376 replies to this topic

[orangeLJ]

Yeah the locater lug is slightly too tall.

I noticed it once I had squared the whole thing up and let it down off the stands.

I wasnt sure if it was supposed to be larger so that the allow will "mushroom" out at the top and lock the block in place or it was just too tall and needed to be ground down.

I still need to knock off the extra length from the U bolts too.

Whats with the "good luck"?

Man that ute is coming along nicely.

Its a shame you are so far away, I would be very interested in that twin headlight front clip.

It is a shame! Id be keen to get rid of it too! haha.

The radiator support is blasted and primed, has a small section of holes from some rust, but other then that is perfect. panels are ok, bit of bog and welded HG flutes.

Its all hitting Ebay as soon as I can get it out and tidied for photos.

[76lxhatch]

Whats with the "good luck"?

I was referring to your comment about making the blocks less conspicuous, they'll stand out regardless!

[orangeLJ]

Yeah I know, but all black is alot better then black and shiny alloy.


Had my mate Gary do some more blasting for me.

I was a slack bastard and left some of the last lot in bare metal in the shed, the humidity must have gotten to them because they surface rusted up pretty badly.

So I had him do some extra bits for me at the same time-







and this should go in my LJ thread, but this dash is actually still in the works! even after all the dramas.

I had gary blast all the bog out so I can cut and modify it to fit properly.

then its just some minor bog work again and it will be in the car.



Picked up this bench seat from old holden for $20



should come up alright with a good clean.

Im not planning to leave it as is forever, but it will help cut costs to get this thing on the road.

It also looks to be a shitload better (in terms of padding etc) condition then the red one that came in the car.

[orangeLJ]

Will finish cleaning up and painting the diff today, its only cheapo black pressure pack but it will clean it up alright for a while.

Eventually I'll yank the diff and give it a proper clean up.

[orangeLJ]

Alright, diff is fully painted now (was a few weeks ago)

Started playing with the interior panels over the last week.

Cleaned, stripped and painted the glove box, lower dash section and the A pillar plastics.
Threw the glove box in-



While doing this I discovered a bit of a problem though, there is a small (50c piece) hole in the PS rear plenum chamber that has been leaking water into the PS footwell, I didnt notice it originally due to the duct.

I can get in there with the welder (just) so it shouldnt be a massive drama, just a pain in the arse.

CD player is going in the glovebox, which means I need to repair the GTS facia (hacked out for a stereo) The dash in the car (metalwork) hasnt been touched, so Id rather fix the facia and leave the metal orignial.


Apart from that I stripped half of the floor with a wire brush and went to town with "K&H rust convertor+primer" good shit!





I didnt get time to wait for that to dry, so I painted the clean half of the floor (the side with no rust) with this-





and painted some of the rear wall-


going to paint the rest this afternoon. Should look a shitload better.


Also decided a wagon/sedan rear bar is going to look better after seeing this ute at a local show and shine-


Was dropped on its guts, 2.5" lowering blocks and only 2 leaves left in the spring pack!

looked nice though!

[lcgtr1970]

nice work mate.
thats an interesting custom tonneau cover on that ute in the pic you took.

[orangeLJ]

Yeah it also gave me some ideas on how to make one work with the HX.

Im planning to just run some push stud bases around the whole top and have a "clip" down toneau cover made. (similar to the front and rear of the one in the pic)

[orangeLJ]

Id love these wheels, could probably scrounge some cash up to buy them too-

http://cgi.ebay.com....=item3caa7e4f7e

but they are on the other side of the country!

[orangeLJ]

sure does!

I might have found some wheels for it though (5 spoke ROH ones)

I still have to go round to our family friends house and see if he is willing to part with his commo patter simmons V5s for bugger all.

money and time... money and time!

[orangeLJ]

Finished the floor yesterday arvo-


Will give it another quick coat sometime over the weekend just to give it a final seal.

Started playing with the wiring so I can throw the headunit in.

Spare headunit and speakers that im throwing in.


There are holes cut in the doors for 6" speakers, so I just need to sort some rubber tube to run the wires through (from the door to the body) and it should be sweet.

Thinking maybe some 4" speakers in the B pillars too, might be annoying right next to your head though.

Bought a towbar for it

Also bought another set of headlight surrounds, grille and set of door trims (finally) for $50.

So that made me happy.

Still looking for a cheap, decent rear bar.

Had a better look at the plenum rust. it should be all good to fix, will get to it in the next few weekends.

