Popular Post cletus Posted September 26, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 26, 2020 Picked up from autoblast this morning and dropped off for engine bay paint. Looks ok apart from they painted the black parts underneath then primed the engine bay so theres primer overspray on the inner guards and in the tunnel. Which is a bummer as that was the whole reason for taking it to them because I wanted it done nicely. I mentioned it and the guy came out with a rattlecan of black paint and some rubberised underseal to throw on before the towie arrived, which I didnt want on it I didn't want to leave it there for them to fix cause I'd already had to postpone the towie and the booking at the panel shop a week, because it wasn't ready last weekend as per the booking I made 6 weeks ago. So I'll get the painter to fix it, should just need a quick blow over with some more black after hes done the green parts And the hoodlining is ripped for some reason now. Bah. Anyway, I pulled the sump off to change the oil pump and pickup back to a stock one instead of a high volume pump. Its had a couple of times in the past where it lost pressure after a prolonged period of high rpm. I was concerned it was emptying the sump faster than it could drain back, and someone i talked to about it said that on a SB mopar, a stock pickup with a high volume pump can cause cavitation issues. Someone else said a high volume pump is unnecessary anyway as once it gets to x amount of pressure the relief valve bypasses so then the oil just gets whizzed around the pump doing nothing I'll try a stock pump and see how it goes, and also add some baffles, I got a new pan cause the old one has had a few bumps and an oil drain on the wrong side now I got brave and popped a couple of bearing caps off and they looked fine 25 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted September 27, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 27, 2020 Made some baffles for the sump. Remembered to make a hole for the dipstick this time... my other one has an extra short one due to making the baffle and putting the engine in , putting oil in to start it, then realizing the mistake 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted September 29, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 29, 2020 This got uncovered from somewhere when it got blasted 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted October 3, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 3, 2020 Oil stuff dramas. The dipstick tube cracked when I fitted it 8 years ago trying to bend it to fit around something else so I got a new one . When I tried to remove the cracked one it snapped off so I had no way of grabbing it so I fucked around for an hour with various drill, modified punch, and tap methods, got it out in the end. The oil filter mount plate i ordered ages ago which was hard to find didnt fit cause it was for a later model engine , luckily WAER had one left in stock for the right year so I got that, drilled some extra holes in it and fitted it. Fitted the sump, the gaskets didnt fit right so after I'd gooed it up I had to remove it again to trim some bits off the ends, put it back on and because of the slight difference with gaskets and seals it didnt fit quite the same so one of the baffles fouled the pickup and tweaked it , so swear at it some more, remove the sump again, make some clearance, set up the pickup height again and lock it in place, clean sealer off again, and reapply, put sump back on . 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted October 5, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 5, 2020 I had a bad case of dickfingers over the weekend, sunday I was going to clean and paint the engine but while cleaning I found the front cover gasket looked a bit average so front cover off to fix that, so the sump gasket got messed around with again.... I fluffed around for a while deciding on what colour to paint the engine, I got some gold as I thought it would go well with the green but it was a bit light, thought about black but a lot of the accessories are black so the engine might 'disappear ' , factory colour would be red but I thought that might be too bright I guess that's why I chose this color originally.....so it got more of the same again this evening 28 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted October 7, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 7, 2020 30 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted October 9, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 9, 2020 Pick it up tomorrow. Maximum fizz levels 32 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted October 9, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 9, 2020 Home again. Real pleased with the results and it cost less than I thought it was going to, as I'd asked Grant to paint the wheels and a couple of other bits, and respray the black parts that got primer overspray at the blasting place It's hard to get a good pic of the colour as it seems quite different depending on light and the camera Now i just have to not fuck it up too much as I put it back together 50 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted October 18, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 18, 2020 Been busy, anything that fits in the blasting cabinet has been pummeled with sand and then painted on the "eyehook 3000 painting device" When I painted the engine I mucked around for a while removing markings off all the bolts then blasting them and painting them while they were on the engine but then it looked like a tractor engine, so I ordered a whole lot of new bolts from a company called www.fasttrade.co.nz which you can order everything online, handy. fitted offset bushes in the top arms so I can have more caster , painted them , fitted them, turns out they are shorter, fucked around finding washers to pack them out, didnt like how they sat and they didnt tighten up very well, so pressed them back out and fitted some standard ones instead. Also found the thermostat housing I'd ordered has the wrong bolt pattern, dumb. 3 steps forward, 1.8 back... 27 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted October 25, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 25, 2020 K member mods. Because the torsion bars are gone, ive got rid of the torsion bar adjusters in the arms, welded in some bush housings into the arms to suit B2000 spring eye bushes, seam welded the k member, ( the factory welding is shit in places) and welded some bushes to make the torsion bar pin