~Slideways~

Bit the bullet and tried out my sudo "paint booth" and first time painting a car, only practice was spraying my trailer so I was a bit worried it would be a water fall of runs and oranges. This is just the main body and the rear wide body jobbies. I still need to prep and paint the doors, hatch, bumpers, side skirts bonnet, guards etc. But I've got way less time to do this than I thought I had, so I wanted to at least get some paint on the body. It turned out pretty good! It'll need some fine wet sanding and a polish but I'll let it dry for a week or so. I don't know why but I find the door jams particularly satisfying. Weird. So I've confirmed I didn't waste my time and I can paint okay. Next time I'll try a metallic and see how hard I fail haha.

Great write up, even greater FC!

More high fill primer on the roof and it's blocked back with much fewer high spots: Door jams and sills sanded to 320 grit, high filled and sanded back: Almost at the stage where I can get some paint on the body, last part is the rear hatch jam? (I guess that's the name) so off came the hatch, very happy with the lack of rust here! Only some minor surface rust, nothing under the seals etc: The rear hatch is a bit warped from having a big wing mounted to it from it's previous life, so I got to the point where I won't worry about it not being a perfect finish there. The semi warp is flattened out when the duck tail wing is mounted anyway. I also started putting together this damaged marquee I got for $40 on Trademe to see if it would work for painting since I don't want paint fumes in the house (garage under bedrooms). It had been in a storm so had some bends but I fixed that. Unfortunately I had to spend hours waterblasting the cover because the storm mud had been left on it and become ingrained.

Do you mean less or more of earth money?

Trying to link an instagram video but it doesn't seem to work.

New shoes. Well 2nd hand shoes. I bought some different 33x12.5's to try out, because I've been meaning to change my current ones because they fckn HOWL on the motorway and it would get annoying for long trips with the little boy and wife. I did a 7-8hr round trip with them on to pick up a car a few months ago and it gets old haha. Even though they are 33" tyres they are actually a bit bigger diameter than my old 33" tyres (similar tread depth). Its a surprisingly common thing. Lots of '35's are more like 34's. It's weird. These are Hankook MT jobbies, much quieter but still a bit of noise...wayyyy better though and should still be good for offroading if a little less tread gap for the mud than the old ones. I still have some Maxxis Creepy Crawler 35's for more extreme offroading anyway. EDIT: it's secretly an EV, that's what the extension cord is for.

Sanding my life away... Think my AGM battery is stuffed too, bugger that's $150 wasted. But yeah, doors off and trim off, sanded door jams and sills to 320 grit. Primered: Also primered the roof and boot lid again, didn't take a photo so here is the back, because. Next up, sanding!

Took this to Redrocks on Saturday with my brother in his Terrano, it was 9degrees with some epic wind. Got to a valley that I hoped would be more sheltered for my 2.5yo boy to play, the wind was blowing him off his feet but he had a blast anyway. Saw some 'seals SO big daddy': This one was sleeping right on the outside of a tight corner, I ended up edging closer then climbing over a big boulder in order to not squash him: Its been years since I've come here, the few baches are corrugated iron rust boxes, then this place turns up?! Its epic, dining tables and shit. I mean in a bad storm its so close to the waves it must get battered? I thought there were limitation to new builds too...

Guide coat makes it look like an Upper Hutt bogan Escort from the 90's: Sanded some of the high build primer and have some high spots showing from the factory spot welds at the rear of the roof, but its so minuscule. Will probably do another couple of coats of primer after this:

Looks like devils gate in the background? Drove through there for the first time in years on Saturday. If it is, I'm not sure where the photo was taken from? Also, heartily approve the use of this jobby in this spot.

SUCCESS! My initial thought about there being air in the lines was right, I've lowered the the high area and with the pump running I was getting big air bubbles and kept topping up till they stopped. Test drove it hard up a hill hitting 18psi, definitely pulls better in higher revs. Pulled over and felt intercooler outlet, much cooler! Then the intercooler / water jacket tank and one side was cool to the touch, other side 'warm' then after maybe 20sec the whole thing was cold. 18psi will be some HOT air. Happy with that! Meth injection next! Lowered rubber hose by firewall, shortened brass tube to lower the high point:

Weird it won't delete those last few photos with an edit? EDIT: sorted, seems to automatically insert photos I've uploaded even if I didn't select them.

