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Kiwibirdmans 1962 EJ Holden Wagon


Kiwibirdman

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  • Kiwibirdman

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Here are the engine mounts. The strait up and down one is the passengers side which I made a couple of months ago. The funky one is to go around the steering universal. This is the second attempt as the first one didn't have a big enough dog leg. As usual second attempt took about a quarter of the time of the first one. A guy who I met recently did the  finish welding with the 250 amp mig in his garage. 

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Here is the size comparison of the VZ commodore booster and the gemini booster.

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I'll let you guess which is which. 

I'm going to use the original holes in the pedal so shouldn't need a massive amount of boost to get good brakes, the leverage is about 9:1 where the commodore was around 7:1. I am a little worried about how much travel on the pedal, have to wait and see once it's all together.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I had been holding off on an update until after the shed raid, I didn't want to give away too much before the team came round and had a look.

The engine is in and mounts welded up, still some finishing to do on the drivers side once the engine comes out again. The gearbox cross member is in place. HQ holden narrowed by 300mm. Again some final welding to finish off when the engine is out. Brake booster brackets made, final hole in the firewall to finish off. We didn't do it the other night because my kids had gone to bed and the die grinder was going to make too much noise.

I have been stuffing around with the diff angle and finding how much change there is in angle in normal suspension movement. I have decided to have the diff 2 degrees nose down, same as the Firebird. I have traction bars that mount under the spring pad at one end and below and forward of the front spring eye on the chassis. At expected ride height they are almost parallel with ground and the diff angle stays constant. The main thing I want is no axle tramp and I think these will do the trick.Traction is always going to be an issue with 215 tires.

Still plenty to do but getting rapidly closer to all cuts cut, shuts shut and then off for final rust work and paint.

Photos to come.

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I had an oh shit moment a while ago when I tried the new HQ type V8 radiator I had bought. Width wise it would fit OK, bur height wise it was 100mm above the the support panel. I did think about some serious cutting to make it fit. Something in the back of my brain said there is a better option that you have seen before. There was a green EH wagon that made NZV8 a few years ago and they had used a HiAce van radiator. I got the dimensions and had a measure, all looked good. 

This morning I picked up a slightly used one off trademe for $50. This first non Holden part.........I'm on the slippery slope.

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Here are some updates and photos

 

The engine sitting in the engine bay, gives an idea of size of engine and lack of space.20170222_172150.jpg

This photo gives a better idea, clearance of the inner guard to make space for the alternator

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A new gearbox mount, designed for a TH350 and just happens to bolt to a 4L60E with the right bolt holes for a HQ cross member.

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These two are of the steering . My nice piece of dowling intermediate shaft gives a good idea of how tight it all is. The right hand picture shows the bottom of the column and the shift arm. It all fits just. Still some clearance to be created at the time of photo.

 20170206_162655.jpg20170206_162703.jpg

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Some more photos

Gemini Booster in place, note the not so deliberate mistake

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The mounting studs are not level. Bloody booster has to be rotated 18 degrees, yet another job that gets done twice.

Here it is with the hinge down.

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During the shed raid Mr Vapour decided that he needed the VX commodore booster and master cylinder that I had got. I had the great plan of using an HQ PBR master. I thought they would be every where for not much money, not so. I'm going to have to go to Zebra parts to get another master cylinder, hopehully ther are still a couple of commodores there.

Here is the diff with new mounts attached. Sorry Neal(threeonthetree), the yellow paint will be gone before this goes back under the car.

20170323_200754.jpg

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Over the weekend the ears on the diffhead got cut down to create some clearance. On a sedan diff they have a big hole for the suspension arms so no structural. I started cleaning up and painting to get rid of the lovely yellow. I ran out of best quality VHT black so no photos until I get some more and it is one colour. The brake booster got cleaned up as well and is very pretty in copper coat primer. Ordered a new flexible brake line for the diff and will make up new hard lines before it goes under the car. Also ordered a Willwood distribution block/proportioning valve from summit racing.

I had grabbed the bonnet and one front guard from the panel beaters. I was playing around with how low I could go and still get full steering lock. Here the tire is about 15mm under the guard and goes lock to lock with no touching.When the car gets a wheel alignment it will be set up with a bit of negative camber so tilting the wheel in a bit will make more space. 

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To quote the great philosopher Aaron Kaufmann of Fast and Loud, lower the altitude, raise the attitude. 

Once the diff is back under it will play round with the ride height, ground clearance will be the limiting factor I think.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Its amazing how life gets in the way, last Saturday disappeared in being a taxi service for my eldest son for soccer out in Kelston, about 40 mins each way from home. I stopped into Pick a Part to see about another VX commodore master cylinder. Plenty of VT which were different and looked ugly as sin. I'll take a trip out out to Zebra tomorrow, their web site says they have 2.

I did make some progress, new cans of paint and the rear axle is racing shiny black, no more 70's yellow. I forgot to take photos (as usual) while it was all on a couple of saw horses. New brake lines got made and a new HQ type flexible hose turned up from Australia. The mount on the body had the spot welds drilled out and will be moved.

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Car is  back on the ground and suspension wound down (I love the threaded rod instead of springs at this stage).

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I'm pretty happy if I can get the final ride height here. A piece of 4x2 slides under everything with plenty of clearance.

I also got a box from Summit racing today.

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  • 4 weeks later...

It's been nearly a month since the last update. I had a 2 week holiday in Bali which slowed things up. Got back into it tonight working through the list of stuff to finish off, Universal is mounted to the steering rack, found that it hit the engine mount so that had to be clearanced, put the starter motor on and there is space to shift the knock sensor to the other side of the motor so the dip stick will fit into the HQ sump, clips fitted to the diff for the brake lines.

