deankdx

10 June 2017

managed to cross a few more things off the list today with the gemini project..

i modified a commodore boot trim to fit the lower rear window trim that was missing, its beat up and rough but its on and fits well..

i removed the ripped drivers seat and stuck in the pick a part one (slightly different style and colour) its got to come out again when the floor rust happens but wanted to check it was usable.. didn't get much else done but its set up for brakes next episode.

i pulled the brake drums off to be machined and the brake lines off to be re made. and took the stockies off the front for use on my daily..

fitted the front Bathurst globe for a look.. i should start looking for tyres for these also.. no idea why its so high in the front.. needs low..

i ran out of red colour match paint in the one can i bought, got all the boot seal done at least. one can should do for the rest i hope.

the bonnet got a full wipe down with thinners.. pretty sure its getting clear coated as is just to seal it.

3rd June 2017

continued on with some more paint work today..  remembering the ad.. "all rust removed"

the reason all the undercoat is all over the rear quarter and tailgate is due to crows feet in the paint, that chips off with the orbital sander..(i used one today on it and it hadn't been taken back to metal or solid paint... i didn't either.. ) a simple hand sand with a block and paper to feather it out would have been all the bodger needed to do to make it respectable..

i decided i am not taking it back to metal now.. goal is to get it on the road as quick as possible.

there is rust i need to fix in the lower quarter corners. bugger all really.. will do it next time i lift it on the hoist(and make sure nothing will catch fire inside like tail light wiring...)

painted over the stripped back areas on the sill and under doors, also made more work for myself by filling and painting where the side mould had taken paint off the front guard(should have just left it, painted over the chips in correct colour)

i want to refit the alloy window trim asap(to prevent it getting damaged) so painted around that edge and some of the quarter, but the temperature at 4pm wasn't warm enough for the paint.. it went a bit chalky.. so packed it up for the day.

sanded and painted the boot seal channel also.. very time consuming, particularly trying to prevent overspray from going on everything.

rattle can colour match paint. 

should be able to see the difference quite easily.

28 May 2017

well.. i had a brief look through the box of engine parts. to see how complete "complete in pieces" means...(of the G200z 2 litre) 

looked at the carby it had on it, usual full throttle check, was going to see if vacuum secondary had been rigged to open mechanically.. nope, but it doesn't open at all... there is a stop/lever possibly bent on purpose thinking that will make it mechanical.. but its actually stopping them from opening via vacuum or anything..
hmmm no wonder it ran "rich" ?? (also a 1600 carb, not a 2 littre one...not sure just how much that matters yet..)
see below crap photo..

i think this carby will now be a restriction... the XE XF webber can be fitted, but the 2 litre cortina one is usually the one fitted(maybe in the past they were more common? maybe its the smaller primary preferred? not sure.. more researching to do..

standard head appears in good shape, was looking to see if someone had fitted bigger valves.. looks stock here.

crow cam?.. i looked up the number.. it exists, which is good.. (mild cam, smallest crow makes)

price on it would have put me off.. but since its already there.. winning!!!  
 

27 May 2017

well, today i did some more gemini work at Dave's(Dave had the welder and engine crane etc i needed initially.) had a "clean" day.. didn't feel like playing with spanners..

goal changed, from doing brakes.. to making it water proof.. i'd like to think i have succeeded (LOTS of rain on the forecast between next visit)

it came with 2 packs of door seals.. bonus was, it has 2 seals in each pack.. so i have spares for the sedan.

 feathered out the edge of the undercoat mask line the previous owner did.. sprayed my colour match Marenello red over 600 dry rub and  looks a good match around the petrol cap

have to work out if the petrol lid can be saved.. not sure if the stupid plastic hinge is still available.. its different to the sedan one which i think is still available..

i did some UN PAINTING of the window, seal and edge surrounding the seal.. thinners on a rag came in handy today.
( @kws I was too late to suggest this as a possibility for the marina) 

also DE STICKERED the rear window. and also thinners cleaned the rubber and glass of overspray and also did same on some areas of the paint..

took a pic of the "better side" will look much better soon..

the paint on the bonnet is Shithouse.. the car was stored under a TARP (to stop water getting in, but tarps sweat, and it blistered the paint..) i wiped it over with the thinners rag for a look.. (I found a better bonnet later)

i had the chance to get a few more things done on the wagon today. forgot to take any pics.. nothing that interesting though.

repaired the too short tail gate seal with a section chopped out of a wreck boot seal..

silastic the gaps in the rear window seals(shrunken seals) more of an urgent temporary fix.

fitted the boot latch and it shuts and seals out water(fingers crossed)

i need to fit the new front door seals it came with, as that appears to be the where the front water leak is.. i had a bit of a dig around in the plenum area and seems like its not rusted through(surface rust needs addressing very soon)

also agreed to buy the 2 litre motor and 5 speed and a standard copper radiator.

due to The 2 litre needing a rebuild with assembly.. 

that concludes the buying stuff phase.. (No.. it doesn't .. as we'll see later)

actual progress will now begin.. i am keen to sand back the "repaired rust"  and paint that..

i did measure the length in the back.. 1.5 meters to the underside of the seat base(folded forward) so if to sleep in it, would need the seat base removed and the front seats flipped forward..  

