Blast from the past build (PIC HEAVY)

So been busy with things so not a great deal of progress but I have some new tools to get cracking with.

Decided to make up new hardlines where I can so took a visit to Autoforce who do all the Aeroflow kit.

37 degree flaring tool to make up AN fittings.


Generic pipe cutter


Some AN fittings, basically you slip on that nut and sleeve and then flare the tube and then slide it all up. The AN fitting then screws into that nut and the face mounts against your nice new flare.


Example of one of the flares although I totally overdid it on this one when playing.


This should give you an idea of how it comes together.


Also since some stuff will still be standard hose fittings bought a handy tool to put a nice bead on the end. These things slide into the pipe, you crank down on the outside nut and it pushes the bearings into the sidewall and you then rotate.


And a look at the bead it produces.


Then of course the standard stuff like pipe benders.

 

Awesome.

Where'd you get the pipe bender and beading tool? I've been looking for a pipe bender that can do tight radii for ages now, and I've never seend a beading tool as simple as that one.

 

The pipe bender was just a basic unit from Toolmart (http://www.toolmart.com.au/rt3783.html). Works a treat so far.

The beading tool is fantastic, although it is pretty expensive if you wanted to buy them all as they are about $40/each. But as I am only working on a few different sizes it's far cheaper than buying a large pipe beader which typically requires the pipe to be rotated in the unit whereas this does not.

 

Awesome, thanks Claymen

 

7 years in the making get it pumping dude !!

 

All in good time. Can't spend all day every day on it. Christmas isn't helping either at the moment.

 

Been a little while so time for an update.

Looking at my options to get the shell registered and started to shop around for a rego'd shell. Had a look at a few and they were either waay to expensive given I am going to strip and paint or so beyond repair it wasn't funny.

Then along came this little one.







Looked a bit rough but was rego'd and in theory should suit my purposes. So hauled this back home from Harvey as it had no brakes at the time. Got some insane quotes to clean it up and finally a few good ones. Started to strip it down to look at what my plan was and sadly it looks like it's taken a bit more of a hit than first thought.

The front corner whilst a small ding looks like it has actually done a bit more damage behind it, the corner itself is actually pushed down a good 10mm, whilst not unfixable it was a bit of a set back. But the biggest kicker was after stripping the panels back in the boot we found a ripple in the interior body work. So at some stage someone has seriously taken out the rear and repaired it. To be fair the repair looks good on the outside but the fact there is a ripple makes me weary of the car so have gone back to my known good shell and pinched all the stock parts of this one to get mine over the pits. I for the most part never had stock suspension parts on my original Zed so coilovers and a number of rose joints were going to be a prick.

Looked into getting it all engineered and it is possible, but after the stuff about with getting a set of coilovers of the spring rate I wanted and arguing with the disty I gave up. Funnily enough the disty came around and offered to cover it after I shot an email to HSD asking what gives but at this stage it was way too late. One has to question the quality of coilovers if they claim no warranty on a 7/5 spring rate...

Began cleaning up the suspension arms and honestly it just became too much of a pain in the ass trying to strip and paint so off to the powder coater we went.

And picked up my goodies this morning.


The plenum is not smoothed, it's just straight powder coat but came up looking pretty good. Was very happy with the finish and the workmanship. The last powdercoater I used didn't mask of any of the threads so it was nice to see these guys take the time to cover the threads and mating faces before doing all the work. I'm just kicking myself now for not taking in a few more pieces but to be fair the paint on them looks fine anyway.

So I will have a busy weekend pressing in all the bushings to start assembly of the suspension. Only annoying part is that most of this is simply going to go in the cupboard once rego'd. But will be my insurance should my aftermarket stuff ever get pinged.

 

Sorry what do you mean here? You requested coilovers with the above spring rates and they refused to warrant them if they supplied them as so?

