Merry Christmas to me... Zephyr twin carb manifold

After market twin carb manifold; a Christmas gift to myself. 

The manufacturer is unknown, but it is in very good order and will clean up OK.

The puzzle.

Although this came with a 36mm carb attached, the throats are only 31mm. Of course this means the larger carb cannot open it's butterfly on this inlet port. I have no knowledge of other Zephyrs, so maybe this is for an earlier model.

Upon closer inspection, the ports are 31mm all the way through, whereas the mk3 Zephyr is 36mm.

I'm thinking I will have to swap this for a suitable mk3 version. To be honest, I really want an inlet manifold that will take a weber double choke carb, like on Cortina GT's, the Pinto 2 Litre BDA motors and 3 Litre Capri V6. These are not available in Australia, it seems. I have never seen one.

Enough of the others - back to mk3 Zephyrs

1962 Mk3 Zephyr. Obvious, yes, but search engines can't recognise the picture without an innane label.

So back to the black Zephyr - a very early mk3. I've dug out the picture showing the 6 cylinder grille this time. If you look back through this blog you will see the Zephyr 4 grille was on it for that photo and perhaps notice it doesn't fit between the lights. The Z4 grille is also 1962, so the headlights must have been in different locations. Later 4's used a modified grille that sat lower with the zephyr letters below the bonnet like the 6.

This pic is the one I took to sell the car, and has the space saver wheel on the front. This wheel came off a Mazda RX7. Rare and hard to come by, but not really worth much. I have a few of them, as I want the tyres for the Austin Seven's 16" wheels.

Being black it's hard to spot all the rust in the car. This bootlid is currently on Ralph and was one of the better panels on the car. The boot lip was quite rusty, as were parts of the sills, particularly near the dogleg and around the drivers door frame had some holes. The boot floor had the usual "venting" in a number of places, but I became more concerned when daylight could be seen through the drivers footwell. The roof had proved to be a continuous blob of body filler, same with the guard in the picture. Possibly the result of a roll-over.

The interior was just an absolute mess, so no photos! Lots of wrecked seats that didn't match, no dash pad at all and a poor steering wheel.

I bought this car because there were no others about, but soon realised that it was simply too big a job to be practical for me.

Bought for A$1200, sold for A$1300, I guess I can't complain.

I would have liked to keep it as a parts car, but it had to be out of the drive way so that I could get the Austin 7 out for sale. The nose would make a great BBQ "cover" and the rear cut a perfect sofa!

After fitting another carb, the motor ran, but as the water pump spewed water everywhere it promptly blew a head gasket. The blue smoke was a fair indication that it had to come apart anyway!

Notice in the right hand foreground the vacuum tank, and on the left an in-line brake booster. This one is an after market replacement, but in the same position as the original. BTW the brakes were seized solid, as was the clutch.

Honda N360 rusty relic

Long before Xbox 360 there was the Honda N360. Powered by a 360cc air cooled engine, hence the cars name (no surprises there!), this diminutive mini car was also kmown as the Scamp.

So why the interest in this almost beyond salavation Japanese creation?

I owned one! The example I had was in far better condition, though. Bought for $500, it was very tidy to look at. The only faults were a small dent, rust around the front indicators and faded mats. Oh, and the small problem with the motor. It had been reconditioned, even though the car had only 36,000 miles on the clock, put back in, then started. However, as far as I can ascertain, the earth strap was not connected. The result was to fry the electrics.

It ran, but not well. It may have needed timing. Being essentially a motorbike motor married to a car front wheel drive gearbox, it had CDI ignition (capacitor discharge ignition) - simply not my bag!

I did quite like this car. They are quirky and have some unusual features; Starting with the power plant, it is a 2 cylinder aircooled four stroke on a four speed gearbox. The alternator converts to a starter to get fired up. One turns the key and waits for something to happen. It's all very quiet. Often the only indication that the battery is not completely dead is a slight rocking of the car as the two cylinders move up and down. With a full pee shooter car exhaust along it's length, the note out the back is very subdued, yet unmistakably a 2 cylinder. The gear lever cranks out from under the dash and does take some getting adjusted to if one wants to change up before all forward momentum is lost...after all, theres not a lot of spare power there! The car above is Hondamatic. I guess that would be quite rare.

So to the body quirks - Not what one would term pretty, more functional. Surprisingly roomy inside though. I am just shy of six foot and had no problems with ingress/egress, tough you would have to be more Japanese sized to feel comfortable in the back seat (unless you're a sumo wrestler). I liked the lockable fuel cap - lock the passenger door and the fuel release pin could not be accessed! Similarly, the plastic boot lid was an innovation at the cutting edge for the mid sixties, with more room inside the boot, as the spare wheel was under the bonnet.

Valiant ute

An unusual first car these days for an 18 year old "P plater"!

Valiant ute. I can't tell you much else about this model, not being a Chrysler guy by any means.