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Fantastic Nes, they look awesome. Looks like you may have used the one with the deeper etch, The other one was actually a bit shallower and looked better to me, I'd compare the 2 if you get the chance and see whether it's worth swapping them over. Glad you like them and glad I could help solve your dilemma of not being able to get any.

Perspex is better these days. I'm surprised they weren't already made from it because the speedo glass is. Anyway hopefully they don't craze.

Thanks JOX and Keith.

Nes gets to be the lucky Guinea pig for these. Harsh criticism is expected and welcomed :) In the post today nes.

I'm thinking of selling some on the side. with the amount of time that goes into them I'm thinking about $35 including post (for a pair) is fair if anyone is interested but i'll wait till I hear back from nes about the quality. I can also create custom ones like I did for NES, I'd probably charge $35 per side for those.

They'll be made from acrylic (exactly the same thickness as the original) It colour fills much better than glass and is easier to manufacture. It can be cleaned with a cloth and a plastic polish used if it gets scratched. You can't tell the difference once installed.

Haha thanks mate. Pm me your address, I'll send it in the post. You want a fuel one to match?

That's made out of acrylic. I'll post it to you. I do etching for a living so I cheated. But I did genuinely freak out when I wiped the original print off the glass.

I'm thinking of doing a bulk run of these if I can get the glass cut to size. I still can't get over how well they turned out.

Thanks all. Do you mean a closer shot NES or the process?

So I bought a semi complete dash at the swap last year so I could replace my speedo, bonus fuel and light gauge was in there. Needed new glass in the 3 red lights gauge anyway (old one was split) so I started on it all tonight.

Pulled out the old glass and the new glass from each set (the earth bracket was missing on the new set so replacing the glass was easiest) went to swap them over and decided to give the new one a wipe .... whoops.

Long story short, I fixed it the best way I could. Looks as good as new and much more permanent (reverse etched into the glass then colour filled with white)

Pics below

Original fuel



Old vs new



New



New



I'm pretty chuffed

Well it looks like I'm back on the road today after 4 long months. I didn't reuse the 179 or the t700 auto. I got a 186 that had been completely rebuilt and never used with a mild cam and all the goodies. And I had a trimatic completely rebuilt to stick behind it. I got the head reconditioned (one of the exhaust valves had worked it's way up into the head) . We kicked it into life yesterday and today we'll tidy everything up and take it for a run. I've never been that deep into a motor before, just barrels and heads on motorbikes, so this was an experience and a great project with my dad.

Pulled the head off today, (should have done it a long time ago) Was happy to find it's a yella terra head, and find the source of my problems. We comp tested it about a week ago and found it ranges between 95 and 115 so head off to find the issue. Glazed bores! Yay. Rering it and off we go again.

Update time.

Looks like I might have got to the bottom of it. After a couple of dyno tunes and endless tweaking. I gave the car to my dad to have a play with and a fresh view on what could be going on. He was adamant that it has nothing to with the gearbox or diff ratios and has been toying with the carb (much to my disgust after spending nearly a grand all up on dyno tuners) and he can't make it change tune by playing with the mixture, so after googling all night I have come up with what I think is the issue.

The carb is a Webber 32/36 brand new. I thought by buying a brand new carby I would bypass all the issues associated with second hand. What I failed to read in the fine print is that you are not to run any higher than 3.5 psi through them or they will overload the needle and seat.  So as soon as the shops open I'm off to purchase another solution (a fuel pressure regulator) . Wish me luck.

Edit : Just to add, I've seen that a stock fuel pump runs at between 3.5 and 4.5 psi.

Edit #2 just tried it... Ahh well its another nice piece of useless chrome under the bonnet. But I'm onto another lead, will update with progress, this one sounds promising. Most expensive 32/36 weber in Australia.

Bit of an update,

So it's now revving a lot more between gears with adjustment to the kickdown cable and I've been driving around in 3rd, I've only done 150 town K's since changing it around and yes it's a huge improvement, I'm now at around 19 Litres per 100 K's, I'm happy with that for now. So it's extremely obvious that lugging it around in top gear was the problem, thanks for all the replies.

Hi john, you're right, I've been letting it cruise around everywhere in drive so it's been getting into 4th gear around town all the time. At 60 it's been not much above idle.

Thanks fatboy, it has been kicking back ok even with the cable where I've had it but I've adjusted it much tighter now. I'll give you a call this weekend if you don't mind.

Hi Craig, that would have been dad. He took the car to work on the brakes, the seal at the front of the booster was persished. Yay I've got brakes now. I scored well at the swap, got some new spears and other trim, a glovebox insert, and a towbar, I spent more on coke, dagwood dogs and chicken chippies than I did on parts.

