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thebrotherj wrote: Thu Mar 22, 2018 11:08 pm I couldn’t save the red brake/tail lenses, so I bit the bullet and bought new Rares items.

Thank goodness... I saw the photos of the taillight lenses, and figured you had polished them up from old ones. I was feeling guilty about Grace's lenses - they came up OK, but not that good. The guilty part of me was going to polish them again .

Cheers,
Harv

Harv wrote:

thebrotherj wrote: Thu Mar 22, 2018 11:08 pm I couldn’t save the red brake/tail lenses, so I bit the bullet and bought new Rares items.

Thank goodness... I saw the photos of the taillight lenses, and figured you had polished them up from old ones. I was feeling guilty about Grace's lenses - they came up OK, but not that good. The guilty part of me was going to polish them again .

Cheers,
Harv

Hehe, I wish I think mine had been cleaned with thinners or something worse. Oh and a big crack through one of them also... no hope. My blue slip guy is pretty thingy about good lenses/lighting so I had his voice in my head also. I want this thing to sail through rego!

Saved the indicators front and rear with polish, so 4 out of 6 is good enough for me


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Halfway through my long-weekend at home and I’ve already tackled a bunch of stuff out back on the Ute.

Rear floor pan (beneath the wood) has now been cleaned, scrubbed, rust-converter-ed and top coated with underbody paint. Side panels in the cargo tray have been hammered straight and the backs of them primed & painted. Fish oil is soaking into all the nooks and crannies as I type. Rear wiring harness completely cleaned, returned to it’s original routing via the factory tabs, overhauled taillight assemblies refitted, an earth wire added to the no. plate light and the taillight globe holders repaired & wire brushed ready for another 57 years of service.



I also scored a cut-to-size plank of decent quality 12mm thick plywood to replace the splintered tongue-&-groove boards that occupied the tray before. A little massaging with a file and some sandpaper and it has slotted in perfectly. 12mm is just the right thickness too it seems, sits pretty flush.








One coat of oil based Cabot’s flooring vanish has gone down, a couple more to go I reckon. I’m not fussed about originality here, so I’m just using left over paint from a repair in the floor of my bedroom that I topcoated. Looks good so far.





I’m going to scrub the original metal cargo tray strips... then work out what to do with them. I’d like to clear coat them somehow, but not sure what would be tough enough... maybe I’ll end up using Hammertone metal galv style paint. We’ll see.

I have a tin of rubberised Ute-liner paint on the way too, which I’ll brush on. I couldn’t decide what to do colour wise, so I decided to stick with the existing dark blue.

Tomorrow I hope to drop the shocks, diff & springs out, diagnose & order parts needed, then hammer those inner wheel arches back into slightly better shape. Should be fun in the heat might just hit the beach instead




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You have had a busy weekend mate, all this PLUS a game of panel tetris in the back of a hatchback !!!!

Blacky wrote:You have had a busy weekend mate, all this PLUS a game of panel tetris in the back of a hatchback !!!!

Hehehe that was the fun bit!

Basically... I couldn’t be bothered moving out the Corolla (it’s a hybrid and I truly don’t know how to make it go forwards anyway), then taking the cover off the HK, lining the back of it with blankets so nothing got scratched... then fuelling it and pumping up the tyres... so I eyeballed the back of the Mirage.

Sure enough, both doors slotted in between the strut towers back-to-back with the bootlid on top.

Little thing’s a tardis I tell ya!


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Great stuff J good to see you knocking over the small things. I can't wait to be doing those things.

Neil

Blacky wrote:man those wheel arches have copped a pizzling over the years

I finally got around to reshaping my rear wheel arches to something vaguely resembling normal, using an hammer. Ear plugs were definitely used also.





I got a heap other work done around the tray, strips and the wooden floor pretty much ready to install now. Just gotta bolt in the new shocks, remove the spare wheel door lock for coding (I have no key for it!) and refit the fuel tank when it comes back from repair.

The rear is up on stands, so I’ll yank the rear axle out one night this week and commence the tidy up/overhaul of whatever needs attention back there.


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J the work your doing on the mechanicals you’ll be able to drive that Ute to the moon and back and you won’t even have to do the points


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Errol62 wrote:J the work your doing on the mechanicals you’ll be able to drive that Ute to the moon and back and you won’t even have to do the points


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This especially true: my spare dizzy is currently being converted to HEI by old mate down the coast! Move over Apollo 11.




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Better whack in some iridium plugs @nd forget about the ignition system altogether J. I wonder if you can get them for greys???


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Hey Joe,
You have been busy. That timber floor is looking good, similar to what I did in my ute. You did a good job on those wheel arches after I looked back at the earlier pics. Enjoy following your progress.

Regards
Stephen

In the Shed wrote:Hey Joe,
You have been busy. That timber floor is looking good, similar to what I did in my ute. You did a good job on those wheel arches after I looked back at the earlier pics. Enjoy following your progress.

Regards
Stephen

Thanks mate! I’ve slowed down considerably due to financial constraints, but I’ll keep chipping away.
I actually had a look back at your build before I hooked into the mine, noted that you used 15mm thick ply, but shaved down the edges to get it to sit flush... this lead me to go with a 12mm sheet (thanks for that)

I also liked your idea of using concealed rivnuts, and the trap door too... but I’m keeping mine simple for now: 6 original metal strips using these neat black countersunk screws that will go all the way through and secure the whole thing to the metal beneath.



Love the dark stain on your also, but again, keeping mine simple (read: pinching pennies) by using some left over flooring lacquer. Lighter wood will still look nice with black cargo strips and dark blue sides though, I reckon. I hope! Haha


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FireKraka wrote:Great stuff J good to see you knocking over the small things. I can't wait to be doing those things.

Neil

I can’t wait either! Very curious to see what you have in store for the not-so-mellow yellow beast


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Diff’s out tonight for repair of a chronic pinion seal leak.



Being as this is the first time I’ve stripped a diff from anything older than an HR, I was a little perplexed by the extra rubber seal and these two half moon metal spacers between the bearing & drum backing plate! Putting it back together will be interesting...



LH axle bearing feels to be cactus, I suppose I’ll replace both seeing as it’s all apart.



Pleased to discover the diff gears are in superb order, the tooth wear is sensational, I guess the gears were replaced not so long ago.



It’s a 3.89:1 ratio final drive (9 teeth on the pinion, 35 on the crownwheel) with Holden part no 7407396 T H on the crownwheel. Also has “MHX” or “XHW” depending on how you view it... stamped further around. Not sure if that means anything to anyone, but there you go!



In slightly more cosmetic news, a bladder of blue rubberised ute-liner paint arrived today and despite appearing very bright on initial inspection, a little test patch has dried a nice matte, dark colour that should look very similar to what’s already there.





Oh and look what I picked up from Bunnings on the way home from work tonight:



Thanks for the tip Harv! Scuff plates look great, very pleased indeed




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Scuff plates look cool.

Those axle bearings don't like coming off. The last set I got done at a diff shop in Smithfield... the force required startled the technician.

Cheers,
Harv