carbonboy

Masking removed, all is revealed! Rudder hinges fitted. Plastic oar lock mounts fitted & sikaflexed. Rudder fitted to cassette. Me learning stainless welding to make a handle for my centreboard. Getting towed home after painting for further fitout. Boss wanted more space in the workshop lol. Getting her rigging sorted & final fitout.

Interior sprayed! Yes I could've gone the clear varnish route, but I wasnt happy to show off all of my workmanship & varnish can be high maintainance, so a tick in the 'paint' option box. I had been pondering a design for quite some time, I know that when its in the water only the fishies will see it but seeing as it lives out of water usually standing vertical, I drew some inspiration from this. So the hours of drawing, getting things somewhat symetrical & masked up began. First paint colour goes on. Rudder cassette & handle painted too. Masking removed, paint allowed to cure for a few days, then it was time to mask it all up to apply second stage paint. Motivational messages to my old workshop manager, he was a cranky bugger who didnt like my sense of humour.

Having been sanded back after cure, it was time for a spray paint session. Boss had a heap of leftover 2 pack stuff that he didnt want, so sent it my way. Good for the interior as its quite hard wearing. First coat. Al done, out to dry. Some shots of the non-skid surface mixture sprinkled (liberally) on mid-spray session. Sand can be used but when you've got access to the good stuff... Rudder blade painted. Centreboard painted. Mast painted. Boom painted. Mast tip closeup.

More rigging shots, darn upload limits! :laff: Carbon unis were laid up in such a way, that if my rigging anchor point wants to let go, its gonna have to take half the side of the boat with it. The entire boat has been epoxy sealed using a product called Everdure, so little chance of rot, yay! Home made rigging, can't remember the name of the line used but was some expensive marine grade, low stretch stuff. I never thought I'd find myself with a needle & thread. Fibreglass reinforcement on the bow. There's a hole in the bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza...For those interested, the boat is (in theory) still watertight as the height of the completely sealed/waterproof casing is higher than the theoretical waterline of the boat when loaded up. Plus water will have a hard time getting up there anyway with the snug fitting centreboard in there. :wink: Centreboard & rudder bogged & fitted. Flooring, version 1.0. Result = FAIL. Flooring, version 2.0. Result = WIN. Each of these holes were individually 3mm pilot drilled, then 6mm, then 8mm then countersunk on both sides then cleaned up with a sanding stone on both sides. Getting a nice, even gap was difficult. Lots & lots & lots of holes! These panels sit on top of the existing framework & allow water to drain off underneath, so I hoped! Bungs fitted! Flooring & rudder handle contructed of a timber/carbon fibre combination being epoxy sealed.

Then skinned with a lighweight (150gsm I think?) fibreglass cloth. A good arfternoons work. Construction of the rudder cassette starts. This was then spaced to avoid deflection, fibreglass reinforced & vacuum bagged for cure. Two pieces of fibreglass tube approx 8mm thick were laid up as I didnt have a mandrel long enough to make a one piece. So I made two & used my scarfing experience to join the two. Centreboard bogged up ready to sand. Cassette pieces. Fancy bits of offcuts being put to use.. More offcuts, this time being used as a baseplate for a mast. Remember the fibreglass tube I joined? Well I'd managed to cheaply acquire both a mast & boom made from white oregon. I know bugger all about timber but this was the best to use from what I'd found. I'd also found that it was hard to get ahold of in the length I needed & hideously expensive when I could. Problem was the mast was so short you wouldnt be able to duck under the boom, so I had to jack it up a (fair) bit. This had additional bracing at its base, I have lifted the entire boat off the ground by this bracing & its held firm so far! Without mast tube in place. 316 stainless rudder hinges attached with internal backing plates. Cassette & blade test fit. Yes this is a kick up style rudder so I don't have to yank the whole lot off when coming into shallow water. Of course if I forget to pull the centreboard up that'll hit first anyway. :laff: Base of mast & little bits. Boom attachment. We then had a brief trip home to setup the rigging systems.

