EVENT: KANYE WEST BDO MELBOURNE 29/01/12
January 31, 2012

Thanks Ye, Don, Omar, Mike & Crew.

Shot with Panasonic Lumix GF1 + f1.4/50mm (100mm actual)

EVENT: OFWGKTA MELBOURNE 29/01/12.
January 30, 2012

Thanks fuckers.

Shot with Panasonic Lumix GF1 + f1.4/50mm (100mm actual)

ODD FUTURE x QUBIC STORE / NEW ZEALAND
January 17, 2012

ODD FUTURE x QUBIC STORE / NEW ZEALAND

OFWGKTA fans will no doubt be aware of the controversy that surrounded the announcement of their upcoming first appearance in New Zealand. After being booted rather abruptly from the (now evidently final) BDO12 Auckland line-up, they've been relegated to play a side show instead at Auckland's Powerstation venue on Thursday 19/01/12.

To commemorate this momentous achievement, we had Tyler the Creator design a special limited run print tee; exclusively for Qubic Store and their New Zealand gig to express the general feeling over the debacle.

Releasing on Wednesday 18th January 2012 at Qubic Store in limited quantities. Please stay updated on Qubic Store's facebook or twitter for up to the minute details on release time.

Available exclusively from:

Qubic Store (160 Broadway, Newmarket, Auckland)
Qubic Online - shipping available worldwide, free shipping nationwide.
OFWGKTA merchandising stand at Powerstation, Mt Eden, Thursday 19/01/12.
OFWGKTA pop-up shop (Fairfax, LA)

Available in Black, White, Pale Yellow and… Pink.

THINGS MY ASIAN FATHER SAYS TO ME.
January 16, 2012

THINGS MY ASIAN FATHER SAYS TO ME.

If you follow me on any of the other social media platforms, you'll notice that over the past few days I've been posting up random conversation snippets between myself and my father - the venerable Dr. Eric Liew MD. What started off as a simple fb update about him commenting on my exercise regime turned into a game of recording the odd quips he said to me over a short two day trip in Singapore for a rare Liew family gathering. For one reason or another his gems of wisdom seem to be quite popular, so I feel like I need to give a little background information on my father and I to give the whole thing a little more context.

My parents separated when I was quite young, and my mother, brother, and I moved to Singapore from Taipei, Taiwan. I'd see my father every few months as he visited to stay in touch with his boys, and if you know me personally, my father is a bit of a smart-arse (much like me). He's a medical doctor, specializing in the field of anesthesiology… and Pain Management. So along with that territory he's a textbook disciplined/logical/efficient/contrarian/I'm-right-you're-wrong hard-ass (as most doctors are); he's the only child who was sent to college by my grandparents from his family of five (with the exclusion of my youngest uncle, who was awarded a government scholarship in civil engineering); he played with sticks and stones as a kid (or so he says, citing that as a reason why we didn't need a Sega Genesis/NES/Playstation/etc) in Penang growing up; he came from a traditional Chinese family that makes Tiger Moms look like Panda Cubs, and as a child, he'd tell us to behave… or he'd put us to sleep (I had to look up anesthesiology in Encyclopaedia Brittanica to truly appreciate what that meant.. and no, not in a Conrad Murray kind of way). He's not a man of many words so the way I figure it, when he talks; he wants to make it count - I still remember him lecturing us on Swiss efficiency as 10 year olds... and the subsequent punishment I received when I retorted saying we weren't Swiss. When the three of us subsequently moved to New Zealand in the southern hemisphere summer of '94/'95 the visits became more infrequent due to the long commute from Taipei, and a lot of the time we just tried to stay in touch via email or phone calls. Don't get me wrong, he still supported our family and fulfilled all his responsibilities as a father; it was just a little far for him to come often, and I suppose as ratty, spotty-faced awkward teenagers we probably didn't think that it was that important to see him. As you grow up and leave home, naturally, you talk less to your parents as you try and find your own wings. I'm not terribly proud of it, but I did lose contact with him for a number of years during that period. In a way, he missed out on our high-school and college years, as well as the formative years of us leaving school, beginning to find work, and discovering our own paths in life.

Over the past five years as the traveling started, I've had the fortunate chance to see more of my paternal family in Malaysia during stopovers or by just being in the SEA region. With that, I've also been able to see more of my Dad at family gatherings, and it made me quite happy to see that except for the grey hairs, larger spectacles, snake-skin loafers, and what I still suspect is a perm, he's still the same old opinionated joker I remember from my childhood. As most Chinese people will attest to, you'll never be any more than that 10 year old child to your family no matter how old you are, so I think he tries to fit all his lost time in the short 1-3 day slots of seeing me, extolling the three pillars of Chinese parenting wisdom - look after yourself; save money; and don't be an idiot… along with variations of such.

