siren676

Anyone know if most of the kei truck diffs are the same size? Wanting to get an lsd for the minicab but the only one i can find specifically for it is about $1500 from japan.
From my research i have found that u61/62 t/w/v minicab/town box and u71/72 t/w/v clipper are the same but hoping i can find something cheaper that fits. Last resort is getting another open and letting someone at it with a welder.

Also want to get a tachometer to see just how high its revving on the motorway, hoping a town box cluster fits and might work with a repin to retain a factory look

Got some new 165/60-14's for the Minicab then went on a pickapart raid to find a seat belt stalk to suit, 97 Mazda Capella one matched up perfect.

Hauls a surprising amount of weight around, did a dump run and tipped the scales at 1230kg.

On 21/12/2019 at 20:42, Flash said:

Looks like some models came out with steering boxes, but other models have steering racks. Haven't been able to establish when this change occurred. Anyone know ?

For stuff like this i use partsouq to look through the oem parts catalogues, might be worth a look if you have a few hours

Is all in the plans, already got a heap of gib here already, if needing more could always make a flat deck for it or as you say make a ladder rack system.

Back on the hunt for a cheap kei truck, the gf wants something to pick up house renovation parts with and it'd be handy to carry the bikes around.
Had a couple of leads on carrys so far just hard to get people to answer their phones

Spent a couple hours making a new face plate/mounting plate for it today.
Much happier with it now.

Decided to bite the bullet and get a Retrosound Hermosa out of the states.
The build quality is amazing and its really easy to use.
Control knobs didn't have dimensions when i ordered it so are a little on the big side.
Going to make a proper fascia for it to mount securely on and let me move the control knobs outwards but that's pretty easy.
Need to find some fine corrugated ally or stainless sheet from a hobby store.

Borrowed the brake flaring tool from work and made up some lines to relocate the brake proportioning valve from beside to under the master cyl for more itb clearance.

Fitted slightly bigger brakes (255mm front, 250mm rear) off an NA8 MX5 along with braided lines, new pads and rotors.
Car stops on a dime now and the handbrake has a lot more bite.

More progress.

Got a Suzuki Cappuccino washer bottle to replace the stock one as the stainless headers were boiling the washer fluid straight out.

Started building my custom center console, will be sealed with fiberglass/epoxy then covered in leather and stainless steel.

Finally got the guts to take the car out drifting.
Went to a drift day at the new Evergreen drift track at Meremere. Car had no problems throughout the day and the super short gearing worked perfect for the tight track.
Unfortunately only took down a pair of skid wheels which i went through in 45mins track time so i have a boot mounted tyre rack in the works for next time.
 

Sounds like a reason for a road trip, if i haven't found anything up here by the end of the month i might just scrape some more money together and give you a proper offer.

His ones cool! Unfortunately a little outside my budget at the moment, lost out on the $2k one on trademe

Looking to get a kei truck in the very near future, just missed out on a cheap carry on trademe.
Figure it'll be decent on gas to get to work while i do engine work on the mx5 and loads of space for pickapart/zebra runs.

Anyone know of a cheap road worthy one near Auckland?

St hitec in silvia park road? Couple of the mx5 guys had their cars tuned there

Haha small world

Time for an update on mods and parts hoarding.

Got some new gauge faces with rescaled speedo to be accurate with the 4.778 diff, now only reading 2% high.

Entered into 4&Rotary show at asb showgrounds, car club convinced me to fit the S2 Racing front end in time for the show.
Unfortunately it sits too low and would get destroyed for daily use so took it off until i figure out some sort of air raiser setup.

Designing and collecting parts to redo the interior, making a new center console, radio surround and cluster cover.

Also have started to piece together an itb setup.

And just this weekend installed a new 272° intake cam to suit the n/a route im taking along with a BFMR rocker cover, Maruha cam gears and a catch can.

And mandatory idle video

On 6/15/2018 at 17:38, pbaines said:

brilliant!! still single phase right?

Can confirm these are single phase, just have the bigger 15a ground pin on the plug

Wow that is so cool, tube radios have always intrigued me.

For that price though i could get a new one of the retrosound or usa-740's i found above. Big want for me is bluetooth for streaming music or taking calls

1 hour ago, AllTorque said:

*video*

Did see those USA 740's and could definitely make one mount in my custom center console.
Also found these RetroSound radios that allow you to pick and choose the fascia and knob styles.
https://www.retromanufacturing.com/products/hermosa-radio-no-knobs-or-mounting-bezel?variant=9316297283

55 minutes ago, peteretep said:

I quite like the looks of these 2, not silver flashy like you wanted exactly, but would fit in nice with a typical mx5

 

I also have one of those crusty aliexpress ones like you have, so garbage, but mine still works OK most of the time

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Continental-TR7412UB-OR-MP3-Autoradio-mit-Bluetooth-USB-AUX-IN/390461224973?hash=item5ae94d780d:g:48oAAOSwRvdZYguO

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Bosch-Dover-USB40-multimedia-24v-car-radio-USB-Aux-input-MP3-iPod-bus-lorry/321425417484?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D50544%26meid%3D2c3c3980c93d41e7896febb580ab0e8f%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D7%26sd%3D390461224973%26itm%3D321425417484&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

Those aren't too bad(well the bosch is 24v and near $600 ), but i'm aiming for a 60/70's look and they don't quite suit what im planning.

Looks like i'm going to need to do some planning how to actually do this, was hoping to keep a semi functional headunit for controls/buttons/volume (more legal than trying to change track/volume on phone).

Found this from the states but its still a little too modern looking.
https://www.classiccarstereos.com/din-size-usa-4-cd-radio-chrome-face.html

Nah this car never came with one as it was a bare shell, also the stock radios look too modern for my liking.

Have considered retrofitting a 70's AM/FM faceplate with modern internals hidden behind it but my electrical knowledge is getting a bit stretched.

Need something that'll suit this style of center console.

And tie in with my speedo cluster

Redoing the interior in my mx5 and am trying to find a vintage styled DIN radio but with modern features like bluetooth, usb and aux

Got one of these off aliexpress and it worked about as well as you'd expect, smoke started to come out after 5 mins, very poor audio quality although bluetooth actually worked.

Anyone seen something along those lines?

http://www.cargister.com/calculator-gear-ratio

It's an interesting calculator to play with, my 3rd gear is now shorter than my 2nd gear with the old 5spd with 4.1 diff was

Cant really run a taller tyre without major guard clearancing, current tyres barely clear the front and rear of the arch on lock. Also my entire wheel collection are 14's

Ratios on the new setup are pretty nice, really need to have a go on track and let it stretch its legs to see what it gets to.

Or need a higher top speed than 196k's

I think I've accidentally built a good n/a grip racing car instead of drift