Please note that this dinghy was built entirely by following the intructions set out in the course material. Those who had problems following step by step instructions made slow progress. I still have all of this material plus the full size drawings etc, material cost would be about $300-$400 for the dinghy itself sdo if anyone's interested in constructing one just PM me. Its starting to look like a boat in here... Oh yeah, we built the toolbox first, I still have it albeit epoxy sealed & well loved. Seats...sorry, THWARTS going in. Notice on the boat in the right hand side background there's a backing plate attached to the transom? This is because the dinghy was designed to either be oar-driven or have a small outboard attached. I on the other hand, had other motives of propulsion. Hence the quick design & construction of this...Well actually everything else aside from the boat I designed, trying to wrap your head around the physics of sailing can be headache inducing. Finally off the stand & the sanding begins. A few leftover pieces of plywood were cut to size, epoxied & clamped to make a little something to go with the case I made earlier. She's looking like a boat now, additional gunwhale pieces were attached between the second & third frames to provide a bit of, lets say, extra width for comfort. :wink: Bum shot. Bow shot. All completed, strapped onto trailer & being hauled off to my place of employment as my boss was kind enough to let me have some space. It wasnt a car so he was happy. Remember the leftover plywood I had earlier? Well things were starting to take shape. Here was a scary moment, drilling holes in my floor then using a jigsaw to cut to shape. You kinda cross your fingers & hope you worked everything out right when it comes to holes in the bottom of your boat! Cassette test fitted. Counter-sunk heads on the keel. Hey hey, it fits! The front thwart goes in for extra bracing. Centreboard & base components of rudder casette being well sealed with epoxy (Everdure). Shaping of the core of my rudder blade from 150kg/m3 high-density foam which had a 300kg/m3 piece inserted where it pivots in the casette (i.e the most crushing force). Exotic but good when you have access to offcuts for nicks! This was then skinned with woven fibreglass. The centreboard was then coated in epoxy resin.

Well, I've been thinking about doing a build thread for my boat. I completed a 9 week (full time) Boat Building Pre-Apprenticeship back in 2007 as a way of trying to further a career as something more than just a labourer. This didnt quite go the way I wanted but I like to think I've still picked up a few handy skills & timber can be a real pleasure to work with sometimes. This boat was the end result of the Pre-App, my employer at the time was good enough to give me the time off to attend trade school & scheduled work I could do in the evenings after school to keep some form of income coming. I was full time casual, so no work equaled no pay! The process started with doing FULL-SIZE drawings, its only a total of 2.83 metres long so not that great a task. From these, our basic 'skeleton' frames were constructed, gusseted & were able to be positioned accurately with the help of a temporary work station. The frame in the foreground isnt gusseted as the transom sheet does this for us. :wink: The keel was then cut/hand-planed to shape. The bowsprit its attached to was constructed of strips of 6mm thick pine which were steamed then bent around a pre-constructed mould (basically blocks of wood nailed to a board following our scribed line), glued with epoxy & clamped. Framework begins. Chine (the point where the side of the boat meets the bottom) & gunwhale (top of the sides of the boat, in this case the lower one :wink: ) strips go on. Everything glued, stainless steel screws in & clamps off! Dammit! Due to the rather sharp curve from the first frame (or station) to the bow, these chine strips were prone to cracking, even after being steamed for 6 hours. Pretty much everyone in the class had at least one let go, so repairs experience was nice to have! You'd never know it happened! The sheets of plywood in the background started out as 4 pieces, which had to be scarfed & glued to make a larger sheet. The better the join, the better the end result. A few peoples joins failed immediately, mine wasnt entirely dead straight but held up nice & strong. These sheets had our panel shapes traced out onto them from our full size drawings then cut out oversized so they could be fitted nicely then trimmed to suit. Reinforcments were added, I think these were referred to as 'knees'. With the various angles, they were also a pain to make & get a really good fit. I think I remade mine twice. First plywood sheets on. Then the rest. Still needs trimming to suit but a nice fit so far. Some cut their ply sheets exactly to size...seemed like a good idea but the final fit was horrible. No play to move it around to close up gaps etc, so I spent some time joining ply sheets together :laff: A little extra glue to fill some small holes never hurt. :wink: It was also about this time that the glue-in-hair jokes started appearing. I had long hair (about mid-way down my shoulder blades length) at this point & this was 2:1 ratio epoxy, which had a tendancy to leave burn marks on bare skin. One guy got a hand on my tied-up hair, he then had my hand around his throat & me threatening to break his arm if he tried again. The jokes stopped. :yes: Making the basics of a frame for it to sit on once inverted. Go Thomas! Lots of hand-planing later... An inside look, notches had been taken out of the floor reinforcements to allow water to drain down to the keel then aft to the transom where twin bungs have been fitted. Yay, we're upright! A small piece that had chipped off has now been glued back in place. :wink: Transom sheet goes on. Making the second bow reo, check out the scar on my thumb! That was done on day 3 of the course, where I learned the hard way to NEVER use a chisel (especially a really f**king sharp one) towards any part of your body!! I only nicked myself in comparison to one fellow in my class....14 stitches along his index finger. All glued in & ready for a hit with the plane. Additional transom framework goes in, lap-joined, expoxied & silicone-bronze nailed. There was a lot of time with a hammer & punch on this thing! More knees.

