68 replies to this topic

[Indy Orange]

Paint looks great Adam great effort.

[4dabush]

So, it has been a LONG time between posts.... over a year. Its been busy on the personal front and Brad can probably attest that Cairns has had a wet season that has lasted about 18 months. It seems every weekend was raining and getting a painted shell out the way so I could continue doing bits and pieces was really hard. 

 

I took a week off last week to make a dent in reassembly, and of course the first 2 days rained, and 33/34 degrees, no wind and about 90% humidity... the rest of the week was better.

 

Photo heavy coming up - a years worth of updates:

 

installing rubbers in door tops - what a sh!t of a job. Thanks to Marty and other forum members.  The inner belts need the clips stretched a little to go over the leather ( or vinyl) and THEN roll the inner felt into the clips.  Took 2 weekends to work out how to do a 20 second job, once you know. Outers was the throw the clips away and polyurethane sealer to glue them on. i did make the tool and try hard, but the Rare's clips dont play nice with the Rare's door top replacement patch panel.

 

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We have glass

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Sound deadened

 

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Wasnt happy with the location  of the rear retractable seat belt body so new seat belt anchors inboard by 20mm or so.

 

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[4dabush]

Motor and Box.  And Air conditioning and alternator.

 

After struggling with the the T5 rebuild - I sent it off to Mal Wood to check my work and to properly install the steel cluster retainer that needs exactly the right shims, which I simply don't have.

 

A few weeks later in August, my motor arrived back from JB Automotive in Ayr.   It took a long time, but I wasnt in that much of a rush.  Sticking with the restomod theme - its still running the bunch of banana's and standard filter box and throttle body.  My engineer wouldnt let me go bigger than 304. (well, rebore was ok)

Quick Motor spec.

VS 304 block  .20 over, decked and tunnel bored

Bronze lifter bore conversion and oil gallery modded

Full balance of rotating assembly

Crane cams 888251  226/230 with 110LSA

Edelbrock heads stock out the box

10.4 compression

VT dizzy

Haltech 2500

 

 

Test fit below for the 100th time.  Now to set up alternator and AC.

 

 

 

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JB's ran it in on the dyno, so its now a bolt in.  Its a pretty healthy motor, 350hp/410lfbt  or 260kw/555Nm, nice fat flat torque curve which is what I wanted.

 

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Made my own alternator bracket to tuck in tight under the throttle body.  Couldn't use the normal drivers side one as the VS commodore AC bracket and pump fits and clears perfectly!

 

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[4dabush]

Next was  doing the stainless steel trims

Had roof racks of course!

 

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Gentle dollying.  I used an old plastic breadboard as it was very close to the gutter curve, so chopped off a couple of bits to use as different shaped dollies.  I also had a hammer I had cut in half for getting inside the doors. This was perfect has it had nearly no weight.  I did spend an hour or so sanding its face dead smooth before taking it to the stainless.

 

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Finished  and fitted... not perfect, but better than many.

 

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[4dabush]

Heater box and Wipers

 

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Hoodlining (which is out again as it wouldn't uncrease.  Steamed and ironed and its probably in this weekend

 

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Rear parcel shelf, which was all done with the belt braces

 

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Rebuilt and painted column.  And now Peter Nash is doing ones for little Torries with V8's that look AMAZING, billet bottom bearings, better uni's ... oh well...

 

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[4dabush]

Mal Wood Hydraulic Clutch in ... bit of stuffing around and filing, but got there without too much drama.

 

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Buttoning up the chassis kit properly and for the final time

 

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Handbrake brackets for VS Commodore rear discs,  Calipers are swapped to front so its a hybrid left to right swap.

 

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[4dabush]

K Frame assembly with homemade spring compressor - worked a treat!

 

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Wiring starting... Haltech wiring is huge...good thing I'm not looking for the concealed look! The wooden thing was to give the sparky a template for the underdash shelf I'll make ti hide everything and give him real estate for the Haltech and all the fuses and relays. It will hide the AC unit that is already tucked up in there. I'll piano hing it at the rear, pick up the original parcel shelf screw holes under the glove box and 2 screws, can drop down to access everything...and still have a working glove box. 

 

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[4dabush]

Ok  - this is what you are all here for...

Last week has been big...

 

Getting exciting....

 

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more exciting...more nervous... this was all on my own, not even my wife to keep an eye on things....

 

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Attached Files

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Edited by 4dabush, 06 November 2024 - 06:28 PM.

[4dabush]

TADDA

 

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still a LOOONG way to go, but now it feels like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

 

Wheels are 16 x 7 (28p) and 16 x 8 (15p).  Tyres are babies, 195/50/16 and 215/45/16.   Adjustable trailing arms are nearly all the way forwards, they could have had another 10mm extra forward moverment but it all clears

 

 

[Bruiser]

Job well done
That’s gonna be magic when it’s rolling

[gtrboyy]

Never rolled eng/trans in under baby torrie or commodore...might have to try it one day.

 

That Mal Woods kit looks like it gives more room for column to come over always wondered if could hide reservoir under ashtray area.

