~Slideways~

It got wet inside but these gauges might be ok since they are under a cover, they are VDO which means there were probably pretty decent:

The roof is the door and it is damaged, it lifts up via hydraulics which looks like it was disconnected at some stage. There is a big switch in the drivers side, on the other side of the panel inside the body there is this: Which leads to this blurry ram jobby: And at the back on the car by the engine is this pump, with disconnected hose:

A little bit of detail on the engine, its a 711M block and L3 head which should make it a 1600 sport. But it has extractors and a 42 DCOE 8 Weber. I wonder if its standard internals and cam? I haven't tried turning it over yet. The coil was removed and inside the car, either its dead or was a way of immobilizing it. The fabricated radiator pipes are steel and rusty inside, no water in it due to dried and cracked bottom hose (I assume). It does have oil in it.

It was wet inside and one thing I found was a brown looking wet newspaper, so I dried it out and found it was from 1983. The windscreen shattered glass is still all through it, so it looks as though it was left for 35 years. I was born 35 years ago. Weird. Look at these NEW Honda's: Steve Millen:

And the next morning I got a reply!? The Hospital HR manager said he doesn't know the car/owner but he happens to be the editor for the Constructors Car Club (kits cars, homebuilt etc) and he would pass it on to their Historian who might be able to help. The historian has been an amazing help, he wrote an article about the history of the Purvis Eureka in NZ. Two accountants in NZ got the rights from Alan Purvis of Australia, who owned the rights there after getting the rights from Richard Oakes who designed it in the UK in '71 (ish). The article was very interesting but in summary, they cost too much to make and they only made 7. They had the plan of offering them with either a Rotary or a Ford Crossflow Kent 1600, instead of the most common (in Australia and UK) VW Beetle engine, since they are based on a Beetle floor pan. These were built by Tony Lynch of Lynchbuilt in Auckland. So it looks as though mine is 1 of 5 built with Ford x/flow power. I was given Tony's email address, and I emailed asking if this car was one that he built and if he had any records. To my surprise he replied and again, very helpfully confirmed that he did build them (the final assembly and fabrication) but the body panels, engines, wheels etc were supplied by the guy running the project (with the rights in NZ). So Tony suggested trying to track him down, he unfortunately hasn't been in contact for many years so wasn't able to help there. So I looked up the name and the word accountant which lead to one possible option, which kind of fit. An address is all I have to go on so I've just printed out a letter with some photos, in the small chance it is the same guy. If it isn't they might get a bit of entertainment out of it I guess. No harm in trying.

Next was trying to find any details on the registration. The plates are black and look to be issued in 1978 which. Google tells me, in very little detail that from '77 to '79 someone made them under licence in Auckland. No records of how many were made or by who. I searched the car for anything, no windscreen for reg or wof, nothing on the number plates but they look like they have been on there since 1978 at least. Then I found a sticker inside the drivers lexan window, which is very very sun damaged so can't see from outside. "Wellington Hospital Parking 1980-1983" A lead! A stupid one, but SOMETHING. So I emailed Wellington hospital via their employee records info request thing. Worth a try right? Maybe someone remembers the car or who owned it almost 40 years ago...long shot.

Before I bought it I did look into whether you can still get a windscreen. First lead was that he seller said a "guy who does certifications in Lower Hutt also has one". So I rang who I thought it was and turns out he has a Rotary powered one and some spares, but no windscreen. He did say it used to be possible to buy them in Australia but had no contacts. So I joined a FB group for Australian Purvis Eureka owners and trawled through that looking for any mention of windscreens. Ended up posting and asking and got a lead for Moran Motor Glass in Queensland, AU. So I googled them and called, the guy was very helpful and said they can be made to order but the shipping would be bad so said a company they work with in Hamilton should be able to order one. So I rang Windscreens Direct Hamilton and spoke to Dean. He said there are two type so it needs to be measured. But it can be done, they are made in Vietnam and there is a 10 week wait. Cool. A windscreen is possible. The fibreglass windscreen frame is damaged so that needs looking at before ordering one. I figured out that I had the later slightly higher roof line version, this is like GT40 height, or pretty close to it.

