Bling

Yeah i'm more than happy with 8.8 / 10.9. Pic of the CCM chapter I have in stock, I have the whole chapter somewhere as LVVTA had it available at some point for download. http://iforce.co.nz/i/zn4shv1p.bc0.jpg The nylocs were holding the brake rotor to the hub, so a bit toasty, so out they go.

Seems hydrogen embrittlement is a higher risk with 12.9's too, which I guess relates to the brittle / sheer issues above. https://www.boltscience.com/pages/the-stronger-the-better-is-not-necessarily-the-case-for-fasteners.pdf

More brittle, prone to sheer than 8.8 / 10.9's. That was the gist I got from the people I spoke to. I was informed that they would probably be fine in my application. But given what the manual says and that I want the wheels and brakes staying put, it was a no brainer to just replace them. Will repurpose the other bolts in other locations. Probably 12.9's installed in modified cars everywhere with zero issue. But from what I read, that's just not something I want, whether it can get signed off or not. Mostly 10.9's now with nord-lock washers so shouldn't be a problem.

So yeah, famous last words last month with brakes together for last time. Turns out that all the bolts I got with the brakes are unsuitable. 12.9 bolts are not suitable for cyclic loading and use with steering, suspension or brakes. As per the Car Construction Manual. 10.9 and 8.8 are fine. They would probably be fine, but not something I can be bothered replacing later if they get picked up. So grabbed all the replacement bolts and Nord-Lock washers this arvo. Pulled it all to bits, replaced bolts / nuts (including the also unsuitable nylocs (thanks for the heads up @cletus) previously shown) and added so more grease for good measure. Since last update i've had the front edge of the bonnet repaired as it was rusting in the seam and had blown out more than a fat person in a cake shop. I had a pro do that as i'd most likely fuck it up. I also finished welding in the door patches and remade the bottom corners. Ground it all back and dropped the doors at the restoration man. He will remove the distortion in the first door I did. He gave me some tips for repairing the second door and it made all the difference to the end result. I have dropped him that one too though as there were a couple of hollows in the door to pop out. Should get those back in a week or so hopefully. Ordered tyres last week after asking in spam about sidewall sizes. Went with RE003's as they were one of two tyres I was looking into and @xsspeed mentioned the sidewalls aren't extreme. Getting them fitted to wheels tomorrow arvo, so will give the wheel bolts a quick polish, last minute spec. Have been spending all my time on other car jobs until I knew tyres had arrived in stock. Fingers crossed the weak offset wheels fit on the front without contacting the struts. Coilovers means thicker diameter shock body by probably 10mm or so. So it makes it a really tight fit to jam a 7" tyre between the strut and stock wheel arch. Nothing extreme here size wise, it doesn't need it. Closer the wheel sits to the shock the lower I can probably get it before it rubs. Will be doing some sanding of bog and priming to finish out this week. Will likely need to get some more colour match cans as I don't have the space to use proper gun, so proper backyard shit job it is. Don't really care what it looks like though at this point, just need it in for cert next month. Which if you looked at the car in person, you'd just laugh and go with "yeah right" Photo so this isn't a photo-less update.

Looks like a sweet run. A bit too snowed under to make it, but will try for the next one.

How much were the recore quotes compared to that cost / hassle? I don't recall exact price of my recore, but it wasn't that much more than that. Was similar cost to an aluminium radiator. So I went recore as it just bolts in.

Seems deserving of a give a little page to get it certed in it's improved form. So rude it should be illegal lol.

Skirt wasn't short enough, amateur move eh. Edit: just realised you didn't take it down lol. Comment may still apply.

Could be worse, Mof is probably still driving Oh yeah mean skewers / cake, both went down a treat.

Good times as usual, cheers all.

Half day here so plenty of shed time working on the car. Which in reality means lots of standing around doing not much.

I'm rolling in something uncool, so probably not much point me convoying. Safe to assume @bigfoot hasn't been pashing people at that covid church?

Will try get to this. Just need to find a Mitsi to purchase I guess.

Maybe, first brake fitting i've used that doesn't have a flare inside. Well it does have one, but the caliper doesn't. I'd be surprised if it didn't leak fluid, but maybe brake fluid is thick enough to not matter. Will google. edit - dug through my paperwork and found instructions for the kit, says to use loctite, so I guess i'll do that. So long since I read them I didn't recall that step. As you were.