Look up #thingsmyasianfathersaystome on instagram, or I guess you could just find/follow me on @frankliew and click on the images of the notes in my history. With the recent 2 day trip over, I'll be putting more notes up from time to time as I recall them from my childhood.

I love you Dad. Don't ever change.

PROJECT S800 #3: LONG OVERDUE.
January 12, 2012

"We'll just get it on the road first, and go from there."
Auckland, New Zealand

Yes, this is very long overdue. Those with a keener memory might recall that at some point in the distant past we picked up an old shed find down in Cambridge - a very neglected 1969 Mk1 Honda S800. After having sat patiently inside a garage for over two decades awaiting restoration, we thought we had finally come to rescue the poor little bugger and bring him back to life. When we picked up the car it was all brofists, slaps on the back and excessive gusto as we extolled the potential this little project car exhibited. Would it be an original resto? Sunday racer? Street machine? The possibilities were endless. "But, we'll just get it back onto the road first, and go from there. It shouldn't take more than a couple of months."

14 months later...

Although the car still looks like it's ready to hit the junkyard scales, it's been an incredibly long process to get to where it is now. But we're here. Road legal. Complied, registered, VINed, and ready to go.

After the first inspection, it was clear that the idle time had taken its toll on the bottom half of the car. The calipers leaked like a sieve blasted by a shotgun, all the dust boots, mounts, bushes resembled used condoms, and the suspension was as functional as a soggy piece of cardboard in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Enter Josh Strang of BNT Automotive/Autolign, who had the painful task of trying to match up the parts I needed in their universal catalogue... and custom making/reconditioning the parts that they couldn't.

Here's a few bits and bobs that they helped me with.

Re-lined brake shoes (rear).

New brake lines.

Reconditioned rear brake cylinders. Had to send these back twice to get them to stop leaking. Evidently, it took them a while to find the correct size boots/o-rings.

Reconditioned front calipers & new lines. New pistons too, if I'm not mistaken, as they had both seized over time.

Reconditioned master cylinder (+clutch cylinder)

Reconditioned/new shocks & polyurethane suspension bushes. Front & Rear.

The only part that couldn't be sourced locally was a set of front brake discs. The discs that came with the car were worn down and warped; looking more like a pringle chip than an integral part of the vehicle's stopping mechanism. I wish I had a photo of the discs when I found some - simultaneously the most expensive and the smallest brake discs I've ever ordered. In the end, I sourced them from a garage in Brummers (Birmingham, England). Go figure.

Onto the exterior.

My old friend and accomplished panelbeater Tony Hines from Whenuapai Panel & Paint popped round today to have a closer look at tackling the bodywork.. perhaps the most daunting part of the project.

As you can see, it's been through a few colour ops in its time. Looks like the previous owner started to sand the car down at some point during the 20 year storage effort. The top 'blue' coat is incredibly thin - you can literally rub it off with your finger. At some point it was also green, but the original factory colour was a metallic silver.

At some point the car was involved in a small frontal prang on the front LH corner and according to Tony, fixed "70's style" ie - lots of bog and a cheap paint job. However, all factory seams are intact and the damage seems more cosmetic than anything else; the factory crash panel remains unbent with all seams in place, which looks like the external steel panels absorbed the force of the shunt. Overall, aside from a rust spot on the bottom right hand corner of the front guard, the car is remarkably rust free - sills and floors are all intact, welded seams all along the windows and down towards the bonnet are still strong, with only the front windscreen seal/rubber needing factory replacement. The bumpers, headlight surrounds, handles,and hinges may need rechroming, but that's no big deal.

Onto the interior. For the most part everything works.. well, all the gauges except for the thermo gauge. Unless the radiator is really, really, good at doing its job?

A few rips and tears on the factory seats. I'm still impressed as to how much space there is in the cabin of the car once you're seated. The seating position is low (in what I"m assuming is an effort to lower the centre of gravity), but the interior width is a little cramped if you're not used to it. Solution? Just roll down the windows... it makes the engine noise sound better anyways.

Paint has worn off the factory shifter, as well as a cracked shifter boot. No biggie, but expensive to find replacement NOS/OEM parts. It crunches a little downshifting into 2nd gear and occasionally spits out a little transmission fluid through the filler tube during 'energetic' gear changes, but aside from that, the drivetrain feels pretty solid. You just have to refrain from slamming the gearstick like an excited school boy.

