yoeddynz

Does that digital speedo still have a normal speedo cable going into the back of it? And is the odometer digiital or analogue?

How about Fiji style flares- quite easy to fit.... And was that a whole magazine dedicated to Gems or just a one off special edition by fast fours etc?

we pulled out the old motor and had to clean up decades of oil and dirt. While I did that hannah cleaned up the gearbox from van 2. We used our heavy item shifter to move box about- its bloody heavy . I forgot to take photos of how we managed to join box onto engine from underneath- it involved lots of wood and the scissor jack from our nissa 1.3 racing sunny. It never fails to put a smile on my face when I hear the dull 'thunk' when box slides home on the splines and the faces meet. I welded up some brackets and flanges to bolt the crossmember between the seats back in place. We also swapped the entire steering system across. Our old one was sloppy...and sticky...at the same time. Last night we took it out for a good ragging and new engine is amazing! Not faster as such but sooooo much gruntier! Going out over a local pass that used to be 3rd all the way up is now easy 4th and 5th! sweet. And it starts so easily. very very happy. New gearbox is tighter with better syncros. We swapped the entire steering over too- no more slack in the dead ahead and smooth non sticking rack. Also swapped the LH upper front arm over- these vans have the cast in ball joint that toyota NZ want $400 for! Ours was a fail at WOF time till I told them that Toyota allow for upto 2.6mm play - but ours was pretty much at that so we just sneaked through that test. Anyway...the green van had a excellent LH ball joint. And new mirrors that actually fit properly and work. There was a leak coming from the bottom of the cam belt cover though. It was intermittent - like I would clean it away when van was idling and it would stop. Then after a drive it would be dripping again. My guess was that the crankcase was getting slightly pressurised whilst driving forcing some through the front crank seal? I checked the breather hose and it was fine though. Well we took off the cambelt cover this morning- gave it all a good clean and then put fan belts back on and warmed up engine- no leaks anywhere. So we took it for a spin- just drivers seat in- no engine cover in place and gave it a good drive. Had a look several times and nothing- no leaks, really odd! Maybe it was old oil built up behind the cover that melted.. I dunno. But we are happy. i'm sure next time we take it out with outs tools, overalls etc it'll leak : At least it'll stop the diff from getting rusty.... Pretty much stripped the other van right back. Just take the screens and the muffler and then get the shell collected. Amazing the amount of little bits we have scored! I cant be the only one who gets a big kick from little things in life like discovering an unworn clutch pedal rubber or unmarked sunvisors in the spares van. Oh- and we discovered the green van has oldschool air shocks like my old triumph had. You just pump them up with a schreader valve when carrying a heavy load. We nabbed them tonight just at sunset. Found this if anyone wants any good info on 2L engines.... http://www.onlinefreeebooks.net/automot ... l-pdf.html

Bloody hell that would be a fucking mission to remove all that lot- There is a heck of a lot of extra shit on these 4wd ones- and most underside bolts are rusted or bashed. Nup- quite happy the way we did it The belts, pump etc were all done in the recon and its barely run in.. . Not gonna touch it as it seems all good. I think the sump has a small leak but I have a plan anyway to reposition the drain away from its stupid rock attracting bottom position. I'm after some round headlights and surrounds if anyone can help.

yeah we are on 15's chris. Once we realised we'd keep this one we hunted around for other tyre bargains and found some new ones really cheap we just couldn't pass by. Must pop round yours next time and get the alignment sorted so we dont wear these ones out! Yep- we would have gone through passenger door but boom not long enough on hoist. But really happy now that i have my patented 'removable engine access system' perfected.. Any ideas on how heavy these engines are?