 

Did rear calipers hit shock absorbers hence putting them at front?

 

Looks nice lots of progress.

[4dabush]

Never rolled eng/trans in under baby torrie or commodore...might have to try it one day.

 

That Mal Woods kit looks like it gives more room for column to come over always wondered if could hide reservoir under ashtray area.

 

Did rear calipers hit shock absorbers hence putting them at front?

 

Looks nice lots of progress.

 

You’ll have to try it one day… me, 3 trolley jacks of different sizes, 2 sets of axle stands, various blocks of wood, and a million burpee’s jumping up and down to check alignments and clearances. Took about 90 minutes…would have halved that with another pair of eyes. 

 

Mal Woods kit wouldn’t say gives more room inside, certainly not less. The single braided line to the gearbox does and meant I could cut off the clutch cable boss off the bell housing. THAT gives heaps more room. 
 

I’ll post up the brakes on the weekend. The backing plates are deleted, but the brake hose retainer drilled out and is reused. 
the axle retaining plate/cup goes left to right to bring the calipers in front of the diff. The hand brake assembly stays right on right, left on left so it pulls in the normal direction. You have to completely make a new handbrake cable retainer.  This and the brake line retainer were welded to some 3mm plate and new holes tapped into the axle retaining cup. I think I picked up 2 of the holes from the backing plate, just drilled and tapped them bigger. Swap calipers so the bleed nipple is on top still and it’s done. As the calipers are now in front of the diff, there is no clash with anything…misses the coils by 30mm or so.  Standard Commy hoses.  I’ll probably do a custom set of handbrake cables but there are some old posts on here showing the idea of the hand brake retainer and they used a commodore wagon rear cable, mated to modded Lc Lj handbrake cables at the handbrake with the Torry shorts attached to a Commy C boss thingy that centres on the cable to pull evenly. 

Edited by 4dabush, 06 November 2024 - 08:16 PM.

[RallyRed]

A credit to you mate...

[Ice]

Looks great Adam top job mate 

2 door Torana V8 injected just perfect 

[SmacT]

That's awesome. That engine spec is perfect for your car I reckon, torquey and fun - unless you are drag racing it every week, that's plenty of grunt for the road. I laughed at the burpees reference - I wonder how many burpee equivalents we all do building these things without a hoist? Many....

Keep going!

[gtrboyy]

Oh ok springs get in the way.

 

Yeah mine has whole vs ute diff narrowed down but car was mini tubbed + coilovers...used commodore cables but got shortened or new ends but did have to go with a toyota corolla handbrake as torrie touched 3 inch tailshaft when down or when on throttle cant remember.

 

We had dellows kit actually narrowed pedal + welded rod in it for strength just to move column over bit more even ground down block to sit flush with getrag gearbox but that Mal Wood setup looks like more room if can hide reservoir & still work fine tempted to put efi 304/getrag setup back in gtr again.

 

Kind of like where alternator sits looking at it again kind of hidden under engine cover/throttle body & airbox etc

[stevemc32]

That's certainly an update and a half.  Looks great Adam, top stuff!

[4dabush]

Oh ok springs get in the way.

 

Yeah mine has whole vs ute diff narrowed down but car was mini tubbed + coilovers...used commodore cables but got shortened or new ends but did have to go with a toyota corolla handbrake as torrie touched 3 inch tailshaft when down or when on throttle cant remember.

 

We had dellows kit actually narrowed pedal + welded rod in it for strength just to move column over bit more even ground down block to sit flush with getrag gearbox but that Mal Wood setup looks like more room if can hide reservoir & still work fine tempted to put efi 304/getrag setup back in gtr again.

 

Kind of like where alternator sits looking at it again kind of hidden under engine cover/throttle body & airbox etc

As promised,

here are some better photos of the VS Commodore brakes in the car.

As mentioned, the caliper/axle retainer is swapped Left to Right, but handbrake stays right on the right, left on the left, handbrake still pulls forwards.

Caliper is then at the front. Calipers swap left to right to bleed nipple is still at the top.

Mines on a 7mm shorter per side than stock Torry -  9 inch.

Rear shocks in standard location.

Brake line retainer tab drilled out of backing plate and made a bracket to bolt to caliper/axle retainer  (I think they were swapped l to r to make the hoses sit nicely in the retainer)

 

In these photo's the brake line is not yet done up tight as I am yet to blow out the brake lines and fit pads and the brake hose retaining clips.

 

Just a warning, there is bugger all between the bottom of the shock and the caliper/axle retainer, so to install the shock was install the washer and 1 rubber, slide the shock on the shock bolt on diff, then maneuver it to the upright position, then fit the remaining rubber, washer and cone nut, then the top retainers, rubbers and nuts.  If you have a shock with a 1 piece rubber, (if there is such a beast) you'd have to have it on before fitting the caliper/axle retainer and buttoning up the axles...that would be a PITA.

 

Brake line retainer

 

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hand brake cable connected and showing bracket

 

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View from the front

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[Heath]

What a fantastic update. This is getting some really nice work!