RXFORD

After getting the booster vac hose fitted I took it for a quick hoon on Friday night. Goes decent, needs a bit of carb barrying. Brakes work fucking awesome which I'm stoked about. Had a bit of an issue with the cam blanking seal at back of head. It fell oit somewhere when we where going round the block and it pissed oil all over the gearbox and my floor. Had a spare so pushed it into place. Maybe there was meant to be a retainer plate that I didn't fit way back when I assembled engine. Theres 2 bolt holes either side of it, so will take plug back out, glue it in, then make a retainer plate to hold it. My buddy Adam came over on Saturday and whipped out his buff. Got rid of the last of the chalkyness on the cab and doors, then gave the rest a quick run over. Big effort from him, farkin legend.

Managed to rob a few more bits off the b2200 at Zebra Manukau on Thursday. Got an instrument cluster fascia that had the rear window demister switch in it so that completes that circuit. Also a crotch duct that goes under the steering column for giving ya nuts some fresh air in summer. Horn which I still need to mount and test circuit. And the final piece of the brake puzzle...A non-return valve and some vac rated hose to suit donated from a random corolla. Also picked up a 'caramel wheel' and cleaned off the adhesive that was left over when I removed the side mouldings.

Alpine PanelBeaters in NewLynn used to do courses. I'm not sure its still the case, but might be worth giving them a call or check the website.

Truck went on a hot date with Iain at Racelign Tuesday and he dialled it in a bit more. Turns out my eyes are pretty well calibrated. All my eyeball front caster/camber/toe settings were within spec. Almost ready to take this thing for a hoon around the neighbourhood. 1 week til Cert day with @cletus. Still got a bit to button up but I'l make it happen.

Well Monday/Tuesday didn't suck. Spent some time Monday buttoning up a few things to be able to drive it. Hammered up the inner lip on front guards and adjusted the toe a little more. Wired the elec fan and tested its effectiveness. Connected Amp wiring to tick off the Audio side. Sounds great, all I need now is a bumper mounted siren. And got it loaded on the trailer ready to drop to Racelign on Tuesday morning.

It was a tight fit, but I managed to fit the Amp under the passengers seat. I lifted it up off the carpet a little incase it gets warm from bulk doof doof. Whipped up some simple mounts this afternoon that allow the amp to be removed with taking the seat out if need be. Not that its hard to take seat out. I'l finish wiring the Amp tomorrow, hook the Sub up and see if I can rattle any bog out.

Spent Matariki Friday making the mounts for the rear 1/4 speakers. I didn't have the factory optional mount so I got creative. Probably a bit overkill but I needed to recess them in so they didn't hit the trim panel. They sound awesome so pretty happy with the result for someone who doesn't do much woodwork.

Got the all the wiring run, main fuse to Amp mounted and front speakers mounted. Wired headunit and powered it up. It spits out a Creed CD, so I did the world a favour.

After running the engine a couple Fridays ago, I noticed a leak from steering box output shaft. Whipped it out on the Monday and dropped it down to PG Hydraulics. They put a new seal in and bench tested. Collected it on the Thursday and threw it back in that night. I'm not a huge audio guy, but have had a bunch of gear lying around for years. Sorted through some bits and made a decision on what to run. Pioneer bluetooth headunit that came out of my Lexus. Pair of Pioneer 6" speakers in the rear 1/4s. I keep them when I sold my old Vt commy because they sounded good. Some 4" Jvc speakers to go in the factory dash speaker location. And an old Amp and Sub that a customer didn't want when he put new gear in his truck. Even had an Rca cable to suit in my stash of bits. Just had to buy a fuse and some speaker / 12v+ cables for it all.

Got the battery tray fitted and had a spare battery tested before I went out a got a new one. Managed to save a bit of money there. Didn't like the plastic battery hold-down so fizzed up something simple but nicer from Ali. Will prob powdercoat black with the next run of stuff I get done. Nuts will get swapped out too. Engine bays looking a bit more complete now. Had been sorting engine loom, but we fired it up and got it up to temp for the first time on Friday night, so now that I know its all good, I can wrap the loom and tick that off the list.

Remade all new earths throughout the car, and got main power connected with some nice terminals I had lying around. Swapped all the front light plugs to the newer style to suit the facelift front swap. Tested lights but had nothing at the rear. Found the main loom to rear end had been cut next to drivers seat, so soldered that back togethor and everything works mint.

Got the cab aligned on frame side to side, and bolted it down. Got some new tray mounts bolts and shimmed it to suit cab then bolted down tight. Put some new plugs on the taillight looms as the old ones were a bit smashed up. Got some nice new clear/red/clear tail-light lenses off Ebay last year, so got those fitted up. Other than tracking down some bumper delete panels for below the tailgate, thats the rear end buttoned up, so gave the interior a good vacuum out. Original carpets actually nicer than I thought.

