Snoozin Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 Car has hydraulic hard lines throughout now, just need a handful of braided hoses to complete and the brakes should work. Not very interesting to look at. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted May 21, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 21, 2016 This afternoon, after ferrying the sheepers down to Hamilton I set about modifying the dash cluster to accomodate my new instruments - yes that's right, I did a thing on this myself. IMG_4941 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Starting point was this factory flat front KP61 tacho dash cluster - I wanted to cut up one of these rare, hard to find examples because it meant I could install the tacho I wanted and still retain the OEM fuel gauge and temp (temp not so much of an issue but anyway) which you'll note are included in a combination gauge on the non-tacho cluster that my car came with. IMG_4961 by Richard Opie, on Flickr On the speed side, I wanted to install this Stack ST3801 speedo - it reads an optimistic 260km/h so I'm sure further developments will be needed to ensure I can take this car off the clock. IMG_4963 by Richard Opie, on Flickr For keeping an eye on revs, I have always wanted to pop a Stack tacho into a car - these remind me of watching the start-up montages of Bathurst years past, you know the one... the grand marshal instructs 'drivers start your engines,' then you get a montage of Larry, Brocky, Tricky Dicky et al. pressing the go buttons and more than one Stack tacho leaping into life as the engine fired. Anyway, I wanted that. You'll note the instruments don't match. Weird yes, I dunno. But I have a stack (lol) of other auxiliary gauges I am using which match the speedo in terms of bezel design, but the tach is the odd one out in the Stack range. Anyway I digress.... IMG_4988 by Richard Opie, on Flickr When you try to fit the gauges into the cluster, this happens. The speedo is slightly too large in both bezel and body diameter, and both of them foul on mouldings behind them. IMG_4959 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is why. There's all sorts of annoying bits of plastic and shit going on behind the instruments. Suffice to say, it needed to GTFO so I went and invested in a variable speed Dremel and some tool bits for it. IMG_4997 by Richard Opie, on Flickr And then I started mangling. IMG_5006 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Until eventually, I had carefully hacked the back of each side out and they were roughly (literally!) ready to accept their new instrument overlords. IMG_5026 by Richard Opie, on Flickr The tacho fit into the fascia perfectly as it was - you'll note in this shot, there is a flat on the bottom of the aperture for the speedo. That needed to be ground out circular to accept the main body of the gauge, but the bezel itself was still too large to fit in the supplied space. IMG_5055 by Richard Opie, on Flickr So I did what any sane person would do, and employed my newly acquired Dremel skills of precision destruction to chop the bottom off the speedo. Which ended up being more than just the bezel. But it worked a treat - this is just after the initial cut, and some sanding with a fine sanding drum at a low speed finished it off nicely, but I think it might be prudent to fill it with urethane or something similar just to stop any dust getting in. IMG_5050 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Went over the edges of the gaping chasms I'd created with a burr to tidy them all up, radius the corners and remove any sharp edges. IMG_5066 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Then secured each of the instruments into it's new home! I won't be able to reinstate the clear plastic cover over over these two - they sit proud of the mating surface for that cover, but also the fact the instruments have lenses of their own means it results in some weird/annoying reflections. I only need to cover the temp and fuel gauges, so will sort out some kind of clear plastic to glue over the top of them and it should nestle nicely in the factory location. Thanks for looking! Discussion in signature if you want to yarn about it. 24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted June 19, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted June 19, 2016 Ho hum, a bit jaded after the usual hectic field days workfest but I managed to whap the tank in. Was supposed to go for fuel hard lines but Brendan's been crook and it's pushed his workload back a bit... hopefully the weekend coming I'll have this sorted. Project_KP61_4AGE (217) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Tank now features matte black! Project_KP61_4AGE (218) by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is the non-leaky surge pot for the in tank pump. Project_KP61_4AGE (219) by Richard Opie, on Flickr And this, well this is the slightly rusty flange that supports the cradle for the fuel pump, and also has the feed a return -6AN fittings on it. Yeah I'll be plating it. Project_KP61_4AGE (220) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Then I put it in the car, it will need to come out again for those final bits and pieces but for now it's great to get it in so the hardlines and everything can be sorted out. Thanks for looking. //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/18803-snoozins-1981-kpiz-starlet/ <---- Discuss. