azzurro

i also appreciate a 124, from up here in superior 125 land good luck and may your spinning knot wheel of truth only reveal solid steel (LOL)

yeah, had recommended use of helicopters to people planning on building in the waitakeres to save carving out massive truck access roads with all the associated gravel + retaining etc, people thought i was having a laugh, but it can work out quite a bit cheaper depending on how many loads and exactly what the load is etc. Helicopter use is a time=money scenario, but can be seriously a lot less time and money than the other 'cheaper' options but you need it to run like clockwork, every minute wasted is like $10 minimum. I would assume that if you had a truck accessible load staging area (by your shed?) and all the loads were pre-organised and ok-ed by the pilot (they tend to like to use their own ground people who know what they are doing at load and drop zones, which also cost$) you could probably get all the bulky stuff needed for a small cabin up in a couple of loads?

its all good man, i said i would do it, and your donation more than covered the difference

Our South Island trip was 100% AWESOME, as is the South Island generally, which is great because our mission was partly holiday, partly visiting family and friends, and part reconnaissance for a future move to Dunedin. Definitely keen, wont be happening tomorrow but the brain cogs are certainly churning on it. The map below is from the googs, but it only allows 10 destinations per 'trip', and so doesnt show all our diversions, side trips and backtracking. By my reckoning (odo before and after) we drove closer to 4500km, which at 13-14l/100km wasnt exactly cheap motoring, but the cheap accommodation more than made up the difference!. Some pics from the trip that feature van 1st stop, 1.5hours from home, Raglan Stop 2, Raetahi, was a good test! Our coldest night was -6^C in St Arnaud But worth it! Somewhere down south. We paid, promise! Tekapo Orari Gorge Kidd Bush Reserve, Lake Hawea. Lucky we only have a small camper van Kaikoura This was a bonus extra nightin the South thanks to the ferry cancelled due to the weather. Whatamango near picton which is a bird santuary, saw lots of odd birds, heard a couple more too, Was only pissed cause I drove away from great waves at Mangamanu to make the cancelled sailing, and got the text once we got to Blenheim. And picked up a 'small pop top camper' at the port in Wellington to tow north for @Otodat, van handled it fine, just chugged even more gas (got up to 18l/100km!) Anyways, van was a champ, no dramas at all, except for the (factory) interior lights not working now. Would have been a pain if there wasnt extra lighting already, but there was, so meh i do have some plans for a few tweaks to the interior, but its making whats pretty good already even better.

in prep for the south island trip i pulled finger and attached all this junk to the roof doggo approves subject to test drive mrs reckons "its ok, i guess" fuck yeah, its ok

diff chat update, looks like this one is a rear loader, so maybe a c200? van is auto + petrol im guessing the diff will be taller than a diesel/manual? will keep a weather eye out for a lsd r200

Keeping the electomag fan? I had same oily reserviour situation in my ute. I ran a couple of rounds of plain water with some dishwasher powder for a couple days each and its fine now. The indicator bit looks good for a 125. The rust in the radiator support is the main bit, check the chassis rail corner gussets and castor contol arm mount areas too. The support panel and valance rusts from the inside out due to the dumb design on the wheel arch side.

cavallino wide ovals for the win or retreads

top work man, i have a EFI head & manifold etc that im pondering installing in my ute to get rid of the pesky single carb. Whats holding me back is the controller side of it, i get mechanical stuff but complex electrical stuff is little a bit like magic to me I keep looking at twin sideys, (they go great in my sedan, and the dooorts, oh my) but for almost the same money going mega + EDIS seems like the ideal solution. Im just scared of my stupid sausage fingers and all those tiny little thingees + a soldering iron and cocking it all up leaving me with an expensive pile of scrap.

nah, geddoudofit owl, giz me it

this has been going pretty good lately so it got itself a couple of photos and a clean Utilizing it as a parks hack, picking up new scoot, and scoping the joint for spots to hard park and make potato art

enjoying living my dubber dreams vicariously though you top stuff

one of the pioneer box speakers blew , possibly because of the aliexpress head deck, so swapped the woofers with the 4" sonys that where hanging out the door cards when i got the truck. they were not exactly one of pioneers best efforts so nothing of value really lost, the mid range 'speaker' is just a plastic moulding. New JVC mechless head unit delivered for <$90, sounds pretty good now, i reckon at least 3x better than the $30 aliexpress special. This is what success looks like. Yes, that bed is coming into my house, not going to the dump.

May happenstance align to see you fellow burger enthusiasts there, irrespective of the age of the road legal vehicle you happened to drive or where you park it. But wouldn't it be interesting if the average age of the vehicles of many of the paying customers, who happened to park in the private, but open access car park behind the stores that were being patronized around this time, was slightly different from the mean age of the national fleet?

the, "i just happen to be driving an older but legal* motor vehicle and like burgers once a month or so, we happened to find a park up here, and it seems other people with cars that just also happen to be older instead of newer coincidentally did too" meet?

