f100_dreamin

Cheers @dr.wylde hopefully I’ll get the rocker covers on this week and will give the carb a tickle up at the weekend, I’ve decoded the build on it and it appears to be an auto HQ quaddie, so a little bit older than the car itself haha.

@dr.wylde Cheers man, any info or pointers you can give would be appreciated, this is apparently a rebuilt quaddie but I’m not sure it’s been done the best. I went to set the idle mixture the other day, (using the theory of seating the idle mixture screws, wind them both out 2.5 turns. Start the car, wind the left one in until the idle startes to drop, then wind it out until the idle drops again counting the turns, then Winding it back in half the turns. Then repeat for the r/h circuit) but it pretty much wound all the way out and didn’t effect the idle at all, I would like to get it running as good as possible for now as with Xmas coming up fast and doing a few things to the Belair before beach hop, spending money on this is on hold until after beach hop, otherwise I’d have a nice edelbrock manifold and quickfuel carb on the way already haha.

Very nice! Needs Astro supremes and lots of low though

So haven’t done too much to this, just trying to sort out the oil leaks. One of the previous owners had fitted an oil cooler, however the fittings in the adapter were leaking, the hoses were worn and were starting to perish. So for now the easiest option was to remove it. Which I did. Next issue was the rocker covers were leaking, so off they came, now the rocker cover were in fairly poor condition, so I sent them off to my mate to be tarted up. Before: After: i should have these on next week, and will get an air filter to match, once this is done it will allow me to see if/where any more leaks are, I’m also contemplating on getting a new standard oil pump as I’m not sure the high volume is necessary, and I would rather not have it drain the sump and pump all the oil to the heads, one of of the other things I have done is try to lower the car and replace the blown out upper strut mounts, I was given a set of springs that my mate thought was superlows, Turns out the fronts are lows and the tears are superlows, unfortunately this meant that the front only dropped about 10mm lower than the FE2 springs that were originally fitted, so out they came again and so did the grinder, took one coil off, this got the front to match the rear, which left the car sitting here: better but not low enough, one of my apprentices @loganvlt has bought some coil overs for his VLT so I’m going to grab his old struts/springs as his car sit much better than mine. One issue I have is the trimatic is a bit weird, if I select “L” it goes into first but feels really restricted/governed, if you move into “2” then it feels like the restriction releases and the car takes off, and when it reaches the correct point it changes into second, it’s also a bit slow to engage from Park/neutral into gear. So I’m gonna pull the back of the trans off and check the valves in the governer to see if there are any that are stuck, I’ll give it a service as well and see where I end up. Long term I would like to run a T56 so don’t want to spend too much time and money on the trimatic.

Go see Greg at R3 Fabrication in Papakura, they are metal work magicians.

Unfortunately the manifold was so flogged out that a helicoil wasn't an option (we have a bunch of them in my workshop) I was calling it a major as I had tried a few different things to fix this, I originally made some M9 studs to do the job but once I cut the thread even they pulled out as the holes were so flogged. Will probably take it to my old work as the owner is a old Barry who knows carbs, and has a collection of first gen commys. So will be right up his alley

So what a major that turned out to be, so both front bolt holes in the inlet manifold were stripped. Ended up having to drill and tap them to M10, originally they are 5/16th (basically an M8) this meant that I had to then drill out the bolt holes in the carb so I could get an M10 bolt through the carb body. This thing doesn't have a choke either so the choke plates were just free to do what they wanted. So I've cabletied them fully open. Makes cold start a pig but I'll survive with it. Its running again, but then I left it idleing and it fouled up the plugs and stopped running. Cleaned the plugs and tweaked the idle mixture. Realistically i need to find someone with a 4 gas analyser so I can have a proper play. But who the frick has one of them nowadays haha. My old work has one and an old dyno, so may book it in with them and get it tickled up by them anyway here's a video for your patience

I'm so in love with that interior. Don't worry too much about the diff ratio. My old Royale had a 3.08 in it. Didn't really notice too much difference when I put a 3.45 back into it aye. Biggest question is what car is it from originally, if it's from a VN onwards then it will be about 40mm wider than the factory diff which can cause problems with getting wheels to fit. And because of the design of the axle they can't be shortened also so what size and condition are the wheels on the vacationer in?

So had a couple of issues with this old bogan. Firstly I took it to work so I could steamclean the underside of the car, when I went to bring it into the workshop I realised that the fuel inlet fitting on the carb was leaking and it couldn't be tightened as it had been overtightened and had stripped the thread. Managed to use a fuel resistant epoxy resin to fix that. Did all the bits and pieces I wanted to, attempted to drive home and failed. It seems some of the thread filings had managed to jam the float open and i ended up with all the petrol coming out of the top of the carb. Ended up getting towed home. pulled the carb off and unblocked the float, however pulling the carb off highlighted more issues. The front bolts were loose (because they have been overtightened) and the rear nuts were only finger tight, am currently fixing that next.......

