Feb 75 TX Coupe

This Forum is here for each member to post pics of his/her Gemini project cars. Keep it to one thread per car.. if you get more pics etc, add them to your existing thread, DO NOT start a new one
tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Feb 75 TX Coupe

Post by tobytj »

Greeting Forum Members,

I started a TX coupe project about 18 months ago and expect to have it finished in 2 months. This is my forth gemini project in the last 7 years and the third bare shell rebuild. I plan to take you through it stage by stage and hope to give you some ideas you can use.

Stage 1 - Decide what you want to achieve with the budget and time available.

- I wanted a coupe - (check)
- Something with a bit more torque and resposne than standard. (check)
- Not a turbo (check)
- I had a fixation on using a 4zB1 - (that was pretty dumb in hindsight)
- Pleasent to drive (checK)
- Finish in 12 months (unrealistic for a non stock rebuild, modified takes longer)

I'll start with the pics and the story soon
tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

This link will take you to the full photo gallery if you care to brouse as not all the photos are used in these posts.

http://s434.photobucket.com/albums/qq63 ... /?start=20


I started with the engine. Picked up a whole shuttle bus for $90 on ebay took the bits I wanted and gave the guy an extra $50 to get rid of the rest. What I kept was a complete and running 4ZB1 and a 5 speed box. In hindsight the 1800 cc B1 was not a great choice and a C1 would have been better to start with.

I liked the 4Z cos the engineering is better than a G series, belt drive instead of chain. The down side is the head ports and valves are small and the distributer location near the firewall raises clearance issues. Parts for 4Z motor coat almost twice those of the more common G series.

Photo of fitting check
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Block – bored to 4ZC1 standard +.25mm pistons ACL pistons. This was a bit much for the B1 block and some clot in the dented No 4 cylinder wall replacing the rear welsh plug. Elky siupplied a good 4ZC1 block, the shop made good on their mistake and we were good to go. Pistons slightly dished to keep the compression in the right range for 95 octane.

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Head got some major work. Mitsubishi Sigma 2.6 valves fitted and ported inlets. The exhaust ports are a pretty good size so they were just polished. My brief to the shop was to match the inlet port size to a Gemini inlet gasket.

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tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

The shell

I was in negotiation to buy a good TX shell from another forum member for $500 but the deal fell through in unfortunate circumstances. I did pick up a good boot lid from the guy at a reasonable price.

Ended up with a $200 shell from Elky which he thought was borderline salvageable but I liked it because it had not been messed with and there were no hidden problems – they were all obvious. There was no major accident damage

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Rust in boot, front floor, bottom rear left quarter, drivers sill and A frame, side rear window sill both sides, bottom of wind screen, inner guard around the upper support box section, fuel flap surround, bottom of guards and rear of bonnet. Dents – well everywhere but the beaver panel and front valance were bad. The underneath indicated it had been paddock bashed.

First stage was to strip the down the shell and mount it on a frame that have developed and improved from previous projects (so #3 now). The frame allows me to move the shell in any direction and tip it on its left or right side to get at the underneath.

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The front valance was pretty bad and it had a drop in radiator set up. Elky supplied me with a “bolt up” radiator support bracket and valance from a late TX. It had a bit of rust but fortunately I had half a support panel from a previous project and easily migged in replacement patches.

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Bought another drivers door from a guy down past Logan way.
tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

Shell Repair

My donor vehicle for the shell was my daughters TF sedan which she drove into the ground. She also managed to hit a commodore head on at about 30kph and bend the chassis out of wack – so a fairly rust free but bent donor.

First the front froor. The TX had the opel floor and is a different shape and gearbox mount to later model Fitting a TF floor solved a problem with the gearbox mount which allows me to fit the 5 speed. The TX an TF floors match at the joins with the rear floor, top of door sills and inclined part of the firewall but that’s it. The TX floor is about 20mm deeper. When removing the TX floor it needs a little care with the sill where it connects to the old floor – leave that part of the old floor that forms the inner inner face of the sill. Cut the new floor at the door line and sit it on top .

