Firebrand

Looking good, the passivated hardware comes up so nice. Maybe it's time I updated my build thread also since there's a bit of a trend going on around here at the moment.

Hey, nice purchase, and good luck! I *might* have a spare Starion distributor floating around, I'll have a hunt around for you just in case. I've also got a small pile of grey starion interior bits and a dashboard if you are keen on it, I converted my previous car to black interior so I still have a few leftovers. I was pretty much going to throw them out if I couldn't find anyone who wanted them, as the grey parts aren't that popular. Flick me a message if you are keen. I'm (very slowly) restoring an 87 Starion, in Lower Hutt so not far from you.. As @ajg193 mentioned there's a few guys on here who know a lot about these cars.

yeah that was my one.

I'm on the second starion, the NZ New one - sold the first one just before lockdown, but haven't been on here much lately. I have a spare cowl/scuttle/whatever, but it's a bit stuffed also - rusty in all the usual places, so you haven't missed out on anything!. I'll see if I can get some photos and do a build update later in the week.

Nice project! The Starion I'm currently doing up is in a similar state, and rusted out in most of the same places (some better than yours, some worse). I'm trying to tackle all the repairs myself so those shots from the panelbeater are very useful haha. I'll get off my arse and update my build thread eventually.

this is for sale now -

Just a quick update on my Mirage, progress has been pretty slow... I've cleaned up the remaining Interior bits, replaced the carpet with some from a Nissan Primera that I ended up wrecking a while ago. After sitting around for ages it didn't really want to start - but I threw in a new battery, replaced the fuel filter and cleaned & re-gapped the spark plugs. Managed to get it to fire up with a bit of engine start, but it wouldn't idle, and was backfiring out of the carb. After a couple of hours of adjusting the carb, and a few bursts of carb cleaner, it seems to be running pretty well now, definitely a bit rough still but at least it starts by itself, idles & runs Ok. Next step is to get underneath as there's a bit of a water leak somewhere, and then start on getting the body a bit tidier. I'm still looking for a rear seat & a windscreen if anyone has them lying around.

I'm not sure they'd let my car in...would be cool to go to though.

Life got in the way and things took a bit longer than expected, but the new clutch is in, new Main seal is in, new front transmission seal is in. Bellhousing nice and clean. Flywheel machined and new pilot bearing installed, and new thrust bearing. Not many photos - assembly is the reverse of removal etc. I tried my best to torque everything to recommended settings etc. Clutch in place: Everything is back together, and I took her out for a short drive this afternoon. All seems good so far, feels much nicer. Pedal needs a wee bit of adjustment but it's perfectly driveable now.

I've got this manual which has specs for the 4G32, 4G33 & 4G37: https://1drv.ms/b/s!AjIWJwhrv2O0wkM5Ti17CoD983K_ (link is just to my private onedrive, so totally safe - if it asks you to sign in there should be an option to skip it and go to the doc). Looks like most of the specs are the same across the 4G3x range, but that might be a good starting point if you haven't already got it. No 4G36 in there directly sadly.

Yeah that's a good idea actually, might as well do it all at the same time.

So for the last little while my clutch has been slipping a bit, but it became more of an issue a couple of weekends ago, just revs going up and speed staying the same. So I thought I'd have a go at doing a clutch change for the first time. So i jacked the car up nice and high, removed starter motor, driveshaft, and gearbox. Had a quick check underneath the car and it's looking pretty good, a few spots of surface rust I'll tidy up before I lower it down. old clutch is pretty worn out: so I'll be replacing it with this nice pink one, it's a heavy duty (but still street) one, so should handle a bit more abuse than the old one - kit came with new thrust bearing and the little one that goes in the flywheel also: The inside of the bellhousing is caked with black shit, which I'm guessing is mostly transmission fluid, so I'll clean that up and replace the front gearbox seal also. The flywheel looks OK, but to be on the safe side, and since I don't really want to pull it out for a while I'm going to get it machined before I put it all back together again.

That was fun, nice hanging out with y'all!

sounds like a plan! I'll be there

If it's on 14/15th I should be able to make it

Oh shit, I'd be so keen as i can almost never make it to the Monthly meets...but I'll be in the UK when this is on so have fun without me!

@0R10N My reading of the tables is you only need single sensitive belts in the rear, and dual sense ones in front. But I could have read it wrong...

I guess if you know they are the same as the NZ new ones, you could just take your current Starion down to a compliance centre and see what they think...although different certifiers might have different opinions...

I pulled the boot panel off mine and had a look, they are bolted in to a panel on top of the wheel arch, I'm guessing that's the same as the NZ new one? looks pretty factory to me. I found a pic of a previous JDM Starion I stripped a few years back and you can see the same mount point there also, if you look really hard on the left hand side of this picture: hope that helps...

Yeah a rebuild is definitely an option, I guess I'll check both engines once the other one arrives and see what my options are...

Yeah, I'm planning to revin it as an '87, it's gonna take a while to get to that point though. The rust isn't too bad, the stuff in the firewall is a bit gnarly, but otherwise it's good, the body is way straighter than my other one. Bottom end of the engine is stuffed too, although I've got a spare engine arriving at some stage, but that's in pieces and i have no idea what state it's in...gonna be fun

When I got home from work tonight, this was waiting in my driveway Came up on Facebook last week, price was right so I grabbed it. It looks like a mess but it's way too good to wreck so it's going to be a long term fix up project. It's an '87 NZ new one, so leather interior, LSD, intercooler etc.

I've been having some issues with overheating under load for a little while now, to the point that I couldn't really drive up any hills or drive under boost. A bit of amateur diagnosis pointed to the issue being a blocked/dead radiator. I'm not surprised, as my current one was put in from a parts car I had six years ago, and it wasn't really in great condition back then. On top of that my fan clutch is totally stuffed. So the only options I had were a second hand radiator off trademe (which was likely to be just as shit as the current one), importing a new radiator and fan clutch from rockauto with no guarantee of quality, or for a similar price, getting a new aluminium radiator & electric fan. So the last option is what I did. It also allowed me to removed the rather sorry clutch fan, saving a bit of drag on the engine, and freeing up some space: I installed the new radiator (it is designed for Nissan S13 Silvia with SR20) , with a little assistance from @ProZac's build thread: It needed a custom bottom bracket which I made from a piece of 90 degree aluminium bar, it's functional and solid, but it looks like crap (I'm terrible at metalwork) so I'll probably redo it sometime. I still need to make some proper top brackets, the current one is just temporary. The top radiator hose is from an 89-90 Pajero v6, which fits pretty well. For the bottom hose, I used a bend cut off a P11 primera hose that had lying around, which is attached to the (shortened) factory hose with a length of 35mm OD aluminium tube. I flared the ends a bit to stop the hoses coming off: The fan is controlled by a Flex-a-lite fan controller via a relay, but the radiator actually has a bung for a screw-in temp switch (the seller said it didn't), so I'll probably swap it out at some stage as it has an ugly probe which fits in the radiator fins, so it looks pretty messy. I got it all together and took it for a bit of a test drive tonight, all is working well so far, temperature was stable when driving or idling, and I also took it right to the top of the hill I live on, which is a pretty decent climb and no dramas at all. The fan switches on nicely and pulls quite a lot of air through. So now I just need to do those top brackets and tidy the wiring up a bit

Ullrich came through as they are open Saturday morning, I ran out of time on Friday and couldn't get down to Mico. Ended up buying 2.5 metres of tube as it was way cheaper than I though it would be, so I've got some spare for future projects Will update my project thread soon

OK that's awesome!