So far the list of jobs to do is: - remove weird brake things, - tidy engine bay - replace strut tops - fit superlow springs - attempt to get the master window switch and windows working better. - take centre muffler out (leaving only the rear muffler) -steamclean under side of vehicle and was to out where all the oil leaks are coming from

There are a few things that need attention, both front top strut mounts are buggered, Also it has these weird things fitted to the brake lines if you look to the top of the picture you will see the blue cylinder, there is two of these T'eed into the brake lines, but there is no output from these to anywhere

Well today I got back from Taupo and collecting the car. Drove beautifully very happy with it!

Haha I don't think there is any escaping the bogan here. this is is a previous dyno plot, from when it was running a Holley 650 double pumper, not sure of the reason to go back to the Rochester, and would be interesting to see what difference it made to the power. But 181hp, and 1218nm torque (which is around 395nm when devided by the diff ratio of 3.08, I think that's how it works anyway haha)

@Shakotom open at this point. Most of the info I can find states that being a genuine V8 that it should be a 28 spline. So will pull an axle and see. If it is then I can use any LSD centre from VL through to VT series one. But not holding my breath knowing my luck it will just be a 25 spline

Cheers @chasinthemirage am planning on having it at the drag day, you should come along and we can have a bit of a grudge race haha

Having sold my last VL to fund taking the Belair to the next level, I had told myself that once the Belair was done I would get another first gen Commy as there was lots of things I wanted to take the Royale too but sold it before I had a chance. While I had actually been looking for a VK, noting of any worth was out there, it was all over priced rusty shitboxes, or it sold before I had a chance to look at it. And then I thought to myself, my old mate Jimmy has a nice VL Calais that's gathering dust, maybe I'll see if he is interested in selling it, turns out he was, and he was happy to sell it to me at a very good price. it's genuine V8 Calais, 150km on the clock, one previous owner (before my mate) who had had it for 18 years and was a mechanic who did a fair bit of work to it. It's got: ACL flat top pistons Crane "group a" camshaft 1.6 ratio roller rockers Double row timing chain with adjustable sprockets Big valve cylinder heads Port matched manifolds Brock VK SS Electronic dizzy Rebuilt Rochester four barrrel carb Holley fuel pump an reg PAcemaker headers with 2.5" exhaust, backed up by a built Trimatic with extra clutches, a shift kit and 2400rpm torque converter. Hardest part is that I have to wait until the 16th to pick it up.

Yeah it is aye, I'm fairly sure it was a 30e auto when mike had it.

I know mike and kelvin (brothers) that owned this before Brendon, probably the tidiest Royale out there at the moment, mike had it as a daily driver in the Waikato and eventually sold it to Kelvin in timaru, I think Kelvin did the A8 conversion sold it to Brendon and helped Brendon with a bit of work on it. Was offered it before it went on trademe but passed it up as I wasn't in a position to buy, you can use any sedan solid diff up to VS on this but anything VN onwards will be up to 40mm wider. Love this car!

@flyingbrick to be honest there is nothing wrong with a leaf sprung Land Rover chassis, with some metal and time this chassis is repairable, all the major sections can be bought from the UK cheap enough (then doubled for shipping haha) http://www.paddockspares.com/da2008n-front-chassis-repair-leg-lh.html http://www.paddockspares.com/da2008o-front-chassis-repair-leg-rh.html http://www.paddockspares.com/da2014-front-bulkhead-outrigger.html plus they do bulkhead sections. And I have family in the uk that I could have them sent to, who can on forward them to me if they wanted to charge ridiculous shipping. Yeah complete new chassis are available for around 2000pounds, I suspect shipping would make them uneconomical however

Neither Tom or myself work at Holden anymore. But if we go V8 then yeah it will be an LS as I would like to loose a bit of weight over the front axle to help the airbags as they can struggle if the air tank isn't over 3/4 full.

And also to make the Valiant motor fit they have moved the radiator support panel forward And so to make the bonnet work they have extended it, this will be rectified, the rear crossmember has been replaced with a home made jobbie, its not the worst attempt ive ever seen, however I think that it will need a bit of remedial work, I found this on trademe, will be horribly noisy, and underpowered, use all of the petrols and yet its kinda tempting....(until you look at the price) http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1371881643

Here's a few pictures to show how much rust you can buy for $325, on the plus side it seems to have parabolic springs in it already,

Was definitely a great way to spend the day that's for sure!

Cheers @Seedy Al (to be fair if it wasn't for you checking it out for me I probably wouldn't have bought it) I absolutely love walking into the garage and seeing this thing, the wires really do set it off in person too!

Well @Shakotom and I Made the trip to Opotoki to collect this beast, was a great day for it, the weather was good, traffic was light, Got it all loaded up, was something of a mission as it didnt want roll too well SO it turns out that I bought a 109" not an 88", we had a chuckle over this, in hind site looking at the pictures its obvious that it is actually a 109 haha, Had a good trip back, the Work Hilux towed well, Stopped in to see @johnnyfive, had some yarns, then carried on home, Got it all unloaded and stored down the side of the garage, All in all a good way to spend a Sunday, Chassis needs a reasonable amount of work, but seems repairable, Bulkhead also needs work, Engine is apparently locked up but has had diesel left in the bores, so will see if i can get it to turn over and get it running, there is no brakes, and apparently the clutch is buggered, Overall Im stoked with it, but have fair bit of work ahead, Cheers again to @Shakotom for keeping me Company,