Neils Frankenstein Ute

[FireKraka]

Started trial fitting my 3/4 chassis that I pick up off of Ebay 1/2 price a while ago.

I'm also using it to get the cross member sections in the right place.
I might be going about it arse about but I'm doing what I can while I get the cash together to blast the body.



Regards
Neil H

[Blacky]

Let me know when you want it blasted mate , I will talk to Tom

[FireKraka]

Thanks Blacky Robyn and I are going to the states at the end of June for 3 weeks so I will have to wait to build the car build bank account back up after that but I will definetly give you a buzz.
Regards
Neil H

[FireKraka]

Just received a V6 engine I bought off of ebay that is going to find its way into the ute

The engine has .020"overbore, balanced, balance shaft removed, .050"off the decks, crow cams shortened push rods, ARP conrod bolts, lots of head work and Tighe cam I couldn't have bought the parts for what I paid for the whole engine even with the freight charge, the bores still have honing marks.

Dyno sheet has it producing 227Hp at 282ft-lb of torque which is almost the same as the 5.0 Lt V8 at the time which supposedly had 224hp and 284ft-lb



Just pulled the heads off to check bores and will have a look at bottom end before reassembly also needs a new water pump etc. and some gaskets and rear main before being ready.



Regards
Neil H

[Blacky]

nice pickup see ya Sunday

[WesternWagon]

Lookin good

[FireKraka]

I have stated looking at the healthy V6 I purchased it is a series one block running VR cylinder heads, it was a manual and I want to run an auto so I have found out that in the series one engine the crankshafts were different between manual and auto and that you can adapt an auto to run a flywheel but not the other way around.

So I am going to have to change the crankshaft to run an auto; after trawling Gumtree I picked up a second hand auto crankshaft and the auto flex-plate for $50 (flex-plate on evilbay is $99), the crank wasn't in the best of shape with a far bit of rust on the journals but it was standard and I would be able to grind it if it needed.

I put it in our lathe and using our 30 and 15 micron crankshaft polishing tape have cleaned it up; it looks like it has come up ok so I'm going to put it in standard without a grind.

This photo is just as I started linishing


This is after a going over with the 15 micron tape.


I think Frankenstein is gathering used body parts from far and wide.

Regards
Neil H

[NoMAD]

its come up a beauty mate...

Cheers
Nathan

[60Special]

It's looking good Neil.
Not much on at work this week?

[FireKraka]

Your right Trevor not much on at the moment just a couple of small shipping jobs and a turbo to rebuild.

I have ordered new standard bearings for the mains and bigends because the manual crank was ground .010", new water pump and front and rear main seals so hope fully get it back together soon.

Regards
Neil H

[FireKraka]

Got a bit more done on the hot V6

Removed the old crankshaft and I'm glad I did the bearings were ok but not great and whoever did up the mains had over tightened and started to round the heads, I had to very carefully cut 3 heads off.


The old bigend and main bearings


Auto crank with new bearings in and tensioned up

[WesternWagon]

Nice work

[FireKraka]

I have been modifying the radiator support and sub-chassis to take the standard commodore radiator and ended up notching the sub-chassis to get the radiator to sit down low enough.

Widened the radiator space and then welded (attempted to weld I should say) the inner side pieces back in to strengthen the gap and hide the radiator tanks.
Radiator in place with chassis notched so it sits down below the support

Chassis notched drivers side

notched passenger side to allow bottom radiator hose on

Both sides plated but not welded out yet (my welding has still not improved)
Tiny pics wont let me add the last 2 photos so will post them later.
Regards
Neil H

[FireKraka]

The plated sides just have to put my bird shit welds to finish ha ha

[FireKraka]

Finally stopped procrastinating and took Frank to the blasters, thanks to Blacky the guy I took it to really knew his stuff and did a great job.
I finally know now where all of the areas are and I need to start doing something about it.
I was going to put up some more photos but Tiny Pics keep playing up.






Regards
Neil H