calling in the pros in. So... Most urgent on the list. New front ball joints. Nab some stuff from the donor, Swap more shit over. Also, Drink many beers. Be thankful I'm still alive, haemorrhage some more money into the fucking thing. Oh. Pics of the carnage coming soon.

She’s not used water for 24 hours. So might have delayed the engine rebuild for now. pissing around with stupid little things. Swapped a few things over in the cab. I like the Mazda dash over the ford one.

Was quoted $850 to drop the old head off and pick up the new head a few days later everything changed over, valves seated, Old cam new seals. With gaskets to refit the head myself. New head is in the late $400s before GST. So I didn't think that was too bad. Local reputable builder. Can source a bottom end rebuild kid + Water Pump, plus timing gear myself for around 400 also. Confident in doing it all myself. I've never done a 4cyl 4 stroke before but they can't be that much different to Honda B&S clones on rental go karts. And I've rebuilt a metric fuck ton of those things. Just weighing up the options. If I'm going to do the head, Might as well do the block with bearings ring and seals, and frost plugs. etc Waiting on my brother and law to finish with his engine stand so I can steal it and tear the motor down.