looks very good !

Yep, looks very good!

Nice wheels!Nice car look!

Looking very sweet there chap

Sam around the corner from me got a short shifter for Christmas to fit to his Lantis Type R Hatch.
He gave me a drive and I was sold and had to have one.
Went straight to AliExpress and ordered the same item and finally got it today.

It is a very nice piece of metal.

It wasn't a straight fit and needed:
1/ - lots of angle grinding the shifter ball mount so that the retaining clip on the top would install correctly.
2/ - Needed a sleeve through the rod mounting hole as hole was too big.
Otherwise all fitted and working beautifully.
Added my weighted Momo Gear knob on top and I now have a real sports gear change.

And found some nice centre caps for the wheels too.

Nice shortshifter!
Can i ask what lenght is the throw?(1st-2nd)
Stock i believe is 14cm, i DIY shortened mine to 7cm, but i'm curious what is the throw on AM shortshifter..

Hi maZZda,
The throw from 1st to second is 8cm.
The seller said it reduced the throw by 40% and I believe them.
Thanks
Craig

Nice!
I have a friend who made his shortshifter throw about 5cm wich by my opinion is bad.I think you lose the feel if it's less than 6-8cm.It's almoust like pushing buttons on a Nintendo game
And i know what you mean by "sports gear change".
Keep up the good work!

Hi maZZda,
Yes, agree on the throw.
The throw I have is good but I would imagine any shorter could be a problem.
I will make up a stick extender (screw onto the top of the shifter) to get the gear knob at a better height (10-15mm) for me and will make that of Bronze to add a bit more weight to the shifter and give an easier shift.
Otherwise very happy with this shifter.
Thanks
Craig

Mk 2 Cup Holder.
Brought a unit that is a cup holder and a draw all built into one last year but never got round to installing it until now.
Had to buy a 1 DIN Pocket as the cup holder had to slide into it, and it looked like there was a bit of modifying to the pocket before it would fit.

The pocket got modified with the Mazda lip (to stop things falling out of the pocket) removed and a bit of plastic welding to make it pretty.
I ended keeping the front 60mm of the pocket and cutting the back off. (The cup holder was deeper than the Mazda Pocket)
I was then able to push the cup holder unit into the pocket and install.


Plenty of clearance from the shifter but only good for Medium to small cups.
Lantis with an intergrated cup holder.

Good upgrade!I have the same cupholder for my Wife's F, but she doesn't like it because it's with mahogany face.I told her that i will spray it black but she doesn't listen.
I wonder where to put my cup while driving her car, but hey, it's her car.
Keep up the good work!

Thanks maDDza.
Paint the whole car is the BIG think on the list but that will be some time off.
And I have pretty much run out of small projects?????
BUT you never know

Well I was right - You never know.
I was watching some youtube video's of Lantis/Astina/Probes/323F all doing power runs noticed all of them had 0-240km speedo's.
I only have a 0-180km speedo as that is the MAX allowed in Japan.
You guessed it I have to fit a 0-240km speedo.
Brought a second hand dash unit and swapped the speedo's between the two units.



Went for a run and the speedo is working as it should and accuracy is good.
And gained another 60kph

And magically lost (should that be gained back) 211,916 km... shame about that, eh?!!

Nice to see though, and even better that the calibration's correct to start with.

Is the car speed-limited? I mean, electronically to go with the previous 180 km/h speedo, as opposed to physically? Or is 180 km/h simply a legal hangover from another era when most, if not all Japanese cars just couldn't go that fast?

Patrick

Hi Patrick.
Yes the 180kph speedo speed limited the car also but one disconnected wire and the needle and car went right to the stopper
Going to have a look at the spare speedo today to see if its easy to change the gauge to the right miles done.

Thanks
Craig

Took the speedo out and altered the speedo reading to the correct one for the car.
Did a practice run on the spare speedo and then did the 240kph speedo.
Not too difficult at all. Just take your time and be careful

MUFFLER TIME.
Got back into looking for a new rear muffler.
The one I had built was starting to show its age and had needed a few minor repairs.
Have always wanted to try a Dynomax Super Turbo and on reading feedback on them (The biggest complaint was they were too quiet and build quality)
Now I wanted QUIET and on Amazon found Dynomax 17748 Super Turbo Muffler that looked perfect for the job. As it was a 2.5inch inlet and 2.5 outlet therefore I needed a dual tip exhaust also so ordered one of those too.
USA to NZ took 8 Days and I fitted them that day.
Was it worth it?
After 2 weeks of driving, it's lovely. (I am old and quiet is nice)
Nice rumble at idle and up to about 2K and then shes quiet. Really quiet.
Driving on the motorway or just cruising very very relaxing and great for a daily.
Performance I think is better than before also. Revs out much quicker that before.
The build quality could be better in that the inlet and outlet are only spot welded to the case.
Overall, excellent value for money (155NZ) and there is nothing in NZ at that price.
The tips are very nice too and have attached a photo.

