grimlok

KEEN AS ALL HELL. Never done an event before. Pretty keen to sink some beers and talk some shit in my own back yard though.

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.

So. Chemiweld applied to the cooling system after flushing it again. And back flushing it. And flushing it some more. still no water in the oil. Idles slightly smoother. For best results leave Chemiweld in the system for 7 days and monitor fluids and temps. Cross fingers. Cross testicles. Cross everything. Local engine rebuilders reckon not to bother with the head on the old motor and just replace it. Quoted a figure roughly where I expected it to be for a new head and swapping the head set over. Bedding valves etc. There really isn’t much point in chucking a brand new head on a block with 300,000+ Km on it without giving the block a freshen up. And new timing gear. And water pump. Anyone that’s had an engine rebuild done. To what extent? And roughly what sort of body parts am I going to have to sell?

So contender number 1 on the list of quick and nasty head gasket repairs: K-Seal I’ve not tried it before but apparently the system doesn’t need flushing and it will work will most coolant additives. failing that. Chemiweld is an option. All of them work in a similar way. The idea being teeny tiny particles block up the hole as they pass through it till it’s sealed. Then heat and air sets it. So dumped the oil. Ripped the rocker cover off. Cleaned the head. Swapped the carb. And the fuel pump. Fixed the thermostat housing gasket leak. Checked the plugs before firing it up. And yup. Cylinder 2 isn’t burning right. swapped plugs. Fired it up. Gave the carb a quick tweak. New oil and filter again. An took it for a quick blast. That was Thursday’s efforts. shes still using water but running better. Oil is pretty clean at this point. But she’s done less than 100k since the k-seal. Next plan is to back flush the rad and flush the cooling system for Chemiweld. Which I’ve heard good things about from a couple sources.

PM'ed

So after a couple days of not fixing the "Universal" Thermostat Housing Gasket. And running not quite right. But Running. I had a couple hours to fix the Cooling system leak. She got hot on the half hour drive to my mums/my workshop and had used more water than she should have out of the small leak. Dip stick looked like this. My milkshake brings no one to the yard. Several fucks were uttered. As well as a handful of other expletives. Fuck it. cheap donor. Getting the original motor reconditioned anyway. Block sealer in a bottle of some description if it works it works. My personal experience with cooling system block sealers is about 50/50.

On the hunt for a 32/36 DGEV or DGV. Anyone got a spare they don’t mind parting with? There’s a couple on trade me but figured I’d check here first.

Annnnnnd. Done. new frost plugs. New exhaust gaskets. New thermostat and crap universal gasket (that fuckin leaks). New oil and filter. Gapped plugs. “Serviced” everything with parts cleaner and a wire brush. Cranked it without plugs. Timed it. Added Choke. Fired it up. things still to do on the motor... fix stupid thermostat housing gasket if not universalness. fix vac diaphragm in the carb (or replace the whole carb with a Weber. Anyone got a line on a Weber 32/36?) Still some other shit to do. But at least it moves under its own power again.