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bamp. Holy jesus, no posts in this thread since 2007. Wondering if I should buy these for completeness' sake. Authentik Watanabe Wheel Nuts, for aura of JDM +15 But I have a funny feeling that the wheel studs on squid are M12x1.25, not 1.5 thread pitch

discussion - viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10380 (holy shit, hasn't had any posts since 2007) Hellz yeah I will take the GM-4 off your hands if it's a Pioneer one. PM me some banktacular account deets. I don't trust anyone in Amerika to pull the right parts for me. Spent ages preparing and emailing photos with EVERYTHING marked/annotated to a guy off another forum in Cali. Who still managed to fuck it up.

Coupe progress: finally figured out what the weird hesitation/surging on acceleration was. Now I have to spend the next 6 years tracking down another AAC valve in functioning condition Squid progress: Not much. House purchase/mortgage slowed down the impulsive urges a bit. But found the funds and time to purchase the following: End result on brand new Toyo 205/55R15s up front and 225/50R15s down back. Needs to go L-O-W-E-R. Will probably get Suspension Tech or Autolign or similar to custom build some shocks and springs to sit at the appropriate height (fixed, non adjustable coilover.) Then the new rear seat turned up fresh off the boat from Japan (to replace the sun-damaged one), as well as my Defi DIN-Gauge. No photos of the seat just yet, as it's still in its gigantic box awaiting unpacking, but here's the gauge: Then I stumbled across a new old stock Pioneer audio cradle that was produced specifically for the R30, so bought that as well. It will go perfectly with the vintage stereo setup I'm planning to run, allowing me to finally ditch the ugly 2-DIN Kenwood unit that was mashed into the gap under the console back in Japan Some of the vintage stereo equipment I have to choose from. Half of it is earmarked for the banana. "The height of lunacy." managed to find a cassette tape lying around, so wired up the KP-707G for a quick test run. I may or may not have been tipsy during the course of recording this video Vl_50C8wfrw I thought I'd misplaced my Link when moving house but managed to figure out exactly where it is... sitting safely in a drawer at Glenn's ::edit:: discussion - viewtopic.php?f=18&t=10380

if you thought my pace on the Skyline was glacial, the task of converting my RX-7 to a pure two seater is proving to be a few orders of magnitude worse. At the rate this is going, I don’t see it being back on the road this year, unless I fly over to the States and hand pick the parts myself. The first piece of the puzzle has now arrived in the form of a complete rear carpet section (in the correct colour and trim). Discovered it going for cheap on eBay partway through February, so I promptly bought and had it shipped to NZ – and the goddamn freight ended up costing more than the item. At least it only took 14 days to get here. the search continues in the form of a daily trawl of eBay; a listing for a pair of rear trim panels has now appeared, but the seller claims that shipping to NZ is going to be phenomenal – easily over $100US. Fun times. Even with the strong dollar it's still a bit much to pay. Some days I wonder if it would’ve just been easier all along to have the rear pillars re-engineered, the interior hacked to pieces, and an extra $3000 handed over JUST for the privilege of having a pair of seatbelts in the back. (we all know how useless a back seat in a RX-7 is) this is what the two seater rear section looks like ::edit:: discussion - viewtopic.php?f=18&t=23433

ah yes the infamous optical CAS failure. I spent 9 months tracking down a replacement for my FJ20, but have since learned that you can retrofit the optical module setup from SR20s with a bit of modding, so perhaps you may have similar luck with something from a RB. repair this, and I guarantee your fuel pump will die next, they all do on R30s.

Dials will be fitted as soon as they return from Arrow Wheels, where I've sent them to have the kerbing repaired. 1.5-way Cusco LSD is around 90k yams, give or take, so the option is there. And as for waiting for a suitable, reasonably priced AW11 to pop up in Japan... well, let's just say I'd still be waiting at this point in time, and suffering the fuel bill/depreciation woes of having to drive squid/RX-7/coupe around (because I blew up my TX3). Anywhooooooo... the blue exterior's not so bad. Gotta have one blue car in the collection, I suppose. Blue interior, on the other hand, does irk me a little... at least my rose tinted shades turn it a neutral greenish tinge during the day, and at night everything turns dark anyway I have some miscellaneous trim, a centre crashpad, stereo surround, one C-pillar panel, and mint manual doorcards all in factory black lying around that could be swapped in if I so wished, but don't have a black dashboard (and ain't looking forward to fitting it either, should I buy one). Carpet and hoodlining I'd probably leave blue. Even got some cool retro seats to chuck in if I ever do convert it to full black interior. But then there's the hassle of having to find rails etc. again, it's JUST a daily...

