Vintage Grumble

Recently got a bit more done on the trailer. Made sure it was about the right size etc, and made the up rights/sides. For ease of use and simplicity, the front and back tailgate board things just slide into slots made from angle and flat off cuts, Then I figured out where the axle needs to be, then whipped up said axle on the BIL's lathe, made some mounts and welded it on, As you can see in the background of the pic posted above in the last update, the alloy wheels were very oxidized (they have been outside for years) so I gave them a water blast, spray painted them black, and then buffed the paint off the face of the wheel to make them all shiny again. Slapped some tyres on that match the cruisers, and good to go. Then I whipped up some mud guards. Decided just to make them out of 3mm thick steel and not bother with mounts, and just weld them directly to the frame. Found an off cut of steel, cut the desired shape out, removed the rust, and put them in my fancy press brake and bent them into shape. I don't know why, but I find the little mud guards soooo adorable! Now I just have to cut and mount the wood, paint everything, and its done. Regards VG. P.S. Say hi to your mum for me.

I was quite surprised to see that lower side wall tyres can be stretched more, seems kinda backwards to my simpleton brain.

https://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents/infosheets/LVVTA_Info_01-2009_Tyre_Size_to_Rim_Width_Compatibility_Guide.pdf So this is still the go to chart?

Has anyone ever failed a WOF for their tyres not being wide enough for their rims? Just wondering if its common, or do most places not GAF?

Amen to that, was always in the back of my mind at dual sprints/track days, 950~kg 80s jap cars probably dont crash well.

Them TE37 reps got the old ladies flaps clattering eh Fucking love this car BTW, and so jelly of your current situation, you son of a gun you.

Went a little wide on that corner, might need some weigh in the front?

HEARING YOUR OWN EAR HOLE SIZZLE IS FUCKING NOT GREAT.

I've always liked the sound of this, but its probably unbearably loud. Rice bubble tune and fancy g-bag probably add to the choiceness of the exhaust note.

Its pretty much wired as it was in the scooter, its running the factory controller, some of them are programmable. I cant remember the brand, but theres funny shaped blue ones that are pretty grunty and programmable.

A "VG has nothing to do at work" update. The cruiser is going well, the only issue so far was a slight wiring problem, which I fixed by jiggling the loom around a bit, so somethings a bit loose somewhere. I'll whip the body off and check this at some point, as the main battery wires are still in their temporary configuration and need finishing. We will also give the controller a bit of a diddle with, and make the acceleration and braking a bit more spicy, as it was dulled down to suit the kids in their learning to drive phase. They are pretty much pros now. This has actually proven to be quite a handy vehicle too, I recently cut down a tree, and the boy spent the day dragging the branches from the back yard to the front so they can go on the big boy trailer. Here he is posing proudly with his days work. (rough day judging by his sunnies) Shitty vid of the FJ doing some mahi, We have also used it to do some deliveries around town. Here we have their cousins trailer, dangerously over loaded with fire wood. This trip went well until we were driving past a local lake, and my son decided to try and mow down a goose, driving his rig down a steep hill on an angle at full speed towards said lake/goose, and near on rolled the whole lot into the lake. We had a safety briefing before the trip, but like any male, he obviously wasn't listening. And I've finally started making a trailer for this unit. Its going to be very similar to the above, just slightly longer, and with steel mud guard's rather than wood, as they will be easier to make. Trying to make it out of shit I have laying about. Regards, VG. xoxox

Shit yeh, its probably at 45-50hp per ton now!

