212 replies to this topic

[mitchg]

Well as of today, i am the proud new owner of a 'ford blueprint' LX Torana.

The car has had a full V6, auto conversion completed and has had a paintjob 6 years ago in the ford blueprint blue which looks amazing...

It has a custom built exhaust, which is about 10mm from the floor of the car, and will constantly hit the floor so this needs to be fixed. It needs a catalytic converter installed, and a few small things before an engineering certificate is available.

The interior is incomplete, with a custom dash installed with electronic gauges installed, though are yet to be wired and WRX bucket seats, which have been fabricated to fit into the original seat holes, though they are a bit off and dont sit right. The plans for the interior include:
- Custom centre console
- New headlining installed
- Original Torana seats retrimmed and fitted
- Insulation and Carpet installed

The conversion was completed about 6 years ago and has been sitting for a while since, though was driven occasionally. It was a good conversion kit installed and the engine needs a few things fixed up before engineering and rego.

Below are some pictures i quickly took earlier this morning. More pictures will be taken tomorrow after a good wash and polish.
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image000.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image001.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image002.jpg

Let me know what you think...

[TerrA LX]

Very shiny.

[Heath]

Yep agreed; could do with dumpage

Looks good, and will be fantastic when the engineer's cert is done. How does she go? Why not stick with the WRX seats and get them sitting right? They will be a hell of a lot nicer than the ridiculously soft Torrie ones IMO... each to their own

[knoath]

Is that a QLD car by any chance?

[Litre8]

Body and paint look in great shape and the drivetrain sounds like a trouble free combo. Enjoy.

[Heath]

Yep agreed; could do with dumpage

You'll be recommending bling wheels and a 8" chrome exhaust tip next.

lol What does lowering a car have to do with pimping bullshit?

[ollie]

I had to put on sunglasses just looking at the those photos, love the shine, it reminds me of the absense of plastic.

Good work

[mitchg]

Alright so I know i said i will post up more pics tomorrow, about a week ago. But i finally have more!
https://cache.gmh-to.../Image001-1.jpg

V6 Engine:
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image006.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image005.jpg

My dad and I thought the blue paint above the door trims looked a bit fugly as it looks like a pretty crappy job. Infact it actually looks like it may have been done with a paint brush, as does the black around the windows and doors. But we bought some black vinyl and fabricated our own vinyl inserts to fit above the trims and it is a huge improvement. looks much better.
Before Vinyl Insert:
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image011.jpg

After Vinyl Insert:
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image009.jpg

After giving a hard look around the car to try and stop engine noise (as there is no insulation or carpet) we managed to find a large hole in the firewall used to run wires to the computer. My dad managed to find a rubber plug large enough, and using his magic (sometimes bodgy) hands, cut away and managed to fabricate it to fit. Then a small amount of insulation was applied around the firewall, yet it made no difference.

The car went off to the exhaust place the other day and got a catalytic converter installed and the exhaust fixed so it doesnt hit the floor. Good news is it doesnt hit the floor at the passengers feet anymore. Bad news is it now hits at the backseat floor.

We managed to get out to Rare Spares yesterday and bought some things for the car. Some necessary, some not. I got some new door rubbers which were fitted yesterday, Torana decal sticker for front apron, Armrest screws for front arm rests, and a slightly unnecessary, yet aesthetically appealing polished alloy intake pipe which will be installed once the alloy rocker covers i picked up are sanded back and polished and the alternator is polished as well.

We have installed new seatbelts as well, from a VR S-pack and i now have seatbelts which retract.

Will try and keep regular updates on the progress...

[mitchg]

had a go at wiring up the gauges today...
not quite as successful as we would have liked.
we did get them working.... they just move backwards
not sure what we will do...it will work one day im sure

[mitchg]

Alright, so over the past couple of weeks, a bit of work has been put into the torana to try and get it ready for an engineers certificate before Supernats in November.
After having a good look around the car for rust, we got everything out of the boot and removed all the seats from the car. Started rubbing back the floor and boot with a wire brush to remove big chunks of rust. Thankfully there were no holes in the floor or boot, so I used some of that rust cleaner to clean it up, then painted the floor and boot with some KILL RUST to make it look much cleaner and it looks so much better than before.
Some before and after pics:
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image019.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image020.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image021.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image022.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image023.jpg

Then we removed the parcel tray and covered that in blue vinyl.
Pics below:
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image025.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image024.jpg

Today we started on door trims. We made new trim shapes out of MDF. Marked out the holes for the clips, window winders, door handles and arm rests.
This is how it turned out:
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image026.jpg

We then mounted the speaker pods to the doors
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image029.jpg

We then wrapped the door trims in a patterned grey material.
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image031.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image032.jpg

I then screwed on the speaker pod covers to the door trims, clipped it to the door and put the window winders, door handles and arm rests onto the trims.
This is the final product:
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image035.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image034.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image033.jpg

We then began to fabricate the back seat. We customized a VR S pack back seat cover, and made it fit over the torana back seat. We then cut down the middle section of the VR seats, and wrapped it in grey vinyl and inserted it into the middle and clipped it into place. We then bolted it all in. It now looks like this:
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image028.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image027.jpg
https://cache.gmh-to...in/Image036.jpg

We have started mounting the VR S pack front seats into the car and will hopefully have them finished by next weekend.
Let me know what everyone thinks.

Cheers
Mitch

[Heath]

Mmmm that parcel shelf looks fantastic. Was it hard to do all of this? The results with the back seat are great. I expected that would be something very difficult for an inexperienced trimmer. Or have you had some practice?

[TerrA LX]

Love your work

[mitchg]

Was it hard to do all of this? The results with the back seat are great. I expected that would be something very difficult for an inexperienced trimmer. Or have you had some practice?

Nah it wasnt necessarily hard, just time consuming. We havent really had practice on anything, dad has a spare torana backseat at work so he was able to fabricate the cover to fit over that one and made it work and then we just placed it over the one in the car at home, and clipped it into place.
The backrest part is just the ones from a VR with a custom made, shortened centre part. But it looks so much better. Looking forward to when its finished, engineered, registered and on show at Supernats!