Blyatsu 2 - The Ultimate Daihatsu (L701)

[Blyatsu]

Still no progress, but there is something to look forward to! Recently I took apart the idiotically placed workbench apart, which gave us tonnes of space. This was one of the major changes I needed to make to proceed with the Blyatsu. The other major thing, is to make a workbench. I have a rough idea of how I’d like my bench but there are a few things holding me back. One of them was, oddly, my old EJ’s. I had two entire subframes with an EJ+gearbox, which just eats up space like crazy. So, I decided to take everything off, put the engines on small carts, the gearboxes in my new gearbox-spot (once you have a spot like that, you might want to ask yourself if that’s a good thing), and just put the subframes wherever.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t do that on my own because I’d at least need an engine crane to to that.
Fonrtunately, @marc0tjevp was kind enough to come over with his crane and help me out.
Unfortunately, that week was ‘carnaval’ (people put on silly outfits, get drunk and watch parades, it’s fun), which I decided to join after 4 years, and my hangover got worse during the day.
So uhm, yeah. Here’s a pic of me in my costume, and a picture of Marco doing most of the work the day after while I’m slowly dying and questioning my choices is life:

Legend

Anyways, with the EJ’s now taking up considerably less space, there’s no real reason to not start on a workbench. I’m really just procrastinating because I always like to make stuff really nice and do some ‘clever stuff’ like storage or functions, but I think I just have to start with a simple workbench and work from there. I can’t really make a ‘complex’ workbench without a workbench to make that on , so there’s no real point in trying. Hoping to start on that next weekend, if you have any suggestions on things I should look at or mistakes you’ve made making a workbench, please let me know!

[marc0tjevp]

@Blyatsu

So uhm, yeah. Here’s a pic of me in my costume, and a picture of Marco doing most of the work the day after while I’m slowly dying and questioning my choices is life:

I had fun taking apart the engines and seeing you nearly die. Good times.

[Blyatsu]

Great news: I got something to write about! And it’s good

SHED UPDATE

The Blyatsu has been sitting inside the garage since December, and the reason why it’s been sitting so long is because my shed just wasn’t ready to work in. Sure, there’s more space and stuff to work with than the garage I did my swap in, but it was just a mess of stuff and unfinished business. So, I started working on a workbench, and this is the result:

Excuse the mess, I was a bit excited

It’s about 85cm deep and 360cm wide, pretty nice! It’s hard to see on this picture, but there are two small benches on the side and opposite to the main workbench, creating a nice C-shaped workbench. I really wanted this because I like having multiple ‘spaces’, yet being able to use all the space at once (like for wiring). It took quite long before I finally finished it, because of (the lack of) time and because it was a real mental challenge. Not in a way like I’m suffering from depression, but with (new) things like these, I don’t really know how I’m supposed to do it, which stresses me out and makes me postpone progress. I can just sit around and stare at pieces of wood for an hour, just trying to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to do. Incredibly exhausting. But, it’s mostly finished and ready for use!

CHANGE OF PLANS… AGAIN

So, about the car then. Motivation has been low, but suddenly it kind of skyrocketed, and ever since I’ve just been busy with “what do I need to do to get this thing back on the road?”. The main goal for this winter was to install the EMU classic (standalone ECU). When I was doing some prep work for the wiring, I started to think (dangerous, I know). What’s really the point of fitting a standalone ecu to a car with relatively low power? Sure, compared to an EJ, the 3SZ is a big block, but it’s stil not a big block. And well, when timing is right, things like this happen:

What you see here, is a Honda K24. I happened to have an itch for moare bigger at a time when I had some money to spare and a friend of mine put this up for sale. You could say this was an impulsive purchase. So impulsive in fact, that I didn’t tell anyone, because I was kind of ashamed since this is pretty hard to justify in terms of money.

Anyway, there’s a LOT of work to do for this to go in, so better get started! Starting with wiring, because I’m already working on the ECU anyway.

WIRING

So, for those of you who are wondering how the hell I wanted to fit a K24 under the hood of an L7, when the 3SZ was already a challenge in terms of space: I’m not, but today is the 1st of April ;). The engine in the pictures above is actually my friend’s, who is fitting it in his Lotus Elise (also a tight squeeze). I’m sticking to the 3SZ!

I already took out the engine harness a while ago, so now it was just a matter of stripping all the tape and sleeves

I’m taking off all the factory tape/sleeves/protection from the harness because of three main reasons:

• It looks like shit imo
• I need to run some new wires through and delete some other wires
• I need it to be more flexible, and in some cases the cables need to go to a different location

On the left you can see a bit of OEM sleeve/tubing, on the right you can see the new sleeves I already fitted a while ago. The entire harness will be wrapped in this kind of sleeve. Exciting!

