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HQ Statesman

Started by _nzstato_ , Jul 07 2010 09:30 AM

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323 replies to this topic

#26 _nzstato_

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Posted 12 September 2010 - 06:39 PM

Getting a bit more paint in some important places this week

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The black etch is useful as you can see where things need to be filled a little bit more. Was hoping to have it in filler primer today but I dropped my gun and busted the tip off it. Its a no-name brand from Mitre10 so it looks like I'm going to have to get a whole new one, bugger.

After seeing the post on hiding the wiring for the heater I attempted something similar...

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The HQ unit is a little different in that it has this little resistor coil thingie which a plug goes into. So i cut the fins off the plug and soldered some wires in the back so I can still wire the thing up.

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Looking a my posts I don't seem to have gotten far for such a long period of time even though I'm trying. Keep telling myself that once I get the front back together its all downhill from there...:Headbang2:lets hope so

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#27 Heath

I like cars.

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Posted 13 September 2010 - 09:33 AM

Some things just go really quickly, some things seem to take ages. Go at your own pace and keep motivated. Setting unrealistic deadlines and failing to reach them is counterproductive. Your progress looks good, I'm enjoying the read and it's interesting to see things other than Toranas getting built hehe. Cheers

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#28 _nzstato_

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Posted 14 September 2010 - 06:48 AM

Cheers for that Heath. Have enjoyed reading both of your builds. There is a car show in Nov which I was originally aiming to attend but I don't really see that as a possibility. If I can get it done by the end of summer I'll be happy, but we'll see...

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#29 _mick74lh_

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Posted 14 September 2010 - 09:30 PM

Hey don't stress it'll take as long as it takes. I've enjoyed reading this thread so far and it looks like you've made pretty good progress. When i built my Torry there were so many unrealistic deadlines that i set and would get stressed out when there was some sort of setback or if I didn't have the time to work on it. Just keep working and eventually it'll suddenly start coming together.

Have you thought much yet about what colour you're going to paint it? Will you spray it yourself?

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#30 _nzstato_

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Posted 15 September 2010 - 07:34 AM

All good, I've taken my cup of concrete and will be ripping into it when I get home. Just have to pick up a new spray gun on the way home from work. One day I will buy myself a decent one.

^I wont be painting the shell myself, just doing the engine bay. I have to have it in a drivable condition to get it to the painters since there is no way a flat bed truck will make it down my driveway. Havent been looking at paint charts just yet but want to paint it a smokey midnight blue, tossing up the idea to go with tints as well. Got an idea for a cheap, crazy future project which I will paint myself, but that's a little way off just yet.

Edited by nzstato, 15 September 2010 - 07:36 AM.

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#31 _nzstato_

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Posted 19 September 2010 - 02:41 PM

It's been a productive weekend, sold some parts online and got more for them than I thought so went and bought a few new toys for the shed including a new spray gun kit. It was on order so imagine my surprise when I got it on fri. This also arrived...

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Scored it for $60 online which is a hell of alot better than the $400 I was quoted from a wreckers for a S/H unit. By the looks of it someones given it a good clean but I'll give it a once over, for a start it has too much end float in the shaft.

So got the firewall in filler primer, then a mate of mine came round to help refit the subframe

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Also got the inner guards in primer and them sprayed a coat of chip guard

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So it's been a pretty productive weekend, hope to have the firewall in top coat by the end of next week and the engine put back in.

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#32 _mick74lh_

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Posted 19 September 2010 - 06:17 PM

The front end and those inner guards are looking good mate. Shouldn't take too much to get it driveable.

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#33 _nzstato_

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Posted 25 September 2010 - 04:03 PM

It's been two steps forwards and one backwards this week, was able to take the windscreen out without breaking it (f***kn miricle). The edge of the cowl panel (scuttles) in this thing are rooted (as usual in an HQ) and i've been wondering whether it was worth to unpick the lot.

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Decided to bite the bullet and unpick the spot welds (prick of a job) and found this loverly surprise.

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I'm happy with the fact that there is only a tiny bit in the bottom of the pillar but less than pleased with the fact that someone has attempted to use 'no more gaps' in an attempt to plug the holes... Oh well, its not the worse I've seen but this should keep me busy for a week or two...

Oh and here's a quick tip if you need a chisel to break the spot welds (after drilling of course)

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#34 _nzstato_

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Posted 27 September 2010 - 07:23 PM

Time to have a crack at my rust issue....

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Covered it in rust convertor and will layer in in POR15 tomorrow. Had to cut away some more than I thought I would into the lower part of the firewall (not shown) but reasonably happy with how it came out. Not too worred about the weld finishes since its not really a cosmetic area.

Edited by nzstato, 27 September 2010 - 07:25 PM.

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#35 _mick74lh_

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Posted 27 September 2010 - 11:50 PM

Nice repairs. Are there any worse parts on the car?

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#36 _nzstato_

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Posted 28 September 2010 - 06:04 AM

Nice repairs. Are there any worse parts on the car?

