[Scarebird]

How much does the plate overlap the hole?

[pontiacstogo]

Originally Posted by Scarebird

How much does the plate overlap the hole?

NZ plates are 360mm x 124mm so wider and shorter than US plates (306mm x 155mm).

On the front plate I bent the outer edges up so that it could fit between the overiders. I could maybe do the same on the rear, but I'm pretty sure that would prevent the gas fill door from folding down. I could maybe make it work but it would be fugly.

NZ does allow you to buy the correct sized US plates using your existing plate number and I think I'm just going to go that route.

[jhein]

Congratulations! Now your bird can fly and be free!!

[Skidmark]

Originally Posted by pontiacstogo

Started with the parcel shelf, that led to the rear speaker, which led to installation of the trunk mat, spare wheel and jack. All done. Pulled all of the fender flares to reinstall them and get them fitting tighter to the body. They are still not perfect, but I'm not sure they ever are. This is the first time since I've owned the car that the front and rear flares have all of the (3 per flare) mounting screws fitted. Glad to be done with them and hope I never have to remove and refit another fender flare EVER.



Backed the car out of the garage and into the sun. Outside is all complete now with the exception of the trim rings and decals. No hood bird on this car and no shaker callout so it's just the fender decals and rear spoiler decal to install.

Nice job. Wondering what makes fitting the front and rear flares so difficult. I just ordered some new welting to do mine. Thanks

[pontiacstogo]

Originally Posted by Skidmark

Nice job. Wondering what makes fitting the front and rear flares so difficult. I just ordered some new welting to do mine. Thanks

The last couple of inches of welting at the top of the flare is always hard to get right. The 'turn' needs to be done just right so that it doesn't look weird when it's on the car. That and just getting them looking OK without weird gaps between the flare and the panel.

[pontiacstogo]

Originally Posted by jhein

Congratulations! Now your bird can fly and be free!!

I might have overdone the flying part

[b-man]

Did the police lay down under the car and poke around the underside with a screwdriver to see if there was anything rusting through ?

I just can’t get over the trouble and expense you incurred just trying to bring a classic car along with you on your move.

I guess anyone moving to New Zealand and taking their classic car along better have an extra 150k or whatever budgeted to have their car restored upon arrival.

[johnta1]

What's the speed limit there?

[pontiacstogo]

Originally Posted by johnta1

What's the speed limit there?

All of the roads around this area are 2 lane (no major highways) and most are posted at 100KPH. That's around 60MPH. That speed actually suits the TA as it always fees a little busy at speeds higher than that.

I had a friends 15 year old son in the car - he's car mad so I was taking him for a quick run out to the beach. The cop came up behind us and thought we didn't have our seat belts on. Once he saw that we were both belted in we were on our way (after a quick chat about the car).

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

Funny pic with the cop car , I guess the cop snapped the picture for you ?

Do they drive in the right lane or the left lane in New Zealand ?

[pontiacstogo]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

Funny pic with the cop car , I guess the cop snapped the picture for you ?

Do they drive in the right lane or the left lane in New Zealand ?

The cop was great so I asked if him if my passenger could get out and take a quick picture. We laughed about it for the rest of the drive and I'm sure he'll have a ton of stories to tell his buddies at school on Monday.

Other than the odd LHD import, all cars here are RHD and drive in the left lane. No problems with that so far. I've heard it can be difficult when passing on a two lane road, but I doubt I'll be doing much of that as I'm pretty happy to just be cruising around and I'm not in any hurry to get anywhere.

[kingbuzzo]

Haha great pic...

[Heybuck]

Originally Posted by pontiacstogo

Other than the odd LHD import, all cars here are RHD and drive in the left lane. No problems with that so far. I've heard it can be difficult when passing on a two lane road, but I doubt I'll be doing much of that as I'm pretty happy to just be cruising around and I'm not in any hurry to get anywhere.

I've never found it to be difficult but you just need to be careful. Let a longish gap open up between you and the vehicle you want to pass and just take it when you can see the road is open.

In the country, I usually wait till I see a long left hand bend in the road and you get plenty of opportunity to see what's coming.

[pontiacstogo]

Got the new plates fitted.

Personalized plates were an option, but I just ordered the US sized plates with the standard rego number that was issued to me when the car was complied. Relatively inexpensive and saved me having to try and get the NZ sized plates to fit;

[OZZIEVILLE 67 2 door]

Originally Posted by Heybuck

I've never found it to be difficult but you just need to be careful. Let a longish gap open up between you and the vehicle you want to pass and just take it when you can see the road is open.



In the country, I usually wait till I see a long left hand bend in the road and you get plenty of opportunity to see what's coming.

I just move out a little and look at the reaction on the face of my passenger

Sent from my SM-X200 using Tapatalk

[chuckies76ta]

Beautiful Car, I really like that plate with the U.S. flag colors embedded in it. I would put the screaming bird on the hood. That blue decal looks so nice on a white car. I know you said your car came without it, but just saying. I also like the Stainless steel drip moldings that came on these cars. Added a little bling. Congratulation on all the hard work put into the car. Enjoy.

[chuckies76ta]

Originally Posted by Skidmark

Nice job. Wondering what makes fitting the front and rear flares so difficult. I just ordered some new welting to do mine. Thanks

When I did my welting years ago, I drilled very small holes at the ends of the welting and install a staple to secure the welting like the factory did. I also purchased a paint-able two part epoxy for plastic and used it to secure the welting to the flare. It has been over 10 years and still is like the day I installed it. If you interested I'll post a few pics and the product I used.

[Baron Von Zeppelin]

The new plate looks pretty neat.
Surprising they enamor it with the year and model of the car.

Could help cut down on how many ask what year model TA is it

[pontiacstogo]

Originally Posted by Baron Von Zeppelin

Surprising they enamor it with the year and model of the car.

Actually that was me. You can order various sized/styled plates here to suit a range of imported vehicles - JDM, European etc. With the US sized plate you have to have text displayed at the bottom of the plate - leaving it blank was not an option. I've seen some with things like 'Born in the USA' as the text but I just went with '1974 Trans Am'. Had I realized ahead of time that it was going to clash with the location of the bottom mounting holes, I might have gone with something different. Oh well.

[pontiacstogo]

Guess I'll close this thread out unless anything new or exciting happens with the TA. Been almost 3 x years since I started the thread - thanks to all those that followed along during the process!