Bling

Small update, before a bit of a break to get stuck in and fix rust / procrastinate as per usual. After discovering the rust on passenger side winscreen base, the next job was to remove the guards to see what was lurking. Nothing too bad which is good. Pics. Someone got a bit generous with he seam sealer gun by the looks. All has since been removed, this side seems sound in the join. Drivers side will need some surgery. Drivers side, I don't really want to start cutting this (bottom bit of rust), but if the rust has got into the seam then I will probably need to do something. Along with the window frame rust that will get chopped out and replaced. All glue / sealant removed from the guard areas, pretty clean. Will give it a coat of something before refitting at later stage. Will also underseal the wheel arches at some stage. Need to find my spare set of springs so I can makita one way the ones in car for future planning on height. Last pic, just a boring one (the others were totally exciting, right?). Highlighted section has been pushed in a tad, headlight bracket is rather bent. So i'll fix that when I can work out the best way to straighten it. Anyone got ideas? Not sure if easier to pull it out, or push from within engine bay. Either way i'll probably have to make up a steel frame braced to car and work from that. So that is it for now, i've been cleaning the jizz off the windscreen frame which has been frustrating. Trying to get one job done at a time, so won't be updating until I have some decent progress to show. Choice, suggestions, smack talk and all that here: Also, thank fuck the forum saves your unsubmitted posts, I just closed this tab and thought i'd lost everything. Thankfully all the boring details were still here!

www.i-tools.co.nz for the parallel gear. Hector Jones or ToolShed for NZ stock. Milwaukee are bringing in new 12v impact guns 1/4", 3/8" and 1/2". Looks impressive. I have their 3/8" ratchet which is probably similar size to your air one. Pulled the whole interior of car out easily, seats, guards off, even rusty stuff. Only a couple of tight bolts it wouldn't touch. There are new ratchest out which are more powerful, but I wanted the smallest one (and it was ~150 on special) I have an air one too, but fuck it's loud, sits in the drawer. I just keep an eye out for specials and redemptions. Should be new redemptions next month, fliers get posted here: http://www.mymilwaukee.co.nz/ that only applies for NZ stock, so no i-tools etc. New thing, i'm not sure on ETA for NZ, but its this range

Have read the flow chart on LVVTA, but before I start chopping, is a CAT required on a pre 90 car at cert? Chart appears to show anything pre 90 does not required a CAT. Cheers Asking as I recall this rule has changed in the past. Engine is stock FWIW.

+1 for that, my compressor doesn't get much use after going battery for everything. ~$600 can net you a mix of parallel imported and nz stock gear with 600nm (nut bust) inc one bat & charger. I went 600nm as its mid torque and should cover most if not all my car chobs. Higher torque than my air rattle. All depends what you need torque wise. Huge fucker on spesh good luck finding a nut it won't undo.

Flex? Mayte I just used some spare speaker wire I had lying around.

I have a ~2/3m extension lead I made up due to that problem. Not sure if the bits are spendy or they just didn't like me at the electrical supplier.

Wait for someone that has more experience with getting their speedo calibrated. But unless i'm mistaken, you'd need to increase the tooth count above 18 to get it reading correct. The drive is going to be spinning slower due to bigger tyres, so for each turn it will need to turn the next cog faster to make up for that. Makes sense in my head... but maybe not, Sunday brain.

Yeah pretty much that ^^. Deals all weekend, but I think the best stuff goes pretty early in the three days.

I do have the mirror actually, but I lack the plastic base for it, have any of those? What sort of condition are your mirrors in, could be interested as mine does have some scratches on the chrome housing. Spare wouldn't be a bad thing to have.

In the past I think people have parked up on display on the Saturday. I tend to take Friday off work and go then instead, because swapmeat is more important than work.

