Kiwibirdman

How low works is more a function of how stiff the suspension is, more than absolute clearance. A very long time ago Hot Rod magazine did an article on a mid 60's Impala that got much uprated springs and shocks while being lowered a couple of inches. In the write up they said that even though the car was lower it didn't bottom out or scrape anywhere near as much as stock. The other thing is longer vehicles will scrap on speed bumps etc if the lowest point is on the middle. The very low HQ ute I had a long time ago never hit driving around but scraped on the hump going in and out the driveway. I had to replace the clamps on the exhaust about once a year because they wore through, which save the rest of the exhaust.

Not unknown for a balance weight to be thrown off the drive shaft. Also Uni's that have sat for a while will be OK to start with then start to wear rapidly. Either one will give the issues you have.

I like it very much, especially since it has a Pontiac engine in it.

Locked in for Sunday 12 March.

Just checked the diary for the proposed first weekend of March and realised that I will be away. All good for the rest of the month at this time.

Over the Christmas break I had great plans of all the work that was going to get done............. The usual things like going away and getting side tracked into working in the garden, sorting out the pool and all the other crap that owning a house and having a family got in the way. Along with a fair bit of socialising, drinking and BBQing. However there was some garage time. Since the last update and being so proud of my bracket to mount the column, I found the last section of the crash pad that goes across the front of the dashboard. When it was fitted I found the column shift hit the crash pad. After a lot of swearing I figured that dropping the column 10 mm would give the necessary clearance. I persevered with the mount I had made for about 3 hours and then came up with a much better plan. A new mount that goes under the edge of the dash was made in about 1 hour. At the same time I realised that there is enough space to keep the original shifter arm on the right hand side of the column. The bottom mount has been made and everything fits. It is amazing how much time get consumed making things to fit. Kumeu was very good to me. I needed wiper arms and my mate who was with me found a pair in a box a guy had full of stuff for $2 per item. Out of the same box I got the plastic vents for the demister and a pair of OK door handles. Photos to follow.

I'm in, last time was great. I have a shed (garage under the house) that can be visited. From memory we all chipped in with some food for the BBQ at the end.

Nice work.

I will be there Saturday. I will stop by and see how the heads are after Friday night, last year there were some very slow looking people.

The flowmaster mufflers that have been under my Silverado for the last 9 years fell apart. The tail pipe rusted completely out of one side and the other muffler wasn't far behind. When i climbed underneath for a proper look both were starting to look like Swiss cheese. I had never been super happy with the sound that came out of them, the truck just didn't sound quite right and there was a real drone at 1800 rpm, or 95 kph in top gear. The new mufflers are a straight thru design, much like the magnaflows in the video above and so far I really like the sound. It sounds like a V8 driving around normally, motor way speed is quieter and it awesome when given a boot full. A big win so far. I am not sure that I would bother using the flow masters again.

I like your new cowl induction bonnet. Did you buy it here or get it shipped over from the states?

I spent some time looking at these. I was thinking of ripping the T5 out of the Firebird, getting a Chevy S10 extension housing to move the gear leaver forward and having a manual box. Then the electric power steering would be an option. I've decided to stay with the auto box so a column shift is the only answer and making that work with an electric assist is making things way to difficult right now. If the steering is really heavy I might revisit it later. Heavy steering would keep the wife out of it, all her cars end up with a dent in every corner and most panels. Thanks for the input.

Spent more time on the steering column and now have it in the right place. Dropping the bottom has raised the steering wheel and made more space for my legs to get in. I measured from the top of the wheel to my chest sitting in the car and then did the same in my chev and the distance is the same. Here is the bottom end I still have to make up the bottom mounting plate. Everything has been checked for clearance, spark plug lead, column shift linkage, brake pedal and steering. More cutting is going to be needed for the steering universals and shaft. I going to cut down the input shaft on the rack and have the second uni very close. This will give more space for engine mounts.

Big thanks to Neil (threeonthetree) and his lovely assistants for a top night.

Where did the last 2 months go????? Between work, coming down with a nasty virus and being off work for 2 weeks and still stuffed for the 2 weeks after, kids and life not much has been done. There was also the small matter of destroying the auto in my Silverado ($5k thank you very much) and a week later clutch in the wife's car (another grand) so the piggy bank was well and truly emptied. I have made engine mounts, the drivers side has some funky bends to make space for the steering. I borrowed my brother in laws MIG welder and tacked bits together. It will all get properly welded up by a suitably competent welder. The steering column is mounted at the top complete with the original brake away in place. I thought I had the bottom in the right place until my brother in law cam round and spotted that the number 7 plug lead and the bottom of the column were in the same place. Back to the drawing board........again. Have I ever said how small these cars are???? Photos to follow.