Have been chipping away slowly. Torqued all the the bolts on the front strut's up to cert specs. Then had to pull both struts apart as a ~0.5mm spacer wasn't needed. I had previously found it was needed as one pad didn't fit. This time I found it wasn't needed... so hopefully a drive around the block will sort the slight rub of one pad. Without the spacer plate, the pads have a gap sub 1mm, with one slightly touching, still easy enough to spin so I think that will sort itself after a drive. Installed the diff back into the car, nightmare one man job. Took a lot of pissing around as some of the arms are super tight. Got there in the end. I stripped the surface rust off all the arms and gave them a couple of coats of paint. No pics of this as I spent too long cursing and losing the will to live. Bolted an adjustable MRP panhard rod in for the first time, shocks bolted up. Still need to work out what i'll do for bump stops, not being able to chop some down is a bit of a ball ache. Have left handbrake cables flapping in the wind for now as I need to bleed the brakes first. Drums were completely rebuilt, so that side of things is done. Hoping to get the brakes up and working this week, then I can get it off the axle stands it's been on for months and get it outside. Boring update, but just trying to keep the momentum going. I've also installed the dash back into the car and hopefully plugged everything back in correctly. Brakes together for hopefully final time Heater ducting, couldn't find a duct in the parts pile for this section so made one up with some 75mm flexipipe stuff. Had to flatten it below the emissions ECU as it's a tight fit between that and the glovebox. Hub installed with bolts for brake upgrade kit. Ticked and torque written down so I know it's done. And wheel arch repair. Was the only part that needed replacing, due to a prang which caused it to rust out. The rest of the arch has some surface rust so I gave it a really good clean up and sanded off what I could. Then put some Brunox over it. Will epoxy prime the inside too so that any moisture can't get to the area. It was either that or replace the whole rear arch for the sake of some very light rust between the skins. A: that's above my paygrade B: seems a bit extreme as it won't get any worse. The repair I did took an hour to weld as it's so thin I could only do a couple of spot welds at a time, while letting it cool again. Relatively boring update done, if you made it this far, you've done well.

Simple one today, what product am I best to use on the thread on left which goes into a caliper? TIA

I need a bit more epoxy primer, so figured I could get extra and do the underside guards, and areas that aren't seen. Is it legit to just slap a couple coats on and leave as is? Really don't see the point of top coating something never seen if a decent coating of epoxy will be fine.

Wait for a special / shop around, I got my oil last week for half price.

Pretty sure I was told DOT4 is sweet for road usage. Had a yarn when I was getting new master cylinder and mentioned the upgraded front brakes etc. Unless you're going to race the car I got the impression it wasn't necessary. If you're boiling DOT4, then sure, but at the point i'd be looking at the brake setup overall. In this case i'd say pedal feel is down to shitty old brakes, assuming all factory and old as fuck. Pop in and see Undercar Services for a chat, they were super helpful. edit: these guys https://yellow.co.nz/y/undercar-service-hornby

Oh yeah you can swap mechanically identical parts no worries. Just confused me as you were talking about the rusty one being on hold, so I thought you were going to keep the plates or something. If it's basically a parts car for your good one, then thats basically all oldschool cars. Not much is kept original when a car has been around the clock a few times. At a certain age, the revin is easier as it's more of a strict WOF check. For newer cars, they get pulled to bits a bit more. Like I say though, not sure what the cut off is. Any company like VTNZ (If they do revins) will let you know the cutoff date for that. If the engine is flagged, which i'm not sure they care or not. Just explain the old one shat the bed and so you replaced it with a donor engine the same.

Which car are you talking about revinning?

Ah didn't know that. Had my last one done at Fiddymont Seatbelts. I'll go look back a few pages cheers. Edit: may have been my link? lol

Bit of a random seat belt question, to tag along with the above. I have the seat belt "droppers" that suspend the belt at shoulder height (due to pillarless car). Can I paint these without causing a stir? Someone has "camo'd" one of them, and i'd like to paint it a more appropriate colour. It's basically a metal dropper with textured plastic coating and is fully factory spec. The plan is to also have all the of webbing replaced because old belts are a nope.jpg.

Not surprised with how the Mericans' tend to bog a whole car before paint.

Me too. That must be for the big jobs!