sheepers

I pulled the rusty piece off to see what fun times lay beneath . Not toooo bad but there's a bit of work to do. I welded the first two pieces together then set about making the channel that the seal glues into. I've made pieces of this channel before but never this long and deff never in one piece. This is one thousand percent the most difficult piece I've ever made. It's a channel but more of a retarded V shape than a U shape and is curved in both directions and the curves tighten at the ends. It fits Perfectly. Fuck I'm so happy to get this right. I'm going to have a celobrateobeer and bask in the glory until tomorrow when I fuck it up.

Started Bending metal. It takes a while when you haven't been doing it for a while to get back into it but I'm starting to get the hang of it. Still a million hours to go yet but this is a good start.

I found the rust. She's pretty bad but nothing that can't be fixed. I'm just stoked i got the rear window out without breaking it.

thats true, if you like looking at your vehicle while its stationary. like, stationary on the side of the road waiting for the tow truck.

hows the fucking state of it. last weekend i noticed that the radiator might be about to begin its journey towards leaking. so i ordered a new radiator from silverdale radiators (pretty good unit tbh, well packaged and delivered rural in two days - not bad.jpg) and a new overflow bottle (30 bux, why not) and some new hoses and tonight i threw open the bonnet to change it all out. fucking get a load of the radiator already shitting itself and puking everywhere. classic. so anyway, new radiator, new radiator hoses, new trans cooler lines, new clamps on all the hoses and new overflow bottle. while i was in there i put the new AC compressor i had for it in, the old one (which is only two years old but didnt get a lot of use tbh, why turn on AC when you can roll the back window down and cruze in the greatest cool breeze and also style) had fucking shit the bed so i rock autoed another one. all done. didnt have enough antifreeze to fill it properly so itll get filled and leak checked tomorrow.

All fixed. The new clappers came with some sort of silver coating that looked a bit shit so I painted them then stuck them on. a day's fucking around with old calipers negated in about 10 minutes. Great.

Bit of maintenance that has snowballed a bit. Went to put new seals in the front calipers, pistons are a bit fucked so now I'm buying new front brake calipers. Also had to make a new brake hard line. and the radiator is showing signs that it may be about to leak so it's getting a new radiator too. In other news, these parallel jaw pliers are the absolute undefeated champion of getting flare nuts undone. Fuck your snapon flare nut spanner, these bastards NEVER fail.

@anglia4 cheers for the offer, you cant see it in the picture but the cable has this complex square plate with a spring and a sliding bit in it on the end. honestly im 99% sure i have a spare one somewhere, i cant locate it just right this minute but the bastard thing will turn up. cheers again man.

Rear brakes all reco'ed. Honestly didn't need much, AGAIN everything looks like it's near new. The pipes came out without drama, the shoes look great, the drums are perfect. All the wheel cylinders needed was a clean, a quick hone and put back together. The seals looked new. Only thing is the auto adjuster cable on the drivers side was missing and i can't find a spare. I probably do have a spare one i just can't find it right now.....

New springs installed as well as all new wheel bearings and seals. Having a bit of an issue getting caliper seals and front brake hoses but I'm working on that.

i just took the tyre mount off. there is a latch on the tailgate but someone helpfully removed the warning light before i got the truck so all i had to do was remove the mounting. it didn't affect anything else. i now have a spare tyre mounted underneath, its smaller diameter than the tyres it runs normally but if i need to fit the spare it wont be for very long so it wont matter. tyres wheels are 265 75 16 on what i think is a 16 x 8 rim.

Mostly finished with new bushes etc. The balljoints, tie rods, panhard bar and track rod bushes were like new so I didn't change them. Honestly this car is confusing, if carjam is to be believed the things done nearly 300 thousand Ks (like a 4M could achieve that...) but honestly every wear part is like new. There's not a single hammer bruse on any of the balljoint tapers, every cotter pin looks factory, everything looks like it's only done fuck all Ks. Even the brake pedal rubber looks new. The front brake rotors have the tiniest lip on them. Something don't add up. Anywho I'll take it because everything is in fucking good nick for 50 years old.

you can use negative hydrostatic pressure to push oil into the pump. just fill the sump over full then lower the engine into the sea at your local marina. then walk away.

Fuck I've seen this movie before. Always good to see the original brake caliper setting shims still attached. New bushes all round although I'm questioning why, the old bushes are fucking perfect. Why the fuck am i changing them, there's nothing wrong with them..... Fuck whatever.

I installed a new fuel pump and some filters, which concludes the fuel system mechanics, just need to finish the power feed but that will come with relay and proper wiring later on. In other news I got a new heater tap and modified it to work on the crown. Usual story, BA falcon tap cut and flipped around so the tap is closed with no vacuum. Original tap was suitably fucked. You can't really fit the new tap in the place of the old one so it'll go on the other side of the firewall but that's easy enough.