Update from yesterday,
So I adjusted the cable so it revs out more between gear changes and I'm leaving it in third. I done about 20 k's around town to see how it would be. It is a different vehicle completely. I'm using way less pedal to get anywhere and it's getting there quicker. So yes again I am pretty confident that by babying the engine has been the cause of my poor economy. I'll get this 3.89 centre from Rob installed and see how I go from there.

Thanks again everyone for the replies. Once I get through a tank of fuel I'll report back with the result.

Thanks John, that's some awesome info there and thanks for taking the time to calculate it all out for me. I think it's now extremely obvious to me and everyone reading this thread that I've been lugging the engine too much, I adjusted the kickdown cable yesterday to let it rev out a bit more between changes and I'll only use 3rd gear for now till I install a 4.44 (or 3.88) ratio diff.

I had a bit of a look around over at http://holdenpaedia.oldholden.com/Differential_Ratio_selection it shows the lowest rpm with the tallest diff available to be 2390 at 60mph so me at 2100 is way off the mark, no wonder I'm using so much fuel especially considering the cam setup etc.

by the way, I haven't really done any highway driving since I bought it home, it's mainly been around town stuff due to some electrical problems I haven't been game enough to take it on a decent run out on the highway, but i've got that sorted now too.

Once I get the new diff installed etc. I'll get it back on the dyno

Thanks all for the replies,

I'll change the kickdown cable to let it rev longer/higher in each gear and hunt for a 3.08 diff centre, I might also just leave it in 3rd around town for now to see if that helps. So I suppose driving it like a Nana is doing more harm than good economy wise in the case of this engine.

Pete, you mention it's a big box for the 179, do you think it would be robbing a lot more horsepower than say a trimatic?

Thanks Fatboy, I would swap the wheels but man those indy's look awesome, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I did get it dynoed but he didn't record any of the details or give me a printout, I should have been more specific about what I wanted when I asked him to do it. He did say that the cam kicks in just below 2900.

Thanks Haydn, that all makes sense.

I hate to sound naive and I have avoided asking the question because I like to trouble shoot without relying heavily on others but this has me stumped.

Here's my relatively consistant fuel economy 26 L/100km or 9 MPG around town

My station sedan has a 179 with a 4 speed t700 auto and (I think) 3.55 diff ratio.

It has electronic ignition and a 32/36 weber carb (tried to improve economy by installing a smaller carb)

I have fiddled with the kickdown cable so it changes pretty early in the rev range and I drive like a Nana 95% of the time. At 100km it is at 2500 rpm in 4th.

Now like I said I don't want to sound naive but the economy on this thing is ridiculous, I don't mind it being a little thirsty but 26L/100KM is crazy. I'll have to confirm with Fatboy (the guy that originally done the motor) what lift and duration is in the cam (it does sound pretty lumpy) and what head work was performed but even a completely bombed 179 shouldn't even come anywhere near that should it? Apparently an XU1 had economy around 17 MPG (14 L/100km)

It idles well, runs like a dream, doesn't cough and splutter and it doesn't bog down unless I flatten it at really low revs (and I mean really flatten it and really low revs)

I don't have a hole in the fuel tank or any of the lines, I bought a ridiculously massive air filter for it, I've changed the coil and as mentioned earlier I have a 32/36 weber installed as I originally thought the 350 holley was causing half the problems. I even had it dyno tuned (for economy) and that made stuff all difference.

I'm lost, I love this wagon and I love driving it but the fuel costs are killing me and killing any spare $$ I would rather spend on parts etc.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks fellas I was a bit worried they wouldn't suit it but they have in my opinion too.

Now with dragway indys.





Kind of ruins the style that fatboy was going with, which I really loved but I like shiny things too, and just a decade or more too modern, still looks pretty good and they clear the guards perfectly. Did I mention I like shiny things

For reference for future people with the same problems.

I have a HR front end and diff (I think it's a hr diff anyway) and my FC is lowered

I searched high and low for wheels with clearance, the jelly beans I had were 105mm from the bolt up face to the outside lip of the rim.

I found a guy with a few sets of mags he took off his torana, the measurement from the bolt up face to the lip of the rim is 80-85mm

my jellys were 7" with 185 tyres (195 is the recomended minimum) and they were scraping the front and rear guard lip on the outside.

The dragways  are also 7" but with 225's they dont scrape (they actually only miss the rear guard lip by about 1-2mm) and they clear the top balljoint by about 5mm phew!!

This guy still has a nice set of 6 spoke jelly beans with the same offset if anyone wants them $400 with tyres

All sorted, thanks for the pm's and thanks for your help yesterday Haydn, you're a wealth of knowledge.