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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!

1 hour ago, cletus said:

The way I interpret the book, it is OK to do seat anchorages the way you want to. 

They aren't attached to panel steel floor, so does not have to be doubler plates 

 

Bump stops on shocks will be fine as long as they limit travel before anything fouls 

 

 

Cheers Clint, you're the man

16 hours ago, cletus said:

Ive got to have a look next time im on a computer if that method is still ok 

The seat standard and CCM mentions that you CANNOT weld seat anchorages to a unibody vehicle 

I have certed a lot of them like the pics, because its a time tested way of doing it  but i have a vague recollection of a certifier update saying it cant be done unless it has an authority card 

Thanks Clint. Happy to do it another way if needed. Just wanna make sure I do it right!

Another question of the fun bumpstop kind - since I'm swapping to rear coilovers, strengthening the towers and all that jazz, can I now just rely on the bumpstops integrated into the shocks? My understanding of the manual suggests it's ok.

17 minutes ago, Snoozin said:

100% would be putting the seat fabric into the door cards, it'd look ace.

You could ditch the door handle things entirely in favour of a Porsche RS style fabric door pull.

I did look into this, but the handles are actually great elbow rests, so I'm not too keen to get rid of them.

46 minutes ago, Early jap nuter said:

I’ve done afew door cards with bung angled handles.most of the time we just re drilled the holes in the door to straighten handle. Small rivnut/plusnut seem to hold better and flex a lot less

That is a smart idea. I'll have a nosey around the door and see how it attaches. Sitting at this computer, my gut tells me that it's some kind of plastic riv nut as the screws are quite coarse thread.

36 minutes ago, Early jap nuter said:

Most people paint the inside of the door to match.You can wrap the metal part of the inside of the door in vinyl and hide the seem behind the rubber seal

I have full length cards that cover the lower part, so that's not an issue.

1 hour ago, shizzl said:

Yup that’s it.

they hold up fine in rally cars even after cartwheeling down a bank.

 

the weld on tabs are good, allows you to move the seat inline with the steering wheel if it’s on the piss from the factory

Sweet, hopefully Clint comes back with the go ahead for certing purposes.

16 hours ago, shizzl said:

You buy a kit from palmside for them

https://palmside.co.nz/collections/seat-brackets/products/seat-mounting-kit-x-members

This kind of thing? Would not require crush tubes as it's not bolting through an open section. I'd wonder about which is strong enough though.