j.e.d.

Well bugger me, that escalated in a hurry.. I wandered into Rainbow Nurseries in Ramarama to see when their next sale was on, got told hasn’t been an open door sale for the last few years due to covid and new buildings being built but she remembered me from last time a number of years ago so showed me around and then emailed me a list of trees they had for sale online. All I wanted were a few trees to go up my driveway as I like the old “tree lined driveway” look.. I ended up getting a bit carried away.. bought 16 prunus awanui (cherry) trees for the driveway and 21 Betula jaquemontii (birch) just cos they were cheap and should look nice when established.. $40 plus gst per tree ain’t bad considering they’re 2-3m tall.. Anyway, 2 days and 37 trees later they’re all in the ground.. note to self.. no more trees. And, move those mounds of dirt before they become permanent features.

Time to plant some trees for the orchard area.. normally I’m good at buying trees and leaving them in their bags for months on end, but this time bought and planted within the week, so winning there. Picked up 12 trees.. x2 apple, x2 pear, plum, apricot, peach, nectarine, orange and mandarin.. also got a macadamia and an almond tree for something different so will see how those two go. Still to add are a couple of avocado trees my mates mum has for me, a couple of feijoas in my back yard I want to relocate along with a lime tree and a big lemon tree.. I also have a guava but that’s a big old knarly thing I’m not sure if I can get out.. will see how the digger goes with that one.

Been doing some research with a little help from Ben, looks like this is a Trans am not a Firebird.. and a bit of a cross between the factory 75 with 77 bits on it.. I took a look at the carjam report as well and the VIN code is the same there too, along with discovering this car is a bit of a tramp as she’s been through 25 owners before me since being in NZ since ‘79.. I don’t feel very special anymore.

Cool, I actually ordered a couple off that link, will probably turn up and be the size of a shoebox so will chase him up if/when AliExpress makes me regret my online purchase.

ahh yea, I identify more with Smokey & the Bandit than the Gone in 60 Seconds.. born in 73 probably attributes to that timeline math equation Admittedly yes, I am tempted to get it back to the original 400 & manual.. that'd make it pretty special.. think I'll concentrate on getting it WOF'd in the short term and see what the tarot cards tell me afterward.

Pretty sure it should be a factory 400.. gonna check the numbers today I hope

Backed the car out for a couple of pics and assess a bit more what needs to be done.. so far it’s headlights, windscreen wipers and squirters, side mirrors, some minor tidying up of the body/paint to make it look less rough in some areas, install the new lock set and door window weather strips that came with the car, and possibly some heavy duty or air shocks in the back to stiffen it up as muffler clearance is an issue with a couple of people in the car. Confirmed this is also a factory manual car as the clutch pedal is still sitting in there but pushed up against the firewall out of the way.. might be a good selling point when the time comes. But she runs nice, drives nice and sounds nice with the new exhaust and Gilmer belt.. not at all as obnoxious as I thought they’d be never owning a car with one installed.

thanks again man.. yea I'm not that keen/confident to go blowing air into the tank.. I think I'll let water do the job

Not going to be connected til later in the year, so a warm day is more likely to be on the cards then.. cheers

Cheers man.. for sure, will make sure that side faces somewhere safe.. I guess there is no easy way to shore that lower edge up or prevent that from being a possibility? I'm thinking maybe digging the tank into the ground by a foot or so may help?

Would be great if it can.. 30 tonnes or pressure sounds decent enough

Part of this journey is sourcing things as cost effectively as I can make it (read: tight arse), so I’m always on the look out for bargains. I managed to pick up a whole heap of 200x50 H4 retaining timber from a guy really cheap and he asked me if I was after a water tank as they had a new one written off by the insurance company after the Auckland floods. This is a 31,000L Aqua Tank, new they go for $4,549 and I picked it up for $750. Bargain. I tried being responsible and got quotes to move it to my place, but at $650 and $1200 for transport that was gonna blow the budget seriously. The guy I bought it off had a little digger so armed with my trusty transport trailer, purpose built timber cradle and a “she’ll be right” attitude, we loaded it up last Sunday. I decided to wait a few days for the weather to settle, whacked on some wide load markers and headed off at 3:30am in the morning to avoid traffic and other things. In the end the trip was uneventful, the load was very secure and I got to drive down the road with a flashing orange light on my roof. Hopefully the dent will pop out.. while the tank is on its side I’ll jump inside and try to jack it out as I don’t know if the water will force it out.. anyone have any better ideas?