Geeze I hope not! Haha not too sure, there will be a few previous repairs that I will be cutting out and doing properly but other than that I have no idea what awaits me... and what a treat it will be :Headbang2:

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#37 76lxhatch

That was easy!

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Posted 28 September 2010 - 06:29 AM

Looks good, it can be a bit disheartening finding more rust than you expect but its always good to know that it was worth your while investigating further, its fixed properly now!

Oh and well done on the windscreen removal, I don't usually get them out in one piece, not enough patience...

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#38 _nzstato_

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Posted 30 September 2010 - 04:39 PM

Doing the scuttles at the moment, will post that up in the next day or two. And not to bore you with too much details, here is the other side.

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Painted all of the plenum with POR15, no rusting any more...

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#39 _nzstato_

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Posted 03 October 2010 - 06:00 PM

Finally got the scuttles done, what a hassle that was.
These things they sell on TradeMe shouldn't really be called rust repair panels, they're more like "metal with shapes", every profile on them are wrong. I appreciate that you will need to give them a 'massage' to fit, but this was unreal. Will try the rares part next time I think.

You can see the bend is way too shallow here. The curve is also wrong

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So here's what we were starting with

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You can see I had to make an extra bit for the top, the panel was also too wide so I had to make a few cuts with the grinder to push it back into shape

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Came up ok I guess

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The other side was a little bit easier

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No more rusty rusty, just a coat of POR15 to finish it off

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Will just need a slight bit of filler (might even get away with the high fill) to fix the bits where I have slightly undercut with the welds. Slowly getting my technique down...

Also just ran out of gas so will go get it filled tomorrow, as I mentioned in another post I needed to give my bottle a paint job so it doesnt look like a fire extinguisher.

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I'm thinking (since it is mine) I should pimp it up, thinking some flames or pinstriping would be appropriate, suggestions are welcome... :nudie:

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#40 _Quagmire_

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Posted 03 October 2010 - 07:54 PM

maybe a yellow and black raditation sticker?

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#41 _mick74lh_

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Posted 03 October 2010 - 10:02 PM

Jesus thats a steep driveway!

The repair on the scuttles looking fantastic.

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#42 _nzstato_

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Posted 04 October 2010 - 06:01 AM

Yea it is a hell of a steep driveway, you can see why I need to get it driving before taking it to the painters; no way would a flat bed make it down here. The holden gets up with just touching the exhaust but my daily is too low to get down so I made some wee 'ramps' for the top so I can get it down and work on it. The view we have outways the steepness of the section.

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#43 _nzstato_

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Posted 06 October 2010 - 06:37 PM

Well I finally got the plenum back where it is suppose to be, all clamped up and ready to go...

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I was half way through doing the plug welds (pain in the arse) when I heard sirens, looked outside to see a pillar of black smoke, then looked down the road to witness this...

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I think the poor guys have lost the lot. However I have never seen so many cars go down our road, every man and his dog were out for a gander. I just felt sick for those peoples house. After a few photos I got back to it...

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And all finished up...

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Reasonably happy with it, least it isnt full of rot anymore.

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#44 _Quagmire_

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Posted 06 October 2010 - 06:49 PM

Well I finally got the plenum back where it is suppose to be, all clamped up and ready to go...

I was half way through doing the plug welds (pain in the arse) when I heard sirens, looked outside to see a pillar of black smoke, then looked down the road to witness this...

I think the poor guys have lost the lot. However I have never seen so many cars go down our road, every man and his dog were out for a gander. I just felt sick for those peoples house. After a few photos I got back to it...

And all finished up...

Reasonably happy with it, least it isnt full of rot anymore.

nice work you want a paid holiday in sunny perth?

you sure all those cars wanted a gander?
heard nz is real big with the meth production scene atm
they may have just been trying to save thier stash lol

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#45 _nzstato_

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Posted 07 October 2010 - 06:12 AM

I'm sure Perth is nice this time of year, maybe I should go into business travelling around and fixing the plenums in Holdens? Though I must add this is the first time I've done any appreciable amound of bodywork and my first attempt at rust repair.

Yea P is becoming a problem in NZ, but not where I live, more up in Auckland. Though one of the guys who was in my chemistry undergrad course had questionable 'funding' sources. Lets just say he paid alot of attention during organic chemistry lectures, but he got locked up before he could finish the degree. :dontknow:

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#46 _nzstato_

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Posted 09 October 2010 - 04:08 PM

Just a few quick jobs today. Found a bit of rust in the radiator support panel that hadn't been sorted when I had it fixed....

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But now its all good

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Sprayed it all in primer, will get it (and the firewall) in top coat when I get back from oz.

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Rebuilt the electronic dizzy I bought too, some one had pulled it apart and cleaned it but neglected to grease on reassembly, also fixed the excess endfloat it had.

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#47 _nzstato_

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Posted 14 October 2010 - 04:04 PM

Well I got flew back home early this morning and was a bit shattered so I flagged work for the day and did some stuff round home. Including getting a little bit of painting done...

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