Print

Read-only historical archive.
Browse the preserved forum and gallery. Registration, login, uploads and account changes are no longer available.

Read-only historical archive.
Browse the preserved forum and gallery. Registration, login, uploads and account changes are no longer available.

Read-only historical archive.
Browse the preserved forum and gallery. Registration, login, uploads and account changes are no longer available.
October 16, 2026, 09:22:43 PM

1 Guest, 0 Users

[BigNorm]

Hey ppl, bit quiet around here so i thought i'd update on whats goin on around me. just finished spending 100K in 2years playing mr house renovator so the cars have pretty much been pushed back a few priorities. now thats finished i'm back into the chapel to spend time worshipping the cars.

heres an update on whats been happening and whats going on;

black betty - was bored so for shits and giggles did a rear mount turbo. good for about 10psi but comes in late, probably too late. not interested in doing r&d to refine this and make it better. for those looking at it and thinking what a waste - its not a waste, its 10psi of boost i didnt have before so it has its benefits.







Black Betty last time i had it out at something a bit more than a casual thing;







i've also got a big block zf fairlane which lays guilt trips on me everytime i walk into the chapel for ignoring it for the last couple of years. not much to see here yet.




OK, heres where the time has been spent of late.

I bought a wagon. second wagon i've ever owned hence Wagon Too. its a 77(yep) 2.0L auto which only has 100,000kms on it so its like stepping into a time machine. you know you're getting old when it only has an AM radio and you dont mind. interior is 9/10, body is dead straight with no rust but it has been primed with rattle cans straight over the original paint which is a bit of a pain but i can deal with it. the springs were also cut to an mickey hair of the bumpstops which is a bit harsh on the kidneys. 









first thing, put raised springs in there cos i got sick of pissing blood. only a couple of mickeys higher cos it actually looks shithot. also painted the wheels and broke out my whitewall machine.







next the 2.0L is a little lazy, uses shitloads of fuel and smokes like a bitch when its cold. if i had to pull the engine out for a rebuild i cant really bring myself to rebuild a 4 cyl so put together a good 250 i had stored away, gave a few of the covers a quick airbrush and put it in.









this is a close up of the rocker cover. the rear half is done in a dark candy apple red so in normal light the rear half of the cover is actually very close to black. in sunlight or camera flash(like this photo) the skulls reflect. i did this cover and then realised there is more than 1 type of cover for a crossflow(who knew?) so this one wasnt going to work. i've done an identical cover which does fit so this cover is now for sale. if you have a cast iron head 250 then this cover is for you. send me a pm and make me an offer otherwise i'm gonna chuck it on ebay in a few weeks/months.






i'm also documenting the entire process of the 6cyl conversion and am gonna write up a tute on how to do it for those interested once i'm finished.  the engine is pretty much only just sitting in there now and i'm doing a hidden wiring loom for it which is the time consuming bit.

thats it for me so peace out people and enjoy

[winton]

100k on renos, your place must look fancy as.
Rear mount turbo, I like.
Yep 2.0, why bother in a corty. Had one, fuel consumption was about the same as a six.
That air brush stuff looks like a bought one.
That's a nice wagon, I've had 2 td wagons, would like one again.
Next to cortys fairlane are the shit, a little piece of me died when ford dropped the fairlane.
The family bus is a v8 lane, somethings just not right about a 6cyl fairlane .

[Oscar of Markoz]

Looks sick Norm. Love it. Nice turbo setup too.

[Yttam7]

The airbrushing looks mint norm! You really can't go wrong with 250.

[BigNorm]

** Mental Note - before you weld the 6 cylinder tranny mounts to the floor you need to remove the front carpet and sound proofing. if you think you've removed enough of the sound proofing, its not enough.   it burns well when u get the floopan hot enough.

[dougie77]

doh got to hate that but i know that shit burns quick had that happen when dave was fixing rust iside my rear door on beacon 1

Wagon looks shit hot makes me want to go and work on mine and nice work with the rocker cover

[CORTE]

airbrushing the engine is pretty neat and great work so far

[BigNorm]

ok i'd forgotten about this thread so an update.

got the wagon all finished and spiffy looking. headed on down to rego to have it inspected to license it as a 6. turns out the cockhead inspecting the car is younger than the car, never seen one before and didnt know they come out with a 6. he did me for not having a permit for the extractors, missing snib button lhr door and said i had to have it engineered for the conversion.

i asked him why and he reckons i've doubled the engine capacity so it has to be engineered. i told him that they came out factory with that engine. he couldnt confirm nor deny that so he's referred me to an engineer. he also entered all this into the rego system so thats it, it cant be reversed only rectified - no matter where i take it to be inspected.

i cracked it and told him if he doesnt know and cant find the info anywhere he'd only have to ask and i can even produce proof in the form of ford literature. he fucked off and came back about 20 minutes later handing me my paperwork. he then added that he'd looked it up and found a 6 cylinder cortina but they have ventilated discs and that i should consider doing that before getting it engineered. i left telling him he was a useless cunt and a disgrace.

permit costs $25 so a no brainer and i screwed a snib button on to it.

anyways i speaks to couple of engineers and they dont know what specifically to inspect it for ie: brakes, torsional etc so it would be a full inspection costing a couple of grand. both of them knew cortinas came out in a 6 and agreed it was bullshit but both of them were holding thier hand out for payment and could do it the next day.

so effectively because of the original peanut i have to have an original standard car engineered. what happens if the engineer finds a fault? its his word against ford.

anyways as this was only an inspection agent i went to the top of dept of transport to get verification and maybe they can do something about it. they have a form and a process i can go thru. apparantly take 2-4 weeks. i'm coming up to 8 weeks without an answer. you cant ring them and speak to the relevant ppl. it takes about an hour on hold just to speak to anyone and then they wont put you thru so now its just a waiting game.

i got big plans for the wagon and wanna start chopping it up which i cant do until i get it rego'd cos it wont be available for inspection thereafter so a word either way would be nice.

[winton]

It's pretty ridiculous when they don't have the correct info on the cars they're inspecting.

You going to lower the roof line?

[dougie77]

Im thinking rear mounted twin turbo supercharged with a 400 shot into a flat 6