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted July 17, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted July 17, 2016 Time to recap what's been going on. So the next step of the process was to get the fuel system pretty much finished. Step one of this was to modify the factory 4AGE fuel rail, as in OEM configuration the inlet, regulator and outlet were all mounted on the top face of the rail extrusion, with each end capped off where it was cut from factory. As I was intending to run an aftermarket fuel pressure regulator (FPR), the plan called to lop off all of the attachments on the OEM rail, drill out the plugs from each end and weld on -6 AN fittings at either end. IMG_7025 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Which Sheepers completed for me. It's top rail in the photo above. Which was a spare with the box of gear that came with the 4AGE. Unbeknownst to me, this was a bluetop bigport rail, not a smallport rail which has different injector spacing, as the above image illustrates - after the fact of course. So we had to start all over again. Well, Sheepers did. I drank beers and offered unhelpful advice mainly. IMG_7043 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is where the inlet and damper/regulator thing originally attached. They'll need to be filled. IMG_7078 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Since I super love taking welding pictures, here's Sheepers welding it all up. IMG_7104 by Richard Opie, on Flickr And this is what you're left with following stage one of the process. This rail welded heeeeaps nicer than the previous one, perhaps it had less contamination in the metal, or we got it to a more satisfactory temperature before welding. IMG_7039 by Richard Opie, on Flickr IMG_7128 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Fairly self explanatory here. With the plugs drilled out from either end and both end faces ensured true, Sheepers welded on $14.00 worth of Speedflow -6 AN weld on male fittings. Nice. IMG_7179 by Richard Opie, on Flickr A portion of the finished product. Obviously the weld which filled the holes was ground flat leaving the rail in a state ready to polish in the future. 0P4A7732 by Richard Opie, on Flickr The next step involved finishing off the rest of the fuel system. Brendan Duncker of Convert Ltd (who built my headers for me) was kind enough to agree to make fuel hardlines for under the car - I had a reasonably specific brief following some discussion with Clint about securing fuel lines, in that the lines needed to follow the factory path so I could pick up all of the factory clip points. This was done, there are now quite beautiful 5/16" hardlines under the car, with black -6 Speedflow fittings throughout, including a filter unit near the firewall. Pics later when it's not wet I guess. 0P4A7743 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Pretty self explanatory with the layout - inlet to the modified fuel rail, 180 degree fitting out, back along the top (may need to clip yet) in braided line to the Aeromotive FPR then back under the car. The remaining port of the FPR will be used for a fuel pressure sensor. 0P4A7734 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 0P4A7752 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Brendan was also able to mount my radiator for me. The Fenix AE86 units seemed to get a solid enough review from most 4AG people I know so I plonked down a moderate amount of folding for one of those. Yeah I know it's a China radiator, but the finish is good enough for the car. With some bolt in bottom brackets and OEM AE86 top brackets it's a perfect fit in the nose of the KP, with enough room for a slim 12" fan and using shortened AE86 radiator hoses. 0P4A7742 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 0P4A7736 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This sort of leads on to how the engine bay looks right now - this is really close to the final product as far as the aesthetic side goes, with really only the wiring plus some hoses for overflow and breather to go in and complete the picture. So yeah. We draw a little bit closer, money is a little low right now with purchase of a new camera gear so to progress I need to allow the bank account to rally a little and then it's time to hit the wiring with the assistance of Stu. Thanks must go to Sheepers, Brendan, Stu and Reuben from Fenix for helping me out with this stage of the build. Discuss the right way to go about chequebook building a car here - //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/18803-snoozins-1981-kpiz-starlet/ 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted November 20, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 20, 2016 Some good quality stainless steel mufflers and a 2.5" stainless exhaust is now on the car. Project_KP61_4AGE_2016 (1285) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project_KP61_4AGE_2016 -1300 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Will put some more up later, Brendan did a great job. