Jeffs_Emporium

Finally the sump! Its no secret this van has been through a few and seemed to be the butt of a few jokes for it. A friend of a friend Alex (thanks if you are on here) made this custom item back in January along with a shortened pickup to match . I recently gave it a coat of paint and transferred the oil from the existing full level sump to check height from block. It was the same if not slightly lower (more capacity)

Heater issue ended up being a faulty tap. It would flow untill it hit a certain pressure then close off completely so I just bypassed it. The heater control unit actually also closes a flap when selecting cold temp which should help it not always blow hot. Other jobs to finish up local plastic company Cebelio cut up a scrap piece of black ABS to fill the floor shifter void, it snaps into place where the leather shifter boot would have been

As someone who has successfully entered Berghain once i felt this was a suitable plate It also aligns with a lot of the toyota related clothing I bring in with Japan and pretty much spot on with being a 1989 van! I wouldn't normally bother with a black plate but felt it suited the darker rear garnish, tinted windows and black tail light surrounds nicely as well as the colour of choice of clothing for true hard core techno heads

Some more serious parts for the build

When I put this together I spent a large sum recoring the heater core, for some reason I could never get it to blow hot.I tried testing the tap to make sure it wasn't blocked and I tried checking the hoses were flowing nicely, I tried changing the orientation to make sure I wasn't running it backwards also. I remembered that I hadn't put foam packing around the core so today I pulled the entire dash out to resolve that Put the heater box back in and plumbed it back up and bled air out. Still not blowing hot. It blows warm when you first turn it on then cools off. So I tried changing direction on hoses, blows completely cold. Tried dicking around with the flaps and taps manually to check it was doing as its supposed to and the pipes on the core are definitely hot but some reason it won't blow hot

The floor shifter model I pinched the seat base and bucket seats from had this nice strap to hold the seat base/bonnet up from the factory but it was broken in half. I remembered a local wrecker had a couple of townace utes so went and grabbed a complete strap and fixing. My B pillar didn't have the mounting point so I fitted a rivnut to get it connected. Better than the stick I've been using for almost 3 years

The mighty TOOLBX has now been sold to a good friend! It's another month before he takes possession to drive it from Christchurch to the far north. There are all these little jobs I never got around to that I'm now getting through to hand it over in a completed state! Earlier in the year I had some Bspeed cam covers made in a classic fin style in a red to coordinate with the BRX wheels Great opportunity to wear a locally designed and manufactured product!

Clocking up some kms Went back to Get electronic and they refunded me all except the $95+gst inspection fee since they were unable to fix tacho and temp. I think I'll find a suitable mechanical water temp gauge to keep an eye on things untill another cluster pops up. Tried to test if there was a signal at the dash plug but don't realllly know what I'm up to to be honest

Surface mount speakers also have the right contour and size for the rear hood lining pods

Ts-x4 mounted to factory holes for the missing roof mounted heater unit the pioneer speakers even had the correct mounting thread coming out!

Tacho has been working previously dizzy is putting out a signal, im going to try lift some of the pins on the plug on back of dash tomorrow, I had some temp gauge movement pulling plug out slightly so maybe they've been flattened over time. In some better news I managed to get both sunroof and moonroof to completely open and close. Found no rust around the opening of the bigger one surprisingly its all on the removable panel, the front one has some around the edge I'll need to drop that cartridge out. Someone's definitely been there before with nuts missing here and there

Yeah it is the factory dash. Quote was 95+ if they couldn't repair it and 395+ if they could so I'll see where I stand since it's not operational still

Got this back up and running yesterday Still looks like a heap of shit. Seems to be holding all of its fluids. Picked up the dash cluster yesterday and plugged it back it and still no tacho or temp which is pretty gutting after a $457 bill. I'd replaced the temp sensor on engine, all three radiator hoses and thermostat for a high flow option while I was there. Will run it for a week or so and flush cooling system a few times before putting actual coolant in.

Loving the height

While I was awaiting some other parts I popped out the digital dash and took it to Get electronic down here to see why tacho wasn't working and temp seems temperamental they didnt seem to find much other than a couple of suspicious solder joints so hopefully that sorts it

Radiator back from A1 Automotive cooling weighing in at 10.4kg she's pretty grunty now

Kiwi cylinder heads gasket on Put the head back on and Torqued up to 30-60-88Nm in 3 stages as per specs. Put the rocker shaft back on and located pushrods. Turned over by hand a couple times to make sure they were locked in. Rocker cover back on with new gasket. I see waterpump is on clearance at repco for $21 so I'll grab one of those. Tested the thermostat in boiling water and it barely opened so I'll definitely replace that also.

Picked up the head from Cliff Bond on Friday morning Hardness test was all good so they skimmed it for me.

Wheels have been a bit of a headache. I actually had some 15" 5H focus racing mesh in stock but sold them 3 weeks prior to buying the hiace in a 6.5 and 7.5j The 15" focus use a 14" centre that's even cast 14" and step lips but for some reason they went for bigger m8 hardware and less fixings 8 not 12 m6 like the 14s. This bothers me enough that I've started buying 14s one by one. If I end up stepping them up to 15s with 12 fasteners or not I'm not sure yet but I've bought 3 of the focus spoke and 2 of the focus mesh to play around with, all in 14" 5H

While the hoodlining is out I'll also be doing a pretty extensive period-ish Carrozzeria/Pioneer audio install on this and be looking for mounting points for two or three of these light up ceiling units Ive managed to find a head unit that should be here any day A stack of speakers There are some rear pods for factory audio that my van wasn't optioned with that are perfect for the surface mount ts-44. A light up subwoofer that ill find another one to pair up with

In positive news I have dropped the hoodlining looking for rust and it appears OK. The sunroof cartridges are pretty impressive taking up the entire ceiling space front to back with drains in each corner. I'll be looking at getting these both operational again. Both sunroof skins have unsurprisingly come back as discontinued

I've been busy not in the intended way either. I suspect this has always had a minor leak into cylinder 4 which got to the point compression was coming out radiator cap. While I've secured the late model 1GGE that will replace the 3Y now isn't the time to pull it so I've dropped the head off to get checked and resurfaced to keep it going while I get some rust/bodywork sorted. I've also dropped the radiator in to get a 3 core upgrade over the rotten 2 core in anticipation for the 2 extra cylinders. It feels like pissing in the wind fiddling with the Y but hoping I can recover some costs when it comes time to part with it. Water doesn't seem to have made it to the sump fortunately but will give everything a good flush out.

How much would you like for them?

I sold the 17" enkei rp01 over the weekend. Tried some of my friends 15" 5h wheels on untill I can find something suitable In this light you can see how bad the colour match is on passengers rear quarter after recent rust repairs. I think I prefer the fin style wheels on this. Trying to find some tidy steelies for now from crown or the likes. Must have decent rubber and a 67mm centre bore and 5x114.3 if anyone in Christchurch has something? Had panelbeater friend look at rust in top half and he didn't seem to scared so once liteace is gone we will get it booked in. New moon roof skin is showing as available to buy new so may try get that ordered also