Be gone, factory junk

When I was mostly done with that, I remembered something quite important: I needed to take out the interior harness out as well . It’s not a necessity for the new ECU, but I wanted a different harness anyway since a lot of the wires had to do with the whole CANbus nightmare, which won’t be needed anymore, or just aren’t used at all. I also want to make a few additions, like a single plug for the headlights (quick release, bro).

So, out goes the dashboard. Taking out the dash has become a routine task over the years, but damn, I forgot about how impractical and bulky my wiring harness was

Notice the harness forms a bit of a ‘loop’ in the middle

This loop made really put my mood to the test. I think they made this loop because the YRV’s dash (from which this harness came) is a bit taller than those in L7’s, for example. However, L7’s and Sirions (M1) did not have this loop, making life a lot easier. A lot of swearing and some bruises later, I got it out!

These are all the bits I needed to make the factory ECU work properly. Apart from the ECU (obvs), I can now get rid of everything! Thank god

This is the entire package that I will fit to the car. The EMU classic, a wideband O2 sensor and a Sirion wiring harness

I stripped down the Sirion harness the same way I did with the engine harness, which took quite some time. The next step is probably remove/add wires if necessary, but that requires some staring at wiring diagrams, which I didn’t have time for today. It doesn’t seem like much in terms of progression, but I really enjoyed working on the car again today, and I’m really motivated to get it back on the road again soon!

ANNIVERSARIES

Tomorrow (April 2nd) is the Blyatsu’s 21st birthday, and the day after that is my 23rd birthday. I didn’t think the Blyatsu would look like this on its birthday (I don’t really care about its birthday, but I just mean in terms of how long it’s been sitting for), but on the other hand it’s not that far from driving again, really.
Also, today is my 2 year anniversary of renting a shed, and tomorrow it’s 2 years ago I bought my YRV donor!

Ah yes, time flies.

Well, that’s it for now! Maybe not all that interesting, but it’s nice to be motivated again. I’ll keep you guys updated!

[b_hoves]

Oh Crap! You got me.
This is gonna be awesome, even with the 3sz!

[Blyatsu]

Hi guys, a lot of things happened in the last few weeks and I need to find some time to make a new post about it, but for now I wanted to show you this:

3SZ EMU test

First outing in 5 months!

[Defra]

Drempel haha
Love the industrial look !

[evilhighway]

that looks to be going really well

[GreenBean]

That’s awesome, making good progress. Hope it serves you well ^^

[Blyatsu]

Looking back at my last post, I see that there is a lot to catch up on. And I will, but somewhere in the near future. For now I’d like to keep things short!

The reason why I haven’t posted for so long, is because I was really busy with my internship and graduation. A lot of things went wrong, some went well, I felt like shit, but in the end I made it work. Last Tuesday I presented my final product and scored a 7/10, which I’m happy with considering the shit I had to go through.

So, that’s the good news, now we get to the bad news. MOT on the Blyatsu would expire the day after my presentation, so I wanted to have it checked on Monday so 'd at least get a list of what needed fixing. On Sunday I found out one of the axle boots was a bit torn, which already put me in a bad mood, but it was nothing compared to what I’d stumble into on Monday.
I drove the car to the MOT-station on Monday morning, somewhat expecting it to fail inspection, which it did. When the nice lady told me what needed fixing, I wasn’t surprised (at first):

• Headlamp beam pattern(?) was off (I put in some random headlights which were basically cross eyed)
• Headlamp adjustment was reversed (likely because of my quick release connector)
• License plate lamp was broken
• Rust on the right sill

At first I thought “oh sick they didn’t see the torn boot” (and yes, of course I was going to fix it, but that’s a lot easier if your car isn’t illegal to drive), but then I realized what the nice lady had just said: rust on the right sill. And not just a bit of rust, but MOT-failure rust, apparently. And well, when I got back home, I was baffled:

With all the issues I had with the wiring and ECU on top of dealing with my internship, I’d completely forgotten that this was still a Daihatsu and that it would rot eventually. I was however surprised since it spent the entire winter inside and there wasn’t even an advisory on rust last year. Either way, with 2 days of MOT left, I was forced to put it back in the garage after just 1 month of driving it after 6 months of sitting.

