zep

2 hours ago, CUL8R said:

Personally I like the rears you're running shape...

It does make me wonder what a 195/50 would look like on the front.

16 minutes ago, nzstato said:

160MB.... cool

Yeah good luck. I couldn't load it into Google Sheets. And even into Libra/Open Calc was a pain.

20 hours ago, HighLUX said:

Link to have a look at stuff myself?

https://nzta.govt.nz/resources/new-zealand-motor-vehicle-register-statistics/new-zealand-vehicle-fleet-open-data-sets/

If you want the CSVs.

13 hours ago, CUL8R said:

Hmm thats interesting!

Thats just the road registered though, ignoring race cars/projects with lapsed reg...

It's been brought to my attention that I forgot to add in Chevannes, of which there are 4.

2 hours ago, mjrstar said:

I reckon the 225s sit nice on an 8 inch rim. 

Unfortunately too late now! My only hope is that I can run 245/35s... Or pay to make wheels less wide, which no one would do.

1 hour ago, Roman said:

As close as practical to alternator and starter motor are the way to go I reckon.

Put it back in the engine bay haha. At least that way I'd have fewer cable to pass through the firewall.

One for the t-car pests. Waka Kotahi have recently opened up their data API, so I thought I'd have a look at some stats for us. The data set only contains cars that are "in the system", so either on the road or on hold.

Geminis (1977-85) in NZ: 116
Most common years: 1982 (29), 1978 (23), 1983 (18)
Most popular colours: Red (24), Green (23), Blue (21)

Chevettes (1976-1981) in NZ: 209
Most common years: 1977 (47), 1979 (46), 1980 (37)
Most popular colours: Blue (52), Green (31), Red (30)

I'm after some OS hivemind thoughts on two things:

First -  tires. When I had my wheels widened, I went with 7.5 and 8.5. I figured that as 205/50s and 225/45s have very similar sidewalls and the width is not much different (approx 5mm), they should look similar on the wheels. Now most people would probably not pick it, but the I can't stop seeing that the rears are more stretched than the fronts. These are Nankang AR-1s.

I'm not sure if I should just get over it, or try and find some tires that will have a more similar look front and rear... while also being able to deal with a good amount of power. Any thoughts?

Second - where to put my battery. I'm planning to use a FullRiver HC20 and have mocked up a box. I don't really want to put it all the way in the boot, so I've got three ideas.

Under the rear seat delete panels:

(Mostly) under the centre console - it probably covers about 2/3 of it:

Or under the passenger side dash, which will also house the ECU/PMU etc:

As long as it's well fixed down, I'm not sure there are issues with any... maybe under the dash is too close to the passenger in the event of a crash? Running the big-ass cables to the rear seat is kinda annoying, and having it sticking out from under the console might look a bit naff. Thoughts? >>>

2 hours ago, Raizer said:

Pics aren't showing in your last couple posts, google isn't an image host for hot-linking.

Ah shit. I was copy-pasting, not hot linking. I figured the board was smart enough to create the image. Will fix it up tomorrow.

On 08/07/2023 at 17:09, Roman said:

It certainly does package nicely that way, if it's got enough travel. Which I'm sure it would. 

I've not seen this thread pop up for ages, and wow you've been doing some real cool stuff. 

Look forward to seeing how it all comes together.

Cheers mate!

19 hours ago, Snoozin said:

He's an off road guy right? I'd be pretty confident he's well aware of travel implications in this respect, I'd have relative confidence in his abilities!

Car is looking really great man, and sounds like you're almost at that light at the end of the tunnel stage, where you can focus on the quality of finish and putting things back together!

Yeah, he races a custom-built offroader in the weekends, but also does heaps of other street/track stuff, so I'm inclined to think it's ok.

It does feels like I'm almost there but also now comes some very expensive parts! And the engine build feels like a whole new thing to deal with. Some of the development that was happening over in Aussie with the new rockers has hit some hiccups and not sure I'll end up running them. But most of the other bits are easy enough. Oh, and the modded sump to finish!

18 hours ago, CUL8R said:

Curious about the horizontal hiem joint on the diff, rather than vertical.

