Tj

Thanks for the leads guys. My fusible link looks pretty shabby so I might start there. I was thinking the jets in the carbs also so they'll be next.

Can do, what should it be? 12V or 14.4V or what ever the alternator should be putting out.

Oh and I forgot to mention its off to Outer West Customs in Penrith to get the front air dam, flares and hopefully new front bumper painted and fitted this Monday (if it makes it that far ) So there's that to look forward to I guess.

Aww man, it's all just gone to shiver now. First off, it's developed a slightly different type of incontinence to what it normally has. It's losing coolant but I can't quite tell where from. Did a compression test as well as pressure tested the cooling system (dad's got an old proper radiator pressure testing pump from his mobile mechanic days) and all came up OK. I'm thinking it might just be the radiator cap so I'll replace that shortly. Most recently it's started running like death between two bumper bars :-\ it wont idle on it's own and hesitates very very badly when trying to accelerate. It pops back through the carbs when trying to accelerate and pops out the exhaust when lifting off the throttle. Just yesterday I replaced the plug leads with no improvement. The old ones had been rubbing on the bonnet so they needed to be replaced anyway. It did seem to make an improvement on the way home but was back to normal (read; crook as a dog) on the way to work this morning. The internals of the electronic dizzy are all new as is the coil and cap. My alternator has been charging a little funny (sometimes high, sometimes low) but it's been doing that forever. Also, whilst stuffing about with it today I noticed that the wire to the capacitor/condenser (can't remember the correct name) on the alternator had broken off. I twitched the wires together and taped it up to get it home but while dropping into the parts place on my way home I discovered they'd closed down Also, the ignition switch has crapped itself. One of the brass tangs where the wiring loom plugs into it had broken off. This explains why the car all of a sudden switches itself off. In peak hour traffic. On the M4. In the right lane doing 110km/h This has also been bodgily soldered together while I source a new one and it seems to be holding. I'm fairly confident that it's not an ignition issue so I'm now looking at the fuel system. The filter is ok (I blew through it with no restriction) so I'm going to check the pump. I'm running a fairly new Carter 4070 with a Malpassi pressure regulator that is also less than nine months old. I'm hoping that it's not an obstruction in the carbs as I don't really want to pull them apart. Plus they were cleaned up and re-jetted (badly) less than nine months ago too. Where else should I be looking?

Did this ever get resolved? My car's just started doing the same thing :-\ FWIW the wire to the capacitor/condenser on the alternator had broken off and i've twitched the wired together just to get home from work. I went straight to the local parts store only to find it closed down so I'll solder it together tonight to get by. That wouldn't cause any of these issues would it?

Did you end up selling the bob tail? If not I'm interested inchecking it out.

This is what I'm aiming for. Except I have Rota RB-X's not superlights and I'm running fender mirrors but it's pretty close. I've got all the bits too I just need to arrange a date with the body shop and find another way to get to work while theyre doing it

Would you happen to have much in the way of spares that you want to get rid of? My dad's restoring a '68 2000 at the moment.

Adjusting them is a bit of a stuff around. There's a screw in the back of them that you loosen that let's the mirror itself move kinda like a knuckle joint inside the mirror stalk. You loosen it, aim it roughly where you think it should be, get in the car and have a look, get back out and adjust it again, get back in the car, wash rinse repeat. Once you tighten the screw back up it should be pretty difficult for the mirror to be accidentally knocked out of whack, someone would need to deliberately stuff about with them. Once I had it right I took it for a drive up the freeway just to make sure and then made a few more adjustments but they're spot on now. They look straight down the sides of the car (i can actually see the guards in them) so I can see a long way behind. Just as a car passes me on either side and becomes out of view of the rear view mirror they're already in the fender mirrors and then they're in my peripheral vision before they're out of the fender mirrors. I actually took it up Parramatta Rd into the city this weekend (THE worst road in Sydney for those that don't know. Narrow and overcrowded) and I thought it would be a hassle but it was actually great. The mirrors are always in your line of sight so you're not taking your eyes off the road. It does take a bit or relearning how to use mirrors but I think they're great.

So I haven't been able to make progress on the flares/wheels situation as I can't be without a car at the moment but that doesn't mean there's not anything to play with so here's the first external modification for the car since I bought it Fender mirrors! They're actually a massive improvement over the crappy old door mirrors I had before and they cover the traditional blind spots very well. The only time i've struggled with them is reverse parking but I've always been rubbish at that That photo (that my GF took the other day when we were out for a drive so yeah, that's me looking like a dope in the car ) is serving as motivation to get the new bodywork sorted out so I can get the ugly as sin subframe covered up by the front air dam and get my new bumpers painted and fitted. It also doesn't help that the car is filthy as hell at the moment, one of the downsides to working at a Quarry I guess. Hopefully more soon.

Woah that's big. That's good to know, thanks for that. What width rims are you all running?

At the risk of rehashing old questions I'm trying to figure out what size tyres to run on my new wheels. I've done plenty of searching and I've found some spotty info that kinda confirms what I'd worked out for myself and I've even rang a few places but as soon as I say I'm putting 17's on a zed they got all funny but I'd like to confirm without a doubt what size is most appropriate. Anyway, the wheels I have are 17x9 and 17-9.5. They clear everything, this is well established knowledge. and using this calculator I've worked out that something like a 245/40R17 will match the rolling diameter and fit both the 9" and 9.5" rim. But after a bit of reflection and research I figured that the same size tyre on two different width rims might look a little funny plus 245 on fronts sounds a little big. One place I rang suggested 225/45 fronts and 255/40 rears which going by the calculator I linked before has an almost identical sidewall height (so it wont look funny) and an almost identical rolling diameter (obviously, now that I think about it ) but 225 sounds way too narrow for a 9" rim. Anyone else run them? I don't really want to stretch them, but I may need a little for clearance. But if i'm going to stretch fronts, it'll look a bit funny if the rears aren't stretched as well. I'm starting to think staggered wheels weren't the cleverest idea I've had lately. So to summate, who's running (with flares) 17x9 fronts and 17x9.5 rears and what size tyres are you using?

