Quadzilla's 1973 Holden HQ Statesman Deville

[Quadzilla]

Well thought id add something here

 

So I had been looking around for a old school car for a number of years. Something complete that I could drive and cruise.

After being so picky and selective, I missed out on a couple of nice cars. Here I have recently picked up a 1973 Holden HQ Statesmen.

Trademe special, saw it in Fielding and thought id go check it out. looked good in the pics. 57500km, 5 personal owners.

First impression were it was a good looking car.

Owner drove it in the first 5 years of ownership then sat in the shed till 2015 with regular startups and drives. also looked like it happened with all other previous owners, drive for a while and sat there. one was a deceased estate then stayed in the family with a son for a number of years doing nothing. First owner was an Auckland Holden dealer.

 

All the windows looked brand new, hardly any scratches or water stains. The paint looked good, a little thin in places with specs of surface rust breaking through,  to be expected after 42 years I guess. all the power windows worked. started easy. quiet running engine, no ticks or  nothing. The interior was mint. one slight tear in fabric on drivers seat. original working AM radio with a dial to switch from front or rear speaker. Dealer installed Air Con by the looks. doesn't work, presumed to need regassing. doesn't bother me. the fan blows a lot of air and vented out front and side. much better than the standard HQ fan anyway.

 

Engine was quiet, no oil or water leaks. though some gaskets could do with replacing as oil seeps through. checked the oil, it was down to the Low mark. so need to keep an eye on that.

 

oh yeah, the doors. Sat in one of the front seats and closed the door. wow, no effort needed to pull the door shut. the springs are good in this one. actually I sat there and opened and closed the door about 15 times. just touch the door and it clicked shut. just like new. Checked out an ashtray in one door, it was half full with cigarette butts. the owner didn't smoke, so someone beforehand did and meant the current owner didn't clean the car super thoroughly.

 

good old cable operated boot opener. original jack and accessories in the boot. I haven't even looked at the spare wheel, its still full of air anyway

 

Owner took me for a cruise around the block. no squeaks, rattles as an old Holden does. Super comfy and smooth ride over humps and bumps. Has a little bit of kick for what it is

 

Had another look over the car and took a few photos. ran it through my mind and bit the bullet. Sold.

Ended up taking it for a drive around the block myself, oh so nice.

 

Back to the house and inside for a cuppa tea before heading off on the long trip back home and figuring out how to get it home

Discussion Thread

 

 

[Quadzilla]

Complete book of Isuzu Statesman.
No idea how to edit or delete previous post to remove the 2 pics above.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Quadzilla]

Doing little bits and pieces on the car the last few months.

Did a compression test, 150psi on drivers side and 160psi on passengers side. Need to do it again though; as I removed all the spark plugs then did the test. Seems the correct way is to remove the plug from each cylinder to test and replace. Ohwell, learn something new.

So I was told the passenger side is higher because I did that side last which meant the lifters sat to long... Still pretty happy with an engine that seems untouched since 1973

Changed the oil. Was thin as water and black. Replaced the oil filter and filled with cheap oil. Will change it again soon. Hopefully itll clean out some crap. Its already black after 700kms. Replaced the dizzy cap, rotor, all new leads, plugs and air filter. Seems to have made a difference in fuel economy.

Polished up wheel trim and hubcaps. Looks near new, bar some of the surface rust and a few dents on the trim. Have left them off as don’t want to lose them. It doesn’t look too bad without them.

before clean

after clean

Scored a set of second hand 7 and 8 inch tridents. In the middle of restoring them. Wet sanding, polish and repaint. 2 more to sand and polish, then repaint black I’m not looking forward to doing the last two, time consuming and hard on the fingers trying to remove as much scratches and dents as I can. But should be worth it with new centre caps and shiny new nuts

7s

8s

Did my first long cruise to Tauranga and back cruising on 100km and some city driving, returned 12.3l / 100kms. Pretty happy with that. Car handled surprising well for a big thing. Cruised nicely at 100 up the Kaimais. Driving home through the gorge outside Waihi, it ate the corners like it was on rails for a 1.5 tonne tank. The two huge sway bars and what looks like reasonably new shocks probably helped.

Removed the water pump to replace it, slight wear marks into the timing chain cover. It’ll live. So replaced the pump and decided to run the hose through the block, heater and radiator. Lots of rusty crap came out everywhere. Discovered there wasn’t a thermostat, so replaced it with the stock item from the book. Replaced all the belts along with top and bottom radiator hose. Cap looked like it needed replacing while at.

