Karol Shusbands 72 Skyline.

[CarolsHusband]

Monday afternoon shenanigans

As mentioned the new calipers differ where the pipe goes in. Aftrer a bit of thinking I decided to stick with the standard flexi hoses but extend then using hard lines. This means I have to put a small taper into the end of the flexi hose and make upsome brackets to support the join.

Given my usual level of bodgery, I'm quite glad how it looks so far.

Pics...

Same/not the same

A bit of 3mm off-cut I had kicking around.

Cut and cleaned up.

Trimmed to clear the calipers. This was plan "A" on the length, I cut them back to clear the bumpstop mount.

Measuring up for the hard lines.

Finished off with a coat of "Sump disaster" red, hopefully the curse won't follow it...

Making up the pipes later so hopefully all back together by the end of tomorrow.

Woo-Hoo

 

[CarolsHusband]

Hey, where ya been ?

Holidays got in the way, and then sorting everything out that happened while we were away so no Skylining for me until today

Brakes finished, had to remake one flare and grind some stuff (bits of caliper) to make it all work, but it all works and doesn't leak, which is nice

No pics coz phone's broke but y'all know what brakes look like I would imagine.

This post has been brought to you by "Shit Post Mondays"

/you're welcome

 

[CarolsHusband]

End of summer update....

Autumn's nearly here but the weather's still dry and the temp is in the high teens so I'll keep on using it until the winter rain and road salt arrive.

It's been a good few months of Skyline driving, I've put quite a few hundred miles on it and am really happy I got my thumb out and sorted it for the road.

No real problems except a continuing worry that the gearbox and diff are a bit low on oil. The plugs  proved really hard to shift, at one point I had a set of 2 foot Stilsons with 2 foot of scaff tube and they still wouldn't shift. Finally today I got it on the 4 post ramp, stuffed a load of heat into them and got the bastards loose. Fucked them in the process and was glad/not glad that both g/box and diff were full of nice smelling, clean oil. Changed it anyway. They must just be worn out then. I'll let things develop. 

Started reshaping what was left of the bungs but then boss man Lee appeared with two shiny new gold anodised alloy plugs that are something trick for Land Rover axles or something, I zoned out TBH. Lighter than the originals so the car felt a bit faster on the way home.

Pic for fred, hopefully more to come before it goes back in the shed till the spring.

[CarolsHusband]

Hako's being doing daily duties as the Hilux is busted.

Normally there'd be no way I'd drive a car as nice as the Skyline around at the end of December but the weathers warm (10 degrees, fucken Bahamas aye) and dry and they've not salted the roads for a while.

Also the Hilux is busted, I may have mentioned that.

The VW has no heater tubes connected and has started shitting out once it's warm so Skyline it is.

It's been great, I forget how much of good o'l car it is. Been having chats and pics taken and friendly waves. I'm such a tart. I'm not really, I find it a bit embarrassing TBH but it's pretty cool that folks dig it.

Temperature gauge pegged 130 earlier. Oops.

Couple of cracks in the radiator tubes, looks like it'll need a re core. Topped it up and it's fine now.

Sorry no pics, but I'm pretty sure there are some out in internet land.

Chur.

 

 

[CarolsHusband]

It's nearly Spring.....

No more water leak, been using it a bit between storms & floods an very nice it is too. Re-doing all the cracked rubber fuel hose tomorrow.

Got round to painting the rear panel, pleased with it but will get some chrome trim to edge it.

That's it for now

/pic for Fred

[CarolsHusband]

G'day. 6 weekly update...

A few little things are going to get done thanks to lock down boredom/family avoidance.

Engine bay needs a bit of a tidy. It's mostly just dirt but the cam cover & air cleaner look a bit shit.

Had the big debate about polishing the cam cover or going wrunkle funnish.

Black wrinkle won and was ordered but I thought I'd just mess about with some 3000 grit & a bit of Autosol coz it was a nice day.

Looks OK for not too much bother, may just go with it. Sprayed the air cleaner though. Yes, not orange.

After about an hour it was starting to crinkle up quite nicely

Went out later and it was looking ace. No pics/ it was dark.

Sooo..... What's it going to be for the cam cover ?

Not sure, I'll choose in the morning

/Prace bets now.

[CarolsHusband]

Went to the garage this morning and found the wrinkle fairies had been busy.....

Well pleased with how that came out so decision decided on the cam cover.

Spot of magic paint, (plus a sneaky beer) and left it in the sun.....

Came back 30 minutes later & what is this witchcraft ?

Good choice me thinks. I'll let it dry for a couple of days and then have a go at sanding back the lettering.

In the meantime I'd better clean the engine bay up.

/ pics when it's back together.

[CarolsHusband]

I'm pretty sure I've never cleaned up an engine bay in my life, apart from to tidy up oil disasters.

I can see the attraction, but only to a point (like about 30 minutes after you start).

Still, I gave it a shot.Bent my thumb nail back cleaning behind the servo. It hurt and blood came out but I didn't cry.

Put the cam cover & air cleaner back on and polished the dashpots up a bit. Pleased with how it came out.

