chasinthemirage

This has probably been asked before so my apologies for the repeat. I have bought a car which has been retrofitted with a factory turbocharged engine and needs cert. When it goes for cert for the engine conversion will they also certify the wheel size and the ride height? Can I certify the engine and then lower it and fit aftermarket mags later or will this require another cert? Thinking I may be best to spend the coin at the start and do wheels and suspension at the same time? Also on a side note, if I cert the car on 16x8's for instance and then decide I want to change the look of the car and fit 18's, is this legal or can I get fined/stickered etc as the wheels are a different size to what's printed on the cert plate?

I'm interested too, very cool looking wagon.

I've taken photos of a few cars there, the photos of my old chevy were taken in the same spot.

Nothing too exciting to report. Changed the oil this weekend and then got called out just as I'd removed the oil filter. Gave it a wash and took a few photos. Discuss here. Or don't. You're all adults, make your own choices.

Replaced the left hand control arm this weekend as the outer ball joint was absolutely rooted. As it turns out the control arm was a right hand arm fitted to the left hand side. The control arms on these things are handed which probably explains why the joint was so bad. At first glance the arms look the same but the ball joints are a few degrees off being parallel with the face of the inner bushes. I had trouble photographing it but if you look closely you can see where it looks like the stud has worn into the control arm. I pressed new bushes into both arms and fitted the new arm to the car. I thought the swaybar bushes were ok but on closer inspection they need to be replaced so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to grab a set from Enford. Still need to change the oil and wire up the horns and then I think I'll move this thing on as things haven't quite worked out the way I'd planned and I'd like to free some money up for other things. Yarns here:

Yep sure am, too many trucks in the yard so been parked on the street this week

I haven't done too well at photographing progress on this thing as it's my daily and I'm usually just trying to get the job done with as little fuss as possible but I made sure I got photos of the panel repairs. When I bought the car it had a big square dent with a tear below it in the sill. I don't know for sure but I suspect that it fell off a jack at some point and punched in the sill. Initially the panel beater thought the dent could be pulled out and a small patch welded in but unfortunately there was some rust on either side of the dent so we bit the bullet and cut the lot out. I stupidly didn't take a before photo but I'm very pleased with the quality of the repair and it's nice to know there's steel there and not just bog! I still need to fit the chrome trim to the sill and then that's one more thing off the list. Discuss here:

Fixed

Looking forward too seeing this slammed, such a cool looking car! Can't get Cheviots or something for it instead?

Spent a few hours this weekend sorting out the suspension. When I bought the car it was pretty low and as it turned out the front springs weren't captive. They may well have been "V8 Falcon coils" as per the declaration paper but whatever they were they'd certainly been cut. I ordered a set of Cobra lows, P/N CFFL23 which are 40mm lower than standard. The lowering springs are about 10cm longer than the cut springs which makes the cut springs close to half the length of a factory spring. Took the struts to work and had the springs swapped pretty quickly. Struts went back in without too much drama and I removed the 2" blocks from the rear to even the ride height out. I trimmed the U bolts as they hung lower than I was comfortable with so they'll need to be replaced if I have to put the blocks back in to get a wof but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Haven't measured the front ride height yet but I suspect it's come down more than 40mm due to the extra weight of the engine. Pretty stoked with how it sits now, nice wee bit of rake and it rides a hell of a lot nicer now that it's not hitting the bump stops over every bump.

Bruh. Loving the progress you're making on this. Looks so so good!

Original shocks in the back, it's got override springs but I'm not sure whether the springs have been reset

Honestly mate if you're interested I'd be happy to part with it. It's got captive springs in the front now but I've found it needs a ball joint. I've got no attachment to it unlike my other one so if I'm going to end up having to do more work on it I'd rather put the effort into my other one

It has blocks in the rear but I suspect reset springs to. According to the declaration it has "V8 Falcon coils" but whatever they are they've been cut and aren't captive. I have some Cobra lowering springs to put in this weekend, their meant to be 40mm lowering springs but I think it'll be a little lower due to the extra weight of the engine. I'll stick some pictures up once their in. I love the quad headlight zodiac grill though. Have thought about fitting one to a Zephyr many a time.

