New look

I had to apply a new look to the blog. I found out that the ISP that was hosting some of the look and feel for the classic version I used was shut off on the 8th. So images were not coming up, and navigation was all wonky.

So hopefully this new version will have more longevity.

Why eBay was invented.

If for no other reason than to provide a source of the euro-style turn signal.

Boy they look good.

As long as I mentioned painting.

I had to replace one of the front turn signals; and E-Bay is your friend. We had some hot weather here so I was able to strip and paint the new signal.

Silver is the new black. Well no not really. Rust-O-lium can only come in black. And I'm almost done with the odd can of shinny; everything else on the car was done in flat black. But of course the one can left when I needed it was shinny (and 33% bigger).

This is just a cosmetic silver; but the lights shouldn't get so hot as to cause any trouble. Unlike say the transmission.

The reason for making sure everything is nice a reflective is so that the LED lights that will go in here don't have a big issue with being too dim.

Did I mention the big ticket item I splurged on for the front of the car?

So I have a spare pair of slightly used (one more than the other) of old orange signal cover.

Don't believe me when I say I'm working...

Wow no update since April. That must really be tough work I'm doing... Well it did make a hug mess; and I'm 10 gallons of cleaner later. But here's the rebuilt transmission prior to reassembly.

Finally done with the cleaning and alignments and the seals.

I'm trying to locate some high temp silver spray paint so once it's all bolted together I can give it a nice coat.

Back to black

Black on black doesn't photo too well; but this weekend I got to work on putting the drive train in. Apart from the getting the transmission joined to the motor the whole assembly has to be mounted into the car. The rear will make use of the existing transmission mounts.

But the front of the motor has to be supported. So I'll re-task the forward engine mount.
But it had to be cleaned (which required it to be repainted as well).
I'm not sure where my hex-nut/allen 3/4 inch driver went, so the assembly hasn't been tighted up yet; but here's the dry fitting.
Does that look like 1.70" +/- .01 of an inch? Did I mentioned I can't find my caliber ether?

Oh MY!!!

In the deep voice of Mr. Sulu! OH MY!!!

Look what I found on my doorstep...

22 lbs of aluminum and steel .

I got my adapter plate!

It's everything the I wanted; milled to perfection. The hub adapter fit 'like a glove'.

It may have been a heck of a wait. But Electro-Auto continues the earn their reputation of quality. There is a chance that the stand off ring might be too long, but that I can get shortened locally.

Of interest: the instruction now ask the the clutch plate and clutch be balanced (and lightened) by a local machine shop. I guess the number of vibrating 914's has been noticed.

In my case I think it might be the rear bearing in the transmission that might be bad. But regardless; it's great that they are including the new steps.

Ironically now that I have the part I been missing for a year; I don't have any free-time till me and my Uncle get some paperwork done.

Look what I found!

I went to a local Nissan dealership to pick up some information; and guess what they had on the lot?

A brand new Leaf. They had gotten two, and dropped one of them off the previous night. But the second was still there. Waiting in the rain.

The sales women was very nice and got the keys and let me and my girl take a look. First of all it was very well built. And look like a completely normal car (which you would expect).

Lots of room in the back. It was interesting to see it in person; after having read a couple of blogs that talked about how boring a car it looked. I didn't get that at all. I guess I haven't purchased enough Italian cars yet, to get a sense that a nice new five door hatch-back is boring.

I will note that the bug-eye front lights are far 'more' than I had expected. I don't think my camera phone did them justice. They are REALLY 3D!!! I had known that they are big. I didn't know that they actually raised up out of the cars.

The photos I had always seen kind of showed them flush with the car; they're not. It would be interesting to see more cars with forward facing fins! (Yes bring back cars with fins on them!)

Junk in the trunk.

Not the most original title for a post. I'll grant you that. But none the less. This post is all about the trunk.

For whatever reason, Porsche thought that having a overly complex hinge was a good idea for the rear trunk. So they came up with fantastically over tensioned rods to provide counter weight. Under-sized tack wielded joints, and a small rear trunk to boot. See what I did there? Boot in what the English call the trunk (or at least Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear does).

Anyway when I got the car, the previous owner had MacGyver'd some strange solution (that involved roller blade wheels) to correct that the trunk joints had torn loose.

So the REAL repair is to replace the joint with something strong, and get rid of the bars in favor something current (like say a couple of hydraulic jacks.).

So first, Get help.

Then grind down the old wields.

Both sides, or course.

Some paint, some bolts. And viola'

These are some parts I bought when I first got the car; since I saw the state the trunk was it. So it's kind of nice to finally get to use them. Up next the hydraulic arms (seriously).

Where the Dear and the Antelope play...

I've been waiting for a part I've order (last MAY) to come in. It's the adapter plate, connects the motor to the transmission. And since I'm not sure what the dimensions are, I can't really fabricate around it.

So it looks like I'm going to be doing far more restoration work on the car then I had thought. As you might guess, it's better to fit parts into the cars, then restore around the new dimensions.

Since the rust had to be dealt with and then the car painted (because of the climate), I was willing to give somewhat on that timetable.

It now appears that I'll have to do more. And hope everything fits later.

So I added a little power toy to the lab.