The Piazza owners most hated car, most times anyway lol

[Virtual-R]

This is my Gemini

I just got back on the road, don't worry it doesn't have a Piazza turbo engine in it nor do I want to put one in. The G series is fine for me

This is a photo of it about a week before rego, made a few changes since then like adding a satin black to the back of the bonnet vents, and repainted the grille in satin black also.

[thmb]http://www.holdengemini.net/hosting/roy ... 7522_1.jpg[/thmb]

[thmb]http://www.holdengemini.net/hosting/roy ... 7521_1.jpg[/thmb]

Interior at the moment with thanks to Alex (wedgenut) for the steering wheel in the 2nd photo, and for getting his son to part with it. Also thanks to bob for donating the boss kit to me





Made the door trims myself, and modified some BA Falcon handles to fit into the Gemini, also the door locks are from a VL commodore and the arm rests from a N13 SSS Pulsar. Still need to do the lower kick panels for the front doors, few other areas of the interior still need to be done also including the seats and parcel shelf.





Also got a kenwood tape deck in the car now so I can listen to nova while cruising around lol, thanks to bugle for sending me the radio plug too. Hopefully will upgrade to a CD player soon once my wallet decides to co-operate again lol


First drive once getting rego was for lunch at the Essendon Football club with my old man and his mate, who originally gave me the car 4 years ago. He was pretty stoked with how it has turned out.

The red and black on the car seemed to draw a fair bit of attention from the Essendon club members also, they must have thought I was really dedicated, didn't tell them I hate AFL though lol



More photos coming soon

[wedgenut]

I like the car, the Piazza wheels look alright as well, have you grafted in Piazza brakes?

[Virtual-R]

Nah its standard Gemini brakes in it, still stops fairly well for normal road use but I need new rear brake shoes. If I was to full on thrash the car the brakes fade fairly fast on the standard Gemini gear though.

[wedgenut]

If you have discs on the front, time to upgrade the back with g200 Piazza disc set up, caliper bracket should fit (if axle housing pcd is the same) and they use the Akebono caliper with cam handbrake so no shoes or drums to worry about. Uses the same pads as the early RX7 so pads are cheap and easy to get Bendix DB262 from memory

[Virtual-R]

Wonder if they would fit onto the borg warner diff, holden ditched the isuzu rear diff and used their own setup from the old toranas / commodores

Wouldn't mind using a diesel gemini diff in the car though, lower ratio so better mileage and top speed

[Bugle]

Yeah you need a diesel diff to get the brakes on.
You'd probably need a bit more power to run a 3.5 ratio? They seem to struggle a bit in 5th on the freeway on any sort of hill! Oh wait, you're in Melbourne..

You really need to polish those wheels would look heaps better

[Virtual-R]

Yeah I'm planning on building a new engine for it down the track once I collect all the parts I need. 3.5 ratio shouldn't be too bad in Melbourne, my engine currently in the car is basically only just run in since being rebuilt so its got a heap more power than most other near standard or mildly modified Geminis on the road.

Just need to look into whats required for the Diesel diff changeover, heard its not a big job but with Gemini's the smallest things can take the longest time lol

Yeah I half polished one of the wheels, but it took forever so I decided to leave it. I'll get around to it eventually. Btw thanks for the gear knob also Thomas

[elky1]

step 1 unbolt b/w diff

step 2 unbolt t tube from b/w diff and bolt it onto diesel diff

step 3 bolt diesel diff in

step 4 make up some brackets for the handbrake cable under floor (donor of later model gem will do)

step 5 bleed brakes/fill with oil

step 6 go for a drive and marvel in quieter cruising at 100/kmhr

cheers

[Virtual-R]

thanks for that elky

here is a current pic of the car:

[thmb]http://www.virtual-r.com/pics/gemini/IMG_0030.jpg[/thmb]

And yeah its leaking a bit of oil as you can tell lol, think its the timing cover.

[GeminiCoupe]

step 6 become frustrated at the lack of power because of the 3.5

Roy you put a diesel diff in there i will stab you. Easiest conversion to do on the salisbury rear end is to use VL rear discs and calipers, only mod you need is to weld a tube onto the back for the handbrake. Yes it still uses a handbrake drum but it will be fine.

If you want discs on the front i know a cheap conversion you can do Uses 300mm discs and VS calipers.

And as for your engine....you know who to speak to. Been looking at different throttle bodies, forgot to show ya the ones bob bought - factory fitted to 16V alfa's and made by dellorto, 42mm butterfly but the flanges need cutting and fucking around. GSXR Suzuki bike ones are good apparently and their 43mm.

Nick-

[Virtual-R]

Yeah dont know if you have noticed the amount of whining and other various noises that come from the Salsbury though. The things are hopeless lol every gem ive had whines like crazy between 70 - 90kph, Bob helped me change the oil in the diff but its still happening so I'm just putting it down to being standard.

The reason for wanting a diesel isnt because of the discs though, its to cut the revs down on the freeway to save more fuel, plus higher top speed when needed and hopefully less diff whine.

I'll be starting on the engine soon, prob after new years once its out of the rodeo. Still waiting for some parts to arrive from America, parts were sent by boat so nfi how far away they are. Still cant see the engine being built any time soon also, will just be a project to keep me occupied in my spare time.

[piazzaturbogem]

i had a welded diesel diff in my old street/burnout gemmy a couple of years ago.

Standard 1800, worked head and a weber.

Diff worked ( and still is ) fine.

It's scary when you hit third turning the tyres.

The speedo actually changed aswell, i gained 10kph.

So at 50kph ( speedo ) the car was actually doing 60kph.

Good luck, ya gem looks clean

[mikuni]

Been looking at different throttle bodies, forgot to show ya the ones bob bought - factory fitted to 16V alfa's and made by dellorto, 42mm butterfly but the flanges need cutting and fucking around. GSXR Suzuki bike ones are good apparently and their 43mm.

Nick-

If you want throttle bodies just use factory toyota 20 valve 4age ones. They are made by mikuni and the silvertop have 42mm throttles, while the blacktop have 45mm throttles. They are extremely cheap, I got a set for $100 and they are easily available, even in australia I would imagine.

I used them in my chevette (pommy version of the gemini for those not in the loop) on my opel engine so I know they are good
The four open throttles

With my new trumpets on there

[Virtual-R]

I'm very jealous lol explains nicks sudden obsession to get me to find him 4AGE quad throttles too

[archangel62]

Wow, I just stumbled across this whilst searching for stuff... 6 years later.

What a beautiful Gemini. I'm doing my white TE in a very similar fashion (externally), but with ZZ/R splitter airdam, and a black front lip underneath. And Work Equip 01s. Inside I'm more of a fan of era-correct stuff though, so mine's got a restored black factory interior with some import Gemini goodies.

Do you still have this? Any more pics?