Me too, my old man had a Zephyr in his younger days. I'm too poor for a Zodiac haha

Discuss my wee accident here...

So I did something dumb, I bought another Zephyr. I bought a VL churbo wagon that turned out to be a turd so I flicked it after a few weeks and was looking for a tidy 5L VL and then this turned up on the tard. I had a couple of goes at organising to have a look at and got mucked around so I gave up and forgot about it. Came back from a holiday with no reception and discovered that the seller had dropped the asking price significantly. Finally managed to have a look at it and ended up buying it. Its running a 302 Windsor with a C4 and an 8" diff. Modified in 1992 and on declaration form not cert. I've had it for nearly two months now and so far I've had the left hand rear sill section replaced, made and installed a speedo cable, recored the heater, replaced the brake booster, rebuilt the carby and reset the massively retarded timing as well as a bunch of other fiddly little things. Doesn't sound like that much when I write it down but everything's been one step forward and two steps back so far, if I'd had any idea how much I was going to have to do to it I never would have bought it but them's the breaks I guess. I haven't taken many photos so far as it's gotten to the stage where I just want to get the thing going but I think I'm on the home stretch now, have new springs to go in it this weekend and then touchwood I'll be able to take it for a decent drive and take a few photos.

Fingers crossed it can be removed, I don't know exactly what the booster is out of so don't fancy sourcing another one. Will remove it and go from there I suppose...

@flyingbrick I bought a couple of chapters last night too, quite impressed with it really. As I need to lengthen the pushrod it looks like my only option aside from squeezing an OE booster back in (which will prevent the rocker cover being removed/ may not even actually fit ) is to have an engineer turn up a 1 piece pushrod. Provided the pushrod is one piece, constructed from suitable material and its diameter is appropriate to it's length I think this will be acceptable? First time I've dealt with this sort of thing so its all a bit confusing.

Bummer. I had a feeling that I'd seen this somewhere before. The car has a declaration form not LVVTA Cert so maybe welded was okay back in the day? Both pushrods are almost the same size so screwing them into each other isn't really an option. I've had a look on the LVVTA site but will have to purchase the relevant section of the Construction manual as the LVVTA website says to refer to that. Why do I do this to myself?!

Does anyone have a copy of the New Zealand Car Construction Manual? I'm looking for the requirements for a modified brake pedal pushrod. My car has had the booster changed when the engine was swapped as the OE booster wouldn't clear one of the heads on the new motor. The original pedal end of the pushrod has been butt welded to the end of the Mitsi booster. It's been that way for 20 something years but looking at the weld without a sleeve or anything on it gives me the shits. What are the requirements for a modified pushrod? Does it need to be sleeved and plug welded or do I need to have a one piece pushrod turned by someone?

More than likely! I have heard stories of him running Zephyr motors at redline to see what would fail first and then working on improving whatever let go. Hmm, will be interesting to see how it goes. Head has been ported but I have no idea how much more mixture it may flow compared to a factory head. Will be interesting to experiment with different induction setups and see what it likes.

Been flat out the last couple of weeks so haven't had a chance to update this. Installed the pointer I bought and found that the bolt hole I was using as a reference point was pretty well spot on. Warmed the motor up and set the timing to 10-12 degrees advance with the vacuum unit disconnected. Runs a million times better now, accelerates without missing/flames etc so actually driveable now. Still haven't got any photos as my phone's having spazz. Few more things to do once it comes back form the panel beaters and then maybe I'll actually be able to go for a decent drive. Thanks for the help everyone.

Pretty sure it's just a pointer. Hasn't turned up today so I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

Sorry should have made myself clearer, #1 at TDC but not #1 valves on the rock.