192 replies to this topic

[76lxhatch]

Hi all

Decided it was time to get my teeth into another project, so here it is. It was originally someone else's project in the early stages but he was unable to continue with it, I picked it up last weekend.




Its originally a low mileage Sunbird, came with many parts for a V8 conversion, flares etc so that's the way I'll be going.

Will be 308, TH350, 12 bolt diff

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:42 PM.

[76lxhatch]

I've been setting up a rotisserie for it which is nearly done, removed the doors etc and stored them away safely for now



A bit of rust under the rear windscreen, but overall the car is very good. The driver door also needs some attention along with a few small bits here and there.

(the yellow bit is a fresh piece of sandpaper that was used to bog up against!)


I've yet to remove the front windscreen but I don't think there will be too many horrors there judging by the rest of the car (fingers crossed)

Must have been some corrosion in the battery tray as some of it has been cut out, decided I'd better fix this before lifting it by the bumper bar mount (which attaches to this panel, one of the bolts goes where the big hole is)


Made a new piece


Welded in and primed, just need to drill the new hole for that bolt


The plan is to get it onto the rotisserie this week, which will be on wheels so I can move it around to make life a lot easier with the limited space. Hopefully things will start moving a bit quicker then.

I already have the paint thanks to a friend who had a change of mind on the paint for his project, it will be orange with A9X style blackout bonnet etc.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:43 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Yeah the body is pretty good, the trim around the windows is very nice too but I won't be needing that...

I don't mind the wheels, they are 15x10 rear and 15x7 front. I think I will probably paint the recessed areas black though in similar fashion to how Hotwires (and regular Turbos) are done, that should give them a bit more contrast

[76lxhatch]

Got it through a friend of a friend. It was listed on Trademe for a bit, but all you get there is silly questions from tyre kickers and people who want to split up a perfectly good project for parts

[76lxhatch]

Removed the front windscreen, very happy with the amount of rust!

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:43 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Now you're just gloating....

Get it out without breaking this one?

I had to tell everyone, the VK I did last was quite good (just some light scale/pitting) but I don't think I've ever seen a Holden with no rust at all under a screen - all the original paint is there!

No problems with breaking Torana windows, they use the rubber seal with removable bead front and rear. Its the glue in HQ-WB ones that I hate.

Do you have a colour in mind?

Yes as I mentioned above I've got the paint sitting here ready, it will be orange with A9X style black bonnet etc. Its kind of a Hemi orange I believe, hoping it will turn out OK!

[76lxhatch]

^ could be, perhaps nose in a car port or something?

Got it up onto the rotisserie today, nice and easy to wheel around the garage now. I need to do something with the fuel tank before I roll it but it seems to be well enough balanced.





The T pieces at either end have a hole in the top so I can lift them with the engine crane, and the back mount is hinged so I can lift that end first.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:43 PM.

[76lxhatch]

First time I've used a rotisserie too, looking forward to it. Hopefully get stuck in and remove the fuel tank tomorrow then I can roll it over.

Not much today, removed the tail lights, rear trim etc and a few bits of interior trim along with the head lining. No nasty surprises which is great

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:44 PM.

[76lxhatch]

I've been a bit slack so far this week, removed the tank on the weekend and tipped the car 90 degrees only to decide that I wasn't happy with the weight distribution, too bottom heavy. The measurements I copied must have allowed for the windscreens still to be in or something.

So today I moved it into the middle of the garage (I love having it on wheels) and removed it from the rotisserie so I could modify the mounting points to bring it up 50mm. The pivot point is now 150mm above the bumper bar mounts. Also made a slight improvement based on an idea borrowed from one of these forums, rather than a handle I just used a bolt head so I can spin it with a ratchet or bar:


Its still slightly bottom heavy but not much and spins very nicely now.


Now to get into working on the car itself! Aiming for rust repairs and underbody to be sorted by the end of the month.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:44 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Finally got it outside and cleaned it up a bit with the water blaster




This also removed the POR15 in the engine bay a little too easily (I believe its not UV resistant and it has been out in the weather for a bit) so I removed as much as I could:

The engine bay will end up body colour anyway

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:44 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Got a start on the rust today, right side of rear windscreen. Had to chop out a bit more than I had envisaged to do it properly:


After stitching a few bits in, just need to do the top layer now:


The other side should be a lot simpler, also one or two smaller holes further up that will need some metal.

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:45 PM.

[76lxhatch]

Finished that corner:


Just metal finished with a protective coat of etch primer at present, will give it a light skim of filler to smooth it out when it comes to painting

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:45 PM.

[76lxhatch]

The other side isn't as nice as first thought either, and there's a hole at the bottom of the driver side where the front guard bolts on, and a peppering of small holes in the rear beaver panel and bottom of the radiator support. The boot floor is also a bit scaly on both sides. Oh, and there are a couple of small holes in the under side of the plenum. Does that make you feel a little better?

Removed the steering column and remaining wiring etc from under the dash last night. Its so much easier to get in there when the car is sideways on the rotisserie! Bonus is that it doesn't want to lean to the driver side as much any more since the weight is now a bit more even.


Decided I wanted to do something a bit more interesting today, so I started on the right rear flare. (Thanks again to Ruts for his guide!)

The flares I have are obviously cheapies, and I tried placing them in a few different positions, but I just couldn't get it right due to the twist, particularly on the door piece. They have also been trimmed back a long way at the outer edges which doesn't help. However, I remembered the flares that used to be on my hatch - they are L34 design but one piece, and they are obviously a lot better made and shaped. So, despite being a bit broken, they make an excellent template:


The new ones don't follow the lines exactly, but after tracing around the one piece flare it was much easier to get them in a good position:
[img]http://img.v8comp.co...an/DSCN0664.jpg
Still some tweaking required to the flares themselves and some minor bracketry to hold them in the correct spot, but I'm quite happy with the placement now.

Now that I know where the flare is going to go, I made a quick plan on what to cut:

Edited by 76lxhatch, 21 July 2017 - 10:45 PM.