Probably not so much of a problem with the somewhat small amount of travel Im sure you have, but you're limited with the movement within the hiem outer, rather than rotating smoothly around its axis

Yeah, I did wonder. I kinda left Tim to make some of these decisions for me considering building this stuff is his day job. Might be a good idea to check the articulation without the shocks in there.

14 hours ago, RXFORD said:

A couple other places to look into are...

C.A Levien in Henderson. They have done vehicle blasting/coating for me in the past but also do alot of commercial blasting.

A customer recently took his Rx3 to New Lynn Sandblasting & Panelbeaters to have the underside cleaned up for compliance. I believe they blasted a few things he asked them not to, but was overall happy with the job/price. 

Thanks for your thoughts. I had a chat to Dave at C.A. Levien and he seems like a good dude. Few others recommended him too, so I think that's where I'll got.

Fortunately the car will be pretty much a bare shell, so I shouldn't have to worry about them blasting other things, but I will also take @Tiger Tamer's advice about the silica getting everywhere and try to plug some of the holes where it doesn't need to go.

8 minutes ago, Bling said:

Quite optimistic given the review on here. I wouldn't trust them with a wheelbarrow let alone a car. 

Yeah. They have 4.8 stars from 43 reviews on Google. Not that that means much with no context. The reason I gave them a call was because they specifically mention restoration and actually have a good looking website, while the others all seem pretty rough with lots of focus on trucks, busses and 4x4s.

Hrm. I am taking in essentially a bare shell so that's not a huge worry for me.

There are a few other places around but talking to my painter he's had bad experiences with some. Why does so much of this stuff have to be trial and error!?

Damn, I just spoke to the dude on the phone and he seemed like a GC.

Edit: Hrm, after looking at that post I am not as bothered as I am doing this pre-full panel and paint. As long as the underbody is good and they don't fuck up the panels then I'd be happy.

Now that my car has had a decent amount of fabrication done underneath, and the fact that the factory bitumen is 43 years old, I need to do something about the underbody. I keep getting advertised different services, eg:

http://www.aucklandsandblastingltd.co.nz/service

https://autoblast.co.nz/services/restorations/

https://www.nspbl.co.nz/

Is this a good idea? That autoblast one looks like they actually think about things more than, say, the top on where they just blast and spray everything....what?!

Anyone have experience with these kind of places?

Wow. Mine was two letters and two numbers and was $1000.

1 minute ago, mjrstar said:

Perhaps the right place to ask, has anyone had success getting a government issue plate (not mine)which has been deregistered long ago reissued as a personalised plate?

Yes, I did this earlier this year. Call Kiwiplates or live chat on their site. Tell them that is what you want to do. They will contact Waka Kotahi and have the plate pulled out of the system and made available for purchase.

18 hours ago, CarolsHusband said:

First time poster

I was just watching a youtube video of a bloke putting coilovers on his Sierra Cosworth.

I'd never really thought about it, but if the springs are separate from the shocks & the coilovers bolt in where the shock went, isn't that a disaster waiting to happen ?

In my tiny brain, a separate shock mount is in no way built to take any load, let alone the weight of the car.

Dan, 56, confused.

I'm currently doing this. Requires significant mods to the shock towers, essentially rebuilding them much stronger.

Wild eh!

10 minutes ago, dmulally said:

Do you know anything about 6bd1's? 

I have a 4BE1 to plop into my chev but a 6BD1 might fit in the same place. A turbo one at that. They look to be the same bellhousings but am not 100% sure. 

Not sure sorry, I'm more a petrol Isuzu enthusiast.

36 minutes ago, dmulally said:

Well I was thinking about taking out the 350 small block of my 66 Chev Ute and putting in an isuzu diesel. Anybody who would steal that would be mentally ill. 

Mate I'll support anyone dropping an Isuzu engine into anything!

I guess that depends on how much it means to you. I'd want to at least know what happened even if it's fucked.

What is the likelihood that nz car thieves are rolling around with signal jammers?

As for a GPS tracking solution, I was keen to self host a Traccar server but then watched this and might use aws instead.

The other thing I wonder if I should take into account are the side intrusion bars:

Definately adds in a large angle there!