11 replies to this topic

[nzvohc]

Discussion here: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=33612

So this is my other project, because one is just not enough....

The plan is to turn this...


into something like this...




with the help of this...



and lots of other bits!


Story so far is this, bought the car as an unfinished project and without motor and box. Have installed a stock 2.3 OHC and Toyota W50 to get it mobile, which should be this month all going well. Have had to re-install everything in the engine bay and front half of interior, along with having new driveshaft adapted, and various other little tedious jobs to get it road worthy.
Plan is to get it mobile with this drivetrain, fit new nosecone I got out of the UK, then get it all certed, painted etc. Will then build a fresh 2.3 engine, with big valve head, twin 45's, etc etc, and swap it out and paint engine bay at same time.

This is how it looks at the moment, just finished interior this past weekend, although the front seats in the pics are destined for my Viva GT, have some others in the works for this car.







Last major jobs to are to lower it a little on new springs and shocks, have new 2" exhaust system installed, and get brake lines connected and bled.

That's the short version, more to come!

[Eddie Killbane]

Did you think about a make a replica for a Baby Bertha ?

[nzvohc]

That's a serious beast right?

[nzvohc]

Quick pic update.

Have had the car at Autofocus bodyshop here in Nelson for the past week to fit the nosecone and I am wrapped with the job done and the transformation made, looks awesome! Had been a bit nervous about doing this conversion but now it's done I am happy with decision.

I will take care of the filling and fairing from here, but first job is to strip all the paint off to get back to bare steel. There is some bubbling of the paint from poor prep-work at last paint job, so all needs to be taken back and sealed properly before applying filler and primer etc. This will be my job for next few months, along with some fibreglass repairs to nose from previous damage, but nothing major.

Will be ordering new repro light buckets from the UK though as one of them is too far gone to repair.

No going back now!

[nzvohc]

So been waiting for weather to get a bit dryer to start stripping paint so not much progress lately on the body. Finally got sick of not doing anything this weekend and had a bit of a sort through my spares I have picked up over last few years to get go-fast parts for replacement engine together.
I have a few spare heads, a couple have been modded with big valves, one is ex-'friendlyfire's with bent valves (see his post) and another in better shape and more severe flow work. This is the one I will be using. I dug out a wire brush head and drill and went to work cleaning carbon off and degreasing.

Standard head on left, BVH on right.


Looking inside inlet port of standard head


and flowed head

big chunk of meat around valve stem completely ground away.

half way done..

old school porn..



Next job was to install a Stage 1 cam into it's housing after a good degrease etc.

and adjustable cam pulley


Also stoked when going through my flywheels noticing one felt lighter, so put it on the bathroom scales and found out that it is 2.1kg lighter than standard one. Should help the revs pick up a bit faster! Nice.


Next I dug out the shiney bits I had put together a while back, 45 Webers and manifold.




Was a good weekend getting dirt under the fingernails again and making old stuff new. I have a lightened and balanced shortblock waiting in the wings that I will post pics of when I start on it, and then hope to enlist yoeddynz's expertise when he gets back from lounging around in Europe and start putting this lot together.

Roll on daylight savings and bodywork.

[nzvohc]

Well decided it was time to pull finger and make some progress so work has begun again on stripping the car for re-paint.
I masked all the openings and body seams to keep the paintstripper out of the shuts as I don't intend to strip those areas right back to metal.
Tomorrow I will start sanding back the edges with an orbital sander. Will focus on one panel at a time sanding off remnants of paint and filler then sealing up immediately after with expoxy sealer. Once the whole car is sealed up again I will start the fairing process.
Goal being to have it ready to spray over my Xmas break, going be busy!

[nzvohc]

Quick pic update.
Top panels and rear guard sanded clean and coated in 2 pot epoxy sealer. Working on having one panel done per day to get them sealed up asap.


.

[nzvohc]

So it's been a while since my last post, been many long hours of filling and fairing which is not terribly exciting to post pics of, but have finally got the car to the stage where I have now taken it to the paintshop for final prep. The nosecone took alot of fettling, taking it on and off to get the fit just right but pretty happy with final gapping now.
Most recent job was to fit the new light buckets purchased from the UK, they are made oversize for trimming to suit. Have also had to epoxy the headlight mounting brackets to them. Tomorrow's plan is to glue the buckets to the nosecone and then coat the whole thing in expoxy sealer to stabilise the glass, same principal as gelcoat.
Hope to start having colour applied to door openings, boot area and under bonnet early next week, and all going well paint the remainder of the car at the end of next week.






