Shakotom's 1979 HZ Kingswoods

[Shakotom]

Link to discussion thread:
//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/36871-shakotoms-1979-hz-kingswood-utility/

This is my 1979 HZ Kingwood Ute.
I wasnt really looking for another project car at that moment in time, and I had decided that after buying my VK Commodore I was saving for something American as my next car. But as you all know the best things appear when your not looking for them.
Id first laid eyes on her at a swapmeet. I had a quick look over her and thought thats sort of cool, so I had a chat to the seller and got his contact details. And about a month later.....





there she was being towed home...





It was a long day that day, About 13 hours on the road from leaving home to getting home.





I was glad to push her off the trailer and into the garage, She was driveable but supposedly had a broken gearbox. Whenever first was selected a horrible noise would be emitted from the gearbox, but she came with a spare gearbox. so that was alright.

Some pictures from the next day:





Shes powered by a Mighty RED 202 and had been converted to a 4 speed floor change at some point in her life.





So i named her Donna
Going by her production options supposedly she has a High Compression engine, and a heavy duty diff with an LSD

Pretty much with that we started to strip it apart to swap the gearbox

[Shakotom]

So i swapped the spare gearbox in. swapped linkages ect straight over from the other gearbox. Started her up and went to try first. the same horrible noise emmited from this gearbox too. So i was stumped. I thought no way can two gearboxs have no first gears only. So i went away and consulted my magic HZ manual...

I came to the conclusion that possibly adjustment of the linkages was out. So I adjusted them as per instructions and tried again.

and drove to the bottom of the road and back

and I puchased a canopy because its cool.

The floorpan was covered in a thick layer of black goop that had the consistency of marmite. I spent a day scraping that off to find that the PO had replace the drivers side floor pan with a thin piece of panel steel...

and the motor was leaking oil like no tomorrow out of the sump so i removed it for a freshen up

this is it removed from the vehicle.

then i was left with this....

I gave her a look over and decided that I really wasnt happy with the job the previous owner had done and that the suspension and brakes were all looking a little sad. So what have i got to lose??

Its from here that Lana the VK Commodores really not been getting much attention.

So the plan at the moment is to clean up the chassis, replace the worn parts in the suspension and brakes and then attack the body.

Thanks for looking

[Shakotom]

Man i miss this thing. I really need to stop getting sidetracked on other projects

[Shakotom]

Currently the HZ ute is sitting in storage after finding rust in the chassis that the previous owner had filled with something like No-More nails and mud. Turned out to be a rather large hole right on the inside of the chassis rails where they curve out to go out under the sills.

 

That killed a lot of motivation on it, and its sort of loosely been re assembled to a roller and tucked away.

 

 

Id been doing some saving for a new daily and had been looking at Silvias, but after being mucked around by a few sellers and sick of seeing plus T conversions and locked diffs I gave up looking for a while.

 

Then this happened...

 

 

 

On the trailer is a 1980 Holden Panel Van, and yes its been purchased with the intention of daily driving. It was built towards the end of 1979, and I think it is an Australian assembled version. Its powered by a 202 and has a 3 Speed column change gearbox. 

Its currently in primer but appears to be solid (after the ute I was alot more cautious) in all the usual places they rust out. It still has the original plates that were first assigned to it back in 1980!

It also is all registered and warranted. That being said, I still trailered it home due to it having a leaky font seal and not wanting to have to sort out insurance for it on a weekend.

 

 

 

 

I got it home, purchased some seals on the Monday, pulled it apart, replaced the crank seal and resealed the timing cover.   Oil leak be gone!!

 

 

 

 

Then took it for my first proper drive to the gas station and filled it up. The column shit changes smoothly and the motor purrs. 

Since then Ive used almost two tanks of gas   ( and thats been in less than two weeks)

 

Plans for the future are:

-basic maintance/service

-remove the leaky vent in the roof

-tidy up interior 

-paint (to seal it better)

-low?

 

 

 

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/36871-shakotoms-1979-hz-kingswood-utility/

[Shakotom]

left this outside in the rain over night. jumped in it the next day and my feet got wet. I found that there was water pooled in the ribs in the floor pans. and the rear compartment was quite wet too. Luckily it doesnt have carpet in it so I sponged that out. and went hunting for the cause of the leak.

