307 replies to this topic

[claysummers]

Enjoy Sam


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[Ice]

Love the colour and trim combo 

its turned out really good mate happy for you 

see you at T fest just look for the loudest crew thats us 

[SmacT]

I swear ever since I registered the car, it's been raining in Sydney on weekends. I have 700kms on it now anyway, and the rain forced me to source a water leak into the cabin. It turns out there was a tiny pinhole in the plenum repair I welded up years ago, so sikaflexed it to the beejeezuz inside and out, then replaced the plenum elbow, as I don't need it with the air set up I have. I used it to tidy wiring at the same time. Lots more room under there now, so i will move the computer and tidy things up more, I was waiting to find the leak first.
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I then had Heasmans (Sydenham) wheel align the car and highly recommend them - they get old cars, and performance cars, have old school shims there ready to go, etc. Nice RX-3 there the same day, too. Heasmans recommended some adjustable UCAs to get the rear pinion angle a little better and the rear perfectly square, so I invested in a set of United Speed Shops gear. Bolted straight in and came with a beanie, so off to Heasmans again soon to get it wheel aligned again. Worth it, I want it predictable when it unhooks, as traction in the bottom three gear is limited, and some Roll Racing at some stage is on the cards.
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Have been to a few cars and coffees, Sunday pie runs and just loving driving it, basically. I am doing longer and longer trips, with everything going fine, just needing to tighten some things as I go. I replaced the air/oil separator with a catch can too, the thing was sucking oil out! I did spot a shot from a cars and coffee page, which makes me look like a dodgy bugger hanging around the mens. Other than that, it's been fun! Toranafest is soon! Can't wait to cruise with 500 Torries, though it will be mayhem.

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[claysummers]

C’mon, we need a shot of y’all wearing said beanie smacT. Seriously though that looks the business, the back wheels. Well done.


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[neglectedtorana]

Hi Sam,

 

Is the St Ives? Mona Vale showground?

Car looks great, enjoy the driving, hope you're out today in this nice sunshine.

 

Cheers, Tom

[Hatchback13]

Awesome looking torrie mate. Cheers

[SmacT]

Yes Tom, the Autobrunch cars and coffee. There were a lot of Euro cars there, not many muscle cars, but a cool event with many, many cars of all types - which I like. I was parked in mud, but worth it to get out and about. I was going to the Cars Under the Stars event at Penrith on Satdee night, but it got cancelled last minute due to car-hating council mo-fos. So I drove the Old Road to Gosford KFC and back with one son instead. Had the road to ourselves in the dark, it was awesome.

 

 

Hi Sam,

 

Is the St Ives? Mona Vale showground?

Car looks great, enjoy the driving, hope you're out today in this nice sunshine.

 

Cheers, Tom

[Heath]

How good!

 

Thanks for the update, Sam.

Congratulations again.

[neglectedtorana]

Yes Tom, the Autobrunch cars and coffee. There were a lot of Euro cars there, not many muscle cars, but a cool event with many, many cars of all types - which I like. I was parked in mud, but worth it to get out and about. I was going to the Cars Under the Stars event at Penrith on Satdee night, but it got cancelled last minute due to car-hating council mo-fos. So I drove the Old Road to Gosford KFC and back with one son instead. Had the road to ourselves in the dark, it was awesome.

 

Hi Sam, 

 

Machines and Macchiatos at Warriewood gets a good turn out with a nice variety or modern, Euro, Muscle and unique. Depending where you're coming from it can be a bit out of the way.

I'm on the Central Coast but go to it sometimes as I grew up in Sydney and spent time living on the Northern Beaches, 

 

Happy driving, 

Cheers, Tom

[SmacT]

Ah cool Tom, Machines and Macciatos was my first event on June 21. You're right, it was full of more of my kind of cars, I really enjoyed it. I used to live on the Northern Beaches too. One of the best bits was the convoy I ended up in on the way there, including the Ford here, a De Tomaso Pantera, some big old American thing, and a couple of really tidy rotaries. Was fun-as. I wasn't as stressed for my first event as I seem to be in this pic..? Maybe I was. Ha ha.

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[SmacT]

So firstly, can I suggest that if your lower balljoint nut is to inexplicably jump ship, it happens in the middle of the road in Branxton NSW. I had hardly even got out of a car before a bloke was offering his jack (I ended up with two), two full sets of tools appeared by my side, a bloke just started directing traffic around me and every second car stopped to ask if we needed something. My other half ended up driving around Branxton with a stranger looking for a new nut, found it and an hour after grinding to a halt, we were on our way again. Yep, there's some flare and wheel damage, but it's minor, and meeting all those legends almost made it worth it. 