Getting jazzed about seeing it finished now...

[nzvohc]

Just had the morning on the car today, glued in the light buckets to the nosecone so it's a complete assembly now.
Sat the glass lenses in to check fitment, all good and very Daytona-ish!
Probably go in tomorrow for a few hours and spray inside and outside of the nosecone with the black expoxy sealer.

[nzvohc]

Quick pic update, progress has been slower than predicted but the old girl finally made it into the booth yesterday for a coat of "Spritzfiller". This is basically spray bog, gives a nice thick all-over coating which is easy to sand (half ends up on the floor) and smooths out all the lines.
After I have finished sanding this back it will be back in the hands of the painter for first primer coat.
I will likely remove the bonnet and bootlid this week so the undersides can be prepped, and door openings will be done at the same time.

Fun fun!




Also mocked up the template for the rear decal. Will be stencil cut and sprayed on.

[nzvohc]

So 3 mths since my last post, slack bastard, but to be fair I have been out of the country for 1 month of that, and I have a note from my mother, so...

bit of a photo dump to show progress, main news..IT'S PAINTED!!
Now finally the fun part begins of putting it back together, which I have started doing over the last week or so.

Booth pics




I had the rims spun to clean up the lips..

and the painted them...

and with the shiney bits on...


The painter was a good bugger and dropped the car back at the house for me while I was away, so good to open the garage door to this!


I took a few shots to try and show off the finish but a bit tricky in confined space, will get some better shots outside soon.






No shots with the nosecone on yet as the painter is yet to finish that, I think he must like having it around...

Today the rims finally went back on with new Hankook 205/60/13's. Love these wheels and make such a difference to the overall look of the car.



Today I installed the new door seals. There are no new ones being made for the Firenza's, but after a quick measure up of my HB GT it was obvious that the seals on that would work ok on the Firenza, which are being remade thanks to the Aussie HB Torana's having spares coming online. The top part of the door frame is perfect fit, but the pins for the bottom half didn't line up at all except for maybe 2 or 3. It's an easy task though to move these by adding holes in the rubber in the right spot to suit the door. I used a soldering iron to burn a nice clean hole, much less chance of the hole tearing when inserting the pins this way over trying to cut a hole.
Anyway, that job's done, the doors are tight on the opening but will get better as they wear in.


Also re-painted the metal top of the dash today in preperation for re-installing the front windscreen this weekend. Much easier to do now!


Bought a can of black body deadner/underseal and painted out the wheel wells today as well, thought one can would do all four corners but I wanted it nice and thick and basically used a whole can on just the rear, so another can needed tomorrow.
I dropped off all the chrome and stainless trim to the powdercoaters the other day and hoping they will be ready to pick up tomorrow afternoon so I can start putting those back on this week too.

I have a major dose of enthusiasm again now after a long haul of seemingly endless bodywork and hoping to get the majority of the assembly completed within a couple of weeks, then onto getting her road legal! then a new motor...then new suspension...then new brakes....then new...you know the rest of the story.

Happy chappy.

[nzvohc]

Hey all, enough done lately for an update..

 

Got my bits back from the powder coaters and have been putting those back on the car. First up was the tail lights.

I gave the lenses a clean up with 2000g wet and dry paper first, then a good rub with a mild cut and polish. Then re-attached the black trims.

 

and back on the car

 

Next was rear wheel arch and sill trims.

 

Then the door handles. Had to shave a bit of the coating off in places as things got a bit too tight with the build up of paint for the the button to work properly. Ended up working well though.

 

About the same time the nosecone came back from the painter. Was a big day seeing this on for the first time and all the same colour. Real happy with how it's looking now.

 

Have also been putting the doors back together. The top part of the door had to be re-upholstered with black vinyl, so took care of that first. Used 3mm foam underneath to pad it out a bit. Came out alright.

 

Then had the fun task of re-installing the glass and winder etc. You know you had fun because there's smears of your blood on the paintwork..

So finished off with all the outside window trims and seals, and finally the wing mirrors.

 

The passengers door is taking a bit more time becaue I had to deal with this first...

 

doesn't make for good uppy-downy windows. I picked up a spare recently so took to swapping out old stuff with not so old stuff.

 

new versus old. Will urethane the good one back onto the window and be good as new.

 

Next job I think will be to fit the nosecone permanently and fit the headlights etc. Happy with progress so far and couldn't resist a quick pic of the two beasts beside each other as I was enjoying a drink. Not long to go now...

 

 

 

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