kiwitina

I’ve pretty much given up on getting the car finished this summer. It’s just not gonna happen. It guts me but work is slow, I’m trying to get a house deposit together and it takes me too long to do anything as I’m so picky.

It doesn’t help that I bought a ute. It’s going to become my daily but it needs work so the tina hasn’t progressed much since the last update.

More bits blasted, metal readied and painted....The pile of bits in the living room grows!

Bought this yesterday.

Havent welded anything before so Im going to experiment for ages before using my ute as a guinea pig. Then if I feel confident I may tackle the easier bits on the cortina.

Picked up this puppy from BOC yesterday. Unfortunately I didnt have enough $$ for some wire as well So that will have to wait till pay day. $630+GST. Pretty happy with that.

I decided to do what I could to straighten the front bumper. The mounts were pretty rusty so I chucked them in the blast cab then gave em some POR15. They are now the best looking part of the car!

I didn't have hopes of getting it looking perfect. Just wanted to make it look a little better.

Before

After

Paint doesn't match but I dont care for the mo. Will probably paint the whole truck in the next 6 months so Ill do it properly then (and purchase some panel hammers and dollies)

Bummer bro. Could you pillage some bits off another tray of another make?

When it's all welded and ground back you wouldn't know how many pieces make up the patch. Trying to do too much with one piece of metal just ends up getting messy. If you can make it work that's sweet. I find it's actually faster to make up multiple sections which individually are much easier to make. A curve in one direction per section is a lot easier than trying to stretch / shrink one piece to fit a curved hole.

Good luck anyway, either way you do it, it's a challenge.

Thanks bro. This sounds like good advice. Will definitely take it in to consideration on the next bit.

Covering up rust in the tray with a rubbery seam sealer.

Had a whole bunch of this crap in the tray of my ute covering rust. Pissed me off so much to find all of it. It's as if they thought it would just disappear if they covered it and ignored it.

Ive been spending too much time on this as the Cortina sits neglected in the garage.

For wof I've

- Adjusted torsion bars to give the suspension some travel (it had none)

- Fitted some bumpstops in the rear (it had none)

- Fitted some replacement chrome trim around the windscreen (it had none)

- Fitted another bonnet

- Cleaned up some rust on the engine crossmember.

Last thing on the wof list is some rust removal in about 5 different places

The annoying thing is that in my time working on the ute I can see what an idiot the guy was that I bought it off. Stupid stuff like painting over mud and grease. Covering up rust in the tray with a rubbery seam sealer. Boring annoying shit.

i thought about 2 pieces but i figured it might start to look shit (tier) if I had to join 2 funny shapes together. Hopefully a coat of filler will help smooth out evidence of my novice panel skills.

7000 tack welds.. hah you joke about it like it doesn't happen. well ok maybe not 7000.

Thanks all for your 2c's

is it just me/the photo or does that patch panel have heaps of weird creases in there? lots of bog or just not caring about the look?

haha yeah. Part not caring too much and part noobiness. It was pretty tricky patch to make and I was lacking the ball end of a hammer.

Im new to welding and am going to be doing the repairs on my courier. Ive cut a fair bit of rust out and have the patch panels made up. What I need to know more about is how to protect the internal steel i've just cleaned and the inner side of the patch. Its a tricky area to get to once the patch is on the car. Im assuming that when I weld the patch on that the heat will mess with whatever I put on it. What do you guys do? Are there any products out there for this?

Coming along way too fast man. Making atleast me look lazy and slow.

Nice blue

Ive been looking at these magmate 180 migs at BOC. Ive chucked a 15A socket on one end of a 5m 10A cable in order to power it. Im renting the house so dont want to pay $$$ for any 15A wiring etc etc. Ill only be welding thin panel steel. Does this sound ok to you guys? Am I gonna have any issues?

Wof guy was a picky mofo. Got a few rust repairs to do. Got to find a bump stop for the rear which is missing. Adjust torsion bars in front to allow more travel in the suspension. Will probably need a new bonnet as this one has rusted out along the front edge. that is all.

Yah best thing is its like driving and working out at the same time!

Got sick of looking at the dirty vinyl floor. Was so screwed and smelt a lot like cat piss. Pulled it out and binned it.

Will roll steel floors until I can afford to get some carpet. I actually kinda like it like this. Did find a bit of rust down there though. Will get that fixed later. Nothing is getting that stain out of that seat.

