Popular Post Kiwibirdman Posted February 12, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 12, 2019 Since my last update there has been a bit of progress. The car went to the paint shop in July for a 3 -4 week turn around. It sat.......and sat....... and then one day out of the blue I got the call, come and get it, its painted. That was December. Out in the sun it just blew me away. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kiwibirdman Posted February 12, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 12, 2019 The satin black is a bastard to keep clean so its kept under the plastic sheet. I hit the car with a McGuires product that is for satin finishes. It took a whole day to fit the grill to the front panel, each slat had to be individually made straight then bent to line up. I got pretty good at it by the last one. The front panel got bolted on. Even though it had been together this is the first time all the bolts had been put in. I ran a tap through the threads which made life a lot easier, all the captured nuts were full of paint. The passengers side wasn't too bad, it was the original guard going back on, drivers side was a guard of another car so needed a bit of persuasion. Need the stick to hold up the bonnet. The extra weight of the die cast badge and bits of trim was enough for the bonnet to not stay up. I assembled the hatch and tail gate locks first after it was painted. The tail lights were some I bought about 6 months ago and are really good. 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kiwibirdman Posted April 4, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 4, 2019 Have been plugging away at the car. Latest job is spraying fish oil into all the seams and cavities. I am not popular with the rest of the family, the smell has wafted through the whole house. 2 coats done, one more tomorrow. 11 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kiwibirdman Posted May 14, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 14, 2019 More slow progress. Got all the side trim on the car. Between panel beating the trim (looks good from 10 feet away), polishing, making new clips and then fitting there is about 16 hours invested. Side trim, picking the best set Polishing machine. A strangely satisfying way of killing a lot of time. I had the bonnet spear and the bezel for the lock rechromed by the bumper repair people in Onehunga. Both came up like new. Bloody expensive pass time getting chrome done, especially when the old stuff is badly pitted. The door windows are in on the drivers side, again took bloody hours. There is an order that the windows go in and its different front to back. The other side hasn't been done yet, the channel that should be welded to the inside of the rear door frame is missing. This is a door that I bought repaired and the channel must have been taken out to fix some rust and never got put back in. I have a new one folded up and am hoping that epoxy glue will be enough to hold it it. Since the car is painted I don't want to be welding the door frame. I am also looking for a good front Quarter light window for the passengers door, the frame on mine is falling apart with rust. If any one knows of one please send the details my way. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kiwibirdman Posted October 2, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 2, 2019 Being a bit useless at keeping updates on track I realised that it's nearly 6 months since the last update. In short, the roof lining is in, looks 7 out of 10 and I should have got it done by someone who knows what they are doing. New reproduction bumpers bought and fitted (over-riders in the front and centre section of the rear are the originals re-chromed). Cold air box built and installed. Steering installed, rack fitted with new boots, cleaned and painted,with the original bus sized steering wheel I don't think the steering will be too heavy. I am having a couple of days away at Ohakune with the family and took a trip up to Horopito and got a replacement gutter trim to replace the one I destroyed with the polisher (that will get its own post), knobs for the heater and vents for the demister. Time now to start knocking off the half finished jobs, run some fuel lines and sort out the wiring. Make noise!!!!! Photos to come. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwibirdman Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 The story of the gutter trim. The gutter trim on a EJ wagon is about 2.5 metres long and nice ans flexible. I had spent about 2 or 3 hours cleaning it up. knocking the dents out and polishing. It was getting late and I was hell bent on getting it done and on the car. I had had a couple of warnings that the trim was getting flicked off the wheel, trying to get to the edge on the bend at the front is a bit of an art. Should have stopped but ........... I was lucky, one bruise on my are and only the trim turned into spaghetti. I still haven't worked up the nerve to do the new one. 1 1 2 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwibirdman Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 Here are some photos The bumpers look pretty good, the front and end of the rear are new reproduction ones, the front overriders and centre of the back were re-chromed. Bought this flaring tool the other day for the fuel lines, works really well, $55 off trademe. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwibirdman Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 I put the hoodlining in myself. It looks better in real life but with 20/20 hindsight I should have put it on a trailer and taken to the professional. hopefully overtime it will tighten up a bit. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kiwibirdman Posted October 21, 2019 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 21, 2019 This is the cold airbox I built. It has a pipe that comes from beside the radiator which feeds the box. It isn't totally air tight but I'm working on the principle that air pressure while driving will make positive pressure so the engine will get cold air. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwibirdman Posted December 6, 2019 Author Share Posted December 6, 2019 Despite being side tracked with work family life in general there has been some good progress. All the side window are in. I had a problem with the left rear door, the channel that the rubber goes in was missing. This was a door I bought to replace the original. I bent up a channel and pop riveted it in. From the factory this was spot welded but since I have nice new paint the welder was staying far away. The next job was the rubbers and channel then drop the window in the hole. the whole process felt harder than the other side I did a while ago. When I went to put the quarter window and channel in I found the gap was 5mm too small. Managed to carefully spread the door using a couple of small pry bars. Managed to scratch the paint on the inside of the door on the first go, second go worked like a charm. Spent hours making up hard fuel lines. The rubber bits joining the hard lines have been done. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwibirdman Posted January 1, 2020 Author Share Posted January 1, 2020 Being the first day of the new year I thought I better start as I mean to carry, or at least get this bloody car finished. I spent a bit of time fitting the best quality Ali express, chineseiumn gauges. I had a fitting made up to run the temp gauge into an existing threaded plug in the bottom of the radiator. There didn't appear to be an easy place to tap into the intake manifold and I need to leave the original sender for the computer to do it's thing. I will wire the factory temp warning light to come on when the fan gets switched on. This will do 2 things, the first is to keep an eye on the temp gauge once the fan is running and also to give me warning if the thermostat stay shut, fan will come on but the radiator will stay cold. The set I bought had a volt meter and oil pressure gauge as well. I thought it was worth seeing how accurate the volt meter is, my reasonable quality digital multi meter said the old battery I have lying around was 12.3 volts, fair enough. The Ali Express special said 13.5 volts. In reality the absolute number is not a big issue, I'm more interested in seeing that it's charging. I will be checking the other gauges against known good ones. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kiwibirdman Posted February 29, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 29, 2020 Bloody hell, February is nearly dead! Amazing how life, kids, work and holidays get in the way, not to mention houses, caravans and other cars. I finally stopped procrastinating about the wiring. Another one of those jobs that I thought was going to be really shit and hasn't turned out to be so bad. I had spent a lot of time thinking about what had to be done to the original loom. @vk327had done a great job on the commodore wiring loom, which has been in the car for close to 2 years. There were several bits that need to be shortened up because of the different lay out I have. The worst one was the ignition module, I mounted it to the inner guard and had to take 40 cm out of the loom. It's about a dozen wires so I did them carefully one by one. Cut, strip, find the other end, cut, strip, solder then heat shrink. Took a while, I tried to stagger the joins as well. Once it was done and covered with protective sleeve it looks pretty good. I stripped all the redundant wiring out of the original loom, regulator for the generator and wiper motor being the main ones. The wiring for ignition power now stays inside the car and goes to the computer, the temperature warning light will come on when the electric fan starts, the starter is connected via the lock out switch on the column and the reversing lights will also work. I have by passed the original reversing light idea of using the rear indicators, overly complex in the indicator switch and work really badly. I'm going to mount some LED lights under the rear bumper. Also modified the wiper switch to run a pair of relays for the commodore wiper motor. After much head scratching, and some good input from @chris r I figured out how to get 2 speeds, self parking and hopefully no smoke. Battery tray for one of those tiny Odyssey batteries is made. I have a dead one that is the est for size. Battery tray is fully bolt in because if the LH exhaust has to come out the battery tray has to go first.I will order a new one next week (wife knows I need a battery, not how much these things cost). Finish the electrics, fit a new fuel pump to the tank, add some oil, water and trans fluid and this thing should run. Add some brake fluid and it might stop as well. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwibirdman Posted March 9, 2020 Author Share Posted March 9, 2020 Wiring, still doing fucking wiring. Trying to think things through so that I don't end up either cutting stuff off short or not having space, the usual crap. I am running out of stuff to connect up so another night or 2 should see it done. Once the wiring in the cabin is done the seats can go in and the seat belts. I hope they are OK after sitting in a box under my sons bed for 2 or 3 years. My wife got keen the other day and booked us a trip to Vanuatu in July, followed by a trip to Sydney for my brothers birthday and then a trip to Hawaii in December to escape the family Christmas. This is all good and I have much better holidays than I would ever book myself but the Visa is maxed out until we get paid in the middle of the month. Once the Visa is bought back to under control I can buy the battery and order the Dakota Digital speedo interface box to make the original speedo work off the electronic transmission. I promise some photos.....soon 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwibirdman Posted March 19, 2020 Author Share Posted March 19, 2020 Wiring is close to done. Lights and horn on the drivers side have relays Wiring round the engine bay. The red wire is for the wipers. This is the passenger side. Still some finishing off to do. The fuses that are hanging in the breeze will have a bracket off the hinge bolt. Relays for headlights and starter. The silver box is the ignition module. This is the ECU nuder the front seat. And the loom over the floor. I will do something to sort this out. Probably make a cover out of panel steel and screw to the floor 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kiwibirdman Posted March 19, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 19, 2020 With the wiring in the car pretty much done I put the front seat in. I need to check that the ECU missed the seat - Yes. Then there was the gauges that I had mounted under the edge of the dash board, I was worried that they would take out my left knee - again no problem, can see them as well, volt meter is not in line of site but that is not really important. I got into fitting seat belts until I ran out of bolts. When I was at Zebra wreckers a while ago I get a bunch of the factory low profile bolts which are going to the floor mounts. The ones under the back seat will use normal 7/16 UNF bolts. Here is my wife pretending to go for a cruise With the big steering wheel and 185 front tires the steering is not very heavy, should be fine when driving around. The column shift is fine, can only get Park, R, N, D, 3. I'm not worried about the extra gears. The neutral lock out switch on the torana column is fine, I adjusted it up a while ago. 