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Reinforced the floor where the seat mounting brackets are spot welded as this is a common place for fatigue cracks. On the drivers side I should have made the join higher up the firewall instead of at the base of the foot brace

Boot repair – came at from underneath and did not cut the subframe.

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Note also repair to bottom of rear quarter.

Sill and A frame was rebuilt in 3 layers – there is another post on this site that shows you how. Used bits around the TF fuel flap to rebuild the TX flap – angles are not the same so u have to do the corners in segments.

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If u look closely at the front and bottom edges u can just pick the edges are a bit rounder

Since I planned at that stage to fit a TF rear, the TX handbrake cables mounts had to go. The different floor shape means you need to do a little bridging fabrication to get the drivers side bracket in the right place. I wish I had known then that I could use piazza rear discs – I could have set the brackets up for the piazza cable rather than mod the cable.
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A single slender piece of 2mm steel, bent in an “L” shape was used to repair the rear side window frames. The thicker steel replaced the bottom lip which was originally two panels spot welded together.
tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

Bodywork

All the welding done and time to get stuck into the body work. Nothing notable here just knock out the dents, fill / body file, fill / sand, fill a bit less/ sand a bit finer, spray putty, sand and undercoat.

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Rear quarter bottom replacement after bodywork
The roof was a stuff up. The roof support bow (that holds the interior light was sagging so I jacked it up against the roof panel and Sicaflexed it. All that did was produce a dip in the roof when the jack pressure was removed. I should have jacked it, spot welded some bracing to it to, released the jack pressure and then sicaflex.

The biggest muck up here was the guards. I should have hung the doors first so I had a guide for the gap and alignment between the doors and the guards. The doors are fixed in alignment (unless you bend the hinges) but the guard alignment can vary.

When fitting early model guards, bolt the valance to the guard first. That will give you a clean alignment match between them. Also, if you are replacing the guard bottoms with replacement rust repair sections, try and do most ot the welding with the guard fitted and braced to the right shape. My right guard repair (that I did off the vehicle) was a bit out of line and I had to redo

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Top of guard TX – bottom of guard TG

Underbody, ground off the ridges on some of the welds and it received some etch primer, a good couple of coats of rubberised sound deadener (not the bitumen stuff) and a coat of GMH black.

All the seams, new floor joins and guard joints were sealed with Sickaflex sealant.

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Top coat of shell is in acrylic metal and clear coat. The colour is a TE colour “Atlantic Blue”. I did muse lyrically about restoring it with the original Kermit Green but the family looked at me a bit strange.

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The door, bonnet and boot were painted separately and fixed to the shell. Door preparation included welding in a 40x40x4mm anti intrusion bar (cos TX don’t heve them).

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The bonnet was an extensive repair. I might have been better to get another one but I learned a lot from the exercise (and that’s half the fun).

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tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

Engine Fit

The 4ZC1 engine is a one of the easier conversions but it is not an exact fit into a Gemini. The conflict areas are the distributer (which is mounted on the cam at the rear of the head) and sump clearance of the gemini x-member and steering rack. Generally this requires moving the engine 20mm forward and raising the front engine mounting position 10mm. Some adjustment to the lip of the firewall also helps clearance – especially if you are using a shuttle distributer as it needs more room than a piazza distributer due to the shape of the cap.
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Engine properly aligned

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Firewall trim

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Distributer fit issue

The 4z engine is 68mm shorter that a g series so 20mm movement forward isn’t a biggy.

Most people use a piazza sump but I did not have one so I fabricated using a shuttle sump and a Gemini sump. It took about 3 attempts to get the shape right. For the fitting up I used an old bare block with no crank or internals. Careful about accepting advice on the forum that changing the engine mounting brackets around puts the engine in the right position. It brings the engine forward 20mm but skews the alignment off to the passengers side.
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This first sump attempt was a fail – not enough clearance for the steering rack.
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Close fit for a shuttle oil filter

My fix was to shorten the drivers side mount bracket (the straight one) 15mm and extend the left bracket (the offset one) 15mm. On the drivers side I had to trim the base plate back to the bend (you will understand what I mean when you look at it) to allow room to insert the bottom engine bolt and provide a pathway for the clutch cable. I also raised the face plate of the brackets 10mm when I re welded.
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To keep the angle of the tail shaft uni joints about the same relative to the rest of the drive train, I packed the rear gearbox mount with a 5 mm plate. The other adjustment to the rear mount is to slot the plate that mounts to the gearbox 20mm and grind a tiny bit off the gearbox housing to clear the end of the main mounting bolt.

