Firebrand

Can't really help you a lot, but I'm a big fan of Yugos, my wife is from Serbia, so I've driven a couple when over there on holiday. I haven't seen one on the road in NZ for a looong time, but I know there's a few around.

So yeah, I just brought this! Somehow it made it the 7kms to my house with no alternator/water pump belt, it got pretty warm, but I doubt it was hot enough to do any damage. I'll get a new belt and take it for a proper thrash on the weekend. What a wicked little car, no idea what I'm going to do with it yet, hopefully tidy up and then get it road legal again to start with.

Will get more pictures up soon.

Cheers to jesselc for the help, and moving all of his cars out the way to get it going for me. I'll do my best to take care of it!

Haven't seen another Starion around Wellington for ages. Got any photos of your one? There's not that many Widebodys in NZ at all, maybe about a dozen, but a few are Japanese imports (and one US Spec Chrysler Conquest).

Could try horopito motors maybe? I had a wander around a couple of weeks back and there's quite a few old Mitsubishis in there, can't remember if there were any late 70's Galants though. A lot of the stuff there is pretty rusty and broken up also.

Otherwise this happens:

Scary as shit when it flies up, had to steer off onto the shoulder of the motorway blind. Felt like a right muppet. I was working on it the night before and just left the bonnet resting closed without latching it on, then got up for work, backed out half asleep without noticing it wasn't properly latched. 

Surprisingly little damage, the bonnet is fine, and it couldn't get anywhere near the windscreen. The cowling is pretty fucked, you can see in the top photo where the bonnet struts have sheared through the metal. Bonnet has moved back a few cm, I can only just get it latched closed now. This weekend, I'll be pulling the front of the car apart again to see what I can do to fix it. 

Another couple of dents for the collection.

I should be heading up for this too, it was pretty cool last year.

This is cool, welcome to the weird mitsubishi owners club

This is great/terrible, I counted about 7 different shades of brown/beige. That digital dash is nice. 

Here's a few from my recent trip to Europe - 

Zastava - Serbia:

Another Zastava/War monument, Croatia:

Opel, Croatia:

Austria:

I'll try and find a few more from my trip photos if anyone is interested...

Very keen for this, I've liked the page. I agree with Bwarp that it needs to be well organised, definitely something wellington needs though.

In October last year, I took it in for a WOF inspection, hoping to get it fixed up in time for summer. The list of failed items is in my previous post.

The garage replaced the worn steering bits, while I went on a bit of a shopping spree:

New rear shocks from Mookeeh in the US

Tokico front inserts from Amazon.com

New rear brake disks, pads and wheel bearings from Ebay

Sway bar bushings (SuperPro)

I wasn't 100% sure that the struts would fit, but the rear ones matched up perfectly, slightly shorter to match my springs also:

The front ones however caused all kinds of drama. I pulled out one of the old oil shocks, and test fitted a new insert. It fitted the strut, but the gland nut was the wrong size.

The factory gland nuts were far too thick for the new inserts.

I checked with autolign and they confirmed that the shocks were the right kind, but I tested with another pair of struts (thanks to oldschool member 'dave' from Whangarei), and finally saw the error - one of the Tokicos had the correct nut, and the other (which I had been test fitting with) was too small.

After some trial and error autolign came through with a KYB gland nut that would fit the strut, it just needed a spacer to fit the top of the insert. So I got out my grinder & hand files and 'machined' a spacer from the not-fitting nut, which slotted in perfectly for a nice tight fit (here's a shot halfway through - once it was the right diameter I sliced off the plate at the top and ground down to fit, measuring as I went to keep it all flat and smooth):

And then installed the inserts:

By now I had moved house and given up on the original garage. I rebooked with another place nearer my current house for a new inspection.

They said the rear bearings and brake discs didn't need replacing after all, so now I have a spare set of each for the future.

All that was needed now was:

New clutch master & slave cylinder

New drivers side seatbelt

Power steering hose remanufactured and reinstalled as it was leaking, and my spare one leaked even worse.

Those are now all  sorted, and we are ready to go, can't wait for tomorrow

What: 1983 Mitsubishi Starion GSR-II (Japanese Import, One of the earlier ones produced, 2 litre SOHC 4g63 turbo, non-intercooled (originally)).

Why: Always wanted one since I was a teenager, eventually I stopped buying Subarus and got the starion instead

When: 2009

How: On trademe. Brought it sight unseen from Chch and drove it back to Wellington. Was in a bidding war with another person, and they gave up $50 below my maximum price. It was meant to be.

What's Next: Currently at a workshop getting it's first WOF in over 2 years, plans are just to drive it again and look for some proper JDM wheels, instead of the aussie crap that's on there at the moment . Long term is a full respray as the paint is flaking off all over the place. Otherwise who knows....

Oh man...

I've had my car called an RX-7, Delorean, Celica, Supra, GTO, Cordia, Ferrari etc...

If they do know what it is, everybody has a mate that wrapped one around a tree/lampost/etc, or was stripped to provide engines for various Mitsubishi vans and utes.

Everyone wonders why they are so rare now.

Little kids like it because it's bright Red and sort of noisy, which is awesome.

Yes, so long as you keep all documentation

That's awesome. 

Since we are asking questions, is it possible to import a car (assuming all documentation is in order etc) and work on it for a while before going for compliance? e.g could you import a project, spend a couple of months/years fixing it up and then still get it road legal. Or do you have to go through compliance etc immediately after importing?

Cheers for taking the time to explain that Im all for rules if there is sound science backing them up.

It seems ridiculous to me that you can't put a 225 wide tyre on a 15 x 9 Rim (considering the tread is almost 9 inches wide so the tyre barely even needs to stretch to fit the rim). But you can legally put it on a 15 x 6 rim, which means it has to tuck in by well more than an inch on each side.

It's like they just made up some numbers and then no one can be bothered changing them.

shit so keen to get the starion up to this, was great last year even without a car. just waiting on some rear brake rotors to arrive from oz, then WOF time (again)

The old Mt. Cargill road from North East Valley over to Waitati in Dunedin.  Only takes like 15 minutes, but is tarmac, twisty, a little steep in places, and quite testing.  Lots of locked fronts, opposite lock, and unbalanced exits.  Primo if you like a challenge. 

So many good roads around Dunedin. I used to like heading up Mt Cargill Road, then back down Blueskin Road to Port Chalmers and back along the coast to Dunedin. Or if I couldn't be bothered with corners, a nice blat down the coast from Brighton > Taieri Mouth always cheered me up.

No sadly, just the low ones on the car...

Mine has some kind of aftermarket lowering springs, no idea where from. I can't off the top of my head think of any others that would fit, They are such weird bloody cars.../useless post

Shout out if you need any other bits, I have quite a bit of Starion crap in my garage, was hoping to have mine on the road again by now but keep hitting roadblocks...

A few from my quick trip to dunedin over new year:

Apologies for dragging up an old thread, but does anyone know what these guys are like to deal with? eg. would they put up with me browsing around looking for bits and pieces? I'm thinking I could use a few bits off the Starion and some of the other old mitsis before they rot into the ground...

Went for a WOF today, got a bit of a list to work through but nothing unexpected:

I'm going to need a set of rear struts if anyone has any, as well as a Wiper motor and linkages.

Most of the other bits should be OK.