Benno

A guy on facebook was giving away some motors and parts, after finishing his project. Drove over to Greymouth to collect them. Now got 4 parts motors, so should hopefully have enough good bits when it comes to building a motor for it.

Finished stripping the engine bay, removed suspension and cross member. I have made a start removing the underseal from the guards, only been finding some light surface rust so far. Will continue removing the undereseal and make a start bare metalling the engine bay next.

Been making some slow progress on this. Go the guards and front valance off and engine bay nearly stripped now. Just got to take the steering box and column out now. No nasty surprises so far which is nice.

In more exciting news, I've got my hands on some triple carbs for it. Not sure what the condition of the SU's is like, but externally they look all good. 

Starting to chip away at the paint on this. Bare metalled both sides of the bonnet, treated with some phosphoric acid then painted with epoxy primer. Didn't take any photos once I'd finished bare metalling, below is after the paint stripper starting on the bits close to seams and cavities.

Got the first side done, will flip it over once the paint has dried and do the other side. Few wee runs, but generally happy enough with how it has come out.

Got the dash all finished off, pretty happy with how it looks now. Got a colour matched rattle can and a can of matte clear. Looks fairly close to the original. 

Found someone on facebook who had adapted a factory manifold to suit a weber 32/36 carb, similar to a geddes speed one.

I think I'll give it a crack, I've got a couple of spare manifolds so doesn't really matter if I screw one up. Plan is to cut off the raised mount, make a new carb flange out of 10-12mm Al plate, get that welded on then have a go at matching with a die grinder. 

Stil haven't got much major progress on this, ticking away on the little things.

I've been slowly working on cleaning and polishing the trims by hand with some autosol, most of them are coming up nicely.

The original dash had been hacked up to take a head unit. The car came with a replacement, but it had some rust. Cleaned that up, painted with some Brunox and got a colour match can and some matte clear. Also made a new tray, will cover with some vinyl.

Came with a set of extractors that had a couple of rust holes. Welded up the holes, cleaned off the surface rust and painted with some hi-temp paint. Doubt it will last long, but will hopefully keep the surface rust at bay until I get the car up and running.

Just been doing little things on this. So far I've rebuild the starter motor, windscreen wiper motor and a carb with the best bits from several.

Found a wee bit of rust on the guard, fixed that. 

Fixed the transmission tunnel, someone had cut it out for a floor shifter with what seemed to be an axe

Found myself a new project.

Car was last on the road in 1993, then the registration went dead but the rego is still in the system. Previous owner bought the car around '98 with plans of putting a 302 into it. A few years later he took the car to a panelbeater to get some rust fixed and bodywork done. The bill came back a lot more then expected so the car got mothballed to a hay shed. A mk4 zodiac came up a few years later that had already had a certified V8 conversion so he snapped that up and the mk3 stayed in the shed. 

The car only had minor rust (guards, doors, boot etc) to begin with, there was no damage to the chassis or sills. A bit of minor rust has come back since then, but a sweet barn find.

The car was in Methven and had a heap of spares with it. It was pretty heavy towing back.

It came with the engine pulled apart and a heap of heads, manifolds and bits. The guy that sold it to me knows someone with a mk2 motor that ran when pulled out, so I will snap that up.

Long term plans for it once revinned will be some slam, wide steels and eventually an engine swap to a V8 or a barra.

Am I best to get a repair certifier to come and look at it so I can get the rust signed off before I strip it back and paint? I'm thinking that might be easier while everything is pulled apart rather than taking through revin in primer, then pulling everything back apart to paint. Any ideas on how hard this would be and cost?

Discuss here: 

Been pretty useless updating this. Scrapped the front lip, decided it didn't really suit the car. 

Since my last update, I've done a few things. I've fitted a set of DHLA 40 sidedrafts and a new rocker cover. The sound of the side drafts is amazing and throttle response is much better.

Got a new rocker cover. Purchased from jrcast.com, took a couple of months to arrive but worth the wait. Stoked with the quality and finish.

I 3D printed a FORD badge to attach to my oval style front grille. Really happy with the result, can only tell it's not real when looking clsoely at it.

Got a new project coming soon, will put a thread up when I get the car.