Project Car / Motorbike thread. Let's see 'em.

Mr Crudley said:
The Alfa interiors all have that flair that not much else in that price will have.
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Would be nice if had any legroom in the back and somewhere to put anything at all in the centre console though :) There is one tiny cup holder under the handbrake and that’s it!

But it looks nice and the ergonomics are actually great which is very un Italian. But only the automatics get a foot rest - the hvac assembly is offset to the right so there is less footwell space in the right so RHD manual cars don’t have room for a footrest. LHD manuals do of course.

Renaults often have the same sort of “quirks” in the RHD conversions - I swear they do it on purpose to piss off the poms!
 
Haakon said:
Would be nice if had any legroom in the back and somewhere to put anything at all in the centre console though :) There is one tiny cup holder under the handbrake and that’s it!

But it looks nice and the ergonomics are actually great which is very un Italian. But only the automatics get a foot rest - the hvac assembly is offset to the right so there is less footwell space in the right so RHD manual cars don’t have room for a footrest. LHD manuals do of course.

Renaults often have the same sort of “quirks” in the RHD conversions - I swear they do it on purpose to piss off the poms!
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Oh well, fair compromise. Stops you carrying unneeded stuff and you have less to clean out of the car. Wasn't the cup holder and American 'innovation' anyhow? Italians would rather stop and have a coffee more civilised than a drive through I'd guess.

Does it have small and fairly close together pedals? I remember that trait. Not the best place for big feet :)

Call it character in Euro cars. I haven't seen too many French cars up close but there must be a fine line between avant-garde innovation and plain old Gallic weirdness.
We love them anyhow.
 
I reckon I missed the boat on the 105 GTVs. Was seriously considering a 1750 or 2000 about 5 years ago but we bought a house instead. Could have purchased a restored one for around $50k - $60k. About double that now after a quick browse on carsales. Not sure they are getting those prices?
 
MasterOfReality said:
I reckon I missed the boat on the 105 GTVs. Was seriously considering a 1750 or 2000 about 5 years ago but we bought a house instead. Could have purchased a restored one for around $50k - $60k. About double that now after a quick browse on carsales. Not sure they are getting those prices?
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There was a 4cly GT for sale in Brisbane for about 4k.
 
MasterOfReality said:
I reckon I missed the boat on the 105 GTVs. Was seriously considering a 1750 or 2000 about 5 years ago but we bought a house instead. Could have purchased a restored one for around $50k - $60k. About double that now after a quick browse on carsales. Not sure they are getting those prices?
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My old man bought a really neat 1969 1750 about 18 months ago. I have a feeling he paid in the low 40s, but that's his hobby, finding good deals. He did a few minor tidy ups on it (tinkering) for a year and sold it 3 months ago at a pretty good profit, as usual.

I think $50 to $60k is more than enough if you are clued in to the market. Would have to be a pretty special car to get double that.
 
In addition to illegally welding on a new coupling the trailer is also getting a couple of water tanks for beach trips when the camper is otherwise occupied.

The bracket creep has returned! Plan is to fit two 59L tanks under the front half of the trailer floor, connect them together and have a hand pump for potable water needs, a connection to the hot water system for showering etc and a common filler. I struggled to find 1" hosetail connections that were potable water grade. Finally found some made by a company in Germany and there is a local supplier so the bits are on their way to me. Interesting that when I called a couple of caravan places they swore they only use John Guest potable water safe fittings. I know this is bullshit for the filler, and I guess they use low density poly irrigation fittings. Anyway not to worry the right parts have been found. All hoses including breather will be potable rated hose.

I have a most of a sheet of 1.2 gal which is stiff enough if dimpled in the right places. A few hand sketches later and a design appeared. I tried using CAD for this but really I am too old and think better if I can scribble on a bit of paper and leave the original lines and draw over with the next idea...



What looked to be a damn good dimpling on paper was not doable because the dies overlapped the previous dimple so a few went from 1.5" to 1" and so on. I have a small capacity finger brake and this was perfect to fold these shapes. A little encouragement but nothing extreme and the folds are neat.




Test fitted on the pointy end of the trailer. I should have made the leading edge a folded seam but too late now. I may well have to put a front on anyway to keep the wet sand off the bits. We will see. I was planning to mount them with M6 rivnuts in the brackets and bolted through from the trailer but a quick engineering review suggested M8 would be better since I was all out of M6 rivnuts and had plenty of M8s.




And here with the hand pump and filler installed. Just need to grab some sus M5 cap head screws for the filler. And mount the tanks...

Because the sheet is so thin I just rivetted the brackets together with sus rivets.
 
slowmick said:
Good to see you went all out cleaning your work area before starting.
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I cleaned where the brackets went. And painted the holes. No point wasting time on the rest of it. There are several projects on that thing happening simultaneously and at the same time!
 
Retail therapy time!
Grips, top end kit and linkage bearings ordered for the TE300.
Even got change out of $500!

New chain and sprockets. Shop I went to didn’t have a decent sprocket (that wasn’t bloody orange) in stock so rocking a aluminium rear that’ll last like 3 rides. At least it’s black.
77F7B412-E979-4229-99FF-806C68881F52.jpeg
 
Friend looking for a reliable small wagon - i30 is the obvious choice, but is the Cruze really as crap as the reputation suggests...?
 