Edit: I have re-linked some of the missing photos where I can but some others are lost to the company that was tinypic. Oh well. You'll have to just picture what I'm explaining in some sections Read on... This is our workhorse since January 2010 and what a beaut it has been. It has carried so much stuff for our housetruck build, been shelter while out camping with mountain bikes, taken us on long trips about south Island and not missed a single beat. But it has always used alot of oil- like one pint per 200 miles and its getting worse. The day we bought it... Inside In use camping.. Built a little wood burner for winter trips. Works a treat. Whiskey is optional... Its definitely an earlier robust agricultural Toyota and I love it. Ok its not quite as agricultural as my old landrover but for a 'modern' vehicle its quite basic. We were going to get a newer van 2 weeks ago and actually won one on trademe but the fella failed to mention a severe rear main seal leak which he had tried to hide with silicone on bellhousing plus a small matter of the 4wd system not engaging. I fixed the 4wd on the spot- its silly vacuum operated 4wd engaging system had a hose missing. Not sure why Toyota had to change and add complexity? What was wrong with the lever like ours ? it just has to travel 3 inches further. Anyway, all this left us not that keen on buying another and instead sticking with what we know. So we decided to keep old faithful and spent some decent money on new shoes for it to celebrate. Now some of you may well say "its just a toyota van- why bother with a thread?" And I agree- up till today when I realised how cool I think this van actually is. Its a rare thing now to find an older 4wd hiace- most are all the next series ' the 100 series- from '89 on. In fact I have yet to see another old 60 series like ours on the road. I have seen two for sale on trade me. We only got ours by chance when a backpacker from the Czech republic was leaving and advertised it locally. we were smitten with its looks, long wheelbase, simple mechanics and clean condition bodywise but not ots performance nor noisy cv joint or the oil burning tendency. But we knocked him down to a nice price and it began its long suffering service for us. For the next WOF test I cut out the only bad rust along the bottom of the rear side windows and welded in fresh steel. and that was it. Its simple, very very cheap to run and but for the noisy cv joint (split cv boot has let it go dry) it is a very capable 4wd. Unlike the later full time 4wd hiaces this one has high and low range transfer box and manual front hubs which we can lock by reaching down from open door not even getting muddy. The oil burning feature has been a pain though and we thought about fitting a new engine but couldnt swallow the price. Then hannah spotted a van just like ours for sale in local paper by a friend of mums. It had a full big money engine recondition about 9 years ago and has only done 29,000 k's since. Body was rough and it is a short wheelbase but we went to test drive it and two days later its on the drive for a bargain price! sweet. It shall be called van number 2. So the last day and a bit has been spent removing the engine from it and cleaning it up. Tonight we finished up by almost getting the engine out of van number 1. Its has been a drama to say the least. This is the first time I have ever removed a engine from a forward control van and toyota have not made it easy. The engine is bloody heavy, gearbox pretty bloody big and there is a design fault I have had to modify..... We had been advised by a 'real' (does it for a living) mechanic friend that they will come out through the door but they usually just drop the lot on the floor and hoist van up- nice if you have a 4 post lift or bloody big trolley jack. We borrowed a nice engine hoist from another friend but soon found out that the hoist did not have a long enough boom to reach the centre of engine. Even if it did the crossmember between the seats was in the way. I ummmed and errrd about what to do. We lowered engine as much as possible and I managed to wiggle box off- boy its heavy compared to the more usual mazd rx, vauxhall or Triumph boxes I have dealt with in the past. After a nice strong afternoon coffee I came up with a solution... so simple- why didn't Toymoter think of this?... probably because they expect most people get a garage to do stuff lkike this. But not in deepest Africa, Iran. Bolivia...or Blenheim -Pics missing- I will either weld the member back in or even better make it so it bolts in place for future work (hopefully never!...) And out the engine comes- easy peasy. -pics missing- Tomorrow we lift the other old tired engine out and then begin big cleanup of all the caked on oil and dirt in engine bay. Nice. I hope its sunny again. The hardest bit I think will be tring to line up box to engine under van and wiggling both together. Not looking forwards to that bit. But once that is done we will be on the home straight. We also plan to raid van 2 of anything we can store that may be needed (like the working heater matrix) for the future and then get shell taken away by a bloke with a truck and hiab.

