SHIZZLs Super Hunter

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So a while ago( back in April) @M Night Shamalayan chucked up a for sale post for this delightful 72 Hunter.. turns out its a Super, with high back reclining seats and lots of chrome trim.

I had a 69 Hunter as my first car, which I promptly rolled into a ditch 3 months later.. Ive wanted another pretty much ever since.. dont ask why cos I have no idea

So as soon as I saw this post I jumped at it, with the car being in Wellington, Me living in Auckland, and potentially moving to Invercargill, I asked Luke if he could "hold on to it for a few weeks"..

"sure" he said... well shit, I bought a house down south and we had a move in date... It just happened to happen the week before Hanmeet.. so the plan was made to do a mega mission of driving my ute and trailer down, fly back, drive my falcon and trailer down, then flying to Wellington, catch a bus, a train then walk up to his place to pick up a car ive never seen in person and then drive it to the ferry within 1hour... made it without breaking down, must be a record for me in a Hunter.. 

Got into picton and drove to Blenheim to take it for a wof... I was parked up at some park adjusting the front wheel bearings at 4am, as you do.

go through the VTNZ check with a few things... headlight low beam was blown.. balls... cant find anything off the shelf...

 

so I carried on to Hanmer... car drove bloody well.. EVERY time I stopped there was some Barry coming up to me with a story about a Hunter, was getting a bit much when I was filling up with fuel to look out the window and some random sitting behind the wheel pining over their youth...

Got to Hanmer, met some OS GC's, good weekend... then the big mission of driving to Invercargill via Wanaka to check out another project..

Car ran so good, but blew a flange gasket which pumped fumes into the cabin.. that sucked..

Got into Wanaka and found it sprung a leak of the slippery stuff...fuck it, carry on son! Made it to Invers and in total she had lost 500ml of the Iraqi gold.

 

List of shit to do for a wof:

 

Headlight - find one from somewhere

Rebuild the calipers - large brake inbalance and the remote booster has been removed

Apparently there needs some steering box adjustment, although they dont have any adjuster..may have to play round with shims etc...

 

Shit I want to do:

 

Fit the escort rostyles

Fit twin carbs

Definitely replace all 4 shocks that are FAAAAARKED! when you go around corners the mudflaps drag on the ground, check pics for body roll travel, its lots

Weld on a seat adjuster lever so the drivers seat can recline again

Paint - maybe? 

 

Hope to get it wof'd asap and go for a hoon legally.. 

So massive thanks to @M Night Shamalayan and his mrs for putting up with the car for so long.. 

 

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Had a blast driving from Hanmer..

Just out of Lumsden I managed to hit the factory reset on the odometer.

On inspection oil the total loss oil system that developed, I found the bolts holding the fuel pump were planning a trip down the road.. as we're a few of the sump bolts. Tightened them up and sprayed around some Motomuck.. clean as.

 

Mrs is picking up a headlight for me today to bring down tomorrow.. neat.

 

The brake imbalance issue I want to try and rectify by swapping to escort M16 calipers.. the spare calipers I have for this are junk, bores are pitted and the pistons are gouged to he'll.

 

So if anyone has a working pair of calipers, please send them my way.

I know they bolt on, and only need an adaptor as the esky is metric and the hunter lines are imperial, or the other way round..

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Small win... working headlights 

 

Surprisingly the mrs likes the hunter.. double win

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Tackled some wof issues..

:adjust steering box

:headlight to operate

:right rear indicator to operate

:front brake imbalance 28%

 

mrs picked up a headlight from auckland, an oem lucas fitment. Sorted.

pulled the bulb of the indicator out and blew the dust out..sorted.

bled the front brakes, everything else seems fine, if not then chuck in new pads. Sorted.

there is no adjustment bolt of these steering boxes. So I Barry'd over the 5 different manuals I have for this and saw that the adjustment is via 2 internal Springs pushing on a thrust cap.. so I just chucked a couple of washers under the spring to take up some of the freeplay.. sorted.

So this just happened, fresh as..

While at vtnz I heard of 3 different hillman hunter stories.

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Had a small delivery this morning.

A set of bike carbs turned up on my doorstep.