Re: miss at idle, for what it's worth, all of the 4A-G powered crapsacks I've ever owned have had strange lumpy idles below 1000rpm when warm, including both my supercharged AWs. Possibly something to do with the cam timing.

hehe, cheers. Attention to detail is probably the only thing I'm good at... should be able to keep it tasteful and "period-spec" without resorting to spending ridiculous money a la TX3, which to be fair started off in far worse condition than this AW11. The interior only looks nice due to judicious aperture control of the camera device; on a sunny day the blue gets so painfully bright that I swear it starts glowing

I am moving out of my storage/werkshop unit in St. Johns once my new 98 sqm garage is finished, can always have a werd to the caretaker about potential OS boes moving in? Is 46 sqm, so has enough space for four cars and lots of junk, or three with ample bench room to spare. Monitored alarm and optional power and all that carryon. Currently paying $160/wk which is ouch spec, but location is handy. Not so much now that I've moved across town, but still, it's about as centrally located as one can get.

After selling my white T-top MR2 SC, I lasted all of two weeks before giving in to temptation and commenced searching for another AW11 to trundle around in for everyday duties. If anyone's keeping count, this is number five. Test drove a couple of examples up here in Auckland and was severely disappointed by a) price, various mechanical faults, and c) an endemic reluctance on the part of each seller to negotiate a) based on . Gave Ewan @ hayatonka a call as well, but a search of the auctions and yards in Japan yielded no results within budget, apart from a couple examples with major rust that would never have passed compliance here in NZ without $$$$ worth of repairs Then just as I was about to give up, I received a phone call from a good friend in Wellington saying that one of his mates was selling a tidy hardtop manual AW11 SC, in more or less standard condition, and was I interested at all? After a bit of back and forth negotiating (and agonizing over the fact it was midnight blue with blue interior, my least favourite colour combination of the lot) - during which the price sharpened considerably after Ben, the seller, sold the BBS rims separately - I finally caved in and said yes. So during the third weekend of June I flew down to Wellington, picked up the car, and covered the 650km trip back home in some of the most horrendous torrential rain ever, on the sketchiest of sketchy tyres, but without incident. And more importantly, drip free, thanks to the hardtop roof As it happened, the very next weekend a snowstorm closed the Desert Road, so timing was impeccable. Here it is sitting in my driveway, on the crappy balloon tyres and mega fugly wheels that replaced the BBSes The good: 5-speed. Super charger of course. Hardtop. Wind-up windows and lightweight glass (rare). Adjustable damper shocks. Rear swaybar! The bad: Most infuriatingly it doesn't seem to have a LSD, unless it's a Torsen of some sort. Already miss the TRD one from old whitey The ugly: Smurfy blue interior. No sideskirts. Those wheels, yuck. Within a day of getting the car home I'd already found two tiny spots of rust, naturally at the bottom of the A-pillars, but the rest of the car remains thankfully free of tinworm... the direct result of being located in inland Otago for the last few years before the previous owner bought it. Upon advice from my panelbeater and a few friends I fishoiled the most troublesome spots for peace of mind, and then set about making a list of things that needed doing. you really didn't think I would just drive the car as-is, did you? The exterior does need a few touch-ups here and there, but unlike my TX3 which ended up being a budget blowout restoration of stupid proportions, I reckon I can get away with painting the worst affected areas and cut'n'polishing the rest. It won't be the mintest AW11 out there by a long shot, but it'll certainly be one that an "enthusiast" would still be proud to own. Thanks to the strong NZ dollar it was a good time as any to pick up a Twos R Us engine cover gas prop kit; I've been wanting one for a long time, but I'd never kept an AW11 long enough to really justify the effort. The key blank was a last minute "add to cart" decision and I finally found a use for the vintage deep-dish Momo wheel in my parts pile. Excuse the electric blue interior... The fugly wheels have got to go, and the balloon tyres are not conducive to epic twisty touge runs, so I ordered a set of 14" RE001s (the only ones in the country, apparently) and found some suitably retro wheels to whack them onto. Eventually the AW11 will wear some 15" Buddyclub P1s in bronze, but the Speedlines will do for now. The other week I happened to stumble across a pleasant chap not far from my house who was wrecking an AW11 in midnight blue. Now half the exterior panels from his wreck reside in my garage Including a pair of sideskirts, which my panelbeater will find a way to retrofit to the car and hopefully prevent any future rust issues. One distinct advantage of having an AW11 without skirts from factory is that you can check the condition of the sills and be satisfied they haven't completely rotted away... then someone tipped me off to the presence of a complete '89 AW11 at Pick a Part Avondale, so I made haste down there to see what I could scavenge. Arrived about 20 minutes too late to score the LED rear spoiler according to the nice lady at the counter, but did manage to grab a whole swag of other small bits, including the swanky updated mirrors that only came on that year. opinions are divided over whether chunky is better than swanky, but they take literally minutes to swap so it's not the end of the world. A hot date with the panel shop and paint booth is fast approaching, so I guess the next update will occur after this takes place, or once the tyres arrive and I can finally fit the Speedline telephone dials, or if I do something incredibly impulsive and click buy now on that Cusco LSD that keeps taunting me on Yahoo Japan... but as this is my daily driver I can't really justify having it off the road for too long, nor do I really want to do anything outrageous like fit monstrous swaybars, or gigantic blower pulley kits, or anything that would impinge on reliability. Yes it is a LOT slower than the white AW11 was, but I suppose I should exercise a shred of self-control now and again, am I right? lololololol.

