nice runner.i have a buddy from casino

 

Well being my usual slack self I have been away from the garage for a while, it has been too cold and wet here in Rockhampton, and shift work doesn't always help either. anyway some more things turned up this week and now I have to get stuck into the interior, I bought a new stereo, GPS,DVD,TV,DVB-T,Rear view camera setup and now it is in place I now have to start sorting out the wiring, and under my dash is a real nightmare to sort out, I can tell you.




I also went and bought a couple of 45 degree bends to start making up my snorkel. (4inch pipe) and trial fitting means I can see where I will be going before I start welding it all together. Just not sure if I should MIG it up or TIG it yet, time will tell me when I am ready. I still have not decided on an airbox just yet either.



I am hoping to make up some sort of cover that will be welded to the guard, just to pretty it up a little, it is further back than most snorkels, that is because I do not want a large length of pipe running along the side of the guard, making up the snorkel on the outside so much. I am trying to keep it all close to the body and as I have mentioned, I may even make a cover to go over the area the guard would have covered before.

 

Goodday,

What is that door on the rear right side of your 'Runner?

 

see post#8...it's his shower

 

This project looks like a lot of fun. Keep up the good work.

 

am i correct in saying that the motor you used is out of a holden monaco? also known as a GTO in th u.s.

 

No the motor is out of a Holden Commodore SS. I have no idea what it may be called over there. I have a picture of the type of car it came from.

 

yikes .. your wiring looks like a rats nest .. I have been there . I also got my NEW sterio today , much like yours , so I will be pre-wiring mine , and saudering and looming all ..

anyway keep up the great work


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Well today I started making up my snorkel, I started out by cutting some small blocks of steel and drilling and tapping some threads into them, and mounted them onto the windscreen pillar. I can then position my snorkel where I want it to go and tack them in place, then remove the snorkel and weld them out.


With the first elbow in place, I then positioned the snorkel where I wanted it to go and,tacked the mounts in place. I then trimmed the bend to where I will be joining the other bend into.



With that bit of work done, I have to call it quits for the day, I am on night shift and that is all the time I can play with for one day. My wiring is slowly coming together, not quite the rats nest we saw earlier on. I still have quite a long way to go with that one yet.

 

Well the time has come to get out and do something, I have the whole week end off, so I removed a couple of things that I felt were in the way. I have also started to put the original stuff back in to start with. this will let things work better than what they did.


I managed to get all the proper parts for it so I fitted the 85 model air con unit.and dash support bar for now and started sorting out the wiring that I don't need and leave the rest where it is.

I also have to change the steering column as well and that also meant I needed to change the mount where it goes through the firewall.

On the whole it has cleaned up a lot from what it was. now I have the pleasure of sniffing glue for a while as I stick velour to the dash parts, you will see them when they are done.

it is still a bit of a rats nest but it will get cleaned up, as I replaced some of the harness and make up a couple more harnesses for other application and a fitting of the flares to see where I need to cut, and to ponder if I should colour match them or leave them black, the court is still out on that one, they may look a lot better after the respray, it will all be white then.

This should keep me in trouble for a while, I did a bit to the snorkel, but it got too dark to photograph so they will come tomorrow.

 

Well the picture of the flare was not very clear, so I will put up a clearer one. and a pic of the snorkel I am making. I would have a few more things to show, but the rain came and dampened the whole thing. I get a whole week end off and it is cut short by rain. I hate it when I get a burst of energy and it gets washed out like that.




Oh well it will have to wait till another day, when I can get a couple more shots of what I have achieved for the time being.

Clive.

 

lookin`good bro ..


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Well I stuffed that guard up pretty good, now I will have to go and get another one. ( I was expecting to stuff it up really.) Now I know where I will have to cut the next one. The snorkel is red only because I got tired of sanding it down every time it rained because my garage leaks and it kept getting rusty. I will be painting it a very dark grey when the time comes.

Anyway, I have fitted the front and rear flares to the care and I can now mark out where I need to cut them out to fit the wider axles, gotta go and find out if I am allowed to yet. They seem to fit rather nicely, still not sure about painting them or not.



That is about all for me for now, I am in low gear for a little bit, looks like I cannot fit the VK Calais dash into the vehicle because I will need to move the entire dash back 2 inches to get it to fit where it will look OK, and that will only stuff things up so I will refit the original dash back into it, and just give it a bit of a freshen up.

 

I went out today and got me another guard, after stuffing the last one up. (to much haste.) now that I took my time with it and not my grinder with it, it turned out differently. remember I only painted it red to stop it from going rusty every time it rained, and in Rocky that has been quite often.












this I feel is much better than before, I can live with that at least, while I was at it, I started fitting the dash to make sure everything was going to line up, this will all be covered in velour when I am happy with the fitting. I will then cover it in a dark brown velour.



As you can see the thing is starting to take shape again, hopefully I can start on the roof soon.

 

I didn't have any pics of the snorkel from the front really and so to show you what angle it followed I took a couple of extra pictures, it will give you an idea about its appearance from all angles now.





I then fitted the bull bar with my transmission cooler mounted in behind an expanded mesh grille. I think it will be safe behind there anyway.





I have also now fitted some diff breathers as well, I can also have the transmission breather run into this block as well. that way no one has to breath under water. hehe.







I then had my drive shafts sitting around collecting dust so I fitted them as well. I had a little bit of a confusion bout when I put the front one on, it seems that they went the wrong way with their measurements and the front shaft was even shorter than it originally was, and it was suppose to be lengthened by about 90mm. They fixed it up for me anyway and it all looks good now.









I thought I had better show you why I am going to give this thing a respray, it may look good from a distance, but up close it becomes a bit of a nightmare.





That about wraps it up for me for a bit.

Clive.

 

Lookin' good Clive.. love the diff breathers ... where did they come from ?


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I found them on Evil bay, they were only going to cost me $70.00 so I bought them.

 

your toy is freaking awsome not too big not too small just awsome!!!! great job dude

 

Not much done for a little while, I did manage to start covering that blue dash however, I will post some more things tomorrow if all goes well. The picture doesn't quite show you the colour it is. It is actually a dark brown, but the picture looks like a burgundy sort of colour.



I also have some of my toys in the background, this one is a Fender stratocaster, USA and they are also electric drums as well in the picture above. I am a fairly noisy neighbour. hehe.

 

I have finally got a chance to fit the dash into the car, as mentioned before it looks like a redish colour, but it is brown, believe me. I even got in there and tidied up the wiring a lot more, I think it is a lot better than it was when I started. I even put the original dash back in, I know it is a step backwards for some, but that is the way I want it to be. I will be putting a few things in there that weren't there before, and I am keeping all the things it had earlier as well, I have to start working on a consul to carry the new switches and a couple of gauges.









I will get back to work on some of the other outstanding jobs I need to get done.

Clive.