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The standard tail shaft is now too short. So I am having an auto shaft cut down and rebalanced to suit (628mm face of rear gearbox seal to face of diff input shaft flange). This requires removing the auto output yoke (very fine spline) and fitting a yoke to match the gearbox. Fortunately uni joints are the same. I considered shortening my Shuttle bus shaft – it is much chunkier and has heavier uni joints.

It was all still a bit tight so I set the engine with a degree or two of tilt to the left – that gives me an extra 10mm distributer clearance.

With the TG dash and console the gearstick hits the dash with the new engine position. A bit of heat from the oxy on the bend in the gearstick and adding an extra 5 degrees to the angle does the trick. Managed not to melt the nylon retainer or the rubber vibration damper in gear stick shaft by insulating the retainer with a glove and using a hot oxy flame to minimise the heat time and localise the effect.

I modified a g series fan blade to replace the heavies shuttle but it sits miles from the radiator without the Shuttle spacer and too close with it – more to follow on this dilemma.
tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

I forgot to mention that I cut the ends of the old TX x-member to play with the engine fit so that all that was left was the bit inside the engine bay. That way I could keep the shell on my frame and move it around.
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The plumbing

While the shell is suspended, it makes it easy to refit the fuel and brake lines. I swapped the TX lined for a set of TE ones to match the new floor shape. Also the TX brake line has an imperial end fitting and the later model diff set up has a metric thread in the hose connection.

The exhaust is a one piece 2 ¼ inch. The muffler and some of the pipe came with the shell and a had some pipe bent up and bought a rear muffler.

The fit up of the exhaust was done once the engine was set in the right position. Tack welded together then the whole thing was removed and final welded. I used my TF as a guide to measure make sure I was clearing the rear end assembly, hand brake lines and sway bar.

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G series exhaust ports are square while 4z series are round and larger. Bolt pattern is the same. I modified a G series extractor to match the 4 z ports exactly and maximise the flow. Used an old 4Z exhaust gasket to mark the new shape and a die grinder to remove the excess metal. Some of the corners needed to be filled a little to match the shape. This was achieve with a MIG adding layers of metal to the corners and some very fine work with a second cut and fine file to smooth the weld overhang on the flange.

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The exhaust was put to one side and fitted after engine bay painting, waiting for the engine. Without the rear end or engine in it is easy enought to fit a one piece exhaust (I hate exhaust clamps!)
tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

Suspension and Brakes

The shell is all painted so it is time to replace frame with some wheels and suspension.

The front cross member suspension and steering are from the TF. The steering rack was surprisingly tight (about the only thing my daughter didn’t destroy). New ball joints top and bottom and new bushes for the lower control arms. The upper bushes were fine (in fact I have never has these wear out?).

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I use the compress the spring and tie up with telecom rope method of spring installation.

Springs front and rear were Lovell springs – about 20mm lower than standard and pretty beefy. Front and rear shocks were Monroe Gas. Shortened rears ($25 courtesy of Elky). These parts were used but good nic. It seems that every time a buy a Gemini it has Monroe gas shocks fitted? Standard stabilizer bars.

The rear end is a TE diesel with about a 10% taller ratio than a standard diff. This is to match the higher torque of the 2 litre engine. A TF rear stabilizer bar was fitted – a pretty simple mod for a TX as you only need to remove and weld in the backing plate from a TF and drill 4 holes. Adjustable panhard bar fitted to fine tune the lowered suspension position.

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The brakes all round are Piazza. For the front, no hard modification is needed. Simply bolt in the piazza stub axle and use piazza tie rods (Mitsubishi colt tie rods also fit ??) The geometry of the piazza stub axle is identical to to the Gemini.

