Been a while

Ok so it has been a fair in between updates, biggest news being i quit TAFE. I also finally got the minilites drilled so they will fit with the wheel nuts i bought. That and yesterday ross came over and took some photos while we made a High Flow Catalyc convertor, he also gave me some photos from Archy drift and helped us move a new toy into the garage.

The following is a few photos from the camera since last blog, A friends Holden Torana that is being rushed onto the road. We're a dodgy bunch of kids. Background: someone tried breaking into it and flat head screw drivered the drivers door lock out, tearing up the skin. We have another door ready to go on but we had a go at fixing it as none of us have done much panel work before.


The car in question


Not a happy image


Hai Thar.


Profeshinal.


Dialing in


WH&S is of our highest concerns for this build


Regardless, it gets the Alex seal of approval.

Also in the time i wasn't updating we went to a local swap meet, bought a matching pair of these for $200 AUD.



Archy Pics: Ross and i will be setting up our own website to permanently host our images and show videos from archy, so once that is organised i will link it from here ;)


But on with the most recent updates. I will let the pictures do the talking though.


The minilites finally fitted to the lancer.


Sticker Whoring.


Ross brought the commodore over for it's high flow cat install.


With the cat of the car we had soon converted it, excuse the pun.


High flow!

I apologise sincerely to the environment for that.

Lancer photos:





Broadway bitch!


My genuine Subway hang ring, i will be getting a reproduction one in pink and heart shaped soon.


Sneaky shot

The new toy:


and a random shot of my tool box

Time is of the essence

So tonight i moved the lancer to the space in the middle of the two car parks of our garage so i can work on either side of it and open it's huge doors. This was generally a good idea but i will be kicking myself when i eventually have to move it haha.

The purpose of tonight's work was to get the front interior in, drill a hole for the reverse light cables and put connectors on to join original loom, identify and connect the wires for the gauges, get some generic seat covers on and generally finalize the front interior.

Carpet in:

Continued carpet arranging:

My little Japanese key ring/trinket:

Not sure if it is a bad omen or not, you probably can't tell by the extreme bad quality of the photo but it is a little policeman riding a motor bike.

Gauges in and functioning(without senders):

How it sits atm (dark mode):

Light mode:

Function>Form

Yeah i know i know, stripped interior this stripped interior that, but i gotta get this thing on the road asap and with as little troubles as possible, so in goes my faded and tarnished mid 70's White & Brown interior. As time progresses i will be removing the majority of this stuff, but atm it is pretty much a necessity.

This is how the boot area looked, freshly removed sound deadening and new space saver and prettied up wiring.

It'll make a reappearance soon, i swear.

This is how it sits now:

Fake floor in all it's glory.

I decided to speed things up a bit i would just use the shitty Japan fresh home made gauge plate and shove it all together. I won't be running the sensors till after roadworthy/rego as it isn't really high on the list of things to do.


I aligned the sagging passenger's side door the best i could and bolted the passengers side guard down. Next i will be finishing the reverse light wiring and putting the front carpet back in. Then comes a bit of work in the engine bay and front panel re assembly. after that it will be a good few hours with the grinder, primer, bog and random yellow top coats.

My beautiful girlfriend bought me a Camcorder for my birthday so this will keep the blog populated with videos from archy and hopefully the lancer's maiden drive etc. All i gotta do now is find a proper soild mount/suction cup mount for it...or see how long it takes ross to notice his missing.

Like your slightly newer stuff better than your old stuff

Picked up my Cragar Style mag wheel nut bolts today, $64 AUD for 12 wheel bolts, 4 lock bolts and 12 washers for the normal ones *rolls eyes* there wheels have been a fucking joke since i bought them, shoulda just hit up YAJ or Sportmax lol.



Also picked up my rear bumper from Alex that he got for me from Kelly's Wreckers, it is fairly straight and non rusty, so it is already a better bumper, but this also has mounts that aren't cracked and falling off it lol.