 

"Lucky it wasn't a Kia mate, or you would have been on your own," one bloke reckoned. Agreed. Ha ha.

 

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So what happened? A loose nut finally jumped off, I have no idea how it was missed with wheel alignments and all that happening, but hey, shit happens. I got away with it. Suffice to say, every nut and bolt on the car has been checked again.

 

I cheered myself up with a nose sticker (will have to clear over it...), Bliss chassis hole caps, and added some heat shield to the cats, to try and reduce cabin heat a bit more. I also set the pinion angle, and had it wheel aligned/checked again.

 

Hopefully that's the last of any dramas, car is going great apart from that time the front fell off... See ya at the Hawkesbury All Holden Day, and then Toranafest!

 

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[claysummers]

Two mates recently experienced similar episodes during our trip from SA to Bunbury.

Lower balljoint came loose in the control arm of a HR front ended FB sedan, fortunately in a service station forecourt at Nullarbor, rather than at speed on the highway. Locals at the airstrip happily loaned us their workshop, welder and tools.

In the second occurrence an upper wishbone rose joint threaded adjuster rod on a CRS IFS snapped in the car park of a winery near Denmark. Winery came to hand with a stick welder and one of the other patrons happened to be a former V8 supercar mechanic, and a pretty handy welder.

Really gratifying how helpful people can be when you get into a spot with an old classic.


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[yel327]

Sometimes it isn't that lucky. A mate of mine bought my HZ L31 M21 Kingswood sedan off me that I had purchased in 1985 as a car yard trade in. He spent some decent money on it and a lower ball joint let go doing decent speed, up in Cairns. Car went straight into a tree and was destroyed. He got out of it OK, but the front of the car was shorter by a good 2-3 feet. 

[Cook]

Hi Sam. Love the car and great that you are getting out and about with it. I would have a think about clearing the Torana sticker. I was going to do that but got advice that they do sometimes react to the clear.  I decided to just leave mine and so far no issues but then again I've only done about 500 km's. Cheers Ron

[neglectedtorana]

Did I see you driving North on the M1 about 11am 2 Fridays ago?

 

Pretty lucky incident. glad it worked out and the locals were great and made you welcome.

 

In about 2001 I lost oil pressure on the down hill into Greta not far from where you were, I turned off the engine and coasted and the first spot to pull over while rolling off the hill was the pub so I pulled in and straight into a parking spot, it was either a Friday or Saturday night so my girlfriend went inside to see if they had rooms available and I got the tools out and took the oil pump off.

 

Drive in the pump sheared.

That night chatting to the pub owners and some locals one bloke said he probably had a spare oil pump and if he did would be back at 8am to drop it off for the grand total of $20, he did and with the pump back on we were on our way again. Overall it was a great experience.

[SmacT]

Yeah, often steering issues are at low speed cos of loads and centrifugal force etc, but scary nonetheless - amazing who comes out of the woodwork to help!

Two mates recently experienced similar episodes during our trip from SA to Bunbury.

Lower balljoint came loose in the control arm of a HR front ended FB sedan, fortunately in a service station forecourt at Nullarbor, rather than at speed on the highway. Locals at the airstrip happily loaned us their workshop, welder and tools.

In the second occurrence an upper wishbone rose joint threaded adjuster rod on a CRS IFS snapped in the car park of a winery near Denmark. Winery came to hand with a stick welder and one of the other patrons happened to be a former V8 supercar mechanic, and a pretty handy welder.

Really gratifying how helpful people can be when you get into a spot with an old classic.


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Yeah right - that is lucky. I know I was.

Sometimes it isn't that lucky. A mate of mine bought my HZ L31 M21 Kingswood sedan off me that I had purchased in 1985 as a car yard trade in. He spent some decent money on it and a lower ball joint let go doing decent speed, up in Cairns. Car went straight into a tree and was destroyed. He got out of it OK, but the front of the car was shorter by a good 2-3 feet. 

Thanks Ron - good call. The car isn't ceramix coated yet, maybe I just rely on that then.

Hi Sam. Love the car and great that you are getting out and about with it. I would have a think about clearing the Torana sticker. I was going to do that but got advice that they do sometimes react to the clear.  I decided to just leave mine and so far no issues but then again I've only done about 500 km's. Cheers Ron

Yep, that would have been me mate - an hour later, crunch! Great story - maybe there is something about the people in that area? 

Did I see you driving North on the M1 about 11am 2 Fridays ago?