Haakon said:
Friend looking for a reliable small wagon - i30 is the obvious choice, but is the Cruze really as crap as the reputation suggests...?
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Yes. If they were lots better they would be classified as buckets of shit.

i30 is the correct answer, when the erotic windows stop working buy an eBay kit and spent 32 mins fixing it.
 
Dales Cannon said:
Yes. If they were lots better they would be classified as buckets of shit.

i30 is the correct answer, when the erotic windows stop working buy an eBay kit and spent 32 mins fixing it.
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Cool. Just checking myself in case i was not being objective enough :)
 
Haakon said:
Cool. Just checking myself in case i was not being objective enough :)
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#1 had a COX (CDX) diesel. It was ok. Front tyres were heavily loaded and nothing lasted and brakes were weak. It blew the turbo hose 4 or 5 times because it was a 'constant tension' clamp that wasn't up to scratch and the dpf was problematic. Couldnt fit a worm drive clamp because the plastic pipes would fail... dealer fitted worm drive clamps and finally got the tension right and the pipe split within a week. Internal rattles and poor fitting plastics. The diesels were the good ones. VM Motori diesel same as all the GM 4 pots. The two petrol engines had their own issues. A mate bought an SRI/V (?) for his daughter and had no issues. Others I knew about from work colleagues and the service mgr at the dealership were woeful.

#1's lasted 50,000km ish and then wouldn't run. Wouldn't start. Couldn't track straight, wouldn't roll. But then it did have an interaction with a truck. Safety cell and secondary safety systems (airbags etc) were brilliant I will give it that. Unscathed from an accident that killed the car, you could do a clutch from the passenger seat after the accident.

But yeah, the i30 is a bloody good thing. I have seen quite a few and done some basic services / maintenance on some. Easy and cheap. New ones betterer still. Unlike VWs.
 
Dales Cannon said:
#1 had a COX (CDX) diesel. It was ok. Front tyres were heavily loaded and nothing lasted and brakes were weak. It blew the turbo hose 4 or 5 times because it was a 'constant tension' clamp that wasn't up to scratch and the dpf was problematic. Couldnt fit a worm drive clamp because the plastic pipes would fail... dealer fitted worm drive clamps and finally got the tension right and the pipe split within a week. Internal rattles and poor fitting plastics. The diesels were the good ones. VM Motori diesel same as all the GM 4 pots. The two petrol engines had their own issues. A mate bought an SRI/V (?) for his daughter and had no issues. Others I knew about from work colleagues and the service mgr at the dealership were woeful.

#1's lasted 50,000km ish and then wouldn't run. Wouldn't start. Couldn't track straight, wouldn't roll. But then it did have an interaction with a truck. Safety cell and secondary safety systems (airbags etc) were brilliant I will give it that. Unscathed from an accident that killed the car, you could do a clutch from the passenger seat after the accident.

But yeah, the i30 is a bloody good thing. I have seen quite a few and done some basic services / maintenance on some. Easy and cheap. New ones betterer still. Unlike VWs.
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I bought my Mum an FD series (the early ones) wagon a few years ago and its been brilliant. It lives on rough roads, gets hale bales and firewood loaded in the back and it just keeps on trucking. Only question mark on the series 2 GD wagons is that unlike the Korean built hatches that get a robust 1.8 port injected engine, the Czech built wagons get the 1.6 direct injection lump that do the same gummed up inlet tract thing the VW engines do... But keep the oil clean in them and use the C3 low SAPS oil and I think they're ok.
 
Haakon said:
I bought my Mum an FD series (the early ones) wagon a few years ago and its been brilliant. It lives on rough roads, gets hale bales and firewood loaded in the back and it just keeps on trucking. Only question mark on the series 2 GD wagons is that unlike the Korean built hatches that get a robust 1.8 port injected engine, the Czech built wagons get the 1.6 direct injection lump that do the same gummed up inlet tract thing the VW engines do... But keep the oil clean in them and use the C3 low SAPS oil and I think they're ok.
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subaru upper engine cleaner or threebond "petrol engine cleaner" eat carbon for breakfast. AWESOME products.
 
Ok be very specific in your answers please - I have watched heaps of YouTube vids and they all seem to gloss over stuff they think no on needs to know or should already know - Or they are just trying to sell you the specific item they are talking about (wiring harness etc)
So I have 2 lights coming that I am going to mount on a motorcycle - the stock lights are crap and cannot easily be replaced - they went for a funky shape specific to the brand so you can only replace with the brands headlight or change the entire look of the front.

I want these lights to work at night - don't care about daytime running but do not want them to be high beam specific.
1) Wiring -
* Run a power wire from battery with inline fuse to a relay - run power out from relay to the lights ( I assume here I want one wire for each light or will only get half power to light) - run ground to relay and to lights from battery - run switched power to relay
In the above scenario the lights will turn on when the bike is turned on?
2) Optional switch on handle bars
* Run the switched power to the handlebar switch so it comes live when bike is turned on then press switch to turn lights on or off?

3) I also want to put a wireless phone charger holder onto the handlebars through a USB socket that I only want to be live when the power is turned on - Could I add that to the relay in the same location as the lights to get power? Or should I be looking for some kind of power distribution block instead?

I have no idea why this does not gel in my head but it just doesn't

Thanks
 
How you going to space the lights to get them in the right position?

You will need extra lights independently switched too so you can have high beam with and without additional lights. If the existing lights are positive switched your wiring will work, if neg switched, um, no.
 
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