RX3UTE rebirth - throwback thing build

[shizzl]

Much less hi. 
she got told.

for this I used rear kings out of a VK commodore.

 

[shizzl]

Ha!!! Success, kind of.

ive been having issues with the Franklin performance side mount alt kit, it sat too low and only just cleared the chassis rail.

with the alternator in that position, I couldn’t run the oil line to the rear plate. 
only option is to go up and over. Nope, not keen.

 

so, I spent about too long deciding on how to move the alternator up and out a bit.

first bracket was Pooh’s, it fit but because the mounting point was on an angle, it meant that belt tension was reduced.

so I had to stand the alternator up to get more out of every mm of tensioner travel.

so I fizzed on an extension to the original mock up.

it was actually perfect as it brought the alternator back inline with the crank pulley. 
 

no I only need to sort the rear bracing piece for the lower mount and trim down the top of the custom plate.

ill run it, I ain’t scared. It’ll get powdercoated. Win.

 

i also had to wizard up the oil line geometries, ugh. 
 

the original fittings I had from the hunter had 30 degree hose ends. Didn’t work.

today I grabbed a 45, this pulled it almost inline with a short hose piece.

will need another 45 to line them up.

this set up also has a npt adaptor inline for the pressure sensor.

im hoping that this short of a hose will be ok. 
 

the rear line ends up with 2 x 90s to have it jog up and over the chassis rail and under the alternator. 
I had ordered new black hose which arrives tomorrow. 
 

well, that’s enough winning for the day

[shizzl]

Pretty much sorted the oil line dilemma.

i will run a 180 off the front cover to a 100mm of hose to another 180 to get the hose to return to the cooler with a 90.

everywhere is too tight to run a continuous hose. This route I believe will offer flex when needed.

 

then I set about my list of stuff I wanted to try and tick off today.

got the seat base mounts fitted (ready for the next step).

then fitted the second 5 stud axle and front hub on the left side. She’s full 5 stud now.

fitted the fuel tank and fuel pump.

then started getting some final mock up of factory stuff (heater box, wiper motor assembly, dash panels). 
this way I can sort the wiring out. 
 

discovered that I need to swap the steering boxes over as the one in it is too long to run the steering wheel with the column cover.

 

also mounted the park brake lever, decided to keep the factory unit as it’s ready to go, saves faffing about. 
 

now that the heater box and park brake is in, I can now design the centre console.

ive had an upholsterer pop by to go over the design, just waiting on pricing now.

 

measured the accelerator cable and speedo cable to get remade. 
 

marked out the shifter hole for the 12a turbo box. 
 

Then chucked the bonnet, grille and light surrounds on for a photo. 
loving it, but I do need to lift the front 15-20mm. 

[shizzl]

Not wanting to blow my own horn or anything, but I posted the 2 colour pics above to a b1600 page on fb the other day.

shits blown up… it’s been shared all over the show, got 1000 likes and have received many PMs about it. 
 

don’t even recall seeing a single negative comment.

 

definitely helped with the motivation

[shizzl]

Got my water piping all sorted.

got TBL to bend up some stainless tubing to match up to the Franklin performance kit and EWP. 
just need some nice joiners now.

 

got my oil line fittings , but they forgot to send out the 2nd 180, so that’s a job that won’t be done til next week, dang. 
 

also finished off the drivers seat mount. Added in crush tubes to all mounting points. 
will sort the passengers side over the weekend and make the doubler plates. 
 

I also picked up a pair of FC RX7 rear calipers today f RT on Ryan at Sprint RE, even got the cables with them and adaptor plates (although for a hilux), just need pads.

the adaptor plates are so close to being a perfect fit to the b1600 diff too. But it gives me something to work from anyway. 
 

 

[shizzl]

I started playing with the lightning spaghetti, I hate it. 
I despise electrical work. 
 

so I gave up for now.

 

but today I had some alloy sheet laying round so decided to make a rear cab panel so that it’s flat and can be easily upholstered. I will also mount the fuse panel and other electrical bs on this behind the passengers seat. 
 

then I made a face plate for the dash cluster to bond to the original. This will allow for the triple 2” gauges to fit better than hot glue and mangled plastic. 
 

this will only be a temporary solution as I’ll probably change the dash set up later on once it’s in the road.