All factory. I love the way the switches look aesthetically. So much better than other cars of the same period. The dash mounted mirror I thought was a nice design touch too. It's terribly hard to use, but who cares?

Onto the mechanics.

I'll admit it's been a while since I've gotten my hands grimey, but working under the bonnet was a pretty clumsy experience. For a start, there's almost zero space to do anything under there, making the trouble-shooting process a little like a life-sized game of Tetris.. in reverse. The first issue we had to tackle was a compression leak in cylinder #1. Hans @ E&H motors ended up whipping off the cylinder head and opening up the motor, discovering the fault to be a bent exhaust valve. Where to find (one) exhaust valve for a 42 year old Honda? We ended up sending it off to the machinist's shop to get it straightened, balanced, and then refitted everything... before realizing we had to make custom gaskets for just about everything we took apart. On the way, we also discovered that a previous owner had inadvertently drilled into a water jacket for some reason or another - tapping a new hole for a bolt of some sort. This was quickly filled to prevent any oil/water mix.

After driving the car for a couple of weeks it refused to start one morning. OK, so it started, but sounded like a lazy Subaru tractor... firing only on three. Flooded motor, so I pulled out the plugs, replaced them, cranked it over a few times with the coil unplugged, and voila - back to normal. A week after that the car refused to start again at a petrol station. A quick voltmeter reading across the battery terminals showed a stunning 9V, and being a brand new battery it could only be the alternator/generator to blame. Trick is, to get to the alternator I had to remove the intake, dismantle the carb assembly, and drop the radiator supports.

What should've normally been a 20 minute job turned into a four hour curse-a-thon. For some reason the alternator was bolted on with the bolts back to front, meaning that the bottom bolt couldn't be removed with the steering column in the way. In the end, I just removed the bracket itself. After all, as the old adage goes - "if it's stuck... try a bigger hammer." I like how the radiator fan is a fixed unit connected to the alternator and powered by the alternator belt. Less resistance on the crank.. makes you wonder if it was an intentional engineering design. Got the sucker out in the end and on its way to my friend Lin down at CDM Mt Maunganui to inspect and rebuild for me. Fingers crossed it's actually rebuildable though, because I have absolutely no idea on where to go to source another 42 year old Honda alternator. Any ideas?

Aww, lookit the factory Keihin carburetor setup.. ain't it adorable? Quad carbs; measuring in at a gargantuan 30mm intake width... you have to remind yourself that this is essentially a 800cc motorcycle engine mounted onto a car body. I hope the keys give you an indication on their size... for the record, they're pretty small keys too. Hans @ E&H Motors managed to pull them apart during the initial road-legal stage and noticed that the float valves were a little worn/bent, making them dump fuel and throwing the AF mixture out after 6500rpm. Currently tossing up an overhaul (which could be quite expensive considering you have to work on four, not just one), or a set of Keihin CRs to replace them. Thoughts?

Peering down the other end, you can see the choke plate is a little bent across carb #2. Could make idle tuning a little difficult... not that I use the choke much anyways, but still.

My mechanic's assistant checking up on the progress. She gave up after half an hour and opted to lie down on the couch instead. Typical apprentice... you're fired.

Can't wait to hear this again - although a few extra thousand revs won't hurt. I love the way the carbs sound as they climb up the rev range; I've never heard a car like it.. although you might need to turn up the volume to hear it. Yes, I'm well aware it needs a wheel alignment (ahem).

Accomplished:

- Road legal & compliance inspection passed
- Idle & basic tuning (flat spot after 6500rpm, due to carburetor float valves)
- Repaired bent exhaust valve & fixed compression leak
- Filled water jacket leak
- Replaced all plugs to D9EA NGK, unflooded motor
- Suspension, bushes replaced
- New dust boots, tie rod end boot
- Entire brake system overhauled, reconditioned, refitted, tested.
- New brake pads, shoes, lines, rear cylinders.
- All new lines, clutch lines, master cylinders reconditioned.
- New ignition coil
- New fuel filters

To do:

- Rebuild/overhaul carburetors (new o-rings, vacuum piston seals, jets, float valves, general clean)
- Balance wheels/tyres
- Wheel alignment
- Rebuild/refit alternator
- New battery (under warranty)
- Heavier transmission fluid
- Bodywork / Paint
- Repolish/chroeme bumpers, headlight surround, handles, fittings
- Review exhaust system? Need new flange for collector
- Balancing / Wheel Alignment

Every day I have to remind myself how much I like classic cars. I like classic cars. I like classic cars. I hate like classic cars. I like classic cars.

Until the next update. Hope it won't be another 14 months.