Not good bout diff but good its all back together and no bending yet

A little update

swapped to another set of diff gears i had and set up the backlash as best i could. seems to be alright, a bit of a whine at low speeds but other than that its all good

going to build a strong tailshaft soon as the one thats in there was never balanced and i think its causing a vibration at 90-110kph. so i got an XC falcon tailshaft and getting a hardy spicer nissan yoke to suit the falcon unis, same unis as VN-VS commodore

turbo started smoking the other day, but hasnt really been noticable since, think the oil temps were getting up and the oil was thinner than normal so it could leak past the seams

also swapping the lifters as they are a bit noisy, so spent the last couple of days pulling apart and cleaning another set of lifters i have

more late updates

pulled all the lifters out and cleaned them up
while i was at it i chucked a CA16 cam in the inlet, which i didnt actually know i had

not to sure if i like the cam or not. has a rougher idle and without the idle control stuff it now wont idle for the first 2-3mins of running, also seems to be lacking low down power. but it does seem to rev much nicer higher up, dont know if its actually making any more power though

And almost done on making another fuel tank for it out of thicker stainless with a different fuel sender and some other changes that should make it generally better

Also thinking i might change to 4/5 link rear end and ditch the control arms that are using the rod ends as they seem to be quite noisy when they move
Had a better look at how chris (dattodude) did his top arms in his sedan and think i can probably get arms of a similar fashion to work in the wagon and it should make for nicer non squeeky operation of the rear end

Other than that ive just been driving the car, still plenty of small things to do to it till im really happy with it
Also need to finish collecting the parts to get it ready to be tuned so it is a bit more fun to drive as it no longer feels at all fast to me, took a mate for his first ride in it a couple of days ago and apparently its still fast enough to put a smile on other peoples faces

You're are a handy bloke, I'm sure you'll get it working better than I did.

I'd recommend getting a good set of leaf springs made up before going to the effort of making your own rear cross member. I wouldn't do it myself again, unless I had unlimited mig wire/gas, and lived in the country, where I could angle grind welds all day long.

I still want to put a 28 spline LSD skyline diff under mine, but that's not likely to happen for another 4-5 years. I have the unmodified diff, just not the time.

polished the wagon yesterday for Nick

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and the last pic photobombd by my sedan !!!

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Looking swwwweeeeeeeeeeeeettttt boys

Looks good and hope it stays like that

That looks awesome, I'd love a wagon.

dattodude, it already has coil rear end, but its 3 link not 4/5 link as i didnt think i could fit top arms in. Then i looked at how yours was done and im now thinking i can actually get it to work

Mainly wanted to go coils for the adjustability and ease of spring rate change. The leaves were also doing some weird things in the wagon and didn't like them one bit

But i do also have a workshop at dads on a 10 acre block with neighbours that are never around and probably couldn't care less if i was grinding a 2am....which i have done several times on several different cars that have been built out there
And for the cost of getting someone else to do the job i would consider that i do have unlimited mig wire and gas. There is always something out at dads getting built so there is always a decent stock of welding and grinding supplies around, spare time is the only thing that is a little short on supply

No real mechanical updates so far, new fuel tank is all welded together, just need to do the mounts and it will be right to go in. It is looking much nicer than the tank thats in there now and i have far more confidence in it than the current tank

vinyl for the rear seats is finally all done now, just have to get some foam for them and then they should be right to assemble to fit back into the car

And thanks for chucking the pics up adrian, and i guess for spending several hours making the paint look like it should