Clint (Cletus as he is known here) is coming round for an inspection for certification next week so lots has to be done. I want his OK before it all get blown apart again and painted. 

Progress for sure.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Clint came round today to have a look at the car. After much looking he said mainly happy. The only thing that I got wrong is the mounts for the traction bars are too low by 10mm. They will hit the ground if a back tire goes flat. Not major, a bit of cut, shut and paint to fix. 

The other things are a gusset on the rebate in the front chassis where space was made to fit the top A arm and a strong back on the engine mounting plates, all easy stuff.

Plugging away with other bits, fuel tank is mounted, still have to figure out the filler, brake pedal support is on the pedal box, some more holes in the floor welded up, UJ fitted to the steering rack. 

The list of stuff to do has got shorter, must be time for a new list. 

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Not much progress, spent a chunk of Saturday afternoon playing musical wheels with Glyn, the owner of the big blue mig in my garage, and his 1965 396 big block SS Impala. We swapped the 14x7 and 14x8 S/S cragars off my Firebird onto his impala. The 14x8s on the back fill out the guards nicely, so we left them on for a while. Firebird needs some love but not until the Holden is finished.

I did get to Zebra parts today for a VZ commodore brake master cylinder. Mr Vapour got the last one I had when he spied it with the booster. I thought that there would be lots of them around, lots of the VT, VX and VY's being wrecked, not many VZ.

Hopefully tomorrow will see me in the garage again, a night off from being the kids taxi.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Good progress in the last couple of weeks despite having to go away for work

Master Cylinder Mounted to booster with (hopefully) the correct clearance for the pushrod.

Header plates have arrived, so now need to buy some U bends and start cutting and welding

Filler is on the petrol tank, very useful having a second tank to chop up and steal the filler neck from

Mounts for the traction bars cut off, shortened up by 15 mm and rewelded.

Photos to come

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  • 2 weeks later...

A long overdue update and photos 

Here is the brake booster, the lean to the motor is to create clearance between the plastic reservoir and the bonnet spring

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I went to fit the park brake and found that the brake pedal was in the way. Nothing that 2 hours of stuffing around couldn't fix. Once it was sorted and everything connected the position felt pretty good.

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Here is the modified fuel tank.

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An the hole in the floor for the filler pipe to come in. The steel box section beside the hole is for the tank mounts and the floor has been welded to it. Much stronger than before.

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I had been thinking about the seat belt mounts. There are doubler plates available from the likes of Fraser cars at $15 each and they still need to be drilled for the rivets or bolts that hold them together. I need 12 sets because the car came mounts for the driver and front passenger only, nothing for the centre of the front seat or the back seat. The original mounts on the floor disappeared when the floor pans got replaced.

I had some 3mm plate and decided on Saturday to make my own plates. 2 hours later I had 20 50mm x 80mm plates with rounded corners and beveled edges as per the certification code. The still have to be drilled for the bolts and then painted.

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And for a laugh here is my DIY linisher

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Some more photos

Todays effort was to make a new mount for the park brake cable under the car. Another build the first version then have to make the same again. The one on the right was the first version which was OK until I cross threaded the bolt and stuffed the thread.

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Here it is the mounting bracket attached.

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Here are the header plates that came from Autobend. I have the passengers side one in place. It looks like I might have to open a couple of the bolt holes to line things up.

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I have been thinking about the headers a lot. The plan is to try and build a set of Tri-y's, the pipe lengths will be all over the place because of the lack of space. Off to Autobend on Wednesday to buy a bunch of U-bends and reducers. 

Any thoughts or ideas welcome on the discussion thread.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I went shopping at Autobend last week and came home with this lot. 

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I still need to go back and get some more, they were almost out of the 41mm 2 into 1 cones, I got 2 and need 4, Some more U bends will be needed as well once I hve used up this lot and figure out what I need to finish off.

Here is the start of the drivers side

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First 2 pipes are tacked into place. There is no way to get proper firing order tri-y design

Passengers side

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Not much space down there, nothing hits!!

Had to stop last night at 10:15 because the cut off wheel made too much noise and the kids wouldn't go to sleep.

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Here is a mock up of the intake

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I'm going to cut down the bend so it sits in the middle of the inner guard and will have a cone filter on the end. I wanted to make a cold air induction but no space.

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Here is something from Monday night last week. Being the proper engineers we are after modifying the fuel tank we pressure tested it for leaks on the weld. My compressor is over the other side of Auckland so had to go round the corner to my mates place who is doing the welding to use his compressor.

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Here is the tank all sealed up. Pressurized it to 8psi  and found 1 hole in the weld on the new filler neck and 2 in the cap for the original filler neck.

Had to take it back to my house, fix the welds, then back to the compressor to check again.

Tank is now in the car!!! 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Headers are almost finished. I have to take the last 44mm U  bend back to swap for a 2 inch. 

I'm glad that I did this myself with help because they would have cost a fortune to get someone else to build.The passengers side goes in OK, drivers side needs to have the engine lifted to get in and out. 

Once the drivers side is out I'll post a photo or 2.

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Had a box turn up today

 

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These should be good. 

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I had priced belts up locally, same chrome buckles but only available in black. Local price for 2 detractor 3 point and 4 lap only belts was $800. These came from Wesco Performance, meet USA standards and were $485 sitting on the bench at home. The box arrived 2 weeks after order, it took a week for them to be dispatched. Very happy will trade again.

Took all my driveshaft parts to ADL today to get one made up. Because of the cost of cutting the ends off the old drive shafts almost everything will be new. Probably not a bad idea.

No so happy about the bloody cold, car is getting ignored because the garage is bloody cold and too damn big to heat. Buying stuff is progress. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

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