 

 

Picture so I remember what it looked like.

I started removing parts of the dash to get a better look at the point of the leak, and it appears that the little bit of rust that I saw when i was looking at the van under the dash is leaking. So I pulled the rest of the dash out for access for repairs.

As you can see Its pretty much all there and is relatively tidy, but still needs a bit of tlc as its all covered in a layer of dust. I dont think its been apart since 1979 due to the amount of dust and general yuckness behind all this. the top of the glove box for example was about a centimeter thick.

Ive got a couple of spare bits stashed away that I was saving for the ute, but the vans priority right now as im thinking about flicking the ute to get some funds.

(Mexican blanket is on seat because seat is split and worn out)

 

Also, whats the point of a panel van with out showing off the 'entertainment' area

 

 

It doesnt look very entertaining though does it? Dont worry, that will be changed. All the yuck  carpet that is glued to the walls and roof will be removed. Same with the yuck headlining. Too much builders van

SO MUCH ROOM FOR ACTIVITIES 

[Shakotom]

Chasing Water leaks.

 

I had a long story about this typed out but computer glitched so heres the abridged version.

 

left van out in the rain, water leaked down through A-pillar onto floor. Knew there was rust under dash. stripped dash. MEH

drove van to panel beaters. died halfway. issue with carb because choke cable removed. cableties fixed it!

 

At panel beaters removed paint from top of suspect area.

 

 

Why do people use filler to fix problems?!?!?!! 

 

cut cut. gah. 

removed bonnet guards and doors to assess properly aaaannnnnd

Decided we' d better remove the windscreen to get it done right as that whole corner was filler 

 

 

 

 

YAY METAL!

 

 

Cat approves!

 

Have decided to go buy some flap discs/decent sander and have a good poke around before going back in a few weeks to have to roof vent done so if theres anything else that needs attention and theres patch panels avaliable I can buy them to speed the process up.

 

 

 

 

And the side windows opinions on wether to put them back in and tint them, or panel them? They dont appear to be a factory window set up so are sort of unique. I like them, but I also like the solid sides too.

 

 

                             VS

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT: I did reassemble it and drive it home that night! It is going to stay mobile! the windscreen was just taped in while I prep and respray the dash before re installing it 

[Shakotom]

So I just got photoshop and figured Id have a play tonight  seeing as currently the lights in the garage dont work and came up with this. 

Filled in the side windows, and bought it down abit.

 

I have acquired springs and blocks for this, that will be fitted in the next few weeks.

 

Photoshops so much easier than real life

 

 

 

[Shakotom]

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[Shakotom]

So with the custom springs I got off a guy on Facebook put in, it sat firmly on the bump stops in the front. so I removed them, and chucked the 100 spokes on.

 

Stupid low. (its on 205/50r15s) I cant even fit my superlow jack under it ( 80mm) 

 

 

So probably gonna pull them out and give them back , and get some not so slammed ones (aim for around 100mm) 

and Ive lost one of the 2in blocks that came in the ute and the ubolts that I thought were gonna be able to be used are bent. so they're all junk.

so probs new 2in blocks next payday and play with the leaves and get it to sit nice with the fronts.

 Should hopefully be back to the panelbeaters in the next couple of weeks to get rust in wiper channels finished, screen put back in and roof hole filled it.

 

Its sat in the shed for a month, so Im really over it 

 

 

[Shakotom]

So, its sat around for a month again and been shuffled in and out of the garage (time flies when your having fun I suppose)

As I said, I found some more rust around the windscreen

 

 

bare metalled the dash and around the windscreen area. etch primed it all, and painted around the screen area black. left the dash in primer as its still got to be fixed when van goes off to panel beaters again. (hopefully Labour weekend fingers crossed) I bought one of these patch panels to put in as the whole edge is gone and to make panel beaters life easier because then it will cost me less cash moneys. yay

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shakotom]

I took the super awesome slammed springs out to make it slightly more driveable for now and put a spare set of VL wagon rear springs in the front for now (same diameter but not as thick) which bought it up a bit but lower than factory and put the 100 spokes on properly

 

 

and just tonight finally put 2in blocks in the rear. It sits level now and also is 140mm off ground to lowest point of chassis. so can slam 40mm more for now. Gonna play with front springs again and remove a leaf from the rears for now and see if I can get that magic 100mm

 

(see merican car poking its nose in?)

