Taistorms '72 1300

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This is a mild wing suited for an rx3. Almost perfect in terms of sizing and how it follows the boot line. Unsure whether I need to go for something a bit more wild though.

 

Tai

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Not really a proper update but I've stripped some bits and pieces off it, cleaned out all the parts that I was storing in it and reorganised them in the garage and given it a bit of a clean up in preparation for some work to be carried out on it soon. Hopefully it will be getting picked up with a trailer in the Next few weeks if all works out!

 

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Well this thing still hasn't left the garage yet. Funds have slowed down greatly now as well as we've started saving for a house pretty seriously but still putting a bit away for it.

Motivation was on a decline so went to the shop and got it a nice and shiny air filter (actually ended up returning and getting another as the 4.5" was too tall for the little 1300).

 

 

I also dropped in to Weber Specialties to have a catch up with my old mate Murray. He's convinced me to bring in the IDA for him to have a look at as it's setup is a little unknown (previous owner had it on both a bp and pp setup), and he's going to sort a throttle wheel and help me shorten the cable. Looking to sort a malpassi fuel regulator for the old girl as well.

 

In the pipeline I'm also looking into the ignition setup and seeing what options are available,so plenty of reading up to do get my head around the ideal setup.

 

Cheers

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Haven't been up to too much lately. Just stuck on the grind at work and super busy, however I've picked up a few bits and pieces for the old girl.

As my old Speedhut gauges are CANBUS and am no longer running an ecu, I have purchased another set of mechanical gauges to use as well as fuel sender. Basically the same design as my other ones but have changed it a little.

 

Also found another pair of Recaro fishnet seats for cheap which are in better condition than my others but are also narrower to suit the limited space in the 1300.

And I've grabbed a few Bosch MEC723 coils.

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About a month ago I also decided to clean up my fd alternator. It was brand new but sat in a wet box in storage for about a year so oxidized pretty bad. I dismantled it, stripped it back, and repainted it in cast iron silver and black (looks more glossy and slightly metallic in person) and reassembled it with stainless fasteners. Came out pretty sweet for a can job but will see how it lasts.

 

Before:

 

After:

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Also finally got my Escort flares off Bruce a few months ago. Going to chop them up and have a crack at fibreglass work, moulding them a bit better to the 1300 and getting the fitment right. Theoretically it looks easy enough but will soon find out. The guards didn't cost a bomb so not a great loss if I butcher them haha.

 

And yesterday I finally got a call from Murray at Weber Specs saying that my carb is ready so shot around after work to pick it up, along with a malpassi fuel pressure regulator. He's done a top job but damn he is expensive, even with mates rates ! Ah well gotta pay for quality so let's hope she's purring when she fires up.

 

That's all for now anyway, off on holiday in a few weeks so probably won't be anything to update until maybe December if I find spare time to work on the old stead.

 

Chur,

Tai

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Not much has happened since last post. Have just been checking over bits and pieces and discovering more that needs doing or corners that have been cut, making things more difficult but that's ok. Currently working out a plan on how to move things forward with the build, with the budget that I have as I need it ready for my wedding at the end of the year as I got engaged a few months ago, I want to be able to drive the groomsmen in and drop some skids haha. 

 

Anyway I've recently sold the Recaro that I brought last year, and also selling the other ones if anyone is interested (will do a good deal for OS). In reality the seats are still to wide, there will be clearance issues with the tunnel and also the seat belt mount so really I can only get away with 500-510 width max but I think I may have found something that suits.

 

Also I've been on standby for a space to free up at Choppers Auto body shop for the last 3 months and finally he's given me the thumbs up to bring it in next week. The exhaust will be getting done, and a few other fabrication jobs depending on what I can afford so that's pretty exciting. He will also be getting compliance on board to go over the vehicle and point us in the right direction of getting it road worthy.

 

Here's a shameless instagram pic, I spent a few minutes putting the bonnet back on so at least it's got some cover on the transporter.

 

 

Tai.

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Had this thing dropped of to Choppers Body Shop this morning. Time to make a list...

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Have run through a bit of a list now and got an idea on where to go to from here. We will be starting with getting the vehicle mechanically sorted so stay tuned for updates shortly.

 

Tai

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Got some updates from Chopper, they've been putting in work leading up to lock down. Pretty happy with where we're right now.

Modified swaybar/crossmember, custom engine crewmember mounts.

 

Painted and fitted with updated PAC engine Cross member and mounts.

 

Clearance at the clutch slave opened up.

 

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Old engine position. It's hard to see but it was pointing towards the front left and leaning back. This is something that has always bugged me, it also created clearance issues with the air filter and alternator with the bonnet.

Engine repositioned. Sitting a lot more square now with heaps of clearance. 

 

Pretty stoked! Will need to see what the go is for the sump as the old one looked pretty fucked and had hori notching/probably warped so we might be replacing it or have an alloy one made up. On hold for at least the next 4 weeks due to obvious reasons. Keep well people.

 

Chur,

Tai

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Was able to have a look at this thing since lockdown has been reduced and ruling changed. Was able to have a good look over the work and got some better pics. Pretty stoked to be honest, everything looks so much better now that it's straight, Chopper has done an awesome job. Only thing is the right side engine cross member mount bolt is about 3mm away from the radiator, it may have potentially had a slight nudge on the front at some stage but maybe not. This isn't a problem however.

 

 

Heaps of clearance at the slave cylinder a bonnet now as well which is bonus.

 

This is going up on the hoist next week so we will get started on the rear end. Re check the diff seals, work out shock mounts and sort some new shocks, look and see if the blocks I have are suitable and give it a general tidy up. Maybe look over the brakes as well.

 

Cheers

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Headers are made. Pretty stoked to be honest, they've come out awesome. Chopper and his team have done a great job.

