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Thread: Javal's Mechanical Spirit Guide / 18RG XT130 Hate Machine

  1. #441
    Veteran stahlz_ae86's Avatar
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    How soon? Keen.

  2. #442
    Site Supporter Javal's Avatar
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    End of this month.
    You can have any brew you want... as long as it's a Datsun / Corolla / What is that?

  3. #443
    Site Supporter Javal's Avatar
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    So it's almost time again. The 5 month blank gets filled in on the 28th.

    Here's a pic from 'the last time' after getting a wheel alignment at Bridgestone Reynella, because an 'eyecrometer' alignment isn't really any good.

    Yes the front is high. Yes, it will probably lose some height.
    You can have any brew you want... as long as it's a Datsun / Corolla / What is that?

  4. #444
    Site Supporter Javal's Avatar
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    So.

    Maybe it’s time for me to fill in the great blank I’ve left in this build log over the past five months. It’s been a long while, so true to my structured ramblings, it’s going to be a bit of a story.

    Let’s rewind 5 months. November 2014. I moved to Melbourne about 6 months prior with every intention of bringing the XT130 over once I’d found my feet after the move. I rented a nice place and found a good job. As far as the Corona is concerned, where we left off I was ‘100%’ ready to take the XT130 through its’ roadworthy inspection at Regency Park after having a set of metal flares welded in and the whole shell painted again. I would have to take a trip back to Adelaide in order to take it through the final steps toward rego.

    The plan was pretty simple: Take a week off work and jump on a flight back to Adelaide. Arrive a few days before my appointment with the DPTI at Regency park and spend a day or so getting the car back up to scratch after being in storage. Wash the dust off, polish the brightwork and wax the paint. Closer to the date I’d head up to AJPS as they were kind enough to offer me loan of a car trailer. Pop up and see the engineer to collect my nice and professional bound copy of the Engineers’ report, then not sleep a lot the night prior to my own personal ‘D-day’. On the day itself I would saddle the car up on the trailer, hit the DPTI identity inspection station, trundle around the corner to the Roadworthiness facility, collect my paperwork, trailer it home and pick up some rego plates for it. Spend the next 4 days in the Adelaide hills. Plonk it on a truck and park it in my garage. Drink a beer.

    While it almost goes without saying, things did not go to plan.

    The early part of it went alright. I certainly got to Adelaide OK. The car cleaned up better than I could have hoped, this was my first time seeing both the weld-in flares and the new paintjob with my own eyes and I spent a bit of money on some nice wax to protect it. I had a few back-and-forths with the engineer as some of the eyebrow height measurements on the report weren’t quite right after the flares had been done but that all got resolved pretty quickly with a set of C-spanners and me resolving to buy different springs later.

    After a clean-up she looked pretty nice:







    On the night before the day it all fell apart, I picked up the trailer from AJPS, headed home and loaded it up before backing the whole shebang into the driveway. I crawled underneath to clean the undercarriage a little – lo and behold, the fucking thing is leaking. Gearbox output shaft seal – that’d be the gearbox I rebuilt, mind you. It was only a minor leak so I wiped it off and since I was trailering it to the inspection I figured they’d never notice. Truth be told, they didn’t.

    Enter D-day. Everything is ready to go. Javal Senior would be accompanying me today as I was using his ute, plus I’m built like a Singapore noodle and repeated unloading / loading of the car is always easier with extra hands. Engineers report and SOR:VM in hand, we trundled off to the DPTI Vehicle Identity Inspection Station in Regency park.

    ID Check is very simple. Check chassis number / VIN, check engine number and run them both against national databases. Get a piece of paper saying ‘here’s what we recorded your chassis number / VIN as, here’s what we recorded your engine number as’. If you had bought a car from interstate that’d mean ‘proceed directly to rego office’, but for me that meant ‘OK to proceed to roadworthy inspection’. Or should have meant that.

