HI PSI

Running fixed Vernier gears?

Sorry for the lack of updates. Work has had me run off my feet.. After another week of prep. I managed to get some more parts painted black. I always tried to fill the booth as much as I could, So that I could maximise productivity and average down the cost. As I mentioned earlier, I prepped all of the parts and I essentially paid an hourly rate plus materials for the application. Here we have have some of the drip rail trims, sway bars, tank straps, door handles, sway bar mounts, fuel pump/regulator mounts and gear stick tunnel trim. I cannot begin to describe how much time and work goes in to this stuff. Especially with all metal components were taken back to bare metal. But, the reward is well worth the effort...

Np. I hope that this helps... Prices are from Brakes Direct, 2017... I machined the bosses for the brackets and my engine guy modified the brackets.. Sure thing... Alcon hat with 365 mm DBA rotor. Modified bracket.... Offset modified by 10 mm. Caliper radius increased by 5 mm.

I just love watching the paint go on, seeing it transform. I was always peering through the window whenever he painted my bits. I'm pretty sure that he thinks that I'm a weirdo.

I run two piece rotors on my car. I used an Alcon hat, which allowed me to run a larger 365 mm and it also positioned the rotor 10 mm inboard. This change significantly increased wheel selection.

Only one?? lol Well, I guess that some of you can see where this is headed.. Apologies, I'm in camp and I cannot find any good pics of the suspension components on my laptop. The diff pic will give you an idea of the finished product.

As you can see in the pic above, I still had some rust issues to sort. Fortunately, it was a country car and it only required a few minor repairs. The battery tray was unpicked and a good unit installed and repainted. Minor rust repairs were made to the lower rear screen, boot rubber lip and spare wheel well. We also stripped and primed the roof while we were there. In my spare time I started to prep the suspension components. As with all builds, ever bush joint and bearing has been replaced in the car. All were blasted, primed and prepped for paint. Around this time, I learnt that prepping parts was not much fun. By now my fingers no longer had prints and were starting to bleed. I was like, F&#k, what have I got myself in to....

Fingers crossed for you mate. Keep us posted.

I drove the car for the first time in around 18 months. The thing is an animal. Puffy, you're cheating. You know that I have a handycap (SS). Well, you have as long as it takes for the rocker cover to come back from chrome. You might make it yet... It fits nice and works well. It's a lot better than the CDI. Worthwhile- I think so, especially if you're chasing power.

I'm never going through that again. I turned the bolt around..

Thank you for all for the kind words. It is appreciated. I'll try to keep this as interesting as possible. This build started as a complete restoration. Nothing was to be modified. At all!! As it come off the production line.. No if's, Not but's... To be honest, that theme kinda got a little lost on its journey. This is where to real story begins. Once on the rotisserie, I arranged top get the engine bay and undercarriage soda blasted. Expensive, but money well spent. the prep time saved here is phenomenal. Sunday the car was blasted. Monday, the car was irrigated, washed and dried. Tuesday all blasted areas were primed. Thursday the undercarriage and bay was in colour. wow that sounds so easy sounds so easy, when you say it all in a short sentence. All prep on this car is my own work. My paint guy (Craig) applied the colour. The guy is awesome!!!!

A few members have shown some interest in one of my other projects and Have asked me to post some pics of it's progress. Now, I know that it's not a Ford. But I hope that you appreciate it anyway. Here goes.. I purchased this tired old girl just in December 2019. I'd had during me 20's and unfortunately it was stolen and burnt out. I really loved the car and I decided to bring this old girl back to life.. The car was purchased for Emerald in Queensland. She was really rough, but she was all there. Engine and box were in an unknown condition, so I got it for a reasonable price. Unbeknown to me, some time around three months before Hol-den went to the VP model. Hol-den trialed the VP colour (Alaskan White) on some vehicles. This makes it pretty rare. I had a bit of time off around this time, so I start to strip the old girl. Remember when I said that it was rough.... LOL And I kind of got a bit carried away... It ended up being completely stripped and a rotisserie installed.

I put the old rocker cover on and ran the old girl. It runs nicer with the GTR coils... I can't wait to be the FG cover back and push it to the limit. With any luck, I'll move up a bracket or two. 😄

I don't want to clog up this thread too much. The story isn't finished yet...

Do you want the updates in this thread, or another?

I just thought that I'd drop in and say "hi". I've been a bit busy with the SS and I haven't really done much to the car. I've installed the 52 mm radiator and deleted the header tank. And the rocker cover has been sent for chrome.. That's about it. I had a few spare parts floating around, so I decided to put them to use. I used a FG series one block. It sonic tested the best that I have found - 0.125" was the thinnest section in any bore. The others were very meaty. We offset bored that cylinder , to help keep it as thick as possible. The block has also been surfaced and machined for 14.3 mm head studs. Crank is the same as the current engine. Factory, with nitride and stress relieving. I put some ACL bearings with 360 degree thrusts. A short time later I decided to install a torrington bearing. As I'm unsure as to where or how I might use the engine, I thought it best to cover both bases. Just in case I use it with the 4l80... Same Atomic Phat rods and thick wall gudgeon pins as the last engine. The JE's have had the full coating treatment (Crown and skirt). The mains have the regular main stud, girdle and windage tray. Atomic Heavy duty timing chain kit takes car of the timing gear, with Atomic also supplying an oil pump and lifters. I managed to get a good deal on some parts for the head. This one will be the same spec as my current unit. Unfortunately, there is a bit of a back log on the head porting. I can't see it happening for a few months. 😞 A bit of topic, I found out that these are the same as those used by Spiro back in the day, and I believe that Atomic also use them in their stage 5 heads. They certainly flow a lot of air... Well, that's about it for now. The blower for the SS will be arriving while I'm away at work, So I can't see myself getting anything done on the XR and time soon. It'll be full steam ahead with it. I'll pop back when there is more progress...

The car is now in even more pieces than last time. The new radiator sits a lot further back. I had to remove a lot of material form the fan shroud, so that I could get clearance from the harmonic balancer. I installed the radiator and fan, but need a Speedflow fitting for the new aircon hose. Work kinda stopped there. The VN build is keeping me very busy and has robbed time from the poor old girl. I'll get to it soon...

The hardest thing is finding time to work on them. I'm having a month or two off, so I'm aiming to have the SS finished asap. I'll try to get the XR stuff done on the weekends.. Soon... I pulled the radiator to installed a 52 mm unit. I'm having a lot of problems getting it to fit. There's no room for the thermo fans, so I may have to trim the fans or adjust the bottom radiator mount position. I wonder how many are mine..

I was going to post an update and I thought, fark it...

A stock crank is good to over 1.000 rwhp. I'll prove it....

In had my crank nitrided and stress relieved. Notvquitecat 1000, but we had it up to 830 rwhp and had plug issues.. It'll be good for 1000 rwhp. Np....

Unfortunately, I am not... I'm pretty much just doing a restoration to this one, as it's the only way to maintain value and collectability.. I am considering a Whipple though... I purchased a new present for the turbo and add another to the collection... Current collection, to date...

It's a little messy on the l/h side at the moment. As the rocker cover hasn't had the weld on fittings installed. The vacuum lines are a little messed up also, as I had to remove the reg and such, to fab a new reg bracket. This will delete the old pcm bracket that it is mounted to. I still have a lot to do, a lot of it make some carbon fiber parts. The car hasn't received any attention for many months as any spare time I have had, has been required elsewhere... So, I have decided to come clean. I have be unfaithful... It all started when I purchased this last Christmas. In the last few months, it has progressed somewhat. All at the expense of progress of the above...

Like a hot chick walking through a shopping center, with no shoes on...