Thought I might start this thread for any that are interested in the restoration of my 1976 LX L31. Its just entered the shop to have some pretty heavy rust cut out of her. Ill try and remember a bit of its past history, but first a pic or two.
Here she is as she stood for most of the 13 years that i had her in storage. Its a genuine L31 (m21) with all numbers (body/engine/plates) matching. It had its original tuxedo black /silver paint (568-15991), chamois interior and engine. Surprisingly it had a super t10 instead of the m21 specified on the plates and bolt on flares (added later by someone).
I bought her in 1995 from the Dandenong ranges (upway i think), in Victoria and put her into storage in my dads garage until I could afford to restore her. Finally the moment has arrived. The body was quite rough, with various dents and plenty of surface rust. The paint was shagged and the rear quarters had been badly cut to fit flares and wide rubber. Im intending to bring her back to a close-to original condition. Flares will stay due to the rough cut job (which will be tidied up), the super t10 will stay (its nice, and technically is a torana box!) and hotwires (for now) will go underneath. Everything else will be as original or a close to as I can get.
The body has been media blasted and has come up quite well in areas, bad in others. Inside the cowl , engine bay (except for under the hinges) and interior ,are really good. The rear quarters, boot floor and around the rear windscreen flange, are really bad. Other areas have some pinholes but overall ,not too bad. Ive got all the rust replacement panels that i can get, a good lower radiator cross from a donor car, and a boot floor coming from a member in SA (thank you Toranamuk!) Ive been collecting parts for this project for years and have most panels ready to go. It has been primed and some dents have been pulled.
The major body work to start this week, all the corroded areas (all rust has been removed during the blasting process) cut out and new sheetmetal welded in. Rust preventative (por15) will be squirted down all cavities, including down the body side , lower sills, A pillar and rear rails. All the weld flanges will be re-sealed for corrosion protection.
Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) I will not be doing the body work, painting myself. I wish I had both the know how and time to do it, but I dont.
Here are pics of a few of the nasty spots:
In the next pic you can see how bad the rear windscreen flange is,and if you look closely you can see part of the rusted out boot floor:
Another nasty area (on both sides). Anyone have a donor car they can let me at???
rust around the lamp can areas, both left and right, but the lower back panel needs work on only the RHS. Hopefully the rails wont be too bad underneath when we cut the floor off for a look:
Ive lost the details of the previous owner, but remember he was very interested to know if the car ever was restored. If anybody has an idea (i know its a long shot) ,please let me know.
Ill keep this thread updated with plans pics and comments. I welcome all questions, comments or suggestions, please dont hesitate to ask. I hope you all find this thread interesting.
Thanks
Drfegg
