VP-Free

I picked up this weapon before heading down to Chch. Diggle informed me that if I was to go live with him I must bring down this hectic beast. I have to say, Christchurch is where this thing should stay, it was bearly rideable on the flats let alone up any sort of hill. Luckily the adventure park has a chair lift, straight to the top, point it down the hill and hold on tight! My first foray into mountain biking... goddam bikes are addictive. 

Shed beers with Diggle is BACK!

This is the rebirth of Diggles shed. Back when Diggle lived in Auckland his shed was infamous. Tuesday nights were spent at Bike Gang, and Thursday nights turned into trying to fix bikes whilst drunk in the shed. I have many fond memories of those times, I built my first set of wheels in that dingy shed in Auckland!

Turn the clock forward 6 years, It was time Diggle once again had an epic shed for drinking and general bike tomfoolery. We spent the better part of 5 days, 35m+ of 2x4, a lucky garage door find on Facebook market place and some cladding delivered to the door. Every screw and nail was either from the shed originally or found at Katie's parent's place. It was an epic build of upcycling and reusing.

Though not finished (the roof needs some work, and the gutter is still to go on) the shed does make for some epic beers and bikes.

A garage only a mother could love

This was lockdown project 2.0, as soon as we hit level 3 I flew back from Auckland to Christchurch. It was pretty cool to spend 5 weeks with my parents during level 4, but it was time to get to work in Chch. 

Diggle had a dream of rebuilding his garage, tbh I was sceptical. We had looked at second-hand Skyline garage options, and with nothing available locally we set out to just rebuild and reclad what we had.

It's damn impressive what two people can do when you just put your head down and GO!

Blenheim

The plan was to move to Christchurch so that I would be within driving distance of Amy in Blenheim. Well COVID went and messed up those plans now, didn't it! Towards the end of her course, once the country moved into level 2, I did get lucky enough to go visit and climb some hills with them all!

Lockdown Project Pt. 5

There are many little things along the way which I tidied up and didn't document, I'm so stoked with how the car now runs and sits. The list is still long, a new licence plate is coming for it and I'm very excited! 

The next journey for this old 240z is a drive from Auckland to Bulls to find its new home.

Lockdown Project Pt. 4

Next on the list was new springs and shocks. I had done a lot of reading online and all I had heard was horror stories of trying to get rusted parts to separate... I got super lucky and everything came apart pretty good! Doing suspension by yourself without disconnecting the brakes is heavy work, but slowly but surely I got there in the end. The new springs finally got rid of the dreaded rear end sag that the old girl had. It looks sooo good sitting level again!

The ride has been completely transformed, damn I love this car.

Lockdown Project Pt. 3

Many hours with Degreaser and a water blaster later, I managed to remove 50 years of old oil and road grime. The reassembly process went smooth, new manifold gaskets, new temp sensor, repainted the fuel rail, and oil service. 

The new balance tube has completely changed the engine bay, allowing to remove a bunch of air pump hoses and vacuum lines connected to redundant valves. Absolutely fizzing with how this transformation turned out!

Lockdown Project Pt. 2

I originally planned to just remove the carbs and replace the balance tube, however as I got further down the path I realised If I was to clean one thing I had to clean it all. PB blaster and a propane torch became my best friends, and surprisingly all the balance tube threads came loose from the 50-year-old rusted manifold! 

It was satisfying to remove the old smog pump knowing it would never go back on. It was bittersweet however discovering old markings of a compression test noted on the valve cover, I had plans to paint this wrinkle black, but changed my mind and decided to just Scotch Brite it instead.

Lockdown Project Pt. 1

I spent lockdown with my parents in Auckland. While everyone was panic buying toilet rolls at the supermarket I ran to Repco to purchase degreaser, spring compressors and Scotch Brite pads. I had a project I had been waiting for years to start; pulling apart the Dastuns rather embarrassing engine bay.

Nothing under here has really been touched in 50 years. Being a California car it has a bunch of pipes and valves and smog emissions gear. I actually managed to source a JDM carb balance tube on Facebook market place a year or so ago, so the plan was to strip back the engine, completely clean up the engine bay, rebuild the carbs, removing all the smog emissions parts and put it all back together.