Driven Goose

Hey knowledgeable people, I’m doing a trip to ChCh this weekend and picking up some Carry parts while I’m there. One of the parts is a spare gearbox, so I can mate the Leaf motor to it on the bench before I start the conversion. Guy selling it doesn’t know if it’s a 4 or 5 speed, and there is no shifter. Is there an easy way to tell if it is 4 or 5 speed? They are remote cable shift I think, will check tonight when I’m at home. 5 speed isn’t exactly necessary because electric motor, but I don’t know if there are physical differences and my existing one is a 5 speed, so trying to make the swap as simple as I can.

Been pottering away with this. Found a replacement fan resistor assembly for this, and for when the photo inevitably disappears, it is a "20-701 Fan Resistor Honda 3 pin", in case it might help somebody in future. Upgraded the headlights with some LED units to replace the candles originally fitted, needed to change from negative to positive switching but luckily this is a common thing with old 4WDs so a premade loom was available. The only other thing needed was to run a switched feed for the DRLs. Both sides are done but didn't grab a photo, whoops. Been making some progress with the stereo, ran wires to the doors and cutout for 4 inch speakers, and have a 6x9 box coming for the rear, for some tuuuunes. The wiring behind the dash for the stereo was a mess too so have started tidying that too, got a new headunit for my birthday also, might be the first Carry with Carplay haha. Also can see some of the sound deadening I have done while the dash is out, done in the doors too. Will be doing more in the rear in the future. Got the wiper setup somewhat working, thanks to wiper arm bushes kindly 3D printed by @ThePog. The sweep is all over the show but I've made it good enough with a bit of tweaking of the wiper arm. Fitted some new Hiflys to the wheels, after much deliberation I decided they would be more than adequate for the driving this was going to do. As it turns out, a 15x7 +35 with a 195/50/R15 fitted is pretty well perfect on this. Minimal but enough clearance in the front, full lock with no rubbing. Even let the rear sliders open with half a mil clearance. I have purchased some universal flares and some garden edging haha, gonna have a good look at it hopefully this weekend and come up with the best way to make it legal. And in impulse buy news, a crashed Nissan leaf came up on Turners Damaged Auctions that was in Takaka, so I knew the price would be cheap, because who wants to go all the way there to drag home a Leaf? This guy... It is now in the front yard awaiting disassembly, which will hopefully happen this weekend. I have to build a bit of storage to put the bits in a disused part of under the house, so as to not steal more garage space from my lovely fiance (also got engaged in the last week, it's all been happening!) The conversion is very much not on the immediate plan list, but will allow me to tinker and come up with ideas as I want to while this thing is still driveable. I am hoping to make it as much of a bolt in affair as I can, as realistically even a light prang would likely write off one of these, so it would be good to be able to just reshell it all if the worst should happen. Immediate plans involve finishing the wiring in behind the dash, so I can reinstall and make things complete again. Finish off the stereo, make wheels legal, fix small bit of rust, then WOF. Then probably try and make it run a wee bit better. Then do little local missions in it as much as possible. Very excited.

Just trying to see if anyone in the Nelson region has a car trailer I can hire for cheaper than Hirepool, in beers or cash. Have a Leaf to pick up from Takaka, and I have a large heavy equipment trailer that it will go on, but it’s a beast and the Takaka ranges are steep haha, plus the axles are slightly offset for carrying diggers so I’m worried about weight distribution. Need to pick it up this weekend, preferably Saturday. Have a Ranger from work for the tow vehicle.

Played around with this a wee bit. Chucked some wheels on that I had to see what fitment would be like. Somehow they fit well, slight rubbing on the springs at the front, but got a second hand 195/50/R15 chucked on one to replace the semislick 215/50/R15 that was on it (came off a KP racecar), and they clear. Have about a 30mm stickout that will need a flare, but not a major. Bit of a difference in width haha Got some roofracks, chopped 300mm off em and mounted a wee 1500 wide awning I had on it, had a previous life over the rear door of my 80 Series Landcruiser. Sorry about the terrible glary photo. Moved on to doing something that is actually required for legal driving, the wipers not working properly, drivers side one in particular. Pulled the dash for access, plus to clean up the wiring and clean up in general. Lucky its an hour job on one of these, probably half that if I had to do it again. Cleaned this and pulled the heater box out too since the photo as I need to replace the blower motor resistor and replace the foam on the joins. (Have no idea where I can source one of these, wish me luck? Haha) Found the problem with the wiper, the bit around the wiper shaft should be square and is captive inside the back side of the wiper panel, but the casting said no. Shouldn't be a major, will get a piece of ally flat bar and remake that square piece, then have someone tig it on for me because my tig is DC only. The bushes on the wiper arm are also cooked. Luckily for me the wonderful @ThePog has offered to help me in attempting to model and 3d print replacements for these. That and a small bit of rust in the rear left wheel well (seen above, hopefully only one skin so shouldn't be too bad) were apparently the only two things that it got picked up on the previous warrant check, so figured I would address them first before taking it in myself. I'm sure it will have plenty more though when I do take it in. Have some sound deadener on the way to make it a bit less tinny to be in, so that will go up behind the dash while it is out and in the doors once the stereo goes in, think that may be turning up on my birthday in August from my better half (she wants to be sneaky but doesn't know much about stereos so has had to ask some questions haha) Sat one of the Recaros in (temporarily stolen from the Datsun, they do need a very good clean) to see if it fits. Looks like it should bolt up with some adapters made from 50x5 flat bar to make it bolt through the factory mount holes and then bolt in to the seats. May need to be out for WOFs until it gets a cert in future, but the seatbelts and buckles are all seperate so I'm not too worried. That's where I'm at, will try and get it for a WOF check this month, but I am not overly concerned on the timeline of this one, it's fun to work on for the moment but the offroad camper trailer should really be the priority at the moment.

Will take some time to do some research over the weekend to see how viable this all is, but that could be pretty cool and would allow more potential power. The Leaf idea is somewhat limited power wise by what can be put through the original gearbox/driveshaft/diff, but having a drive unit in the rear would fix that problem. I know nothing of Tesla stuff really but that’s never stopped me diving head first into a project before…

There’s a burnout van with some sort of mid mounted v8 I remember from a old YouTube video, but I imagine that’s about all it’s good for haha But I’ll add the Barra to the future wishlist haha, if I win the lotto I can have a fleet of Carrys…

Seems like there are some discussions to be had… haha Im leaning towards Leaf for a few reasons, mostly to do with price and skill required to complete the conversion. The skill required is the main thing, as the ResolveEV makes it plug and play to some extent. I’d not be against using Tesla parts, but would need to do a lot of research into how I’d get it all to work. @Ned what Tesla motor do you have access to so I can do some research?

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.