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Post by crazytim on Aug 15, 2007 23:18:52 GMT 12
Will be done soon, once the diff is in I'll get the tyres (the gem diff will still require some modding as the Chevette hatch as the stupid angled struts at the back, which have a different mounting set up on the diff to every other Chevette and Gem).[/quote]
the gem wagons have stupid angled struts 2...
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Post by cul8r on Aug 16, 2007 10:25:00 GMT 12
Yea, the gemini wagons have the angled struts, but *but* the gemini wagon diff's torque tube is different (wider), other than that they almost bolt straight in..
Need to change the brake lines to the original chevette ones as Gemini = Male, Chevette diff is female , which would mean two male connections , which wont work.. you know what I mean , the way the brake line bolts together...
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prozac
Junior Member
Posts: 92
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Post by prozac on Aug 16, 2007 18:02:36 GMT 12
Whatever, i know you love the male on male action .
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Post by coggers on Aug 17, 2007 6:03:00 GMT 12
love the wheels you're gonna fit - i'm after a set too for my kadett . I know a guy over here with a set of them on his chevette saloon and they look superb.. just looking at the pic of your car , they seem to be pretty much identical to the uk version.. what engine options did they come with over there ? and how were the chevettes sold in NZ ? i mean i presume the gemini was the main selling t-car (like the chevette was in the uk ) then the chevette was an alternative sold by a few other dealers ? ? (like the opel kadett was the '2nd choice' line over here ? ) over here we had hundreds of vauxhall dealers who sold bucket loads of chevettes , we also had a few opel dealers who consequently didn't sell as many of the kadett variants. Just wondered if it was a similar story with you guys
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Post by zep on Aug 17, 2007 11:43:32 GMT 12
I'm not sure how it worked. Holden/Isuzu have no records (it seem) of the numbers of Geminis which they sold so who knows. It does seem that you see more Chevettes on the road and for sale these days, but that doesn't really mean anything... I think there was only the 1 engine option, 1245 is it again? I can never remember
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Post by cul8r on Aug 17, 2007 12:35:01 GMT 12
Yea , all the chevettes had the 1256, And I would've said that the Chevette was the "main" car as there is certainly alot more of them around, there were some imported and alot assembled here..
The Gemini's seem more like they were imported... (theres a decent amount of them but not heaps around)
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Post by zep on Aug 17, 2007 13:26:51 GMT 12
I can't remember, but me and Defcon found this out a while back. I think Geminis were made here, or maybe the early ones were imported and the later ones made here. Either way, I'm pretty sure that the holden ones where made here.
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Post by jaygti on Aug 17, 2007 14:17:36 GMT 12
love the wheels you're gonna fit - i'm after a set too for my kadett . I know a guy over here with a set of them on his chevette saloon and they look superb.. just looking at the pic of your car , they seem to be pretty much identical to the uk version.. what engine options did they come with over there ? I trial fitted the wheels (without tyres) a couple of weeks ago when I ripped the diff out, they stick quite a distance out from the furthest extention of the wheel arch... so with some 175/50/13s on and that nice Euro stretch, they are going to look awesome! Yeah 1256 in all of them. I think the Chevette was the main product over here, certainly when I was growing up and you could buy one new, there were a lot more Chevettes around than Geminis. In fact my family had 2 of them, both bought new. I inhereted the last one as my first car... and killed it within about 6 months. Spec-wise, they seem very similar to the UK cars, just slightly different interior materials, probably because most of that was sourced locally.
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Post by crazytim on Aug 19, 2007 12:50:29 GMT 12
there wer alot of nz assembled chevettes gm factory down in welly sumwhere mate of mine used to go there afta it closed and mates wud drag race up and down fu#ken huge as warehouse. He said thts why t cars have so much bog in them from factory cos the components wud come from england or oz stuffed in2 crates and if anything was dented or damaged itd b pooed up wit bog. then we get our dirty lil mits on em and put more bog in... i think most of these poor little cars are running a 50/50 bog to steel ratio!!