holes the right size for 5/8 bolts today's job was to add some extra mounts to support the arm better. I haven't been looking forward to this job because I couldnt think of a good way of doing it that doesnt look stupid. I've been copying a coilover conversion kit you can buy from someone called "hemidenny" in the states That kit has some bolt on brackets you have to drill and weld crush tubes into the chassis rails which I didnt really like as the chassis rail is kinda far away from the arm pivot. So I did it this way by attaching some heavy wall tube under the k member with 5mm tabs to attach to the through bolt. Its tricky to get in the right place, too far inboard and the steering hits them, too far out and it restricts droop travel cause the arms hit the tube Anyway that's done so I can send the k member to get powdercoated 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cletus Posted November 7, 2020 Author Share Posted November 7, 2020 I had a decent look under the car and found a few bits I wasn't happy with, sent autoblast an email about it, no response. So I'll tell everyone to avoid them. Heres why 1. It took a week longer which, to be fair I agreed to and I could have lived with, if it was a good job. I had to chase them, they didnt contact me. This was after giving them at least 6 weeks notice when booking it in 2. The overspray issues, they painted the black parts then primed the engine bay so there was primer misted all over the black especially at the front . This cost $225+gst to repaint at the painters 3. The ripped hoodlining, I dunno how this happened, air got under it? It's an old car and probably got fragile stitching but they must have some issue with their process if parts inside the car get wrecked 4. Thin spots in the paint you can see steel through, parts which are not painted very well or at all, and poor masking. All shows a lack of care or thinking about the job properly So all that cost $2800. I could have got it done for half that at a less reputable place , for the same result, ie me having to finish it better myself 5 3 1 30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted November 22, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 22, 2020 Today's job was to bolt the trans to the engine, fill the converter, figure out what starter I need, (there are Australian and US spec starters with different size pinion gears, mine needs a us spec one so that's good cause can get a gear reduction one off rockauto) , make a dipstick tube fit (fingers crossed this works with the firewall and exhaust clearance which is fuck all) , bolt the crossmember on and knock up a trolley to put it all on. The plan is to lift the body up and roll everything under the car to fit it, to avoid damaging painted parts 36 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted November 29, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 29, 2020 Yeah that works good. Apart from one bolt that didnt want to go in its home it was a piece of cake. 31 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted November 29, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted November 29, 2020 Bolting clean painted parts on with new bolts is satisfying 45 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted December 6, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 6, 2020 Today's job was bolt all the steering in and check bump steer Holy shit it was terrible. I've never actually bolted it all together with this combo. First check was over 70mm. Mucked around with different combos of tie rod ends and rod ends for hours and found the combo I have wont work so I I've ordered some different balljoints, the american balljoint has a slightly longer steering arm and the bit where the tie rod end bolts on is slightly higher. I was trying to use the aussie balljoint for quicker steering, my vg had needed a lower outer pivot to fix the bumpsteer so I was hoping this would be the same, but it appears to need the opposite. it looks like the ideal pivot center is right where the arm is 20 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted December 19, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 19, 2020 So the new joints arrived this time but they were packaged incorrectly and for a different car. Because the theme for this project is buy things at least twice I ordered some more of the 'correct' ones and am now waiting for those to arrive. I was bumbling around in the garage and looked at it and thought 'I wonder if the spindles and brakes fit the other way around ' as the mount holes for the balljoints are angled. Swapped side to side, did a bump steer check , that got it down to 13mm, it had what appeared to be a shit ton of caster and the top ball joint was getting close to binding, so adjusted the top arm a bit and rechecked it, down to 5mm now with camber and caster in the ballpark Other people are having xmas parties, I'm in my garage quite excited at improving my steering and suspension geometry, what a nerd 45 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted December 27, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 27, 2020 Big bum fitted 37 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted January 6, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 6, 2021 Bolted more stuff back on 38 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted February 27, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 27, 2021 Tyres. I've been looking at different sizes on 6 and 8 inch rims since I got the wheels trying to get a combo that looks right 225 60 15 on 15x8 rear 185 65 15 on 15x6 front I like the outcome, looks exactly how I wanted. As per other pics, the colour is hard to photograph. It looks more green irl and the match between wheel and body looks better for some reason? 35 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post cletus Posted April 11, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 11, 2021 It's at the stage now where it looks like I've done fuck all Which is sort of true. Have been too busy to get a lot of time on it But have been chipping away at small jobs Carb rebuilt Alternator mounts made Throttle cable done Mod and painted the carb hat Calipers cleaned up and painted Radiator finished Hose shapes mocked up just have to find something that sort of fits Turbo oil drain 90% sorted just need a fitting for the block end Takes ages when everything needs blasting and painting and then it seems best to leave it for a week to harden properly 55 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.