Ben’s Car Blog

I love the Japanese Restorer in Australia magazine. It’s produced by Jonathan Barr in Queensland and it’s devoted to old Japanese cars.

Australia is in a fairly unique position with old Japanese cars. We were usually the only export market for a lot of old, interesting, cars from Japan. Coupled with the mostly warm air and lack of salt on the roads, we have many more old Japanese cars getting around than any other country.

JRiA is a broad church, covering all Japanese manufacturers of cars and trucks. The contacts Jonathan Barr has allows him to cover car shows in Japan as well as locally. If you’re at all interested in old cars, check it out. And if you’re in to old Japanese cars — Toyota, Datsun, Mazda, Honda, Mitsubishi, and more — you really need to check this magazine out.

I recently showed several of my copies to my parents, which was interesting for two reasons. First, although I knew that my Mum owned a new Toyota KE20 Corolla, back in the day, I didn’t know that what she really wanted was a KE15 Sprinter. I reckon she’d be in for a KE15 today, given her enthusiasm for the ones in the magazine. Second, while I’d always thought of my Dad as a Holden (and maybe Valiant and Volvo) man, he told me that he’d always like the 1970s RX-4/929 coupes. Excellent. A KE15 and an RX-4 coupe would go nicely with my 1500ss.

I acquired a new project car on Saturday. I’m really quite excited. I’ve named it Harvey.

Harvey’s a Mazda 1500ss with a few, um, modifications.

Off the top of my head, he’s got:

• flared wheel arches front and rear
• RX-4 coupe roof console (woohoo! 20 year old rice!)
• old 929 seats

Oh, and let’s not forget that he’s got a Toyota 18r-g engine and Celica 5-speed gear box engine in place of the 1500ss motor and box. So he’s just a tad more powerful. Well, he will be when he runs.

The paint has been rubbed back sometime in the distant past but because of the lovely dry Canberra weather and the fact that it’s been in a shed the whole time it’s in fair condition for what it is.

Here is Harvey, just rolled out of the shed. My friend Jen came with me and provided much needed expertise in all project car acquistion and transport matters.

No doubt Jen is thinking “What has he got himself in to?”

This picture is a little misleading. The rear flare looks like it’s fibre-glass when it’s actually all steel. Also, Harvey is a complete car, but he’s stripped at the moment.

I’m thinking of keeping the tennis ball petrol cap, even though I have several spares, for that “rat rod” feel.

Harvey was so dusty and covered in spider webs that we literally broomed him off. The things hanging out of the headlight binacles are the under-bumper indicators and parkers. Oh, and Harvey has an early 1800 bonnet instead of a ventless 1500 one.

Harvey on Jen’s Dad’s car trailer. We had to winch him up. In the second shot of the right side you can see what the flares are supposed to look like.

I’ve since primered all the exposed bare metal.

Now all I need is money (ha!) and time (d’oh)!

In the last shot with Harvey on the trailer, you can see (just) a white car parked next to the fence. Here’s a better look:

I’ll be back for some parts off that one later.

There’s a few more pics of Harvey at my flickr, under the tag “Harvey“.