RXFORD

Quick test fit of taillight then drilled a shitload of spotwelds. Removed the rear panel and sent all the bits to blasters to clean up some pitting.

Scribed/trimmed/welded and filed the slots for taillights.

Onto taillight surround repair. Templated good side, and transferred it to some plate radiusing the edge to give me a simple hammerform. Marked my oversize repair section, cut/folded and riveted it to the hf. Bit of heat and some gentle persuasion got me the shape I wanted.

Repaired the drivers corner gusset by welding a new lip to it. It was actually a pain in the ass to get right. Maintaining the lip angle, the curve and the upsweep with each adjustment had me going round in circles but got there in the end.

Made another jig to keep my widths where they need to be then removed the corner gussets.

Cut out and fizzed in.

Folded/stratched a new hatch seal flange, tacked on, marked my hole centres, folded a patch to replace some ugly pitting, clamped on and scribed cut lines.

Started off Cordia repairs by making a quick jig to bolt to the boot latch mount. This will help locate the rear panel and confirm shapes once repaired. Then drilled the orig spotwelds to split the inner latch panel from the outer.

Clearly didn't get the Cordia sorted in time for drag day. Had a good crack at it, but gave too many of my weekends away leading up to the event. Had to bring dog to supervise scrutineering til the old duck woke up and could look after her. Big day, she was out to it on the way home.

You could give Glen at Instant Windscreens Christchurch a call and see if he will do it, or at least recommened someone. He used to work for my old man. Tell him that Matt - Kevin from Ace Autoglass' boy said to speak to him.

First need to establish what its held in by... Rubber fit, soft seal or glued. If its rubber fit and you don't intend on keeping the seal, you can run a blade on outside of the glass slicing through the 'H' of the seal and it will come out in 30 seconds. If you plan to reuse, you will have to pull the locking strip and from the inside slowly push the lip of seal over the vehicles pinch weld. Can use a couple of flat blade screwdrivers with tape over the blades for this. Some old cars use whats called a Thermo Kit, which is basically soft seal with a wire running through which when energized softens the glue for installation. If its held in this way, best bet is to leave it in the sun on a really hot day, remove any trims, then just carefully push the window out. Blades and wire will be a cunt on soft seal as the stuff is really sticky. You can use a knife, but will need to use some soapy water/crc/glass cleaner to help lube it and to stop the sealer from sticking back on itself. If its glued like modern cars, then a drag knife, craft knife or guitar string will work fine. Pretty easy to catch an edge and break it using the wire or a drag knife though. If you plan to reuse glass taking your time with a sharp craftknife would be a better option. Keep the blade flat to glass and don't flex it. I would recommened wearing some protective gloves if cutting it out.

Took the mazdawg on its first major outing yesterday with a buddy I met up with Cambridge on the way Destination was @hoods place in Rotorua. Got burgers and went to the lake. Dog got treats and splashed around in a new environment so she was happy. Stopped at Karapiro for a bit on the way back. Truck ran like a top. Only issue was its fuckin gutless. It cruises sweet, but nothing home when ya stomp the loud pedal. Been a while since I have driven one so figured thats all it had to offer, but whilst stopped in Karapiro I did some checks. Felt like secondary throttle wasn't opening. Sure enough, accel pedal gets full dort on carb, but only off the primary. Might have a linkage missing. Will figure out this weekend, but other than that it was a great shakedown cruise for it. Bloody road closures on the way back added an hour to the trip so that sucked.

Cordia has been neglected since I took it down to Hamilton in Jan 2021. Have only been in the garage and seen it a couple times since which is terrible considering I park infront of it every night. Anyway, its at the shop now, so I stripped the rear end today to start on the taillight/latching panel. Bit worse than I though, so here we go again...

Have been putting a few Kms on the ute. Took it over the hills to the lockup last Sunday as it was a beaut day. Used it for daily duties for a few days during the week. Even did ute things with it... Swapped it out with the Cordia yesterday so now utes crammed in the home garage and Cordia gets a spot at work.

No, bin all the original shit and start again. In some applications, even return pressure can exceed the carb hose rating, especially if pump working pressure is greater than the flow ability of the hose (sizing not matched properly). And you would fail cert for not running efi hose in an efi swap anyway. Surge tank is probably sensible if you plan to do hunnits in it. Can rig them up fairly inexpensively with all the aftermarket stuff available these days. Just make sure you check the lvv requirements if fitting one in the boot because different vehicle types have different requirements. (Hatch/wagon with open boot vs sedan with sealed boot for example)

Oh wow, you have used the whiteboard for drawing something other than dicks.

Seems to depend on the cert mans opinion of how it rides. The packs on my B2000 are flat or maybe even slightly inverted at ride height but it rides ok. I have always worked to max allowable is flat at ride height without it being too bouncy, but if I can keep some arch it would be less likely to be denied/questioned by Lvvta.

100% Legal now! Took to Vtnz today and other than a few things noted, (slight rear brake imbalance and play in drivers door hinge) it was a clean sheet. Its been a while since I've had to get a Pink/Green sticker Wof and holy fuck do Vtnz exploit the fact they are one of the few that can do them these days. $212 and a 45min check. Farkin Burglars. And wtf is there issue with phones in the carpark? I rekon they might need more signs...

Thats quite nerdy. I'm impressed. I considered taking the aftermarket touchscreen out of my 430 so I could have all the stock steering wheel controls work as per factory. I have having things there that don't work. Good job, I may try bribe you to build another one day.

Did some ghetto paint chip touchups and took for a quick drive round the road to get some pics whilst the sun was out.

Whilst waiting for the cert to go live I managed to find a part number for genuine pedal pads as my brake/clutch pads were pretty shit, and metal showing on the brake pedal is a wof fail. Almost ordered from overseas, but figured I would check locally first. South Auckland Ford/Mazda had stock and are cheap as chips. Also FYI, the same as FC Rx7... so ordered a couple pairs and had them turn up the next day.

Coupla saturdays ago @cletus was a top bloke and did a cert recheck for me. I had to swap out my steering stop bolts to a dome head style but other than that, it got signed off and paperwork sent away after 'celebrating the queens death' Monday holiday. Got the message today that all is sorted at Lvvta's end and the info has been loaded to the site. Stoked !!!!

You sure thats cu/ni tube? Could just be the pics but looks too coppery. Cu/ni is more dull gold and will have markings to confirm what it is. Where did you get it from?