So in the 2023/2024 season, I only got to use this little bugger twice. One of the trips was up the Waioeka, which was friggen excellent, apart from I managed to hit nearly every single rock in the river. One impact was so good that I managed to get the boat completely out of the water, with enough altitude for the boat to change attitude while in the air, from nose way up to nose way down. Another impact shot the boat sideways so violently that the lady passenger squashed me into the side of the boat, which was a bit ouchey on the ribs and elbow. A little vid J5 made of the trip. Unfortunately I really messed up the UHMWPE on that trip, lots of rips and ripples, which effected the speed and handling of the boat quite a bit. I really needed to upgrade the UHMWPE to 10 or 12mm, the current stuff is only 8mm think I think, but its a pretty big job to do so. Also, a few of the shitty welds on the structure gave up after getting the bash. Some of the damage: Also, the bung oring letting oil drain into the engine situation hasn't fixed itself, which is a huge PITA. Because of my lack of time to use it, and lack of time to fix everything, I decided to sell it. Listed it and got waaaay more interest than I thought I would (I was very honest about its issues) and it sold straight away, and several people wanted it for full asking price, so I probably should have tried to get more, ha. (even though I got what I paid for it) A nice young man came and got it, and took it for a hoon that night. The next day he rang for some advice, as the water cooling to the exhaust had blocked/failed for some reason and he melted all the rubber couplings and so on the exhaust, even where it sealed to the transom. He didn't want to run the motor incase that had no cooling either, so floated back down the river, but the boat started sinking due to the exhaust to transom seal having melted away. Luckily he had a brand new battery and the bilge pumps kept it afloat. There is a chance it blocked with weed the last time I used it, but I'd never had that problem before. It has three cooling circuits, and luckily it seems the other two (motor and stator) were working fine. He was all good about it, but I feel a bit stink for the chap. So anyways, thus ends the story of the chode, but I will defiantly get another boat in the future, probably the smallest hull I can find with 4 or 5 seats, and probably something powered by a small four stroke car engine. Regards, VG.

This happened to me recently too, really kicks you in the spuds. I was super excited about finding a heater fan speed resistor, then all hope was crushed.

Well due to the brain injuries I did a 1000km round trip to collect the parts tractor. Got pretty much everything apart from the core engine. It was a bit of kit set due to the motor being the mounting point for most of the front gubbins. Piled it all on the trailer, chucked heaps of tie downs and straps on it, and it was all still there when I got home which was nice. Collection: Then I pulled it apart as much as I could to lighten it up a bit, and then did a fairly dodgy lift from my probably not to code boat shed roof, Then I harvested even more parts I want for the other one, and while I was there I split it in half to make it easier to move/store. Might split the box from the back end also. This is why number 2 ended up at the wreckers, buggered gears, And some of the harvested parts I'll swap over, The top link was missing from the 3 point, got them to chuck in one, so have all the needed bits now, nice. The body work is a fair bit nicer so will swap all that over. The foot plates still have the anti-vibration pads on them too, fancy. The seats a bit rough, but the pan is rust free which is good, the other seat is rusted to fuck. Also had a new radiator cap, and a shiney fuel cap for the bling factor. So when I get time I'll start the big swap over and clean up a few bits N bobs, and I'll be tractoring in no time. There is a few minor differences between the two units, but only one bit I wanted to use (3 point up/down lever) wont work as far as I can tell, so not so bad. Once the tractors done I'll give the rotor-tiller thing a bit of love. Regards, VG.

The finishing touch has been applied. A chap that comes into work and shows me his projects all the time, has amongst his sweet creations, a home made laser cutter. He cut the "TOYOTA" out of 3mm HDF for me, and gave me the outer part as an alignment jig, which made fitting the letters waaaay easier. I slapped some spray paint on them, and then they no longer fit in the jig lols, but I crammed them in there enough to work and stuck them on with some meticulously cut and placed double sided tape. Came out spot on, nice. Big thanks to those that offered to do vinyl cuts and 3D prints for me, much appreciated. I'll get started on the trailer one day. Maybe. Regards, VG.

You son of a bitch

Fucken sick dawg

So because of my brain injuries, I've agreed to purchase the complete (minus engine) parts tractor in palmy. There was so many bits I wanted, it ended up making more sense to buy the whole thing, plus Iseki parts are apparently a little hard to get and expensive, so yeh. So I should be able to create a fairly tidy unit out of the two, and still be a fair amount under the theoretical valve of one of these tractors. ALSO, the wreckers offered me a Iseki rotary tiller the correct size for my tractor at a very reasonable rate, so I'm getting that too. I can use it to chew up the dirt I need to move, to make it easier to grade out. I can see how dudes end up with 20 tractors spread around their properties, it happens so easily. Regards, VG.