A bit late of a notification- sorry...in fact really bloody late but ya never know... http://www.sportsground.co.nz/ClubSite. ... geID=58232

Pulled out the Rennai water heater this morning and had another look inside it. Quite a bit more complicated then the old Paloma.... Interestingly, well to me it is, they are both made in the same town in Japan. I always thought Paloma were English or italian. Installed the old faithful Paloma in place and it works fine- but its only 4L/min compared to 5 from the Rennai. Would still be a good enough shower spray but not amazing like the Rennai ones put out. I have taken the Rennai back to where we bought it and they will test it. On way back we popped by Resene paints and spent 1.5 hours deliberating over the colour for shower and for the kitchen area. Bloody tricky. The shower is gonna be bright!!!! You'll have to wait.......

I do enjoy reading your threads! Always well written and funny. And now I have started to spot SD1's about (not many) thanks...

good news on the new kid... Now get her to work on the viva pronto!

ha ha i wish it were that easy. I'm gonna put a picture up of the inside of this sucker. Its got a box of bloody electronic tricks. Its just a water heater but leave it to the jap's to make it more complex. I've got another old old palomar one i brought back - being english(i think?) it will be simple and work. But it will probably leak..

what we've done in the past works a treat- seal all edges, corners and then a good paint job with quality enamel paint. works fine. really glad we have a s/s tray though! Our Rennai reu-68et califont wont work. Its an automatic igniting one... and it wont fucking ignite! Batterys are good, gas is getting there, water pressure seems ok. i wish they just kept making the older models that had a pilot light like ive had in the past! Anyone reading this have any ideas?

Kitchen time. Started by chopping down that stainless bench to the right length.... Then place the 200 litre tank in position. Why have the tank inside?...because after a trip about scotland at christmas in my old Iveco with the tank freezing up and having no shower after bloody cold mtb rides I said never again. And that iveco was well insulated. Anyway the tank is right where we need some steps so works well. Then insulate the fridge box walls as I go. I didn't see any point not doing it as they are thick walls anyway some might as well. If it helps keep the fridge from working hard then that's always good. We had done this in the Bedford and hardly needed the fridge running except when it bloody hot in France/Italy. If running on gas it was very thrifty too. I had to put a hole through the wall for fridge flue. I sealed it up and it turned out ok. The fridge we bought off Trademe is three way- 240v/12v/gas. It didn't come with a flue. I was looking through my scraps of metal and found the old wetback pipes I had lopped off the stove- perfect size. A bit of chopping, squeezing and soldering and all good. All I need now is a proper Electrolux flue cover to stop the wind blowing the flame out. Through out the building of the shower and kitchen I have kept all gas lines and hoses routed in such a way that if need be I will be able to easily replace them with minimal effort. A bit paranoid but if it helps one day. Last night I finished all the gas pipes- I managed to use the length of pipe that was for the diesel heater in the house and use the 3 way junction we had ripped out of an old Merc van that we scrapped before leaving Blighty. All the other fittings I got cheap from my old work so all in all this part hasn't cost too much. Which is nice. We cranked up the oven and the fridge once all was done. It is a really nice feeling being at the stage that we can now cook on our own oven!

Righto- after several bloody edit as I get to grips with working out imageshack here are some new updates... Shower has been built. just painting and plumbing to do. the plumbing will begin tomorrow as I have finally gathered all the gas fittings etc. In fact I have liberated the copper fuel pipe from under the olds house from the central heating system they used to use. Sweet as because I priced up copper pipe and boy its expensive! Saved heaps. Recycling rocks So here are some images of the shower coming together.. More later of this. And we got a wicked LPG gas oven on monday. So happy with it. I've been looking for one like this for ages and the last one we saw we missed out on. Its got an eye level grill like we had in the Bedford in Blighty. I love this feature as pretty much all my fancy cooking that doesn't involve weetbix is done on a grill. Plus its got a cool 70's look about it. It has taken us two days to clean up properly and fix a few bits. I need to make a pan for the grill too. Its not often I have seen ovens being welded on a car forum so here ya all go... Here it is all shiny like... I would have taken it down to an underground carpark and snapped some uber cool shots with cunning lighting if, A: Blenheim had an underground carpark. B: it wouldn't involve wheeling a heavy oven downtown in a wheelbarrow with my crook knee whilst looking ever so slightly dodgy. So I took this trendy shot here which only necessitated me getting down on the floor- that I can handle.

