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On 29/03/2017 at 16:36, R3spct said:

That is a total shame.  I have a thing for those cars too, super rare now and even its rough thats the closest ive seen to a complete one for a long time. \

Hate hoarders that let shit rot away.

I do know of one that's coming up for sale soon, if you happen to have the means to buy it. It's not a special edition, but still an XG-R turbo version, live rego, totally complete, mechanically sound and running.

And the owner won't be asking for moonbeams either.

Oops didn't see this until now. Thanks for the offer Neal!

And cheers for sorting this Bart, giz account details when you can.

24 minutes ago, Pelo. said:

Sweet Christmas

Purdy! It's not @Hive's one is it?

For thread:

Fishtail Fred has, or had, one.

Could have been flogged out, like they were on my brother's one.

I pulled them out a few years ago and installed regular shocks, but kept all the actuator widgets just in case I came across a good set of damper adjustable ones (I never did, of course).

12 hours ago, locost_bryan said:

BiL had a TX3 like that from new. Traded up from an Escort Sport, then traded it for the next shape TX3.

Neat! Yeah a friend of mine had an aunt who bought a TX3 brand new, would have been cool to have one back in their heyday.

These are both Jap imports so have a few more slightly more interesting features than the locally sold ones.

Awesome, thanks guys. Car Folie looks like the goes, will check them out!

Hey peeps

I have two pairs of rear quarter windows currently removed from their vehicles which require tinting (just a legal dark blue or black). Who has recommendations in the Auckland area for quality workmanship? Easiest for me if located on the Shore/central/western parts of the city as I can just drop off the windows on the way to/from work. And looking at turnaround of less than a week if possible.

Cheers ears!

Anyone dealt with NZCVs in Christchurch before? Thoughts/tips? Got some unobtainium here that needs rebuilding/replacing and all the rally jokers have said they are the best crowd to talk to.

The other option is sourcing from the USA of all places (thank god for Rockauto).

Wats gnats?

Cheers for the offer Bart, I'll find out more deets and let you know!

Hi folks

Is any kind soul in Christchurch able to pick up a single Pioneer TS-X11 box speaker on my behalf sometime this week or next? Currently awaiting more details from the seller.

Would have preferred for them to ship it to me, but they don't have time plus they're afraid it will get damaged in transit. I only bought it for spare parts really.

Please and thank you. Once it's in your possession we can then work out what to do with it afterwards.

Cheers
Ed

Not sure to be honest - it certainly looked fine inside when I got this radiator back from the reconditioners, and they gave it a clean bill of health after flushing it out, cleaning and pressure testing, but it doesn't appear that they re-brazed or did much else with the end tanks except paint them. Guess I'll find out after they take a second look!

@bigfoot Does it have the bit running down the middle with the mounting points for the fans?

If so I'll keep it in mind as a backup, but for now I'll just get the existing one repaired under warranty. Will let you know, cheers!

The past few months of Starion ownership have been fairly uneventful but definitely enjoyable. Being a 1980s Mitsubishi I was expecting to be topping up the oil every few weeks, but I can safely say that after 3000 miles I've only needed to put about 500ml in.

Did my first service on it the other week and my fears that shitty burnt treacle would come out proved to be unfounded as well - the oil was still clean as a whistle!

Even managed to set a respectable time at Oldschool Drag Day. I honestly thought the car wouldn't have a shit show of breaking into the 15s, but boy was I wrong.

Not bad for a stock 8-valve with lazy diff and even lazier turbo. Goes hard for what it is.

But as luck would have it all good things must come to an end, and whilst sat in the usual mess of rush hour traffic last Thursday evening I noticed the temperature gauge creeping towards the top end of the scale again. Immediately chucked the heater on full hot and the blower on max which brought the temperature back down below 4/5, but it was still reading too hot for my liking.

By the time I'd cleared the traffic and started moving at pace the gauge settled to just above halfway, and I made it home with no further dramas. Eventually turned the car off, inspected the engine bay for leaks and listened for signs of gurgling, boiling, or hissing, of which there were none - which I thought was a bit weird. Checked the coolant levels the next morning, and it hadn't lost any - which again seemed a bit weird - but throwing caution to the wind I took a different car to work that day.

This morning after finding no coolant loss at all I was convinced that Thursday's scenario had been caused by a random airlock in the system and assumed over the weekend it had bled itself out, so hopped confidently back into the Starion to drive to work; lo and behold the journey was uneventful with no temperature dramas.

Unfortunately this afternoon after leaving work I got caught in another traffic snarl-up and the needle started pegging at 4/5 once again. Again the jam quickly thinned and I was once again able to get home with the gauge sitting at a more or less "comfortable" level, but this time I was able to observe it rising when queuing or stopped.