 

Correct. I had a long and lengthy argument with the disty over it as other foreign distys were quite happy to do 7/5. They made claims about the TT being too heavy for 7/5, that they would only warranty 8/6

However that changed after I went to HSD international, their final response is below. But waay too late given I've now gone down another path.

Not sure what to believe, on one hand they were claiming that they would bottom out too easily cause the imported models were heavier. But then as I listed above, their last email advised they had not actually tested a 7/5 so are making presumptions. Not to mention they go on to talk about how they have a Z32 and know all about them yet don't seem to know there were multiple configurations varying wildly in weight and even small things like the gearboxes... as far as I was aware the gearboxes were identical except for starter motor spacing due to the flywheel..

 

That said my current issue is that elbow shown here.


The thread itself seems to match up but it's just a tiny bit too big to thread in.

Hope you have this issue sorted out by now. Looks like is a BSP or NPT tapered thread. Sometimes the tolerances vary a lot between different manaufactures, sometimes the will virtually fall in the hole of like you have they are too tight. PM me if your still stuck, should be able to sort that out.
Awesome looking build by the way.

 

Nah got it all sorted. It was the wrong thread entirely. Got it sorted at Enzed with a BSPTM x JCIM 90 Elbow.

 

It's been a while since I have done an update and to be fair I got a bit slack.

I finally sorted out the ball joints for the front and real control arms. What a pain in the ass that was. Initially I ordered a set of K9819's and K9820's as I had hear the 9820's fit the rear control arm. However when they arrived there was no way that was going to fit. The rear control arm ball joint is about 38mm (if memory serves) and this ball joint was 41mm like the front.

Did some further digging and found a few people mention that the K9633 fits perfect and you know what, its dead on! So now I have a complete set of clean arms like they were brand new. Except for all the grease that I got on them when doing the install.


Mmm fresh ball joints all around


One interesting thing to note was the rear ball joint actually has a zerk fitting so you can re-grease it easily.


In any case onto the next issue, and I have posted it before. The pivot ball thread.. The older model gearboxes use a larger thread so if you order a replacement pivot ball or any of the aftermarket ones you are out of luck in trying to fit it.

As you can see there is no chance that's going to work. The original is on the left and the new one on the right.


Spoke to a company calls CrossTools (http://www.crosstools.com.au/) about my issue and they came up with this little kit to fix it.


Basically you drill the hole out just slightly larger and then drop in a specific insert to bring it back to the correct thread we need. I've seen one report of someone making a sort of shim or a modified thread to make it fit but this seems a lot stronger and much easier to replicate.


For reference the parts in the kit are

1. M10x1.5 EZ-Lock Insert
2. 9/16"-12 HSS Intermediate TAP
3. 31/64 HSS Jobber Drill

Not exactly a common outer thread but the guys at CrossTools were really helpful in getting it sorted.

So aside from that I have repainted my exhaust heat shields again, messed them up when I pulled them back off to sort out cleaning up the pipe going from the thermostat housing to the rear. Pulled that off and painted it. Figured I might as well.

I've finished off a few more bushings and after much research found a suitable lube to use in the poly bushings, and just about anything else. This SuperLube stuff seems to get a really good writeup around the place and is OEM'd out to a few major car companies. GM for example use it for lubing bushings and all sorts of stuff.



Looks just like the lube that came in the packets with my old set of poly bushings. Plus they actually provide details advising it is safe to use on poly unlike some other brands. Not sure how much truth there is in it but apparently poly bushings shouldn't be lubed with anything that is petroleum based as it can harden the bushing and cause cracking.


Well that's it for the moment, it's been a busy year and Christmas but have started to get off my ass a bit and move things along.

 

Nice work, new suspension parts all round will be nice and tight.

 

Yup, and given I have to go over pits it should hopefully all be perfect. Want it to look well cared for rather than your average heap of crap they see day in day out.

 

Good call. Will make the pit guys day seeing a nice import for a change, rather than cut n shut s13's with bogged up drift damage lol