Nominal

Feckin hawks can be scary. I collected one years back in a Chevette. Seemed like it hit the screen right in front of my face. Didn't break though, which was lucky. Now I mostly slow down and give them time to get into the air before I get there. Was that you stopped by the Otaki river this arvo?

It's is fairly commonly done for early ford forged axles. The pics you posted are for leaf springs or something, so might be a bit harder to get done.

Sure, whip up a chassis and suspension, fit 1UZ, fit Morris body. Slam dunk! Here's one with an LS1

It's getting harder and harder to get smaller 4-cyl RWD engines that suit conversions. I liked my factory injected 4AGE Morris, if it fits in a Morrie, then should be easy in a Viva, but as noted above the RWD aspect of the 4AGE is getting more complicated and expensive. How about a Zetec, they seem to more convertible to RWD, and are more current I think.

I've got a set of greenlee (chassis) punches up to 100mm or so, and a hydraulic puller that I could bring down sometime? Did try to make some swaging dies once, but was fail city.

Nice looking Viva. I didn't know that they did high spec models. With stripes even!

Looks like it has to be reverse-switched, or only operate when the headlights are off. See here: http://vehicleinspection.nzta.govt.nz/v ... sing-lamps

The blue one went to the great scrapyard in the sky soon after. The local garage that picks up my hulks for scrap said I hadn't left them much on that one. Well duh! The 186 from it is in the white Kingswood presently though.

This is how I did it. Might have failed the no damage provision though.

If you are using the "bow and arrow" type bender, these are meant for pipe, not tube, and have pipe sized dies. I doubt you will get a good results, especially with thinwall tube. I got the rollbar bent (for my paddock basher) in the local garage's exhaust pipe bender, which does a decent job, but crushes the tube somewhat. The rollbar (same size) for my Morris project was bent by the shop that built it, and is nicely done, with no crush. I didn't see what type of bender they used though.

Do you have the rest of the wiring diagrams? It might be that it is used for other ignition-switched power feeds. I went and looked at my crazy conversion using an early VN, and I didn't see an Ignition relay up by the original battery location. There are some unlabelled ones near the ignition switch though.

OK, looked in the book instead of guessing - unmodifed ball joint ends from a production vehicle of similar weight are OK. - custom spherical bearing rods ends may be ok if: - 11 conditions follow that I don't want to type out. Section 7.28 of the HCTM So, you may be OK, if they are super-spiffy top quality rod ends with pull-out prevention washers, kevlar lining etc.

Highly not likely.

That sucks big. After 3 1/2 years and all the other problems I can't imagine how pissed off you must be. Good idea to put it away for a while. Try to find some dry storage so you don't get too much corrosion. I've read that fire extinguisher chemicals can cause problems if left on steel/alloy for too long.

How about something like this, easier to fit likely. Got one under the bench myself for possible future project. http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/car-par ... 584250.htm

Heh, tractor grips for style win! I think I'll just stay out of the mud holes until it dries up a bit. Have 'test driven' some more. Now has mud and grass all over. Picked up steel selection today. Need to bend up main rollbar when I get back from travels.

It's plenty slippery down in the grass right now

New, improved, with actual floors and other bits. Test thrashed in paddock. Got stuck, got unstuck. Found that some proper mud tires would be a help, but $$$ constrained. Upside-down commy bumper. Had to wash most of the mud off.

OK, two new wheel cylinders purchased and fitted. I dislike dicking around inside brake drums, especially auto-adjust rear brakes with have 8 springs, two cables, two stamped metal doohickies, the ratchet adjuster, handbrake lever and , and a handbrake trasfer plate

Lol, yeah, anyone got a machine gun for sale? It's a bugger to drive in a straight line right now, couldn't get it back on the lift properly. Picked up a better tire from a shops junk pile on the way home today, so will see if I can get that fitted when I pull the wheel cylinder.

Some harnesses seemed a good idea. Seats are from the commodore. Got the engine wired with all the original loom. Have left all the unneeded bits (like lights) in place, but haven't put anything but the EFI main fuse in. Even managed to use the commodore fuel lines and gas tank/pump. The wagon tank is an awkward shape and size but I kept it for budget reasons. Gauge panel works. Fired it up like this. After tidying up the wiring and mounting a few bits and pieces I ran the brake lines (using shortened commy bits again) and had a bleeding session. One of the bleeders broke in the rear brakes (shit!) but the front brakes work OK (or enough for a couple of laps around the driveway any). Sounds good with no mufflers, might leave it like that. Doesn't drive well with flat tire though. And it was raining. Looks a bit mad-max-ish. Still a few things to do - fix brake - need some floor plates - Rollbar and upper harness mounts. - Front bumper (I have some 4" pipe for this) - Might need a restrictor plate for the engine!

Pulled the mighty 3.8 from the Commodore. Kept all the plumbing and wiring in good shape so I wouldn't have to dick around with changing/replacing it. Somewhere around there should do it. Had a minor cock-up with steering box clearance (only found after the mounts were welded in) but sort that by spacing the steering box out a bit. Commy seats and steering column. Picked up 6 six-stud wheels of TM, probably less than scrap price. On a budget, so cut and shut the two-piece holden driveshaft into a single. Machined a spud to align the two parts before welding it together. Also needed a spigot adapter for the diff flange to centre the two different diameters up. I redrilled the L200 flange to suit the commodore pattern.

Have had an urge for a paddock hack/beach buggy for a while. Picked up the L200 rolling chassis cheep from TM. Collection was interesting. It had been stored on top of a shed in a wrecking yard, but since they put it up there a year ago with a forklift some new sheds and a fence had been built and there was no way to get it down again. They had to borrow a crane truck from up the road to lift it off, and dropped it straight onto my trailer. Next thing was a suitable engine. I have a couple sitting around (Holden 6, 2T, etc) but didn't want to subject these to thrash duty. Auto preferred for build simplicity too. Finally turned up this dereg (but running/driving) turd. Had already been subject to skid duty by the look of the rear tires. Needed chassis shorter, so gave it the chop by about 500mm Pipe is just there to see where driveshaft might be a problem. Also welded the diff while it was off the chassis, and took a couple of leaves out of the springys.

*fingers crossed for you*

It's just steel. What do you think the spring shops do?