    On the morning I went to for my ID inspection, ALL of ServiceSA’s computer system went down. No bookings. No national database access. No nothing. If you want to go for your roady in SA, for a modified vehicle, you MUST have your ID check done. Unless you have your ID check paperwork, they won’t even start your roady inspection. Thankfully after taking down my numbers, they gave me a piece of paper effectively saying ‘Systems down, ID check completed, will run numbers later’. We popped round to Vehicle Inspections and confirmed that I was OK to proceed before loading the car up again for the 40 second journey around the corner to the roadworthiness inspection facility. It’s about at this point that I began to shit my pants.

    H-hour. D-day.




    There was a lot of waiting. My name got called. Drove my car in to the giant shed with NO PHOTOGRAPHY signs everywhere. Hoping with every inch of my being that they don’t fail me based on the myriad of mods that just barely squeak past ADR minimum requirements, or even just because they’re in a bad mood.

    The inspection is thorough. It’s not ‘no-stone-unturned’ thorough, but it’s thorough enough – and that’s fair. They are, after all, looking at whether the car is roadworthy. I sat there at the inspection station with the inspector, seeing him check seatbelts, lights / horn / warning lamp operation, making sure this and that is secure. Making sure nothing is leaking. Ensuring every modification you’ve done is to-the-letter accurate to your engineers report. We had a few back-and-forths regarding a few mods, my RCA’s weren’t listed on the report but he saw no reason to knock me back based on them – while they weren’t written about in the report, they were photographed, so that was enough. After what seemed like an eternity, I was asked to drive the car off the hoist. I passed the inspection. Just a few checks to go.
    The car was driven on to a what I can only think of calling a ‘brake dyno’ and had the braking force as well as front-rear bias checked – the inspector was sitting in the drivers’ seat for this bit, so while I knew how to fudge the figures that option was taken away from me. Amazingly, I passed that too.

    Final check. Road test. The inspector has to make sure the car drives in a reasonable manner. Reasonable is a pretty broad term, so while my steering is heavy there’s nothing else to condemn me here. We drive out the shed and make it to the car park before I ask the inspector “Don’t you want to put a trade plate on the back or something?”

    “You mean you didn’t get a temporary registration permit?”
    “No, I trailered the car here, like the DPTI website said!”
    “Well, we need road test the car so we can make sure it drives safely, you can go and buy a permit, pick up your MR29 (ID check) and do a re-assessment this afternoon. But at the moment, sorry, but I can’t drive it so I can’t pass it”

    Well, that could have gone a lot worse and I decided to do exactly as the inspector suggested. I just had to pick up my paperwork from ID check (as their computers were now back in action) and hit a rego office for a temporary permit. One very jump-able hurdle left before rego, so it seemed. Back to the ID check station. This is where it all fell to pieces.

    As mentioned before, the ID check station is just around the corner from the Roadworthiness station. It did mean we had to load the car on the trailer again just to drop past. I walked back in to the office, presented my temporary paperwork and was assured the inspection officer would be back out in a minute. I saw him walk out and grinned, as I was quite excited at the prospect of finally getting my car registered.

    Insp: “I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to unload your vehicle and park it in the Inspection shed.”
    Not what I had expected to hear.

    Javal: “Why’s that?”
    Insp: “It would seem that after running your engine number through the national database that it’s been red-flagged”.
    Javal: “Meaning what exactly?”
    Insp: “The engine number has been flagged as stolen. I’m going to have to impound the vehicle. The police are on their way.”

    You’ve got to be kidding me.

    Cue some very quick back and forth between Javal Senior and myself. Calmly speak to the inspector and assert that while we are willing to surrender the vehicle, we’re not going to unload it until the officer in charge of the case is present and we can discuss the matter with him. Inspector agrees. 45 minutes later and a very, very bad egg and salad sandwich later, the officer turns up.

    The officer and I talked for a long time. He’s a nice guy. There’s nothing I can do to stop my car going to the SAPOL impound yard, but we chat for a half hour or so with me trying to ascertain how this could have happened, what’s going to happen to my car in the short term, what could potentially happen to it if the shit hits the fan and eventually, because I know I’ve done no wrong here, how I can assist the investigation to help speed the process along.

