Just a thought, how fresh is the fuel in the squid?
You are describing exactly the problem I had in my HR31 when I got a dud fuel load the other week.
Only put $20 in (about 3 litres ). when I put in fresh BP ultimate 98 octane she came back to being the laggy old S.O.B. she normally is.

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Loving the Ewing goodness too

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Hmm, the fuel in it would have been a couple of days old when it started misfiring. I fill my daily driven AW11 at the same petrol station (it also uses 98 octane Ultimate) and that hasn't missed a beat!

So it's pretty weird. But with Nizfest over, I guess I can swap that coil over from the coupe and see what happens.

speaking of Nizfest, an administrative fuckup today resulted in neither of my cars being judged in the show and shine competition which I paid to enter

the organizers gave me two bottles of cleaner wax as amends, but I don't think I will return next year unless a retro-classics or oldschool.co.nz club stand is organized. I was pretty disappointed and ended up leaving the event early after discovering this.

However my friend Richy took some sweet photos on the way home which kinda cheered me up.

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very sweet photos orion. BTW, i had my DR on the dyno on saturday down in timaru, it had a similar misfire problem at about 3000rpm just as it would come onto full boost, we replaced the spark plugs and leads onto to find the coil must not have been putting a strong spark out. problem solved after we gapped the plugs down so we could get a clean dyno run. id say youre coil will be at fault also? let us know how you get on

i like the latest pics, especially of your coupe. i think with a little more lowering it would look perfect!

The component cradle mentioned previously is now installed in squid, with cassette deck and EQ fitted (non-functional as of this moment - see below).

It is awesome!



Made a bit of progress on the vintage audio project over the weekend as well. Took a couple of headunits and amps down to ProTech, opened up the cases, hooked them up to a test rig and tinkered around for a while – the end result being that with a bit of judicious (and precise!) modding, it should be a cinch to “hook into” the cassette line-level output with a suitable media player device and still have the headunit control the tone, balance and volume levels.

Next step: figure out how to switch input seamlessly between cassette and line-in without blowing anything up. (Don’t look at me like that; everyone knows cassettes are The Bomb!)

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Orion

Rather than posting across several forums that there was an administrative stuff up I would appreciate it if you took the time to answer the PM you were sent via Skylines Down Under.

Seeing as you logon name does not align with any database information I have it is impossible for me to make contact with you directly via email etc.

Posts were made on a lot of forums to advise ALL those entered to go directly to the Nizfest garage upon arrival, this was also emailed out to everyone - extremely late on the Friday night but that was out of my control, this information was also supposed to be given verbally to all those coming in at the gate by the helpers at the gate.

In theory the information to go directly to the Nizfest garage when you arrived should have come to you in at least one way (at the gate), if you had gone to the garage and checked in there you would have been given the stickers to put on you windscreen so the judges could identify the car, you would have also been told where to park.

Given the pictures of your cars on the day it appears you did not get the stickers nor the instructions on where to park.

HOWEVER several announcements were made during the course of the day about getting your stickers from the garage & that the judges would soon be viewing the cars etc - did it not strike you as being odd that some had stickers and you didn't?

In any case when you approached me you were given two prizes valued at ~$30 each with no hesitation, apparently you packed a huff and went home before the prize giving & so left us with no chance to correct the issue for you.

I suggest if you feel hard done by then you should consider that the event was run for zero profit with the intention of donating it all to Hospice, the event actually ran at a loss and cost me personally ~$4000 for the day.

If you choose not to attend any future events that's your call, I'm sure if you talk to those who stuck around for the prize giving they will tell you leaving early was not a good idea, There is a post event prize giving scheduled for this Sunday with even more prizes to be issued , info for that is due to go out tonight.

Patience goes a long way.

Glenn
Nizfest founder & coordinator.

I really don't want to shit up my thread by fighting over spilt milk, but thanks for posting your point of view anyway.

Just to clarify - I did "check in" as per the gate entry staff's advice, but when I got to shed 9 there was nobody present except a very bored looking female. Told her I had two DR30s to register for the show and shine, she looked at me like I had a second head growing out of my shoulder and muttered, "okay cool."

That was it. No stickers, no nothing. So excuse my bewilderment at the time but as you say things were pretty hectic so I just assumed bored female would relay the information on to someone else who would then go inspect the cars and affix said stickers.

Was there not a list of cars that had entered into the show and shine beforehand? Surely it wouldn't have taken the judges and/or admin crew more than a nanosecond to realize, oh hang on, there's two DR30s in the paddock, and two DR30s on the show and shine entry list, this suddenly makes sense? Relying on stickers alone is a pretty strange way of going about it.

As for "packing a huff and leaving" - that was not the intention! one of the friends who had come down for the day with me had to be back in Auckland by 4pm as he had werk that evening, so that was the reason for leaving early.

once again - I don't hold any lingering ill will towards yourself or the event, and I definitely didn't mean to say that I wouldn't come back in future - the point I was meaning to put across is that given the amount of stress I put myself under to get both cars ready for the event, I'm not too keen to go through all that again unless as part of a group entry... because that way at least the group leader will be able to co-ordinate things slightly better, and leave plebs like me to frantically prep the car without worrying about admin tasks!

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Hi Orion

Thanks for clearing that up, it seems the problem falls on the shoulders of the helper at the Nizfest garage.
That's a shame as they had fairly clear instructions on what needed to be done and they were being paid fairly well for their time

The online registration system Hampton Downs provided does not provide any ability to capture the make and model of any vehicles entered only the drivers details, this is why it was critical to have the sticker with a number to relate it all back to the database.

