ill-minded's L70/L80 Mira

[ill-minded]

So at the start of the year, I took delivery of this little beast for a meagre sum as a project to keep me occupied in my free time while I'm not at uni or working on assignments, or just generally bludging. The basic rundown is that it's an Australian L80 Handivan, which is essentially the same as the Japanese L70V with the exception of being powered by an 850cc motor instead of a 550cc turbo motor. There are a few other subtle differences, but for the most part, they're the same car.



This particular vehicle was originally found as an old customer courtesy car for a car audio workshop in Moorooka, where I first saw it. At the time, I was as poor as most uni students are and let it slide, but told John (xsoarerx) about it, who later bought it and stashed it under his house for some months. Late last year, he offered it back to me, so I found a bit of spare change and it became mine

Upon getting it back to my residence, I checked over most of the car to suss out what would be needing repairs or replacement. I already knew the motor was pretty much cactus, but went about listing the other bits that needed attention. Main issues are:
- Dead motor
- Rust in roof/windscreen surround
- Crack in windscreen
- Busted tail light
- Steering column surround busted
- Mismatched/worn tyres
- Drivers door sagging

So, the process of stripping it out to begin repairs began...





Some of the bad patches of rust





And that's about as far as i've gotten over the past couple of weeks. Currently waiting to pull the motor and gearbox out, remove the windscreen and get the rust tended to.

Initial plans are to just get it running and registered, then lower it, find some wheels (110PCD ) and maybe look at a cheap respray. Funtimes!

[ae71]

kei sized cars seem to becoming way more popular!!

[Richard]

good on ya for being different. Myself i cant justify spending time and money on that when there are but things out there for a project car. but i know u will prove me wrong

[ill-minded]

thanks it'll probably be a long journey (full of expletives) till it's finished, but it should be fairly rewarding in the end i think.

[ill-minded]

so i uhh... accidentally



... the whole windscreen :\

was poking around trying to get rust converter onto the areas around the windscreen and sorta worked out how to pop out the windscreen without it blowing up into 7 million shards in my face. half an hour later and it popped out quite easily and so i was like

... then i saw the extent of the cancer and was like





the top of the passenger side will definitely need welding, and the other bits around the bottom will probably end up getting similar treatment, but could probably do without. i'd rather not have to pull out the windscreen later to fix it, so i'll try and get it done properly too.

[ill-minded]

finished pulling out the dash today to remove the sound deadener against the firewall and clean out the 24 years of shit accumulated. fairly sure the windscreen has been smashed in this car at some other point in its life, as i found a few little chunks up behind the dash.




engine waiting to be pulled. looks rather bare

[ill-minded]

Been doing a bit of research around on motors and by the looks of it, I should be able to stick a 12 valve head from an L200 onto this without any dramas, which is pleasing, cause the standard 6 valve jobbie is pretty meh. still yet to decide exactly what i want to do with the motor, but running some bike carbs and fabbing an exhaust for it seems to be winning at the moment. should have a bit more poke than the standard motor and probably sound a whole heap nicer as well in other news, i'm waiting on delivery of a block and tackle to remove the motor, where i'll pull the head off and gauge how rooted it is exactly.

also pulled the window and winder mechanism out of the driver's door to check if i can replace the winder mechanisms with L200 items cause the splines on the winders have been stripped off from the numerous drivers/owners beforehand. L200 seems like it'll fit, so i'll add that to the list of things to grab next time i visit the wreckers.

[Pidgey]

Do bike carbs. Please do bike carbs.

[ill-minded]

if i have my way, bike carbs will be done

spent the past 3 or so hours pulling the motor out

heavy little bastard to lift, even with the block and tackle. all went fairly painlessly (other than the rope raping my hands). forgot about the gearbox oil though, and it poured out through the driveshaft holes

anyway, pics



tiny clutch is tiny. about 160mm diameter

fucked mount is fucked.

[ill-minded]

so i was looking around for a piece of steel plate to pull off the crank pulley, and our neighbour came over and offered the use of a crank pulley puller thing. turns out they're old mechanics and they have a whole shed full of tools which they said i was more than welcome to use. the also have a welder, which will prove handy later down the track when i go to fix the rust

so, crank pulley is off and i'll look into pulling the head off tomorrow. win!