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Now CrazyTim's 1980 Vauxhall Chevette Wagon


mikuni

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My new wagon. Just on my Gem wheels at the moment but I'm thinking

about selling these on the Gem and getting a new look for the Vaux.

Thanks to Niel, who I bought this car off, and his old man for doing the

hard work to get this car looking so straight, and leaving me to do the fun stuff.

VoxBluFntSml.jpg

Pics are a little dark on some monitors. I'll think about getting others soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...
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  • 1 month later...

Had a deffinate set back this week. Got in trouble with both cars, green sticker for the vauxhall and $200 fine for driving my gem without wof which I was on my way to get at the time.. and which I failed on rust just to top it off! Not too bad tho, only a small patch so should be able to get it sorted this week.

I sort of knew it was coming, but still a pitty :(

VauxGreen.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

New plan possibly. I'm giving the engine idea a miss altogether. Have just spent over a grand on rebuilding front suspension with heaps of really nice stuff.

-whiteline 26mm swaybar (front)

-sandblasted and black enamled upper/lower control arms

-all bushings new nolathane items

-munroe HD gas shocks, modified for more suspension travel F&R

-new balljoints upper & lower

-rebuilt (but rusty) piazza vented disks with semi-metallic brake pads

-adjustable sway bar ($150 cos they didn't know what it was worth)

Haven't gotten springs sorted just yet, as i know it will be a piss around to get them how I want it.

*My new idea for the car is as follows

Lowish, but probably not as low as with the 17's.

13" superlights or similar with about 185/50/13 tyres lightly stretched just to squeeze inside the guards a little easier

I'm thinking front 'spook'/lip off something. Rx3 or similar. Will have to see what will fit but I haven't seen it done before and it will add that little something. Real race look.

Not sure whether the bumpers will stay with this style. May even look at full bumpers painted black.

Inserts around the lights painted black. Will hopefully make it look abit dirtier.

Would love a boso style oil cooler out the front, not too extreme but some braided lines going out to it also. It will sit just below the existing bumper line.

Anyway, thats what I'm thinking at the moment and I would LUV everyones feedback or ideas! Even if they are negative ("positive criticism").

Pics..

My control arms all pretty with nolathane and modified shock mounts and suzuki sj4 (i think) munroe gas shocks in the background.

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No front feet :(

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Whiteline 26mm swaybar and adjustable panhard rod

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This is a little embarrasing/don't get jelous :P

The power unit!

DSCF1136.jpg

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  • 2 months later...

Picture.

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Another.

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Note new lip and the wheels I'm in the process of widening. Will be getting powder coated silver within the next couple of weeks. They have been widened from 13x5 to 13x8 :twisted: and will be getting 195x45R13 Dunlop SP Sport 9000 tyres streched onto them if all goes to plan. Go some new seats along the way and all my suspension is in the front. Handles like a dream but I'm having some teething problems with the vented isuzu brakes on the front.

Lotsa plans for this we thing over the next year or so.

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  • 2 months later...

As planned I went to get the wheels powder coated, but as it turned out, the surface of the wheels will most probably melt during the baking process of powder coating. So painting it is.

I took them to the sandblasters but he only had one shade of silver that would be suitable. It looked pretty good on the colour chart so I gave the go ahead but it turned out to be a pale blue silver. I don't have any pics of the wheels on their own I don't think.

Heres some of before they go coated.

dish2.jpg

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Right, now its simply a case of getting tyres on. Right?

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So the hunt for tyres began. I started off to the tyre shops in a hunt for the Dunlops that I was after from up there ^ abit further. Turns out a set has never been brought into the country from what I can see and that they need to be indent ordered or something. Bascially this means I place my order for 4, pay my $180 a tyre (yes, for 13" tyres) and then they will place the order with the manufacturer. Some time later, when there are anough orders placed around the world they will make the tyres and ship them, although this can take up to 3 months.

I decided against that and carried on searching for another option. From what I was told here in Hamilton there are 3 options. A yoko that is looks very similar to an eager, non-directional with white writing, which I didn't want, the dunlop that will take 3 months and a toyo 215/50R13 so I decided on what I thought was my only option.