Nahhh nahanhanhanahan, JUST the motor was $1k, they want around $2.3K for the everything else excluding the motor. I'm waiting for them to price my full list, and then see if it makes more sense to buy everything. I was just going to make one of those doofers pictured to suit the size of my tractor, seeing as its so adorably small.

Had a quick fiddle/ruin this evening. The mill story checks out, no mud anywhere, but pulp in lots of nooks and crannies. I've taken the tow bar bit off, will make a tow bar thing for the 3-point linkage. High end rim widening job. Big ass bull bar and relocated muffler. Powerplant. Gonna put the muffler back where it should be, after I panel beat the heat shield. Looks better without the horrid wheels/tyres. The back tyres are unbelievablely heavy, pretty sure they are forklift spec. Got rid of the yuck bumper. I've got the lights, just need to panel beat the mounts and bonnet. I'll make up a few better mounts for the mudguards/foot rests, they are a bit cattywampus and need better support. Also, I rang and talked to the wreckers, they will sell me the complete other tractor minus the engine (they want a grand just for that alone) and it just has one bung shaft in the gearbox (the old owner was running some huge bit of gear behind it and lunched the box) and it looks to be rather tidy, the body work is way nicer than mine. But not sure I should invest that heavily. They also said they have an Iseki rotary hoe for this size tractor that they would throw in for $200. Dangerous. I think I'll just get the bits I need, and try tidy up the body work as best I can. Regards, VG.

That did cross my mind, once they give me a total cost of just the parts, I'll ask about the whole thing.

So because of my brain injuries, I talked myself into buying a tiny tractor. No shit, I've low key wanted a power pony since I was a lad, and this thing is even cooler than a power pony tbh. Its from somewhere between 1985-1991, 800cc 3 cylinder Mitsubishi diesel making a whopping 16hp. The internet says its got 6 forward and 2 reverse gears, but I think that's 3 forward, 1 reverse, but in high and low ratio. And its 4WD too. She's a bit rough around the edges, but seems to be in good nick mechanically. It was owned by a local papermill from new, and was used solely on concrete/tarmac in the paper machine basement and around site. Because of this, it has had a few modifications made to stop functions being used that were not needed, or would ruin something or someone. I knew when I purchased it that the cardan shaft had been removed so that it couldn't be put into 4WD (would not be happy on pavement) and that the 3-point linkage set up was gone (it was only used to tow a trailer) along with the lever that controls the 3-point up down. Its also had the front rims widened to take an industrial spec road tyre (the rims are only 5" wide standard) and it currently has flat, bald forklift looking industrial tyres on the rear. It was cheap enough that I took the gamble on finding the parts needed to reinstate the 4WD, and knew I'd need the correct sized tyres to keep the 4WD happy. What I only just realized is that because they wanted to fit road spec tyres, they have changed the back rims from 18" to 15" (possibly why the cardan shaft was deleted) which really screws up the plan of reinstating the 4WD. Turns out the 18" rims/tyres are not very common either. I was a bit "AWWW FUCK" about the back rim dilemma, but then found a place in Belgium that happens to stock full sets of rims tyres for this unit. But by the time I got them here, they would be the same price as what I paid for the tractor itself. drats. I emailed every tractor wrecker I could find in NZ, and they all came back with nothing. APART FROM ONE PLACE, THAT HAD A COMPLETE TRACTOR, THAT THEY WILL WRECK IF I TAKE ALL THE BITS I ENQUIRED ABOUT, THANK YOU SWEET EIGHT POUND SIX OUNCE BABY JESUS. So I have expressed interest in the following parts: Full set of rims/tyres Full set of 3-point linkage arms Lever to control up/down of 3-point linkage Cardan shaft, UJ's and cover tube thing Ignition barrel and key Front grill Gear knob RPM/hour gauge and cable that runs it If I get all these bits, I'll have a complete fully functional tractor on my hands, and still for a lot less than what they seem to sell for. Pics to come. So far tractor ownership has been an emotional rollercoaster, but things are looking up, for now. Regards, VG.

There's not a huge amount of choice in tyres this size. I wanted black (over gray) and just got the ones that looked the most like real car tyres. Can defo get knoblies though, I think some mini quad bikes have 4" tyres.

Its faster than a power walk, but probably not as fast as a run. I'd rate it at "jogging speed"