102 replies to this topic

[SHEEL]

Not sure about the sills yet. I think I'll paint strip them so I can have a good look. I'm not going to bare metal the doors or roof I decided. I'll just rough them up and prime over the existing paint.


Plenum is reasonable. Drivers side looks perfect on top when I stripped the paint off. looks good from the underside, no hint of rust at all... But I do worry about what I can't see.
The passenger side is a bit rusty. There were some small holes on top so I cut a section out to reveal a large-ish hole into the underside of the dash. It had all been bogged and sealed up previously which meant no leaks into the cabin, which normally means bad floors... Lucky for me the floors have been kept dry and are perfect. I got a rare spares cowl section so I'll replace all of the rusted plenum bits prett easily.
overall I'd say its better than average.

I'll take some pics next time I'm in the garage.

[SHEEL]

Here is the underneath view of the Drivers side of the plenum area. As you can see, it looks good.



The passenger side... not so good. However I have seen much worse so I'm not too worried.

[Heath]

You're doing some really great work here! Very nice

[Dave6179]

Are you cutting/grinding away from the screen? Hot metal will embed itself in the glass.... wiper blades will show you where.

[SHEEL]

screen is stuffed and is coming out soon, I'm not doing anymore work on this area until the screen is out. I just wanted to cut it now to see what I'll be up against later.

[orangeLJ]

I dont think I'd ever re-use an old screen if I could avoid it.

Old glass shatters into nasty shards, not great in the case of an acco, so bin that sucker! haha.

Hows the rust around the heater vent opening?

Mine seemed to be localised around that part, and not so much up where yours has been chewed away.

Edited by orangeLJ, 17 June 2013 - 08:43 AM.

[SHEEL]

Yeh strangely around the heater vent is good... there just seemed to be a heap of dirt, leaves and crap up in the corner which has held moisture in that top corner and then caused the rust. I expected to see more around the heater vent opening but I got lucky I guess...

didn't do much this weekend. busy with other stuff.

finished welding the old lpg fillerhole. Also finished welding the Rad support. came up great, I ground the welds down so it'll be hard to spot the repair after paint.




In other exciting news, My uncle is a mechanic and he had a customer years ago who put a brand new chev crate engine in his WB stato. Leaving the old Blue 308 behind. My uncle has had it under a tarp for a few years. It was running when pulled out, is still in ok shape despite sitting so long. He is selling it to me cheap, comes with a Turbo 400, convertor, pacemaker tri-y's and a felpro gasket kit, acl bearings and rings.
So I'll be giving it a freshen up and whacking that in! stoked!

[orangeLJ]

score on the engine deal!

 

things like that definitely make life easier.

 

I picked up a recoed 253 with a small cam (had less that 1000kms on it!) for a carton of beer when I first threw the ute together.

 

Made things much nicer!

[SHEEL]

Hi Guys,

Did a little bit on the weekend. Was a bit under the weather so only did a few hours...

I basically just cut and patched the rear quarter/ door frame on the passenger side. Plus a bit on the dog leg. With the inner metal pice on the door frame I decided to wire brush all the loose rust off then give it the full KBS treatment. Used the convertor then the black sealer paint. Then welded in the new metal over the top. Through the week I'll hit it with another coat of the sealer paint on the inside of the cabin vent to be sure!

Pics tell the story:





dog leg pics, I forgot to take a pic of the inner panel painted in KBS sealer, but I did seal it all up before welding in the new piece.

[yel327]

Yeh strangely around the heater vent is good... there just seemed to be a heap of dirt, leaves and crap up in the corner which has held moisture in that top corner and then caused the rust. I expected to see more around the heater vent opening but I got lucky I guess...

didn't do much this weekend. busy with other stuff.

finished welding the old lpg fillerhole. Also finished welding the Rad support. came up great, I ground the welds down so it'll be hard to spot the repair after paint.




In other exciting news, My uncle is a mechanic and he had a customer years ago who put a brand new chev crate engine in his WB stato. Leaving the old Blue 308 behind. My uncle has had it under a tarp for a few years. It was running when pulled out, is still in ok shape despite sitting so long. He is selling it to me cheap, comes with a Turbo 400, convertor, pacemaker tri-y's and a felpro gasket kit, acl bearings and rings.
So I'll be giving it a freshen up and whacking that in! stoked!

