Ben's 1964 mk3 Zephyr

[Benno]

Found myself a new project.

Car was last on the road in 1993, then the registration went dead but the rego is still in the system. Previous owner bought the car around '98 with plans of putting a 302 into it. A few years later he took the car to a panelbeater to get some rust fixed and bodywork done. The bill came back a lot more then expected so the car got mothballed to a hay shed. A mk4 zodiac came up a few years later that had already had a certified V8 conversion so he snapped that up and the mk3 stayed in the shed. 

The car only had minor rust (guards, doors, boot etc) to begin with, there was no damage to the chassis or sills. A bit of minor rust has come back since then, but a sweet barn find.

The car was in Methven and had a heap of spares with it. It was pretty heavy towing back.

It came with the engine pulled apart and a heap of heads, manifolds and bits. The guy that sold it to me knows someone with a mk2 motor that ran when pulled out, so I will snap that up.

Long term plans for it once revinned will be some slam, wide steels and eventually an engine swap to a V8 or a barra.

Am I best to get a repair certifier to come and look at it so I can get the rust signed off before I strip it back and paint? I'm thinking that might be easier while everything is pulled apart rather than taking through revin in primer, then pulling everything back apart to paint. Any ideas on how hard this would be and cost?

Discuss here: 

 

 

[Benno]

The motor that came with it had been pulled apart, most key bits were there but was missing a piston. The brother of the guy who sold it had a mk2 motor that was running when removed from a car 15 years ago. I picked that up at the weekend. Turns over, seems to have compression. Even if it's a dud it should have all the bits I need.

A previous owner has poorly installed bucket seats and aftermarket seatbelts. The seatbelts have been bolted through the B pillar.

I am sure this will be a problem with the revin. How are the seatbelts supposed to work? Do they anchor from the B pillar from factory? My workshop manual has the following, but most of the pictures I have found online seem to have a mounting point on the B pillar.

[Benno]

Just been doing little things on this. So far I've rebuild the starter motor, windscreen wiper motor and a carb with the best bits from several.

 

 

Found a wee bit of rust on the guard, fixed that. 

Fixed the transmission tunnel, someone had cut it out for a floor shifter with what seemed to be an axe

[Benno]

Stil haven't got much major progress on this, ticking away on the little things.

I've been slowly working on cleaning and polishing the trims by hand with some autosol, most of them are coming up nicely.

The original dash had been hacked up to take a head unit. The car came with a replacement, but it had some rust. Cleaned that up, painted with some Brunox and got a colour match can and some matte clear. Also made a new tray, will cover with some vinyl.

Came with a set of extractors that had a couple of rust holes. Welded up the holes, cleaned off the surface rust and painted with some hi-temp paint. Doubt it will last long, but will hopefully keep the surface rust at bay until I get the car up and running.

 

[Benno]

Got the dash all finished off, pretty happy with how it looks now. Got a colour matched rattle can and a can of matte clear. Looks fairly close to the original. 

 

Found someone on facebook who had adapted a factory manifold to suit a weber 32/36 carb, similar to a geddes speed one.

I think I'll give it a crack, I've got a couple of spare manifolds so doesn't really matter if I screw one up. Plan is to cut off the raised mount, make a new carb flange out of 10-12mm Al plate, get that welded on then have a go at matching with a die grinder. 

 

[Benno]

Starting to chip away at the paint on this. Bare metalled both sides of the bonnet, treated with some phosphoric acid then painted with epoxy primer. Didn't take any photos once I'd finished bare metalling, below is after the paint stripper starting on the bits close to seams and cavities.

Got the first side done, will flip it over once the paint has dried and do the other side. Few wee runs, but generally happy enough with how it has come out.

[Benno]

Been making some slow progress on this. Go the guards and front valance off and engine bay nearly stripped now. Just got to take the steering box and column out now. No nasty surprises so far which is nice.

In more exciting news, I've got my hands on some triple carbs for it. Not sure what the condition of the SU's is like, but externally they look all good. 

[Benno]

A guy on facebook was giving away some motors and parts, after finishing his project. Drove over to Greymouth to collect them. Now got 4 parts motors, so should hopefully have enough good bits when it comes to building a motor for it.

