rotorhoe

Update on the open chequebook:

It has been up North getting work done for compliance, and so far has 15mm to go until the chassis is completely straight, and the front inner guard has been cut off to straighten out any creases caused by the impact. 

The creases were a fair bit more than thought, up under the strut tower and the engine bay was pretty bent, but it's had a massive weight attached to it and pulled the creases out where possible, and then will be softly hammered with Billy Mavs back into place. But the headlight surround area is too smashed, so a new piece will be made and welded in.

 

Coming along nicely, it's just a shame to not have any control of it as a project at the moment. 

Most of pics go to Instagram as I forget to update here so much. Feel free to follow along @theamyable.

So the first task after the bathroom extension was to have a kitchen area along the back wall. Kitchens are expensive, even for the kitset things. So after a bit of Facebook market searching (never expected to find good stuff on there) I came across a yuck cabinet thing that can only be described as the wooden entrance piece to school camp where 1J5's were stored in the top, and school bags below, and maybe one of those weird clear grey/brown mugs on the top too that a relief teacher sipped from occasionally.

Well this thing was also bloody heavy but only $50 so we hoisted it up into the van and to the shop, and I spent 3 days regretting my purchase.

Had various ideas for it, tested different woods to see how food-grade polyurethane held up, then eventually stumbled upon a sale of ply at Bunnings and was sold. We sanded up the cupboards and drawers and took the top piece off. Spent another few days testing between paints and stains, with the matte black paint turning out chalky and holding fingerprints, so I settled for an outdoor satin black deck stain. Don't tell the Bunnings paint lady though or she has a meltdown.

Ended up sacrificing the left had drawer and cupboard for a Bunnings showroom special oven and hob, and the shelf found it's final place but not by choice, because the chemicals in the floor coating has stuck the feet to that position. So it stays. And the legs are off a commercial cooker that were the cheap price of free.

 

After that we went to work on the dirty/laundry area, but didn't want the machine visible because it's not cool and industrial, and wanted an area to clean car parts etc.

Went with the cupboard theme of black with ply top and genuinely impressed with how it all came together, especially with Leonard.

 

And other than those jobs, we had to get some of the bathroom done after months of procrastinating over different ideas. I got Ryan to leave some of the concrete bare, because I wanted to still have some of the tiltslab in the room, so I put what I thought was polyurethane on it, just turns out it was some wood varnish (definitely don't tell Bunnz lady) and it worked a treat, stopped the concrete dust and allows the water to run off.

I waterproofed the shower over 2 days, the second day took 3hours straight of coating but old mate Missy and Ice Cube got me through. Then I found a tiler and it all went well until we were one tile short to finish. A few days later it was all tickety boo.

Note to self though: if you've never had a dual shower head scenario going on before, do ensure the dump head is turned on first and not the shooty one. Stephen wanted me to have a photo of the shower on and a beer in the soap box, so turned it on full steam with old shooty head pointed at me and the camera. So the camera is thoroughly clean now.

 

Next we are finishing off the final wall, and deciding an idea to make a bathroom vanity. Any ideas are hugely welcome - we got some galv feet off AliExpress which are lush so that's idea one.

 

 

So got a bit distracted with local rotary travel and a rotary storage workshop.

First things first, I priced up materials for re-upholstery and bought some tools and foam before realising nobody would just do a stitch job basically wanted all or nothing. So we went to Stephen's old mate who offered a completely mind-boggling irresistible cash price job, so took him up on that offer. He even had the exact fabric.

Got the rears back already and they needed completely re-doing due to the heat damage cracking the top piece and subsequently shrinking the fabric elsewhere.

 

So meanwhile we've been busy fiddling around stripping it out completely of wiring, brake lines, and most of the underseal except that one spot over the tunnel that you leave until last and when last comes you go 'why on earth did I leave the worst bit til last' so you just never ever touch it again... someone want a job??

Mostly it's in great condition, although once we finally ground off the welds holding the guards to the body (first WTF moment) we found the RHS front had significant damage as bad as to completely crumple the crush tube and crease the engine bay. 

The damage is a bit of a financial set-back and obviously means a bigger job for compliance, so it did then require blasting and prep to be repaired. 

Bonus find this time round, a charming ring down in the door panel over the lock.

 

As things go, I had it set up and masked off to blast myself, and then the compressor died. So after looking around I found C.A. Levien in Henderson to give the underneath, inner guards, engine bay, windscreen channels, and rear quarter rust patches a blast. Yes, everything except the great patina and heinous tagging.

(my least favourite side, with BB gun dents and what appears to be acid damage).

Even the sandblasters they thought it was hilarious to save the patina, but they made such a huge improvement on the car it actually looks purposeful now. Highly recommended, they even stored it away in it's own shed.

The rear quarters were only 5% worse than expected, the underneath is absolutely fantastic, and the weird panel under rear windscreen that was mysteriously primer is happily not bog and is solid steel.

 

Kyle was kind enough to take and send me some pictures of the process too:

 

So after a year of ownership it was transported off again on Monday to it's new temporary home. Thankfully we found an old school repairer who will be able to save it without us finding a new front cut. From what I understand, he will cut from firewall and slowly pull the front back into original shape, beating out the creases.

While it's there I may gain the fucks needed to finish off the underseal and chuck some durepox over it but probably won't. 

He'll also be teaching me a mix of painting and airbrushing to get the touched quarters back to their patina best.

And I'll pull apart the twin dizzy to see what the options are.

That's all for now folks.

North Shore Rotary Club present a 1995 Workshop Coupe (as it has only 2 doors).

Back in December old mate rot808 and I bought a workshop on the North Shore for a bit of classic rotary storage, which is great because families get excited to free up their garage space but realistically it means we can now buy more Mazdas.

