^^ I wish I did!!! I am keeping my eyes open wide for the later style S grille!
27/11/08
Yup. In paint. Machinery grey, and 5 million coats of clear, just because.
So... a bunch of not-really-updates in one hit. Time and money's been scarce over the past 12 months due to home ownership.
16/12/08
Just completed.
Fresh.
Thanks to Jase (eke_zetec) for the TIG welding, and dad for some machining and use of the lathe.
16/05/09
Yeah yeah I know REAALLY not an update but...
Basically, I entered the 4 n Rotary Jamboree show a few weekends back on a whim, I turned up to the hall with 5 minutes to spare before they shut the door. This was after a mildly illegal race home in the Honda once I'd confirmed I'd be allowed to enter at such ridiculously short notice, pulling the car out of the shed for the first time in MONTHS, giving it a quick dust, and driving it over to Manfeild. Got there, quickly signed in, gave it a super fast coat of Quik Detailer (thanks Meguiars!) borrowed some tyre shine, chucked on my super-trying-too-hard-JDM-geek numberplates, and brand spanking new JAF badge.... here's a pic snapped of me getting my clean on.
She looked like this (stock wheels have been on it for ages since I switched the Brights onto the Trump). Thanks to Brian (Bananaman on NZHondas) for the photo's.
Car was displayed with oldschool stickers (also hastily applied from my stockpile) proudly showing on both rear side windows, had my straw trilby resting nicely on the dashboard, a crochet rug slung over the parcel tray to hide the speakers (all in the pursuit of originality/grandpa look), and a couple of my Jap market brochures on show displaying some of the more "exciting" promotional shots - namely batshit insane Japanese guys doing impressive jumps and two wheel action on mountain gravel roads - of cars similar to mine. At the conclusion of the day, to my absolute utmost surprise, a result came out of nowhere...
I am absolutely rapt... this was the last thing I expected, and I was only at the prize giving so I could get my car out of there pronto, and get home since I'd been at the track since 8am competing in the Superlap event with the sensible family sedan. However I did manage to get some feedback from a couple of friends who did attend and were minding a club display close to where the KP was (I asked them to keep an eye on it too!) and according to them the car attracted a staggering amount of interest... I'm not trying to be big headed or anything about my car (although I am soooo proud of this loosely termed "acheivement") but I reckon it goes to show that stuff like the 70's/early 80's Japanese cars are becoming classics in their own, once people start stopping and taking the time to appreciate what is really a tidy stock example, especially amongst some high quality modded street and show machines. Can only be a positive for genuine enthusiasts of older Japanese stuff as far as I see.... but then I could well be a smidge biased!
A brief review of the show though... from the limited amount of time I spent there, it was brilliant. The mix of cars was at a rough guesstimate, 75% oldschool... loads of Datsuns, the obligatory Mazdas (in rotary form of course!), a sprinkling of older Toyotas and a few other randoms, including a Model A pickup and a 32 roadster. Seemed to run smoothly, no complaints from me
And, this brings us to the present day, when really all I have ever done is potter around with it....
19/11/09
Silly update/not really an update.
Step one: Mask off centers of wheels.
Step two: Sandblast centers, end result shown below.
I just used a 15cfm compressor, with one of those el cheapo 'stick it in a bucket of sand' style blasters, and medai used was dry beach sand. The masking tape held up to the task awesomely, didn't even touch the lips on all 4 rims.
Should be in paint by the end of the weekend, original red is the order of the day. Also cleaning up all of the bolts, will give the lips a hearty polish and all should be sorted by the weekends end.
Have a full set of 165/65 to go on them.
27/11/09
yres and a quick fit up. I'm fairly confident my photography is improving a little bit too.
Fresh. The centers painted up brilliantly, lips tidied up nicely as well. 165/65 Nankang and Firestone - Firestones (on the front) seem to have a narrower bead though.
The money maker - gen-you-wine grandma crafted crochet rug. Will be changing the parcel tray soon enough so the speakers mount below the tray, and the rug has zero lumps showing.
And a shot of the rego sticker I painstakingly rescued from a fresh import. Clearly I take the autheticity thing way too seriously
Finally, a snap of the office. Needs a good tidy up in there at the moment.
Several good parts have landed in my possession now too, I'll grab some pics shortly. Basically have everything required to complete an entire front end running gear rebuild. Huge shout out to Mark @ Manawatu Toyota (Palmerston North, NZ) for sourcing most of my parts, top work
keep up the great work.
