doullama

And today, was a good sharn/tow expedition

Some old pics from its heyday (I think around 04-05)

Better start at the start I suppose. At the tender age of 17 I bought a 1977 Austin-Morris 10cwt (ok, its a marina) from some barry in rukuhia for $1200. 4k motor, 5sp, disc front, air shocks rear, certed in 94'. Had it for around 7 years, and had a blast in, on & around it. Painted it repeatedly, and had to fix everything on it myself as my beer, ciggy and tinny budget was tight. Sold it to a mate of mine, he ran it for around 2 years until the intake gasket went, it then went on a suburban lawn & had the windscreen pinched for a marina ute, which was the last I had seen or heard of it, so assumed it had become poor quality refrigerators. Caught up with the mate on facebook, hadn't spoken in years. Asked him about the vans fate, turns out it had been shedded with the rego on hold since a few weeks after I last saw it, and would I like it back? Apparently the footwells were now pretty rusty etc. Was pretty keen for nostalgia's sake, so sold the 48' superpoise to make space. Went to have a sharn & pick it up today, was pleasantly suprised by it's condition. The fancy paint job ain't so fancy anymore, but the van is still very solid. footwells only have rust on pass. side around one of the drain-holes, and where the old (now discarded) toyota seat reinforcing plate sat against the floor. Came with heaps of parts, i'd given the guy a good cond but woefully hopeless mk3 marina estate at the time I last saw the van, he'd dismantled it for anything useful, so should have just about everything to put back together, and then some! His kids had been using it as a playhouse, they've painted the inside rear of the van with clouds, rainbows, dinosaurs etc, I think i'll leave it as it'll be brilliantly creepy. Also found my marlboro lighter that had been m.i.a for a decade haha To do: -patch pass. floorpan, clean & paint entire floor & underside (cbf dependant, doesn't look too bad.) -chuck driver door on, was removed to make it easier to push haha -few dents to beat n bog -new sprayjob, colour to be determined, probably black again for nostalgia -jam in one of the windscreens, even has good rubber -hook the rear brakes back up, he had planned to put the estate diff in as its taller, however its marina stud pattern (4x95?) and I wanna keep my cheviot 6x14's. -set tappets, bolt on exhaust & intake manifolds -new fluids etc etc ETC, get er running -brakes, bearings etc if needed -wof & escapades -presumed death by piano -

Still better than a mondeo - fact

I especially enjoy the 4th to third downshift, chugachuga *clutch* vroom *clutch* *crunch* ROOROOoooOoooo etc haha

Haha was wondering if you'd hear it whining by

am making up for lost time by driving her everywhere, regardless of need to go anywhere! Am driving it to its new owner north of Hamilton next week, am looking forward to it. The people stuck behind me may not enjoy it so much however. Am planning to travel putaruru-te awamutu via arapuni, to pirongia, whatawhata, ngaruawahia. Will be bringing my finest tartan thermos, and a boom-box with "rule britannia" crudely & repeatedly dubbed onto cassette. Put the sides on tonight, man they're heavy for what they are, must be iron-bark or some such. I like to think the attention i've given her will help on her quest to outlive the nation of israel. Can hardly wait to start dredging 2003-era double brown out of the walls of this old marina of mine, still need to go check it out, determine whether its saveable, and if so determine whether to drag it home and diy or take it to a financial rape-dungeon for the inevitable flintstone floors etc.

Commer update! Swapped the v8 one above for an 86 Isuzu NKR light truck, went to a guy in te awamutu who is far more motivated than myself. Had some big vehicular news, caught up with the guy who I sold my 1st car to, last time I saw it it was sitting on a lawn with no windscreen 13? years ago, and I assumed It had dissolved, a reasonable assumption as 70s leyland product. No, its been in a shed with reg on hold since about a week after I saw it, and would I like it back, free on the proviso I return it if I get bored with it? Sure! The car is of course, a 4k-powered, 5 speeded, disc braked, woefully inadequate windowless marina panelvan. Thinking that two british cars is probably two too many, I put Tori's ex commer (aka the os commer) up for sale and was swamped with interest. Guy from waimiha was first to view and said he'd take it. I offered to take it for a wof to see what it needed, flew through with a clean sheet this morning, so got a years cheap reg too. Am now hoping the guy won't get back to me (hasn't so far so I can enjoy 3 months or so of legal commer action haha, so this saga may or may not be continued...

It cannot be stoppedThe train is fueled by chopped bodiesFilled with sorrowThere is no tomorrowTicket is your lifeEnded by a knifeCalled the murder trainEternity of painOh yeah, you know what I'm talking aboutThere is no escape but deathYour life is justA murder train a-comin Nice job on the cab! My condolences on being shanghaied into railways lyf.

Got another Q also, it can be jammed in this thread too. 1943 Karrier superpoise, has an hq front subframe and a very nice cab & chassis. Is declared for 350/th350/9", but has 253/trimatic/bw78. Actually drives really nicely, but realistically it will probably be easier/cheaper to return it to 350ci etc than cert it as is. All i've done so far to it is rig up a choke, jam an air filter on it and swap out the plugs, just for ease of starting/moving round the property etc. Will probably tart up the body and interior and when circumstances allow, hand it over to a shop for full drivetrain conversion.