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted November 21, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 21, 2016 Project_KP61_4AGE_2016 -1317 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Flare from header to 2.5" pipe Project_KP61_4AGE_2016 -1315 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Braced to gearbox after join to header. Project_KP61_4AGE_2016 -1289 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Then it doorts off down the middle of the car. Project_KP61_4AGE_2016 -1307 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Resonator all snugged up beneath the factory heatshield. Project_KP61_4AGE_2016 -1318 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Looking down the guts (yes the driveshaft is going to fit!). 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snoozin Posted January 10, 2017 Author Share Posted January 10, 2017 Project_KP61_4AGE_2017-10 by Richard Opie, on Flickr CLEAR WINKER! Anyway it's 2017 so I better try and do a little bit more on it this year. Edit: I can't seem to hot link any more from Flickr to the new forum, nevermind 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted December 22, 2018 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 22, 2018 Been a long time since I looked at this, due to obvious reasons. Anyway, pulled it out of it's corner in George's shed, and washed all the crud off it a short while ago. 20180520_122558 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20180520_122541 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20180520_130720 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Before it got put away, it has had a new/modified body loom by Nick the Sparky. All of the lights/wipers/fan/dash/fuel pump etc all works on it again now, battery is relocated to the boot with an isolator, various other things. The electric mirrors even work now, for the first time since I have owned it. I also installed finished the fuel tank, and sealed it with that POR15 kit. Made a right mess, and had to repaint it. Now it's shiny black with some metallic flake in it because the painter thought it'd be a giggle. Uh, did some other stuff too. Just a phone photo for now, but hopefully I can recommence with good shots in due course. 20180520_161320 by Richard Opie, on Flickr I've been pretty disillusioned with it, but have decided to try and have one last crack at being interested in it and if I can't make meaningful progress then it needs to leave my possession. But fairly confident I can sort something. Sheepers popped around and helped me take the engine out the other day, so I can bugger off and fill in all the holes that are in the bay. 28 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted January 1, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 1, 2019 So the engine bay thing kind of took off. Some egging on by a certain lanky Auckland member... Motor out. 20181216_135918 by Richard Opie, on Flickr You can see, there's multiple useless holes in the firewall. These include, but are not restricted to the original heater inlet/outlet, brake booster, loom, aircon and all the other weird shit that I don't need anymore. Same goes for the brackets on the firewall. So what next? KP61 Phone-1 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Trekked down to see @oftensideways with the KP in tow. For those of you who don't know Sean, he's a freakin wizard, and a top bloke to boot. Someone I am privileged to consider among my mates. He'd agreed to weld up the engine bay for me, and with Bex being away visiting her family over the break it was a great excuse for me to get out of the house and go for a bit of a drive. KP61 Phone-2 by Richard Opie, on Flickr I didn't really get many shots in progress, but here's what the firewall looked like when it was time to load up and hit the road (the next day, even!). All of the large holes have been filled with steel patches. MIG'd in place then TIG welded to finish. The little stuff with captive nuts on the other side have been filled by MIG welding. Then a bunch of hammer and dolly work to get the shape back. And so we took off home. Straight into @sheepers shed... as I said, this all happened a bit quicker than I am used to. KP61 Phone-3 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Front off, subframe and suspension out. Then onto the labourious job of prepping for paint. KP61 Phone-4 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is after the initial prep work for a coat of high build primer. You'll note the brake line holes and etc in the inner guards have also been filled. Thought it was a good idea while I was down at Seans to do it once and properly. This first prep really started to reveal just how good the job Sean did was. High spots at an absolute minimum - which is great, as these are way harder to fix than low spots, for obvious reasons. KP61 Phone-5 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Sheepers sprayed the first coat of primer on the bay that same night. Was a fairly long day, but super cool nonetheless