Liam-B

Has anyone got a Marque they could bring along? It could either be sunny or raining depending on Victoria's weather in October Might have to invest in one otherwise to set up a sweet camp site.

I am not familiar with those after market chinese carbys but I reckon you would be better off using a genuine Mazda original carb, cleaning it then putting a kit through it to be honest. At least it will be jetted correctly and should run nicely.

Cool. Extra help before going will definitely help get the gasser doing skids at chopped

Yeah, will definitely have to go in convoy for when either Camel or myself overheats the engine half way there.

yeah, ticket includes camping. The on site facilities are pretty good, decent shower blocks etc. Its an old horse racing track venue but its in a really small county town. The trick is to get there super early on Friday to get a good camp spot.

I am really looking forward to going back again, this will be my third time. Although we will be much more prepared for this years event to get amongst the action good and proper! These short vids from last couple of years probably sum it up!

C10 Chevys are all the rage these days. Good score!

Yeah, do a quick comp test and put the original engine back in with the new bits maybe. Wont cost you anything but time. If its done 280ks its probably already had a head gasket replaced by now haha.

Thats awesome you found another body ready to go and all painted. Sweet deal! Progress is looking good man.

I would leave the patina paint as is and fix the rust, slam on some steelies and get it running in time for next summer! Would a vauxhall 3.3 six cylinder fit in there?

Nah, going to hold off on the cam. No need really, it already wants to do mean skids with the 195's on the back haha. Spending money on putting a power steer rack conversion in though. Hopefully will work it all out

Current mood : In other news, I have pulled the steering box out, its shot. It used to knock and always be really heavy after driving around for a bit. So thinking of putting a power steer rack in. Also ditched the column shift linkages and bought an ididit column shift cable conversion kit, that should free up a lot of room around the drivers side exhaust headers.

I got the heads off the ute today and had a look what I had on there. Stock standard 1968 302 2V 63cc heads, which would be around a 9.0:1 comp ratio. Wheezer heads indeed. So, I pulled the trigger on a set of Edelbrock 5023 E-street heads, the ones with the 1.9' inlet valves and 60cc combustion chambers. This will be way better than anything ford ever made and plenty fine for my set up, plus a nice weight saving as well. I also got some ARP head bolts and some Crane roller tip rockers as my existing stock ford ones had just started to wear through the hardening on the tips. Still need to work out push rods and gaskets but all this is on target for under my $2000 budget. The bottom end looks great though, its got 30 thou over pistons and the bores are in really great shape, like new. The cam and lifters currently in there are too good to think about replacing just now, so will leave a cam upgrade for another day.

VE front clip would look awesome, would make it so much more like a dart! You will need to shorten the VG front clip and or change the front support from memory. (VE guards bonnet etc are a bit different obviously) Maybe just get it going first them think about it haha

So, awhile back I noticed the engine was dripping a small amount of coolant from the engine onto the LH exhaust pipe. Did not think much of it at the time, seemed to be ok and not really use any extra coolant. Last weekend I was driving around and it dumped quite a bit when I parked it at a mates place on his driveway, so I thought I better have a closer look around the head bolt where it seemed to be coming from. I presumed it might be leaking past the head bolt itself somehow but had a proper look just now. I took the bolt out, no signs of coolant there but found that the head is porous and cracked! Dam. Looks like I might be buying a new set of cylinder heads then!?

Yeah, that sounds more like the fan set up than a radiator being blocked. Get it cleaned out for piece of mind though. Not sure if you could piece a shroud off another car radiator to suit the 1600 one? How much room do you have for a viscous fan & shroud setup?

PS, A mechanical fan and decent shroud will always flow way more CFM than a electric fan. I reckon your right to spend the money getting the radiator cleaned out first

When is it getting hot exactly? Around town cruising on out on the open road?

One more of the Honda Dax 70. Fits in the tray snuggly with my tool box haha. Might put a thread up in the 2 wheel project section eventually

Nice one! I did a Z18ET conversion on my mates 510 rally car back in the late 90's. It went quite hard with the few mods we did to it. Was running a Corolla AE101 radiator and matching electric fan from memory, no over heating issues at all.

Long time since last update! Basically been using the ute on the odd occasion over summer, occasionally as a work horse as seen here haha. Pretty happy with it overall. Turns lots of heads, sounds great and goes well enough. Still sorting little issues as I go along but hey, its a 51 year old car! Thought I would post up the scare bird brake conversion that I did recently https://scarebird.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=65 Its a kit from the states that lets you keep the existing stub axles. The guy supply's the part numbers for everything needed to complete the kit, so I bought a lot of the stuff from Rock Auto in the USA real cheap. Brake rotors I got here. All you get in the basic kit is the bracket and 5 stud stub axles. (He does 4 stud if you prefer.) Lots of kits available for all kinds of old cars. Anyway, picture time :

Must watch! :

Must watch :

I second this. Great looking truck but please don't fit a Japanese V8 motor! (I have nothing against them, they just dont belong in American cars sorry haha)

Yeah, I dont recall ever seeing any early Falcon utes. Or maybe I just did not notice them as I was into other cars at the time?! Most people fit Camira racks on custom chassis rail bolt in brackets. They fit pretty nicely into early Fords. Cheers, yeah pretty happy with the motor, its doesn't even leak any oil and looks really nice in there. I am running a flex fan now though, ditched the electric fans. Much happier, looks more period plus its quieter now and the temp sits on 90 all day. Need to do the exhaust soon and make it loud. Will post some updates.