If you have any problems an inline regulator will generally sort it out. The needle in the float bowl on some carbies are unable to stop the fuel above 5 psi and then weird stuff happens.

The hub caps are the correct ones for an HJ. The car this is copied off is an HZ SL Kingswood, which got the full wheel cover type hub cap. The SL also got the rubber inserts in the bumpers, cloths inserts in the seats, silver dash fascia and a clock.

Proof of motivation, 2 updates in 3 days New engine mounting plates made, Of course nothing is easy. There is a boss cast on the block on the passenger side right where the top of the mount needed to go. On the old HQ block I have sitting in the garage it is drilled and tapped, possibly for the rear mount for aircond. Since the one one the VT block was half the height and blank I didn't feel bad about giving it a hair cut with a power file. I had been thinking about the column mounting and have come up with an idea of how to mount picking up on the original point on the dash board and connecting with the torana break away. Here is the early stage of bending and cutting. The flash new Borgesen steering unis arrived. Nice bit of kit and cheaper than the knock off originals sold by rare spares. Shown here slid onto the column

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I will give you a yell when it is time to run the lines under the car. It's a real pain now that it's not sitting on a hoist. I have kept a whole lots of bits that will go into H series Holden. I fell in love with the red WB that popped up on the spotted thread. I'm thinking red, black steelies (already have them) and LS power. Better get this one finished first.

After some contemplation, consumption of alcoholic beverages and a bit of cogitation I thought there has been far to much pain and money gone into this car to give up now. The angle grinder came out and some cuts into the trans tunnel. Spread the top of the tunnel and dropped the engine back into the hole. The gearbox came up and the engine is sitting higher, sump above the cross member. This has created some space so exhausts look like they can fit down beside the block. I stuffed around for a good hour or so figuring out how to mount the steering column, I want to keep all the original breakaway intact for safety and certification. I had some 5mm flat bar and I think that will do. I'm still hopeful that the column shift will work. Amazing how having the car in the garage and having to walk past it a couple of times a day is motivating to get it done.

They look like the semi solid mounts. My plan is to get some 6mm plate and make adapters to the original mounts that move them in close to the block. This will gain me 30 mm of clearance on each side. I will get a bit more space to play with when I cut the tunnel and can lift the motor up about 20mm. I was getting a bit over it the other day and started thinking about selling the rolling body and putting the running gear into a WB Ute.

I took the oil pump and engine mounts off the motor to get it sitting in the right place. There is bugger all space down the passenger side of the engine. And even less on the drivers side. My cunning plan of having a column shift is looking less likely (While I am writing this I thought why not just shorten the whole column and put the cable on the inside of the firewall). The trans tunnel is going to need some cutting and gentle persuasion to get everything to fit. The motor needs to be higher to get the sump above the cross member. So here we are. I had resigned myself to having a floorshift and wasted a couple of hours on looking at electric power steering options. Apparently the unit out of a Suzuki Swift could be adapted. I also phoned up a guy who advertised a T5 manual with the forward shift, a great plan until he wanted $3500 for it, $2000 more than I would have ever paid. I priced up a brand new TKO 500 from Summit racing. It, is not much more with nearly twice the torque rating.

Today is engine in the hole day First put engine and gearbox together This took 3 goes until the torque converter was properly into the trans. Then move the car over and line up, does it really fit in this little hole???? Nearly there. Managed to drop a whole lot of trans fluid on the floor. Typical, and a little goes a long way. In the hole but not a lot of space. At the risk of sounding like a stuck record these are really small cars especially in the engine bay. The chassis rail at the front will need to be notched to get some clearance. The engine mount adapters are of a VT commodore and put mounts too far apart. Lots of head scratching, contemplating and then cutting and shutting to do. If anyone has any brilliant ideas add them to the discussion.

That cam looks like the business. You should notice a big difference once it's all back together.

Now the car is home there is more motivation to go to the garage and pretend to work on it. I started on getting the brake booster mounted. Figure out about where is should be, there will be space if I take the spring off the hinge. The clutch pedal will become the brake pedal , I funky bend with the pad off the commodore pedal and all will be good. Before I got too carried away and started cutting more stuff up the motor really had to go into the hole. Off with the commodore sump. All looks nice and clean inside. On with the HQ pickup. Carefully bent to be 10mm off the bottom of the sump. Commodore sump on the left, HQ on the right. Nothing on this car is ever easy, The knock sensor can go on the other side of the motor, I just hope the wiring can be made to work. Other wise the dipstick has to move. Also went to bolt on the engine mounts, 6 nice new 3/8 UNC bolts with spring washers, all good fo rthe first 2 then the third acted like I stripped the thread. Some genius in Holden decided that the last hole is 7/16. I checked my spare HQ 308 and that is the same.