Rolled into the shed, and once again inspected the engine bay and radiator... hello, what is this?

TL;DR: Two pinhole leaks in the top tank have now made themselves known, which weren't immediately obvious last week. Not bad enough to cause firehose-spec coolant loss, but still bad enough to flake off the paint and wreak havoc with the system pressure

So now comes the fun task of draining and pulling it all back out, and organizing the radiator to be sent back to the reconditioners under warranty. I hope they'll be able to do something with it, because I don't fancy my chances of finding another good radiator, and I'm certainly not going back to the L200 one.

Discuss: http://oldschool.co....uhishi-starion/

17 hours ago, Metalhead96 said:

How come it would need cert for items/features that are OEM to the vehicle?

Also what changes needed to be made in regards to the seat belt anchorages, does it not meet the NZ standard for the era it was made in or something?

I'm not sure exactly why the first point stands but have assumed it's something to do with OE configuration not being up to current safety standards. One example would be Mitsubishi Starion seatbelts which are located on the doors. It seemed like a great idea in the 1980s, but nowadays it would probably make people recoil in horror. I wanted to import one recently but wasn't sure if the belts would cause consternation once it came into the country.

I actually have a friend who works as a compliance certifier now, I might bring up the subject when I next see him. Or someone like Clint (cletus) might be able to elaborate further.

The rear upper seat belt anchorages are meant to be secured to some kind of thick plate that's safely attached to the C pillars, instead of being attached to what I'm guessing is thin OE sheetmetal which would deform or shear in a crash. I ended up converting a Rx-7 to two seater because I was told engineering these plates and welding them in place in between the B and C pillars was going to cost $3000+, and they couldn't guarantee the quality of the fit but it would be "perfectly safe".

On the Alto there are two plates sandwiching the C pillar that are riveted together through the steel, and the upper seatbelt mount attaches directly to that. It looks as dodgy as it sounds - yet it passed a LVV cert.

Sometimes it even comes down to the discretion of the people looking over your vehicle. If the compliance guy is having a bad day then you might get pinged on all sorts of garbage. I've imported four cars of my own now and each car has come out requiring different sets of things to be replaced/rectified and the justification has always been "in the interests of safety xxxxx part needed replacing".

tl;dr explanation - Learn not to be blase about it, no matter how easy you think it will be to pass. The laws can be interpreted twenty ways from Sunday.

On 18/02/2017 at 17:28, jesselc said:

Schwing!

I remember seeing that Carry turbo van on Trademe as a fresh import. Think it sold for around $7500 initially?

16 hours ago, Feetup said:

So it sounds like I should be able to import a Cappuccino/AZ-1 relatively easily? (If I can find a reasonably priced, rust-free example)

Yup, but be warned that you may have trouble complying something like an AZ-1 without doing remedial work around the seatbelt anchorages first (which requires LVV certification). I've seen a few kei cars come in within the last couple of years which have required this to be done, including my Alto Works.

Check with a compliance certifier if you're unsure. Might also pay to check if gullwing doors need extra certification (unlikely, but better to find out now than once the car is here).

Better start saving your pennies... A175As aren't exactly cheap.

http://page13.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/r176991263

11 hours ago, CarolsHusband said:

Also worth mentioning that the prices you see on the dealer sites include tax. If the car is being exported, the tax is not payable.

My car was advertised at 1.5 million but 200,000 of that was tax.

I have heard this as well, and my AW11 definitely ended up cheaper than the sticker price, but I'm not sure if all dealers on Goo/Carsensor follow this rule to the letter.

Should drop Ewan a line to confirm - 10-15% less would make certain dealer cars at least as viable as the auctions. (You obviously still need to pay GST at this end of course)

On 18/01/2017 at 21:50, vivaspeed said:

The Burgerfuel folks should be lucky we still go there.  The service has been rubbish the last few times.

They've also stopped selling my usual order (Peanut Piston burger) so may as well go to the pub next door instead.

5 hours ago, xsspeed said:

I think there is another site that lists cars but i cant, Ed i think you sent me a z31 listing from another one once?

Carsensor.net is the other one. Has some overlap with Goo-net but many of its listings are unique.

You can also keep an eye on this week's car auctions by going to japan-partner.com and using the advanced search to only display cars from 1960-1990 etc.

I also regularly look at boutique classic car sales websites such as ms-musashino.co.jp, nostalgiccar.com, and utilitas.co.jp - the cars are usually kept in good condition and sometimes priced slightly cheaper than Carsensor/Goo, but generally you should get Ewan/Shane or someone proficient in dealing with Japanese sellers to go in to bat for you, as these places often don't like their cars disappearing overseas.