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Originally I was only going to upgrade the fronts. I found that my13 inch x 6inch centre line mags would fit the piazza brakes if I trimmed the backing plate 10mm (as shown in the picture. But no hope with the rears as the handbrake assembly increases the disc diameter.

Rear Piazza brakes will bolt up to a diesel diff with very little effort. The diesel diff is imported so has the Japanese bolt pattern for the axle retainer and backing plate – same as Piazza. I have done a workshop post on this and the mod of the Piazza hand brake cable so I won’t repeat it.

http://www.ozgemini.com/forums/tech/vie ... ght=piazza

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The master cylinder is a TX remote unit. At time of writing I am still having some spongy pedal issue but I think a proper system bleed will fix the problem. The unknown is the front and rear bias set up that I won’t be able to assess till I can do a road test. If the back locks before the fronts I will need to incorporate and adjustable brake proportioning valve. The guy at Hopper Stoppers suggested I should see how the standard proportioning valve goes before taking that step.

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tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

Wheels and Rubber

With the piazza rear brakes, 13 or 14 inch wheels were the option. Picked up a set of 15 x 6.5 inch.


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They needed stripping back and repaint but they came up pretty well. Matched them up to to a set of 195x 55 Pirelli P6000. I have P6000’s on the wife’s Integra and I like them better than the Michelins it came with.

It wasn’t till I got the tyres fitted that I noticed that I had two wheels with 28mm offset and two with 38mm offset (wtf?). Seems that these wheels were specifically ordered for a Gemini but that made no sense to me at the time. It just looked gay. (Oops- no offence to any gay Skyline owners who have stumbled onto this post).

However when the engine went in the weight moved the control arms into position. With the slightly lower suspension the bottom control arm is close to horizontal and the tyres are at maximum track. The 38mm offsets on the front of the TX have about the same guard clearance as the 28mm offsets on the back. So someone knew what they were doing.

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The front wheels only just rub the shockers on full droop. I reckon if I can tighten the shockers up by 5mm that will change the angle of the upper control arm enough to clear.
tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

Dashboard and Wiring

Early on in the project I was able to obtain a crack free TF/TG dash from Muz and since my donor was a TF, I decided to do a late model dash conversion. There is no way I would have contemplated this conversion if I wasn’t starting with a bare shell.

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Rather than write this up here I posted the dash board conversion as a workshop post because there have been a few requests about it.

http://www.ozgemini.com/forums/tech/vie ... hp?t=17989


The TF wiring loom needed to be used to support the dash change. This meant using the regulator and front fuse box / relay box from the TF as well.

Some rewiring consequences:

- The wiper motor also got changed for TF/TG because the plugs are different.
- I needed to keep the TX blower assemble ( slightly different shape to TF) but insert the TF fan unit into it to match up the wiring.
- Extend the wiring for the windscreen washers across the other side of the engine bay.
- Run new wiring for the for the fuel pump thanks to the advice provided in this post. TF and TG do not have electric fuel pumps and therefore no requirement for the circuit

http://www.ozgemini.com/forums/tech/vie ... hp?t=16129

Fuel pump relay tucked next to the relay box note separate fuse and use of resistor from an early model.

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Shuttle coil and ignitor and how to wire it for an early 4Z dissy
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- Minor rewiring for front parking lights and indicators


I kept the loom for the rear lights, fuel guage, fuel pump etc and spliced it inot the TF loom and my new fuel pump circuit.

4ZB1 dizzy is tight. The shape of a piazza cap makes it fit better – but they are not interchangeable
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Fitted H4 halogen headlights which required some additional slots to be cut in the TX headlight cradle. The headlights fit the standard cradle slots but are rotated 30 degrees off vertical (and it looks weird).

The sound system was fitted in the dash before it was installed. This allowed all the speaker connections to be run from the unit to convenient connection points at the sides of the dash. Nothing flash, just a Sony single CD player with an aux plug for an ipod. The speakers are 9x6 sony on the rear parcel shelf - mid price as they are only for a bit of bass. Saved my cash for some decent quality MTX speakers in the doors. Fired it up on the week end and it sounded really sweet.

