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78 uc torana

Started by _2 girls racing_ , Jan 12 2019 05:40 PM

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39 replies to this topic

#1 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 12 January 2019 - 05:40 PM

Some of you may have seen my new member thread but this is an original one owner uc torana, not Sunbudgie that my grandfather bought new in 78. It was driven daily untill he passed away, at which point it came into my possession as the resident car nut and was passed onto my son. It was due for a refresh so we put a carb kit into it, and the 202 spat the dummy and shredded the timing gear!
At which point it was relegated to a corner and a plan was hatched to put the race motor from the v6 sprintcar into it. Having previously fitted an Ecotec into a LX this wasn’t our first rodeo and there were plenty of next time I will.....
So here are the next times.....

Engine out.

Front end stripped.

Cut off the headlight/grille mounts.

And recessed them back 1”

Then it was time to smooth the firewall.

As is normal for these the firewall had split from chassis rail to chassis rail.

So that will get welded when the tig comes out.
There is also a dodgy repair in the passenger C pillar done by my uncle which i will need to fix from where the old man backed into a bus shelter at about 60

So that’s where we’re up to, comments and suggestions welcome of course.

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#2 308 Sunbird

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Name:Stuart
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Car:SS Hatch, 308 Sunbird sedan-Improved Prod racer (sold), HZ Kingy wagon
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Posted 12 January 2019 - 06:37 PM

Wow recessing the front gives a much meaner look to the UC.

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#3 Bigfella237

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Posted 12 January 2019 - 06:43 PM

You do know it's only like a hundred bucks and an hour's work to replace a timing gear right?

Looking good, Steffi. For some reason I thought it was a hatchback in the introduction thread, dunno why?

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#4 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 12 January 2019 - 07:00 PM

Replacing the timing gear would have been annoying and no fun, it may have been an excuse on my part because i am easily bored and needed an excuse.

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#5 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 12 January 2019 - 09:05 PM

Wow recessing the front gives a much meaner look to the UC.

I think it gives it more of a camaro look, might try some round headlights and a new grille some time.

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#6 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 19 January 2019 - 05:32 PM

Got some v6 conversions engine mounts, same as i used last time, and picked up another engine package from a vg ute!

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#7 LHSL

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Name:Phillip
Location:SYDNEY
Car:1974 LH SL; 2 x 1975 LH S Toranas
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Posted 19 January 2019 - 06:29 PM

Good luck with it same colour as mine and a SL. I would be going straight to a v8 but hey that is my opinion.

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#8 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 20 January 2019 - 07:02 PM

Thankyou! It’s a nice colour polished up. We decided the v6 would be more than enough for the learner driver in the family and we have plenty of spares for the v6

Sat it in to check clearance and fabricate the gearbox x-member and exhaust while i get the sump sorted.

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#9 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 02 February 2019 - 10:33 AM

Gearbox x-member ticked off, who knew the standard trimatic mount bolts straight to the th700.
Will probably need to clearance the passenger side for the exhaust but that can happen later

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#10 Bigfella237

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Posted 02 February 2019 - 03:58 PM

Eww be very careful jacking under a transmission pan like that, there's virtually no clearance between the pan and the oil pickup inside and it takes very little force to push the bottom up and restrict the intake or dislodge/distort something.

If you absolutely must jack on the pan then at least place a block of timber across it to distribute the weight out to the edges?

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#11 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 02 February 2019 - 07:24 PM

Jack was only being used for angle adjustment, engine mounts are bolted in. There was no deflection of the gearbox pan so not really an issue.

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#12 bags

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Posted 03 February 2019 - 01:02 PM

Nice. Keep up the good work. I really like the V6 conversion. Have you seen this setup in this ss hatch. Looks great and would be pretty simple.

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#13 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 03 February 2019 - 02:58 PM

Nice. Keep up the good work. I really like the V6 conversion. Have you seen this setup in this ss hatch. Looks great and would be pretty simple.

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Thankyou, it’s a really nice conversion to drive and easy to live with as a daily.

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#14 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 03 February 2019 - 03:04 PM

Todays progress, i was concerned about the height of the manifold/ throttle body and justifiably so after mockup so started on another manifold to bring the throttle body down tight to the manifold. Will take the bits into work and weld them up.

And a couple of photos of an assembled wingless sprintcar motor

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#15 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 03 February 2019 - 03:07 PM

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#16 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 09 February 2019 - 03:04 PM

New manifold done, cast ally is a bugger to weld but done now. Did some machining on the lathe for one of the other cars, spacer for a belt idler pulley.

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#17 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 16 February 2019 - 08:25 PM

Time to do something different with the inner arches! Quick mockup with the tubs i had made for it.

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#18 Cook

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Posted 17 February 2019 - 09:54 AM

Nice. Watching with interest. Cheers Ron

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#19 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 17 February 2019 - 01:54 PM

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#20 Heath

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Name:Heath
Location:Eastern Suburbs, Melbourne
Car:Heavily Modified UC Sunbird Hatchback
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Posted 18 February 2019 - 12:50 PM

Well that came right out of nowhere.

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#21 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 18 February 2019 - 02:25 PM

Thanks guys, something I’ve always wanted to do as part of a smoothed engine bay.

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#22 Shiney005

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Name:Laurie
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Posted 19 February 2019 - 10:06 AM

I must admit, that I haven't really been following this build.....................until now!!!

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#23 Max's SS

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Posted 19 February 2019 - 03:09 PM

I'm following.

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#24 ReplicarSLR

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Posted 19 February 2019 - 05:53 PM

Top stuff, assume you have something in mind for the brake booster and master cylinder, might be a clearance issue looking at the guard inners in the photos. Photos
Might be be deceiving though. Keep up the good build.

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#25 _2 girls racing_

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Posted 24 February 2019 - 03:02 PM

Thanks for the encouragement guys, keeps my son motivated to help me if other people think it’s cool! So at close of play today the bay looks like this, have finished cutting bits out and started welding back in.
About this stage my compressor packed it in so started on the beers.