For some reason my wife hasn't murdered me. So here's another project. It popped up on the Facebook market place, which is about the only thing it's good for in my mind. Long story short, the seller had it among several other assorted wrecks on a big off the grid property, the cars were already on the land when he bought it so there is zero history. I wrote out a receipt stating this so I have a way of proving ownership. There is no police history for the plates or chassis number. The plate and chassis are not on Carjam, or NZTA where I spoke to a few people including a supervisor who was very helpful but basically it came down to the fact its not on their records because it must have been deregistered before they moved to a new system in 1994/5. Paper records were kept for 7 years then destroyed....fck. So here I am knowingly buying a unregistered car with no history, no windscreen (unique to the car) and has been left outside for who knows how long. But the metal floor pan is solid. WTF am I getting myself into:

Talking about GQ brakes, I have one and with 33's the brakes seemed to be marginal. I needed to certify it which involved a 100-0 kph x 4 consecutive brake tests. It initially failed due to fade. So I fitted some good pads, made a bracket to raised the rear proportioning valve to equal the suspension lift (then some adjusting as at first it made the rears lock up first). With that it passed. A few years later the brakes felt like they were made of wood. Tracked it down to a vacuum leak in the clutch booster and a weak vacuum from the pump/alternator. Blocked of clutch booster and fitted new alternator/vac pump. Now they are great, even towing heavy weights its good. TLDR: GQ brakes are actually pretty good with a little maintenance. EDIT: awesome project....think I've said that before...

Tony Lynch of Lynchbuilt replied to my email saying he did build the cars including this one based on the spec and he has offered his help which is awesome but for the paper work he suggested trying to find Stephen Fleming who was the owner of the rights in NZ. He took care of the paper work. Tony hasn't been in contact for many years. Some googling and the only accountant Stephen Fleming I can find was in a Stuff article about some IRD trouble. His age and location in the article fits... and I've found a bunch of companies under his name all in the same area that the Stuff article says, but no email or phone contact. I could send a letter...

Cool! I think this is 1 of only 7 built by Lynchbuilt in 1977ish, they only built 5 with the crossflow ford option and 2 with Rotary's. One technically the 8th was a demonstrator built in Aus and shipped here then converted to Rotary as a demonstrator for the cars that would be built here with either rotary or ford power. That car is now in Wellington. They made 7 turn key cars for already made orders before deciding it wouldn't be viable to build at their true cost, the accountants that got the rights to build them in NZ didn't get the figures right before taking orders. So I guess that makes it 1 of 5? Cool.

Well didn’t expect that... the manager of the HR department replied and said he is the editor for the Constructors Car Club so he might be able to help. He doesn’t know the car but said someone in the club might be interested in digging into its history. Also when I got it, it was wet inside (metal floor is solid though) and when I started pulling out the carpet I found an old newspaper. Too brown and soggy to read but I left it to dry and I can now open the pages. It’s a local paper taking about Petone rent and Kelson stuff with some ads for ‘new’ Honda’s from 1983 then I found the date and it’s definitely a paper from that year. With the glass still being all through it, it seems like it hasn’t been touched for 35 years!

I just sent an email to Wellington Hospital Who knows...maybe it won't be deleted and someone remembers seeing this silly red car in 1980? ....probably straight to spam.

So is the reuseofplates@nzta.govt.nz different to the $184 per hour 'alternative documents' form? I have that Purvis Eureka which I knew full well would be a nightmare to register, but I bought it anyway because there is something wrong with me I guess. Previous owner got it with a bunch of wrecks on the big section he bought, so no details, the guy before was not the owner either and got it as is. The black plates are not on carjam and NZTA couldn't find the chassis number either, even her supervisor tried looking on some other database but still nothing. She suggested the 'alternative documents form' after asking a bunch of questions. LVVTA couldn't find it on their declaration database either. It's kind of fun digging into it, but I hope I can get it done without needing to go through a scratch built cert. All I have is the black plates which look like they have been on it for 40 years and the VW Beetle chassis number I found under the soggy carpet. This tells me its a 1968 Beetle chassis, but again nothing comes up. I think its a 1977-1979 which is when they were built in Auckland, apparently they were later built in Blenheim again for a few years in the late 80's. There is a parking sticker for 'Wellington Hospital 1980-1983' on the very sun damaged lexan(?) side window. No windscreen so no ID stickers there either. I reckon it had a minor accident and the non-laminated windscreen went everywhere, couldn't replace it and parked it for 30+ years. And then 30 years later here I am with a cut finger and clearing out that same glass.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GK2uvBEKFE737eyh8 Video's super compressed on free google jobby but it kind of works. My boy asked if I could go back and drive through the puddle again so he could watch from the outside. Not sure who says something on the radio, might be forestry people?