Tortron was kind enough to make me a discussion thread, you can provide me with personalised or generic abuse here: Update time! Dulux rebuild almost finished, just the chassis from cab forward to go. Actually looks ok for $2 shop brushes wielded by a man high on paint fumes. Painting a vehicle with a brush is very therapeutic, so much less hassle than spraying. No point pushing the boat out on this one! Wasn't going to paint the whole body but by the time i'd painted all the ex-rusty bits, chips etc etc it was looking pretty patchy. Also got all the lights & the wiper going, various blown bulbs/bad earths & so on. Found the diff appears to be minus any sort of breather, will rectify & see if it helps with the leaky axles, as they don't seem to leak while stationary. Fell through one of the running boards so replaced them both with some leftover decking, as you do

Sorry @tortron completely missed this! I'm rather enamoured with the old girl, was just having a durry/lurking in it earlier. I have so missed having a british car! Looked pretty ott with its pinstripey mini-mack stz, quite like its battle-worn, sun-matted appearance and am trying to keep the repainting to a minimum, just the cab scuttle/screen surround/roof and the underside. It's quite funny reading the notes about painting the underside back in the 90s etc "Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" The karrier also came with stacks of spares so now have a reasonably ridiculous stash, good window rubbers & interior trim etc too which will be handy. Have been talking to a dude down in new plymouth who has a 202/trimatic one, he has a rebuilt crashbox & a couple of dizzys, regulators etc going spare (and handily available at the gentleman's price of a box) so i'll get myself down there at some juncture. Pretty keen on wof-ing the commer and hacking about in it, been a bit busy/lazy to take it down but i'll get there. Karrier is sweet but can wait for a rainy year haha. If you're ever down this way feel free to drop by for some quality commersation

Should be decodable from the spid in the glovebox (if its survived)

just chuck the year/make/model into google, should tell you precisely what the gvm is, cutoff is 3500kg all up?? pretty heavy anyway, and doubt there'd be a special uprated version of the sub, can only fit so much in em/mpv of the 70s

You might be alright, my 70' c15 (8 stud) was only a 3/4 tonner, was coils all round. they went to leaf in 72' probably up-rated the load a bit, and being an empty box for the most part were lighter than most sedans of the time. Good truck/van/wagon thing, nice to drive and quite nimble for what it was

Sounds about right, being on an english truck from 1943 it can either start leaking its share of oil or gtfo

Thanks so much for the help!

ah yes! the handbrake linkage looks spot on, redrilled falcon it must be. I had a geez under the neighbours warhorse EL which looked quite different, that bf looks more like it, probably explains electric doohickey/future stz etc. edit: probably au, uses the au h/brake bracket

they were bw78 apparently, along with coons, commy's etc. popular with rodders as they were only 1435mm wide. Will have to measure but suspect mines wider, and they had falcon stud pattern, though mine could well have been redrilled & have brakes from just about anything! Pretty neat cars! like a mega-avenger has a stamping on the housing, can't find anything useful in relation however

Had never heard of one, will do some research cheers! Hope it is for extra rootespoints(tm)

Howdy y'all, trying to figure out what rear-end setup is on this commer, axle is a plain old borgwarner (btr to be specific) 9 bolt, was idly measuring the carb inlet and thought i'd check the wheel pcd's, was told the rear was ford so was a bit mystified to find a 5x108 stud pattern, so now i'm wondering whether its early holden with a disc conversion (though weren't they all banjo/salisbury?) or str8 out of a volvo perhaps? Mainly want to i.d the brakes to replace pads & rotors. Thing next to caliper is dead-end electrical doodad. Any pointers appreciated! Then I can worry about the front, HQ subframe, 5x114.3 pcd

I'd start with a turbo and more lift vacuum hoses all good etc? any better without airfilter? Could be dodgy float perhaps, is it gassy asf? Edit: Swaps for fwd gen2 wagz

Man this is cool! my old bucket (didn't build it) the builder managed to find a chassis complete with live plates and a declaration for supercharged 350 etc, just built it to the sheet. Had rose joints etc which i'm pretty sure wouldn't fly with lvv. Also being regd as a 23' meant seatbelts, indicators etc were frivolous extras. Didn't have fender exemption but rolled fenderless most of the time, never got stopped, many friendly waves however haha

I had bolts as hinge pins for all hinges on a cf bedford, was all good but being so old can get away with vaster bodginess generally

Despite a self-imposed ban on tutu-ing due to hectic schedule: New battery, fuel filter & fresh gas (reading through the history, the truck seems to have about 5 fuel blockages to the points failure, really needs a screen or sediment bowl that isn't in the fuel pump, of course its all hardline) replaced carby inlet seal washer, painted scuttle and inside of cab. Have been using it a bit to blow the cobwebs out, not going to win any races but runs really well. Slowly getting the hang of crashbox, in fact only time i seem to miss gears is in traffic when it actually matters To do: continue paintin' cab, underside etc Grease everything (the lube chart is like a star map) Check steering box oil New tyres & exhaust Figure out why wipers & roof lights not working (suspect bad earth?) both rear axles leak a bit, doesnt seem too bad i.e not all over the tyres so down the list with it There is a massive stash of s15 commer (different sheetmetal on the front and ohv motor) parts near htown on t.m, i'm a bit torn as to whether to get it or not as the dude wants it all gone as one lot, realistically i'd have to "take the best and scrap the rest" in total there is "2 side valve motors 3 ohv motors ,5 gear boxs 3 chassis 3 front axles 3 diffs radiators 1 cab with 2 doors 10 rims 8 tyres and more". Probably enough parts to keep the thing going another couple of centuries, but i'll be sleeping in the spare cab if I drag 3 old chassis home! Also am fickle with vehicles so a lot of effort to shift everything if I sell/garden ornamentise the Q. Also used it as mobile connect 4/stereo transporter for my wedding on sunday, was a great hit. (and then used it to drag a portaloo back to hirepool and dispose of 1,000,000 bottles)