I still need to work out what’s the best thing to do, but to me, there were 4 options:

1. Just quit. Sell all the parts, get rid of the shell and just move on from Cuores, maybe Daihatsu’s in general
2. Buy another shell and transfer all the parts
3. Patch up the holes so I can at least drive it this summer
4. Accepting I won’t drive it for a while and fix it properly (both left and right), among other things ‘on the list’

Option 1 sounds rational, but then I’d just throw away 4 years of work which would be a shame. Option 2 would be a lot of work, and probably cost the same as fixing the current shell (if I would even be able to find a clean shell). Option 3 seems reasonable, but temporary, so that brings me to option 4. I always knew I had to get the car fixed properly, but financially I’m afraid I’m not in any position to do it now. It is however the option I prefer.

So, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I really need the money to afford some vacation time, because (and I’m not looking for pitty) last year has been a real struggle, both mentally and physically. I also want to do some research before I get a ‘real job’, to make sure I end up in a place I’m happy with, and since I’m done having to temporarily get used to new people and a new job, I’m not really feeling like getting a random summer job at some random place I don’t have any connection with .

Will make a post about everything that happened in between fitting the ECU and getting it on the road soon. Wish me good look for now!

[Mophius]

Damn that must mean that the rust is real bad when the even say that its an failure. I can understand the disappointment. Just take it easy and don’t rush things. It could be a great learning opportunity to repair the rust. Since that kinda a Daihatsu thing it would mean that you are going to need it if you plan on drive one longer

[Granger]

Sorry to hear life has been tough, but focus on the positive - you passed your internship and are now in a good position to move into the exciting world of getting a real job.

For what its worth, my suggestion is to push the car into the garage, get a whiteboard and a pen and write out a list of ALL THE THINGS you want/need to do to get the car legal again. Maybe write two columns:

• must do
• would like to do

Add up what each will cost and write that out next to each of them so you have a target to aim at. “I need X Euro to do all the ‘must do’ items to get the car legal again. I need X + Y to do all the ‘must do’ items and all the ‘would like to do’ items”

Take a break from getting a job and enjoy the summer. Have a vacation, enjoy time with friends. Whatever. If you have a rainy day or feel in the mood then go the the garage and look at the whiteboard. I bet there will be things on there that are either free of cost (but might take time) or are low cost. Try to attack those things, once you start ticking things off the list and see it shrinking you’ll get some mojo back, and it will feel like you’re getting closer to getting the car back on the road.

Maybe see if some of the Dutch Daihatsu Division of L2D can come over and make a working party of fixing something? Get a few beers in, some biscuits and crisps and see how many things you can get crossed of the list.

One other suggestion which is a bit left field. Sills.

In a Dutch MOT, is the tester allowed to remove things? The reason I ask is that in the UK they are not. Why is this important, I hear you ask? Well…

I know of more than one UK car which has deeply questionable sills, but if these are covered by side skirts made of something that doesn’t rust, but does cover the rust, then all the tester can do is issue an advisory of ‘side skirts fitted’ - they can’t take them off and expose the horror underneath.

So what a bad person might do, is magically find some side skirts that fit over some sub-optimal sills, fit them and present the car for a retest, safe in the knowledge that what cannot be seen, cannot be failed on an MOT.

The Dutch MOT might be slightly less crazy in this regard, but a bit of lateral thinking never hurt anyone…

[Blyatsu]

Thanks for your reply, I appreciate you trying to help and I will keep a few things in mind for sure!

If I remember correctly, the “not taking anything off”-rule is applied here as well. And yes, I would he able to pass inspection, but in a way I think I should just see this as a ‘sign’ to keep it off the road and properly work on the car (maybe even re-register it).

And for the pessimistic people that are reading this: Yes I do want it re-registered, yes I know what I’m potentially getting myself into

[evilhighway]

I think @Granger has some great advice there. I myself had not had a great late 2022/2023 but for different reasons.
Whatever decision you make will be the right one for you at this time.
It sounds like your opting to take Blyatsu off the road and fix it properly which I think is a great idea. At least when it is done you will know it has been done correctly.
If life moves on and you don’t get back to it, then you still have that option.

Oh by the way this wasn’t exactly keeping it short!

[Blyatsu]

Yeah looking back at it I thought “oh that’s still pretty substantial” . Oh well, I was always bad at keeping it short

[Mr_Gormsby]

Option 5. Find some skirts and patch over the rust for now.

Well done on your graduation. What was your “final product”?

[Blyatsu]

I have thought about the sideskirt option, but I think I’d rather get it right all at once, since I don’t think it’s getting any better this way.

Thank you! In short, I worked for a company active in horticulture and they needed to optimize a machine that spreads pots/plants to a certain pattern, picks them up and places them on the ground. Since the current system was designed for one customer, the entire design should be changed if a new customer wanted the same machine with a different pattern, distances or diameter. So, I came up with a fairly easy rail-like system, which doesn’t require any fixed mounting points. Instead, components can slide and be mounted by clamping them.

