Gozza

Next up the front end got pulled down, stripped, acid washed and repainted. Really sick and tired of bending over shitty old car parts on the driveway while flicking stripper and acid all over the place but I keep telling myself that each bit I do is one I won't have to do again... Front end out Cleaned of years of crud and rust Nice new paint, been using Industrial 440 etch primer and Acrythane 805 for a topcoat. I don't know what I'm doing and I'm spraying out in the woodshed if it's raining or on the washing line if it's sunny and been getting quite reasonable results so must be good stuff. Going back together now with new nuts and bolts, new balljoints and tie rods etc... Just waiting on the next load of bits from Witors so I can finish this lot up.

Then it was a quick flush of sludge and shit from inside the gearbox, replace the leaky input and output seals, new thrust bearing... Pretty mint looking Next to no wear on the selector forks

Yep, nothing to do at all except fit the Tridat UJ's. They weren't super cheap, about 100 AUD each but saved a shit load of fucking around.

So here I ran into my first problem. Once I had the subframe bolted back up to the car it was obvious that while the right hand wheel and tyre had plenty of clearance up past the wheel arch and into the guard there was no way that the left hand side was going to fit. After a bit of head scratching and fiddling around I realised that if I could move the diff mount over just a couple of mm then everything would fit sweet as. So I had some aluminium offset bushes made up and the polly bushes bored out to accept them. And now everything fits...

Replaced the diff input seal, quill shaft seal and bearing, pulled the cover off and cleaned out all the old sludge and shit. Everything looked good inside and as there were no other problems prior just slapped on a bit of paint and put it all back together again. Picked up a pair of wider Mk2 trailing arms so that the 180B shafts will fit, cleaned them up and fitted some new poly bushes then started putting everything back together. Ready to stick back in...

Stripped the skanky old rear brakes and repainted the backing plates, skimmed the drums, freed up the adjusters, honed out and fitted new pistons and seals to the wheel cylinders and chucked on a new set of shoes. They'll basically be new...and hopefully work.

I've always spelt that wrong.

Scored a pair of 180B half shafts to replace the worn out triumph splined shafts that always lock up during cornering. I'd been looking out for these for ages and finally found a pair. They are very slightly different to each other but not in the critical dimensions so will be fine for me. Amazing what a bit of careful acid washing, new paint and a UJ,s do... Got some special UJ's from Greg Tunstall Mechanicaln Aussie, they are a cross between Triumph and Datsun parts and allow you to fit up the metric shafts with the imperial hubs with no modifications. This way the car could be put back to original if someone wanted to...

So, a couple of months ago I got fed up with the slipping clutch and multiple oil leaks and various other 47 year old problems so I jacked it up in the garage and made a list. Turned out to be a big list... Diff input seal, quill shaft bearing and seal, subframe arms needed repair to flogged out bolt holes, overhaul rear brake cylinders and adjusters, skim the drums and new shoes, swap to Mk2 trailing arms and Datsun 180b half shafts, lower the back a little, new rear shocks, new polyurethane mounts and bushes and to be anal - repaint all the individual bits and chuck new nuts and bolts back in. Gearbox input and output seal, thrust bearing, clutch and pressure plate. New front shocks, new gaiters, springs, wheel bearings, front brake rotors and pads, new polyurethane bushes, balljoints and tie rods and steering rack boots..... Dropped big bits onto the floor... Stripped the subframe down.. Some new parts arrived from Witors

Cheers all, I've just figured out how to post shit up here so am in the process of catching up to the current state of the nation. "Slots" what are they?

Back at the start of the year I chucked a set of minilites on on it just to be original. Got quite a bit of shit from some people for my lack of taste, lack of originality, and lack of giving a fuck, but didn't care cause it was what I wanted.... I reckon it looks ok so whatever. Even tried a couple of bricks in the boot to see what it looked like a little lower...

Spent the next (previous) few years just enjoying the old girl... Running errands Stopping petrol leaks And seeing double...

Spent the next few days trying to remember where all the bits went. I'd bought a few bits such as all the little plastic trim clips and gaskets for the tail lights etc off chriswitor.co.uk and even got some new hubcaps with the little emblems off ebay Made the reassembly much easier having all the right bits available. Ended up looking pretty smart

Got a call a month or so later to come and pick it up. I was pretty stoked with the effort he put in and the quality of work vs price I paid. Ray, and his son Dean really did a nice job and I would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone... Even loaned me their trailer to get it home... GC's

Ended up needing to get a new nosecone as the damage was evidently too hard to repair. Went up and saw the dude near Katikati on one of my trips north and cut one off an old wreck. My mate Dallas cut the section out that he needed and welded it in. He also went round the whole car and chopped out a couple of other little dodgy spots and put some new metal in. After pulling all the other crap off the exterior I took it round to Mr Gibbons and said no hurry...

The project //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/50398-gozzas-68-mk1-trumpet/

Not sure if anyone will be interested but on the off chance... I've had this car for about 15 years now, bought it off the original owner for $500 with the intention of flicking it on to some backpacker but ended up kinda liking it and not wanting to part with it. I used it on and off for the entire time I've owned it but with some pretty big gaps between drives sometimes. The longest it went without the battery in it was nearly two years and it always fired up pretty quickly when I got it out but the long periods of inactivity were starting to take their toll. Oil leaks, surface rust, general deterioration etc, were all starting to ruin the old girl. Then I pranged it into the back of someone on the motorway... Initially all I was going to do was repair the damage and touch up the nose cone and bonnet but one thing led to another and I ended up pulling all the chrome, windows, bumpers etc and getting the whole thing re sprayed... Feel free to take the piss at anytime. //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/50400-gozzas-68-mk1-trumpet/?p=1598936