/pic

Might wrinkle finish the fan shroud, but that'll be it.

 

 

[CarolsHusband]

Bonsoir.

Kind of faffed around doing a pre house-move list in the garage earlier & avoiding cutting steel for the Hilux bed.

Went to get some mower fuel in the Skyline and noticed the boot lid badge is pretty mank

So I thought I'd clean it up a bit.  It's badly painted and a bit damaged. Gently does it, bit of heat, *snap*.... Oh, it's made of plastic then. Oops. 

So that's fucked. Are they all plastic or is it just a horrible replica ? I bet  @kyteler, font of all things Skyline, knows.

Still its death wasn't all in vain, it managed to bugger the paint up too.....

Oh well, better go off to the other end and see if I can mess that up as well. I've fancied doing the centre pair of headlights yellow for a while. When I was a kid French cars had yellow lamps and it was quite exotic seeing them driving around. Japanese tuners seem to feel this way too, though ironically it seems to now be seen as JDM around the world.

Anyway, I did them and it looks mint. To me, at least.

Also did the twin filament bulbs (side/indicator) to hopefully avoid the close shaves I have  because flashing white lights confuse Poms, apparently.

pics.

Next installment will hopefully include a rear exhaust box & a parcel shelf.

Thank you for reading.

 

[CarolsHusband]

Pesky meeces.

You may remember that my centre console lid got molested by vermin while I was neglecting my car. I've been pondering various solutions to avoid the obvious option of buying a new one.

Lightbulb moment.... ( googles "Does VHT wrinkle finish work on plastic ?"). Youtube says "yes". Though I'd give it a bash and if it melts then I'll just go for plans B, C & D; namely cover it, make one out of wood or cast one in clear resin with Sakura in it.

Anyway, it went like this...

Fire up the P38

Bit of sanding

First coat to see if I got it all

I didn't. So more filler.

Sorted.

I've no idea if it's going to last, I'm gonna bake it in the sun for a few days and seal it with some satin lacquer if it seems unstable.

Tightened the front wheel bearings as well, no pics though.

/coz it's just wheel bearings.

 

 

[CarolsHusband]

Hack-oss-ka-nundrum.

As we know, KY had an overwhelming fit of Good Cuntary and sorted me a new boot badge from Japan after I gorilla'd mine. To be fair, it was epoxied on so I didn't really stand a chance.

First thing I noticed was that the new one had four mounting pins where as the old one was held on with double sided tape & glue.

I assumed it was just an old badge that had got damaged so cleaned the old glue,etc off the boot to find the holes.

No holes....

I had a check from behind, as well as i could through the holes in the frame and there is sign that they've been welded up or anything.

All very strange.

It looks like it's an earlier boot lid, but even then most of them seem to have a badge, even the 4 cylinder cars.

Never mind, guess I just bite the bullet and drill holes in it. The badge just clicks in blind ( if I get the drill size right) which maybe explains why the original one got broken in the past as I can't see how you'd not break it trying to get it off.

Better get me some brave pills and a decent ruler.

Gulp.

 

 

 

[CarolsHusband]

DREDGE....

It's finally made it down south. 

Now, where'd I put that bloody boot lid badge ?

[CarolsHusband]

@kyteler, thanks man.

Brave pills swallowed, went for it. I found a little bit more filler in the lid than I would like but meh.

/ Never looked better.

 

[CarolsHusband]

Yeah, I've got an update for this old crate too. 

Got some overnight parts from Japan. All new water hoses ( except the rad hoses coz I'm a dork) & new strut top mounts.

I made up the rad hoses out of bends & also had the rad re-cored because leaky. And, it turned out, blocked solid.

So all fitted & it now stays cool, doesn't leak & doesn't crash around at the front.

I have plans for it though & I intend to implement them before a couple of local car shows in the spring. I've told Mrs Shuzz she's driving it coz I'm driving the Chevy. She looked worried.

/ pics of rad & Hako for Fred.

[CarolsHusband]

16 month update.

As mentioned elsewhere, gave it a wash and went for a blast. Thought I'd better do a bit more cleaning,which, as you may have guessed over the years, is not exactly my "thing" but I pulled the interior out and scraped some crap off if.

Also, the parcel shelf has been bugging me as it is cardboard & has mostly not been in the car. I got some vinyl & El Danny's Trim Shop was open for 15 minutes.

Not much of leap forward, but it all helps. It's at the front of the barn so I'm going to use it as much as poss this summer. Thinking about cutting a coil out of the springs which will drop it about 40mm & putting a big single back-box on.

We'll see.

 

[CarolsHusband]

In the other Hako news....

Stupid leaky, pedal to the floor, crunchy gears, nearly through the back of the barn quitter.

Yay shiny new different bore/ bit longer/ works just fine shiny Ebay thing. 

Good enough for a country job.

Have been thinking a repaint might be fun either in that factory red or the original dark green metallic, but seeing what happened to @mlracing.co.nz's Hako, I think I'll carry on in blissful white ignorance.

/ not racially.