For that authentic 1980s look.

Which is all kinds of odd; you’d expect maybe one or two to at least work partially, however for the price and the age of the equipment I suppose I shouldn’t complain, especially since a pretend sparky like me can easily replace the old-style bulbs with LEDs for a slightly more modern twist!

Armed with a disassembly guide I’d found on the interwebs and a few trusty tools, I set to work…

After somewhat apprehensively prying the front bezel off I carefully de-soldered the old-style incandescent lamps from the existing circuit board and replaced them with a pair of white LEDs and in-line resistors.

The old lamps are in the bottom left, and are both in fact blown.

The simplicity of the entire package is amazing, and I was careful not to upset the calibration of the gauge itself.

The question is... will it go back together again properly?

Success! There are a couple of bright spots thanks to the LED positioning, but once in the car it shouldn’t be as noticeable. Re-assembly will take place once I buy some paint to touch up the bezel, as unfortunately the only way to disassemble these gauges is with excessive prying force. Hopefully once they are mounted in the instrument panel on the car the damage/markings won’t be visible.

One gauge down, two to go.

You may remember the state of it.

Thankfully, I have a very nice and understanding panel-beater who sorted that side of it and will let me pay on my first full payday (which is now monthly).

The result of their labour is as follows;

The rust, it be gone! RHS Inner Guard

Obviously, I need to cover it up again but it needs to be visible as being done for when I take it for a warrant again, so they’re aware that I care.  Hah.

They found another little area that needed sorted, so did that too.

The patch you can see on the right hand side of the above photo was showing through as half a dozen tiny pinholes on the strut tower on the engine bay side, with it cut out, the rust sandwiched between the two panels was quite noticable indeed and I’m glad it was found and sorted.  Nothing quite like an eagle eyed panel beater who cares.

With that done, I sorted the hinges that needed done, or at least the driver’s side…  I will get on to the passenger’s side if need be, though the use it will get is minimal regardless.  Once it’s legit again, I’ll keep a casual eye out for some wheels, sort the ride height and just daily the living fuck out of it whilst putting all my pennies to the 110-Project, because let’s be honest, that’s the car that deserves it.

-Michael

With the TX3 complete, a shed full of spare parts to clean out, and a lack of anything to do on any of my other cars (except a shifter cable swap on the AW11, which I can now proceed with as the new bits have arrived) I decided to kill my boredom and get rid of some of those parts by purchasing a wee little 1985 BFMR Mazda Familia in need of some sorely required maintenance.

In the seller’s own words, “the engine shat a brick about two years ago, and it’s just been sitting in my garage doing jack since then.” I know a challenge when I see one.

yeah I can’t seem to stay away from the damn things – as anyone who reads my numerous blog posts about them can tell you – but surprisingly enough this is my very first proper BFMR, having owned a BFMP and BF5S in the past. This isn’t taking into account the TX3s of course, but since they’re the exact same car, all of my expertise carries over, which makes this a fairly easy walk in the park.

currently the plan for this car is to undertake as close to a factory-standard restoration as I can manage without going too overboard a la TX3. With fewer and fewer BFMRs left in this country it makes sense from an enthusiast’s (and possibly investor’s) point of view.

So… presenting the new summer project!

Finally, my very own BFMR

After an 18-hour tow mission to Masterton and back (thanks Gareth and Stefan for the help and company, and Sam for the use of his truck for towing duties) and a slight mishap getting it into the garage which saw the bonnet and front bumper kiss the wall at 10km/h (what is it with my cars getting intimate with houses? Srsly) the BFMR is now parked up and ready to be restored.

You’ll notice in the photo above the rear bumper is off – in the process of removing that godawful towbar.

Apart from the slight damage to the front caused by my carelessness, the rest of the body is in pretty decent condition and should come up good with a wash and polish. There seems to be almost no evidence of rust anywhere, apart from a tiny bit of surface stuff in the bottoms of the doors, sunroof and what-have-you. Still, not bad for a 25 year old car and is an obvious testament to careful garaging by previous owners.

With the help of certified BFMR nutters David and Michael (not old man southern, another one) I’ve already started pulling the interior apart to replace some of the used and abused bits with spares from the gigantic pile I’ve collected over the years. First to go were a bunch of interior trim pieces that someone had so thoughtlessly spraypainted a disgusting silver colour >_<

(Pictorial evidence is sadly lacking, but trust me, you wouldn't have wanted to see it anyway!)

See those dash vents, and that instrument cluster surround? Yeah, they used to be a yucky silver colour. Factory grey/black is FAR more appealing.

Observant readers who can still remember my last TX3 project update may notice that the front seats in this are those blasted BFMP ones that sit on a lean… deja vu much? Here’s hoping I won’t be spending years tracking down a pair of proper BFMR ones, just like what happened with the TX3.

So anyway, the next step is to turn my attention to the engine, which is currently missing most of the intake piping, the rocker cover/distributor and some other ancillaries. Some of the parts are currently sitting in a large box in the boot, and others (like the rocker cover) are just plain missing. Fortunately I have the means to replace anything that does end up AWOL, such is the extent of my spare parts collection!

