Avenga's 1980 Avenger wagon

[avenga]

Woohoo!!!! Got my WOF today!!!



And I got my rego. I also changed it over to my AVENGA personalised plates.



Speedo is all working great



I checked Carjam and the speedo hasn't been working for over 7 years. It has been stuck on 1,956 KM since 2010, until today, it was up to 1,976 KM when I got the WOF



Went for a good run today and now it is up to 2,062 KM



Got the wagon home now, all road legal and ready to roll. Looking forward to going for a good cruise this weekend.



New plates are looking sweet on the wagon, much better than the old RU5970, they sounded like an ad for a seniors dating website (aRe yoU between 59 and 70, then try "Sexy Seniors Dot Com")





It is really freakin low. This is it next to my '75 Avenger, which has already been lowered



I did a quick measurement by the front door. My '75 is around 880mm



And the wagon is about 790mm, so about 90mm lower



Now is when I geek out a bit about the Avenger Estate and why I love them so much.

So in normal mode it just looks like the sedan seats.



You have around 1100mm of boot space



It has the first set of hinges under the seat (Yes, it has 2 different sets of hinges, you will see later when I show you my favourite feature of the wagons)



Now there is two "Modes" that you can have the wagon in. The first is what I call storage mode.

You lift the bottom of the seat up, so far, so normal



It has little hooks on the underside that the back of the seat will clip in to



And on the back seat you have these sockets that connect in to the hooks.



They have a nice big lock on each side



Then you fold down the back seat and clip it in to the bottom of the seat



This gives you around 1640mm of boot space





Now I know what you're thinking, Richard, what's this second mode you hinted at. And Richard, your 6 foot tall, how can you sleep in the back if it is only 1.6 meters. Well let me show you "Bed mode"

So first you need to move the front seats all the way forward, and tilt the seats forward



Then you lift the back seat you can you will see that there is another hinge on the underside of the seat. You can see the main hinge at the bottom of the picture



Below that you will see a little wing nut, it isn't a bolt, it is like a little cam



You turn that quarter a turn anticlockwise and it will release the second hinge.



You then fold the main hinge all the way down and use the second hinge to flip the back of the seat over



Then you fold the back seat down. and not only do you have a ton more room, it makes a comfy AF pillow!!!



So you can see, tons of room to sleep in!!



In "Bed mode" you have over 2070mm, you have even more if you count to the back of the front seats. That's 430mm more room than "Storage Mode"



It is the only wagon that I have seen that has this cool bed mode feature, maybe this sort of stuff was common back then but I always thought it was really cool and unique, and so 70's. I could just imagine camping out in your Avenger estate wagon as a teenager, total shaggin wagon #Ladies!

[avenga]

Been really busy wagoneering around, it's super handy having the wagon.

I was going to leave the wagon parked in my driveway at nights but I figured it was too nice to leave out in the yucky Auckland weather.

So I did some creative thinking and some measuring and figured a way to make all 3 cars fit in my 2 car garage.

First step was to clean up the garage, the wagon was great for this, did a few runs to the rubbish tip



Now I had a nice clear Avenger shaped space but no way to get the car in there



Some more wagoneering and a little bit later I went down to Repco and got a set of vehicle positioning jacks, they wanted $460 for a pair but I talked them down to $309 #NeverPayFullPrice. They only just fit in the back of the wagon.



I still had a set of wheel dollies that I used on the Charger at my last house so I figured I would just jack up off the diff and use those for the back wheels.



Put the fronts up on the go jacks



And the back on the wheel dollies



Then I pushed it in to place





From outside it looks really cool because that spot is perfect Avenger size



It is really tight. This is at the back



And this is up the front



The cars look totally sweet all lined up in the garage



And I still have tons of room to open doors etc



I do like all the different colours of my cars, 70's cars had such colourful paint.



And I can even still get in to the garage from the internal door



If I want to get the '75 Avenger out then it is not that hard, just move the wagon out, jack up the go jacks, push it across, drop it down and jack up the back and take the dollies out and then I am ready to roll, I could probably do it in around 5 minutes.

The wagon is about 100mm so I don't think it would fit in the little Avenger sized gap so it is a good thing that the sedan is so small.

[JoKer]

Awesome man! Its nice to have a "low stress" Daily eh And it looks darn neat too

"wagon time aint no crime" is an oldschool saying for wagoneers

also can confirm the hinge thingy on the Wagon on my yard your speedo drive came out of

[avenga]

Did a little road trip over the Xmas break in the Wagon.

First night we stayed in this awesome little bach in Urenui, just north of New Plymouth.





Then we did the Forgotten Worlds Highway. Had this awesome tunnel and gravel roads, that was a bit challenging with how low the wagon is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-WP3YePZZ0

Then the next night we stayed at a bach in Mangakino



Really great trip

[avenga]

Started buying parts for the V8 conversion.

Brought the clutch, flywheel and pressure plate. I have ordered a really cool hydraulic bearing clutch bearing coming next week.
 


Already have the 1UZ-FE engine



Brand new R154 gearbox for it



Independent throttle bodies



And Hilux Limited Slip Diff

[avenga]

I should put an R18 (NSFW) heading on this post because this $hit is pornographic!

The independent throttle bodies look so sexy on the V8!





They ever so slightly overlap



And they are a little bit staggered



Installed the clutch. The kit I brought didn't come with a ring gear so I had to use the one off the old auto flex plate.

[avenga]

Been doing a fair amount of cruising in the wagon.

