

FirstMate
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Posts posted by FirstMate
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Nice Val. You mentioned a fair while back you’d driven around Newlands - you still up this way? Interested in the floor pan replacement - will have to sort my AP5’s at some point.
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@Type49 did you have any luck with this? Been meaning to head out there and could potential next weekend?
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@deankdx - nice. Not sure if it could be acquired, but happy to sort you out if so as would save the old man some hunting down the track….
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Bit slow on this but will work through some more updates.
Small mishap getting it off the truck - the rear brake drum was seized and it took a good 30m to get loose. Once free the truck was realigned with the driveway, and an oversight on chock placement saw the now free-rolling ute collect the truck deck handrail:
After a couple of beers and an afternoon tinkering, this earlier setback was forgotten when we got it running. Ran sweet for something that had sat for so long - was a happy runner after the first fire, with no smoke etc.
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@deankdx plan is to get it back on the road, although is going to be a fair bit of work. Have a couple more posts to follow, but had both a seized brake and a rusted fuel tank - the latter tempered the excitement of getting it running yesterday arvo.
@igor nice spot - has had a fairlane bonnet and grill fitted. Old man is pretty keen on this and will retain.
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Came back a couple of days later for pickup. Thought mate was bringing his car trailer but he arrived with a recovery truck from work. Was handy - found brakes were seized on a rear wheel. Winch made short work of it, and was out in daylight after 15+ years.
Was a nice moment following it home too - one of the previous owners’ mates was waiting at an intersection as it went past. We saw him do a double take and point it out to his dog in the passengers seat….
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Hi all,
This will be an intermittent/limited series as it’s not mine, but had a wee Christmas treat that was worth sharing. Travelled home for the break and the old man let slip he’d been offered a 1973 XA Falcon ute. A well-known daily driver in town with the previous owner, it’d been parked in a barn by his son in the mid 2000s, with the rego on hold. Old man has a matching set of an XR8 and XR6 ELs - he and current owner got talking and he offered it up. A day or two after arriving in town we went for a look to plan pickup:
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Discussion thread:
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Hi all - is time to post re my recently-arrived AP5 before it's spotted in the wild:
Had quit and offloaded a 10-year-plus Mini rebuild project earlier in the year (there's an old build thread here somewhere, and seriously - cannot recommend enough the cathartic release of seeing a project you've grown to hate being loaded onto a trailer and taken away). Had been looking for a road-legal mid-60's saloon that I could enjoy and tinker with like a Mark 2 Cortina or a Mark 3 Zephyr, and nearly snagging a decent Cortina in late March. Had a yarn with an uncle re what I was after at a family event at Easter, and a week later he rang to say he'd serendipitously come across a yellow AP5 for sale by a small-town mechanic owner while picking up an engine. After googling what an AP5 was (and having the old man's eyes light up at the mention of an AP5 Valiant), a week or two later it was mine.
It needed a bit of work to get back on the road (last on road in 2019; the WOF-issuing mechanic seller said from the outset he'd fail it on rusty sills). I'll post a couple of threads on the work done between purchase and its arrival last week, but it's here (Wellington), and road-legal. It's pretty solid, including a recently-reconditioned motor - the plan is to enjoy it and gradually improve it over time while keeping ahead of WOF inspections (while not major or obvious there's a couple of bits of rust that need to be addressed).
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Mr.mk1's Mopar or No Car '70 Dodge Coronet
in Project Discussion
Posted
Did the booked repair cert inspection happen? How’d it go?