[Mr_Gormsby]

That’s great well done!

Was thinking skirts if you needed your MOT immediately. I’ve done quite a few sill replacements. If you had somewhere to work and a mig welder, get a full length made up to the same profile at a sheet metal works. What I’d do (which is not a “do it my way” suggestion) is drill out all the spot welds on the pinch seam at the bottom, cut at the extreme ends on concave 90deg folds and also run a 1mm grinding disc along the top sharp angle. Using middle of the sharp edges will reduce distortion and be easier to grind and fill than a flat part of the panel. Look for spot welds in extra places as there might be some double structure, esp near the rear wheels.

[Mophius]

If and when you replace those panels, remember to coat everything you see in anti rust. It’s cheap and hopefully prevents it from rusting again

[Blyatsu]

Unfortunately, I don’t have any welding experience (let alone a welding machine or money to buy one) myself and since I want these sills to last decades (or at least a few years) I’m not going to practice on my own car. I will have it done at a local professional and have it coated properly as well. However, I will keep your tips in mind when discussing the approach of fixing it!

[Blyatsu]

In my last update, I said I’d write something about the installment of the ECU etc, but I have absolutely no idea what happened between the winter and having it tuned, so I’m not going to elaborate on that.

In the mean time I went on holiday (or should I say: Holidave) with my faded yellow hero and drove all around the Netherlands to see a lot of why-do-you-live-so-far-away-friends. Of course, the Aussies will laugh when I say 2,5 hours is considered ‘far away’, but, you know, The Netherlands. It was nice to literally and figuratively take some distance from life at home, and I really enjoyed all the activities and seeing my friends. I think I drove about 1300 km’s and when I got home, Dave’s odometer read 122.000 km’s. As we speak it’s just passed 123.000, which means I’ve owned Dave for over 20k+ km’s since July last year.

Now back to the Blyatsu: in my last post, I talked about getting it fixed properly and not rush things. I also wanted to do some other things “while I’m added”, and I started to make a list, which is pretty substantial by now. Pretty much all of it isn’t a ‘must’, but a ‘would like to’, so maybe a few things won’t actually make this round.
The list, in random order:

• Modified doorcards
• Coolant hoses (new)
• Rust fixed (obvs)
• Exhaust (needs proper alignement)
• Redo headlights
• Tidy up wiring harness
• Replace washer fluid reservoir
• Fit Copen steering rack power steering
• Make a nice flat floor in the back
• Fix reverse lights
• Fix and mount ECU (one pin came loose)
• Fit new rear brakes + freshen up rear axle
• Fix intake
• Fit the new-ish carpet
• Freshen up the steering knuckles (bit of paint, new bearings)
• Fit new brake lines, maybe ABS (most of it is there already)
• Fit towbar
• Fix the audio and speaker placement
• Fit insulaton

That’s the list up until now, but it’ll probably grow. The goal is to get the car to (mechanically) look like OEM+, so I can get it reregistered (and to my fellow Dutchmen: yes, I will do that, you don’t have to understand why). Things like aesthetics or the towbar or the insulation aren’t really recessary to get the cat to that state, so maybe those things can wait.

At the moment I’m working on my workspace to create a good environment for when I do start on the car, and I have to say I’m pretty pleased with the way things are going:

I made a new workbench with space for storage up top. The ‘old’ workbench (in front of the wall) will get a storage floor as well, and the idea is to create some sort of system which allows the workbenches to be connected by metal shelves (on both levels) which I had laying around, to create more storage space or a large workbench if necessary, but since the shelves will just slide on the side of the benches, it’ll be super flexible. I’ll take some pictures when I’m done. This picture was taken last week, but I’ve already done a lot more in the mean time.

Recently I’ve decided to move out of my parents’ house and go back to the place I grew up. Because I’m still looking for a job, I’m financially unstable because I need to be able to pay rent, even if I don’t find a job in time. That’s why I’m currently saving all of my money, and none will be spent on the Blyatsu. Because of that, I don’t think it’ll be back on the road before 2024, but that depends on the way things go.

Question

I’d like to know what you guys think of “the list” and how you’d handle this. Although it’s a shame I don’t get to drive the car, there are a lot of things I’d like to get fixed because it makes driving less fun, so I’m not really bothered. Also, I could just get the rust issue fixed properly and then get it back on the road and fix all the other issues as we go, but at some point, the engine will come out (for example) so I wouldn’t be able to drive it anyways, you know. Let me know what you think!