Authors Cars

Authors’ cars: Two-seater conversion saga, part 1.

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June 10, 2012
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Author’s note: This is part 1 of the story. Part 2 will follow in the next few days.

After so many frustrating dead ends and one false start approaching nervous breakdown proportions earlier this year, I never thought I would see the day my RX-7 finally looked like this:

Look ma, no rear seats!

False start, you may ask? Turns out the “seller” of the rear conversion parts I “purchased” at the end of last year (see this blog post) turned out to be nothing more than a conman, and I ended up $250 poorer as a result of his swindling. (in a nutshell: he claimed that the parts were “lost” by UPS yet couldn’t provide any tracking info once probed, and UPS couldn’t help me, as only the seller can lodge claims in such circumstances, leaving me neatly trapped in the middle with no recourse).

Fortunately in the end PayPal came to my rescue by refunding $200 (75%) of my transaction amount, and with confidence somewhat restored I resumed the hunt for the parts I so badly needed.

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: Authors Cars

Pet project progress: Retro audio, installed and functional.

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May 2, 2012
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After many late nights and lots of tinkering, I’m pleased to announce that the retro audio project is finally completed. Also worth noting that instead of sitting with its guts out on a messy bench, this particular setup is properly mounted in a car (the savanna banana, to be precise!)

This is cassette deck build number two, a KP-717G deck from 1983 with added attenuator circuit (to bring the auxiliary input down to a level which the onboard pre-amp can handle), outputting through a CD-5 graphic equalizer into a pair of (hidden) amps.

At the moment only the front speakers are functional… they’re fucked and need replacing anyway, as evidenced by the awful crackle in the video – I won’t hook up the rears until the two-seater conversion parts arrive.

which should be sometime in the next few weeks. Then I can hit the streets with some phat beats playing, haha.

: Authors Cars, Retro Videos

Random snap: the terrible TX3 twins

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March 31, 2012
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The result of an uneventful evening’s tow mission last night sees my track-spec TX3 finally join the other one in their permanent new home.

aka, Operation: Moneypit.

These two cars alone have cost me infinitely more in time, money and sanity than all of the others combined…

And I’m still determined on resurrecting the black one. What on earth could be wrong with me? No, wait, don’t answer that.

: Authors Cars, Random Retro Snap

110-Project; Hayatonka.com puts the boot in and delivers again!

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March 23, 2012
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Words cannot describe the level of happiness I reached after I returned home today to find my solution for this problem;

Oxide activate! ..form of.. BOOT LID!

The scary part is that the above photo is a good one, it doesn’t even begin to visually relay just how destroyed that boot-lid is, if rust wasn’t the only problem, the previous owner hacking into the skeleton like a flailing zombie would have proved more than difficult enough to remedy.

Thankfully though with big, big ups to the wonderful Ewan of hayatonka.com, I placed an order for and subsequently received this replacement;

Replacement Lid

 

FRP, from external to skeleton.

HUGE thanks to Ewan, again (and again and again) and massive respect to restored.jp for providing such a fantastic product.  I’m quite sure my mind is made up to wait for the cash to get another few things before I send the car in to get sorted.  No point fixing steel to then rust again at a later date when there’s FRP of this fit and quality about.

Care Instructions - Don't fuck it.

-Michael

: 110-Project, Authors Cars

Author’s Cars; Has everybody heard about the bird?

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February 15, 2012
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B-B-B-Bird, bird, bird.  Bluebird’s the word.

So, I went up to Christchurch this weekend been to attend a “Hoarder’s Auction” an older Japanese gentleman had spent many years accumulating a large collection of both cars and completely random things that he picked up from other auction houses.  So when he passed, his son was so over-whelmed by the task of selling it, that he passed the job on to Christchurch Auctions.  (I’ll do another entry on the auction later)

I had initially planned on attending simply due to the presence in the line-up of another S21D-4 Prince Skyline Super, however after I inspected the S21, I soon discovered it was not worth a lot to me.  It was in worse shape than mine and only had a few parts that I could use.  The bidding soon got above a self-imposed limit and I followed along the auctions, watching many people grab many bargains.

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: Authors Cars
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