yoeddynz

the fish and chips bit i like.

was built in north island - any more info would be great!

I'm not keeping it- i just wanted the rear axle and front brakes- i'll be swapping these bits over from mine and then offer it up to anyone who might want to take it on as a project.

I dont want to see this get scrapped or wreaked- and neither did the bloke i bought it off. Its too cool and to much hard work has gone into it by someone- and i respect that even if i think its ugly. massive amount of room for any engine ya like.

So if anyone might be keen on it then just say so.

Today i discovered its got replaceable bulbs in the headlights- sweet! mine are older sealed beam.

and i found a brand new spark plug on the floor. it just gets better....

sort of baby poo yellow

Here it is....

Its an old circuit racer built in the 80's (ish). Originally powered by a v8 with a huge tunnel to suit. At some point it had a 3.3 straight 6 in it too.

It had massive, wide, fat, dishy, huge wheels (thats 5 positives. they were big) hence the all steel arches. Someone has spent a lot of time building them neatly.

It is UGLY. I have named it the vauxhall Vulga. But could look cool with big wheels dropped down. But I'll never no as I'll be stripping it of some nice bits which include 1800 rear axle (it originally had a holden axle), big front discs off a ventoura with lower arms adapted to take the bigger ball joint. I need to swap the studs back to 4 stud.

It has a HB brake servo I need, better window seals and other bits and peices.

Its been through lots of owners and never really been back on the road much. Someone more recently did this to the inside...

So when i get time I'll swap parts across from car to car and then list the Vulga up for someone to take it away. Its too cool (in an ugly way) to break and it could be a great base for a race car.

Does anyone know more info/history about this car? It was built by someone in North island. I actually dont know when it was built but i'm guessing the 80's?

alex

well ive learned a lesson or two.

we were originally planned and budgeted to use ply before we got truck but discovered this siding so went that way instead. Money is an issue as far as we cant afford fancy woods.

I thought that stain wood work well and it di on the faces but that didnt stop water entering the ends- next time we will make proper capping so the ends are not exposed.

we are looking at doing the treated ply in a board and batten style. Or possibly use some western red cedar if we can score a deal on it....

yeah- that would be pretty heavy. Plus the pine will still soak up water/rot.

Sad as it is we are gonna have to let the pine go and try and make the ply look nice.

Maybe board and batten style.

I'M GUTTED to say the least.

I like the old leylands.

Lockeddiff. yep indeed high risk areas and already with the rain so far the windows are getting a good dosing!

several things i have planned.

I want to make rain deflectors every where possible. I dont know if thats the right word - hannah takes the piss every time i say it but what else should they be called. anyway- I want to make them to cover all windows and the pop outs plus some big ones to give etxtra cover around the veranda.

EDIT. The pine is taking in water along other edges that have yet been protected. some bits are sodden right through. I'm in a state of depression this morning! We have decided the pine is getting removed and treated ply is going up. Money isnt the issue here but all the time wasted putting the pine up is!!!!!!!!!! pissed off and sad at the same time.

We want a truck that will last and this pine wont. Its a real shame as we both love the look of it!

Any alternative ideas welcome.

alex

I put piazza under-garments in my chevette back in '93. The 'front' crossmember that mikuni mentions - just run a big drill up through body work and plate it at top i remember correctly.

The piazza axle is 40mm wider then chevette one.

Yeah- and the master cylinder needs a bigger bore or else it will have a soft (but effective) pedal feel.

you must have connections out there that you can score a nice truck cheap.

I think a good idea that we could have done if we had more time to search would be to re-power a nice old school truck thats on classic rego. Saving more monies and having something old and sweet!

what he said.

Yeah- I'd love to check it out. where about's are you?

asyncronus? Does that mean offset? They are offset because one will be a dining room table and seating for 4. That will be opposite the wood stove and next to kitchen. The other one will have a sofa and is directly opposite the workbench. Then after a hard stint of filing or hacksawing i can stumble backwards and fall into my sofa with my cup of tea perched next to it on a little shelf with car and cycling magazines opposite. Heaven.

You know your pussy's! They are indeed birmans. They are a breed in which we humans have bred out all the wild hunting instincts, skills etc so making them more soft, innocent, fluffy and cute. Very cool cats though. .

main thing was having the viva and not needing a chevette. Just wanting one.

I love road trips too. I'd like to buy a ferrari dino 246 in italy and drive it a long way back to britain. But need to sort out some things, like money, before i do that....

some photos today- I always forget and then its dark.

Nice waterproof roof of slid in popout and wavey rafters in background....

popout, workshop bench window and skylight...

window above sofa area....

I was watching that chevette too. but all the way up there and I have my Viva that needs love.

I love the vid- Brazil? I know they have a massive following over there for chevettes.

It did indeed rain today. But stopped by about 9 am. Coolio! How nice.

So we bought some flashing to cover the join along top of the roof. Now roof is finished.

While we were at the plumbers where we had also got a bargain deal on the Butynol roof membrane we had spotted a Rennai gas califont- exactly the same model I have fitted our 3 previous vehicles/homes.

And it was for sale. We ended up getting a near new califont made in Japan not China for a bargain $200. Sweet- thats a saving of $380. WE HAPPY!

its also got a slight volvo amazon look to the grill.

A bit of an update.

Its set to rain for the next week or so off and on so hence we have been trying to get the outside cladding up.

But first we had to finish the pop outs- these have been tricky. I would build these a different way next time. I designed them with only 5mm clearance between the sides of pop outs and the frame opening. Not enough to allow for odd bits of wood or any warping. All sorted now after more planing.

Given how much they could be out with only a few mm wrong here or there they ended up fitting like a glove which makes me very happy! We have also fitted some of the windows in the popouts and they look great.

