Driven Goose

Please school me with all your knowledge regarding Carrys, both in current OS form, and in the new school upgrades I have planned. -Hayden

So I finally got one of my all time dream vehicles, a Suzuki Carry van. They say to dream big, but I did the opposite and dreamed small. I've wanted one of these for forever, beyond stoked. Brought it home on the trailer as it is in need of a WOF. Previous owner had 4 of them, and I think he named his Gary, and was calling this one Larry, but I think Barry suits it better (as in, "This is living Barry") Immediate plans are: - get it running right (seems to be overfueling, despite my love of OS cars, I know very little about carbs, so am going to enlist the wisdom of others) - fix a small amount of rust on the rear passenger wheel well, - fix the wipers (currently not connected to each other, needs investigating), - and get it a WOF, then enjoy. Short term plans: - Interior upgrades (seats, steering wheel, gearknob, stereo). - Headlight upgrade - Roof racks for practical reasons And then long term plans are to fit this with a Nissan Leaf motor stack and battery pack. Will be keeping an eye out for a whole wrecked Leaf to scavenge for matching parts, plus this seems to be the most economical way of doing this. A brief measure up has told me that the battery pack will fit in the rear on top of the current floor in a cradle with a false floor on top. The inverter and motor will fit in the factory engine spot, hooked up to the standard gearbox, but the PDM may need to be relocated due to height. I'm hoping to do as much of this on the bench as I possibly can, so as to avoid time off the road at the risk of creating another long term project. The plan is to use a Resolve-EV wiring harness and controller, though I see they are sold out at the moment, hopefully this is sorted in the future? I know I am in for a steep learning curve but I am excited. Please feel free to add thoughts and helpful comments: She's tucked up in the garage for now. -Hayden

Will be heading to Cars and Coffee in Nelson at the car museum this Sunday at around 9am. Just going for a looksie as while I may be picking up the wee Carry this weekend (all going well), it won’t yet be road legal.

Need to look over this thread and figure out what is on here and what isn’t, but it was last updated about 5 years ago. Oops. Basically, I bought a house in Whangarei, and this got worked on a wee bit, but then I got a new job, interest rates went up, and time and money spent on the house meant no time and money for poor wee (not so wee) Datsun. Misso and I had a talk a few years back and agreed that we would put time and money into this once we were no longer working on the house. We recently decided to move to Nelson, so we put in some biiiiig hours to finishing and renting out the place in Whangarei, bought a place in Nelson, moved halfway down the country, etc. We got here in Jan, and the Datsun recently followed us down. Juuuuuust managed to get it in the shed under the house. So basically now we’re here, not working on the house for a bit, it’s gonna get some love. It’ll be sharing my time and money in the short term with the camping trailer so that is ready for summer. Mostly posting this so I can find the thread, I’m not even sure how many pages back it went. Plans immediately are to get in contact with a certifier, start getting ducks back in a row (hopefully with some guidance from @ThePog). Then I guess keep on with body work? Honestly it’s been so long I need to make some lists.

I’d like to add an extra vote for the Moutere Inn, didn’t realise we were so close to the oldest pub in NZ, deserves a look in. Plus the menu looks decent. Partners are welcome I take it? I just told her she may have to put up with old car sharns.

I have no ideas for an evening meet because I don’t know the area. But am still keen, so bumping the topic in case others have ideas.

I’m just gonna aim to get there at 10 then as I also have stuff to do that day, but will come search out the blue Imp surrounded by foaming Barrys and say hi

https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2026/top-of-the-south-motor-car-show-2026/nelson-tasman On this Saturday 21st Feb, thinking of heading along so would be good to meet any OS peeps who are around.

Update: I now live in Nelson. It is good. Much unpacking to do still but very exciting. I’ve got a week until I start the new job and I’m sure I’m going to spend almost all of it doing jobs around here and just unpacking. But we love our place, and am excited for some new adventures. Keen to meet up with Oldschool people in the area if the opportunity arises.

Well update, we are now unconditional in Marybank, the place that @Willdat? checked out the open home for us, been through all the nonsense that comes with it and just need to do the settlement in Jan when we move down. My partner works for Keith Andrews Trucks, and she failed to mention they have a branch in Wellington about 15 mins from the ferry until after I put up the post asking for help (even though we'd discussed it), what a silly goose. So we should hopefully be ok. Looking forward to being down there, but still going flat tack to get everything sorted at this end. Hasn't helped that I had my Landcruiser stolen in the middle of all this, and someone volunteered us to host Christmas for her entire extended family... but such is life.

I appreciate it, we can keep that idea as a backup as we’d need to borrow a car trailer or something to move it. Once we have some more ducks lined up I might flick you a message though. Cheers maaaate

So updates: Offer going in today on place Will @Willdat? kindly checked out for us in Marybank. Crossed fingers. Job offer accepted and start date is 9 Feb, hopefully moving down the weekend before around the 31st Jan. Doing many many jobs here in Whangarei to get this place ready to rent out. Curtainsider truck is kindly being loaned to us from my partners work, and my cousin is driving it down with all our stuff as he was a logging truck driver until he retrained as a draughtsman, so that's awesome! Two things we need to sort: 1) A forklift at the Nelson end to offload, as the truck doesn't have a tail lift, and we will be palletising our stuff to make it quick to load at this end. Have sent a message to Nelson Forktrucks but just seeing from you lovely folk if anyone has other ideas. 2) Somewhere near the motorway in Wellington to park the truck overnight on the day before the ferry crossing, that is safe to leave it. We will be travelling in convoy with us in the cars so we can ferry him from the truck to accomodation and back, but yeah, need somewhere for the night, happy to pay if needed. Will post this in the North Island chat also. Many things left to do, but also so many things seem to be lining up for us which is awesome!

I feel like I can come up with something better than place/car, but give me time, I'll shoot you a DM. Haha

Actually will take you up on that if you’re seriously willing to look, I’ll make sure I do what due diligence I can from here beforehand so I don’t send you all over the show for no reason haha 😛 I’ll send you a DM. On another/similar note, can you or anyone else recommend a good builder who can do a building report? We will need one to have a look over something once we get closer to making an offer.

Im in refrigeration so it may be hard to fit all the tools on the bike hahah. In saying that I should do more of the exercise so cycle trails on the weekend could be the go, do some exploring.