    The officer allowed us to forgo the usual procedure of getting a tow truck out to take the car to impound and allowed us to follow him there ourselves – the car was still on trailer and after getting a bit of a handle on the situation he knew we weren’t exactly going to run off. We followed the marked car to the impound lot and after a little chat with the officers at the impound lot I parked it in the safest little corner I could and made sure that it’d be OK for my Javal Senior to collect the car – It was dawning on me that I’d be flying back to Melbourne in a few days time and I wouldn’t be able to collect it myself.

    I’d like to add at this point that I am incredibly thankful for the graces granted to me by the DPTI and SAPOL. It does go to show that being calm and polite can be reciprocated in like and kind. I will also add that I don’t think I could have been nearly as calm and collected as I was without my Dad being there for support.

    There’s nothing I can do at this point. My car is locked in a yard with 10ft electric fences and a current police investigation to its’ name. I go home and collect all the information I have regarding where and from whom I bought the 18RGEU – not that I suspect them of any foul play at all – I would later come to learn that the engine was registered as stolen almost 15 years ago.
    All said and done, car nearly gets registered, then gets impounded. I kicked my shoes off and true to my intentions, drank a beer.

    Fly home to Melbourne. Liaise with the police every few days. Wait.

    After about a month in impound, I got the call. I’d been cleared. My car had been cleared. There was no insurance company, previous owner or ‘victim of crime’ to settle with. All lights were green again. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I’m not sure that I’m meant to. I put it down to either an ongoing investigation or someone had made a pretty fucking serious clerical error. Personally I think the car my engine originally came from might have been stolen, wrecked and recovered, but not ‘officially’ recovered on the national database. Since then it’d been swapped through any number of cars (as 18R-G’s often just get switched out with a standard 18R with nary a word or whisper). It even got fully rebuilt at one point without the engine number ever crossing a rego database.

    Javal Senior collected the XT130 from impound a few days later and put it back in to storage. I’d have to knuckle down and save up again to make the trip back and try the whole thing again.

    Here I am. Round two.
    You can have any brew you want... as long as it's a Datsun / Corolla / What is that?

  5. #445
    Veteran AJPS's Avatar
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    planning on getting new number plates?
    - 10 year anniversary Tshirts http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/fo...irts-group-buy -

    Garage sale http://www.ae86drivingclub.com.au/fo...3-autumn-sales Specials on front end kits - pm me


  6. #446
    Site Supporter Javal's Avatar
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    Maybe I can get some of the hektik plates from MYPLATES.

    I think YUCUT, IN54NE or CRZYAS would suit it well.

    Actually DR33MA isn't too far off, but custom plates are not for me. When it goes back to vic it'll get the new jap series plates.
    You can have any brew you want... as long as it's a Datsun / Corolla / What is that?

  7. #447
    Veteran stahlz_ae86's Avatar
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    Good luck, should be all sorted second time around.

  8. #448
    Veteran Konakid's Avatar
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    Hoooooo fucking rayyyyyy!!!!!!!!!
    RT142 Estate.

    AJPS.

  9. #449
    Site Supporter Javal's Avatar
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    Picking up where we left off then.

    Early afternoon flight into Adelaide from Melbourne. Good excuse for a beer.



    This is how I came back to it immediately after I got in. I was planning to clean it but it’s still looking pretty damn good after 4 months under a cover, plus the weather was so changeable earlier in the week it’d get rained on almost immediately after I finished, so there was really no point. I still haven’t washed it but who knows, I might get around to it.



    Still got its ‘prison tats’ from when it was incarcerated.


    Also, a little battle damage already. A present left by the fencing contractors. That’s gonna be a bitch to fix up.


    I left the battery on charge for about 8 hours on Sunday. Air filter was filthy too.


    Let’s see if it starts.

    Nope.

    Monday I had to fix a few things before I hit up the DPTI for my re-assessment. Headed off to ServiceSA for a temporary rego permit, grabbed a new battery, fired up the Corona and made my way up to my favourite little parts shop, Car Parts Plus in Lonsdale. Of course, they had a W-50 output shaft seal on the shelf. Brilliant.

    Off to the cars’ spiritual home, AJPS. The entire build was completed here (except the bodywork) so it was nice to take it back there for a little. There were some cool cars on site that day. Some more serious than others.