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kiwibirdman Posted March 22, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 22, 2020 Still more progress, I bought the nuts to put the bonnet spear on that I had re-chromed months ago. The chrome cost about as much as I paid for the whole car, worth it though. Rear seat belts and seat in. The mounting points for the outside belts were about 3mm too low and the beads of the bolts would not go in without undoing the double plate, which meant jacking the car up and taking off the back wheels. Another 5 minute job that took about half an hour. I tried the back seat out and there is enough leg room for me to sit in the back with the front seat all the way back, for those who don't know me I'm 6 foot 5 tall. Even though these cars aren't that wide, they are reasonably long. Here is the list of stuff to buy, tomorrow And the list of stuff to finish the car, it is probably missing a whole heap of stuff. I started off with bleed the brakes, had a not very old bottle of brake fluid. I found all the fittings that never got past being hand tight and made a mess on the floor. The fittings are now tight and I'll get more fluid tomorrow. The joys of building a car over too many years and forgetting stuff that is only half done. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwibirdman Posted March 25, 2020 Author Share Posted March 25, 2020 I went out on Monday and got most of the to buy list. The battery was put on order, it didn't turn up before lock down so that will hold things up. I remembered that I had used up all the heat shrink I had so got some more of that. Also got a new bottle of Maguires Ultra Rapid Detailer. It's pretty much the only thing to use on a Satin paint job, Time to stop watching You tube videos and get down into the garage and make a big dent in the list. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kiwibirdman Posted March 30, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 30, 2020 I fitted up the front 3 point seat belts. I had checked with Cletus about the belts, the original top mounting is good to use and the lower mounts were put back in the original position on the floor. Here is the rechromed top bolt, complete with new gasket. I got a length of nitrol(I think) rubber from Para Rubber) and cut a gasket out. Belts in place. Front seat is right back. When I was scrounging seat belt bolts from Zebra I had grabbed a couple with a shoulder on them. They went into the top mount to replace the original bolts with separate spacers. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwibirdman Posted April 21, 2020 Author Share Posted April 21, 2020 At the start of lock down hell I wrote a list of things to get done, which is further up the page. I have been knocking them off bit by bit, or at least getting to the point that I need to buy stuff. Old fuel pump removed from the tank and new on e fitted. Turns out the connectors inside the tank were corroded when I started checking before putting everything back together. I had anther tank off an earlier car (VR commodore from memory) and this had a better set for the wiring. New pump swapped over to the VR pickup and all checks out with a muliti meter. Thought I would check out the fuel gauge and make sure the sender would work before it all got put back in the car. Turns out that the original fuel gauge works ok but is totally incompatible with the commodore sender. All Holdens up to 1971 use 30 ohms full, 0 ohms empty. Commodores use 30 ohms full and 300 ohms empty. The first call after lock down will be to Robinsons instruments to see if they have an easy fix. If not it will be to get the original sender out of the old tank and see if its usable. Next job was to fit the heater controls and make them work. I have found a heater, they were an option and my car never had one, and spent a fortune getting a new core installed. I had bought a HZ Holden heater tap at Kumeu a few years ago from a guy selling new Holden parts. I had also bought an Aliexpress choke cable to use as a push pull. Here is the heater tap in the engine bay. The tap didnt come with the clip for the cable, they are available And the heater controls Tonight's job was to finish bleeding the brakes. I had started and run out of fluid. I was talking to a mate about it and he gave me some not very old stuff he had sitting in his garage. The fronts bled up and gave a nice firm pedal. Went to do the back ones which appeared to be good. Got my son who was helping to stand on the pedal and no stopping on the back wheels. I pulled the shoes off one side and pulled the dust caps of the wheel cylinder, lots of rust. That explains the no brakes. Might be a good time to do a rear disc conversion. I understand that commodore rear discs will go on a Salisbury diff with out too much fabrication. 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kiwibirdman Posted May 2, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted May 2, 2020 After thinking about the rear brakes and asking some questions I decided that drums are going to be just fine, mainly because the wheel cylinders are about $45 each and by the time I did the rear disc conversion I figure I was going to be another $500 - $700 into it. The money insanity has to stop somewhere. BnT had the wheel cylinders in stock so 2 hours on Thursday night saw them swapped over and brakes bled up again, all good so far. No doubt there will be some adjustments once the car is driving.Have to touch up the paint on the diff as brake fluid managed to go all over the place, lucky its only aerosol can black. I also picked up the new battery and re-terminated battery leads Tuesday. Put all that in today and finished off more of the wiring. I stand back and look at it and think that it could be much tidier, and them I remind myself this is not a show car and it is all practical. The instrument cluster and fuel pump/sender unit went to Robinson's on Thursday. They use a crowd in Auzzie to supply modified resistor cars for the sender. Hopefully they have one on the shelf and it will be here in a week or so. Once I have that back the fuel tank can be painted and go in. I'm not keen on painting until the pump is in, bound to scratch it otherwise.. The list is getting much shorter. 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.