I know, just moved into a new place and therefore away from dads well equipped workshop I had no intentions of getting under the car, but stands are on the list. I just got impatient

These paid me a visit at work today... Definitely gonna need those flares ... although, with my ride height I'm wondering if I can get away with just rolling the guards.... might get a better idea when I get rubber on those badboys.

In Sydney out front of the National Art Gallery near Mrs Macquaries Chair is a good one Also, late on a quiet night you can get right in front of Luna Park. Just make sure you know how or know someone that can take decent night photography as the tower throws out a hell of a lot of light

Bugger all room to park there.

Found all this hanging out of the letterbox the other day My wheels seem as though they're being carried on the back of some dude walking to Sydney from Perth :-\ I'm a bit disappointed as it would have made things a lot easier had I been able to work on it over the last couple of weeks. Oh well. Decided against my little idea for the bumpers for the moment. It will just be a little too much work. I was going to smooth them out, filling in all the bolt holes and deleting the overriders and even welding the rear bar into one smooth piece but after talking to my old man he reckons that he wouldn't be able to do the welds with his skills / equipment without blowing holes straight through the thin steel. I'm sure someone could do it but that would involve paying for it which is where I lost the enthusiasm. I want to keep it cheap. I'll talk to the guys that I'm getting to cut and weld my wheel arches about it and see what they thing but I think I'll just paint them for the time being.

The car's already much lower than that first pic, it's a bit old. That was running the stock safari spec suspension but I'm now running Tockico Illuminas (and I promise I'll get some photos up this weekend) but I can't really go any lower, it only just makes it over the speed humps in my street as it is. And yeah, I'm going to have to cut the guards :-\ I'd prefer not to have to but they're going to be 17x9 -13 and 17x9.5 -19 staggered so I can't really get away with it. I forgot to mention I got another set of bumper bars of Carlos out at Sportsclassic. He doesn't have much zed stuff left these days. Back when I first met him it was his bread and butter. Anyway, I've got some special plans for them that I'm hopefully going to get to pay with this weekend. Might work, might not. We'll see

I saw these in Japan last year while I was there. The only reason I didn't buy one was that I'd already bought about six 1:24 scale kits and It wouldn't fit in my bag. From memory they were about $120 AUD, maybe a little more.

So can anyone tell me what I'll get when I take this; And add this; These; A pair of these; a couple of these aaand a set of these .... No, seriously. someone tell me because I just bought all of that stuff I'm not ignoring this mate, I'll try and do it this weekend. The weather has been atrocious and the car's been rugged up out of the rain.

Yeah, I think I've settled on Matt Black. It's just different enough. And yes I had considered EFI but when I bought this motor I recall saying something to myself along the lines of "I want to keep this old school" (on account of just having gone to great labours and expense to put an EFI motor into my GF's Galant) but I think it may have actually been "It'll be great to have three of Bologna's finest howling Hell's national anthem from under my bonnet" In retrospect I sound like a dumbass Anyway, I'm sure with more tinkering it could run a whole lot better. Also, correct me if I'm wrong but I'd need to run an EFI head to use the factory EFI setup due to the little cutouts at the tops of the inlet ports made to physically fit the injectors into the head, right? Anyway, I was thinking about this the other day and I think if I were to make another engine for this I'd seriously look at a mild L28ET setup. I think for a street car it'll net similar power with a lot more drivability than a highly strung N/A EFI (as much as I do love a grumpy sounding N/A) plus it'll keep it old school and simple to work on as opposed to an RB of some description. I'll be ordering bits soon so hopefully after I get settled into the new house I can get some work done

Has anybody found that there is a need to run the little hub centric rings on the front wheels?

While an electronic dizzy has made a noticeable improvement it didn't cure it. It's all in the mixtures. What I really need to do is invest in a wideband O2 sensor, a laptop with appropriate data logging software, a swag of assorted carby internals and then someone to explain to me what it all means. Honestly the only pricey bit in all that (considering I already have a spare laptop kicking around) would be the jets and so forth for the webers. They're silly expensive. As for the fender mirrors no I haven't tried using them and yes I am aware they're different but I've heard varying opinions on them so I guess its a personal thing. I guess I'll find out I still can't make up my mind on wheel colour. On one hand the polished lip looks great and really announces your negative offset, but the matt is not as common and that in itself appeals to me. Still conflicted :-\

No problem Peter. I'd be interested to see your wing, I think to make them sit properly on a 2+2 they need to be modified a bit. It's something I'll look at down the line a little.

Well that's the thing. I realised one night that it does drive great. It's just the driver that needed some adjustments. I realised I was expecting too much from it, probably because of the way my GF's galant turned out. That's a fantastically reliable and easy to drive classic but that's because it has a modern efi motor in it. I was expecting it to drive like that. The car and I had come to an agreement. I don't expect the unreasonable from it and it behaves. Once I adjusted my attitude I really started to have some fun driving it. Just ordered some clear headlight covers too