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Post by mikuni on Aug 20, 2007 9:18:46 GMT 12
so the cars can be anything from 800kg to 1300kgs ;D
haha I think it was 77vette off here that had an uncle or something who assembled some chevettes at the factory and said they are complete piles of nuts lol
I remember someone telling me that in the late 70's the GM dealerships were selling both the isuzu gemini and the vauxhall chevette. The isuzu being the far better car with a bigger better engine and drive train, along with alot nicer trim and interior. Also, the gemini was cheaper than the chevette! Apparantly people would pay to have the vauxhall badge at the front rather than isuzu... yeah.
I've also heard that the chevette was one of the first 'hatch backs' as we know them today, so people quite liked the idea of having a hatch back vehicle, and that I assume is the reason why so many chevette hatches were purchased and why they dominate the numbers today. If someone wanted a sedan or a wagon (or a coupe obviously), then the gemini was the better car to buy.
But we're going off topic.
Hurry up and give us pics with it nice and low on those supalites!
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Post by jaygti on Aug 20, 2007 10:52:43 GMT 12
Hurry up and give us pics with it nice and low on those supalites! Hey, I like to take my time and do things right (which actually means I'm a useless lazy bastard that is far too easily distracted by other things... ;D)
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Post by jaygti on Nov 20, 2007 8:39:35 GMT 12
So I should really do an update, seeing as I've started working on the biatch again.
After much thinking, I decided to stick with the plans to swap mounts on the Gem diff and bolt it in using the standard hatch suspension set-up. Main reason is I really couldn't be bothered putting the Chevette diff back in so I could move it to somewhere that could do the turret coversion for me. So in other words, I was just too lazy to do it properly... ;D
Dropped the diffs off at Diffs-R-Us 2 weeks ago... and a few minutes later discovered how expensive they are. Ok, I can assume they will do a good job, but it's going to be $400 plus to do the swap... Never mind!
Have also started stripping out the interior. Plans are to go for black trim on the door panels instead of the horrible mint green, done properly (i.e. by a professional, instead of me making a balls up of it) and matched to some decent seats. On the subject of seats, I'm thinking something old school looking, but needs to be fold-foward, so something out of a hatch. Thought MX5 seats might work here, re-trimmed to match the rest of the interior.
Also in the process of ordering the Spax suspension kit from TJ Motorsport in the UK. Just trying to figure out the cheapest way of getting it over here as the purchase price is high enough as it is (damn it's expensive to tune cars in the UK).
I reckon at my rate, that's another good 12 months of work... ;D
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Post by zep on Nov 20, 2007 10:04:41 GMT 12
Sounds like good progress. Have you got those damn wheels on there yet/
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Post by cul8r on Nov 20, 2007 10:19:58 GMT 12
Good stuff, I'd imagine if you get ahold of your local Speedway Engineer (bound to be some specialist places that do heaps of stuff) they would swap the mounts etc over, hell any old engineer should be able to, and cost below 1/2 that, not exactly time consuming.
Cheers,Chris
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Post by jaygti on Nov 20, 2007 10:35:42 GMT 12
Sounds like good progress. Have you got those damn wheels on there yet/ Ha ha, not yet, waiting to get the diff back and they'll be whacked on, I promise! Good stuff, I'd imagine if you get ahold of your local Speedway Engineer (bound to be some specialist places that do heaps of stuff) they would swap the mounts etc over, hell any old engineer should be able to, and cost below 1/2 that, not exactly time consuming. Cheers,Chris Yeah reckoned it was a $200 job so was shocked when I got the $400+ quote. I'd already dropped it off, booked it in and got everything sorted before I asked for a rough price, so just decided to go with that as at least it will be done right and this side of Christmas too. It's going to take 3-4 weeks too, as they're quite busy at the moment too... but then this hasn't exactly been a speedy job so far, so I can wait...
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