 

Unfortunately we ended up having to go tube instead of steam pipe as there just wasn't enough space (about 3mm clearance on either side) the steam pipe was fouling against both the bellhousing and the steering box.

 

 

Will get these to either hpc or procoat to get a layer of ceramic on them hopefully in the next week.

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Also a major call has been made. It's very sad to say that I have sold my wheels (going to another OS member) .

I've decided that at this stage it is too costly to get the guards to a stage that I'll be happy with, without spending and exorbitant amount of money (to widebody, that is). I really wanted to imitate the katayama r100 style guards and go steel but this will have to happen down the track if I want to drive this thing anytime soon. The escort flares I feel just won't quite cut the mustard... So now I am going to revert the rear guards back to factory and roll the repro guards that I have for the front. This obviously means new wheels so pictures always speak 1000 words.

 

 

Kiwidm rotary spec now. Not quite mangels but $1500 for a brand new set with tyres sounds like a good deal for now. Plus they tuck in guards pretty well (fyi the rear suspension, shocks etc aren't fitted up yet hence the ginormous gap).

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On all 4s again. Not gonna lie, but I think the modgies are awesome. They're still not baller status like the old wheels that were on it but they will do just nicely for now.

 

And what's that lurking under the rear end you say??

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Exhaust is finished, bar getting the headers coated. Absolutely stoked. Once again the boys have done an awesome job on it, tucks in super right. There is literally no room for give on these 1300s for anything. Ended up running mild steel twin 2" system with stainless adrenalinR resonators and and muffler. Some swish mounts have been made for the muffler as well.

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And lastly, the rear end suspension setup is all together (until I get beefier traction rods made up).

1 leaf shackle had to be replaced as it was missing, some monroe shocks for now, and new pac shackle bushes. Another thing that was supposed to have been carried out back in Aus...

 

Also just to give you an idea on clearance issues here are some pics.. 

The spare wheel well had to be notched for the muffler.

And about 4mm clearance between the shocks and diff.

 

The next stage is sorting the rear brakes for good. We are sorting out Wilwood Powerlite calipers that include a simple handbrake design, running new cables, changing the discs and have some certifiable mounts made. Hopefully have it done next week, then will be taking the beast back home.

 

Cheers,

Tai

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New rear brakes all sorted now, just need to make up some hard lines once I get it back to mine.

 

Hand brake cable setup.

 

Once again Chopper has done a great job. It ended up turning into a bit more of a mission but we got there.  The axles had to be ripped out and spun down due to clearance issues and I've also got to run small slip on spacers to fit the modgies (will need to make up some hubcentric once when I put it through cert). The mounts he also had already didn't quite suit so we had to have the engineer draw up some new ones. At the caliper handbrake lever there's maybe 3-4mm clearance from the wheels. They're a neat, simple piece of kit these wilwood powerlites, pretty stoked to have wilwoods front and rear now.

All that's left now is to have a steering box guard made up to deflect some heat from the exhaust and then it's coming home (should be this weekend). Once it's back here I'll have to go over my budget and work out where and how much money I can put into it next.

 

Cheers

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Long time, no update.. 2 years later...

Had a quick steering box heat deflector hammered up then got the car back home in the garage. Sold the recaro seats as they were still a little too wide and had fouling issues when trying to slide and had next to no clearance with the recliner adjuster. Picked up a pair of Daihatsu Mira TRXX seats which were a bit narrower and pretty supportive and some awesome chaps off OS helped me out getting them up from down south.

This brings us to early 2021, had to move out of our flat and relocated to a small unit around the corner that had no garage so this went into storage at a family friend's shed up north to hibernate. Next we decided to have a kid so the car had been put on hold a bit longer as priorities changed up. We also were in the process of building a house so funneled our money into the drafting then after wasting thousands of dollars and a decent year the banks no longer wanted to lend us money to build which was lame, so also no spare coin for the car.

Now on with early 2022. Due to the above we decided to plan to move back to Aus so we can buy a house and get on the big money to try get ahead. I decided to try sell this even though I knew I'd regret it, had a few people dead keen but no one ended up following through due to various reasons. In hindsight I'm glad it didn't sell even though I won't be around it for a long time. The family friend who had been storing could no longer keep it at theirs so I managed to convince the olds to let me convert part of their firewood shed to secure dry storage for this thing to slumber in. I'm no chippy, nor am I a concreter but gave it a crack. I used only reclaimed timber from around the property, a few lengths of timber that the old boy had milled years ago, old tin roofing iron that was left on the property and left over bits and pieces from odd jobs. Really only needed to buy some nails, screws, and materials for the concreting (which was all mixed in a mixer). None of the shed posts were square and I was truly limited with what I had haha so don't be too harsh on my shed bodge.

We had a digger scrape out the bark and dirt and built up shit to reveal the compacted metal that was laid about 10years ago (awesome that it saved me a tonne of work).

Filled in the holes with sand and metal to get it semi level.

Boxed it up, and prepped it for pouring. Used a bowed piece of timber to try and screed it hahaha rough as guts.

 

Next I build an inner wall to section it off from the wood storage. Rebuilt and added to the rear and side, framed up the front then screwed some iron to it.

 

Made a door frame on some cheap hinges and hung a door that barely had enough clearance for the tiny mazda.

Then earlier today we picked up the 50 year old mazda and threw it into its new home.

 

 

This was all done across the last 1-2 months. It's locked away for the foreseeable future. I'm off to Perth on Tuesday and it looks like I'll probably accept a job in the mines and be starting in a few weeks. Fingers crossed when I'm back in NZ next April I'll be able to drop it off at a shop to continue with the build. We'll see how things go anyway.

 

Thanks for looking.

Tai