The next project update will feature some theories as to what could be wrong with the engine, and steps David and I have taken to eliminate some of the possibilities. I’ve got a slight hunch that whatever went wrong was not an entirely catastrophic event.

Stay tuned…

Time to take a grinder to that ugly arse towbar!

Clean and Beautiful in White.

Distinctive 4cylinder Tail-lamps

Kim & Marc who own the car tell me that there’s still a few more interior bits to complete the restoration.  Finding those can be the hardest so best of luck to them in their project.  I think once that’s done a set of GL Hubcaps and she’ll be perfect.

You can see more pictures of their car on their flickr account here;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kim_album/sets/72157623920387025/

If you can help them out in any way with the restoration, contact me via comment and I’ll pass on your information to them.

-Michael

]]> http://blog.retro-classics.co.nz/?feed=rss2&p=3344 11 http://blog.retro-classics.co.nz/?p=3251 http://blog.retro-classics.co.nz/?p=3251#comments Tue, 20 Apr 2010 23:08:48 +0000 kyteler http://blog.retro-classics.co.nz/?p=3251 So, I sent an email to my friend Ewan (www.hayatonka.com – the link is on the left) about some photos he took at a show he was at recently.  He had rang me whilst he was there and was quite excited about what was available.  He sent me some pictures of said show but also ...more]]>

So, I sent an email to my friend Ewan (www.hayatonka.com – the link is on the left) about some photos he took at a show he was at recently.  He had rang me whilst he was there and was quite excited about what was available.  He sent me some pictures of said show but also gave me a link to another photo gallery, the viewing of which saw me picking my jaw up off the floor, as such, I had to share it with you all.

新和自動車 & Classic Car Nagoya

Sure, at first glance it’s a bunch of modern vans & a sweet Isuzu Bellett, but look a bit deep behind that Isuzu.  Click the picture if you have to….   if you still can’t tell, then carry on through.

Prince Skyline (BLSI-3) & Nissan Skyline (KGC110(

Never fear though, just because there’s two Skyline’s that doesn’t mean that’s the shops focus, in fact as witnessing the Bellett should tell you, they cater for many and any thing, as you can see;

Corona, Celica, Cedric, Fairlady, Supra

More Fairlady's & a Beetle

How about a Bentley?

Need a Lense? or a Cluster?

Some wheels perhaps?

Some Rods or Pistons, or someone to build your engine?

The engine itself?

Some panels or headers?

I think I’ve found my first destination post arrival in Japan when I finally manage to make it over there.  Deary me it’s amazing.  To check out more of the photo’s, visit the RC flickr, here;

新和自動車 & Classic Car Nagoya

Of course some of the cars are for sale as well, you can check out the shops own website here if you’re that way inclined;

http://www.n-classiccar-jp.com/

Magic.  Just Magic.

-Michael

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Couple of years back I chanced upon some tidy interior trim and seats out of a BFMR Familia which some guy had decided to convert into a rally car some time ago, and said interior was subsequently stored away for safekeeping/reinstalling one day. As it so happened, the rally car was written off and the trim sat in his garage for a few more years until one day he decided to move house and found it all under a sheet while getting ready to shift things. It also turned out to be the ultra-rare “wind-up window door card” version, so I pretty much bought it all on the spot.

there was one slight problem though: no front seats. “Not a problem,” I thought to myself, “I’ll soon be able to find a decent pair on Trademe…”

That was four years ago, and I’ve been looking for those elusive front seats ever since… until this week, when I finally tracked down a pair via the AMAZD club. Cheers Dee (and Ross)

as a stop-gap solution I’d purchased a pair of BFMP Familia bucket seats, which are identical in design save for the trim pattern and the way they mount to the rails (they’re for a FWD chassis, and mine is 4WD). The big drawback of the latter is that the driver’s seat ends up on a massive lean, and no amount of spacing will actually balance it out completely.

this is actually my 2nd pair – the first pair were even shabbier.

BFMP seats

and to someone with slight OCD tendencies (like me), the difference in trim pattern was enough to be an annoyance.

BFMP = black and grey squares, BFMR = black and grey lines.

After fitting my rails to the new seats followed by a quick vacuum and scrub down with some upholstery cleaner, in they went, and much rejoicing was to be had.

BFMR seats in, and no more lean!

Ain’t it nice when things match up?

Seats match doorcards. Stoked.

So with that out of the way – and if you’ve been following my earlier sporadic updates on this car – there remains one final thing left to be done until the project is complete, and that’s to buy some Cusco adjustable front strut tops. Shouldn’t be too hard a task for Ewan @ hayatonka!

Nissan (above) - Datsun (below)

The Datsun one is obviously not entirely stock having had the badge recess filled and then the whole panel re-painted.  However, that’s not important, what is important is that the spare panel needed some tidying up, so before I shot off to work I started on that…

Scrappy Surface Rust (rear)

Close-up

Thankfully it was really only that, surface rust.  So I gave it a scuff back of the worst of it with the now common wire brush attached to a drill technique and was left with this;

Prepped

From here I’ll coat the rear of this panel in Hammerite.  Which should keep the rust at bay from that side but I’ll wait until I’ve finished stripping back the front of it, before I coat the rear…

Be gone with you, paint!