 

now I’ve been having all the drama trying to find someone to paint it and some minor finishing (one body line needs a bit of fine tuning and a couple of gaps sorted.).

[shizzl]

Sooo work can take a hike today.

 

got my rear end in place.

FC RX7 discs and calipers mounted.

the calipers came with a set of brackets for a hilux.

they fit perfectly offset wise, but the diff bolt spacing is off my a few mm. That’s ok, I’ll get some cut to suit.

but for now it’s classified as completed. 
these calipers take the cables directly inboard to the nugget. I got the cables with the calipers too.

just need pads all round.

 

also side bonus is that the supplied caliper brackets fit a Hiace diff I have outside. 

[shizzl]

Still dicking round. 
The worker got back with the last bits to my fc swap.

bloody aced it!!!

no clearance issues anywhere!

 

also dropped the rear caliper plate off to get the new ones cut out. They’ll be fine by Monday. Legend.

I now have a full B1600-FC brake swap as a spare. 
 

I won’t use fc brakes on the rear of the 2nd ute, it’s already got a disc brake borgdaborgya diff

[shizzl]

Revisited the lightning spaghetti.

decided to just chop the required wiring off the universal fuse block.

every wire is labelled for its intended use. So it will make it easy to connect and troubleshoot later.

 

im still waiting for my headlight plugs to arrive. 
I can’t terminate anything until it’s painted.

 

the whole rear loom is finished apart from termination plugs. 
 

I also made up a cool mount which I’m pretty chuffed with, it locates both coils next to the radiator and hides most of the wiring.

im stoked with the cable routing, the majority around the cab is completely hidden, will only see a small loom in the engine bay. 
 

lack of pics though

these 2 are of my wire joining exercise.

should be ok

 

next up is sorting the battery tray, battery, box and clamp to locate it under the deck, as well as a jumper terminal block. 
looking at batteries, I’ll probably go with an Optima red top 800cca. 
 

3 weeks to paint date

[shizzl]

Another day in the shop getting bits ticked off.

welded over a couple of old cover holes that were left on the headboard of the deck. Just needs filler now.

ran the last of the wiring to its locations. 
actually looking forward to finishing this off after paint.

 

played with the headlight bucket plates, drilled holes for grommets and added in some adjustments. 
 

then looked at the fugly alt adaptor I made off the Franklin plate.

then decided that I’d be able to make a new plate to lift the mounting blocks up.

about an hour of marking out, cutting, drilling and it is absolutely perfect.

ready for powdercoat. 
 

and a pic of the coil set up with the engine loom wiring. 
 

also swapped the steering box over yesterday, what a kent.. had to drop the lower and and hub and bend the inner guard slightly to get it out.

but it’s done and the steering is all bolted together again. Then today I modified a combo switch unit (gutted it) so that I could still mount the column surround to it.

looked at relocating the heater controls too. Should work fine.

 

need to start on the console now

[shizzl]

Bit of a shopping day today.

 

my headlight plugs arrived, but can’t wire them in until after paint. Doh.

 

also received my other elecy bits for “testing”..

stopped by Cardwells today to gather “supplies”.. will update once this process is completed. Should be awesome. 
 

picked up my caliper brackets and dropped off the template for the alternator adjuster . Ready tomorrow. GC. 
 

But I did have a task completion after hours. Fitted my new accelerator cable, looks sweet.

 

then made the pre-paint ready list.. uh oh… better haul ass

[shizzl]

Well I better pull finger.

 

just entered the Nats!!

quite fitting really as it was the first place I drove the original RX3UTE to 22 years ago, and the last trip I took in it. 
 

I really need to find a friendly local that has a metal folder/tipping dies 

[shizzl]

Did some stuff today.

inner deck panels made up. 
 

then scribbled up some lines and had a go at beadrolling.

labourer decided to go 100mph into the corner and completely fucked I’m my entry, corner speed was way off and I binned it.

retest. 
 

but then the next 2 were pretty mint.

will do the last side panel tomorrow morning then remake the mangled piece tomorrow night. 
 

also note the handbrake cables in this pic. Brackets are attached to the diff.

i will have the forward brackets attached to the driveshaft hoop once that is done.

then I just need to source a low profile handbrake lever.

the Primera one I have sits about 250mm high.

but there’s plenty of clearance between the d shaft and tunnel for it to run. 