Fuel System

The choice of carburettor was one I had to make early. The choices for me, from my collection of carby’s sitting on the shelf were:

- 32/36 weber – I have one of these on a G200 and pretty much have the jetting sorted. Nice carby, fuel efficient, but performance is only marginally better than stock
- 38/38 Weber - All the advantages of a 32/36 with the promise of a bit more power. I have not used one of these before
- 45DHLA side draft Dellorto

I went for the Dellorto cos if it doesn’t work out I have the webers to fall back on and the modified head and cam should get the best out of it.

The 45 DHLA came with 32mm chokes and I am guessing was set up for a 1200 to 1300 engine. I was thinking 36 chokes would be needed. Took some advice from the Dellorto distributor in the UK who advised that for a single carby application it is better to go down a choke size – he recommended 34mm chokes, No 6 e – tubes, 150 mains and 60 idles. If I was gong 36 mm chokes it would have been 62 idles and 158 mains. Ordered the chokes, a kit, a side draft repair manual, jets and stuff from the UK and it arrived within 3 business days.

Dellorto carb mounted on engine

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The Lynx manifold was totally standards which meant the ports were smaller than the ported head and the carby end was OK for a 40mm but narrower than a 45mm throat – so there was a lip right in line with the progression holes in the carby, which is about the last place you would want it. Made a template of the head ports using the bolt holes as a reference and used the soft mounts as a template on the carby end to mark the metal that had to go. Then a bit of patient work with a die grinder and aluminium cutters. End result is a smooth transition from carby to manifold to head that I hope helps the flow.

The ram flow air filter finishes it off – in truth it is getting too tight for most other filters without relocating the brake fluid reservoir.

I have never been able to get a straight answer on fuel pressure on a side draft and the return fuel system. I suspect that you can run without a return but the risk is of running rich is a worry.

T piece I made up for the fuel return – return pipe narrower than the feed pipe. I will be interested to see how it works. It should be easy to check by measuring the fuel pressure and the banjo connection. I can tthen adjust the return pipe appature to optimise the pressure

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tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

Plumbing

Had a good Gemini radiator but the opportunity cam up a couple of weeks ago to source a 3 core radiator from a forum member that is full width. It came with a couple of good electric fans that mount on the front of the radiator. For now I’ll run the Gemini fan.

Radiator – it is not a Gemini origin – possibly Torana of Celica or similar. Needed the top hose connection swapped to the right hand side and a bit trimmed off the bracket to clear the left bumper support bracket (ever noticed that Gemini radiator is not central – it is closer to the passenger side by a smidgen).

Oxy set and the $2 monster soldering iron I got from the markets came in handy to move the inlet. The brass patch over the old inlet location came courtesy of a stuffed radiator tank.

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Secret to a solder job is being really fussy about cleaning up the mating surfaces. Drilled the starter hole for the new inlet location then widened it with a die grinder to within 3mm of the final diameter then peened a bit of a lip on the hole with a small hammer till I had a good tight fit then soldered it in. It was a pretty easy job.
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Top hose is an early Gemini hose trimmed a bit and the bottom hose is a top commodore hose trimmed down. It’s a little big in diameter but clamps down OK.

Fan – The Shuttle fan is a monster so I went for a Gemini plastic fan. Trouble is a Gemini fan uses 6mm bolts and a 4Z fuel pump is threaded for 8mm. Very carefully drilled out the fan and front plate to 8.5 mm making sure to keep the holes central – if it bolts up off centre it will be out balance and do the pump bearing no good at all. A 1 inch spacer from supercheap got the position about right. Spacer is needed becasue the 4Z is 68mm shorter than a G series - so mounting the engine 20 mm forward still leaves 48mm of extra gap. The 3 core radiator is flush mount (the side mounting brackets are set back 10-15mm on a gemini radiator) so a 1 inch (25mm) spacer brought the fan close enough to be effective but not too close.