I got sick of seeing the Passenger's fender being all multi coloured and primered from the rust repair the other night so i dumped a bit of yellow on it, which isnt the colour i ultimatly wanna go with but as long as the majority of the car is some shad of yellow, i dont really care. Anyway, turns out it musta been to cold/hot for it, or there was something on the surface of the old paint...or i just didnt shake it enough, because it's cracked all along the edges etc. Not really about to care though, it has KillRust Yellow underneath, it'l be right.



Bolted up the indicator on that side fender too, this style indicator would suit a shark nose so well haha.



Also fitted my OMGJDMTYTE flare to the passenger's kick panel, dont know if it's a keeper or not.



I will probably locate a wiring loom/colour explanation for my gauges and head off for a drive in the valiant, then come home and try to wire them in as neatly as possible, the only hard thing i can see will be the alloy facia to mount them and finding points to screw the sensors into, with the right thread size.

1977 Lancer/Celeste Intro

So i thought i had better introduce what will one of the main parts of this blog, my Lancer. It's a 2 door hatch, 1977 Celeste or LB Lancer, which i am building to be a registrable car that can be driven to drift events, have a bit of fun then drive home again, that is until i get the money to buy and s13.



That is how i have been spending the past few nights after tafe or work ^^ chiseling away at sound deadening, for no real noticeable gain, but you know...makes me feel like a real man etc.



That was a while back, mid transmission swap from auto to manual, it is only a 4 speed at the moment though, trying to track down a 5 speed for it.



Thats an even older photo than the last, of my 13x7 minilites, though i will be seeking some more wheels once it is on the road.

The following are parts i have bought for it recently:



White rim steering wheel



Greddy Oil press/Oil temp/Water temp to fill the radio hole.



Obligatory Dildo shifter and misc Japanese shit

Funds permitting i will be ordering/buying a bride fixed back for it for drift events etc, and also looking at running S13 stub axles/hubs/discs and calipers as well as S13 coil overs with modified camber plates.

Lets put a cannon on it!

Commuting from here to work and TAFE lets you notice a few interesting cars in traffic, however it also lets you notice the stupider cars and modifications, so from now on i am trying to photograph these things haha.

Notice the shitty chinese cannon and wing^ (motion while taking the photo kinda confused the hiptop haha)




















Kia carnival? people mover with cannon

and don't get me started on the mass amounts of Australian flag/Southern Cross/Generic Unit shit going around on people's windows.

Moving on though we found the cause of the Valiant's noisy straight cut gear drive, 2 teeth had been chewed off of the gear on the crank, we have since installed a dual row romac chain and sprockets.




















Most other updates have been in the form of me turning 18 and being hell busy over the past few weeks, still at tafe, and still unhappy. Work, Bek and archy drifts have been keeping me sane though.

Continued bitching + Pics!

Ok so Friday night was a late one with dad working on the valiant. Not really that exciting but yeah, Saturday at work was busy as fuck, i got paid, and some v-tec kids came in haha. Seriously, a JDM front DC2 and an EK with a B16, or so the number plates told me anyway. It was one big group of guys, 3 to each car, speaking in a language i didn't understand haha. They dropped a few grand on a set of coil overs, a bonnet and a Mugen exhaust, all for the DC2.

I left early at three and went home to see how the valiant was going, we didn't end up leaving for willowbank till like 6 though. The valiant performed well the whole way there, god i had missed the torque, i weaved a bit of traffic between Milton and cootha, oh and opened it right up on the merge ramp to the highway from Bracken ridge. Got into the nostalgia drags for free, watched a bit of racing and left, dad drove the valiant home. After we stopped at yamanto for McDonald's dad started to get a feel for the valiant again, with Jarad and Alex in Alex's VT left to catch up haha. After having our photo taken by some people in a maxi taxi and a 2nd gear 60km/h+ entry into the Cootha/Milton round about dad was hooked and we spent the rest of the trip till Virginia mostly in 2nd, roaring around the streets. This didn't really go to well for the Timing gear drive though, because it has started making a whole lot more noise, but more on that later.