to see an inkling of what the final product was going to be like while the primer was still wet. Promising. Of course, lots, and lots, and lots of sanding still to come... KP61 Phone-6 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is after a wet sand. A whole days worth of wet sanding. You can see all the red spot filler on the firewall. This is ALL WE NEEDED TO FILL IN. Let that sink in for a while. After the amount of welding heat and bashing that had gone into the firewall, the requirement to crack out the bog was slim to nil in the end. That's how damn good Sean is. Regardless of how good it was, I ended up with trench-hands from being in wet gloves all day, which was equal parts gross and hilarious. But then the second coat of primer went on... KP61 Phone-7 by Richard Opie, on Flickr HOW GOOD. The followup to this was pretty much a rinse and repeat of the earlier scenario. But with more hand sanding, and less power assistance. Definitely a learning process, figuring out how best to make the paper do the work, while maintaining a smooth surface ready for the base coat. KP61 Phone-8 by Richard Opie, on Flickr This was about the moment I began to properly fizz. Couldn't stay in the shed while it was being sprayed as I didn't have appropriate respiratory protection, but when the door rolled up... this shot of the bay coated in a colour matched red was the result. Not bad? Major tent pants moment was still to come, however. KP61 Phone-9 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Look at that! You could bloody go swimming in that gloss. Sheeper was a little bit apprehensive to try the clearcoat I bought (that was recommended by the joker at CarColors Albany) since different product can apparently yield very different results if you're not familiar with spraying it. But how good is the result, testament to the multi-talents of the lanky fella on the gun. A couple of runs for sure, and a little bit of dirt got in the paint - expected for spraying it in a garage. But nothing that can't be very easily fixed. Today was a day off working on it - from go to whoa this took 5 days in total. I'm heading back tomorrow to touch up the underseal in the guards and also reassemble the car, take it back to the shed it lives in and crack on with the engine while I let the paint harden enough to wet sand or cut/polish the imperfections out. Thanks for looking. 57 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted February 26, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 26, 2019 Been tidying up the engine thing, painting lots of stuff, reconditioning the starter and alternator, etc etc. Here's a few phone pictures of how it's looking. With assistance from @kpr I've adopted his trigger arrangement for the cam/crank, this has meant the dizzy can be turfed completely. 20190224_170300-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190224_170315-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190224_170451-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190224_170348-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190224_170355-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190224_170410-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Also attached an SQ Engineering reverse down-pull throttle linkage to the ITB, in the interest of simplifying the cable run. 20190224_163540-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr New 4AGE sticker. This will stick to the new OEM cambelt cover. 2019-02-26_11-24-31 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Sort of where I am at now. @Stu is going to come and give me a hand to terminate those sensor wires into a nice easy to detach loom, and then the engine is pretty much ready to go back into it's home. The silver cam covers are temporary, the blue ones will return soon with a new finish that's pretty damn epic I think. 29 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted February 27, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 27, 2019 A bit of chequebooking. I prepped these and Ben at GT Refinishers chucked a luscious coat of blue matched to the Cusco strut tops, with added sparkzazz. 2019-02-27_09-44-44 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Yeah nice. 25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted March 11, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 11, 2019 Would've been rude as to not fit these things up, hey? 20190302_175341-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190302_175351-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr The sparkle doesn't kick off quite as well when it's out of sunlight. But I'm pretty hyped on the aesthetic. So while the motor is out, I at least need to crack on with a few other wee jobs. The pedal box was something that needed addressing. Previously, I had the big old "long" style Wilwood master cylinders which have a press on cap with a 3/8" push on fitting for rubber hose on the inlets. It became fairly apparent that there just wasn't going to be any room behind the dash for this kind of hose... the OD of it is MASSIVE, and 3 lengths from the reservoir (yet to be mounted) to the cylinders wasn't really possible. So, I decided to change to the GS "Compact" master cylinders. Ordered from Jegs, got here within a couple of weeks. Same sizes. 