    And a few pipe dreams too. But if my car is proof of anything other than my own lunacy, it’s that pipe dreams can come to fruition.


    There’s the bastard. Half an hour later and a fresh bottle of Penrite semi synthetic oil for the tractor box and we’re back and action.


    The air filter was filthy as well so that got a clean and re-oil while I was at it.


    The last thing to tick off the to-do list was to have the wheel alignment fixed, which had totally slipped my mind until I noticed it having uneven turn-in effort and wanting to go left while on the expressway. There was a little shop with an old Servex mechanical aligner on the way home along my permit route, so I dropped in there and asked him to adjust the toe and I could be on my way.

    That really didn’t go to plan. The guy pulled a bunch more positive caster into the LHF, which caused my wheel to touch the front of the guard when I pulled in to my driveway. I took it back and asked him to set the caster back to where it was and adjust the toe a bit, but instead he took the car back in to the shop, switched my new directional front tyres left to right and tried to blame the issues I was having on them, going as far to say that I shouldn’t run directional tyres. Yeesh. I cut my losses and just took the car as-is. Went home and did a tape measure alignment. Found out the caster still hadn’t been set back. Got it driving straight enough with even turn-in effort, so I resolved that it’d be good enough for my re-assessment tomorrow.



    Tuesday was game day. I drove it down to the DPTI ID inspection shed at 9:30am, had my ID check done and came up all clear, although it did take so long that I began to worry they were going to impound it again. I was scheduled for an 11am inspection, so I made it there in good time. They were running ahead of schedule so I got called in about 15 minutes early. I basically drove straight in the door, handed the inspector the paperwork and the keys and we almost immediately started the road test.

    The inspector commented that the wheel alignment wasn’t great but otherwise it drove fine. I told him a modified version of my wheel alignment woes from the day before, but he didn’t seem to mind. He was happy to sign it of as-is.


    Oooh yes. Good feels.


    I marched next door to the ServiceSA office and with exactly zero hassles, surrendered my old plates (which is a shame, but they were totally stuffed), registered the car and got a new set of plates for it. They even let me pick the numeric part of the plate number from the ones they had on hand. S130 it is. bam.

    Spent the rest of the afternoon visiting friends and the like, took it up to Nairne to visit Slide86 and have a squiz at his epic saga of an AE86. It drives beautifully (apart from the alignment), bags of torque. It’ll climb the Adelaide freeway in 5th! The gearing seems so quick that I’m beginning to think it’s got 4.1:1 diff gears instead of 3.9:1. Sits at 3100rpm at 110km/h.



    This morning I finally got the alignment sorted out. A HUGE thanks to Norwood Auto Service / SA Motorsport tyres for actually doing an incredible job. It had a bit much toe-in, they evened out the camber and adjusted the panhard rod a bit. Steering is lighter, feels a lot better (as good as a steering box can feel) but I’m yet to give it a real squirt in the hills to see how it feels under pressure. That’d be tonight then. They even remarked that “This would be awesome with a turbo and a rack and pinion setup.”

    My thoughts exactly.
    Last edited by Javal; 30th April 2015 at 02:12 PM.
    You can have any brew you want... as long as it's a Datsun / Corolla / What is that?

  10. #450
    Veteran ae8zn6's Avatar
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    Good to hear your on the other side of that drama... I know I would have freaked the hell out if it was me they had told they were going to impound the car I had spent months/years building no matter what the reason!

    Now is the best bit, enjoying the product of all your hard work!

    Former Cars: 1992 300zxTT ***SOLD*** ----------------1984 Daily 20v AE86 ***PARTED OUT*** =(
    1983 Daily GZE86 **No Longer**sniff**-------------------------1984 JDM Daily ***SOLD***
    2001 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 7 GSR--------------------------'Sonic' 2012 Blue Toyota 86 GTS ***SOLD***
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    Project Ugly Duckling - 1984 AE86 SR drift car ------------------Daily JDM Trueno GT-APEX hatch
    Quote Originally Posted by Cerby86 View Post
    I said it cos it is possibly one of the stupidest things I have ever read on this forum. And I remember when Klutch was on here so that is saying something!!

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