293 replies to this topic

[slar]

Hi all, My name is Al and I've been a fairly silent member of this forum for a few years now mainly because I didn't have the time to really get stuck into my car due to work commitments but all that has changed and its time to restart the restoration of my Lx 4 Door. 

Its only a standard SL, nothing special but I intend to mock her up into something that looks and goes like a SLR, Wish me luck

My goal is to replicate the theme of an SLR 5000 but with out being absolutely accurate.

 

Im hoping that you all might help me along the way with comments, suggestions and constructive criticism and have a bit of fun with it

 

Anyways Ill start with a few pics I suppose of what she was when I got her and where Im up to at the moment.

 

This is what I bought

 8a9a_1.jpeg   20.17K   38 downloads

 Copy of 8fa4_1.jpeg   30.44K   30 downloads

 

As of today I just finished making my rotisserie, thanks to yella for the measurements in the sticky it works well.

 

 

 

 

 

Just need to weld an indexing plate on the pivot and its all finished

 

Also unwrapped my front end which was rebuilt a few years back just to see how it was fairing in storage and it looks pretty good so I promptly re wrapped it with shrink wrap to keep the nasties off it.

 

Oh and last but not least heres my wall of fame

[Stinga]

nice job on the spit, looks like your off to a cracking start, and nice shed too!

[tsn007]

looks like a good shell to start with

 

what colour and combo

[Mort]

Welcome back Al, looks like a nice and straight body to start with.

I see its going to have flares/flairs , what size and type wheels you havin, are you putting in a drop tank, what color will it be, what size donk ya puttin in.

Just a couple of questions, I'm sure there will be more .

[BIG KEV]

Good luck with the rebuild.....

[slar]

Thanks people, this old girl might look pretty good at the moment but it wasn't always that way lol, she was real rusty when I got her and took a couple of donor body cuts to sort it out.

Check the pics

 

Typical radiator support, the one on the car I folded up myself as I have a pan brake.

 

Made up my own lower rear screen sections

 

What more can I say

 

Top of rear window ( how sad) look you can just see old rust repairs

Which led to this

Then this

And finally a new skin

 

So far its been a long slog to get it to this stage, nearly 6 years of part time work but well worth it.

 

To answer some of your questions:

Paint will be Red/Black with highlights of chrome, I think this looks striking and you can see it coming at ya.

Some people say metallic colours but Im shying away from that as its to hard to match in the event of any repairs in the future so it will have to be solid for me

 

The motor will be a warm 308 4 speed with limited slip diff as  I have all this in storage and I would like it streetable and easy so the missus can drive it without complaining, you know what I mean.

 

Im going to run rear disc brakes on the standard diff but I wont go into that just yet as I intend to use something a little unusual that I haven't seen mentioned on this forum but should work however I wont embarrass myself just yet, Ill save that for a future topic hehe. Top secret, probably not but see what you reckon in the future. Big brakes on the front.

 

Wheel are the following as I already have them but im not quite sure about them, what do you guys reckon 15x8 front 15x10 rear.

 

Ok enough for now, Ive probably bore you all to sleep, feedback welcome.

 

[burty]

Same wheels I have on mine. There's a few options, personally like the 15s as they suit the era but there's some pretty cool 17s around too.

Your car, do it the way you like it, great job so far by the way Al. I needed a starter car in far better condition for my limited abilities!

[BIG KEV]

Well done that's some work you have done .....very handy.....next stop .....my shed...lol

[slar]

Hi Ls2, no its not my first, have done a few over the years.

Im a little embarrassed to reveal my first ground up restoration because it was a sigma, it started out as joke between me and my son when he said all cars from the 70's are pieces of crap and had no go back then.

Well that sparked me up and I said to him you know that piece of rubbish sigma sittin around the side, well I bet you I can get that flogging your SS commodore mate using 70's technology............... he laughed and walked away.

So that's the story of the sigma and the following pics are what I came up with---- 2litre Astron, suck through Garret TO3 Turbo, 3 inch exhaust, running18psi into a decompressed head.

Got $8500.00 for it in 2007 not bad for one of the most hated cars on the road

 

Guess who won the bet hahaha

 

This is what I started with

 

Heres the motor

 

And heres the finished car

 

Anyway enough of sigmas lets get back to Torries

[Mort]

Very nice, great work you have done so far, you sure are pretty handy with the metal bending........................are you related to Dirtbag by any chance

[SmacT]

Ha ha - out of all the cool cars amongst my mates just out of school, a Sigma station wagon was the one we had the most fun with. Using almost as much oil as petrol to get us down the snow; attempted handbrakies with no handbrake; sleeping in the back and the time he locked it up into his garage, and we had to get five mates over to lift the back of it around to get it back out again. We would have got in a bit of trouble with this thing, lucky ours had no power...

Great skills, and looking forward to the build.

[slar]

Very nice, great work you have done so far, you sure are pretty handy with the metal bending........................are you related to Dirtbag by any chance

 

Haha nope not at all, he has too many tatts for me, Im a cleanskin but I think we might share a long lost fabricating gene

[slar]

Hi again, a week before putting the old girl on the rotisserie I cut the rear guards for wheel clearance, I decided to wrap the inner guard to the quarter skin to provide a nice radius on the inner side of the guard.

I cut the inner guard oversize and used an oxy to heat the lip and bend it round to the outer quarter.

 

For those that are intending to do this in the future you should check out RUTS  sticky in paint and panel and have a good read through that post as it has heaps of good info on how to go about doing this, worked for me anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

And finally all smoothed out

 

 

[Heath]

Really nice!!!

[slar]

Hi all, its been a few weeks since I posted last but ive been working on the torry during the weekends scraping the crud off the underside of the body.

Finally after many hours of scraping and sanding I finally got it coated today with epoxy.

I used Protec Epotech 408 and sprayed the entire underside, the next step is to seam seal it and start on the outer body.

Glad that's done..........what a dirty job but saved me some cash over blasting it.

cheers

 

 

 

 

came up great

 

[slar]

Hey all, just another quick update on the resto.

Spent the last couple of weekends sanding the guts out of the interior of the torry. I want the entire car painted in Epoxy before I start the panel repairs.

This was a huge job but here it is all epoxied up....came up nice and its so much better to have a clean starting point.

 

 

 

 

Time for a cherry cheer lol

[LXdamo]

Very nice looking indeed!

Will be keeping an eye on your progress.Going by the standard you have set so far,will be a very nice car when your done.

The rear cut outs for the tyre clearance came up a treat.

I think you definately deserve that beer!

[Rob2408]

Great work to date, wish I had some of your skills.

Subscribed

[Mort]

Looking good and i love how neat and tidy those wheel arches look.

 

I haven't heard of or had a drink of Cherry Cheer in years, didn't think they still made it.