Only 90kw? *shrugs* Any idea on its torque output? Just out of curiosity... Guess with the diff you'll just have to stop rippin hectik skids all the time & it'll be fine :wink: :laff: :laff: Heard they're a good drive when looked after so I reckon you're on the way to happy days. :y:

On the upside, the clutch would be cheaper to replace no? Would a HD clutch upgrade be too much for the box or uni's?

Bursons have been hooking me up for parts for my AE80/82 for years now, so much so they groan whenever I walk in :wink: I've never had an issue with parts or tools I've bought from them (by the by I've NEVER bought parts from a Toyota dealer) & if they don't have it in stock/can't get it quick enough, Repco have been able to help me out. They both sell bits from the same manufacturers (KYB, Super Pro, Kelpro etc) the only variations are availibilty & price sometimes. With your model rolla you shouldnt have any issues, just make sure you have specific info about your car (year, transmission type, engine etc) as these guys deal with ALL kinds of cars & may not know exactly what you're talking about, so they'll just be cross-referencing a handbook. *note* This is not a dig at parts interpreters, I meant you're not expected to know/remember everything about every car!

Even some people under 40...I remember running around my uncles sheds when I was 5 or 6 years old & if it wasnt Sidchrome it wasnt allowed in the shed. I don't care what "processes" or "quality control checks" they have in place, the fact is when they sold the company, changed the people who run it & moved the manufacturing plant location things changed & not for the better. Now that I'm close to 30, Sidchrome is just another one of those brands that "used to be good" (that was, until globalisation kicked in & cost mattered more than quality). :(

I'm just pulling info from my manuals (Gregorys/Haynes)here but: Spark Plugs - NGK BPR5EY (or equivalent) Gap @ 0.8mm. My vehicle emissions control sticker from under the bonnet however states a 1.1mm gap, I have run both (on a 2AC) & everything seems fine. :hmm: Ignition timing - 5 + 2 degrees BTDC @ MAX 900 RPM Idle speed for M/T - 750 RPM (without power steering) 800 RPM (with power steering) Idle speed for A/T - 800 RPM (w/o p/s) 900 RPM (with p/s) When setting the timing, first disconnect the vacuum hose from the vacuum advance unit on the distributor while the engine is running. There should only be two hoses & I'm almost certain its the lower one of the two. Make sure to plug the ends of the hose & then set the timing accordingly. With the 1986/87 models recheck the timing with the vacuum hose reconnected, it should be 13 degrees BTDC. If not, repeat procedure. Have fun now! :yes: Edit: As far as I'm aware the Australian delivered models were ULP configured/compatible.