 

I cant wait till I get the windscreen back in and can drive this again.

I really need to buy my own welder before diving to much further into panel work.....

 

 

sorry for phone pics. Have lost real camera battery charger

[Shakotom]

Inspiration

 

[Shakotom]

Well what did I do this weekend? 

spent too much time in the garage, consumed food and beverages. Quite successful even if i do say so myself.

Now on topic.

 

Went to panelbeaters to finish rust around windscreen.

 

 

Cut,Fit, Clean, Paint, Weld, repeat

 

[Shakotom]

 

On opening that water way up, It turned out to be solid inside which is always good. Panelbeater decided that the lines of the unrusty parts were to good to cut up, So cut patch in half and used it to replace damaged bits. took a bit of reshaping of the patch, but the fit now is pretty much as good as factory. Is let down by average doors and guards.

So thats good, no more rust in the window area!

[Shakotom]

Also removed the ugly broken vent in the roof.
Was a very slow progress trying to get minimal distortion across the roof, and flattening it out between each round of welding once it had cooled. Was super awkward having to do that with two people, but got it in solid. Roof still has a bit of a wave in it right now, but decided to call it quits for the day so we didnt annoy the neighbors all day on the fine day that Saturday was.

 

 

Spent today cleaning out waterways/ under the dash to paint and seal them.

WOFs due soon, and I want to drive this over summer so current plan is finish what Im doing now, and get screen back in. Fix the list of things its probably gonna fail a WOF on. and give it a scuff and lay a fresh coat of primer over it as the current one is very thin in patches.
Im not going to go  hunting for any more rust at present, so will avoid poking the suspect area while sanding for new primer.

Painters out there, What sort of primer would you recommend to use?

[Shakotom]

[Shakotom]

So I finally got the windscreen back in this thing about two days before I had to go over to Aussie for work.

The day after I got back I was straight into the garage and started re assembling the dash, mucked about a bit but got that done and threw the front guards ect back on also about half an hour before another Burger meet I go to was on, Started it up to leave and had the heater tap literally explode.

looped that back on its self bypassing the heater core and made it to the meet and enjoyed a burger.

Took it into work the next day because the WOF had expired, got it checked and failed on a few easy things Id forgotten to check

eg: high beam not working, horn not working and wipers not working (splines stripped on they way to work in the rain that day)

Fixed them over the following weekend and took it back on monday for a recheck and passed!

 

 

plan is just to drive it heaps now over summer and decide what I do with it after that.

For now been out with mates, to a few gatherings 

 

 

And been out to Bens the day Neals van came home

 

[Shakotom]

I drove this over the shore to caffeine and classics and with the little 205/50r15s on it and a 3 speed gearbox it really only really likes going 80.

and after discussions with Neal and Ben, aswell as trawling the internet looking at custom vans I decided this really needs a staggered wheel set up

So just today I got a pair of 225/60r15s I had off of the VK swapped onto the rear 100spokes. Its raised the back and given it a nice little bit of rake.

Next on the plans is to start sorting the Interior. No more panel work/cutting up until after summer use is over.

I want that as a sticker for the rear window without the hashtag though

[Shakotom]

As Discussed with Neal, The above sticker of couse would be without the flatpeaker hashtag.

Just thought Id better clear that up.

 

Anyway.

Been out using this this weekend just gone and thoroughly enjoyed driving it. Cruises along so much better now with the larger tyres. Went out west and hung out at a Japan car meet and did not fit in at all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Shakotom]

But before driving it everywhere, I gave it a bit of a birthday and changed the engine oil and filter. Im not sure if Im imagining it or not, But Im sure after that it actually idled smoother and is alot quieter.

 

 

I also gave the engine bay a decent water blast to get off all the grime and dust that it had accumulated before I purchased it. The motor actually came up abit more red that what it was but is also showing how much paints flaked off over the years.