Decided im going to "chip coat" the inside of the tray. I figure the stuff goes on charcoal coloured and is hard as hell + ads grip (and is cheap)

so after my next pay I will get to that. (lots of surface rust to sand and prep in that area)

[ToRunYa]

that charcoal stuff is really good but if you are gonna put the dog in the back go to clark rubber and grab some of the foam tiles to run along the front edge of the tray so ya dog doesnt end up with burned very scuffed up feet!

[orangeLJ]

Thanks for the tip Em.

Im planning to knock up a padded marine carpet section for her at the back of the cab, but some foam tiles might help in the meanwhile.

[ToRunYa]

just making sure, my dog cut his foot on the checkerplate in the back of the HT, had to get 3 stitches in the pad of his paw.
He still got a box of cheezels as a sweetener, i felt really bad!! :(

[orangeLJ]

Went and picked this up yesterday-

http://cgi.ebay.com....e=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Going to get Gary to blast and prime it and I'll give it a quick coat of gloss black.

one more thing to cross off the list.

New windscreen, supplied and fitted aswell as fitting the rear screen is going to cost me $150 (gotta love friends in trades!)

So thats on the list for after the hoodlining,

I just need to sort out some of that chrome interlock stuff to go in the rear window rubber.

Rares sell it dont they?

[orangeLJ]

Bought the ute a present at Morriset swap meet on the weekend, forgot to grab a piture,

but managed to pick up a large K&N air cleaner (15inch diameter, 4 inches tall) with polished alloy top hat and chrome baseplate

(to suit holley, but can be made fit)

All for $20!

Its in pretty good knick too.

came across alot of people selling HX/HZ prem fronts for 300+

Ive got one at home that im only asking like $150 for! makes it seem like a bargain!

Also had gary blast and prime the towbar for me last night (top bloke once again)





no more rust

Will clean it up and paint it this week.

[orangeLJ]

Woohoo! just bought a wagon rear bar for $80.

going to get it from Kurri Kurri on the weekend.

One more thing down!

My trimmer is back from holidays too, so will go see him this week (Karlie and I both just got payed, so we have some $$ to spend again)

[orangeLJ]

Going to get some more Rares parts from newy tomorrow.

Bought a black rear window locking strip (black will suit better then chrome) for $17

and a bonnet rubber kit (all the rubber stops etc) for about $15

Planning to get the last few things primed and ready to paint on the weekend.

hopefully get the apron resprayed on sunday (weather permitting) so I can put the front together (finally!)

[Statler]

Are you going auto or manual chris?
I found a bench seat 4slot gearshifter in the shed.

[orangeLJ]

Its running a supra 5 speed at the moment col, Im going to have to make up my own shifter for it though (with a slight bend to clear the bench seat)

Can you post a picture of the one youve got? how much are you after? I might be able to cut and shut the two together.... hmmmmm

[orangeLJ]

progress is alwsy nice!

I needed to repaint the front apron as I found two problems with it.

the first was that I missed some spots when the car was painted, so the bottom of the apron was still in primer, and I didnt blow any up around the headlight frames/blinker frames etc.

then when I was cutting/buffing, I was cutting a run out and rubber through the white to the rpimer.

so I roughed it up and hit it again on the weekend, came out heaps better-









wee bit of overspray to deal with, but pressure pack will be fine to touch up the rad support, driveway swept clean! haha.

also threw on the bonnet rubber kit to stop it from touching down-







going to give it a few days to harden up, then I will throw the front together, get the headlights and blinkers working etc.

Ive got two grilles now, so Im going to paint one silver and one black so I can change them out whenever Karlie feels like a change! haha.

Hoodlining should be in this week.

[orangeLJ]

more done-

Masked and painted the front of the radiator support again to get rid of the overspray (no photos though)

then started on the lights-











highs-








Called it a night after that.

Put Karlie to work on the sunday scrubbing and polishing the front bar, she did a wicked job and it came up pretty good. Im planning to pull it off and rust convert+paint the inside and brackets, but with some more help from Karlie I threw it on and bolted it all up.





we must be a real white car kind of household-



Then I made a start on the passengers side-











and while I was working away on the ute, karlie and the dog were obviously relaxing-



at the end of the weekend it looked something like this-






I also spent some time polishing up the rear bar ready to go on once I cut and weld the brackets up-

[orangeLJ]

p.s I know my headlight surrounds are on backwards in some pictures! lol, I only had them sitting there and realised after Id pulled them off to polish them up