flyingbricks HZ Ute- success

[flyingbrick]

I love my Holden.

[flyingbrick]

So I had a few mates come over and look at the ute. The further we dug the worse it got.. Multiple layers of bog all cracked through and rusting under. Such a bastard.

Most people were like MAN UP....until they saw it in person and were like

One of those guys suggested I pop to his uncle's place for a look at his hz oneton.

I got all dreamy as I realised this tonner had a FAR more honest body and a deal was done.

(I didn't get the wheels)

From now on I'll refer to both vehicles by their respective colours.

Yellow was stripped completely bare and its body lifted out of the shed (I didn't consider getting it out when I pulled it to bits) then its chassis.

[flyingbrick]

Red had two areas of concern. One above the passenger side drip rail. This proved to just be cracked bog over a previous repair (nicely welded in but not prepped nicely before bog) and the second was along the seam where the plenum top, plenum bottom and firewall all joined.

Very coincidentally this was virtually the ONLY good panel on yellow so the pieces were cut out of each vehicle.

By FAR the largest piece of rust repair I have ever taken on.

I did have some question as to why red rusted out in this area. Once again BAD PREP was the culpret. Once I cut the panel out there were previous repairs visible in the plenum bottom (nicely patched!)-they took no time to rust proof the seam when they rejoined the panels so obviously water got in there and rooted things quickly.

[flyingbrick]

Before I forget.. Red even has factory steel under and around the windscreen!

Here is a lovely photo of the firewall welded to the plenum bottom. I needed to join the two skins together before welding yellows panel on top.

Because the front lip was fucked on red, I decided to remove it and use yellows (with the seam intact). The final weld between firewall and yellows panel will happen UNDER the lip..nice and hidden.

[flyingbrick]

Donations of motivation to-

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/45620-flyingbricks-198-holden-wb-ute/

[flyingbrick]

I paid a bit extra with the tonner and bought a bulk lot of hq front end parts. 3 RUSTY hq guards (sold) two OK guards with monaro flutes welded in, one hq bonnet (will sell), one radiator support panel and two nose cones (one very rusty, sold)

The plan has been to just fix the rust and leave the cosmetics until later...but then my cousin came over and offered to take them away and make them nice. Can't say no to that!

I also bought this off trademe for $200.. Fiberglass and I should be able to cut that gay scoop off without much trouble.

[flyingbrick]

Small boring update. Cut out the shift boot box thing from its days as a manual and welded in patch and auto shifter mount.

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Getting better at this rust stuff.

Tried to listen to everyone's advice here so have cut/sanded off any rust and then painted on rustkill (just incase) and now its all sitting in the shed with a heater to dry out...

Tomorrow I will sand it all down thoroughly and slosh a coat of durepox primer alllllll over the front and get it all up in there.. THEN I CAN WELD THE TOP BACK ON..THEN ITS RUST FREE kinda. Yessssssss.

Got these cool headlight guard things.

And swept up this pule of rust

And dnt let anyone ever tell you that Geminis aren't extremely useful

As scrap steel

[flyingbrick]

That photo above makes it look like one of my patches has no curves. its an illusion given by the white stuffs straight brush strokes. Looks much better in black.

It's had a few coats of durepox where needed and I'm finally starting to get a bit more comfortable with mig welding panel steel.

IM SO EXCITED

[flyingbrick]

Have been spending way too much time in the shed without adequate ventilation.

This is all welded up and done. Spent a heap of time heating and scraping out seam sealer and making sure nothing nasty was left hiding in that area. I made a few mistakes along the way (like forgetting to wipe an area with wax and grease remover prior to sanding and painting) so hopefully it sticks and lasts.

Also have spent way too long on this guard as it has a few shallow dents in the top surface. Durepox goes on surprisingly nice with a foam roller.

Hardest part is going to be getting the 3 vent slots even and straight.

[flyingbrick]

So greg was all like NATHAN DOESN'T WORK ON HIS HOLDEN ENOUGH so now I'm here showing I have done a bit this month.

Windscreen out and started patching the rust holes round the perimeter.

[flyingbrick]

So this year has been gayballs as little time for this thing until recently.

Made a clevis and mounting plate and got my later model commodore booster mounted.

Then I traced a heater box flange onto some aluminium and made a blanking plate. Today I glued it into place and will remove the few screws once it's well and truly cured.

I need more damn mix gas

[flyingbrick]

I have to pull out the brake pedal to remove the old HZ clevis pin and to fit a pedal more suitable for an auto (this was manual)

Before and after blasting. I mad the welding much deeper than original to add grip (I believe it's a requirement)

Hopefuy I don't need to pour rubber into it as iv made the base out of mild and used a 309 wire..the base should rust and the weld shouldn't...I hope.

lol

[flyingbrick]

rustisize knows what's up.

The right solution - available in your average kitchen -and you can have rust like this in about an hour. This took me much longer because I didn't understand what was happening.

[flyingbrick]

Had more spare time so getting lots of little things done

Drilled out old clevis pin and made a new one out of high tensile steel, painted brake parts (clear coated the new pedal itself) and reassembled it all.

I had my good radiator support panel sand blasted which has shown it's not really as good as first thought. I'm not sure how long it will last but I'll patch the big holes and try soak any enclosed parts in rust kill and then fish oil..

Also finished my final version of the Audi seat rails. They aren't adjustable but the cabin is so small it doesn't matter anyway.

I had to strip all of the height and tilt stuff off the seats and then pickup on the remaining mounts which is why they are odd looking.

This body is way easier than the last one as the factory seat mount locations are still intact, yay!

Trying to decide if I should ditch the inner guards......hmmm

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I had a birthday so got to buy a few bits a pieces.

A friend of mine (who most of you probably know) was putting an LS into his Kingswood wagon but changed his mind- so I got a bloody great price on his nearly completed full twin 3" exhaust system. Way overkill for my 350 but YOLO...I couldn't have built ANYTHING using new parts for what this cost.

Also hammered Ali and got lots of random bits like these

Also stripped the non factory sound proofing out of the floors. It's been patched previously in a couple of spots and they didn't do the worst job- just a shame they made lap joints everywhere and its started rusting in-between the metals.

Holy shit- can't wait to get this rust free and off to Greg for carpets.

[flyingbrick]

I got the zorst bits. Flow master mufflers etc so very happy. Then bought 4 sets of mild steel vband flanges from DSR (great blokes to deal with and great pricing) and got some flexis from STA. Had 15 minutes spare at work today so zzzzzt. Bloody love doing exhausts for some reason.

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Haven't spent much time round the back of the cab hence the spiders.

I bought this panel home, trimmed the ends, shrunk the top fold a little to make the panel curve very gently (need to do it slightly more) and it fuckin fits! Ok one last plug for these guys!

http://www.earlsbodyshop.co.nz

Before

After

[flyingbrick]

I cut out the back of the cab (it had some rust and old patches too so this killed two birds with one stone) and curved the panel some more then locked into place with clicoes.