Vlad's rides thread

[vlad01]

The bumper brackets arrived, damn that was fast! I only ordered them Sunday, Wednesday morning now. Aus post should be like this all of the time, not just at xmas.

So there shouldn't b anything left that is a show stopper.

[immortality]

While I was there I got heads up before hand about the new repro group A rear caliper they are offering now.

There are exclusive to Hoppers and feature left/right/front/rear design for a bit easier install and bit cheaper to make too.

The thing I got out of it was that the Holden supplied ones from the day had a different bracket with M10 mounting threads where the Corvette ones are M12 like I have in my NOS stash, so you'll need to drill out the backing plate for the Vette ones, where these (like the genuine group A) are a bolt on solution and better becasue the meat around the holes is retained as oppose to being thinned out from the M12 mod.


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While doing the Melbourne run, I dropped the flywheel and clutch off for modding and balancing at Duggans, but I'm pretty sure I missed the xmas deadline bloody NPC!


But I did get my tailshaft, 770 bucks later! This one is set at the factory phase as per a thread I made a while ago where the common 0 and 90 deg phasing seems to be the culprit for the rear end going ballistic upon long uphill left bends under hard acceleration.

It has a brand new T5 yoke that I supplied, Spicer started making them during covid and still do, so manual tailshaft conversions are a lot more accessible now.




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On the way home I went to commwreck and got myself an ecotec oil filter adapter, my plan is to relocate the filter and associated section of the adapter to clear the belt since I am finding that in all cars I have with AC had the belt slapping the adapter right on the casting behind the filter, the ecotec ones move it down significantly and I confirmed it will solve this issue with the ample room to spare.

But then I realized the potential for 2 birds with one stone (2 avians with one rock? ) that it could well solve or help with is dry oil filter/pump starts. The buick filter is horizontal and is slightly above the oil pump, so the oil drains out of the filter within 15-30 min of shutdown, I confirmed this multiple times, and I mean drained, in many cases, almost nothing in the filter. I believe this is from the position of the filer, especially being above the plane of the pump/crank. Anti-drain valves in the filter only seldom help.

The eco one is not only well below this plane, but also angled modestly so the oil is retained a lot better on paper. I am keen to try it out and see if it reduces that bottom end knocking for a sec or few after starting while it re-primes.

I haven't confirmed yet, but I'd grab the bolts too as the one at the bottom might be longer than any of the ones on the Buick, it also will need some loctite 515 under the head and I think it's 565 tread sealer on the thread so the oil pressure doesn't find it's way out of the timing cover bolt behind that bolt since it not a blind hole and intersects the hole for one in the timing cover right behind it. There is a service note on the Holden bulletins I found regarding that exact issue where they mention it and remedy it with a newer adapter design, only dif I found was the bolt head seat is machined smooth and not the more textured raw casting the older deign has, but the 515 flange sealer will work wonders for that anyway.

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It's a shame those calipers are exclusive to Hopper Stoppers

[vlad01]

For now they are but it might change in the future, but they lead the development and provided the samples, so it's only fair they get first dibs.

I think they are around 600 something for a pair for the OEM spec, or 800 something for the powder coated ones. So not too expensive really. The VT ones are 440 for a pair, so the price is very reasonable and you know it's good quality. Used reco ones cost more than that and as mentioned in another post, all the left side ones I found used were stuffed from the seal grooves being rotted out. So any reco unit these days is likely questionable at best, so I only consider these new ones from now on.


Also from my experience, Hopper know brakes better than anyone I have dealt with, the guys there are friendly and really knowledgeable.

They told me that a pad that is good is Winmax, I never heard of them before than and they said it's similar at the Forza high end as the Winmax entry/mid range. They make racing pads and not anything aimed for the consumer that much, probably why I never heard of them.

They have so much intel in the performance and street braking market that you just can't google your way to.

[vlad01]

Shitbox all sorted.

cleaned out as much of the rust as possible, primed in killrust HD primer, sika 227, prime again and then paint matched to code and clear over the top.


Found some more pin holes under the windscreen and generally the whole screen seal/sealant area was creeping rust under the sealant and showing evidence of weeping up top. Sealed that inside with the sika and then drowned everything around the screen externally with cavity wax to form a thick goopy waterproof skin to hopefully seal off water, it will inhibit rust either way. So everything should be leak free.