Heater hoses – The heater pipe on a 4ZC1 turbo block does not co exist with extractors. So cut it down and added some hose and kept the main bend to wind around the rear extractor pipe. The extractor heat will no doubt deteriorate the hose so I am thinking about heat shield tape.

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The Lynx manifold did not come with a hose connection so dragged the manifold to Reece Plumbing and came up with a male/female brass 90 degree bend that fit the thread and a male to male connection. 10mm BSW or something – it the same fitting as the outlet on a Rheem hot water system. I filed the thread flat on male-to-male brass fitting and fitted a piece of tube over it and brazed it together to give me something to clamp the hose on to.

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Had no joy finding temp sensor to fit the Lynx but it is the same thread as the vacuum take off for the brakes. Drilled out piece of a vacuum take off and used it as a sleeve for a small temp sensor. The other option was to drill out and re tap the hole to 10mm BSW – there is plenty of metal around the mainfold and that would have worked also.
tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

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Just got my tailshaft back from Hardy Spicer. It is an auto shaft with the 5 speed manual yoke fitted then shortened so that it is about 20mm longer than the standard manual tail shaft.

The original manual shaft is shown laying next to the new shaft. The auto shaft is a larger diameter than the manual shaft but fortunately takes the same uni joints.
tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

Interior

I have covered the dash and the sound system. The head lining was provided by Elky from a later model coupe. The early coupe had a one piece head lining where as all later head linings have separate panels that fit the sides of the roof near the parcel shelf. It was chocolate brown, scrubbed up all right – who looks at head linings anyway.

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Some new chocolate brown moulded carpet – the carpet guy could not handle an order for a TX Coupe rear floor and TG front so I just got a TC coupe moulded carpet.

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Seats I picked up down the coast just as an off chance when I bought the adjustable panhard bar. They have been retrimmed. The back seat is the original one from my daughters TC and the bench is an another Elky supplied item.

The rear parcel shelf is a fabrication that I have already posted in the workshop section.

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It is a piece of MDF but it lines up with the rear of the parcel tray rather than sitting on top of it. A bit more work but a neater job and just enough of clearance off the fuel tank for 9 inch by 6 inch speakers. The mdf is covered with painted boat carpet from BCF.

http://www.ozgemini.com/forums/tech/vie ... hp?t=17308

Door trims are recarded restorations of old door trims painted with lacquer over an elasticiser primer. I have posted the restoration of door trims as a workshop post as well.

http://www.ozgemini.com/forums/tech/vie ... hp?t=17850

I was thinking of making new kick panels for the side of the front floor out of mdf but the last lot I made sucked up the moisture and swelled. I’ll just clean up the old ones

Paint

The paint colour is GM “Atlantic Blue” that was a standard colour available for TE Gemini’s. I still had some parts from a TE wreck in this colour. Concept Paints in Zillmere mixed it up for me.

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Bonnet – off the gun. No finishing done.

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Rear quarter finished, door is still off the gun.

As this is a back yard job (in the front driveway) and I did it myself it is lacquer paint. It is a metal colour so it needed 3 coats of clear as well. I am pretty impressed with the cover you get with the “Concept” brand of paint. Better than anything else I have used.

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This time round I did the two stages of a full coats of undercoat and guide coat sanded and then repeat the whole process. It makes a big difference to the quality of the job. In the past I have been slack and only done this once.

The cutting back was all done by hand rubbing, 1200 and 1500 wet’n’dry followed by cutting compound. I bought a big tin of cutting compound in 1972 and I still have 5 years worth left. It’s turned to powder now but just dab a bit on a damp cloth and away you go.

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Door ready for a final polish, quarter panel has had a once over with 1200 and will get some serious work with 1500 to get rid of “any orange peel” before a cutting compound rub and Kitten No2 polish and Kitten No 1 polish. I am pleased with this door considering the big dent that was in it that ran the full length above the door handle.


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A long day of hand rubbing – note trusty tin of cutting compound on the chair
tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

Nearly finished. She fired up second turn of the key but real rough cos the advance was over 20 BTDC. Once I wound it back to 14 BTDC she was much happier. Quite a burble with the cam.