Borrowed the special tool spring compressor from Mr @EURON8 to jam the springs back in after popping everything back together with (some) new bushes. I left the other upper wishbone bushes in place as they were fine really, and replaced only the lower ball joints. The tire rod ends seemed pretty new too, so left them as is also cleaned up the front calipers, just a dissemble, clean and paint without removing the brake lines. I said up there i didnt want to go too low, but then i slapped myself upside the head and did as per the sedan 5.5 coils Also found a broken connector on the dizzy to HDI wire so re soldered and heat shrunk that, and then reset the timing a bit more advanced. Seems to run much better now for both reasons. Then a test utilization to a mates place to steal some gravel for a garden project. and to settle the suspension. Doggo loves ute Pretty happy with the stance and feel of the front suspension now, about 2" lower but still supple even with the lot shorter springs and new shocks. Rear is still very stiff but went well with a load on, and the rattly noise is still present. I think it may be a bearing in the gearbox or something. also stuck a 'period' sun visor sticker i got of TradeMe for $5, i did a fucken terrible job of it in the windy dark it looks like its been there for years.

yeah, the geometry on these upright bikes is a bit whack, but some 'simple' improvements could surely be made without loosing the aesthetic which is in such cool contrast to the powerplant. you need a bike wizard like @Valiant to chime in

Not done much with this since dismantling the carport that fell on it, (no damage) as the ute has been hogging all my limited car time. WoF has now expired and the front half of the exhaust still needs replacing (Car is otherwise fine, starts and runs great). Im happy with the rear half, but as the front half needs replacing i want to run twin pipes from the manifold to the diff as per the 2300 Abarth S Coupe exhaust below (twin pipe section is much shorter currently and is blowing pretty bad) Eventually triples and extractors too, but not for a while, and like most Fiats the cast manifold is actually better than most aftermarket attempts. Anyway, it has been sitting outside on the lawn getting rusty , but have finally found some dry storage for it. Sleep tight sweet prince, ill see you in summer xox

happy to enquire re northwest mall. i think there is a few food joints on a main st buzz. there is also (old) westgate accross the road with all the usuals (maccas kfry hells etc) incl a burger fuel but that carpark is always heaving edit https://northwestshoppingcentre.co.nz/dining/ park up on the roof in tribute to bf ellerslie then eat on maki st?

plan a is a good plan

According to the FSM, spring details Wishbones inclusing spares from a 125 sedan Judith crushing the old bushings out TOP 125 (post vinegar bath) and BOTTOM 125P lower wishbones. Grabbed one from the spares to swap out the bent one. They are the same length but away bar attachment is quite different (125p has a big square hole for drop link vs 125 has 2 holes for a u-bolt), so rather than cutting the other one, i heated the bent one with a propane torch and smashed it with the sledge and now its not quite as bent. that went in the vinegar bath for a few hours Wow! - vinegar bath for 2 days + water blasted. Clean one was worse then the still rusty one when it went in. Vinegar seems to get under the rust and it just blasts off like dirt. Recommended! 8l of vinegar was $14 Welded up the engine mounts on the cross member - they were not really loose as had i thought, but this should stiffen them up anyway Coat of rust converter then primered pretty sure none of this was the source of the noise, but there were a few little things that have been sorted now or ticked off the mental 'possibilities' list, and the front end will be tidy and tight when i put it back together with mostly new parts over the next week or so.

^ you pretty much just described the beerspot (A+ would trade again) i do like a monthly meet but like 73crownwagon i live quite far away to the north west, so the more central the better, but then central = busy and space is more expensive so carparks are likley to be smaller/fuller or more secure... BF ellerslie is a good spot as its got a 'private' car park that we can pretty much claim and a variety of foods as well as being central (so least distance required on average for everyone). Maybe could have a rotating meet? Northwest mall has an upstairs carpark (as per Parked up Out West) and a growing number of food joints - id imagine they (the mall) would be quite keen to get more custom on a mid week evening.

potentially also the same guy? also did an actual burnout (tyre chirp) and actually nearly ran a number of people over when leaving in the carpark and on the ramp, post his rant sbout 'noisy cars' on the road waking his kid, in his rush to get back to his house that is next to the southern mway.

So the above has not cured the annoying rattle from somewhere under the vehicle in the drivetrain that is worse when turning right. Does feel a bit more 'solid' but i think im imagining it. Pic from the cab on my usual test run route. Carload of girls in the adjacent park blasting the dubstep and giggling said "your ute is cool", so I suppose.... Next item on the list - all the suspension - ALL OF IT front and rear shocks, all tierods and ball joints, bushes galore, new springs etc So to the service position and started by ripping out the original Made in Poland shocks, they just stayed at full droop and compression. so well over due New one is to suit a 124 and is a couple inches shorter than stock 125 Then the springs, like always a huge mission as they are compressed to about half their free length even at full droop. (9.5 coils, 14mm wire OD and 130 spring OD @ 390mm free length ~ 240mm compressed) The new ones are ex Toyota Estima rears and have the same specs but are a bit shorter (7.5 coils, 14mm wire OD, 127mm OD @ 330 free length, will be max 210mm at max droop) The yellow marks are where i cut the ones in the sedan to (5.5 coils) but not sure i want to go quite that low as the rear will need to drop more too and the sill sits nearly level as it is. Ill try them as is first. Now the springs are out i can get to all the other bits, these are the upper wishbones. To be honest the bushes are actually ok and they are a bitch to get out so i should probably just leave them. Ball joints and tie rods look ok as well. Nevertheless picking up a 6T press, and 10 liters of vinegar tomorrow... Im thinking the noise may actually be clutch/flywheel/gearbox related.

It may be that the bmw and fiat/lada items are same but idk for sure. Also pcd is without compression. The metal band it to allow installation so flange pcd is a few mm less but measuring a circle that passes through a triangle is hard irl