Quarter windows done too. Had to drill extra holes on on side as early VP was like VN and missing the holes for the quarter glass lower studs. FYI, all VP glass had all the studs, but Holden cut the lower ones off with a grinder pre-install to account for the holes missing. The studs are much wanted feature, so I drilled the holes instead. Took 10 min, so easy as.

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Inner trims all started to disintegrate, super glue it was with a fresh coat of 23i paint I still had new cans of, NOS at this point


I had 4 spare roof trims, all broken clips, so I tried a hack I always wanted to try, genius!

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[vlad01]

I only had videos of the repairs, but this was the last day where I finally had the paint down and started assembling everything outstanding.

On a few of the holes where I had access to both sides and it was a single skin, I got it to pure bare metal and soldered metal patches in place and boy did it work out good! So at least not all the repairs were complete dodgy horseshit.

once done, everything got a good coat of cavity wax, the pro stuff in a bottle, not the cheap nasty spray can stuff. The bottle says "cam wax" I think that's the brand, it's thick milky wheel bearing sticky greasy wax stuff that dries like hot glue gun glue that hasn't quite cooled off. Full of anti corrosion chemicals too. I have used it on some engine part storage and I wish I had used it years prior as it really works unlike some I used that actually made parts and tools rust ever faster Use gloves and a respirator for the Cam wax stuff though, pretty nasty stuff before it dries off.

I also replaced the boot seal with an old Rares one still new in the bag, that actually fit up nice and seals up to the boot lid nice and firm, so another insurance against all the water leaks this car was accustom to.

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Got to drive the car properly yesterday and boy is it a different car now!, also power was up significantly, so that old shit exhaust must have really been causing issues for the engine, it's nice an quiet and no more fuming out the cabin when the windows were down at a stop, clunking and rattles all gone too. Handling is massively better now and even the brakes are way better and pedal travel has reduced a lot, this was from the axles floating due to the wheel bearing wear, the spare diff only had 180k on it, so the axles were well fixed in place, the old diff had at least 1mm of float in the axles which caused pad knock off, I knew this, but I didn't think other than a lower pedal post corner, that the braking power itself would have been affected so bad. I mean it stopped good, but it literally feels like I just upgraded my brakes from that one change. I am starting to think this is probably far more common and overlooked than anyone realises.



There is only really 2 major things outstanding on the car, heads and gaskets, which I'll do later in Jan or maybe in Feb. And I also need to do the front pads (which I already have, same Forza ones) and rotors and replace the right caliper as it's actually a left one with the hose locating pin hole re-drilled and mounted upside down. Damn wrecker sent me two left ones and claimed that's how it came off the car, which is obvious a BS story and didn't want to correct the issue. I couldn't find anyone else who had the finned ones at the time. But I will have near new rotors and a pair of the right calipers come off the white car soonish as I got the VT upgrade to go on that one.

Oh and I need rear tyres asap, I wear the front and replace them with the old front going to the rear and just repeat that cycle. Front are lowish but still good, rear are like well beyond gone. I might just chuck on some cheapy ones as basically nothing even mid range is affordable here anymore. The Maxxis hp5 are like 250 each locally, they used to be 160. But in the city they can be had at 150 each. 100 bucks per tyre more than the city, hell no! But I think I'll just get some cheapy 100 buck ones for the rear, when when winter comes and hopefully I am working again by then, I can afford to replace everything with good ones, assuming I haven't finished the white car and transitioned to that car already which has been my goal for the last 3 or so years Life always finds a way to roll you and throw your plans out the window.


The old workhorse family shitbox will go on

[vlad01]

A few things to update on.

Improved on this fitment and replaced the warped rubber around the heater core pipes. I also replaced one hose where the bend was too far out at rubbing on the back of the block.

Yes the heater brass pipes are taking the piss, Gareth installed this one for me at the time as I recall he said the core had no bends at all in that spot and we know what brass is like. I finessed it a little more and added a plastic spacer on the screw on the side of the HVAC box to get the pipes to sit in a decent spot. Once I was happy, the rubber was next and it fit a lot better after that. So one less minor but annoying item off the list. Also, I wasn't paying attention when I removed the hose to replace, and removed aannnd stuffed another hose that was the wrong one! So that set me back another 2 weeks and $35 for a hose I didn't even need to touch

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Also finished my bench top and installed that. Not so clean now since that pic, I've been using it and it's so handy!
Then I added a power board with built in switches so I had more power points in quick reach. Found the perfect spot, some metal brackets from the hardware store was the perfect fit and even the breaker on the side is all clear unlike most other spots I tried, safety first!

