Quick update…
She is painted all one colour and put back together awaiting rwc, my daughter has called her Te Fiti, yes out of the kids movie Moana when i decided one last check over to be sure and Boom!! no head lights, everything else is working but low/high beam:sob: gotta love the gremlins. Turns out something in the switch jammed the little plastic bit that pushes a metal tab up and down, on back of switch when taken off, into the up position so no connection. Yes it fell apart when i had a fiddle an a few tiny bits broke off and or went everywhere so I am now awaiting on a switch and then hopefully RWC
Latest pics i have, destroyed a coil cover for a different style😉 new windscreen fitted and fuel flap bolted on after these taken
That is so many levels of cool progress looks good, keep up the good work. Those electrical Gremlins always try and catch you out no matter you do
So I had the roadworthy done on Friday 9th, all went smoothly. The bloke was pretty happy with everything and said it passed with flying colours, being that he does them after work hours he said I could pick up the paperwork on Monday and she would be registered Tuesday
Or so I thought Gets a message on Sunday morning from the rwc bloke asking if i had all the paperwork for the topless conversion, as there isn’t a modplate on the car for that, and i can’t see anywhere that one would have been. Meltdowns and many messages and questions later i am waiting on the boss of Tropical Topless Rentals on Magnetic Island to get back this Friday and see if he can help at all. From what I have found out on Facebook land, he owns the original Topless, along with around 10 others, and hopefully has the plans and Engineers Reports in relation to the conversions. Failing this, or if the rwc bloke or TMR says it’s not enough, I will have to get an engineers report done on the car
In the meantime, Still business as usual, have bought a Genuinely FAKE Nardi steering wheel from facebook, not sure if he is a member, but Much Thanks to Daniel
Just awaiting the ebay spec boss kit.
Also, i had an accident in the Mrs G200 on Boxing Day, poor thing has been written off and gone to the big wreckers auction house in the sky, managed to keep the DeTomaso dash and bottom half of the DeTomaso bumper I grafted onto the smiley one, so future:thinking:
Because of this I have been able to convince the Mrs into letting me keep Te Fiti Happy Happy Joy Joy.
All I can do is wait til Friday, until then, she has been sanded awaiting next coats of paint. For the final finish Mrs and I couldn’t decide, paint is white, don’t want too many stickers but need to tone down the glare, I decided to push my limited boundaries and go all out with a metal flake in the clear. Ebay was searched and while Mrs wanted blue and subdued I wanted to go all out and have fun, so we decided Why Not Both??
Ended up buying Dark Blue and Silver Holospecs and will be combining both in about 3-4 layers of clear then putting around 10 coats or so of straight clear over the top so it can be rubbed back and polished without actually sanding the flakes themselves. The whole process is going to take around 3 months to finish as I found out that I have to let dry for at least 2 weeks inbetween coats because Acrylic paint and clear. Fun times ahead
that looks really good Dale
So the build ( read paint work) has had to be put on hold and the car has been partially disassembled for all the right reasons, finally got onto an engineer who came down from Townsville (400k’s away) for a few jobs with this being one of them. took of the top and one side so he could see what has been done. Lots of measuring, diagrams and writing was done in the two hours he was here with discussions and a few questions asked along the way. He was pretty impressed at the quality of the work done on all the parts built and seems to think the only dramas there might be is the padding depth on rollbar and lack of padding on the roof above windscreen, but was really happy that I had made the windscreen part all curved so no sharp edges. The concern is something called the " Headstrike Arc" which as he explained to me is measured by a metal disc sitting on it’s circumference on the front and rear seats, that has a piece of string attached to it. the string is then moved in an arctowards the front of the car and if the end doesn’t hit the rollbar from back seat or the roof part from the front seat, I will not need any extra padding otherwise will have to use minimum 15mm high density foam ( Wetsuit Type Material). Everything else seating wise etc looked to be up to current ADR standards but as he said, he will do alot of research on the varying things done and size of materials used for rollbar and side intrusion bar then let me know, possibly up to a months or so. Now it’s just a waiting game, don’t want to fininsh the spray job just in case i have to pull something back apart.
Sounds positive. Fingers crossed it all works out.
Just a quick teaser
3 Months On
Sorry about the quality of the pics, but that’s how she is sitting at the moment, all back together and still waiting, phone camera doesn’t show the metal flake paint job at all
Engineer has been back again and measured the " Head Strike Arc " need a disc 20cm diameter and string attached to it, disc sits on it’s circumference where a person would sit then string is moved and length measured where it touches rollbar or above windscreen depending front or rear. She only just passed this by just on 1cm both front and back but it’s good to see that a 20 odd year old conversion does still meet current ADR’s without any further work needed
Weather is cooler so won’t finish the clear for another few months, getting annoyed at only doing a couple of coats then having to wait 2 weeks to avoid shrinkback, never going to do metal flake in acrylic again
Was thinking of using Metallic Blue Hammer Finish paint on the sills from the curve down but unsure whether i should match the curve on the bottom of the bumpers also because of height difference between them and the sill, what are people’s thoughts, yay or nay??
So pretty much just waiting on a final bill and the paperwork from the engineer then RWC and Rego
No mod number for the EJ-DE?
Nice to see it “done”.
Wow, I honestly can’t believe i only wrote a tiny bit about that in my November 2017 update
Yep the engine conversion was mod plated in September 2017 under the current ADR’s section LA1, they state for cars under 800kg the maximum allowable engine size is : Original Mass (Kg) x 3 = Maximum Engine Capacity in cc’s for N/a and Original Mass (kg) x 2.5 = Maximum Engine Capacity in cc’s for forced induction motors, giving a theoretical engine size of 1.8L N/a or 1.5L boosted. The bloke that did the mod plate was really happy that the EJ bolted straight onto the original engine mounts and mainly worried about any abnormal rocking of the motor by hand. I didn’t even have an exhaust apart from the manifold and he said that as long as the motor was mounted properly that was a concern for rwc time.
modplate for motor, on the passenger side inner guard
Engineers mod plate for topless conversion and rear seatbelt replacement from factory Lap Sash seatbelts to straight lap only seatbelts utilising the factory bottom mounting points and centre seatbelts out of another vehicle, had to replace the ones that came with car due to corrosion to those from a Sirion, well 2 Sirions actually
Went to a local swap meet, mostly old holden and ford stuff but spent $20 on this little gem
The possibility of using this on the topless hit me almost straight away, quick mockup but you get the idea
It’s called a Hypercharger Intake, commonly found on Harley Davidson motorbikes, was just the bare shell withou butterflies and rod so I bought a piece of 6mm rod, cut down and ground to fit the 4.5mm bushes, soldered a small piece of steel onto it and fitted to the vacuum rod. Still have to make butterflies and get a custom metal intake pipe made to suit to drop below bonnet height and brace for the extra weight but you get the idea
So, all the waiting has finally paid off and Tefiti the Topless is finally 100% Legit, Legal 4 seater and Registered Convertible!!! YAAY!
Got a really cool bloke at the transport department when doing all the rego stuff, we were talking about the car and he had a good laugh when i showed him the latest photo of it, so he gave me the number plate 094YKG, the numbers representing year of manufacture… I said " Yucking " for the letters and he replied, after a good chuckle, “Young n Kool Gang” so that’s what I am sticking with
So anyway, couple of pics of the Mrs, Daughter and a couple of the grandkids enjoying the first drive. Last pic says it all
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well Done Dale all that hard work has finally paid off. Congrats Mate!!!
Awesome! now time to enjoy it