Took my 4.5 year old boy out in this around the Akatarawa tracks to test out if he liked it and he was laughing his head off like a roller coaster. That's my boy. Hmmm video's not working. Here's some photo's instead:

Spoke to cert man and for the belt buckle he suggested finding a soft belt mounted one from another Nissan. Maybe the back seat ones will work, I don't think they will be long enough, otherwise I'll have a look at Pick a Part. Apparently Nissan uses their own buckle design. I've ordered some Hardrace caster arms after confirming his is happy with them Confirmed that the camber needs to be within 0.5deg of factory spec. Man that's strict, but hopefully I should be able to do that since the car isn't particularly low. Caster can be more than factory, but not less. So that's good, I thought maybe that would need to be within 1/2 a degree as well. I thought this looked cool, loaded on trailer ready for the cert inspection and it could almost be a before and after photo:

Alrighty, cert check has been done and I've got a list. Nothing too bad, maybe some will be a little annoying to sort out. - Front bump stops missing - need to find BC ones I guess. - Spring washers on the brake caliper brackets (only came with normal washers) - easy - Caster arms don't have a brand and have play in rose joint - will get some hardrace ones after confirming with cert man. - Spring washers on engine mount brackets (again, only supplied with normal washers) - easy enough bit hard to get to some of them though. - Engine mounts need spring washers (not supplied with them) - seems to be a theme here but I may need longer bolts to do this. - Gearbox mount nylocks don't have enough thread showing on the studs. - Was worried about this one, will have to see if I can fit longer studs or maybe bolts if it works. - More spring washers on drive shaft loop bolts (think he means a couple that arent the floor mount part). - easy. - Seat bolts need spring washers - easy...pretty sure the passenger one which is standard, never had any. - easy except maybe the two studs for seatbelt buckles which might not be long enough due to thickness of the seat mount base steel. - Drivers seat buckle not easy to access next to bucket seat. This one might be difficult, because it mounts to a stud. Unless it is acceptable to mount it to an extension bar (will have to ask cert man). Maybe it's an option to make a raised tab on the race seat base? It is made of 5mm steel.... this is an annoying one. Maybe even moving the seat over a bit. - Need to see proof of welds on rear quarters. Will see if the photos are ok from before it was painted. - maybe easy. - Calibrate speedo - should be easy. So over all, I need to throw a fist full of spring washers at everything that looks like a bolt.

Thanks @tortron and @Sambo for getting this diff for me, legends. I picked it up from @Adoom ‘s place on Sunday and parked it behind the Honda. Will get back into this once I’ve hopefully got the 200sx certified. Either I’ll need to shorten it and/or use some wide Mini miglia flares with fwd offset wheels. But the 2.9 diff was the major and it’s a good size diff that’ll actually fit under there.

Same, I have one too. https://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5_21

Test drove it to check the brakes, holy crap what a difference. I knew bigger rotors would mean more leverage but again, holy crap. Easy upgrade for lots more braking power. The original pads had a 2mm over hang (DB1170) so I changed to DB1346's which are for some kind of 4wd, possibly a Landcruiser. Exactly the same mounting holes but the pad material is a little lower. Also, after that test drive I realised that all the testing I did for the gauges meant the low fuel light wasn't lying. Filled up a couple of fuel containers with BP 98 and saw this sign and thought it was funny. Someone MUST have noticed when it was being made and just thought fck it, right? I've now fixed the turbo brace by welding on a tab to reach another bolt hole since the other bastard bolt snapped. This time I made sure to use new 8.8 bolts. Another cert thing is the bonnet never had windscreen sprayers. See: Drilled, filed and stole from the other 200sx to now have sprayers. The hole isn't as ugly as the photo suggests: Next I need to make some heat shields between the fuel line and downpipe. I am tempted to run braided line on the passenger side to get rid of the pointless hard lines along the firewall and get it away from the exhaust side. But S13's are weird and have a section of chassis rail missing on the passenger side so the fuel line wouldn't be protected for about 30cm, the only other option is the go through the trans tunnel but I'm not sure the certifier would like that. EDIT: man it feels good to drive! Sounds fcking awesome, much more aggressive idle than my old Chaser had (same engine). I think the exhaust manifold I made might help there, versus the stock log manifold design. The gearshift CUBE thingy feels so nice, the steering feels great the brakes are awesome. Big smile on my face putting it back in the garage, the way it should be. Will be interesting to see what happens with the cert which I will hopefully be able to do soon.

oh these are the gktech adaptors I used, dark photo but they are there:

Discs 280mm versus 324mm Before: After: I'll put the type x side skirts on at some stage: Also added a high stop light because the original boot one is gone due to the wing: It cost $12 and is super intelligent high spec!

Well they are definitely big óle dinner plates