Have been steadily working away on this, so a few more progress pics. Decided to give the carpet a blast as it seemed the easiest way to de-grot it. Came up decent after drying, still aiming to give it a colour spruce up later. All of the chrome has been removed from the car now, along with most rubber seals. Some areas are pretty solid, some not so much. Windscreen had to come out to access some rust, that was good fun. Nothing a craft knife or two couldn't sort. Probably took around two hours, with much swearing, sweating and paranoia. Did some digging in the gutters to see how far the rust goes. Mostly not too far, so hopefully only a few patches to replace. Locating clip missing on this side, gotta to what you gotta do. Managed to successfully remove the plastic clip on the other side, so will try find another to match it for reinstall time. Whole bottom section of this frame will need to be remade, it's at least twice as thick as the other side (which is sound). So one more window to remove, doh. I would have left the front screen in, if not for this fine specimen of ferrous oxide. Thankfully it is localised, so just a bit of creativity with a hammer and some panel steel to sort. Nothing a knife and lots of lube can't sort. Out came the dash pad (what a PITA). I'll add some ducting in to join the fan to passenger outlet, and give it all a good blow out. Will also look to run any wiring I need to while its all easy access. So now I think I have uncovered most of the rust in the top half of the car. Next update will include front end work. The front has taken a punt so i'm going to work out a way to bring that back into line. Nothing major, just panel work beside radiator has moved inward 10-20mm pushing in the drivers side headlight bracket and all that carry on. Quite handy having another car the same next to it, easy to check how panels are supposed to be shaped! The above photos are to give a general idea, i've probably found three times as many repairs to do, so plenty of practice on the metal glue machine. No point posting 20 photos of rust though. Will post up front end removal next week.

Selling the BC's or wanting to try use part of them? You might be able to get them chopped and modified to fit stock struts? Not sure if possible or not as the kits you buy now look to have pretty thick strut tubes that get welded to stock parts.

Check your tyres are suitable for rim width too. https://www.lvvta.org.nz/documents/infosheets/LVVTA_Info_01-2009_V2_Tyre_Size_to_Wheel_Size_Compatibility_Guide.pdf

Shit yeah, it's like a strawberries and cream theme from the 80's. They knew their market. Doesn't quite smell that pleasant though.

Quick update time. I've mainly focused on pulling everything I can off it, while still keeping it driveable. Main objective is to find as much rust as I can, so I can work out what repairs I need to work on. Before: Fabulously red(ish) carpet, might look into options for dying this a more consistent red. When I get around to that i'll just do a test patch under the seat or something. Have seen some pretty good results with dye mixed up into a spray bottle. Quite thread bare in places, so dye may help disguise that. I'm not going to splash out on new carpet, money won't be there for it. So this build will be a do what I can with what I have and run with it in that regard. Interior shots Out came the seats and carpet. Floor seems really good, probably won't bother touching it. Passenger floor was soaked from giving it a wash (I hope). I've located some rust under the windscreen which is likely related. So the front screen is going to need to come out, doh. New battery ratchet made quick work of the interior. Even got out my inspection snake camera and checked inside the sills while I was there, they seem pretty good. Nothing of concern seen. Will probably keep interior out until I have finished rust repairs now. Inspected the seats, pretty mucky and covered in hair of some description. Purchased one of those upholstery cleaning aerosols with the brush head. Did a test patch on a bad area, came up great. So plan for seats is the spray and scrub the whole lot. Hopefully it will come up quite tidy. Top of rear seat is showing its age and has been cooked by the sun. Will cover the exterior chrome trim removal in another update later on. Don't want to set unrealistic expectations as to my work speed. Purchased some ultraclear resin to repair one of the headlight lenses (worth a shot). Also checked my stash and found some newer globes in stock, so tried one in for comparison. Old globe: and new(er), featuring the aeration hole I hope to fix. Last job for this update was to try and unseize the brakes. With the handbrake off the car didn't want to budge. Which made for loud times trying to get it up the slope to the garage as currently the exhaust has a missing section just after the trans. Nice and loud. So anyway, popped off the front calipers and pushed the pistons back in a bit. That went fine, even cleared out some of the junk in the brake line. But being in a hurry I ended up getting air in the line so now the handbrake is the only working brake. Not a problem, car rolls perfectly fine now, so one thing off the list. Excuse the blur, I need to up my game and sort lighting in future. That will do for now, will try get an update up every week or two. Motivation dependent. Peace.