3/4" for front, 5/8" rear, 3/4" clutch. 20190227_193343-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Primary reason for the change was to use a -4AN fitting for the inlets, which these have. Inlet is at the far end of the cylinder. 20190227_193416-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr So of course, a test fit to the mounting frame was required. Pretty straight forward, and the space saving is an added bonus. It's getting pretty crowded behind the dash! You can visualise how much shorter they are by the outlet hardlines that are still in place from the old master cylinders. 20190227_200449-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190227_200554-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Following this, I had GSS (thanks @legendlives and co for the continued great service) sort the hardlines out to suit the new cylinders. Pics in a bit of that. All stripped back, I shot across to see Jon at Strange Workshop and had a hoon on his blasting cabinet. 20190306_215500-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190306_215445-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Naturally, a coat of paint was in order. Etch primed and top-coated with black epoxy rattle cans. The VHT stuff comes out super nice! 20190310_131148-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Finally, assembly for the final time (I hope) although there is a very real probability that I'll need to fuck around with the master cylinders to get the brakes feeling right. Pretty chuffed with the end result. You can see the banjo fittings and excellent hardline work in these shots. Nice and compact and tucked well out of harms way ( @cletus might confirm if I need to chuck a P-clip in there, it's well under 300mm from banjo to bulkhead fitting though). 20190311_182910-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190311_182918-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190311_182958-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190311_182937-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr DISCUSSION EVEN! 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted March 21, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 21, 2019 OK so the motor is pretty much ready to drop in. 2019-03-12_04-30-05 by Richard Opie, on Flickr I've been tidying things up, thanks to blasting and VHT Epoxy black. Fuck I love VHT Epoxy black. 20190102_164709 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190120_184608 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190120_184624 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190120_184637 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190120_184653 by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190120_184724(0) by Richard Opie, on Flickr 20190127_124320 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Even the wiper linkages got a refresh! 20190216_154907 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Sump and crossmember also got the treatment. 20190219_185312 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Back on with a bit of Toyota Grey Sealant and carefully torqued up oil pan bolts. As an aside, when I took this off to have a nosy in the engine also, it turned out the oil pump bolts were only finger tight. Whew. 20190105_160736 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Nick the Sparky helped me rebuild the alternator and starter. 20190126_133528 by Richard Opie, on Flickr @Stu popped in and finished up the wee loom for the front of engine bits, so the cam/crank sensors etc are all sorted out. Here's kpr's lush crank angle sensor installed, in blurryish technicolor. Project KP61 2019 (6) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (10) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (90) by Richard Opie, on Flickr I've chucked all the brand new plastics/seals on the front (Toyota still carry a lot of things) and stuck the new 4AGE sticker on the front. Important. Project KP61 2019 (84) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (75) by Richard Opie, on Flickr Project KP61 2019 (21) by Richard Opie, on Flickr This weekend the idea is to drop it back in the hole and then at some point wire it all up. Yay? YAY! 41 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted January 6, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 6, 2020 This is nearly working. Lots has been done since ^^ 26 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted May 9, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 9, 2020 Turns out all the links have shit themselves for some reason, nevermind. Anyway, all this bullshit has me pretty up and down and generally a bit upset in between the occasional moment of optimism. I haven't seen the car since a week or so before lock down, and even though I might not have done anything on it anyway under normal circumstances I thought I'd go through my phone a bit and see what I had, just as means of trying to cheer myself up. I haven't updated much here, but this is the engine bay, it has the loom in it in this photo with much thanks to Stu, Nick the Spraky and Sheeper. 