It is running a bit rich though so I have a set of 58 and 55 idle jets coming express post for the UK for the Dellorto to replace the 62s.

I would love to tell you that I took her out on a back road and she handled really well and no bias problems with the Piazza brakes during a couple of hard brake tests - but she isn't registers so obviously that didn't happen.

Till I get some pic up here is a spec summary.

Body
Chasis – Feb 75 Pre ADR TX Gemini Coupe
Front Floor and Boot Floor – TF Sedan Donor
Sill and rear quarter repair sections – TF Sedan Donor
Radiator Support Panel – Late TX donor - bolt in radiator Type
Boot lid – no idea TX to TD
Doors – definitely TX with a 40 SHS x 4 anti intrusion bar added
Guards – no idea TX-TD with TG rust repair bits

Elec and Ignition

TF front wiring loom with custom fuel pump relay
TX rear wiring loom
82 Shuttle bus electronic ignition system
After market H4 Headlights
Standard Gemini alternator, 4Z Starter

Engine

4ZC1 – T block, decked, fitted with ACL flat top pistons 0.25mm O/S , slightly dished to meet compressions specs for 95 Octane fuel
4ZB1 Crank and flywheel
4ZB1 Head, ported, shaved and fitted with Mitsubishi Sigma 2.6 valves
30/70 Cam
Dellorto 45 DHLA single carburettor and Lynx Manifold
Cooling – mystery origin 3 core radiator that seem to fit OK. Mechanical fan (for now)
Extractors and 2 ¼ exhaust.

Transmission

82 Shuttle bus 5 speed ( awful ratios, don’t think it will be staying)
TF auto tailshaft, course spline yoke shortened by Hardie Spicer
TE Diesel imported Diff

Brakes Suspension and Tyres

Piazza Turbo discs all round
TX Booster and remote fed master cylinder
Lovell Springs
Monroe Gas shocks (shortened Rears)
15x6.5 Mags 5 spokes with 195 50 P6000 Pirelli tyres

Interrior

TG Tacho dash
Sony CD with 9x6 Sony rear speakers and 6 inch MTX door speakers.
Costom rear parcel tray
New Carpet
Recarded door trims
tobytj
Long Term Member
Posts: 1881
Joined: Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:46 pm
Location: Brisbane

Post by tobytj »

Certification

Big day yesterday. Got the engineer certification of the piazza 4 wheel disc set up and engine upgrade. John Kean (0409 627 336) was the engineer and would recommend him if you have done a good job of the mod. He is really great if he sees you have done it properly. Not the sort of guy you would want to try and slip a bodgy job past though.

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Later that day I also get the roadworthy so I am off to the Department of transport probably tomorrow to register the coupe

However, you always get little running in niggles on a project this extensive. For example, my finely crafted sump started leaking – only about a egg cup full a day from a sweating seam, but annoying. I had to partially remove the steering rack to get to it to fix it. Other outstanding issues:

• Spare wheel that fits the brakes, bonnet badge, standard jack – Elky has them set aside for me.
• Carburettor – still running like a busted duck. Looks like it is the main jets that are running too rich
• Distributer – the cam seems to line 15 degrees of advance so I need to mod the mechanical advance mechanism to decrease the max advance by 7 degrees
• Fuel guage – what is it about TF fuel gauges??
• Gearbox – the old 5 speed has to go. Picked up this one on the weekend with the tail shaft. I will keep the old shuttle box in the car while I do this one up properly.

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• Bonnet respray – looks OK but there are a few spots where the colour is inconsistent.
• Wheel alignment



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Finally got the carburettor linkage sorted. Gone for the traditional redline set up that the manifold was designed for. Unfortunately I could not get posts for the spindles to match the thread in the manifold so I made a little platform for the spindle posts – this actually worked out better because it gave me something to weld an arm for the accelerator cable too. This set up has 4 springs, one integral to the carby, the integral pedal spring and two on the linkages.

The breather on the rocker cover had to go to make it roadworthy – venting to the air cleaner now.
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