Got the tailgate hinges powdercoated, and the latches re-passivated with new fasteners to suit. A buddy colourmatched the tailgate a while back, and I got a new handle too as the old one was broken.

A few weeks ago I managed to bring the b2000 inside to make a push to finish it. Took tray off for the last time, and got the taillight wiring/earths run, and also cut & raised the driveshaft hanger bearing to get better d-shaft alignment. Gave the rear clip a clean and the rear cab wall a quick hand polish and put the tray back on for good. Also managed to snag a nice pair of license plate lights which I had been hunting for a while from Zebra

Those are the bits I wanted from it... Rare find. And can see the BodySonic control amp that came with another YAJ score mid last year. Also got the correct optional head-deck made by Pioneer for the Citys with that score.

Been a while since an update. Back tracking about 8-9 months ago I brought a City T1 seat from Japan. It was through Moonlight just before he did his last shipment and unfortunatly I just missed that last container. It was no big deal as I wasn't in a rush, so it ended up getting put aside at Stacked waiting for the first shipment from Empire Imports. Fast forward to about a month ago. It finally lands, and is ready for pickup. International shipping is fucked as of late. Anyway, it wasn't the seat I wanted, I actually went halves in all the costs with a guy who wanted it for his T1 resto, but it was the small woofers in the back and base that are pretty hard to find. These came as an optional Pioneer audio 'BodySonic' package. Basically a mono woofer that makes no sound but just gives a vibration with the music. I allready have the BodySonic control unit so now I just have to find another seats worth of woofers to retrofit into my Tallboy City project one day.

Just like a brought one. I'l get them powdercoated next time I have a run of things to do then I can finally mount the bumper.

Got lasercutting back, and fizzed up a pair. Minor amount of tweaking but all-in-all, not a bad initial measure. Bit ridiculous how much time I have in these but gotta do what ya gotta do sometimes...

Another issue I knew about but needed an opinion on, and that Clint also brought up was the wheel nuts. As these are American wheels, they are made to suit a 1/2" stud, so the bores are a bigger i.d. The wheel nuts I threw on to roll it around didn't have a big enough taper seat and ended up with the hex inside the taper a bit like in the pic. Went round to see what BG Wheels had, and found a better suited nut. According to them the largest on offer for a metric nut. They just take up all of the taper seat on rim so hopefully they do trick for Cert.

Kind of hard to tell through pics, but they are a bit chunkier than the 215/35 in the above post. Easier to see in person. Crazy how much a small profile change can affect the look of the wheel.

Pretty under the pump with workload, but trying to keep so.ething happening on the ute each week even its something minor. Clint came round a few weeks back and had a look over the b2000 for an unofficial cert check of sorts. Majority of what he noted I knew about, but just hadn't sorted yet. One thing I overlooked, was the tyre load rating not being quite enough to suit the gvm of truck. Gvm according to carjam is 2400kg. The tyres fitted to the 18s were a pair of new 215/35s up front, and a pair of used but good 225/35s out back. Total load rating between them was just under 2200kg I couldn't find any tyres with the same profile but a higher load rating, so unfortunately had to step up to 225/40s all round. Got a set of china blackcock/lion/hawk cheapys sorted last week, and shot round to Platinum Automotive this arvo so I could pinch his gear and swap them over. Bit if a cost I didn't expect, but shit happens, I should have known better. Side note, centre mount tyre machines are epic.

Jay from Nelson was a good sort, and let me borrow his T2 bumper mounts. They are really hard to find, and I have been asking around since I got the thing last year. He actually unbolted them off his car for me so I could measure and Jig them. I made a jig on Friday evening, and drew them in cad. Should have so a pair back from laser cutters end of this coming week hopefully. Pretty hard thing to accurately measure, so will probably have to adjust the drawing a bit/tweak them but will be nice to get the bumper mounted finally. And also helps out other people with the same problem as I will be able to make sets for them aswell.

Have been collecting a few bits for the T2, mainly so the exteriot looks more complete and less like a rolling shell. Managed to snag a few bits off a fella in Nelson whos been in the city scene for a long time. Initially got an original T2 grill and T2 hatch off him that came up with the tallboy. Then the front guards were a pair he sold to another dude, but that fella decided he didn't need them so sold to me. And more recently got a taillight/reverse light set to complete the back end. I brought the Heroes I-speed off @Dudley last year some time, and was bored yesterday so decided it was time to mock them up on the T2. Not gonna lie, looks pretty rad.

The workhorse just doing workhorse things. As long as you keep it fed with lots of fuel, it just keeps going. Took some garden waste to the dump over Xmas and did some stockcar collection/ prep with my sidekick.