I ran out of time today but I should be able to finish it off (Holy crap, a part finished. Can you imagine?!)   In the meantime.  Here’s a close-up of the SKYLINE badge on the panel before I started pissing about;

So domestic right nao.

Until next time!

-Michael

Before

Post-Chipping

Post-Turpentine

The staining on the floor is just that, there appears to be no rust of any concern and a quick cut/decent clean should see those rust stains removed and an entirely clean floorpan.  Stoked.

The subsequent day lead me the point of no return.  Arch removal for flare fitment.

Measure for removal, Grinder awaits.

Top radius cut.

No going back now, with this done I could have drilled out the spot welds holding the outer skin to the inner arch steel but I decided I couldn’t be bothered to do that and I took to the lip edge with the grinder instead…

One layer down...

It gives a good idea of just how much higher the arch line is on a C110 when you put flares on.

Oh mai, that's hai!

This leaves the inner arch to be cut off and then sliced and bent which will (eventually) be welded back up to the outer skin once more.

Slice 'n Dice

I couldn’t quite get the grinder in far enough with the wheel on at this point so it came time to jack and remove and further the slices before bending them upwards to meet the outer arch;

Tap tap tap

...tap tap tap

Which then meant…. WHEEL FITMENT TIME!

IRS Sag, Obvious

Back on Terra Firma

with Flare in place.

Needs moar width!

It was at this point that some more measurements were taken.  In order to fill outwards to the flare I need at least another inch, getting underneath the car there is a metric fuckload of space to be filled.  My calculations put me at safely being able to fit an 11.5″ wide rear wheel.  Though I think 10-11″ would be fine by me as long as the offset of the wheels is fine.  Although many do not agree, these 14″s are completely lost inside the massive arches.  It would look wrong with anything smaller than a 15, which is why I’ll be trying to get 16′s unless some 15′s come up cheap in the right size.

While I was measuring such things it would be silly to not do the fronts at the same time.  I recall when I first sat the wheels on the front they appeared to fit quite nicely.  Though once the flares are on, they’re also sitting slightly shy of where they should…

Un-cut Arch.

High Roller!

There’s no engine in the bay, that’s why the front looks so jacked.  The bottom edge of the flare sits level with the metal of the fender itself, though despite this, due to the size of wheel that can be fitted I’ll still have to remove said metal.

Again with the space!

Fronts work out at needing at least another inch overall.  Though with some camber plates another inch again as long as the offset was correct.  So either 8.5″ or 9″ for the front.

Wheels will be pricey though on the plus side for you reading chaps when I do get some, these XR4′s will be up for grabs.  Having said that, they weren’t cheap for me to buy so they won’t be cheap for you either (though still cheaper than you’d pay for them from japamania off trademe)

-Michael

Forwards

Backwards

I love that the previous owner left the floor alone, it’s so satisfying knocking out 1.5kg and finding clean floor underneath.

Also, since I’ve had the 260C it’s had cartaracts.  A foggy LHS high-beam lamp, initially it still worked despite this but I noticed a few days ago that it stopped working so I dug into my spares and got that sorted too seeing as the weather was so good.

From this…

I cannae see Cap'n!

To this, after a minute of surgery.

It's a miracle!

Probably should have done it a while ago, it gives the car a much crisper look with that simple task completed.  Still, it’s done now.

-Michael

and hey, I’ll freely admit that since my little roadtrip to Wellington in December things have stagnated a bit, viz. Real Life ™ and other crap getting in the way. so after an interesting couple of days away racing around Taupo in the other TX3, I got back to Auckland and immediately got stuck into things:

first, a quick trip to a signwriter recommended by my friend JP to affix the Original Equipment decals (replicas, but commissioned by a friend in Australia and 99.9% accurate) – thanks Michael @ Icon Signs for the quick and easy installation of said items:

just so no one confuses it for one of them front-tug models.

turbo, 16 valve, double overhead cams!

then off to Hyper Tyres for fitment of my O.Z Racing Superturismos and fresh 195/50R15 Bridgestone RE-001 Adrenalines. My wallet is feeling the sting, but it was worth it.

Superturismos and Adrenalines, a winning combo

With only one day left until the car has to be taken to the show and set up on the stand I’ll be doing a quick spruce-up of the interior and exterior after work tomorrow. So with two more items crossed off the list of things to complete, here’s what’s left:

1. Find some proper BFMR front seats to match the rest of the interior
2. Tune the damn thing

yup, only two things before I can safely say there’s absolutely nothing left to be done except get in and drive. I can almost smell the fumes of victory.

Bonus photo: This is what happens when you overheat a Dunlop DO1J around the track at Taupo. Goodbye sidewall… and the rest.

too much heat and too much wheelspin I'd say. Fortunately the tyre didn't fly apart at 200km/h down the back straight.