James' Workshop

I wish it were mine - the 240z is my favourite car. This 1970 really straight example was parked just down from my house.

The VTNZ guy failed my trucks warrant because the indicators blinked too fast (LED swap). I made him show me the rule hat dictated legally how fast the indicators needed to be - and when he showed me I admitted defeat had to wire in some stupid little resistor packs to slow down the blinking. I had to mount them to steel because they apparently get up to 180 degrees.

I rigged up some interior lights for a friends Patrol so when he’s out hunting and fishing at night he can see all his gear in the back. I installed them on the truck too but didn’t take pictures.

Started stripping a mates 400ci Chevy swapped FJ40 land cruiser in preparation for him restoring it over the weekend.

I found a Toyota Celica at one of those self pull junkyards that had the same motor as the caldina. My brother and I pulled the motor, I re-did the timing kit on it and dropped it in the car last night. Now it’s time to start hooking everything back up. It’s hard - I’m not a mechanic so I don’t know what I don’t know.

I got the head back and all the bits to start reassembling the engine... but my dad stopped by and said the block was buggered. So, the engine had to come out. I’ll have to get another.

I got given a car because it had a blown head gasket. I got the head off (not as easy as it sounds on this) and sent it off to be machined. It doesn’t look too good.

My spare 1KZ-TE has been taking up a corner of the shed, unable to be moved, so I built a quick, movable engine stand for it.

After I installed the new EFS 50mm raised shocks and springs, I had to bang together a winch bar. Doesn’t look half bad from a distance. Definitely not my best work, but it’s symmetrical and solid. Last thing is to mount the light bar and number plate.

New suspension! The hilux is getting a 50mm lift kit.

Been meaning to put a winch on the hilux for a while. Step one, a mounting plate and wiring up the winch. It’s hooked up to an unused factory mirror switch from another truck.

In two days I stripped my donor hilux from a complete car to parts. Interior out, body off, engine and trans out, rear and front end sections plasma cut out of the chassis and the rest plasma cut and put in the scrap bin. Next weekend I’ll cut up the remaining shell and take any sheet metal I want from that.

Dropped the rear subframe out of this Porsche with the torsion bar, rear axle/CVs and control arms. Time to undo 40 years of rust.

More rust in the hilux... except this time on my seat mount. Easy fix to make up a new one and weld it in.

Finally got the transmission out of Alain's Porsche 924 today. That was way harder than it needed to be but we got there.

I had two neat cars from the 70's at my shed that I worked on today. An MG BGT and a Porsche 924.

I finally found where the leak was in the hilux. Turns out there were four badly rusted holes on the roof rack mounts and heavy rain would drop through. I had to strip the interior and weld in some patch panels.