1963 AP5

And this week it is............... Boring routine maintenance Changed oil and filter, checked plugs and points etc. Took it for a drive after maintenance and found that the fuel gauge was acting up. It intermittently flicks to full scale while driving. I thought I may have disturbed a connection during maintenance activities but after checking and cleaning connections the problem persisted. I figured the sender unit must be the culprit so I measured the resistance of the sender with a meter and made a sender unit substitute from some resistors that I had lying around. I fitted the dummy resistance in place of the sender and the gauge sat nicely around half scale. Took it for a good drive and the gauge was perfect so that confirms the sender unit is crook. Will need to remove it sometime and see if it can be repaired.

That's an amazing car you have there, I understand that the group 3 cars are quite rare. Australian Muscle Car Magazine did a full feature on a similar car (issue 89) If you are interested I will scan the full article for you

Update on the work I did a couple of weeks ago. Archers Auto Springs took one and a half inches of camber out of the leaf springs for me I installed new eye bushes while the springs were out Modified front mud flaps to prevent them dragging on the ground at new ride height And all back together The ride height has dropped about an inch which doesn't seem like much but I think the car looks much better a little lower. I expect it may drop just a little more as the springs settle.

That is a real shame! Kicking myself for not stopping by pick a part this week to check the car was still there, I could have saved you the trip down. They actually had several of those V6 Mazda's in there when I looked a couple of weeks ago but only one of them had the engine you are after.

Oh bugger I nearly went down to double check mid week as well but thought that it wouldn't be scrapped that quickly. Let me know if you have any luck at zebra I can lend a hand today.

I know fouling of #6 can be a symptom of timing issues. 6 runs hottest and can be prone to pre-ignition/poor combustion if the timing curve is not correct. Vac advance modifies the mechanical advance curve and if it's pulling too much in the mid range maybe it's contributing to the problem. Like cletus I have had to disconnect the vac advance on a modified engine because it just wouldn't run properly with it connected, that engine also carbon fouled #6 and that's actually what prompted me to suggest disconnecting it.

I might need to stop by work briefly first thing tomorrow morning but free after that, could probably be there by 10:00. 5th is good if you decide to do it next weekend.

I think it is very unlikely that you are over-carbed with a stock style 2 barrel on a slant 6 and the fact that things are OK at wide open throttle suggests that the carb size is just fine for your engine. Maybe try running it with your vac advance disconnected and the port on the carburetor blanked off or even try knocking the timing back a few degrees. Slant 6's make a fair bit of manifold vacuum and at part throttle you will almost certainly be pulling vac advance . This could be contributing to the part throttle problem while at wide open throttle the vac advance shouldn't be active. Not sure if it will make any difference but it's very easy to try.

This part wasn't in the original plan but somehow @Kiwibirdman convinced me that it needed to happen. Out with the rear leaf springs The good people at Archers Auto Springs are dropping them about an inch and a half. Should make for a more acceptable ride height.

@bigfoot I believe you have already volunteered for this and I am sure @Threeonthetree would help round up a few Auckland members for a Pick a Part mission. I just noticed this while looking at the photos again, maybe whoever removed the distributor wasn't as careful as they should have been and damaged this cap. Funny how I didn't notice it when I was looking at the actual engine yesterday. Probably no big deal but I wish people were more careful when removing bits at Pick a Part, you never know hat the next dude is going to want.

Van Van it is then, see you there.

Van Van or Valiant? What to do.........

Also installed the new door seals this weekend. These have been sitting on my work bench for months so it's about time. I removed the old seals and was very happy to find all the sheet metal in good condition. New seals fitted and looking way tidier.

I started the weekend by doing some laundry............. Take sheepskin seat covers Risk marital disharmony by soaking in suitably sized container Stir around a little until water turns this delightful colour MMMMMMMM YUMMY! And outside to dry in the sun

So it seems I made that age old mistake of driving the car before it is actually finished so several jobs on the original to do list haven't happened. Did install an important accessory on the rear windscreen today. This weekend I am going to make a committed effort to install the new door seals that have been sitting on my work bench for at least a month.

A big effort last weekend to have the car ready for this weeks OS monthly social in Auckland First I completed reinstalling all the exterior trim Then in went the quarter glass Then in went the side window glass and window regulators (kind of hard to photograph glass but trust me it's in there) And finally on went the repaired door cards, door handles and window winders Still a bit of work to be done to cross all of the jobs off the list but at least it's on the road again. Looking forward to the Auckland OS meet on Wednesday!!

Mine was a Christchurch car as well so it is certainly possible, the photo was taken at my folks place in New Brighton.

It would have been amazing if you had found it. Probably good it's not the same car because if it was I would have had to drag it out of that paddock and restore it. My wife would not be impressed! Interesting that the plates are so close, could the two cars have come off the assembly line together?

My first car was a Skoda although ever so slightly newer than yours. It was a great little car, wish I still had it!

Yea man call an OS working bee, it will be social and cool. Pick a part adventures are always fun.

Slow progress this week as I was kind of distracted by the awesome event that is Gumboot Rally, I did however manage to get the front door cards finished off. Some of the stitching was kind of rotten so I tried out the sewing skills that I learned in 3rd form home economics. Then reattached the vinyl to the cards and fitted some replacement trim clips in place of the original items that were mostly lost or in poor condition. All fixed and looking good

The car is back from the painter and it feels like I am on the home stretch now. New weather belts and door seals have arrived from Australia. There was a little light surface rusting in the area where the weather belts fit into the tops of the doors so I carefully cleaned it up and gave it a couple of coats of paint for protection. Before After I also started fiddling around with the exterior door trims. I will install the trims with a combination of original and new trim clips as appropriate for each piece of trim. Getting all the clips installed in the correct position is actually kind of tricky so some patience will be required.

Been thinking about a Valiant convoy to nationals. Pretty sure an AP5 Safari would be the ideal flagship for such an adventure.

A very quick update this week All the panel repairs are complete and ready for paint Now all we need is some decent weather in Auckland so paint can happen, a big ask this time of year

Hope you can make it @MatteybeanI will bring the wagon so you can check out the Weber conversion I was telling you about last month. Reckon something like that would work well on your 3.3.