It's a tilt slab studio spec thing with only 2 doors for less whores (maybe why the brothel unit shut down opposite us but thats another story). Based in a group of 13 or so units which keeps the bodycorp and maintenance down heaps, the neighbours are great because from the ones we have met they have classic cars, two units are mechanics, and one races Targa.

Built in '95 most the other units were converted to mezzanine all the way through, but ours in one of a couple left standard with a smaller mezzanine, and more room for cars. Even 3 phase for eventual hoist storage options.

The upstairs is a fair size for office/lounge area and for collection of naked lady supercar pics. The funny story about the pics is that we won the Ferrari one and was one road away from collecting it as a man brought out the Lambo one to side of road. We immediately stopped and did a u-turn to ensure it was free. It was "after 10 years in the garage my wife told me to choose between topless lady Lambo or bottomless lady Porsche", so after admiring the other choices we chucked in the Lambo and went off to pick up the Ferrari.

 

Functionally it can host 2 Mazda's, and tightly 3. Cleared out for overseas adventures it can host 4 (thanks to our specific bathroom measurements to not exceed two Mazda's door to door) and the 5th Mazda can of course be hosted with eventual hoist but we don't own 5 (... yet)

Rocked up to meet the ex-owner of the workshop in my car, to find out he owned RX7's and the guy over the road has an FC outside his too.

Bonus features not listed in sale agreement are weekend rotary burnouts - did not realise this, quite happy with the outcome.

So we grabbed some workshop toolboxes and shelves to act as a kitchen for an industrial theme. Even added the slam bike for a feature, and $3 plants which I eventually forgot to water and they RIP'd.

 

So it's come a fair way in 3 months considering it's a blank canvas to try design. 

The bathroom was extended out with help from Mr Ryan Fels, and I left him and rot808 alone too long and they made a ridiculous small door under the stairs with handle at bottom (it's all functional now though so great job guys).

Then I taught myself how to gib-stop & subsequently developed stronger language skills.

My mate Leonard (the fridge) was $10 on Trademe, won before we even had the workshop, but didn't check location… so down to Tauranga and back for one of the best purchases… second only to the fabulous Rothmans cigarettes dairy sign which required pick up and storage by the lovely Danger Dane until we could fly it home.

 

So now that it was all painted and ready to go, we had the idea to invite a concrete grinder in to take off the paint I had just applied. Forward thinking does help these situations but anyway.

These 2 guys came over from a company called Auckland Concrete Grinding and worked for 3 days perfecting the floor, grinding it back around 3mm and coating it with a couple layers of penetrating sealer and coater that smells like Tolene, to become water and stain resistant. Thankfully we don't own British cars so didn't need another 3 protective coats. 

The results are far more impressive than we thought, we assumed a light grind would just be a lighter grey finish with none of the speckles visible but they did an amazing job. 

Even got the back wall coated to act as a splashback.

Before, During & Afters:

 

So that's the basics of the downstairs for now, and after sorting out the plumbing and wiring downstairs we will then start to tackle the layout.

First point of confusion how to lay things out...

 

Will be updating some of the projects as I get time, feel free to follow along and give recommendations etc.

**postponed until further notice**

Lovers Lane's Denham and Rotary Club International cordially invite you to BYO BBQ and Grasskhana on the 24th of November.

Encouraging all oldschool pre-85 vehicles to take on the task of SH16 cruising and paddock bashing.

Overnighters welcomed (tent or car), and there is a Hotrod show to check out on the Sunday for the stayers.

 

WHEN: Saturday 24 November 2018

WHAT: Cruise with us in your oldschool ride to Denham's house, where we will partake in BBQ delights and grasskhana fun to help him get the lawn ready to cut. 

BYO BBQ meats beers & beats.

WHERE: Meet at the Bottle'O Carpark at Huapai (near to the tavern) to grab any needs, and cruise up SH16 to Lovers Lane Speedshop. We will leave at 10am sharp.

WHY: #bringbacksausagefest

(Weather check on Friday 23rd)

 

Please be influenced by the following Nats throwbacks (thanks to Thousand Dollar)]:

 

12 minutes ago, Testament said:

I liked the part where you said this car is getting a powerglide and a transbrake

You mean these?

Been a busy two weeks of knick knacking and paddy whacking really.

Had huge progress in the dismantling task, and now have it stripped back to a water blasted rolling body.

 

This weekend I de-loomed it with various difficulties due to Japanese nimble fingers and Mexican wiring swept under holes, while Stephen dropped the fuel tank out which had 1 & 1/2 buckets worth of petrol still in… no auckland tax on that.

The front windscreen didn't come out easy however as the rubber was baked more than a christmas pavlova made after a few breakfast rumballs. But with two rolls of $2 tape as support and bare fingers for guidance, we yanked the screen free and the began the painful process of smashing each little piece from the surrounding areas.

 

Even dropped the engine out the bottom to check over if it's worth saving, and the exhaust which is definitely not worth saving. 

 

And finally on the progress, I spent a day last week softly caressing the old vinyl rear seats that crack into pieces in your fingers unless you find a 24 year old bottle of Johnsons baby oil at the back of a bathroom cabinet, and massage that into the fragile material until it's overwhelming in smell. Then I spent the remainder cleaning up plastics with thanks to rivalrx CRC suggestion, AKA the new best thing after Autosol. Note grubby handles.

 

Got new door cards from Australia - $140 free shipping bloody impressed and awesome business card to match.

 

Bonus items found hidden this week were a knife down the wheel arch in boot, an Escort window winder, and a monopoly house under the fuel tank.

 

Kind regards,

rotorhoe

Already found RX2TMR is available