Intercooler radiator and water pump install. Kind of hard to tell from these crappy photos but I've mounted the water pump behind the passenger head light, this is the lowest point I could fit it in the engine bay: Then the hoses go through holes I hole sawed into the front panel, nice and discreet. This is behind the front grill going through to the pump: Intercooler radiator from an ST205, had to trim and modify some stuff to get it to fit: Hoses from pump to the firewall then to intercooler, will be redoing the rubber hose by firewall to make it neater as well as probably lower: That brass (?) tube is left overs from our old gas hot water jobby haha, just happened to be the right size. Quick test drive and its better, but not as good as I thought. The intercooler is still pretty hot (it is running 1.2bar), I was thinking maybe there is an air pocket since the rubber hose (temporary) by the firewall might be too high. It started pissing down with rain but I checked it a few times and both brass tubes are hot/warm, then when I got home one was cool (while IC itself is still pretty warm verging on hot). So either its working and I over estimate how much cooling it can do. Or there is an air pocket or not enough water volume? Wiring wise, the pump is 12v and the system is 24v, so to do it properly it needs an inverter/reducer. I plan on also installing a water meth injection set up, which is also 12v so planning for this to be in the back I also install the 24-12v reducer in the back. Which meant running a heavy gage cable from the batteries under the carpet/trim to the back then another wire back to the engine bay for the 12v feed to the pump. It was a pain in the arse running so much wire basically to apposite ends, but it made sense for using the reducer jobbie for future 12v stuff in the back. Also, I cut off the ST205 pump plug because it over complicates it, now it's just the two wires. Wiring: 24v cable from battery > 50AMP fuse > through firewall > down under side trim > Reducer in back > wires for 12v positive and negative output > 15AMP fuse > back up under side trim > through Firewall > 24v relay (switched by ign) > water pump. Seems to work well and all fused etc.

Here are some photos of previous exploits with my old Landcruisers: OLD LANDCRUISERS which lead to the Safari I now have:

Now for air filter things, when I bought it, it had a K&N 'cold air intake' which is a sort of sealed unit which the previous owner had fit 'inline' between the turbo and snorkel. Problem was it really wasn't water tight, which makes it pointless for water crossings. So I sold that and fitted a spare pod filter on a 3" bit of tube temporarily. Then I finally got round to (a few years) making a sealed air box with a nice big K&N filter inside. What I ended up doing was removing the second battery (24v system), and fitting two smaller batteries where the other battery was. Then used the empty space to fit an air box. I made it out of steel (because that's what I can weld), then a bolt down lid made of aluminium, sealed with rubber foam. To test it I blocked the top of the snorkel with my hand and it's perfectly sealed, so much so that it compresses the silcon joiners (see photo) then stalls the engine.

Next up, exhaust time! The original exhaust, even after the previous owner had turbo charged it (not very well...) was still the standard tiny press bent one. In the area over the rear solid axle it was about 1.5" in the bends!! So buy some 3" bends and a flexi: Weld some stuff: Spend hours and hours getting it to curve around stuff and be out of the way. Finish and paint: Old versus new:

Old photo on South Coast:

Also fitted some EFS extreme extended shocks and steering damper, can't see any photos though.

It needed some wheel arch extension jobbie for cert/wof:

It's pretty tall with the suspension lift, my wife complained about climbing into it lol. So I made some side step, for stepping...and for body protection. SUPER heavy duty, made from 4mm wall tube and 8mm plate for backets.

Bought and installed some 'drop boxes' to fix the radius arm angle, which was making it walk all over the road: Ratchet straps to pull the axle backwards: Heavy duty adjustable front Panhard rod / drag link, to cente axles after lift: Heavy duty adjustable rear panhard rod, to cente axles after lift (was about 1" off centre): Extended trailing arms to correct diff angle:

Before turbo upgrade, I found the manifold was slightly warped and leaking, so had it skimmed and I cut the flange to reduce stress: Cut lines and also welded up external pipe: Sanded: Coated: Installed EGT probe: New metal gaskets:

Turbo return leaked, it was a brass fitting mounted below the oil leave so I welded a drain above the oil level: Too low versus higher point; Testing for leaks:

Changed the cross over pipe to this nice aluminium jobbie from a Volvo (Pick a Part): The original Downpipe was TERRIBLE, it was too small a diameter and was even worse because they hammered the tube to clear the manifold so the inside diameter was tiny. Surprised it worked at all. So I made a 3" mandrel jobbie, it really opened it up:

Old terrible turbo set up when I got it. - Turbo too big, didn't spool till well after the appropriate peak power rpm. - cross over pipe tiny. - Turbo also a cheap Chinese piece of carp. Upgraded to this: - Kinugawa TD05-16G with T3 housing. Huge improvement in spool, would 'chirp' 33" muds now. Old turbo on the right, exh housing far too big.