When it came time to get the tyre on we ran into another issue. The wheel has been widened wrong. The part that was inserted is in the largest part of the wheel, where the bead sits instead of in the narrowest part. This mean the wheel looks great, but it also means that the bead of the tyre has almost no chance of sliding over the welds.

So I took the wheels home again and attacked them with the grinder, reducing the diameter of the weld bead in hope that a tyre would be able to squeeze over. I was pretty sketch over doing this because if I take too much off obviously the wheel will fall to pieces at worse and at best not hold any air. So i took off a minimal amount and smoothed the edge of the weld hoping that the tyre will be able to squeeze over.

Took them back to the tyre shop and after literally hours of trying they agreed that the tyres would not go on. They told me infact that I had absolutely NO HOPE of getting any tyre on what so ever. This was a little dissapointing to me as I had just spent around $700 getting them widened and sandblasted and painted and now it seemed they were scrap metal.

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For the christmas new years break I was up in whangarei so I took a wheel to a mate who has a tyre shop up there to see if he had any success. And, after ALOT of pissing around with all kinds of tyres I seem to have finally suceeded in getting one on there. Thanks must go out to shane and jeremy from tyrepower in whangarei for persisting with fitting these fuking things.

We got a 185/60R13 on there and it the process of popping the tyre bead up over the centre ridge it flew off the machine about 3 metres into the air and came crashing down buckling the rim slightly. BUT, the tyre was on! Haha. The other but is that it was just so huge and ugly that it didn't fit on the rear properly and looked like absolute shit.

Need something smaller!

Next came a 155/60R13. Something very small, and bearing in mind that we were fitting it onto an 8 inch rim I was very doubtfull if it would even go on, but we thought it would be fun to try anyway. Sure enough shane managed to get it on there but needless to say, it looked like shit aswell. I've never seen a little tyre stretch like that before though. Quite a sight.

Now we had an idea of what could stretch onto an 8 it was time to go searching for some decent tyres with a nice low pro side wall. The yokohama brocher came out and we looked past everything to find a 175/50R13 race tyre. It seemed that was the only option, but after phoning the suplier up they directed us to a tyre the same size, but for street use.

Next day went in to get it put on. As expected it wasn't quite that easy. After about an hour we decided it wasn't happening so some thought had to come into it. Heat. We sat it out in the sun with the heatgun going hard on it to try and get some flex in the rubber so that it would stretch the bead over the seem.

Heres what the trouble looked like. The size of the extra part of the rim doesn't allow the bead so slide easily over the outside of the wheel.

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Oh and I decided to paint the centre gold, but I don't like it that much so its going to go a light gunmetal colour next to see how that looks on the car.

The heat didn't seem to work and by this time it was beer'o'clock. Cracked open afew and we all but gave up. Mean while shane was carrying on while we were out the front talking shit like usual and we heard abit of a 'yes' come from the back of the shop.

Turns out after trying about 20 times he found a new stratergie to get the tyre on there. Success.

Needless to say, I'm over the moon because I had lost hope of getting anything near decent on there. Now all I need to do is grind all the welds down on the other rims and get them up there to get the other tyres fitted.

Heres some pics. Remember, the gold aint staying. Looks a little too tacky on the car for my liking. But still not too bad.

Front

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Front clearance

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Front from the back

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Rear in the air. I like the tightness of the suspension.

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And on the ground with some clearance shots also.

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  • 4 weeks later...

My cars having a little bit of issues unfortunately. No compression on 3rd cylinder.

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I think its a burnt valve, I just hope the damage is limited to the head so I'll be able to fix it quickish.

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Feeling abit down I decided to put my 13's on, which I just got back from whangarei today, thanks to sloth and ryan (nobumps).

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Obviously they aren't painted yet. I kind of prefer the straight silver to the extreme gold, but I still think gunmetal grey will be the one :)

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My favourite. I love the rear of these cars when slammed.

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This ones gives you an impression of the height, or lack thereof. Makes the car look real tiny :lol:

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edit:

We made it down to wellies finally. Had a couple of issues along the way but it was well worth it.

Heres a good pic from along the way.

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Car is currently undergoing engine work :twisted:

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  • 3 months later...

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