The previous year was done via internet banking and emails and consumed hours & hours of my time with over 160 pre entries you can imagine the time involved checking bank deposits, tracking them down when bad reference numbers were used, answering three or four emails per entry. The show n shine was actually free & some of those entrants consumed more time than the paying entrants - you can see why we went with the "easier option" of online ticket sales.

So you can see why at this point I still can't even place you on the database (assuming you pre paid!?) as I have an internet logon that doesn't relate to the database, a make and model of cars - not on the database.

Future events will have to be sorted in another way & hopefully get numbers out to people 3 or 4 days out from the event closing online entries earlier.

Sorry for any ill feeling on the day, I can only do my best at the time, if others let the side down then it's out of my hands.

Rolling coupe around over the xmas/New Year's break, if everything goes to plan I shall give it an oil change and it'll accompany me to the Far North later this week. It's never been any further north than Orewa in the time I've owned it, lewl.

Audio build progress update! Stripped out the drive from one of the seized decks (a nice KP-88G) and got it all functional with 3.5mm AUX-in spliced directly into the preamp channel. The cassette is used to switch the unit on and off and doesn't do anything else. Signal is nice and clean, and contrary to my comments in the video the Dolby NR does kick in when the button is pressed. Choice

I plan to install this setup in squid, and save the cassette/line-in switching puzzle for the RX-7 later on down the track. That process involves pulling apart one of my "good" headunits, and I'm kinda reluctant to do that at this point in time.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxFXbPjixKw

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Cleaned 1500kms worth of Northland grime and detritus from the coupe in time for display at the 2012 4 and Rotary Nationals. Chur to Richy and the rest of the Auckland team for making our club stand such a smashing success!



So I've reached the point where I actually have nothing left to do to the vehicle, except to enjoy driving it every once in a while (and make sure I keep it well maintained, the usual stuff). Though I do need to find a home for these Pioneer-Carrozzeria box speakers I bought... perhaps coupe does wants?



Going forward this means I can focus my attention back on squid, and after having mixed and mingled with other like-minded OS members at the 4nRs, I've been converted to the notion of spending a bit more thought and effort on underbonnet aesthetics and presentation once the Big Boost Build begins, to showcase the uniqueness of the FJ20. This will be in tandem with current plans to maintain a "purposeful 1980s street look" both inside and outside the car. (The retro audio project is a big part of this!)

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Find good speakers that fit the original box, retro look, excellent sound

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Love the audio projects. Good way to modernize the car without visually modernizing it.

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Money Pits:
- 1980 Corolla Hatchback - Power project
- 1988 Celica Alltrac - Snow fun project

cheers guys! The audio project grew out of an idea I had kicking around after converting a modern Pioneer IP-Bus input into AUX-in on my AW11 daily driver.

my other pair of TS-X20s will definitely benefit from being opened up and having new cones fitted - one of them developed a bad crackle not long after they were installed but I gotta make fast friends with a hi-fi shop, as I don't think 3" and smaller car-audio specific speakers are readily available here.

I'll also get around to building a line level converter at some point although it looks like Jaycar has off-the-shelf units available.

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Sorry about the constantly out-of-focus camera... silly phone has its moments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcrkDtrPnfs

Turns out squid just needed a new coil and module to fix the weird misfire/weak spark problem. Swapped the requisite parts over from coupe to get it running for the nonce. Ironically enough, said items were originally from squid in the first place - I'd swapped them over a few years back to try and cure another totally unrelated fault!

I could track down another coil and module ex Japan (or even in NZ) but all that junk will end up being ripped out in favour of Link + big turbo + coilpacks anyway in the next few months, so there's not much point. The parts take approximately five minutes to swap, so if I need to drive the coupe anywhere the inconvenience is only minor

off to Ardmore tomorrow with the rest of the OS contingent! For nowe, sleep tight in new shed.

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Have you tried someone like http://www.crutchfield.com?

squid cleaned up nicely for exhibition at the Wings and Wheels show earlier this year. Would look much better with a bit less distance between the wheel arches and the tyres though...



pulled apart the centre console yesterday and changed around the gear in the audio cradle so that proper wiring can be run. The big hole in the console will also be re-modelled to fit a trio of period (Omori or Lamco) gauges with another opening for an equally vintage boost controller.

Took out the old KP-717G deck that still plays tapes, and installed a modified KP-707G with auxiliary input for modern MP3 players. (I ended up lending the KP-88G to a friend)

old setup:



new setup ready to be re-installed:



new setup:



The next challenge will be figuring out external amp placement, and making a line level converter so a small sub can be hidden in the boot.

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A minor, teeny, weeny, not-even-that-important-really update.

Here be some temporary replacement shelf speakers for squid, as the TS-X20s are in dire need of refurbishment. Although I daresay the sound quality and bass response of these TS-X11s is actually better! They also weigh a ton.



Not bad for $20 off Trademe. I've seen people pay up to $150 for a set of these

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The period audio setup is awesome mate. Awesome 80's.

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1975 C110 Skyline Coupe

An 80's deck converted to allow a line-in is an awesome idea! I like the look of the original gear in my DR but the tape deck doesn't appear to work and I can only really get AM stations.

Old Pioneer stuff always looks good, I still use a SA 5500 II at home although I can't remember wtf I did with the tuner that I had for it