30/10/2026
Another month goes by and busy as usual:
Customers 67 Camaro Historic race car required some pre-season maintenance before its first race event, brake pedal balance adjustment, new carburettor needle valves and some fine tuning adjustments and its already run at its first event, which was a couple of weeks back and now goes “flaming” great(see pic).
Had this genuine Perana Capri V8 in again, it kept stopping intermittently so I fitted a fuel pressure test gauge and found the fuel pressure dropping intermittently. The gas tank was removed and I found a life times worth dirt, rust and muck inside blocking the pickup. Sent the tank to the dippers for acid stripping and then to the anodizers, welded a fuel outlet b**g in the tank bottom as the original fuel pick up is built into the sender unit, with the larger size tube that is unfortunately no longer available. While at it I fitted new rear shocks and repaired some electrical light wiring for its WOF check, all good to go now.
Next up was this beautiful 69 Mach 1 Mustang, a vehicle I’ve know for a long time that was restored 30 years ago, and it’s still very nice. It also had running issues and found it was pulling a vacuum from inside the engine, I removed the intake manifold to find the intake gaskets completely dissolved, which happens over time. With the manifold off I fitted a new dual plane Edlebrock intake for easier tuning and better all-round driving. At the same time i replaced the noisy water pump along with the thermostat housing and misc parts. After some fine carburettor tuning and ignition timing it was running super nice again, a quick test drive and back to its owner.
Next was this XY Falcon historic race car with a 630HP 351 Cleveland engine, had miscellaneous on-track running issues so fitted a new electric race fuel pump, a HVC MSD control box, new road race carburettor floats, and replumbed the under bonnet(hood) fuel system. The starter motor had blown its aluminium housing apart so a new 2KW starter was fitted with a custom made sandwich locating plate to help easy its starting pain. The alternator pulley was wobbly and found it had chewed the aluminium centre out so made a new steel sleeve that pressed in, and another support bracket to replace the broken unit. We then put the car on Dtechs Dyno next door(thanks Dave) for pretesting and then took it Hampton Downs were the owner tested the car, still had some minor issues but otherwise runs very nice and is ready to race at the upcoming MG Classic race event at Manfeild, NZ in a couple of weeks.
Bench work included rebuilding this Ford 9inch diff head out of a 63 Galaxie which had never been apart(amazing), the crown wheel and pinion were nice so new bearings, seals and fitted a new Eaton L*D Tru-Trac unit while at it. Parts sales also keep me busy with two complete Mustang 8inch diffs sold both for a hot-rod builds, and this bare 8inch housing and axles for another hot-rod, and a used set of 71 Mustang 9inch axles and new bearings for a wellington customer and my last Toploader 4 Speed gearbox sold.
And finally the 69 Dodge Superbee I send back to the USA(where it belongs) made it back in one piece with not a scratch, Kiwi Rex Kelland from Kiwis Classics, Modesto, CA took it to the local Ripon Fire Department car show still with its NZ license plates and stickers, a great conversion topic were several people showed interest in it. I'll probably use it next summer(USA) when over there at some point?
That’s it again from Dale and team at Coastline Automotive, Tauranga, New Zealand, Enjoy.