I hope that bolt's 8.8 HT :P

Yay, I'm not the only one! :laff: Maybe the ones I have that survived are just the ones I don't use all that often? :hmm:

First up: Welcome to Rollaclub!! :y: Second up: Bad bits, bad schmits...I now have to clean up a pool of drool that formed on my floor when I saw pics of your KE. I'm no KExx expert, but I can say I've never seen a liftback before, now that I have I'm in love. :wub:

:lmao: Gold, I love it! Cheers man! :hail:

Just imagining that koala with a cocktail glass in its hand.... :lolcry: Can someone photoshop one in? :P

So not entirely an awesome score :( but a good one nonetheless, could always be worse *COUGH*timingchain*COUGH*. It may be a bit off-budget but any chance of an E43 M3 CSL engine conversion? :wink: Perhaps after the drive & enjoy part?

I havent used what I cannot afford, so speaking only from personal experience I had to go with Kinchrome. My toolkit started out 9 years ago as a $24.95 K-Mart special which I have added to over the years (and cars!) with Kinchrome/Repco/TTI bits as things eventually broke or I needed something else. I still have sockets & spanners from that orginal set in use & have contact with my former employers supllier who can get me things like impact sockets (for hub nuts etc) at cost price. I bought with an application & budget in mind. If I was needing these tools for work everyday, I'd be putting a lot more money into a different brand. :yes:

Alot of work & probably just as much cash. For brake upgrade ideas for the AE92/3, try here: Clicky-clicky

Well today didnt go as I expected :( I rolled up at my mates house to help him unload his project off the trailer & into his shed as he couldnt be arsed doing it at 1am when he got back. I ended up getting about 3 sips into the coffee waiting for me when I started coughing pretty hard & couldnt stop for about 15 min. Just as a by the by, no I hadnt been drinking last night. When I did manage to stop coughing, I proceeded to be violently sick in the backyard. After this it was time for a little lie down thinking I'd feel better after that. But after crashing on the couch with a blanket & hot water bottle I found myself shivering uncontrolably to the point where my back started to cramp up. 15mins of being in a hot shower later I was still shaking, so my mates decided we were going to the hospital. I managed about 100m through the carpark before I was struggling to stand up let alone walk so they got me a wheelchair & pushed me the rest of the way, blanket, spew bucket & all! Care to have a guess what medical treatment I recieved? 2 Panadol (codeine equals lots more vomiting)& a 3 hour plus wait for no f***ing sign of a doctor. Sure, admit the 15 year old girl with a sprained ankle (which she's putting weight on so it aint that bad) in front of me, sure even the 2 year old kid with a cough can go in. But the guy who, 6 hours ago was quite physically okay & is now barely capable of walking, is still dry retching in the waiting room & has a 160 BPM heartrate sitting still can just wait some more apparently. Probably not the right thing to do, but I finally cracked the shits, dragged myself up & staggered out. If I wanted to take 2 panadol & sit around watching V8 Supercars for over 3 hours, I'D DO IT AT HOME!!! :angrybird: I may be being a little bit dramaqueen-esque here, but it just kills my faith in governments when one of their priorities ISNT to you know, make sure the people who pay their taxes & vote for them are looked after? Sorry, I shouldnt start up a rant, I'm too tired & sore for it. Gonna hit the sack & hope getting up for work tomorrow doesnt hurt too much! :unsure:

Many Happy Returns Woz, here's hoping you got Josh running to the fridge to grab you another cold one while you put your feet up! Not only for the work on the pano, but cos its YOUR Birthday. Hope you had a good one! :party:

I like... From the factory most Holdens & Fords are nothing exciting/special, what I like seeing is what the aftermarket can do with these base components & the way they go about it.

No, no & no thankfully :laff: It's my mates project that looks to be a (very) long termer, I'm just glad I'm still allowed space in there! Cheers dude, it might be being done slowly, but at least its being done. I spent today cleaning out my own shed so that I actually have some space to move, as I've just been dumping stuff in there at random. Then moved on to Sudi who is being used as mobile car parts storage atm & organised the gear in her. I even (dear lord) threw out my old door trims from Blue Thing as well, since I replaced them with spare TC items I have no use for them! Throwing stuff out feels weird... :S

The moral of this story to me seems to be: Stay unattached! Okay it can be a lonely way to go through life but at least you get to keep your shit you busted your arse for & spent so much money/time on. Put lots of time & money into a relationship & you don't get to keep squat when it all goes to hell.