Dereck's Rough Diamond

One of the best things about having a blog is gaining new friends from around the globe who share common interests. Other than stuff about Charmants and autos in general, you get stories on different cultures, lifestyles, languages and of course.. girls! lol..

This week i got an email from Dereck Sealey from Trinidad. First thing he said on his email was, in his own words, "doubt you would know where that is lol". Hahaha right on mate.. Never knew where it was until Dereck emailed me and forced myself to look it up on Google Map. Hey it's on the Carribean Islands! AARRRRrr... First thing that came to my mind other than Johnny Depp wearing eyeliner was tanned girls in bikini sunbathing on a beach. Hahaha.. later i found out i was wrong. Dereck told me girls in Trinidad aren't like that. The girls are more like pale-skinned Venezuelan than, in the quiet words of the Virgin Mary, "hawt" tanned Brazilian. He's kind enough to give me a sampler..
Oooo.. me very very likey.. lol. As Dereck told me, Trinidad is like a bag o' skittles, they also have Asian girls, Guyanan, Indians and others that i can't remember. Gosh.. i know where i am going for my vacation!

Okay, let's get back to business. Dereck also has a Charmant and is planning to convert the engine to a smallport 4A-GE also and retain the injection system. Sweet, finally someone who's gonna do a similar project. Other than that bikini-clad eye-candy above, he sent me some pics of his Charmant and other sweet-looking classic Japs in Trinidad (it's actually Republic of Trinidad and Tobago). This is his Charmant..
I noticed that his steering wheel is different from mine. It has got the horn buttons on the handles while mine is on the center. Hmmm.. maybe different version? For now, his Charmant is still packing the old 4A-C engine. Dereck drives it daily for work and can't afford having it stay too long in a workshop. So he's gonna gather all the needed parts first and then do the work in a weekend. He already got the smallport 4A-GE and a bigport intake manifold but still missing some stuff like the MAP sensor. His plans are, as taken from his email:

..to try and restore the car to its former glory body wise, first order the adapter for the intake http://www.technotoytuning.com/productdetail.php?p=374, change the worn bushings with a complete kit from Prothane http://www.technotoytuning.com/productdetail.php?p=651, add various braces like these http://www.technotoytuning.com/productdetail.php?p=687, http://www.technotoytuning.com/productdetail.php?p=535, the rusted parts on my car i would like to have cut and new bits welded on, i plan on buying a shell next year to do just that so that the car remains as original as it can that's going to cost me $800TTD, afterward i will buy the 4 doors... $3200TTD, then from there i would like to have my car painted metallic blue =D, blue is my favorite color, then have the engine installed and wired, boost power to the electrical systems as needed, change the standard headlights to HID, then from there work on the interior and I'm finished =D... i think lol, I'm sure there are stuff that i have not mentioned.

Right now my engine is in the garage and i unbolted all the bolt on components, the alternator, compressor and other bits have been removed the second day i had the engine... don't mind that i was sick and had a fever i was still out in the rain taking stuff off, all for the love, i plan on spray painting the block flat black and the cam covers gloss blue, repaint the pulleys black, the alternator gloss black =D lol, and change out the vacuum hoses to new red ones =), performance wise it will take me a long while before i can add any new things but i really want to do ITBs, cams, exhaust, lightened water pump pulley http://www.technotoytuning.com/productdetail.php?p=120 and probably a HALTECH E6 to seal the deal.

Love your plan, Dereck. I bet it's gonna be one hell of a Charmant once you finish. I also found out that he's not gonna use coilovers. I haven't decided yet on coilovers but i do admit that i am also inclined towards not using them. I'll also be using polyurethane bushings just like Dereck's plan and might just get lowered springs and stiffer shocks.

Soon a friend of Dereck's gonna be swapping engine in a Charmant also. Dereck's gonna watch the whole process and take notes. I am waiting eagerly on his story on this as i also got some questions up my sleeves on some Charmant engine conversion details.

There's more pics on Trinidad's automobile frenzy sent by Dereck but i'll share them on other post.