Band -aid brown?.... like this beauty... I forgot about this car I had taken shots of ages back here in sunny Blenheim. Hannah almost went through the windscreen as I stopped so fast and reversed back, out in a flash with camera. I couldn't believe it. Does this car win the 'most accessories fitted' award ? Here some more...

I found that one too. Its pretty bloody nice.

Here ya go...trump porn....our UK 2500S

Cool car! My first ever car was a 2500tc. Very very underrated cars! They are such good mile munchers. In 2006 we bought a 2500s estate in england. fuck it was a wicked car and so useful. sadly missed- the estates seem rare here? I would love a mk1 estate with the 2500 tc engine. I think your car looks amazing in red- not a very common colour? Id keep it that way personally. I think I might have some PI badges kicking about- i have a look for ya.

Your not the only one with a cat that insists on helping- although ours doesn't really help so much as just waste our time...

Cheers for that. Its good posting it all up- if only to look back and see how far we have come when things are going slowly. We are building the shower right now and its coming along nicely. Plus we just scored a wicked oldschool LPG oven with an eye level grill !!!! A rare thing in NZ!

what thickness is that? we bought 2.4 x 1.2 sheet of 3mm for $270. we wanted 3mm as most of our frames were not made with it in mind so any thicker and we'd be out over the edge. $1200 for i imagine 4mm with scratch proof coating at that size seems ok. Still bloody expensive shit though eh- me thinks someone down the line is getting rich!

motorway speeds? hehe - your funny. but yeah- we have started putting lexan in front of all windows...mainly to keep mr vtnz man happy. Its quite amazing how tough leadlight windows are though- in big earth quakes it quite usual for them to be the only windows left intact as they flex rather than crack. Good thing about the lexan is that the leadlights stay clean. bad thing is that the lexan will scratch easily. Perspex aint allowed as it can still shatter.

As I now have a massive bandage around my right knee due to having a section of my patella tendon removed :'( I'm kicking my feet up for a few days. But I took some photos as we just managed to finish the last windows and cladding. So cool- we can now start building the bathroom. So here are some photos of the latest windows, spare room, the bedroom where I spent yesterday snoozing in the sun ;D etc. The spare room. Just needs a shelf across below the windows to section off room from below. And this is the opening window the front of spare room- the brass rope pulley thingee we got at a reclamation yard.. Here's the bedroom with a double mattress down. So much room left. Its well cosy with the sun coming through the windows and looking up through skylights.. Looking back- Hannah accident broke the frosted window that was gonna go here so we ordered a piece of toughened cut cut to size. Its much better being able to see fully through it. and a view from the roof... here's a pop out roof...note the 16mm alloy tube drains in each corner

You dont need to change the nose cone- Its just the vertical panel behind that has a different shaped hole- on poppy innys the hole is larger. I have had the cut the hole larger on 4 or 5 chevettes with poppy outtys to fit innys. Then the outtys were sent to the devil. The poppy outtys look like the designers were about to head home for tea when one said" shit- the lights! what should we do?" "I know- lets just stick these on- my dinners getting cold"

Those poppy outty headlights are evil. It was a long time discussion on the chevettes.com forum years ago. It split the forum in half and many a death occurred over it. Fortunately NZ seems to be mainly poppy inny lights. They are better looking and you can put your mug of tea in them while working on the car. Or tools. The problem in the UK was that they collected snow whilst driving in a snow storm... I might start stock piling the surrounds as they are a touch brittle. One day I will own another chevette....