Looks nice!

And I like that you like quiet!!

Guessing the cops will too...at least they've got no excuse!!!

Patrick

P. S. Did you see my post about the rally Charade (Peter Wherrett, Torque 1980)? You'll probably remember it anyway

Thanks for that Patrick.
Hasn't racing and haircuts come a long way.
My daughters G11 Charade is getting a new engine in the near future.
We are building a CB70 Turbo engine for it and planning for 150-200bhp.
Should make it a very entertaining car



Couple of photos from a Hillclimb at the end of Feb 2018.
Some very cool cars.

Ah, Daihatsu

Well familiar with the CB80 (same thing as CB70 really) had one for 12 years now, a bit poorly with zero compression in one cylinder but bought one after getting rid of my ZXi which I regretted. Anyway an amazing engine and 150 easily achievable, are you on the Facebook group? Daihatsu Charade GTti owners?

Hi,
No not on that site but will certainly have a look.
Daughters been sorting out the spec she wants to go with and I have working on the head.
Should be a very good project
Thanks
Craig

Think it's a closed group but try to get on, there's the manuals etc in the files section and some of the bods on there are able to get parts and there's plenty from your part of the world who know these inside out, there's even a mechanic from the rallying days of the GTti's using the Dawson ECU's plus a Japanese guy but don't think there on there regularly though

I checked with my daughter and she is a member.
In the early stages of building the engine so it will be good to go through and see what options etc are out there.

Accelerator pedal assembly.
Being 6ft 6inch can be a pain when it comes to cars.
Accelerator pedals are always not quite right and on a long trip cramps up the accelerator leg detract from the enjoyment of the drive.
I drove my daughters Mazda 3 and found the accelerator pedal position excellent. So much so I had a good look at its positioning. The pedal is much further in towards the firewall than the Lantis one.
So I modded the pedal assembly accordingly and now have a much more comfortable driving position.
I am already using the MX6 assembly which is much better build quality over the Lantis one (Metal base, bushings for the shaft, better/stronger spring and tilting pedal)
No fast idle when you stop with this assembly.

The photo below shows you the Pedal spring for the MX6 and the Lantis.

I used a old pedal assembly to find the correct height. Cut the shaft at about the right height and welded a plate on the end and then added layers of Deck tread onto the plate until I had the right height.
I then modded the MX6 Petal assembly accordingly.

The lefthand one is the final, middle is the finding the right height and the right is the original Lantis one.
Wish I had done that 20 years ago.

Brake hoses replaced with SafeBrake braided lines and calibers overhauled and painted.
Car has done 410,000km now and the brakes were needing a bit of work.
Brake booster failed and needed replacement, First pads worn and the brake lines needed to be replaced (starting to swell) Decided to do the seal's on the calibers and paint them while I had it all apart.
Disc's were just about worn out too so replaced them too.
Doing the Brake Booster was FUN - NOT.
Also replaced the one way valve in the vaccum line to the booster.

The car brakes very well now.

It will roar on the roads again!Good work!
From where did you get the brakes hoses?And how much do they cost if i may ask?
Cheers!

Hi maZZda,
The brake lines are from a company called SafeBrake.com.au in Australia. (cost 185NZ)
Quality seems good and the fit up was easy and no mods required to fit.
Someone else on here had also used SafeBrake and said they required some modding to fit, so there maybe some work depending on the car.

Photo of the Calibers and mounting bracket ready for paint. For some reason I can not find the painted photos?

Plus another photo of the drivers front assembly

Air con fan noisy
The air con fan got noisy with a ticking noise.
Finally had enough of it and dropped the fan assembly out of its housing and look what I found.

Lots of leaves and a wrapper too. No wonder the fan was a bit noisy.
Cleaned it up

The fan is now nice and quiet and seems to have a bit more blow to it also.
All ready for the long hot summer.

Fans blades are effectively (more or less) airfoils of one sort or another. Any disruption to the smooth flow of air tends to cause drag and performance reduction. If you have a pedestal or desk fan, try cleaning its blades & grilles- you'll be astounded at the difference between clean and dirty ones.

Patrick

P.S. good to see you back lantisv62500