Installed new clutch master and slave cylinders and bled the lines. Clutch now disengages so I can now drive it. Took it up and down the drive to check brakes before letting it loose in Te Atatu. All good under the hood.

Would you believe that this doesn't have power steering?. It is an absolute haul to turn. On my road test I ended up down a narrow dead end street. My 3 point turn closely resembled that scene in Austin Powers on the golf cart??. Hahaha was a good laugh.

8 ball gear knob broke off so installed some shitty SCA one. Also replaced some dud bulbs and fixed a broken door handle. Taking it for a warrant tomorrow. Pretty positive it will get one!

Well Ive been looking around for something to lug stuff around in for a while now. There was a mk1 cortina wag that I came agonizingly close to getting on trademe but lets not get in to that... I had been using my folks ford courier so it eventually won me around....

Its an 89 Ford Courier XL. Only done 209,000ks but has been stored in a container for the past 3 years. Picked it up for $1711 knowing that it will require a fair bit of tinkering to get right. It was originally white but the dude painted it in some shade of gray and managed to trap a fair bit of moisture in between.

There is rust in many places but at this stage it doesnt look too serious. Just needs work.

Interior was/is pretty yuck. I had to remove the seat to remove all the rubbish. Was too scary to take pictures so I got one after. Still lots more to do in there.

Wheels are pretty fugs IMO but theres decent tread on the tires and now Im shit broke.

I spent a day or so just prepping it for its first start in 3 years. Oil change, Oil squirt down the bores, fuel tank flush, carb clean, new battery etc etc. When I finally got to turning the key the alarm immobiliser had shut the car down. Eventually I worked out that I had 30 secs from when i connected the battery to try start the car. It went but pretty rough. Got a sparky to come and cut the alarm out as it was going to be a problem.

Decided to do a radiator flush as I stabbed a cooling hose whlie battling a stubborn oil filter. Also replaced the ignition coil just cos.

Was going to do a few passes down the drive to check brakes etc. but it wont go in to gear. Clutch pedal is super soft so Im suspecting the master or slave cylinder is kaput?? Would that be right? I need to have another play in it to troubleshoot some more.

Got to keep the cab covered for leaks as theres some trim missing around the windscreen.

I dont really have plans for it beyond getting it on road. There is things I can see myself doing but the Cortina is taking priority as soon as this is up to a road worthy standard.

Maybe one day if time and funds allow ill add some chrome, steel wheels, white walls and that will be it.

Engine looks real nice bro.

each to their own eh? I guess theres always someone taking pride in whatever car floats their boat.

Keep seeing a sweet as yellow honda city with turbo writen down the side, black wheels looks like minta in blenheim

you cant be serious.

longchamps bro!

spotted this at Z tat pen. Pretty ratty but I loved it. No I dont mean the prius.

Painted a few things today. Sump paint was far more matte than I thought it was gonna be but oh well.

add these to the rest of it taking up space in spare bedroom

Sisters pug came to "help out"

A company called Smith and Arrow make em. You can find them on trade me.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/business-farmi ... 032170.htm

or search users for listings by 'smithandarrow'. They are the best. Far better than those 3m things.

Chur

Got home a little earlier than expected so I went through my boxes of engine bits to find a good sump. Was surprised to find that 1 of the 3 was a reverse bowl. Not needed for this build but it may come in handy down the track.

Strip discs had the paint off there in about 10mins. Will sandblast the thing next week. Thinking black for the sump to create a blue black and silver theme in the engine bay.

Removed the masking off the block. Im really chuffed at how it came out. Looks a million bucks.

sweet catapult dude!

Been painting lots the past few days. Unwrapped my block and head finally. Even though they had both been professionally cleaned, I was still wiping dirt off them after a couple of hours. Eventually got it clean enough. Masked it up and sprayed the paint. Head is in 3M 'Aluminium' and block is in 3m 'Ford dark blue' (yeah typical eh?)

Legs and spring hats I put in POR15. Powdercoating would have been nice but was just too expensive.

I now have though I didnt take pics, most of my strut pieces in paint so will have them back together in the next few weeks. New springs, shocks, calipers, discs and pads! May have an issue with bolting my calipers to the strut but it will have to wait till I have it all there in front of me. Goal is to get the suspension and steering back in the car so it can be sent for some metal work. Then hopefully by the time it comes back to me the weather will be a bit more friendly and I can push on with the floor blasting. Promised some people including myself that I would have the car at Kumeu 2013. Fark!!