Cranked it up.. And oh my, one of the belts squealed. Spent some time playing undo/redo the same bolts and belts over n over for a few hours. Damn Alt belt. Did it up as tight as I thought it should be so it doesn’t have a lot of tension on the bearings. At the end of the day I was ready to throw the tools at it as I couldn’t resolve it. Spoke to local mechanic, said I had to tighten the life out of it. And so I did. Seemed wrong to me, but did the trick. Took it for a test drive, sweet. Pulled into local mechanic who had a look, said it was ok, could be a little tighter! Anyways, thankfully the squeal was sorted!

Labour weekend, decided to take it for a drive to Napier. Diff seemed to be leaking oil drips on the garage floor. Thought I best replace the gasket before I go. Climbed underneath and seems it was coming from the plug. So topped it up and tightened the plug. Hopefully that should do it. Atleast it saved me doing the gasket! Loaded the boot with a box full of tools, bottles of water, 20l container of gas, old hoses, ATF fluid. Better safe than sorry for a long trip on my own.

plenty of room in that boot.

Took the gas, as I wanted to see if it would make it to Napier from Auckland on 1 tank of gas. Either I was going to make it or run it dry. Don’t trust those fiddly gauges. Somewhere just before Taupo noticed the temp gauge creep up through the hills. Shouldn’t be doing that I thought, wondered what it would do through the Taupo/Napier hills. Plenty of water, she’ll be right.

Hit the hills, and slowly the temp crept up to the red marks. Whacked the fan for the heater on and hoped to make all the hills. At least the temp dropped like a stone on the down hills.

About 50km out from Napier, gauge was down to just over E for enough. Kept waiting for it to splutter. But seemed to keep going, so did a quick drive through marine parade etc before my destination.

Preparing to leave for home, checked oil, used ½ litre. Pretty sure most of it is from a slight intake manifold leak. Doesn’t smoke at any time. No major leaks on the ground at any time from crank seals etc. Radiator took3 litres water. Took about 53l of gas to fill up, worked out at about 12.5l/100kms. So that should get me home.

Hit the Napier/Taupo hills again. Fark, where’s all my gas going . I think I lost some out the rear going up the hills. Note to self “don’t fill to top if doing hills early” temp gauge shot up again to right on the red marks. Didn’t move further so wasn’t to bothered. The down hills and on to the Taupo flats, the temp gauge sat on the red. It only dropped a few times when slowing to pass through urban towns. Otherwise it stayed in the red all the way to Hamilton to where I stopped to catch up with people( I guess it was at peak operating temp) Filled the radiator with water, and tipped in the 20l of spare gas. Gas gauge was reading under a ¼, so I guess I must’ve lost some through the hills.. onward to Auckland at 9pm, good time to miss most of the labour day traffic. Temp gauge sat on ½ rest of the way home. An uneventful trip and drives awesome for a lounge suite on wheels.

Gonna try a lower degree thermostat, go from 88C to 77C and see if that affects the temp. When it had no thermostat, it sat on ¼ and never moved past it up the Kaimais etc. The 88C was fine around town, idling etc. When it came to hills.. I got the angry red. Shouldn’t be the radiator, it looks to have been recored.

That is about it for now, other things to do it and finish up the mags etc

[Quadzilla]

Not quite part of my HQ build, however a past build vehicle i had sold visited today on its maiden voyage for a quick cruise. So here is a few pics.......

 

check out September NZV8, its supposed to be in that

 

How it left 3 yrs ago

 

and today it returns nearly to the day

[Quadzilla]

Torana must be in Octobers NZV8.. bugger.

 

Anyways, the old boat has gone for heart checkup this week.

usual issues apparently. cam & lifters are toast as were the valve guide seals, everything else is sweet im told.

so a block clean, hone, new rings, bearings, crank polish, high torque cam, lifters, oil pump, carb rekit, head plane, valve reseating and commodore HEI with ford rotor to suit the original smaller points cap.

 

cant wait to get the thing back for summer cruising!

 

no pics yet, so enjoy a photo shopped window tint test

 

[Quadzilla]

First start up this arvo!

after tweaking the timing twice, 3rd go.. boooom into life.

sounds sweet from the rear, and best of all no black oil marks and smells clean.

Basically new or completely recondition everything.

 

Bought a decal kit. if anyone knows where the "RE", "RF" and "QP" decals should be located in the engine bay, id like to know.

im sure 1 or 2 go on the front of the rocker cover, however mine had "CX" before i stripped them.

