Babalouie's Project Hakosuka

[Babalouie]

Today, my baby arrived. It's been a long time coming, I started looking for a Hako in October, and we went thru maybe 30 cars with J-Spec before we found this one. It was the best and the most expensive we found, so I bought it on 14 December.

She sat on the docks in Japan for over a mth until the 21st January, whereupon she boarded the Graceful Leader RORO car carrying ship bound for Sydney....landing on Glebe Island Cargo Terminal on the 31st Jan, and staying in quarantine until today!

So it's been so nerve wracking...not only do you have this huge wait, but you never know if the car will live up to your expectations when you see it in person.

But when I heard the tow truck pull up outside my house...I ran the 80m down my driveway (yes, it's long!) and it just took one look....and I was like floating on air





It looked better than in the pictures!







But one of the things pointed out in the pre-purchase inspection ($250 thru J-spec...you'd be mad not to get it done before paying for the car in Japan) was that the clutch master cylinder was farked and it was hard to get into gear...the towie said the same thing, so I got in, pumped the clutch, started the car, miraculously managed to slot it into gear, and then roared up the driveway, pulled up into the garage and knocked it out of gear.



So one thing's for sure...she's not really driveable yet, and will need some work before I will take her on the road...







But damn...even if it doesn't drive anywhere...it sure looks good sitting in the garage!

One of the pre-purchase inspection criticisms was that the paint was very ripply and wavy but to be honest, I think it's better than the paint on the Luce...it'll look great with a bit of polish



The only damage done in transit...the front spoiler got crunched a bit...


Rear tyres are fux0red

[milkman]

Farken hot car, mate!

Very Jealous!

[Babalouie]

So tonight, I start the fun bit...put the car up on stands and see what we've got.

One of the things I noticed was that the tray under the Webers had a little puddle of fuel in it...the extractors are under the carbs, so this is potentially a problem with a fiery end

So I notice one of the fuel hoses is a little cracked, so I pull them all off.




There's a bit of dodginess here...the carb fuel lines are 8mm, but there's the huge 10mm line going from the fuel pump to the carbs....I'll replace this


The offending pipe...I'll have one remade in 8mm


The fuel leak issue is I think from the carbs tho...you can see the bottom is wet....these are Bologna-Italy made Webers, so they date back to before 1987 at least, so I think the best thing to do will be to pull off the carbs and get them rebuilt by a specialist with new seals etc.


Rather comically, some herculean dockworker broke the wooden stock gearknob...


So I just bunged on a random cheapy one for now.


Here's an interesting thing...the stock seatbelts are in 2 parts...first you have this lap belt only ie like an airplane...


But the sash part has a little hook in it...


Which hooks on to the main buckle....


I'm pretty sure this isn't even remotely legal over here, so I bought a Klippan replacement set but the buckle was too short...

While we're on the inside...the carpets were all soaked from the steam cleaning at quarantine, so I pulled them out for drying. One little patch had a bit of rusty water coming from under the sound deadening, so I kinda feared the worst...but after cleaning it up it's fine, just needs some rust treatment and repaint with hammerite or something.


The history of the car was that it was restored in Japan 2yrs ago...windows out, engine out, and the whole car (engine bay, boot, interior) was resprayed. New sound deadening mat was laid down on the floors and I think it trapped some water at that spot....the rust is only on the surface tho.

So far, looking inside, over and under it, it looks 100% solid. There was rust, but the sills and rear guards have been replaced during the restoration, and it all looks quite well done....phew.

Look at that, FWD aficionados...there's the oil filter...it's just *there*...not behind something, or above something, you just reach in and grab it


But the big thing I have to sort out is the clutch....so I remove the clutch master, but have a devil of a time getting off the flare nut holding on the fluid line...


Even get hardcore on it with various German uber products


Then I realise that the rear shaft of the clutch master is dry, so maybe it's ok...usually if the piston seal on the clutch master is blown, fluid leaks to the back and coats the rod. So I turn my attention to the clutch slave cylinder.


And oh yeah...peel back the rubber seal and it's completely fux0red


Last job for the night...repaint the flaky wipers with my favourite




So okay...hopefully the clutch is just a slave cylinder issue and not the master (since I can't get it off anyhow). So I gotta get a new slave (same as 240Z by the looks of it). Then I got to get a new 8mm fuel line made, and get new 8mm hoses....then take Webers off for rebuilding, and while they're off I might as well take the extractors off for ceramic coating, since the paint's flaking off that too. Then get new tyres. Then it should be driveable and I can take it to the engineer for certification...

I dunno how long this is all going to take...but to be honest I'm enjoying working on it too much to worry about when I'm going to drive it Feb EOMM is looking iffy though...Mar EOMM is probably more like it at this stage....but...I want to take the time to do it all "right".

[z10]

very very nice man!

and you dont waste time do ya!?!

[Babalouie]

Well...I kinda enjoy the taking-it-apart thing more than I enjoy the driving aspect to be honest

[Mike.V?!]

The Wurth logo looks like the Wu Tang symbol.

Those seat belts look like they might do more damage than good! I'm pretty sure the sash could come flying out in an accident.

[Babalouie]

Seats are pretty wobbly too....I've got a Recaro for the driver's side but I think the frame on the passenger side is a bit worn...it's got about 6ins of back and forth play Gotta fix that too...

[eug4emi]

hot car, will be a head turner on the streets when it's out!

[van]

I'm interested to see the size of the crowd surrounding the Hako at the next JDMST meet, haha.

[Kultivate]

Thanks for sharing I'd love to see more of this,