yoeddynz

Eh? Another update so soon?! Yep. I thought I'd better add some general 'classic car actually getting used' photos because it does actually get hooned about quite a lot. For example - I hooned all the way to the oldschool '23 Nats. A huge distance for this little car @ around 5km this year Quite handy having the Nats on our doorstep this year. A great weekend of catching up with loads of good mates and checking out some cool cars/eating food/fine ales etc. I didn't actually take many pics of the event full stop let alone the Imp so here's a smattering.. A sports car and a Jag... Had a good time racing over the Takaka hill on the way back from the Saturdays cruise to Golden bay with that Jag. I don't think the Jag Six was needing to put in as much effort as my little Datsun 1200 was up the hill Good solid fun trashing little engines. Other O.S cars at the lunchtime stop in the bay... On the way back, stopping for the most unlikely car to breakdown, a Corolla - did just that again... As well as going to Nats this summer has seen the Imp doing many trips to various beaches in our bay. It makes for a pretty fun and cheap way to get around all the little roads here. general lurking... Spotted the Bedford CF I played a major part in building a few years ago - the van sits atop a full Falcon running gear and suspension. I never realised quite how similar the paint colour is to my Imp... A big change this past year that's been just so good for the car is it having its own garage to reside in. Throughout the hottest days this summer its been out of the sun and kept clean - free of the usual pine pollen we get, then the dust from the yard. Its super dry in there and makes it more of an event to 'take the Imp'. Plus it just looks so perfect in there .... The bikes are safe and dry too. Wonderful not having all of that car, bikes and other stuff in the main engineering workshop! Oh also this summer I spotted the perfect picnic set for the Imp (although possibly a tad too heavy/bulky..) So yeah - the car has been used plenty over the summer even though I've not done so much on the flat six and I think this helps me keep enthused about the Imp in general. Its well worthy of a better heart. So back to that heart. Continuing on from the last post I had the collectors in the shape I wanted and after a bit of careful trimming with the flapdisc I had them fitting close enough that I wasn't going to have to fill any large gaps with filler rod. I took my time welding them, trying to not blow through and they turned out fine... With those in place I was able to weld the engine side of V clamps in place. I bolted the engine cross member in place and double checked the clearances. It was still lining up good so on with the weldiing. Very carefully too, with lots of tacks first because I had read that V clamps can easily warp if the welding is too hot, slow, uneven etc. Luckily I must have been careful enough because they stayed flat and true Next up is the oil filler placement. I really want to get this in the right spot, not just for the function but the looks. It'll be right there on display, doing its best to upset the symmetry of the horizontally opposed engine. I decided I needed to get another idea of what's on display when the lower half of the engine is 'hidden' behind the rear valance. The top bit of this alloy box section is pretty much where the top of the valance will be (slam panel?) The filler will have to come up to the left at a slight angle because there's no way its going to sit in front of the main pulley. I'm not yet set on the height of the filler cap but for now that can wait. There will be plenty of room in that area. I'm still going to use the extra pair of flanges I machined up when I made the filler plug. These will allow me to unbolt the vertical part of the filler tube so I can easily remove the cam belt cover. I also don't really want the tube poking up in the way, waiting to get knocked while I move the engine about the workshop or while fitting it etc So yeah- I think I'll machine the front plate to suit the base flange, mount that, weld the lower bits of tube to suit and leave deciding the final height of the top half of the filler tube till later on when the engine is in place

But once he fits the cerbera engine with its flat plane crank....

Well there goes 5 months. Ha. I've been too busy doing the summer things, entertaining guests, lots of cycling, loads of swimming and some hiking. But I have still been whittling away on this engine. I'd love to have done more but like I think I said in a previous post - I only really want to do it when I can properly relax and enjoy the process. Plus summer has continued on quite nicely here - it's really only just become late summer However there has been a few chilly evenings and some decent rain had recently which makes for perfect tinkering time. So where I left off was some water pipe work. I needed to build some pipes to get the cold water into the heads. The original goldwing water pump used to reside about the middle of the engine at the front (now the back..) and feed straight out into a rubber hose that split the flow equally up into the heads. But I'm now bringing the water from the front mounted radiator, via the electric pump, along the side of the engine and up into the heads. I'm going to use the original steel pipes that go into the heads. I chopped the bends off the ends of the old hose, fitted them onto some stainless tube like this.. Now I needed to feed that pipe evenly. I cut a hole in it and squeezed the end of a stainless elbow to suit.. Mitred the end to suit.. Welded it in place.. Then continued the pipe work so it made its way around the block. I've kept it tucked away so its not out on view too much when looking into the engine bay- for a cleaner look. I'll continue the rest of the pipework later on and brace it off a mount further back. Possibly add a little heat shield where it runs close to the exhaust headers although I don't really think the water will absorb up much heat from them. But just in case.. While I was doing the summer things I had some bits turn up from China. Some nice connectors for the engine loom. My hope is to have a setup that really easily connects with just a couple of main plugs. Time will tell on that but these will certainly help. Another parcel - more goodies.. Yay. I can continue on with the exhaust work. I need to form some 3 into 1 collectors to suit. But I need a press. Then a customers job that was in also needed a press. A Hiace van in which I was rebuilding the front suspension and new bushes had to be pressed into place. So I built a press. We had plenty of steel in the rack left over from customers jobs and an old 12 ton bottle jack so the only thing I had to buy was a pair of springs. I made the press nice and tall to suit my height and allow for long jobs in the future. Press in action on hiace arms.. I painted it a nice grey. I machined up a stub and a couple of different ends to suit. Over time I'll be sure to accumulate many different bits to use. Now I've been using it I wish I'd built one ages ago!!! So back to the exhaust. I made a form with some pipe offcuts. 3 into 1. It worked but I just felt the angle was to sharp a transition. Version two, on the right, next to version one... Worked well but getting near the end of the forming it started to collapse... This surprised me. I was expecting the stainless tube to split. The form deformed so much that I couldn't get the last bit of flare I needed. Roll on version three... This one I reinforced.. It worked a treat. Much better.. Back into the press and I applied some heat and hit it with a hammer... Which created this... Now to fuse these collectors onto the headers. I filled in the middle hole between the tubes with a teeny little triangle of stainless. Then with more little triangles I filled up the gaps where I couldnt get the collectors formed close enough. That's where I'm at now. I added the filling triangles to both headers and will carefully flap disc them neatly so they match the collectors as well as I can so making for an easier time welding. I know the welding wont be flash. Functional - not artisan.. but I'll just be happy to get to that point because its like a big part of the build to check off. I promise I shall do my best to get more time in on this build from now on. however - I do have this shiny Scott CR1 road frame that I've just painted to build up and ride before winter turns up... Alex