There won't be one, or at least I haven't been able to find anything yet. (i'm looking to have mine painted a similar shade) Go to a painter and see if they can mix something up for you, or alternately pick it out of a colourwheel.

Does anyone in Auckland or Hamilton have a vehicle trailer available to borrow, tentatively for this weekend coming (Nov 6-7)? Am happy as long as it isn't an unbraked single axle POS, and it will need to fit a vehicle similar in size to a late 80s Mitsi Mirage hatchback. Got a tow mission down the line to embark upon. Name your price/poison if so. At this stage looking at possibly needing it for two days but if push comes to shove I can try and get it all done in one day. thanks Ed

I once had an engine that blew the headgasket between a water gallery and one of the cylinders. For the first 5-10 minutes after starting up it would be fine, but then once it got up to temp (presumably after the thermostat opened) it woudl start blowing gigantic clouds of white smoke on load, and small puffs at idle - once coolant started making its way from the water gallery into the cylinder compression test on that particular engine appeared fine as well. (Never trust trademe engines in "mint" condition!) but yeah, just throwing it out there as a possibility; would prob be mega obvious if the car is chewing through coolant.

well I'm glad my ex-colleague's S30 didn't turn out to be a complete wreck. The engine hadn't been started in a LONG time as I recall - five years, maybe more. Deano will definitely be interested to see what happens to his old pride and joy... I'll be sure to keep him duly informed of progress.

Cool cool. I'll skip clearcoating, as Wats look nicer in matt finish (brings out the texture of the spokes better as well, I reckon). Jury is still out on whether i have the whole rim done in bronze, or go for a polished lip. anyway, after getting tucked $80 per rim by Procoat to have my O.Z rims blasted, I sure as hell ain't going back there. any recommendations for other places in the Auckalnd area? otherwise i'll have a flip thru the yellow pages or whatever.

churs for replies. Good to get a bit moar perspective on the whole process. TBH I'm leaning more towards having them painted, as the painter I take my stz to always does a mint job. Another thing which could compound the exercise slightly is that two of the rims look like they've been very shabbily painted at some point. However if strip 'n dip will suffice to remove the old paint, then sweet deal KKhris - the factory surface finish of the spokes does aktually resemble 600 grit sandpaper! amping to get these bastards fitted to koop, would mean only a couple things left to do before I have it all sorted for summer.

apologies if this isn't techy enough for tech, but I'm sure old man southern or some other enterprising mod will move it if req'd. Anyway, most people will be aware that genuine one-piece Wats (of the F8 kind) are very lightweight and I have heard rumours of certain examples cracking/shattering when undergoing a standard sandblasting procedure. There are also similar stories floating around that they are too fragile to withstand being powdercoated and/or somehow weaken during said process. I shortly require a full set of F8s to be cleaned up in order to prep them for painting/powdercoating, so was wondering whether there is any substance to the above rumours, and if so, what other options are open to me e.g. walnut shell blasting, endless hours of sanding, etc etc? The aim is to take each wheel back to a finish that still retains the factory 'crinkle' look on the spokes, over which a colour such as bronze will then be applied. if I can't powdercoat them, I'll simply ask my painter to spray them instead. But would be nice to have some peace of mind, prior to ruining a perfectly good set of nice rims. ::edit:: also the last time I took a set of wheels to be blasted, Procoat tucked me bigtime and charged $80/rim. I've since learned that most places will do it for around $20/rim so if anyone has suggestions of where to take them within the Auckland area I would appreciate those also.

That is jawsome. Factory prototype even. have any of your contacts been able to dig up more info about it Phil? Would be interesting to know moar background details. btw - I'm sure narrowbody JDM Stazzas were all 4-stud with the exception of the GSR-V

I'd like to think not, but it's hard to say really. Like I could be the most cautious person in the world, but all it takes is one random person with bad intentions to drive past and see me moving a certain car in and out of the place.

Nah, didn't even get the door open it seems. main alarm wasn't triggered either. Had to replace one discus and one regular padlock though.

no burgerboes for me. Just had to replace a couple of locks at the storage unit. Good times

This + Hawkes Boes = epic Should probably get that air conditioning fixed too, that dual zone setup is almost too good not to use!

Tuesday hard

wow, progress on your R30 is lightyears faster than what I'd ever hope to achieve with mine. kudos. A FJ20 box out of a DR is longer than the L20 one you have now (the aussies call the L20 box "stumpy" for a reason) which will in turn make the shifter sit further back, so may indeed be perfect for you. Actually now that I think about it, the disgusting CA18 and Z18 powered R30s probably have the same size gearbox, so you could always try and track down one of those instead of paying takumi tax on anything labelled FJ20... (Old man southern may be along shortly to prove me wrong) How boogy is that coilover setup? still contemplating going down that path on my DR30 sedan. Would be interested to see any photos of how it was all modified/thrown together if you ever bother ripping it all out at some point. My mate with the NICS RB20DET won't be selling up for a while it turns out, but if you're interested I'll give you his contact details for when he finally does.

Should be there. In a banana even. I shall use this as a monthly excuse to pull it out of storage.