Finished stripping the engine bay, removed suspension and cross member. I have made a start removing the underseal from the guards, only been finding some light surface rust so far. Will continue removing the undereseal and make a start bare metalling the engine bay next.

[Benno]

Slowly but surely making some progress on this. Got the engine bay stripped and into epoxy primer.

I've removed the dash and the first bit of sound deadening. Bit of rust under the sound deadening, but nothing major so far. Found a small hole around the size of a 10c coin but that should be easy to sort. Planning on cleaning floor back with a wire wheel and treating with Brunox, before overcoating. Probably will just brush it on, doesn't need to look pretty.

[Benno]

Got most of my font suspension bits stripped, rust treated with phosphoric acid and into epoxy primer. I will get some 2K black when I can. I'm going to get the struts converted to gas.

Stripped the brake calipers down. The pistons had a bit of rust, but the housings have cleaned up well. Ordered a rebuild kit with new pistons.

Took out the poorly installed front bucket seats and test fitted the bench seat. 

For some reason when they installed the bucket seats they had drilled new holes directly next to the mounting points for the original seat. Hopefully can patch without too much drama. Floor pan is generally pretty good, mostly surface rust. Only found one rust hole about the size of a finger nail so far.

[Benno]

Stripping the floor pans. Using a strip disc, wire wheel and 80 grid sandpaper. Running low on materials, so might need to go on hold soon until after quarantine is lifted.

I'm going to use brunox and a satin black top coat. Eventually I will lay down some Kilmat (or similar) before carpet, but planning on taking through Revin first.

[Benno]

Still chipping away at stripping and sanding the floor pans.

Decided to blow off some dust with some compressed air, I was surprised at how much crap came out when I poked it into the sill. I used my aliexpress special inspection camera, which worked surprisingly well. Rigged up a hose on the vacuum cleaner, worked a treat to clear it out. Fortunately no serious rust, once I've got them painted I'll fill it with cavity wax.

[Benno]

Fixed the small rust patch in the floor and filled the holes that had been drilled to install the bucket seats. All the rest of the rust came off with a wire wheel.

 

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Sanded off most of the paint, especially on any areas which looked like there might be any surface rust. I've painted it using Brunox to catch any last bits of rust

 

[Benno]

Haven't forgotten about this. I got the shocks converted to gas strut, pretty hapy with them so far. Been bare metalling all the other front suspension bits, will paint with epoxy primer and 2K black once it gets a bit warner.

Also removed all the sound deadening from the roof. Wee bit of surface rust, nothing too serious. Will clean off and paint with brunox.

[Benno]

Since my last update, I've got a bit done. I've finished cleaning up the roof, treated the minor surface rust with some Brunox, brush painted the interior with some satin black.

I've painted the suspension components with epoxy primer and 2K gloss black. I've also done the inner guards with 2K gloss black, will do the underside and boot when I get around to them. Next step will be to get the engine bay into high build primer ready for top coat.

[Benno]

Got the engine bay into high build primer, first round of sanding under way.

Also been working on a horn button for it. It's got an aftermarket steering wheel with no horn button. Quite like the steering wheel, so I'm going to 3D print one

[Benno]

Got the engine bay and front grille into colour

I've reassembled the front suspension, car kinda rolls now. No steering components yet. Next plan is to pull the diff and exhaust and start to tidy up under the car.

[Benno]

Got the fuel tank, rear suspension and diff out.

Did a bit of digging around the fuel tank filler and found a bit of a nasty surprise. A rust hole under the filler had been filled up with silicon. There was a bit of sheet metal tacked into place and rust holes along the seam had been bogged up. Haven't quite figured out how I'm going to fix the holes along the outer side yet. It will be mostly hidden by the bumper, but will be incredibly difficult to grind any repairs smooth. 

[Benno]

Kept going until I had chopped out most of the rust, got a few holes now.

Also slowly been working through scraping off the underseal. Slow, shitty job but starting to make some good progress. A multi-tool with a scraper attachment makes the flat bits a lot faster and easier.

[Benno]

Got the spare tyre well sorted.

Working on making up a patch for the boot floor. Made a template out of some rebar and plywood, used my hydraulic press to form the steel.

Came up fairly well. Next step was to bend up the edge, I used two bits of EA welded together to make the basic shape, then hammered using a bit of flat bar.