MRWEST

Things are progressing slowly in the background,

Have had my new PP'd housings and front cover over at Toby to get the maddog polish,
Shit they came up so good.

Plates are getting the casting marks smoothed on them currently and then painted ready for the engine to be assembled.

Iv been trying to work out how the jigsaw of the dash/heater/glovebox etc etc all goes back together from a box of a million screws and bolts and a whole lot of parts.
Taking its time but getting there. want to make sure anything missing or broken is acquired before final assembly.

Eventful few months for the Impala.

Gave her a bit of a once over before the wedding

Doctor Cuts in the Mount gave her a good spruce up full cut/polish and groom before our wedding. And damn it came up good. A bit of much needed love after 12,000 + km of abuse.

The grill i got from the states when i built the car was supposedly "triple chromed", looks more to have been "flash chromed" as had no copper coating underneath etc. It has flaked off over the years of driving.  Thought id fix that up. Had Toby from BOP Polishers strip and polish the factory grill off the car and it came up mint. Bit of a comparision bit hard to tell in the photo but a good improvement

Made it to the wedding in one piece then up to Beach Hop where we burned a shit load of gas and cruised all week.

Not without its issues. Day 1 had a wheel bearing shit the bed catastrophically . Thankfully Ben (red 61 cant remember his user on here) rolled past and seen it on stands and gave me a message, turns out he had a new wheel bearing in his boot so shot round and the legend ended up doing half the job for me as well, we were back cruising within an hour which was awesome!

Parked up watching the Thames cruise she was humming in the sun

She needs a bit of love over winter, got a list of things iv wanted to sort out and tidy up that i never get to so going to pull her to bits next few months and get a few things sorted on her.

So the 235 rear main seal sage continued for quite some time,

Old guy came round and reviewed my work and confirmed infact i had done the seal correctly but the rope was too "thick" even though it was from a 235 gasket kit. 
So i got another, and it was the same,
This old fella spoke with his mate who was a ex old school engine reconditioner now retired who told him they used to use teflon gland packing so give that a shot,

Found some appropriately sized at a local hardware store, 6.5mm2 from memory, wacked that in and the motor turned still so we were on to a winner.

Chucked it back in and it run and didn't have any leaks pretty much at all. Winnnnninnnngggg.

Until i came back out the next day and there was a puddle of coolant under the rear of the motor..........Quick internet search shows 2 frost plugs behind the bellhousing/clutch/flywheel.....Farrkkkk. Motor back out again.

A week before our wedding and 2 Weeks from beach hop, motor back out, got some plugs smashed it back together and away we went. Should of listened to the other old boy that told me to do them while the motor was out....doh.

Any way truck did the wedding and beach hop with a few hick ups. Alternator shat itself at Beach hop which explained a few things that had been going on for the week. But the mrs got to cruise it all week which was the main goal and she arrived at the wedding in it so all good. 

Just before beach hop i picked up a grill guard and some spot lights for the front so wacked them off to finish the look i was going for.

Remind me to never do a rope rear  main again, or infact have a car with a 6 banger shit box chev motor. God they are painful.
Makes me want to give the drivetrain and handling of this thing a big once over more than ever! All in good time though.

Few coupes from RE.

Got my new front end in for a test fit,

Then a mate bought round some 15" SSR Longchamps so gave them a test fit.

15x8's on the front, and 15x8 on the rear with a 20mm adaptor and stock width diff (my diffs 20mm narrower) so will be able to run a fair bit more dish

Pretty happy with how they look!

Have been using the old girl a fair bit,

The Mrs got me a epic pencil drawing done for my birthday of the car last year.

The brother took a mad shot of it a while back i just found again, one night.

Bent a axle a couple of beach hops back some how so ended up getting some dutchman axles out of the states that were a bit beefier than standard, nice bits of kit and reasonable price

Late last year had a bit of a hick up,
Was jumpstarting the truck out of the boot of the Impala on a hot summers day, 
All of a sudden there was a huuuggeeeee bank, a cloud of steam/smoke and the car stopped.
Run round to the open bonnet and found a big puddle of coolant, and a burst pipe,
Turns out the fans must of tripped out for some reason, the car got so hot idling that somehow the top hose blew before the radiator or cap let go.
Made a hell of a bang, and ended up on a tow truck home!
Chucked a new hose on with some coolant and we were away again somehow!!

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Progress has been a bit slow but things are happening slowly.

Have found a 4.8 ratio b1600 diff head to rob the parts to regear my 4.1 ratio B2000 which will be a heap better for the PP N/A motor.
Have all the brake parts now including bundy tube to make new lines up, a mates making brackets to mount the rear calipers to my diff.
 

Motor still being done, Toby BOP Polishers has my housings and front cover to polish and a mate has my plates to smooth and paint.

Have been keeping a eye out for a OG steering wheel, unicorn shit to find and $$$$$$ usually, managed to find one that was a semi reasonable price and in decent nick so grabbed that which im stoked about.

Well made it to Beach Hop....Just

Took it to Tauranga for a fundraising car show at Repco for a mate the weekend before,
Started making weird noises an running like shit which resulted in a afternoon of mucking round on the side of the road and ending up with a tow truck ride home.
Looked good before we left though!

Hers a vid of it making some noise with the siren hooked up, shes bloody loud.

Towed it over to Beach Hop and spent half of Beach Hop mucking round with it trying to get it to run right,

After much mucking round testing, fiddling, various old boys looking at it we did a comp test,
The highest cylinders were like 85psi with the lowest 2 at 35 psi & 40psi,
At that point we pulled the pin on working on it and decided the 216ci dipper had met the end of its life,
Got home and purchased a running 235ci Blueflame from a guy i had met at MCM last year,

He pulled it out to go LS and shipped it up complete with clutch assembly, alternator and manifolds etc.

He mentioned rear main leaked (as they do) and the rocker cover so decided to get a gasket kit and do the lot,
Gave it a dulux recon while it was apart to and fitted my split manifolds

Turns out rear mains that are 2 piece rope seals are a right prick to do, after putting it back together and not being able to turn the motor over its established i dont know what im doing haha, got a new seal arrived and waiting for someone to give me a hand so i can get it back in the car and cruising for whats left of summer.