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[vlad01]

Got to cross off one bucket list item for a 2nd time so shorty after the first time in 2024.

Big geomagnetic storm hit and this time the aurora was mostly in the UV and appeared almost all white to the eye, or at least mine. The May 2024 storm was shorter duration and less bright to the eye, but was all colour. On the phone camera that one was brighter than this recent one, despite to my eye the recent one being brighter but lacking colour. Looking at an old photo, it was crimson red and green, this recent one was violet and green which suggests its in the UV range and likely why it looked white to the eye since true UV like is just a grey/white colour to the eye, most of the purple people see in black lights is the long wave UV A around the 400nm range which indeed looks purple, wavelengths shorter than about 380 start to look colorless, but cameras will still register as purple or violet. Pretty cool!

Prior to the 2024 storm, I had been chasing the aurora since early 2000s when I learned that I saw the even bigger storm of 89 when I was still a baby, and it's never really been visible in similar to the eye levels until last and this year.

Excuse the shit quality pic, my phone is pretty meh and has a garbage camera. These were thrice edited to max exposure and brightness, on the raw pic with exposure set to max it still pretty much just looked black. This is about as bright as it was to the eye, just not anywhere close to colourful. The 2024 one was actually as the photo (not this pic).

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Anyway, back to car stuff.

Finally got the flywheel back and the mods were all a success! Annndddd the bloody disk doesn't fit now NPC made not only all those issue addressed wrong, but at the last min when test fitting to the car, I found the ID of the friction surface to be far bigger than the ID of the friction material on the actual disk, something like 5-7mm overhang into the middle, completely untouching the flywheel and unsupported. FFS! Although this won't happen to 90% of the disks on the market as they are typically OEM and towards the outer edge, it sure is an issue on the organic Xreme clutch kit. So if it were a ceramic one, no probs, an OEM one like exedy or valeo etc... no probs either. Looks like they designed to the exedy disk and not the OEM flywheel specs, clearly.

So back to the drawing board, little over $1k blown and no damn flywheel!

I reached out to Dellow, they still can make them, but there is a 3-4 month waiting list at least! They were kind enough to suggest looking at a V6 conversions flywheel, but looking at the pics they have some funky stuff going on of their own.

In the end I decided to go with the Xtreme cast iron flywheel ordered locally via Bursons, the people here in Kyneton are good and give me a decent price and can take it back if it doesn't fit for whatever reason. These flywheels are actually very inexpensive, around 250-350 range. But they called me to inform they have been discontinued and replaced by a CrMo billet one for about 650 on their best price, I was not even aware ACS made one, and price wise, is about the same as all the other options out there minus the waiting list time. They have those in stock at ACS. It is 10kg according to the specs I dug up later, very similar to the NPC weight which is quite lightened compared to the stock and other OEM options out there (which there isn't many :lol ) I think 13kg is the usual OEM weight.


So if anyone wants to buy this NPC one, you're welcome to reach out. It's all sorted out, but just be mindful that it only suits the stock dimension disks and the ceramic ones.



So that should arrive tomorrow or so after. And round we go again.

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In other news, this one is a big one for me.

I scored this, about 450 AUD landed at the doors. In great nick, but the box needed a little repair which I quickly sorted with a quality wood glue, and fixed the label up nicely.

Got it all cleaned and lubed, most of it was frozen solid from 70+ year old grease that turned into what looked like dried up tree sap. Almost amber at that point lol.

But the best bit, it worked awesome! And a big FU to the companies that refused to even consider making me tubing or even pre-beaded lengths that I could DIY at home.

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[vlad01]

A test bead and wow! that's more like it.

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So I got to work finishing the PS cooler pipes off.

The trick was to bead the bit on the side of the block, refill with sand again and then finish off the 135 deg bends. If you bend that far, there is no room to turn the beading tools. So you just have to work smart and plan ahead. Luckily I had thought about this a few months before I bought a tool.