Mine is a 1975 Firebird with what I assume is a later model front on it.. tail lights too? I wouldn’t have a clue sorry, all I know is I like it regardless of it being a bit of a mongrel. I’m looking forward to spending some time on it over the next couple of weeks and taking it for a drive.

Agreed, its been sitting around under a tarp for a couple of years not going anywhere due to the guy having an unfortunate accident with a skid steer running over him and fucking his back up, so low cars are off the books for him now.

Thats perfect!

Well, figured I’d just add to this post.. I seem to change cars pretty regular so will see how a combined thread works out for me.. probably more efficient as opposed to me actually owning and keeping a car. Since my life direction changed earlier in the year I decided working on the Mustang and sinking 10’s of thousands of dollars into getting it onto the road wasn’t on my horizon, so selling and freeing up some cash for the shed build would be much smarter.. few months went by, lots of offers on all sorts of tempting things were thrown at me even though a straight sale was preferable.. got close on doing a deal on a 96 Corvette but the guy backed out, then a guy contacted me about this thing. Made an executive decision that doing a swap on this was a good idea.. reason being rego on hold and only needing a couple of things for a WOF.. he always wanted another Mustang in this shape so the deal was done. Towed it down to a little place called Kaweka, had a good chat with a nice guy who is into his cars. He has 3 mid eighties Camaro’s, and is a fan also of 55 Desoto’s with a nice example out back. Anyway, I feel there may be a few more than just a “couple of things” to do on the Pontiac, but I like it a lot, plan is to sell it once it’s on the road (we’ll see) so let the journey begin on (yet) another new car chapter haha. Goodbye Mustang.. Hello Pontiac.. Trans am conversion and honeycomb mags for the win. Is a factory 400 but sporting a Vortec 350 currently. Needs a damn good tidy up..

Thanks man.. yea I had this idea a few years ago at my last place when we had a few sitting out the back of our yard at work, but they were only 1.5m out of the ground when I did those. I'm always looking at random shit and trying to work out what I can use it for, so I'm happy I came across some more for sale so I could do it again only betterer.. they create a bit of a statement when you drive up to the gate that's for sure.

Ideal!!

This has been a long time coming for myself.. been through a few tough and challenging times in the last couple of years and I decided now is the time in my life to establish a foundation for me, and for my kids to come back to when they need to. Soo.. this thread isn’t going to be full on (like with my cars), I’ll add to it when something interesting gets done, but I’ll be trying to set myself up to be as self sufficient as I can and simplify my life in the process if that’s at all possible. Where do I start? The front gate of course!.. I picked up a whole lot of 2nd hand fence posts off the company that built my gate, bit of a waterblast and they came up pretty clean. Also got hold of a couple of wharf post offcuts, these are about half a metre in diameter and 4m long.. only cost me $20 each cos the guy thought they weren’t treated.. didn’t worry me either way, but shit they’re heavy. I got 3 on my trailer and that was it. Drilled and hand rammed all the posts along the front boundary. Waiting for my fence rails to turn up hopefully in a week or so then I can finish it off. Decided to get a guy in to dig the holes for the gate posts.. thank fuck I did cos these holes are 1.6m deep and about 600mm wide. Saved so much time as well. Had dad with me helping with this as they’re up this way for a visit from down south. So grateful for his help/patience/advise.. he’s in his 70’s and still going strong.. got the gate hung and it all worked out rather well. Was thinking I’d need to cut the posts down, but when they dropped in the hole they looked great so will leave them and probably make some kind of metal/copper cap to protect the exposed end.

Check my thread (below).. I fitted load hogs and am really happy with how it tightened up the rear along with air shocks

yea, the original gauges needs to be taken out of the housing with this digital circuit board mounted at the front.

These instructions for a 91-92 Camaro show more.. might need to have a closer look what’s going on there

Yea I believe it was all up and running.. it’s in km/h as well so I reckon it’s been special ordered from the states.. just surprisingly there’s only 3 or so wires coming out the back