 

painting of stuff

 

Have a vid of first start up. a little noisey. im told the trans dust cover is rubbing against the flex plate

[Quadzilla]

Finally, its ready for pickup Friday. needs few minor rechecks like things re-tightened.
dud new oil pump or gasket, leaks a lil oil.. so replacement tomorrow and it is cruising time.. touch wood.

Starts easy as. Runs like a well oiled sewing machine with a very subtle but noticeable lumpy idle at the rear.. woop

 

 

re sanded/ polished & finally painted the tridents. wasnt happy with the subtle scratch marks left from the first time round, so used about 10 different grades of wet n dry.. never again by hand! much happier, but doesnt hide the subtle casting flaws

close enough to near mirror finish. looks good from about 20cms away.

im told the 352s produce some good smoke, 8mm tread currently

 

just need to replace the front A arm and sway bar bushes, lowered springs. might get the paint professional touched up and cut/polished, undecided on window tint and im done!...

[Quadzilla]

Got it back Friday arvo. Took it for a run around the Bombays and then Hamilton during the weekend. Aint no slug now.
A quick wash & chrome polish today. Decided to throw on the tridents to see what they look like.
Needs lowing, but atleast the rear sticks to the road now with the 245s.

 

[Quadzilla]

ready for pickup & booked in for wheel alignment
Front suspension rebuild, bushes, ball joints, steering components, super low springs, shocks etc.
though doesn't look as low as i thought. though im told they'll "settle in"
Only got the front lowered, will see how it goes. will do the rear myself as it should be straight forward if need be...
at best, it sits even now. not the high front. perhaps the rear springs are shagged and need resetting?

Oil leak fixed from engine rebuild. apparently was the oil pump. no more leaks!

 

Got the standard tyres white striped earlier in the year too. Haven't put then on yet, should look good

Happy summer cruising.

[Quadzilla]

Been awhile since last post.

Ditched the tridents.

Looks better original.

Now that it sits level, ill leave the rear springs in. Besides, the tyres on the tridents rubbed on the guards too easily  Problem solved with originals.

Full brake rebuild, that i dont even want to talk about!

Mechanics too busy and im sure i do a better job taking care. So i managed it myself.

Purchased master cylinder, slave cylinders, rear shoes, quality front pads.

Removed calipers and took them to local garage for inspection. Disassembled & cleaned, nothing else needed. Looked like they had been rebuilt recently. (front pads and rear shoes looked fairly unworn i noticed too)

gave them the rotors so they could be resurfaced. argh. had to be done on the vehicle.

off to buy new wheel bearings. might aswell. everything else on the front has nearly been replaced. 45yr old bearings or new? hmm why not new, they looked old.

Rotors showed signs of original machine marks.

Those drum brakes! Reassembling them was like a jigsaw puzzle. 11am - 11pm on a saturday.. yeah fun. couldnt figure it out, those springs are annoying. in the end i gave a mate a call @ 7, who has done a few brake jobs. couple of hours later, nearly there. but there is always something! the last side, the brake adjuster was jamd solid. Wouldnt undo, tried a bit of heat and snapped the locator slot.

Thankfully scored 1 to match from Aging Autos. hmm, it was left hand thread lol We'd been trying to move the jamb adjuster right hand. no matter, it works

Pulls up and stops way better then beforehand. no more front wheel lock up on the left side.

 

then next was to sort the steering.

After the balljoints, tierods, draglink, idler was replaced along with the springs. i noticed the steering had twice as much play, more like driving a cruiseliner.

There was play in the steering box arm. Out comes the box and off to PG hydraulics. 30min to make an adjustment and the play is gone.

Reinstall into the vehicle, test drive. hmm, its better but still there is play..getting tired of chasing nice steering.
Took the car back to PG Hydraulics and explained there was still play. Maybe they'd have an idea. Popped the hood for the guy to have a look. 2 mins later, he explains the reason. The steering was out of alignment with the box, due to the tie rod ends being installed incorrectly. There werent put on at equal lengths so that the steering box is centered. Said to bring it back the following week for him to sort it. however, i was going on a roadtrip and preferred the best steering as the play would be annoying. So he made time and spent an hour sorting it out the next day.

Finally everything sorted, in time for a roadtrip down the Eastcoast to Wellington via palmy, up the west side. 2400Km, trouble free. Plenty of corners, straights, hills. A good test drive to run the engine in and enjoy the brakes and steering. For a 308 with a cam and HEI, it has a lil bit of pep and just keeps pulling.

Managed to catch the 70,000 roll over.

 

Back to times past by..

 

 

To be continued......