The hardest part was cleaning off that damn paint on the pipe on the ends, since the rollers break up the paint and leave it all hanging in little bits, I had to remove it so it wouldn't just contaminate the fluid. But the catch was, it was nearly impossible to remove. Tried thinner, MEK, paint stripper, wire brush etc... Only acetone very slightly softened it, enough that I could start to shave it off like sharpening a pencil with a razor, I literally used one to do that. Then I finished off the last chunks with a ball point pen which sheered off those remaining bits off the steel. It was a nightmare. I didn't want to just sand it and take off the aluminum coating. In the end I got there, but next time I will go to the effort to try track down the OEM style tubing, not this painted style.

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Before I did the final mock up and test on a spare engine, I made these since they don't exist in 3/8" or 10mm. I looked for months and only ever found them for brake lines and up to a max of 5/16" Very happy with the result. About less than 10min to make each.

OG one for reference.

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[vlad01]

A little head scratching to get the side mounted up.

Tried relocating to the side where the oil filter is, but the factory bracket just undoes due to the way the pipes flex, which is a rotation on that mounting bracket and screw.

In the end, I cut the locating tab off the bracket and turned it 180 and that worked great, in the original bolt location but flipped.

Now I realized that I can flatten the tab, notch it so it located on the engine mount upright gusset, so that it won't rotate when tightening that engine mount bracket M14? bolt.

I have one left where I can try and do that.

When it's ready to fit up on the actual car, I will flush it with cleaner and pressure wash them out as they are still contaminated with swarf and sand.

I think this turned out great and more pro looking that I expected given I didn't think I could get my skills up that quickly, having never done something like this before.

Note the hose layout, this was intentional to be compact, easy radii for the hoses and as the engine moves the way it does, the flexing of that lower hose is pretty ideal and shouldn't rub on anything that would damage it with time. The upper hose doesn't move since it's all fixed as part of the engine. Perfect for reducing stress on the fluid res barb, which I have had break off before.

I wonder if I should advertise and charge out a beading service since it's evident no one does it or has the tools bar a few home aircraft people I can only infer from the couple of reviews for the repro tool set sold here ($1200 I might add).

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The only limitation I found noted is the warning against using the smallest die on steel tubes, which is exactly what I want to do when replacing fuel lines in the future, they break apparently.

But I am sure I read they could do steel and even stainless somewhere. I was right!

This mob called Graham Tool co make an aerospace upgraded set, but the nice thing is they sell parts that can replace and upgrade the original as well as the other original style repro by ATS

This allows steel on the smallest tool, 1/4 to 5/16, as well as SS. They have this for the the next size up to upgrade to SS. This size is the one I used and it does steel just fine, just not SS.
So I can buy the two or even just the one die for the #4 and be fully covered for all the stuff I'll ever use it for.

I see they have add ons that allow up to 6" pipes which is sweet! That would be great for intake and turbo pipes etc....

https://www.grahamtool.com/parker-appliance-company

[vlad01]

I found my bellhousing to be out of spec too. All 4 actually are almost exactly out the same, in exactly the same direction. Total indicated run-out of about 0.35 to 0.45mm (you offset the housing towards the high point 1/2 of that value)

No offset dowels exist for these engines. I spoke to Dandy engines and they reckon they can fix the bellhousing itself, I asked them knowing they have modern CNC machines and measuring equipment. I suggested they overbore with the counter offset and then re-sleeve the holes back to the original size. Likely the cheapest and easiest while being accurate.

And the machinist the guys in Bendigo sent my cast iron bell housing brace to, suddenly died 2 weeks after he got the part from me. But now Bendigo retro, the guys who do bits for me and sent it off in the first place, have moved into one other other buildings and their have setup a mill and few other machines to be able to start doing these things in house. The brace should be done now, was half way through being done last Tuesday, but wasn't quite ready for when my partner happen to drop by and try to collect for me.

So in the next few weeks, hopefully things align. I'll try drop the flywheel off for yet balancing again, then on the way drop the belhousing to Dandy for the alignment correction as well as a flycut a little off to parallel it (also out of spec probably, not 100% on that though cos my mag base arm can't reach to the bolt hole pads, but elsewhere looks warped (out of spec)).