 

The inlet port size is the same as the hunter, and look how close they line up on the outer ports..this makes for a fairly nice manifold design..

Just need to grab an inlet/exhaust gasket to get some manifold plates cut up..

Will need to make headers at the same time to match the inlet flange thickness as they share studs.

Will also try and find a suitable fuel pump and remove the factory mechanical pump.

 

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Took the boy for a long lap around the block..

He is obsessed with the hunter.

Car seat in the front and the mrs rolling round in the back seat..... priorities.

Bonus was the mrs likes this thing..

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Haven't done much since wof time apart from one cruise to up the rd with the whanau.

Plopped the carbs onto the original carb to see how it'll look..

Gonna look sweet..

I have the alloy plate to make the manifold flange with but got the wrong size tube.. 2mm to small of a dia..

 

Once I get the flange plate cut I'll rip all this stock stuff off to make it up..

Then look at doing the exhaust side, maybe a bunch of bananas 4-2-1 or just 4-1,   2 1/4" right through...

 

Air filter may end up being a pipercross style set up.

Still need a suitable pump to run the fuel at a low pressure and electronic dizzy set up for better reliability.

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oops had to do it

 

 

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Time for a rev counter to save the over revs.. 

Thanks to China for the El cheapo retro tacho..

More packages to arrive soon

 

 

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I like deliveries... 

Got some El cheapo tyres for it.

195/55/13 for the rostyles.

All 4 $340 delivered

Just need to get a wire wheel to de-fuckface the rostyles, will either paint (spray can) or powdercoat them. Probably just in a dark grey...undecided, thoughts???

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Colour choices..

I test fit the escort wheels to visualize a colour..

I'm actually liking the original sport silver and black.

 

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Started on the gauge panel on the Centre dash panel.

Same location as the gls and gt hunters.

Lots cheaper than factory gauges...

 

Just need some vinyl to wrap it in like the one that's on the car already.

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Omfg this sux, I will NEVER mask up wheels again..

These better come out good.

Powder coated these in kinetic silver pearl.. think I should've gone a bit darker now

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I'm liking the clean rim job

But shit does it need less altitude and more attitude.

I do have some cut coils here, but that's just dumb.

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I'll just leave these here..

Twin carb test fit.

Only thing I really need to mess with is working out a split cable or lazy cable for the choke.

And make a manifold port blanking plate. The rest is sweet.

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Got the blanking plate made for the exhaust manifold, sorted the carb linkage, fuel lines sorted..

I stripped all 5 carbs, put the 2 matching damper springs in the matched bodies, checked float heights on both, and checked needle sizes... one is 1mm longer than the other, so will do my best to find a matching needle.. 

Poured fuel into the carbs and it fired up but has many air leaks as expected. Could keep it running by spraying brake clean at the carb spacers, oops

One of the carb spacers is haggered..Will need lots of rtv..

To finish this off I need new bolts for the blanking plate, and a longer centre manifold stud, nuts for the accelerator plate and hose clamps..

Then look at getting air filters.

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And just like that, it's alive.

 

This is firing up on a cold start, no choke. Definitely running rich. The back carb has a sticking needle/slide, it's alot slower to open.

Pretty stoked overall, might get it out for a road test, adjust and test again..repeat

 

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Gave the carbs a bit of a piss tune.

Idles smooth enough, revs up fine.

Took it for a quick road test out onto rockdale rd.. 

I shit you not its almost twice as quick.

Even got a few doughies going. Super singles, but atleast it's capable of skinning a cat now.

Got it up to 90mph and it actually gets there pretty quick for an old bitch.

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Trimmed up the spare dash fascia with some vinyl.. mounted and wired the gauges.

Got the twin port oil fitting in for the oil temp and pressure gauges..

Waiting on a reducer for the water temp, should arrive tomorrow 

 

Then only need 1 terminal to wire the tachometer.

Good timing as it needs to run to be able to move it to storage hopefully if I can find something local.

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For shits n giggles..

Original springs are 370mm, cut springs are 250mm. Cut springs are most likely not hunter springs anyway.

On the lookout for some escort/Capri or Sierra springs to fit in it..

Front shocks are so pooh it's not funny.