chasinthemirage

Looking good! OS working bee to "decorate" the ramp?

I've got no idea on where to source parts for one of these things sorry man, I'm sure there will be someone here who has an idea though. If you can't get NOS or repro bushes I've used small bits of heater hose before. It'll depend on the style of arm and bush though.

Swoon. No whitewalls I reckon. Also if you haven't done it yet, replace all the gear linkage bushes if you can get them. I haven't got experience with Mazda column shifts but I had a nightmare with my Zephyr and my Kingswood until I replaced the bushes, you're forever trying to take up the play otherwise and fixing an issue with selecting one gear seems to create one with another.

Thanks guys, just been reading on the internet that it can cause issues with aluminum so wanted to make sure. Yeah thought I'd posted it in tech spam, sorry!

Finally got my VL churbo back together and I've encountered a problem I haven't faced before. I need to mix some coolant up but we have chlorine in our water now, what do you fellas who've had chlorinated water for awhile do? Am I best to just buy some distilled water from Repco etc?

@AllTorque choice thanks m8!

Getting my VL sorted so I can put it up for sale, the trip meter & odometer have packed up (surprise surprise). Is this going to be an issue come wof time? It's petrol so I'm not cheating the government out of any RUC's so I can't see any reason it'd be an issue? Edit: the speedometer and all other gauges still work.

@Postie 14x7 tridents with 245/50R14 Eagers. According to the declaration paper anyway, I never put tyres on the car.

@Postie I have seen a few patch panels for the Zephyrs on trademe but I've never looked into them anywhere else. Les has done a few of the cars in the club and everyone speaks very highly of his work so he's been taking care of all the repairs. I'm sure that anything can be recreated if someone is skilled enough!

Yeah that's very true. Getting all froffed up thinking about driving it again now haha

We'll see what it's like when its going I guess. I just want something that's enjoyable to drive that can keep up with traffic. Not really that fussed on making lots of power anymore/getting old and boring.

I was originally going to have it built there but I ended up taking it too a place in Kaiapoi as that's what my friend Paul recommended. The cam is a bit more aggressive than I expected though so I may end up swapping it for something a bit milder.

@SOHC next time I'm at my folks I'll dig the clutch out and see if I can find any part numbers on it. Surely there must be off the shelf clutches available for a flathead? @Transom I've never had the heart to abuse this car and certainly won't after having it restored but I'm really looking forward to seeing what the rebuilt motor is like! We're on the same page as far as looks, I've had the springs reset to raise the rear but I think I'll drop it back down again. I've been as far as comparing the size of a Barra and a 2JZ to see how much work they'd be to fit!

With the gearbox sorted I then turned my attention to the clutch and flywheel. The factory flywheel is a cast unit with the clutch recessed into it. They are perfectly fine for normal driving but they have a bit of a reputation for exploding at high rpm. Fortunately for me the hard work has been done here and I was able to buy a custom made flywheel from my friend Paul from the Zephyr club. While it's heavier than the stock flywheel it's the same as what Paul is running in his car and I don't think it will cause any issues. The clutch has had heavier springs fitted to the pressure plate and a Mitsubishi (Lancer/GSR I think?) cover adapted to the Zephyr flywheel so should be well up to any abuse I give it. Yarns go here:

Before I bought this car my folks and I bought another Mk3 which we planned to restore together. It ended up being too far gone but it provided a fair few useful parts, one of them being a spare gearbox which I partially rebuilt. I stripped it and got the fellas at my workplace at the time to check it over. We couldn't really find anything wrong with it apart from the selector linkage bushes so I bought some parts and back together it went.

Same story with the boot, I've seen far worse but we think it may have been parked with the boot exposed to the elements as the seams are a bit crusty. Again we've elected to replace the lower skin as well as the far corners but if I can find a tidier bootlid we'll swap them over as Les is worried that unless we remove the skin entirely we're going to end up chasing rust again within the next few years.

Hey, hi, hello. Time for my yearly update on this thing. This entire thread is 6 or so years out of date so I'll get the bodywork up to date and then go from there. Below is the first of the rust repairs. Overall the doors weren't too bad but we decided to replace the entire lower skin to save it having to do this again in a few years. I've skipped a fair few photos but this gives an idea of the state of the doors and front guards. Can't speak highly enough of the panels that Les has made, they line up amazingly and will require SFA filler.

Had a bloody good time once I got the hang of the gearbox. Thanks for the hospitality fellas!

Keen as for a squizz around Marshlands, thanks for the ride in the Plymouth today! @Carsnz123

Very pleased for you but also super jealous! @Threeonthetree and I have just been discussing how cool Imps are!

A lot of the EFI wizardry sails straight over my head as I've never played around with this stuff but man your updates are interesting, really looking forward to seeing what you do next!

What wasn't the engineer happy with man?

I had a go with the warm water and some lightly glued bits came away just fine and others broke. Probably isn't going to be worth the effort really. It's N gauge, nice and small.

Varies somewhat depending on brand and quality but there's been a few bulk lots on trademe pretty cheap, last lot I saw was $70 for about 10m worth of flexible track.

I can't deny that I'm tempted to just buy some new track, I've got probably 15-20m to clean up.