[shizzl]

Got stuck into a couple of tasks this week. 
 

picked up a battery today, went with an optima with the extra side post. 
main posts will be for the starter/earth only.

side posts for accessories. 
 

scratch my head and nads a bit to decide on a mount. Canes up with a basic plate with 2 wedges as the side mounts, 1 up 1 down.

then welded on 2 studs underneath for a remote jumpstart terminal block to sit in front of the rear wheel. 
 

on the rear panel behind the seat I have mounted a circuit breaker, fuse block and the auxbeam style relay/control box. 
 

I also figure out all of the combo switch wiring and how to get power etc to the wipers and other stuffs. 
 

not much more to do now before blowing it apart for some paint. 

[shizzl]

Been chipping away on this.

Lost a few days with kids stuff, family bereavement and work load.

plus the exploded lights doesn’t help much.

 

but these lights might be good enough.

completely finished the rear loom and all lights actually work. 

[shizzl]

Mounted the overflow bottle and washer bottle.

will get the washer bottle powdercoated to match the overflow bottle. Not going with polished stuff.

 

then decided to fill a couple of dormant firewall holes (heater pipe entry’s, handbrake cable hole, column shifter hole). Plated over, epoxied, filled, sanded, epoxied again.

made up and fitted all door cards and kick panels.

 

still waiting on my new seat mounts and need a hand to hold sheet metal with the bead roller.

[shizzl]

Driveshaft hoop is done!!

yeow!!!

I had a different method mocked up but hated the way it looked.

so thought of how to tie everything together to make it strong , as well as being able to mount other stuff off it like the exhaust and handbrake cables.

pretty stoked with the outcome and only took about an hour from start to finish. 
used 2 x 32nb pipe, notched to slot in between both ute crossmember thingys.
 

question now is can the handbrake cables run between the hoop and shaft? I’m guessing no, so I’ll still need to trim down the generic upper hoop so I can run the cables over the top.

 

then once I get a suitable (low profile) handbrake unit, I can get it mounted, drill the hold through the tunnel and get that finalised. 
 

she is ready to go to paint too.

 

had an ulphosterer lined up to do the work but he got back to me finally and said he can’t now until March, what a cuntface.

 

guess I’ll tackle this myself now

 

 

also ordered many bits from Franklin performance to tart up the keg.

assembly should go well once it’s back from paint 

[shizzl]

Ute goes away for paint on Sunday.

so why not shit the bed and make changes.

 

cant find a filler neck grommet anywhere. It was bugging me. 
so I decided to weld over the filler hole.

 

will yeet the tank and fit a fuel cell in the rear below the deck. 
 

still waiting on my seat mounts to be made up aswell as the new bumper mount extensions. 
 

[shizzl]

Well she’s ready to go off to paint tomorrow (I hope).

its going either way.

i guess i need to find some shims for the axles cos when they’re bolted up tight it isn’t free moving, loosen them off and it moves. Joys of putting things together that someone else pulled apart. 
 

so apart from the last minute body work i have started on the interior work.

 

this build has really been an in house deal, aided by useless trades giving me the run around.

thats ok, i get to upskill and try my own ideas. Im not scared of it turning out crap, I’ll just redo it and learn more along the way. 
 

so I cut out the door cards, kick panels and roof panel a while ago.

went and purchased some upholstery this morning.

went with a plush interior vinyl and 6mm foam backing.

have it glued together ready for the patterning phase. Then will get the Mrs to help with stitching. 
 

once the ute is back I can do carpets and final fit out.

 

while it’s away I’ll continue with the dash panel and procurement of brake parts (hard line, fittings, hoses, pads etc).

I’ve also finalised the deck panels and have some more finishing to do with fit and finish. I added in the roll panel over the diff. This is prep for any future notch/4 link set up.

i will complete the floor once the fuel cell is in

 

[shizzl]

Well it’s no at the painters place so no more progress until it’s back.

however the Mrs and I have made both door panels and kick panels. 
I only have the roof panel and rear panel to cover now.

get carpet and underlay and the interior is done. 
 

I hope the wiring doesn’t fight me too much once the ute is back.

 

ideally I’d like to find someone who can help with a full wiring diagram to make things easier.

mainly the power in/out of the combination switches-relays/flashers etc then out to each control.