Right from the word go we had difficulties with the Gemini.
We live in a shire called Logan, about halfway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane City. {50 kilometers either way}. The car was to be picked up from the Gold Coast, I drove the father and son to the house where it was to be picked up, and my fiancee and I stayed in My VK and drove ahead of the Gemini.
Little did we know {fiancee and I}, the gemini was cooking itself all the way home, as the driver of the Gemini decided to do 90 in the 110K zone I wasn't gonna wait, so I did 110. Apparently we were supposed to have waited. When we got home we were about 10 minutes early, we just waited at the house, he still drove it all the way home with the temp guage at 100,000 degrees
The radiator turned out to be blocked and the thermostat had been removed, a sign that the previous owner had known about the overheating problem but neglected to mention it.
I work for an automotive company in spare parts, so I have good ties with all things car parts, I rang a wreckers and got a radiator for him, turned out to be for a manual{no auto cooler}, so we just whacked in some radiator flush. Didn't do anything, and we overheated it again.
buggered if i know what we're gonna do, we have to do a 150 k trip up to Bribie Island to have the box installed.
We had to get a new radiator and thermostat, we installed that and then the inlet manifold had a crack in it, we got a second hand manifold and a 32/36 Weber off a RS2000, we threw that on and it ran good, i got a spare auto cooler from work and we chucked that on too, we drove the thing to Bribie Island and got the new box in.
When we got back we raced my mate in his KC TX3 Laser. The Gem had an entire auto gearbox setup in the boot, a whole bunch of tools and me {110kg} in it compared to my mates TX3 with just him, we raced and the TX3 pulled away at 70k, not bad at all!!!!!!!!!!!!
We have just been driving the Gemini round recently, attending a Gemini cruise down the Gold Coast. On this particular night it was raining, as you do on a rainy night, you play around. Well....Michael tried to do a burnout {couldn't}, OOPS " F^%K F#%K F&@K F#$K F*#K " said michael. A "D" car pulls up our ass with the light going and pulls him over. a cop comes up to my window {passenger} and up to Micks window, they ask us both for our licences. They didn't realise I was on my P's {must be on opens to teach a learner in QLD}. They were going to give him a $240 fine for noise and me $240 for letting him do a skid. They let me off but not him, not before a they told us to fuck off home.
The head gasket has just gone on the beast, we've been looking in to getting it fixed. We've gone the way of getting his uncle who's a reconditioner to fix it up. While he was doing it he got a 30/70 cam, head shave, lightened flywheel, all new bearings and rings.
We have gotten the car completely stripped back inside and out. We have started so sand it back in prep for the paint.
The rust has been cut out by Michaels mates father and we've started filling in the minor imperfections with a little Wurth K-filler bog. This was a tedious task. I don't think either of us realised how big of a job it was to respray a car.
We have done the primer and first layer of paint. It turns out that he have been applying it too thick and at too higher pressure. We have had to buy another 4l of paint to fix what happened.
The clear coat has gone on as well, let the compounding begin.
Mick went to put the brake master back in today and stripped the thread in the bore. He's had to have take the brake system out of the TE and stick it in the TG Lines and all.
The engine and box have gone together today {02/09/02} ready to be installed tomorrow. The clutch was a bitch to get aligned, but we got it.