14 May 2017

continued with the parts gathering the other day. found some SL/E TD wheels(same as the Gypsy had) 

these are the 2 cleanest ones. they had bald and flat tyres so i bought another 2 used dunlops for $35 each fitted.. couldn't be ballanced due to the center cap hole not being big enough for their machine.. (found a different tyre mob later for balancing)

i need at least one more centre cap, they are smaller than the commodore ones

and would need to find a wheel cleaner that works with them and some similar colour for the faded centre caps later.

no gemini work this weekend.. I will probably be doing brakes on it next week in the attempt to make it safely on a permit, and mounting the thermo fan, tail lights and tailgate latch.

i have been buying more parts, found the elusive left mirror and GC seller had new service parts like dissy cap, brake pads, etc  and has a spare 5 speed i'll buy just in case(at a price i could get my money back on easy) he has a 2litre (not twin cam) engine also in bits.. issue with in bits is whether its 100% still all there?..

apparently the 2 litre allows then to go up hills due to more torque..  (confirmed this later, it's what they should have come with)

10 May 2017

been spending, emailing, and physically touring the local ish wreckers this last week.

i found a lightly damaged boot trim off a VB or VC commo which will work as my side trim, i can get the correct one but its over the postage length at 1.3meters and so far i only know of the one gemini wrecker which is in Qld(elkygem/gemwreck) 1800km away ish.
i have ordered most of the parts needed to make it complete and get the brakes working properly(they are very touchy, i noticed while moving it around, seem to work well still)

i always wanted to get the SLE alloy wheels for my  gemini sedan, they look similar to the hubcaps i am running. and i think this wagon i may model on the Gypsy panel van.. as Chip Foose would say, make it look like it could have come that way from the factory.  so it could look like a windowed version of the below albeit ratty at first. because i am not painting it other than the issues at first.

i cant do much to it until the parts turn up anyway.. But i do want it on the road asap.. can't wait to drive it.

so, now torn between bathurst globes for the 80s look or the hippy wagon in stock style with sle wheels..



April 29 2017

The sellers missus was excited that i rocked up to view it in a gemini(My diesel TE that will get a mention later in the thread), and heard that it was going to be standard.. He had the usual P plater dream of crap race seats, sub woofers from front to rear, lowered till it scraped and "cepter rims" and some weird ass new paint colour that looks cool for 3 weeks and then gets a defect for life..

i said i'll send a photo of it with rego plates in 10 weeks.... see how that goes, hopefully it doesn't need everything..(i decided not to contact them in the end)

spending has started..(few days later)

went to pick a part today, 
bought 4 x dunlop 175/65/13" tyres for the stock rims(i always regretted chucking them away from My sedan when i left Tassie due to no room in the car) cost $80 plus will need to spend upto $80 if i fit all 4 to the other rims(2 currently on the front are new looking yokohamas.. not sure if any good yet)

i know you can get cheap new 13" tyres for $50 each($200) Vs $160 for used dunlops etc.. but i bet the dunlops are better than chyna etc brand no one has heard of. these tyres came up as $89 each when i googled the price.. for not much extra i could get wide tyres for the bathurst globes..

going for club rego, i intend to have it stock and neat as possible. .. the bathurst globes and super low springs it came with are calling me though.

Discussion
 thread for My Gemini wagon project here (will be many more posts coming as i migrate them from another forum)

G'day OS 

this thread is already complete on another forum, but i'll migrate it here to share with you all. so bare with Me, 
DISCUSSION THREAD HERE 

I bought this unfinished project in April 2017, I'll let the thread tell the story with a date on each post, the posts here may have references to days/dates that are no longer relevant, but i'll try to edit as i go.