Meet up with one of the Avenger forum members (Hamish A.K.A 1.6gls78 and his wife) and drove the wagon, Avenger Panther and my his Avenger down to Caffeine and Classics



Then took the wagon down to Papamoa for the long weekend.



And back to the V8 Conversion.

Got the hydraulic clutch release bearing



This is a specially modified bearing from Manon Racing Products (MRP)



Installed the clutch in to the gearbox

[avenga]

A bit of bad luck and bad timing. I was driving out in the rain yesterday and the engine cut out.

It broke down on the side of the motorway so I had to wait for a tow truck.



When I got back to the garage I checked out under the hood, it would run okay when on the starter but as soon as you turned off the starter then the engine would just cut out.

I think it is just that water got in to the electronic ignition module. You can see here that it lost all the epoxy out the bottom and pooped itself





They are the same as the ones they use on the later model Valiants so I could have just got a new one, but since I had my wagon booked in to do the V8 swap next Thursday, I figures I would just start the engine swap a week early and not worry about the ignition on the old motor.

Here is one last shot of the old engine.



While I was down there they had the Zyhper that they did a 1UZ swap on last year, so they gives you a good idea of what she will look like, but mine with have trumpets, plus it will be a manual, and have a link ECU and digital display.



We are thinking the biggest challenge will be the length but I am hoping it will fit without modifying the firewall.



It's up on it's hoist now, where it will stay for the next little while as we try to squeeze the V8 in there.



I have also decided on the ECU. I am going all out and getting a Link G4+ Storm. I am buying it from NZEFI and they do bundled easy wire kits for the 1UZ



They also do a complete new set of connectors so I will be able to just crimp these on to the premade kit and it will be really tidy, I won't have to use any of the old Toyota loom, it will all be new and only the bits that I need.



I have also decided on the dash. I am going for a AIM MXS Strada Digital Dash Display. It is pretty awesome. It has tons of different layouts and I can load 6 different ones to the switch between while driving. They are all customisation also. They have ones like the photo below, but also ones with your classic analog gauges for speed and RPM. It also has shift lights.



It's not going to be cheap. It is about $6K just for all of the electronics but it will be worth it because it will all be new and all be top of the line stuff.

[avenga]

The V8 fit surprisingly well



Looks good from below. It is a front sump so the sump clears the crossmember



Length looks okayish. I might push the firewall in because we want to move it a couple of inches back.



Width is good. We might even be able to fit the factory headers on. Height also looks good so I think we might be able to fit the trumpets and everything under the bonnet so it will be a real sleeper.



Bell housing fits inside the transmission tunnel.



Here is a better look at the Hydraulic clutch bearing



And how it bolts on to the gearbox.

[avenga]

We weighed the new engine versus the old. The new V8 is only 60KG heavier. Goes to show how much a cast iron 4 cylinder weighs versus a fully alloy V8.

While the car was up on the jack we noticed that the rear drivers side upper arm was completely broken. It still drove completely fine. I think it broke on my trip down to Papamoa because I heard a little bit of knocking from the back.



We will need to either replace it or fabricate some new arms.

It looks like it has been cracked for a while before finally letting go



So this is officially the point of no return.

We marked out where we wanted to make the cut in the firewall.



And then made the big cut. It looks so strange being able to look up and see the roof of the car from below the car



Next up we made the chassis reinforcement rails



And the other side



Looks really tidy from above.



From the front you can see back seats What do you think of the little modification to the number plate? we changed from AVENGA to AV8NGA. It's a nice play on Avenger and V8 combined. I checked and it is available but it is about $1000 for a personalised plate so I don't know if it is worth it.



It looks like a Fred Flintstone car from the inside

[avenga]

Some more progress on the wagon while I am away

Gearbox crossmember is finished. This thing looks like a piece of art, its a shame it's under the car and no one will ever see it. looks super strong.



It is attached to the new chassis rails.



The V8 looks great in position with the trumpets on

[avenga]

Some shots of the radiator.

Clearance between the motor and radiator is going to be tight



On the front we are running two big electric fans



which are tucked away nicely behind the grill

[avenga]

I found a really nice narrowed Hilux diff on Trademe, so that saves be getting my one narrowed and it came with all the brake set up

It is narrowed from 1470 down to 1290mm from WBF (wheel bolt face) to WBF, with a 5 x 114.3 PCD. 4.1 LSD. Rekitted Rx7 s4 rear calipers, new vented rotors, new brake pads. Waterjet cut 8mm thick disc brake adapter plates. It is about 100mm narrower than the standard Avenger diff so I will be running more negative offset on the rear rims. Should look pretty sweet.







Got all of my electronics. The loom was built by NZEFI, custom made for the V8 Avenger wagon



There is a crap ton of wires.



I am going to have a go at wiring everything up myself. It is all really well labelled which will make it a lot easier.



And I brought all new connectors for everything on the engine, and all new sensors.



Also got the digital dash. It looks a little small outside of the car but it should look pretty good once it is installed



Finished the firewall and transmission tunnel.



Looks really clean from in front, you can hardly tell it was cut when the engine is in place



Looks really nice one the inside



It nicely sits under where the old heater used to be



Finished new chassis rails.



And the other side



It connects up to the factory rear chassis rails

[avenga]

Started on the hydraulic clutch pedal and master cylinder. The reservoir will be mounted in the engine bay, next to the brake master fluid so I can keep an eye on the fluid level easily.

[avenga]

Some more photos of the clutch and brake setup.

Little clutch reservoir mounted on the firewall



Brake master cylinder next to it. We will be running a remote brake booster under the dash



The final mounting location