doullama

On 24/02/2024 at 21:47, crash said:

I there's an old mine cart on a farm I go to occasionally, probably same size. Next time I'm there I'll take some pics. Near Methven, Canterbury. 

Probably, 2 foot was a common gauge for small rolling stock. In the day you could buy pre-made track sets and switches to put together like an oversized model train set! There's a few old industrial wagons out at waikino just sitting on "display" that are begging to be restored and run on the tiny mainline

Note to self - the original motor did 2200 rpm flat tack. Thanks british narrow gauge foamers

You have to love the internet, how else could you find the reduction ratio of the final drive of an obscure british mining locomotive in 2 hours from the comfort of the couch. Ratio is 31:1. Now I just have to measure wheel diameter and I should be able to figure out necessary RPM for 3.1mph/5kph, which is plenty for what it is. In its original form this would pull 16.5 ton on the flat, down to 3.7 ton on a 1:50 grade. I'm hoping to achieve at least 300kg towed at 1:20 or greater, the line at waikino is very steep..

What a brilliant watch, mine will of course be much wetter, crudely shored & poorly lit

18 minutes ago, HighLUX said:

Can you count input turns to output turns to work out ratio? 

Yeah absolutely, though I thought i'd try to find out for idle planning purposes without having to put it on blocks haha. Some barry on one of the narrow gauge pages reckons he has a final drive in pieces and will count the teeth for me, its just a single thread worm drive. Have been looking into 48v forklift motors, pretty cheap secondhand and they look similarly sized to the original motor. 

I'm in the market for another malaise-era yank car, I'm undecided whether I want a swb g10 windowless chev van or a mid 80's oldsmobile cutlass (like a plusher grand national imo). Anyone have any advice on that generation of box-body 2 door gm cars? I did have a 4 door olds 98' and it was lovely. I do know to try stay clear of vinyl roof/landau tops on them. Later ones are smog-305, earlier ones 350 which would certainly be preferred.

17 hours ago, RUNAMUCK said:

Did I sell you a datsun 1200 coupe in Christchurch in the early 2000s?

Cos i sold some kid my 1200 back then. And the next time i saw it, it had SLAYER spray painted on the side of it.

Not me, but i'm fairly sure it was mandatory at the time for each town to have one vehicle with "SLAYER" sprayed onto it in a local park by obnoxious baked teenagers at midnight

Cheers gents, that would explain the bits of steel tube in the bolt-holes, to overcome a previous owners lack of shouldered bolts! will get some hub-rings also

@azzurro & @Sunbeam can I please beg some wheel info? I have a set of 13"x6" +30 wards in 4x98 I wish to fit to my lada, I have test fitted one and can see I will need longer wheelbolts. what I am concerned about is the hub fitting - the lada steel wheels have a centrebore of roughly 58mm and the wards are roughly 65, they do conveniently have the little holes for the mounting tabs. Will I need a hub ring/spigot ring or is it not so important on these cars? Chur.

Also I ordered some bits from lada moscow on the 14/8 which turned up today and look good, I thought prices & shipping were pretty reasonable (got hatch struts, pair of rear wheel cylinders, front pads & a radiator cap) Though sending cc deets to russia was inherently scary haha

@kws please accept my humble apologies for not getting back to you re marina bumpstops, I had a cursory look and can guarantee I have at least one. I see you may be in need of some other bits & pieces, I'm in putaruru (south waikato) and you would be more than welcome to have a sift through my assortment of marina parts if its not too far from home for you - save my next of kin from some of the hassle of dumping them someday. from rough memory I have 4 front doors, 2 of which are in great cond with black mk3 cards, maybe a whole mk3 diff/spring assy and driveshaft? A decent looking radiator, mk3 bumpers? lots of headlights including a pair of 7" lucas spotlights with lucas covers which would look great on your coupe, knowing lucas they probably put out 0.5 lumens, providing they still contain the vital smoke. Plus multiple bins of random crap/treasure - all sorts of small parts, mainly from mk3 wagon or mk2 commercial.

On 25/05/2021 at 13:25, johno said:

hey ya bud, funny I now have this panelvan . Interesting to see the behind the scenes with your blog.

308,  th400 and going strong.

Oh choice mate, I saw a while ago it was spotted during certification for the 8. Great to hear its still getting about, you will probably have to sort the RH sill and rear quarter one day - did the left hand side but let sleeping dogs lie on the other! Pretty good van compared to most - not that there are many left, and it is solid in/around the roof where they usually rust out. I would like to personally apologise for the shithouse paintjob, thats totally on me haha

started up the scooter as its coming into scooter-season, decided to do something about the non-functioning headlight. The voltage reg is stuffed so a regular bulb blows in .03 seconds, as the scooter is obscure the value of said reg exceeds the value of scooter. Had heard LED's were more bullshit voltage tolerant so cut the casing off a 240v worklamp and shoved it in there - great success. Will be sure to take pictures if/when it catches fire

Anyone know much about older commodore utes? Am looking at getting a series III (01') VS to replace my AU wagon (obviously it doesn't need replacing, just bored of unrelenting reliability and class-leading style + want a year long wof) . Its ecotec 3.8, I know the automatics don't last forever but any other pitfalls for new players? Rust spots to look out for etc? Chur

Those Bissell cleaners are awesome, you'll be amazed at how much filth comes out of an apparently clean piece of cloth upholstery with one. I reckon it would work on the headliner well too 

My AU wagon does not and has never had a towbar - still has the little detachable plastic panel where the bar would go. Who buys a new falcon and doesn't fit a towbar! I'd go get one but a towbar from the wreckers would exceed the value of the car

Sorted that lot out, just need to present it for a wof now. Enjoy a tour of the block

I believe it was buried in here: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2011/0079/latest/DLM2938301.html . However they didn't read it, they just saw my sheaf of official looking paper and realised I was there to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and hear the lamentations of their women

Also to potentially regale them with the development history of the ADO28