Nup - the barry in me seez it's too original and actually runs really well. So I'll sell it and find a suitably shitty old dirt bike to cobble together instead.

I'd have to upgrade me thinks..

This sounds like exactly the sort of thing that @Testament warned me of in my boat thread.. ...."I hope you are quite aware you have just acquired a bottomless hole in the ocean that can only be filled with money, or possibly the blood of your first born"

inspirational. This reminds me that I too have a boat. Its really good at propping up old bikes and firewood. I promise I will try harder.

Just listen to this little beastie. These little things can scream and sound glorious

Just found this thread I'd somehow missed on RR. Some very neat ideas and touches going on with the fellas build. https://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/222036/1976-toyota-celica-frankenstein-build?page=1

if you paint it green...

Oh neat- I never knew our van was available as a twin headlight version! I imagine its still got a leaf spring rear end like ours - not the super custom 5 link coil setup yours will have?

You do a fantastic job there CH. Check out this fella on instagram for some cool car models he does a lovely job of adding patina to (I'm sure there's others on there but this is just one that the bots found for me) https://www.instagram.com/sandlundart/#

Dylan told me about this at swap meet. Gutted for you. Should have taken the 911...

No probs. I've got the solution for you!

Nice! I have a soft spot for these. It looks pretty clean! Watching with interest. Which part of the better island are you moving to?

Video of Dave dropping a V6 onto scanner please

Yeah that's the stuff. I always thought it was a steel blend. But yep- its much harder than the straight copper stuff that's allowed to be used in the UK. Cheers for the link. @Flash yes- the slipping. I have resorted to using a g clamp to squeeze the tool up to stop it slipping. But even then I still have to make sure I get the little form dead square with the tool or else the flare goes off uneven. Keen on a better tool like above.

Yeah I've popped in to ask about that tool. Curious on how it works. I too have the same unit as your old one and they certainly have to be used carefully and with extra clamping to give decent results. I'm keen on anything better. My old work place had an old American made setup that was beautifully machined and very solid but only good for using at the bench (which is fine must of the time) but I've never seen one for sale and I'm sure it wasn't cheap anyway. Also - the pipe you're using looks to be copper? If it is then I presume that's OK in oz? I know it's fine in the UK. In nz we have to use proper steel 'bundy' brake pipe for brake lines. Copper is fine for the clutch though.

The sound alone will be worth it.

I went to my local friendly pet engineer and grabbed some short lengths of stainless tube there.

I got all my stainless elbows from this seller and they arrived within two weeks... https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002228457438.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.31.11f61802453Mww

This has indeed been an awesomely fun project to follow and the best thing is - you're still here, you're still Dave the graph, you've got another motor to play with so we can all look forward to following your upcoming posts on your carina thread with the V6. Then after that's finished it'll be the echo thread with a V6

I'm very excited about the direction you're taking. You know I'm partial to small displacement sixs. The klze 2.5 in my Viva was superb (it still is - the new owner loves it and its thrashed often). The sound was great and mine was pretty damn quiet really. So smooooooth! I can't quite remember but I think I'd kept my limiter at 7.5 or 8k. No point going higher without swapping in the solid lifters. I'll put this here because it's such a wonderful sounding engine. I'm sure you'll end up with a gem!

Yep. I had a long chat with a helpful fella at nzta about this and tried all sorts of avenues to try and avoid having to get a tsl for the Bedford , including the fact its historic and could I just use it for classic car shows etc. There just doesn't seem to be a way around short of changing the rego to Mobile home - and you can't just do that because it has to be inspected/have a sink/beds/seat belts etc etc. But as Shizzle has stated- its still a bit of a grey area and you could sneak through at certain places for a cof. But I know my local testing stations wont let me go for a cof with the Bedford without showing a valid TSL.

I think horizontal shaft motors spin slower and more steady like because any faster and the long canvas belt will pop off and then necessitate Barry to have to put is mug of tea down, clamber out from his $10 fold up chair and urgently wobble over to shut that damn thing down before the display is ruined.