igor

It may well look hideous but it could be a lot of fun to build and play with.

The first sentence in the original post immediately made me think he should try Viagra.

Thanks for your thoughts guys. Will pass them on.

The other day a friend asked me what I thought his Commodore was worth so I'm asking on here cos I'm sure lots of you will have opinions. It's an '84 sedan with the blue 3.3 litre six and a manual box. One owner, matching numbers, very tidy, everything still works sweet. High ks though, around 400,000. Has had a towbar all its life and it's been used quite a bit. Has always been garaged and serviced regularly. Now that the children have grown up and my friend has a work vehicle to use he doesn't need a big car and is not sure whether to sell it or keep it in dry storage until there are less good ones left and the value appreciates. Your thoughts please.

ta63-1uzze, I take your point about the dodginess of tractor grip tyres for normal road use and there are a number of reasons why I would not make them my first choice including vibration and the excessive noise they make on chipseal. I did actually have some near new road tyres on this car but I put them on my wife's Laser to get it a warrant. Bonus, the rims fitted. I've got a spare radiator from another EN Civic but unfortunately it's a manual one so it doesn't have the trans cooler for the Hondamatic.

In this area when the snow comes it is not unknown to see farm utes fitted with tractor grip tyres in the main street. People around here mostly use their intelligence and drive to the conditions though so it doesn't become a real issue.

Taistorm, Cletus, good to know about the chemiweld. I suspect this car is also in the process of eating the head gasket so I will keep that in mind.

See fabrication foibles thread for pics of the bonnet repair and the tyres.

If a cop caught me driving that thing into town he'd need a second ticket book. It goes and stops and the lights all work but it's rusted to fuck and has tractor tyres on the front so it looks more than a bit dodgy.

Might try that if I can't solder it up Mof. Thanks for the tip.

Should do what Speeno says and solder the leak. Could probably do it still in the car if it's where I think it is. Thanks for all the suggestions guys.

The demister doesn't work anyway since my wife got a rock through the windscreen back when it still had a warrant and some stupid cunt who thought he was helping knocked all the glass out for her. I'm still finding bits of glass ten years or more later. But yeah, a heater core does make an effective auxiliary radiator sometimes.

Might be on the same wavelength there Dolan. I think my Civic has less rust than Zebra Dude's Landau but only cos it's a smaller car. It'll probably fall apart sooner rather than later. That's why I don't want to spend shitloads of money on it.

Yeah to reducing the pressure K-trips. Been doing that for quite a while now. I checked the water level in the rad on Saturday and absent mindedly put the cap back on all the way instead of just enough to stay on. I think that's why it developed the leak.

An AA roadside rescue serviceman once used an unknown stopleak product in my XC Falcon to "cure" a leaking frost plug cos it was the difficult to replace one behind the exhaust manifold and it ran like that for some years with no problems.

Mof, the leak appears to be in the core and given the age of the car I think it is most likely to be copper.

Took my Civic for a hurtle up our mates farm on the weekend to gather firewood and found that it has developed a radiator leak. Don't want to spend money replacing the rad cos the whole car is getting pretty suss. Can anyone recommend a stopleak product for a cheap survival job please? The Warehouse has a Wynns product for $15. Has anyone used this and is it any good?

I thought Isuzu too. That description of the front supports my belief.

2 litre is too little. It'd have to rev it's nuts off to get power.

Falcon 4.1 iron head crossflow.

Nah Grandma had her first driving lesson in a '23 Studebaker Big 6. Was 5.8 litres of side valve dinosaurus torque machine. Dad reckoned it would pull smoothly from 5 mph in top gear.

Can you get away with cutting the factory battery box out of a fucked Mini, or making a reasonable facsimile thereof, and welding it into the boot floor? It has been a workable system in the Mini since 1959 after all.

We had one as a lease vehicle at work. 2.5 turbo diesel Courier. Was mostly used for travelling to and from job sites and sometimes as a commuting vehicle for one of the senior engineers. Never really worked hard but it still shat fifth gear at quite low ks. Was also a bit interesting if the turbo came in part way through a corner in wet conditions. One of the guys gave himself a fright like this a couple of times.

That the iron head 4.1 Steelies? Best Falcon six ever.

In-laws bus had 24v starting circuit and everything else was 12v. Had two huge arse batteries with a series parallel switch to give 24v for the starter motor and 12v for other stuff. Not sure how it all worked though.

Have you replaced the condenser? Maybe along with the points as a matter of course but it was not on your list in the initial post.

This was a thing in the 1920's. Saw a photograph once of a '23? Studebaker with a cook box fitted if not as a factory option then as a period correct accessory. Owner was quoted as saying it was good for roast chicken and similarly sized things.

Looks like it should have eyelashes and lipstick.

How much development potential does an 18R have? My dad had an 18R powered '76 Corona that was good for 180 straight out of the box. I didn't tell him that until after he sold it of course.