 

It'll possibly be a TH350 if it is from a WB, they never had a TH400. Could have been put in though.

[SHEEL]

Not really fussed if it is a th350.. either way it'll get a quick cleanup and maybe a shift kit or something...I'm sure Either will be fine.

[SHEEL]

Apparantly the 400 has a 4 stamped on it somewhere too? Doing a bit of reading I found that the 350 and the 400 are actually based on entirely different designs. The 350 being based on a powerglide while the 400 was a new design at the time. interesting...

[Ice]

The turbo 350 is geared better than the 400

[SHEEL]

I suppose that depends on what sort of ratios you want! some prefer low ratios for highway driving, others high gearing for strip duties!

I'm thinking at this stage I will be running a baby cam, maybe a 2000-2500 stall, and no higher than 3.5 gears in the diff. I think ideally I'd like to be runing 3.08 or 3.25's.

Most of my driving will be cruising around the city at 60-80 with occasional highway driving.

[Dave6179]

The TH400 sucks more power than the TH350 too.

[SHEEL]

update time,

Bodywork on the rear panels continues... high fill and long sanding block are the order of the day...still need a bit more but they are getting close to straight.

Started bolting the front on to see how it all lines up.

Drivers side gaurd is the Taiwanese one, needs some work around the top corner, the gap is rubbish and the top inside bolt doesn't line up. will have to cut the nut off, drill a new hole in the correct position then weld a new nut on.
It will be ok with some work so I suppose I'm happy enough with it.

Passenger side is great. Nose cone and rad support are great. pics tell the story:





Here is where I don't like the gap and the bolt hole on the inside:



Front trial fitted



only half bolted up on this side:

[yel327]

Apparantly the 400 has a 4 stamped on it somewhere too? Doing a bit of reading I found that the 350 and the 400 are actually based on entirely different designs. The 350 being based on a powerglide while the 400 was a new design at the time. interesting...

 

They are easy to pick. One way to to try and pick it up, you'll soon know! TH400 is way heavier.

 

Another way is the TH350 is cable kickdown, TH400 is electric.

 

Pan shape TH400 is HUGE , TH350 is a small pan.

 

Easiest though if it is a Holden or Commodore box is the extension housing. TH400 is a short stubby extension, about 4" long with the rear engine mount under the extension. TH350 has about a 6" extension and the rear engine mount is on the body up behind the pan.

 

Another is the rear yoke, TH350 is the same yoke as a trimatic or Aussie 4spd, TH400 is a big monster John Holmes looking thing almost as big as your wrist!

[SHEEL]

cool good info there, thanks mate.

Well I got the Engine on Friday night and pulled it down. Very disappointed. It is rooted.

As you can see in the pics water got into cylinder 1 and 7 whilst the engine has been sitting around.
It was supposed to have been covered up but obviousely at some stage it has been out in the weather.

Anyway Good news is My uncle will probably help cover the cost of getting it sleeved or maybe sourcing another Block.
The Machinist we are using says he has a spare turbo pattern block so if it's the right price I might get that.

I'll have a better idea later this week when the engine is dropped off to him.

Pics:





and my nice new 560kg engine stand:

[SHEEL]

Well it's going to cost way too much to fix the 308. Needs 2 sleeves, crank grind and one of the heads is cracked too.

Looking into maybe getting running gear from a 5L vn-vr commo or something. Might be best bang for buck I'm thinking.

[SHEEL]

Yeh Mick I am a bit concerned about the age/K's on some of the 5L's getting around. I think I'd be best off spending 2-300 more to get a low k engine if I'm patient I'm sure they'll come up occasionally.
Theres a VR V8 on ebay at the moment that has supposedly done 140,000 k's. That's damn low!

Would be perfect I reckon.

I'm waiting on my uncle at the moment, I originally got the 308 of him to pay off $700 that he owed me, seeing as the 308 is junk he is now trying to get me an injected motor from some of his wrecker contacts.
that way I just give him back the 308 and he gives me the injected motor and we are square.

Mixed feelings about getting a wrecker sourced engine tho... on the plus side it would come with a warranty, I'd ned to get it in the car quick so I can fire it and test drive up and down the street!