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.

Just now, gibbon said:

I vaguely remember a red one with a blown head gasket being for sale sometime before lockdown, was that you?

yeah that was my one.

4 hours ago, gibbon said:

just read your project thread, which starion are you doing up now? the first one or the second one

Also I guess what I call a scuttle you call a cowl... you have A SPARE ONE? Tell me you wouldn't have sold it to me anyway, so I'll feel better about spending a fortune fixing mine 

 

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.

I don't think I've seen another one in real life (other than the one i have) for a long time. I agree though, rare doesn't always equal valuable..

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.

This is just perfect. Spotted on Saturday...

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.

1 minute ago, bigfoot said:

While the box is out, replace the rear main seal. I made that mistake on one of my cars, the fucker leaked almost straight away

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.

Buick Riviera spotted in Napier over Labour weekend - these are pretty much my favourite American cars:

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  

a couple of random ones from today.

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...

Couple of things from Petone tonight:

3 hours ago, 0R10N said:

Thanks @Firebrand, that helps greatly!

You'd think so, but there are apparently a few oddball rules around retrofitting rear seatbelts.

Proving the factory points are there is only the first step, next is to convince the compliance people that they are suitable for mounting a modern seatbelt. Otherwise new anchor points have to be scratch built, which requires a LVV cert and around $4k worth of fabrication.

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...