I had the goal to get it back on the road as soon as possible and on club permit (limited use registration for cars over 25yrs old, cost comparison $150 ish per year compared to full registration of $800ish) 

pity the tyres on the Bathurst globe wheels are so old.. heaps of tread, but heaps of age cracks also.

i had only pretty much picked it up with the help of BGDAV(just joined OS today), and dropped it off at Daves till Saturday when it can go up on the hoist and see all the issues i didn't see when it was in the owners shed.

it runs, it moves.. that's the extent known so far.  

currently a 1.6 and 5 speed as far as i know... probably will stay, its had a head gasket change, new alloy radiator and heater core and some other new parts and "rust bubble" repairs..

the paint is pretty crap, good excuse to paint something. has that "patina" everyone loves lately (haters gunna hate)

 i suspect finding wide 13" tyres might be difficult.. (wide and Cheap i mean)

plans are to make it road worthy asap.. club rego and drive it places. (including Calder Park drag strip)

has low kms.. doesn't mean much to me.. this wagon has been sitting in a shed for 2yrs doing nothing much. (cars that have sat for a long time usually have issues like stale fuel, gummed up brakes etc)

anyway..
that's where it's at currently..

start up video.. bit of a glimpse inside.. needs a console surround.. etc

good idea!
will you add some kind of hinged locking bar to the side to prevent drawers sliding out and tip over if it goes over some wonky ground? (filing cabinets are experts at this trick, dangerous too)

1 hour ago, NickJ said:

If the untouched filter is a water separator, I shudder to think what it looks like on the inside.

In my limited diesel experience consisting mainly of neglected farm machinery is this is one of the first places to look.
 

it has a pet cock type drain on it, i've drained it somehow in the past to check it. not recently though. 

i found a pic i took when the wire for injector pump shorted out(rubbed through insulation near the bell housing so i hotwired it to get the van to auto elec(needed tow truck home due to 9pm at night in middle of nowhere)

The fact it was kind of suddenly gutless was My concern, i had a bolt come loose inside the timing cover in My diesel gemini and it made the belt jump 2 teeth, i retimed it, and was lucky it didn't bend any valves.. replaced the belt and was good for 20,000kms + until i sold it recently. 
when that timing jumped it was gutless and extra smokey (one mechanic just said, mate.. needs a new engine.. suffice to say i went home and diagnosed it myself)

10 hours ago, Yowzer said:

My experience with timing belts is they don't skip teeth, they strip teeth. Not saying it's impossible, but it seems highly unlikely. You have to have a lot of slop in the belt to jump a tooth out, which will mean a failed tensioner and you would hear the belt flapping all over the show. Easy to check though, the upper timing covers are easy to remove.

Pull the fuel filter off and see how much slime is in it. 

7 hours ago, Taistorm said:

Yeah I would probably look at fuel first, possibly not the issue but it's an easy place to start. Could be as easy as perished lines causing air leaks or possible blockages.

 

I've had many call outs from machinery not starting or running like a bag of shit due to them having fuel blockages in the tank.

it has 2 filters, one's an odd one i can't find a number on it, i did change the other. it pumped with the hand pump through the first unchanged one, i recall the previous owner saying that one (possibly a water trap?) almost never got changed in the 500,000kms 

5 hours ago, igor said:

How many fuel filters does it have? Neighbour's worker turned up at home one time (his boss was away) seeking assistance with a stalled tractor. Turned out it had two fuel filters, one of which was near new and had clearly been replaced recently. The other one hadn't been touched and was clogged to buggery.

6 hours ago, Mof said:

The tanks probably full of diesel bug blocking up the pickup/ strainer

Thanks for the reply, the tank has a drain bung, and i did drain off a few litres last year to check for water etc, it looked as new(does that algai/bug sit on the bottom or top?)


i'm not going to get to it real soon, but i appreciate the heads up. i'll keep you updated of what i find. 
i'll have to check the belt before i even move it to muck around with fuel filters or the fuel tank. 

forgive me, i haven't read any posts in this thread yet. and this post is quite long for the relevant info rather than 20 posts. 

i have some questions about My 1987 Mazda van E2200 with R2 diesel. 

the engine should only have approx. 100,000km on it (van has 500,000, but previous owner said the engine was replaced with a BRAND NEW, not reco engine 80,000 km before i got it  and i've done approx. 20,000km) 

i assume it's due for a timing belt for age and kms( no idea how old the engine is but the 20,000 i did was in the last 6yrs)

the last time i drove it, it had sat for 12 months or more and that was over 12 months ago also(so done 20km only in 2 years now) main reason i haven't driven it, is i'm too scared incase the belt has jumped a tooth. 
last time i drove it, it stalled at idle at traffic lights and was more gutless/slow than usual. (it starts very easily still, i accidentally started it cranking the motor to check the battery in summer 9months ago, fired up within one revolution or less without glow plugs)

just wondering if the stalling/gutless is likely caused by timing belt(danger fix immediately) or could it be fuel stale(had a stabilizer added 6months after being parked 18months ago) 
or could it be something else(rat nest in the air box? ) cracked fuel hose sucking air?(idles too smooth for that i would think) 

i've had several reasons i haven't looked at it, back is sore, red back spiders are under it everywhere .. can't really afford to take it to a rip off mechanic, i don't trust them to break it anyway.. (brooom brrooom crash... oh yeah it was the belt mate, needs a new engine now.. cheers) 

Thanks in advance for any pointers, places to check etc. 
i did wonder if the valve lash might need checking(zero lash?) but can't find any info online about the engine and haven't lifted the rocker cover to see if they are even adjustable. 
 