20200307_203640 by Richard Opie, on Flickr I'm a bit hopeful I might be able to spark it up not long after we're allowed out again, it'd make me pretty happy to do so. KP61 Phone-11 by Richard Opie, on Flickr The brakes also work on it, the handbrake works, the body loom works (headlights etc), Lewis has the new front seats to trim and soon I'll ship the back one down. It has some cert compliant wheels and tyres on it now, and Clint even came and gave it a wee pre-check over just to ensure I haven't made any totally glaring oversights. So overall, notbad. 42 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted September 16, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 16, 2020 Been a long time no update but anyway thanks to Stu and Sheepers and Nick the Sparky this is where we are at. Weird. Went pretty smoothly, it's spooging a bit of oil out the breathers on the top but I guess once it's run in that'll settle down or it'll just keep doing it cos 4AG life. I have 5 forward gears, a clutch that works and some brakes so with a few hours checking things and tidying up small jobs there's nothing stopping me from going for a wee drive. Oh the thermostat doesn't seem to be opening but that's not really a big deal to sort out hopefully, it might just be old and stuck, or new and stuck, as the case is. 44 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted September 19, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 19, 2020 So sheepers popped around, we did a bit of a bolt check, clipped all the fuel and brake lines up and then the above happened. How cool. The tune is only very beginning stages so I couldn't give it any real beans under load yet, but ambling around on part throttle was super great. The brakes feel awesome, as does the suspension. Things to look at include (and this is for my reference): - fix/adjust clutch so shifting is hopefully easier - move exhaust to drivers side so muffler is away from rear passenger side wheel - resolve tacho and speedo not working - roll rear guards cos she rubs a bit - driveshaft loop - secure and install battery box - seat mounts (for lush lush lush new interior) - diff is noisy, change out worn CW & P for a good spare set I have - get it aligned properly That's really about it for the moment. Not bad all things considered, the only stock mechanical component on the car is the steering column and rack! 39 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted January 10, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 10, 2021 Here we go then with another sporadic update. So, encouraged by a few people I have been putting in a little bit of effort on this in an attempt to get it to Toyota Festival, later this month. Nick the Sparky and I put in a couple of days in the shed at his place, where he did sparky things, I occasionally helped with sparky things, but I also stripped the old interior and put the new bits in. From there, I took the car to @sheepers, and he did some choice stuff for me which included a driveshaft loop, and mounting the freshly retrimmed Recaro LX (Fishnet) seats. Also while it was there I drained the synthetic (wrong) oil from the gearbox and put the right (mineral) stuff back in it, as it was giving me some strife. More on that soon. Lewis Horrell in Ashburton is responsible for the killer retrim. I wanted to match the seats to the plastics, and he managed to find a stunning option. We'd been talking about this for a long time - I wanted either a houndstooth or a tartan to channel both early Porsches (which I adore), and also the period the KP was designed in. I reckon it turned out all right. The gearbox has some shifting problems on the downshift from 4th to 3rd and 3rd to 2nd - initially we suspected clutch drag and maybe a mismatch of master cylinder to clutch cylinder, but after Davo's old man Earle dropped in and helped me through a few checks (he's a real T50-whisperer) his diagnosis is something in the selector or synchro area - so it's gonna be a gearbox out job shortly, nevermind. However, I will still be getting the car onto the dyno with @kpr and @Stu at some stage in the next couple of weeks, as we can hook 4th with no problem do the doort things! Pictures below: 20210110_181421-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr Grabbing some sun after a full day of work. 20210110_181852-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr This is pretty much the final version of the engine bay, I haven't clipped the loom along the sides of the block yet, but it should be all sorted out post-dyno. 20210110_180317-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr Got the dash back in for the first time in 5 years. Some plastic repairs on broken parts mean it is now secured better than it ever has been in my ownership of the car. The fake brushed ally of the factory dash has been re-overlaid with a textured vinyl. 20210110_172923-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr The Stack bits all lit up. Tach output isn't turned on in the Link yet, and we are struggling to get a useful signal for the speedo. But shouldn't be too tricky to solve, just need some advice from some experts and Nick reckons we can make it tell the speed! 