The MightyBoy - is it restoration or Hotrodding?

Thsats pretty cool, Im sure it wasnt as simple as you make out
Does it go like you expected or better ?

Paul

cool build. can't wait to see some pictures of it in action

After painting the car a base white we spent a day and half masking it up and painting the unmasked area dark blue. We then masked the dark blue and painted the light blue. Lastly we masked that up and painted the red stripes. Lots of work but it does look good.

The wiring was done in a few hours as the Matiz loom fitted where it did originally and all the holes in the firewall were in the right place. We needed to extend the wiper motor wiring, as it was now inside the car rather than under the bonnet and delete the rear door curtesy light wiring, Rear window demister and wiper, but that’s about it. Factory wiring is so much easier than what you do yourself.

Upgraded (new) headlights with 90/130 Halogen bulbs means you can see past your nose. We would like to upgrade the taillight to LED as they are pretty feeble.

Once this was done we trimmed the interior in two variations of grey vinyl so that all interior metalwork was trimmed. We then installed the rear window then the carpet out of the Matiz. This fitted the floor perfectly as all seat mounts etc. were left stock Matiz. We used the Matiz seat belts as they activated the seatbelt warning light on the dash.

The seats are from a Nissan S13 and whilst tight they work well and are very comfortable. The steering wheel is a Sparco one we picked up for $100.00. Actually the wheel has a bit of a story attached to it. One day whilst working on the car a young bloke rocked in and said “Wow a MightyBoy, I used to have one” and he left his number in case we needed any machining done as our lathe isn’t the most modern or accurate, but neither am I. Anyway Lachlan spotted the Sparco for sale and agreed a price. When we went to collect it the seller was none other than the young guy who wandered into our garage. A small world!

We re-installed all the mechanicals and fired it up and test drove it on axle stands in the garage. We have a Highway Patrol Officer living 100metres away so no quick lap of the block! We’ve already had words with this slime-bag. One issue we had was we couldn’t get it to give spark or fuel pressure. We searched for a day but couldn’t find a blown fuse, plug disconnected or any reason for the problem. Our OBDII scanner wouldn’t talk to the car and we finally surmised there was something wrong with the ECU. Close inspection revealed it wasn’t even plugged in! Once that was rectified the little car sprang into life.

We loaded the car on the trailer and took it to a Relatives acreage and test drove it on their driveway.

All went well except the steering is a bit “clunky” which we’ve ascertained is caused by moving the dash back and down. It has put joint of the first UJ in the steering at a horrible angle and it changes the way it rotates. More research into how to fix is an on-going issue.

One issue with taking the car anywhere is everyone looks and it gets plenty of people taking its photo.

We had the car Engineered in Queanbyan than took it for its Blue Slip locally. The car failed as it was leaking plenty of oil. We took of the sump and re-sealed that and also the cam cover wasn’t quite tight enough. Once that was done it passed and received rego on the 18th January.

All loaded up ready to go for Engineering.

This is at he Engineer's place.

The car has 500KG of lead weights in the rear then they threw in the driver and passenger so it had over 700KG load on it. no wonder the rear suspension is a bit low.

Distinctive if nothing else.

Here is a shot of the almost finished interior. Somewhat different to what you expect to see in a MightyBoy! The dash rubs against the passenger's door so we may insert spacers behind the hinges to give it a bit of clearance.

So 11 months from go to whoa, but in that time I have been intestate 5 times and overseas twice so we figure we worked on it for around 8 months, probably 3 days a week. We guess around 1,000 man-hours went into it. whenever I say we it really means me. Lachlan would have put in 20 hours if he was lucky.

So what did this cost us? I figure we got out of it for less than $4,500.00 with Engineering and we have a fairly unique MightyBoy that drives like a 15 year old car not a 30 year old car.

During the build we installed a new cam belt, clutch spark plugs, leads, cap and rotor. So it should be good for quite awhile

At the end of the day we did everything bar install the windscreen (could have done that but it cost the same installed or uninstalled) and buff the paint when it was finished.

But the story doesn't end there.

The clunky steering looked like a shot steering rack which is unique to the Daewoo and no longer available. What to do? Buy another Daewoo of course.

$200.00 later we had another car in the driveway. Much to my wife's disgust.

A few hours and we liberated an engine and transmission plus sundry other parts we may have needed in the future.

The remains were dropped off at the local scrap metal place and this is the last we saw of that Daewoo.

So the car is registered and driving around and being a hit wherever it goes. Only problem the engine is a bit smokey. No problem we have one of them spare.

Swapped it out in a day and it was mobile again. Only problem this engine was no better than the last and it started fouling spark plugs, which when driven by a mechanically incompetent 25 year old had me collecting it all over Sydney's north each time it died. Seriously if you gave Lachlan a screwdriver he would poke his eyes out!

Now what to do?

Lachlan had discovered and anomaly in the modified vehicle regs that allows a lot more tolerance in engine size to commercial vehicles. A quick email to our Engineer got us the result that yes we can legally fit any engine into the car we wish but it had to have sound engineering and he would sign off on anything under 2litres, normally aspirated or not. The one rider was it had to have the brakes out of the donor vehicle. He should know not to tempt us with a challenge.

So after a lot of research another vehicle followed us home.

So the car will end up with a Nissan SR20DE normally aspirated 2litre engine. We just couldn't find the room for the turbo engine to go in.

Here's how it looked before pulling it apart (again).

And once it was stripped ready for surgery.

Let's have a test fit of the new engine. By the way the car came with 3 spare engines and a gearbox so hopefully one will be good.

If we cut a little here and weld a little there it may just work.

The firewall was removed for the second time and some other rather drastic surgery allowed the narrowed Nissan front subframe to fit and all the Nissan suspension components to bolt on. This meant we had the brakes the car would need and the Nissan steering, which solved the clunky steering problem.

I thought I was a tragic Zuffen, but you are like a dog with a bone and as much as I admire your persistence you really need to understand when enough is enough!? :blink:

PDU some things you can never have enough of

Great stuff, loving this


Paul

IF I live long enough Paul I might have to revisit my Trimodore - Mk 1 Triumph 2000 with a VR 3.8 V6 in it and VP trans.

I could have put a P76 V8 in it, but thought I'd try the V6 instead, simply because I had one of those on hand as well, and had never seen another one in a Triumph. What a brain drain it was sorting through the electrics and the fuel injection requirements - when running and driving (without brakes) I lost interest and it's just been wallowing at the back of my garage ever since. :oops:

You do Good Work Zuffen.
Your Obviously a good Lateral Thinker & problem Solver..Well Done.

PDU,

There's no such thing as too much horsepower.

I can add another build after this and then perhaps another.

Yes I am a tragic but when in business I used to tell the Underwriters at LLoyd's "don't tell me I can't do that or I will prove you wrong". I love a challenge.

I for one don't really care what you label it! Anyone who puts that much effort into a project, and then as much time again writing and describing how it came together, I dips me lid to!