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Archer Customs NZ

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1976 Toyota ke30 Corolla
1964 Ford Galaxie 500

28/09/2026

Bit of a mix up today, started picking at some bits on the Corolla and accidentally fell into a day of stripping the shell. Finished off the roof, which is almost perfect thankfully. Started on the right rear quarter which I had been putting off as it had signs of some very thick body filler. Fortunately there isn’t too much in the way of rust but some bad panel beating in the past means it’s going to need a fair bit of shrinking. Started getting all the under seal off around the wheel arches too as the bottom of the car will be receiving the same treatment as the top ✨

26/09/2026

Some more progress on the caddy’s exhaust system. Finished welding the front sections and middle section, rivnutted the mounts in place, gave it all a coat of black paint and wrapped the front with heat shielding to try and keep heat away in those tight engine bay sections. The oil filter also has to be relocated as there’s no way it can be run in its factory location due to the limited space. I put a fl**ge straight off the flow master mufflers and made some little dump pipes so it can be easily dumped at the diff. I will make the last rear section over the diff at some stage to comply with the cert process. There is a number of things that need to be done under the car before the exhaust can be hung for the final time

24/09/2026

Finally diving back into this 454 big block conversion on my parents 1965 Cadillac after too long! You would think with a massive car like this there would be room to burn in the engine bay but it couldn’t be any further opposite 😂 After modifying a couple runners on each exhaust manifold to make them clear the chassis and shortening the collector fl**ge right up to the block, there is only a very small window the exhaust has left to head through between the sump and steering box/pitman arm. Luckily I’ve watched too many videos on turbo dump pipes and knew my way around this issue. Unfortunately with the limited space 2.5” was the absolute max size we could go. It’s coming along pretty nicely with good clearance lock to lock, I added a couple flex joints to combat vibration and a fl**ge either side before the x-pipe to help with installation. I then made mounts off the x-pipe to take some of the weight off the headers themselves. Jas and the fam at Sticky Autoworx supplied absolutely everything required for this project and I can’t recommend them enough 😎

23/09/2026

Finally got the Pajero interior looking like it should as the truck was proper disgusting when I picked it up. The plan was to pull all the interior out so I could paint the stained up hood lining and deep clean everything in between. Rug doctored the seats, scrubbed every piece of trim, seat covers had the special Bri treatment, new steering wheel, full sound system, the works. Came out pretty good, even topped it off with a new rooftop tent and awning. The truck now has a wof and rego, ready for summer 😎

27/08/2026

Making some more progress on the Pajero to get it ready for a wof and its first outing. Both axles had ripped cv boots, one was too far gone and needed a new full axle but the other could be cleaned and repacked with grease. Replaced the front wheel bearing while it was all apart because i might aswell. I gave the full cooling system a flush out and check over, along with a new thermostat, new water pump and new radiator cap. These trucks share a similar design to some other 90’s cars where they dont hold pressure inside the cooling system. Instead they have a free flowing overflow design, this means its critical that the over flow hose is tightly sealed so i can pull coolant back in just as easy as it pushes it out and doesn’t suck air after pushing all its coolant out. This is a very common reason these trucks overheat. I also changed out the rocker cover gasket and fixed the broken exhaust flex joint, along with welding on new mounting tabs as it was pretty hacked up.

17/07/2026

Took my mum and dads 64 chev out for a run to the toy shed open day and noticed it was running like a bag of rocks, so thought I would check it out. Under the distributor cap looked like it had been under the ocean, unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of photos but everything was super corroded. The center point of the cap had broken off causing everything to arc out and one of the advance springs wad so rusty is had broken in half. A new cap and a pack of advance springs later, she was better than ever.

22/06/2026

Finally got my welding table all finished up, Really stoked with how it came out. The whole design was centred around fitting the tool box and I wanted leg room to sit down to tig, this was the end result. I really could have done with about 800mm more box section but it will be fine as is. The vice can be moved from either corner and I made a panel for the side that I’m going to make holders for my filler wire. Even got to christen the new floor with some zink black. The Pajero is currently getting some attention in the background so it’s ready for summer 😎

17/06/2026

What’s a workshop, without a welding table? I’ve always wanting a proper steel table to sit down and weld at, designed one up and started cutting some lengths of box section. It’s made 40mm box with 3mm plate steel. found a somewhat small tool chest to incorporate into it and a pivoting vice that can be moved to either corner. It’s far from finished but making progress.

08/06/2026

The latest side project I’ve been sinking my hours into, a 1993 Mitsubishi Pajero 2.8 lwb 4wd truck. I used to have one of these a few years ago and I really think they are great value. Picked it up from New Plymouth with a few issues (wouldn’t be a hot deal otherwise). Started by giving the brakes, diffs and gearbox a birthday. Installed a new clutch and slave cylinder, along with a solid flywheel conversion, fixed the leaking diff cover and gave it a complete body under seal. Changed the big end bears while I was under there and gave the paint a tickle with the buff to make me feel better. The 4wd system didn’t disengage fully so I replaced the had it solenoids (common failure on these) and the speed sensor to make speedo work. still have a staked list to go before summer so stay tuned!

07/06/2026

Archer Customs HQ has moved with a bit of an upgraded space! got offered a bigger and better workshop that couldn’t be passed up, so it was a no brainer. Not a huge amount of work has been happening on the Corolla as of late, it’s been pushed back to make room for other things I’ve been working on. Still figuring out the best way to strip the shell back to bare steel without spending moon beans on getting it dipped.

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