Found.

Going on the info in Fritz's owner's manual I found it parked at its old home.
Easy to understand why it is so dusty, being on a dirt road but since the photo is one of the new high res ones Google are rolling out it comes as a surprise to see it parked in the garage.

Should the old owners see this, I'd be more than happy to tell them what's happening with their old toy.

Wow!

Jimmy was a bit slow to find this out but Fritz's seats unfold together to make a fairly comfortable bed.

Cool.

Jimmy's waiting for some LED lamps to arrive before he puts the dash back together, so don't worry about it looking very rough.

Relief.

This is a major reason for changing cars, now I can easily lift the important bits out of floodwater and have some peace of mind.

New belt.

A way easier job than I was expecting, nothing was stuck or stripped or seized or broken.

Another productive day.

The boot was torn on the tie-rod end and although it's otherwise OK without being dustproof it'll be soon buggered, since I'm no longer part of any trade I think I might only embarrass myself trying to find a new boot, so I bought a complete unit, usually you'd go to a lot of trouble to keep the wheel alignment the same when fitting but the previous owner must have taken it to one of the 9 out of 10 shonk shops because the alignment was woeful. I've set it a bit closer now and will probably play a bit more later.

Why can't people leave the alignment as it left the factory, they get it right and then shops proceed to ruin it.

Playing with a Nippon-Denso alternator.

Since Jimmy in his youth seemed to always have alternator trouble with whatever dunger he was using, he's made a habit of inspecting them in his mature years.
First up remove the alternator then spin the pulley if it spins smoothly then merely looking at the brushes should suffice, if not then don't worry about brushes and get an exchange unit.

This is the first ND one I've played with and I like it already. Most of them are probably very similar with the back cover plate needing to come off, use a 7mm spanner on the three green pointered screws, or if you're brave and strong a philips head screwdriver, but be warned the Japanese always do up screws far tighter than mere mortals can cope with. The Yellow nut is a 10mm hex and only has to be undone to the last thread or two and the insulator will pull out of the cover plate and allow its removal.

The new brushholder cost $21 on ebay and judging by the wear on the old one wasn't needed for a long time yet, but peace of mind is a wonderful thing when you're out in the middle of nowhere, so I put it in anyway.

The brushholder on these are simply held in by the green pointered screws, use a good screwdriver for these not granddad's old hand me down, you don't want to burr them. The lower one is longer but the short one won't fit in that hole so you'll know if you get them wrong like I did. Something thin may help to hold the brushes back while fitting them and be careful they line up properly.

Now Jimmy will have peace of mind for a while, say 100,000 km till he bothers looking again.

Fiat.

Fritz should now fit in to this Italian town. Fiat have only sold a handful of cars in Australia in the last three decades so the new badge should keep people guessing.

Of course if the importers had enough sense to import the new 500 with the right engine option and at a believable price Jimmy could be interested, but not at the luxury $30k nonsense price they murder the brand with.
Of course Fiat being only four letters meant education challenged Jimmy has a better chance of spelling it.

Offensive.

This arrived in the mail yesterday.

The carbon pollution they repeat mantra style to push their new tax is actually carbon dioxide, part of the cycle of life, plants need it to grow and feed us. I am so beyond listening to anything this government does that I've just switched off totally. The sooner this incompetent wasteful government is gone the better off all but the employees of the totally meaningless climate change department will be.

This is what I did with it.

Kings beach

No great reason for this post but the timer done photo turned out OK.

Almost cactus.

Fritz's radiator has definitely seen better days, Jimmy will soon being replacing it. Better now than have it fail on a trip and pay 3 times the price from a shark somewhere.

It coped with our winter temperature on the drive home but was showing signs of being marginal.

3 cylinders and 847 cc of muscle.

At least Jimmy can use most of Fritz's throbbing 31 kW of power pretty often.

The seats don't look comfortable,

But in typical Japanese style everything works well when cruising. Japanese cars always fit Jimmy nicely, they must have short legs too.

Olde timey instruments.

Jimmy is actually pleased about that, but still intends blinging it with LED lights.
It would take a long road to get to the 140 on the speedo, if indeed it could, but funnily enough it blasts along happily on a very light throttle even at our highest 110 km/h speed limit, so who needs more?

Just made it.

I did have to modify the handle a tad though, plus cut off a bit of the rod.

Fritz may be small but he's tall too.

Another bonus.

Is Fritz easily fits into a parking bay. Pity it's a horrible colour, grey yuck!

A change.

Tru is gone, inherited by Rhonda who seemed fairly pleased. Jimmy's new ride is Fritz, a major step down from Tru but with the flooding we're too used to (thanks to the greenies) Jimmy can lift Fritz out of major drama fairly easily, plus being front wheel drive (the proper way to do it) Jimmy only really has to raise the front of Fritz above the water.