 

Pretty lucky incident. glad it worked out and the locals were great and made you welcome.

 

In about 2001 I lost oil pressure on the down hill into Greta not far from where you were, I turned off the engine and coasted and the first spot to pull over while rolling off the hill was the pub so I pulled in and straight into a parking spot, it was either a Friday or Saturday night so my girlfriend went inside to see if they had rooms available and I got the tools out and took the oil pump off.

 

Drive in the pump sheared.

That night chatting to the pub owners and some locals one bloke said he probably had a spare oil pump and if he did would be back at 8am to drop it off for the grand total of $20, he did and with the pump back on we were on our way again. Overall it was a great experience.

[Heath]

Awesome to see this car (and meet the man behind it!) and Toranafest this year. Well done Sam. 

 

Fantastic work. It's a peach.

[SmacT]

Awesome to see this car (and meet the man behind it!) and Toranafest this year. Well done Sam.

Fantastic work. It's a peach.

Thanks mate, great to meet you, and crawl all over and literally under yours. Effin love your car, was cool to see the wear and tear on the drivers seat. Ha ha.

Thanks for the chat on my wheels too. I have tried to love the colour scheme, but I just don't. Going through all my options now, starting with getting the fitment better (need to fill the flares better), then will update here.

Was a great event, to finally be there with my own car was pretty spesh for me, shame I didn't meet more forum members. Next time!

[SmacT]

Great to see so many excellent cars at Toranafest, and it really helped me hate my wheel colour (see below). We were late for the cruise unfortunately (daughter's netball GF ruining everything :-)), but we got there and had a ball. Car ran great and for all the people I found under its butt, yes, it's 3in exhaust, UNDER the diff. Ha ha.

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I finally fitted a vaccum pump just before the 'Fest, much better! Stops like a modern car now, kinda. Made a bracket out of bar and stuck it inside the p/side guard.

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One thing that really hit home for me at TFest was that my wheel colour is just too weird. I love the Simmons 3-piece OM17s, and was always going to go wider outers, but the centers need a new colour too, and possibly brushed lips. Now I will probs regret this, but I photoshopped some options, lemme know what you think if you care enough. And no, I don't want to put Hotwires or any other wheel on it. And Gold has been done to death. Ha ha.

 

Now

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Opt1 Bronze
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Opt 2 Gunmetal
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[76lxhatch]

I'll generally paint almost anything black but for some reason I just don't like black wheels. And every "refurbished" second hand wheel out there seems to be painted or powder coated solid black! So in my opinion changing the rim colour would be the first stop.

 

One more unsolicited opinion... I don't really care if things have been overdone, I'd rather it looks good and be common than unique and ugly. Outside of Toranafest these cars are becoming a pretty rare sight regardless.

[Bruiser]

At least it makes your car unique, having different wheels
If you think they look weird, they are weird.
For mine, I think the weirdness part is the black outer rim, too much
black against the tyre, and glossy too.
I think they would look great with polished rims and any colour you like,
even black centres look cool to me - it would match the car’s blackouts
But not the green body colour, that’s just me and my tasteless tastes
Nobody could say the car doesn’t look schmick, though.
You’ve got to have it just how you want it

[FLY_LX]

i think keep black rim with polished centre or vice versa polished rim with black centre

[LXCHEV]

I'd like to see what the rims look like with polished outers (with any of those colours above - current, bronze or gunmetal). The car has plenty of black already going on. Maybe a bit of old fashioned shine will give you the pop you're after. I'm old school with wheels - give me some shine anyday.

[axistr]

I have always struggled with rim choice. I hate rims that are too busy and have heaps of fins to try and get the cleaning sponge between getting the dirt and brake dust off. I also hate rims with polished alloy finished centres that takes megga amount of my time polishing them to keep them looking good. I like Hot wires and V5 Simmons which look good when new but they are a bugger to maintain to my standard. After looking for months and months I end up back with Simmons FR series. Three of my cars have them, easy to clean, easy to polish the outer rim band and always look neat and tidy IMO. Not cheap but you can order them in any offset to fill the guards properly on your Torana.

 

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[yel327]

I'm with Brett. If you are going to buy new outers I'd go for polished ones, and paint the centres, even if they are painted black. This way all the bolts don't stick out like the proverbial which (in my option) is what looks wrong (don't get me started on fake bead locks on 4x4 rims!) - I think the issue to my eyes though is the centres are backwards compared to what I'm used to with Simmons, traditionally I'm more used to seeing them like this where the bolts disappear a bit more:

 

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