20210110_180414-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr' Recaro LX in sumptuous maroon, with matching door cards (new CNC cut from 3mm tempered hardboard) 20210110_182113-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr Absolute must to have the RECARO logo embroidered on in the proper location. 20210110_182416-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr Imagine having rears that match? Well, you don't have to, because they match! 20210110_183559-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr Wilwoods peeking through the Star Brights. It stops well, and it's only going to get better! 20210110_182557-Edit by Richard Opie, on Flickr Top down! You can see the interior and the engine bay, I'm pretty stoked on this to be honest. It has come together better than I could have ever imagined ten years ago, when I pulled it all to pieces. As you can probably tell there's still plenty to do, like carpets and stuff. But the list is signficantly smaller, and there is no way I could have done this myself - I owe so much of this to a handful of really generous (especially with their time) and talented people I probably don't give enough dues. So thanks, if you're reading. 63 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted January 18, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 18, 2021 Anyway, this car is now tuned. @kprkindly agreed to handle the tuning duties, following some initial setup by @Stujust to get me running in the meantime. Some things to note : 1 - the gearbox is still not good, downshifts into 3rd and 2nd are the absolute pits. 2 - this tune is still done with the stock head and cams, attached to the high-comp bottom end. Here's a short clip of the final dyno pull, Kris managed to eke 100kw out of it, the engine wasn't keen on taking a lot of timing due to my wack combo, but this is decent regardless I think. Anyway, it's a little smoky when it gets up in the revs, but I hope it calms down a bit with some bed-in time. The dyno session went fairly smoothly. The cam covers were leaking a bit of oil, and a few fasteners on the engine self-ejected, probably as a result of me not checking over the engine nuts and bolts thoroughly enough. So naturally, you get the thing home and you want to drive it, right? So I did. Here's a wee 2nd and 3rd gear entrance onto the motorway, gives a nice idea of how it sounds in car. But the best sounds are outside of the car, right? I got @Espritto take it for a skid up and down the main straight of my local test route so I could revel in the delicious doorts. It didn't disappoint, especially with these rowdy things reverberating off every concrete and steel building in the area. The exhaust also achieved the requisite amount of twang up in the revs, something I wanted to retain that 4AG character. Initial driving thoughts then? It's pretty good. I suppose taking your time with stuff and trying to make educated choices pays off somewhat. It's super cliche but it totally feels like a larger gokart. With the 275lb front and 225lb rear springs it feels planted. and quite lively when you chuck it into a corner. It's got enough travel you can punt it around with relative confidence, I took it for a brief squirt down the backroads out by Kris' place and felt immediately at home. I think with some minor tweaking it's going to be a really fun little chassis. The brakes are shaping up to be damn near perfect. I've fluked the cylinder sizes, it feels pretty good out of the box and is only getting better with use. Although I am yet to do a proper bed-in procedure on the pads. But I feel, aside from some adjustment of the bias, the brakes will be up to anything I can chuck at this car as it sits. You can tell me how bad the exhaust sounds in this discussion thread we all prepared earlier. Who would have thought I'd actually be close to completing this car? 37 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Snoozin Posted January 26, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 26, 2021 The idle is proving to be a little problematic on this car, it lopes away like it's got some stupid set of cams in it - but will work through this after Toyota fest this weekend, it's otherwise behaving itself well. Treated the car to it's first detail in over a decade, and maybe the first time I have ever hit it with some polish. First stage results below, wash and a hand cut (machine would have been much better, but you know). Paint isn't bad for a 14 year old respray done in a carport, it could be flatter but I know much more about what nice paint is now than I did then. 20210126_232629-01 by Richard Opie, on Flickr Gloss has come back nicely, and the colour is much much more vibrant than it has been. Next step is a glaze, and a couple of coats of wax for silky smooth depth. Then maybe I'll scoot out for some actual photos with the real camera again. I am super duper amped to bring this out and share it with everyone at Toyota Festival! 28 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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