The Bronze

I went through that tunnel heading south the other week. I think there's a speed camera as you come out. Worth knowing if you're getting all tokyo drift on it later. /semiling

I'll try get down to the shed this weekend. I bought a door at some point and stripped it. Can't remember if it had a mirror, if so I know where to look. You asked that kook falconfutura on the Tard?

I still have a few boxes of assorted metalflake krylon at clearance prices. dm for deets

Today I picked up a rebuilt wiper motor and ended up chatting to the geeze at the autosparkies, and chanced upon the fact he had a brand new in the packet wiper arm upstairs he was happy to sell me. Much joy.

By some weird-arse miracle I started patching in the last part of the pillar I've been working on, and it was going supr sweet. My patch panel was sitting bang on, and my welds were sweet, and only half the sparks went in my hair and burnt my head. It was the best day ever. Pre bog pics shown here. So I gloated about it on spam here about how good my day was going. I was stoked; such a sweet, smooth process. Then I decided to take off some trim on the A Pillar to prime and respray it as part of the general overhaul. And of course, as soon as i pulled off the trim I found a big rusty fucking hole... Beware the jinx of Gloat

I think that's kinda the point - we pour money into our cars and that deserves proper recompense if they're using them to make their brand cooler and make a profit. you should get more than beer money or petrol money from commercial interests. Films like the one in welly posted around here the other day, I understand, they tend to be a labour of love, but Geoff Ross and his mates aren't short of coin. Personally I wouldn't drink Moa even if it was free.

Moa Market Cap: 33 Million. https://www.nzx.com/markets/NZSX/securities/MOA "This information was extracted for the half year report provided by Moa Group Limited released on 25 November 2016:Key Results for the half year :- Revenue of $3.73M - up 13% from the same period last year- Gross Profit is $1.1M - up 20% from the same period last year Still operating at a loss, but FTC. (Not hating on you Neal, just ranting, because Friday)

As someone who works in advertising I find people like this offering contra for a central prop, especially with such a big company, pretty shit. front up with some cash you pricks.

Note to self: Wheels like this.

either way, your rolling through it at a cracking pace. it's embarrassed me into doing stuff.

top work on that 1/4 window area - I cut that shit out and got someone to shape it because of all the complex curves; looks like you got it nailed.

Oh yeah, ran reasonably well in spite of the carb hoses all being disconnected and better yet, it blew fuck all smoke, so the stem seal job seems to have worked. It doesn't appear I ever documented that, but I did the rope in the cylinder trick with the head on and found that two seals had disintegrated, so now it has new ones, and it is much happier. And the LPG tank and system is nearly all gone except for the filler hose which I haven't got around to crawling under it to remove. When I do the 50 tonne tow bar is coming off too. I hate excess weight. Hopefully between the lighter arse and petrol power it'll do some skids soon.

So, as above I got some rattlecans made, and they were average, but I didn't realise how average, (and by average, I mean utterly shit) until I grabbed some balls, and blew a coat of paint over the guard using a paint gun, something I've only used for hi-fill primer so far. Farrrrk, I felt like a pro. Suddenly I realised how much better it could be, so I sanded it back, and sprayed it again, and sanded, and clear coated, and sanded, and sanded and clear coated, and cut it back, and realised it needed to be better, so sanded and clearcoated a few more times. It's still average, and would benefit from a proper cut and polish by someone who knows what they're doing, and I can see all the shit bogging I did, but for a shitty old coon ute, it'll definitely do. First blast from the gun: About 4 rounds of clear and wetsanding later A rough idea of how bad the fade is on the door vs the bonnet which was resprayed a couple of years back and looks quite good. I can see where the bog spots are sunken and shit. #fuckconcours to celebrate all this I fired the old thing up, chucked a beer crate in as a seat and drove it half out of the shed for the first time in over a year and washed off the dust and suddenly it seemed like progress was being made. Before with dust: After with no dust: Also good to check all the drains under the guards are working. Also before the excitement of paint, and in between coats, I finished a ratshit weldjob on the B pillar and bogged it and sanded, and bogged, and sanded that into a passable state. Still needs another bit welded in when I have some money for a gas bottle. All in all, possibly the best holiday I've had in years. And the next one will probably involve a crack at painting the rest of it.

tridents are like mustangs and belly buttons. factory snowflake fairmont wheels ftw.

that could be handy if it's an nz one - I have an aussie manual but they have all sorts of emissions shit nz new didn't so it's not much help. I just need a rough guide as all the hose is all over the show and the idle is sky high.

I'd be keen for some pics of how your carb is set up with plumbing to emissions cannister etc too. I removed the lpg and need to replumb the mess.

that rust situation looks familiar. I should post some progress pics of mine. surprised you're swapping in an xe dash - the odometers fuck out routinely I've been through 3.

Import compliancing question: If I bring in something ex-USA which has been engine swapped, what is the process at this end for compliancing? hope it slips through un-noticed? or be upfront from the outset and see what mods need to be made to it to get it Low Volume complied. Regarding this: https://sandiego.craigslist.org/esd/cto/6083457653.html

All the under the bonnet stuff is tidied up. Haven't taken many pics, just this one mid job. It's not perfect, but it's cleaner, and that's all i'm aiming for until I have the urge/time/tools to pull the engine out and do it all properly. The wiper motor is off getting rebuilt at the moment with mr Ron Wood

Also got some rattlecan touch up paint made to tidy up some of the surface rust. Tossing up how to best use all that space there beside the fuel tank. I feel like I should indulge my desire to make loud sounds and tuck a fuck-off big amp down there. Just coz. Open to other ideas. Seems wasteful. Remote battery?

Dunno why those images are fucked out. Anyhows, here's some new ones. Got the lpg tank out, which was a rather epic mish involving my gadget arm and three weeks of intensive traingin as a controtionist to enable me to access certain bolts. Dunno how the guy installed it tbh. And then, after much forceful prodding, managed to unrust the screws and get the deck lid up. Stoked as a most stoked thing to find zip-zero of the rust under here or inside the rear quarters. so fucking stoked. I have some pieces on the pillars cut out and off being made for me to weld in. Anyone want an lpg tank?

this time in two weeks I'll be trying to decide if I'm gonna pull a sicky and head down thursday/friday.

Is that the softer stuff you're not s'posed to use on cars, but I did anyway? If so, I do. And if 3/16 is standard brake size for coons?

Shit. Sorry, a guy just came to get them tonight. Sold for a dollar on trade me. He might give you his old smaller regulator. He wanted mine because bigger.