When they are both pushed inside there is just enough room to squeeze through between them. Lucky I'm skinny. Not that it matters as once parked up they will be pushed out anyway.

I have decided to make an opening window over the workbench- there is already a skylight above it but really good natural light over it is important so an extra window will work wonders. Opening because I'm bound to make a few smelly fumes - glue, welding, paint etc.

Every so often we have to stop and give these little buggers a cuddle and that eats into our valuable building time...but its worth it!

We have just enough of the wavey cladding to reach the base of where the batoned ply will start over the bedroom and 'entertainment room'. This too makes me very happy. I thought we might run out. We are looking forwards to getting to the ply stage as it will mean very quick coverage!!! Today we started putting up the first bits of wood on the front of the truck which is cool- covering up the green painted steel.

We cant wait till its all covered and cosy inside. First thing we will install will be a woodburner! ;D

Tonight Hannah finished the last bit of staining as its set to rain soon. Jobs we can do while it is raining will be building some more window frames and building the locking systems for the popouts. Plus there is my Viva to continue rotorising...

On my mk1 escort there was enough room up under dash on pass side to hide a 300 watt amp. Then i built a 18mm thick board that sat on top of rear parcel shelf to hold two 6x9 speakers. these I hide with an old ma's blanket. You would never know!

In the RX3 I hide the amp in between the boot bracing and rear wing so not to use any boot space. Ran a cable up to front seat for ipod. speakers were home made box's with 6 x 9's. Again these sat on rear shelf and could be taken out side with long cables- ideal for BBQs etc and when car was parked up in dodgy areas they would go in the boot.

do you know if the lc shares the same share instrument pod as the hb torana? I have seen a few 6 dial dash's from lc's on aus ebay and they look the same as the 6 dial hb viva gt ones.

ohhhh they aint that posh! Maybe in the future when get my own lathe (one day, one day...) I could turn them out and push some bearings in but I dont think they will need it- I have drilled a small grease port in each one though. They roll sweet as under load.

A late update. It been quite hectic and not much appears to have been done but it has. We had to go to Christchurch to pick up more stuff. in fact half the project time is going about picking up bargains, hunting for lowest prices, research etc. Thats building on a budget for you. Its a shame- I'd love to buy everything in one go and have it all here ready. But it is fun getting bargains.

We put the cladding up as far as the base windows but had to stop to finish building the frames. And back to Plankville in Richmond, Nelson where we cleaned out Brent of the rest of his slices of this wood. I think we will have just enough to do the popouts and up to the bedroom where it will be plywood from there. The ply will be be broken up with batons 'a la oldschool medieval style houses (but they didn't have ply.... )

The cladding thus far...

Then of course we had some busy body neighbour decide they dont like the noise- which we have kept down and been within normal acceptable times. So twice we have had embarrassed looking noise control blokes come out- but its not excessive so they leave. Anyway- to keep everyone happy we popped out to a friends farm and used a shed to plane loads of wood down in one go- whilst it was drizzling outside

The slide outs are being built up one at a time- I have made some rollers up and they roll out lovely. Luckily the Engineers I went to get the alloy from let me use the lathe when he found out he used to work at the same place I did my time at- so that saved some hassle and money!

I need to get some nyloc nuts, put bike inner tube over the last two and paint them then they are all done- they are over built but wont give us any grief!

We are trying to keep things as square as possible so everything fits neatly. When they are out they should seal perfectly.

Lots of time has been spent building window frames- takes ages but they will look great- deeply varnished Rimu wood. Some of the stained glass solder joints were broken but I have fixed them up and now I want to build some myself- later on when we are living in it!

I will have to get a photo of all the windows made so far lined up.

We are going to stain the cladding and then seal it with some wormal wood seal from the states- its wicked when on- water just beads instantly and runs off

The stain we have decided on as after so much effort going into putting up nice bits of cladding we don't want it to go all silver and lose the colours of the different woods.

And lastly I found our old pad in England on google earth - when zoomed in we can see our bedford TK, our totally hippy mates Bedford bus with his completely unhippy mint white FD RX7 next to it , our old bmw 525TDS estate, our old blue chevette 4 door and possibly my Rx3 next to shed. I love Google earth. And we do miss our old pad out in the country side 1 minutes walk form a quiet pub with free wireless!

ok. Its always worth asking. I might put up a wanted ad later.

Ahhh now you tell me. I could just give you some beer and you can fit out our truck...

My joinery skills are a bit naff. I'm always learning but I have little patience when it comes to working with wood. I like it but I think its best when you have a decent workshop with some good machines. We could do with a bandsaw and a router but moneys tight.

Do you happen to have any Rimu etc kicking about that's of no use to ya...? I'm after any thing that can be used to clad out the inside in the future.

yep- I'm not trying to be an arsehole at all. I dont want and never have wanted to annoy the other neighbours and so far they have been great with a lot of tolerance- probably because they can see what I'm creating plus they no I stop any noise after 6pm. I Dont start early either- thats sleep time...

Anyway- I rang the council this morning, spoke to the noise control office lady. She said that it is up to the person who is sent out to make the call whether its excessive or not. IF they think so they will tell me on the spot and give me a warning.

So far both blokes who came out didn't warn me. They just asked what I was doing and for how long. Both seemed embarassed actually.

If the council keep getting complaints from the same person then that person will basically be told that the noise I'm creating is not excessive and basically GET A LIFE...

So I'll just keep being polite, courteous etc with the control officers if they come again and hopefully that will be that.

Still.. we went out today again to the farm and spent 3 hours or so planing and cutting. Its the best thing to do- keeps everyone happy, we can chill and we got loads of future wood done in one go. Plus if I'm lucky I get cake and we all love a bit of cake....