nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Share Posted April 11, 2012 Build Thread - viewtopic.php?f=18&t=33135 So here's the novel: End of '08 I finally decided to buy and old Holden like I had always wanted, I found this piece Buying it probably showed my naivety with old cars at the time. I knew the body was a bit rough (matt black with a rattlecan) and it didnt run all that hot. But the price was right, it was something other than a kingswood and it had the potential to be something nice. After digging about someone had obviously spent a fair bit of money on it at some stage (engine was rebuilt '03, LSD diff, monaro dash). So I got it going again... Rebuilt trimatic New 600 holley Electric fans Rebuilt the heads to run on unleaded New rear brakes Balanced driveshaft Got some rust out and a whole lot of little things. Had it driving for about 12 months and took it on a few trips, but it was really just a rough and ready piss wagon at that stage. Mid '10 I decided it was time for the tear down it always needed. And a start of the poor repairs I uncovered.. Stripped it down to the subframe, filled in some holes in the firewall to be repainted.. And some more paint for the front end Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Then I bought a welder and really started digging into the rust that was there. This is a common place to go in HQ-WB holdens, you end up getting wet feet when it rains. Someone had previously attempted to use 'no more gaps' to fill up the holes. Painted the lot in POR15 Bought some repair panels to do the corners, they were crap and had to modify the crap out of them. Got the plenum back where it was suppose to be and plug welded it back on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Fixed some rust in the radiator support and sprayed that Then it was time to chuck the block back where it was suppose to be Added a few things... Had to replace the dizzy pickup when found it wasnt pulsing redo the master cyl after it started leaking over all of my new paint! Drove it out of the shed for the first time in about 6 months... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Pulled the rear screen to see what the damage was Didn't look too bad till I took to it with the wire brush on the grinder So I started some repairs... And some more Plus this larger patch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Then I started to REALLY see how bad the body was Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 At this stage I'm thinking about scrapping the shell, if I stripped it all in one go I probably would have but since I was have way through I might as well continue... And some more of the shitty previous repairs img]http://i863.photobucket.com/albums/ab200/nzstato/IMG_2152.jpg[/img] Passenger sill isn't too bad, drivers is a bit worse for wear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Moar repairs Filled quite a few holes that where in the boot (had an LPG system at one point in time) you can also see here what the original colour was Started stripping the doors, and they are crap too Fixed the skins and the frames The front doors were so bad I had to scrap them (luckily I had bought a set about 6 months prior) you can see how badly dented the passenger one was and the terrible repair on the drivers. The ones I had laying around also needed a wee bit of a tickle up before they were ready. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Guards are common to rust in the lower sector, you can buy patches for this but its more fun to fab your own Nose cone was REALLY bad, alot of nasty damage in this that had just been bogged up, finding a replacement wasnt easy so just fixed what I had. Few hours with the hammer and dolly and I had this The corner was worse Had to be really careful with it, the metal was thin and quite badly creased Bolted everything back together to see if it still lined up... Few more repairs to do Getting better at it Finally got the nosecone to a presentable state, I refuse to touch it anymore! Fixed the lower 1/4s both of these were rotted out (typical in HQ) One of the rear doors I still wasnt happy with. Decided to pull the skin off the frame to fix some rust forming in the seam and do a lower skin repair Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Rightoh, time to get serious... The roof and drip strip was an area I really wasnt looking forward to fixing I can say I'd be happy to fix any rust in a Q except for in the roof, it is a prick of a job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Finally it was time to get some paint on the damn thing. Jacked up a painter whos shop is just down the road for me (I had bought a house half way through the rebuild). Had it covered in 2k epoxy so I could do filler work over the top of it and prevent the repairs from going bad. Was working full on for the next few weeks so never took photos of much of the filler work and paint prep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Back to the painters... Everything got primed again for a second time, the jams sprayed and I bolted all the panels back on Had a massive piss around with getting a booth sorted for the final coat to go on. Finally did one a saturday, painter buffed it up the day after his works do and hungover as hell. I drove it back home and it finally rolled into my garage at 4pm on xmas eve. Spent the NY break putting it all back together and drenched the inner areas of the shell in cavity wax Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Went for a WOF, passed with a clean sheet. Had to back to the auto sparkys to get a few things tidyed up. Bought new glass I got it installed. Happy with the result Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 And so the deadline to all of this was to get the car to my wedding. I made it, but only just, got it back on the road on the wednesday before the day. Day was fantastic too, had some mates from the car club help me out with transportation too. Thats the end so far, still need to do a stereo install and retrim the seats but a pretty good result for my first attempt at a car project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted April 11, 2012 Author Share Posted April 11, 2012 Ah what the hell, here's two more BTW: I got my Dad to drive my wife to the wedding in the statesman, he's be a holden nut for years but sadly had to give up his SS a while ago. He helped me out with the last push to get it back together so it was pretty special to have him do that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzstato Posted August 7, 2012 Author Share Posted August 7, 2012 Yes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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