So we got back to mine, i cleaned up and we headed out to rothwell to pick up bek. We turned up out front of the party and i hiptop emailed her, but it didn't actually go through, so the little fuck running the party got all scared and closed the front door and turned off all the lights. One thing lead to another and bek finally came out, in tears. went back inside to get her bag and i sat her down in the passengers seat, though when i walked around to the drivers side of the valiant a whole bunch of cunts had decided to "find out why the fuck we were there for" with both me and Alex on good behaviour there wasn't much we could really do, so i turned the valiant on and drove away, much to the dismay of the party folk. We then went back to Alex's and chilled.

Fast forward to this morning and we hop in the valiant to get kebabs (I know right) and cruise through the water front and on to Anzac, i chucked it in to second and turned onto Victoria only to have a pretty scary noise from under the bonnet, so i shut it down and rolled to a stop. After starting it again it seemed drive able, i am pretty sure the needle bearings in the idler gears for the cam drive are fucking themselves. I dropped the oil but there doesnt seem to be any glitter in it. It is probably all stuck in the timing gear case anyway.

So that's been how i have spent most of my weekend, have had many better, but this one wasn't so bad. Anyway i will make with some pics.




















A Fiberglass rear bar for a 180sx i think at work, complete with option 2 sticker, Drift junky sticker and a Hyper Car Style Battle Magazine sticker, i would probably buy a 180 just to run this rear bar haha.




















The valiant as it sat on saturday morning before work, we still though we might make it to race at 4pm at this stage. The photo is hiptop quality so you probably can't tell much but it has 3 un assembled SU carb bodys bolted to it.

If any of you wish to follow this blog, you are going to have to get used to seeing shitty quality hiptop photos lol.

Tasks for tomorrow include going to TAFE and explaining to my mother my intentions of dropping/post pwning/just not doing this course. Hopefully i can either join a course i want to in the middle of the year, or one at the start of next year. I would much rather build my car, relax and travel before i start studying. This won't sit well with many people but that's my plan for the moment. Providing i can find some kind of home stay i am aiming to travel to Tokyo, Japan, around Christmas time, just a 2 week thing, though hopefully i might be able to go on a half cut mission with tony to Fukuoka. The only thing really stopping me is money.

Ps. 9 days till my birthday

TAFE

So I am still being a bitch about all thise TAFE stuff, if I hadn't of paid for it I would have dropped out by now. I have no interest what so ever in binary or engineering math. Maybe itl get better in time but the simple fact of the matter is I do no have any passion for this or the line of work it is aimed for. I would have rather photography or web design, or packing up and heading to japan to be an english trainer.

I am writing this from our lunch table where everyone is discussing the mornings math problems, and don't really have anything interesting to post. Tonight is going to be a mad rush on the valiant to get it ready for the nostalgia drags tomorrow,I had wanted to go to friday night drifts but oh well.

Next update will be pic heavy :)

This is for the kids! This is only for the kids!

Works been great, TAFE has been pretty much the opposite...well that's a lie, but i am not enjoying it. Starting to wish i had of taken a photography course or something, I do like computers...but binary and hexadecimal shit me. Today I went to eagle farm for first lesson and realised i had forgotten my work shop project so drove home and drove back at lunch, then drove back after class again. This is the second 120km day this week, oh well, i will get used to it.

I am still kind of finding my blogging feet, atm i am half way between a diary entry and a car blog, oh well it'll happen soon. I don't really have any happy snaps to put up, but if i did they would probably be of the valiant, kind of in a mad rush to get it ready for the Nostalgia drags on Saturday.

I will hopefully be updating soon with some images from my old Yashica and Zenit, but that's going to be a matter of time until i get them developed, one is a roll i was stuffing about taking photos of the valiant with, and one is half way through from around the 85' to 90' period so who knows whats on it. Then there is the last roll the Nikon F100 shot, which will be kind of depressing.

Friday night drifts are worth looking forward to, the valiant up and running and seeing Bek. It doesn't really feel right to leave without an image, so here goes, also I might update this all on Friday when i am day dreaming of japan at TAFE, it would be nice if i could from hiptop but i doubt it.














Hopefully once i get a bit more time and a decent camera i will turn this into more of an image based blog.