30 minutes ago, RUNAMUCK said:

I bet even a 4cyl marina could shit one.....

not sure about the 4cyl cars,(if there's space in the bell housing) But My Dad fitted a BW51 from EFI falcon XF to a leyland P76 V8 but never ended up using it, blew up several BW35s, and then adapted a C4 to the BW bell housing (he was a fitter and turner) that was behind it for years in a Mk1 Transit (broke the flex plate twice after though, but this wasn't that uncommon anyway.)

5 hours ago, nzstato said:

Thats cool, I used to be on that forum yonks ago and hes one of the old hands here, I must have dropped out about the time this started.

there's another thread somewhere, possibly that forum. GTR TORANA HATCH lots of pics,  has a LX hatch with full GTR Skyline 4wd grafted in(including the floors) not finished or updated last i looked.

https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/426700-torana-lx-gtr-hatch-lots-of-pictures/

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv2/turbo76lx/A9X hatch/IMGP2387_resize_zps670c2b58.jpg

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv2/turbo76lx/A9X hatch/20131006_173611_resize_zpsd86a75fc.jpg

I'm enjoying this rescue you have. 
hope you don't mind my sharn below. 

My uncle had a 4cyl 4 door manual (Melbourne AU) about 20yrs ago, he loved it as a daily driver.(used to run on the smell of an oily rag) i don't remember what happened to it but he bought a 6cyl one for parts  and just ended up driving that one instead even though it drank heaps of fuel by comparison. 

i once saw one(originally a 4cyl) with a rover 3.5 V8 fitted, the owner said all he needed to do was make engine mounts as the auto trans was same type as the marina 4cyl. was looking to change the diff for a better ratio though. it was still registered as a 4cyl though. no idea if 6cyl brakes and diff were better suited.

this has been one of the most interesting and entertaining builds I've seen recently.

this guy has an epic build thread on a UC to LX Torana hatch, heaps and heaps of custom touches and drillium ITBs with LPG injection looks like he's made his first video on it, the thread will keep you busy for a while (60 pages)

http://www.gmh-torana.com.au/forums/topic/66597-heaths-hatch/

i can't remember if i found this guys channel in this thread or elsewhere. but the wood working tool builds are awesome. (plus he built the log cabin by himself also, one month a year while on vacation)
there are several playlists. 

1 hour ago, holdenman said:

This is the project king in my eyes as they are just amazing badass and he has has done plenty including the V10 street motorcycle, as pictured on his Tshirt. They way he co-joins engines is easy for him but only a dream for people like me.

his mountain bikes are impressive also, made his own shock absorbers and the way the rear wheel mounts is unique also. they are on his channel also

On 13/08/2015 at 06:11, yoeddynz said:

This thread here has captivated me. The lengths that this fella is going to rebuild an old rusty Rx2 4 door and do all the panel pressings himself. I know this car and have been in it as it belonged to a good friend so for me its fucking awesome to see it getting rebuilt. The guy who has bought it and restoring it is a gifted engineer with some awesome tools/machines at his disposal. But then he goes the next step and makes his own machines like a fucking awesome bead roller.

 

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/178941/mazda-complete-japanese-tinworm-infestation?page=1

Thanks for sharing this one!
This thread is amazing. 144 pages, i'm blown away so far(upto page 13, skimming through luckily lots of photos.. )

machining dies to press out shapes for the seat belt bolts as per original on the inner sills was enough, but the bead roller tools he makes is just as impressive. 
loved the way he balanced the rotisserie also, very very neat thread. 

not really a build thread, 

but an awesome machine. 2 half cuts in one buggy (put one in 1st/ other in reverse = stationary 4 wheel burnout .. actually 8 wheels, because they are double stacked. also front and rear steering for turning radius x eleventy)

It's Ben Modified, (been very quiet for the last 2yrs)

has a lot of oddball projects. 

this playlist is for his V8 hijet ute. getting a transmission(was one speed direct drive first) 

he's got a autobianci microcar with 1000cc motorbike engine fitted and a subaru micro van with motorbike engine also, V8 bug, pedal/electric motorbike he built.