Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted March 26, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted March 26, 2020 Sorry chaps, life got in the way of reporting my oldschool actions, and ive neglected to tell you about this beast. My mrs is besotted with old square cars. When we spotted this on marketplace for what we reckoned was cheap, we decided it was a good deal and we should grab it to tidy up and flick to fund a house deposit. sight unseen from Dunedin. 28 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted March 26, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 26, 2020 Its been off the road for over 10 years and had a VTNZ wof fail sheet saying the seatbelts were toasted (whole interior very dried out!) lower balljoint, lenses sunbleached, no reverse lamps. I fixed all these with some ease. Got the whole front lenses from Rare spares, fucked around with the inhibitor switch for ages and it was shagged so got a new one which wasnt identical but worked with some mods. There was mad rust holes behind the bumper/under tail lights that VTNZ totally missed. This was a pure cunt to get to underneath with leaves in the way too. It typically blew out more than expected and resulted in a repair on the rear quarter. I didnt bog and paint that as it wasnt my usual WOF guy. Its also had a hit on the chassis outrigger where the seat mounts on passengers side so i pulled that out a bit better and added some strength. The Tail lights are almost impossible to get in good shape. Someone had split these one piece units and painted the red with normal paint. This looked like ass and the seal job allowed moisture in and moss was growing. I split them again, cleaned the piss out of them and hit them with VHT NightShade Red, so very stoked how well it worked! I reassembled with clear RTV and they are good to go. Will always be keeping an eye out for spares! Its on farm rego with new plates, I was a little concerned but worst case its a re-reg..Well it must be some loophole to reintroduce an old car to the road? Its real virgin and bog standard, all numbers match. 4.1 BW35 auto Column change. Someone has treated it to new shocks in the front, Air shocks in rear. It went back onto the road no sweat thank god! Didnt need to go back to VTNZ either. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted March 26, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 26, 2020 I hate missing interior trim so i went hunting to get that sorted. It has had a carpet set but the spare paint leaked in transit. It took AGES to clean it up. It was bone dry and dusty, there was that rank sticky window sweat and overspray on the glass, the demister on the hatch was cooked so i razor bladed it all off and breathed it in. The Vacuum operated heater etc didnt work, rearview needed glued on, there was a firewall/screen leak that soaked the underfelt and smelled.. It had a shit-ugly wooden steering wheel which made life suck as its a non-power steering model. It came with the original wheel but had chunks missing. Used the wooden one for warrant then swapped. After an exhaustive search and several other wheels from XC and XE which dont fit i found XD to have its own damn wheel. We scored a really decent one in the end. I tracked down and fixed missing knobs and things which was choice, added a wee bluetooth stereo that matches the finned vent cover on the dash. Put 4in speakers in the factory spots, one where the Base model central speaker goes and my old-school Pioneer sub from my first car setup in 2004. Pinched a Fusion amp from my mate whos not using it. 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted March 26, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 26, 2020 We needed a Family car since ive got a kitset family and dogs and small motorbikes, and everyone loves CC, so we never sold it and it sees alot of use. It CHONGS gas and has no performance to make it worthwhile. Needed new boots ASAP. I had my heart set on Hustlers but they got sold out from under me. Tridens look ham on Wagons but great on all other models, i wasnt allowed Cragar SS so it was to be 12 slots! 7in are common but pooze, these things need 8's and attitude. Que overpriced mags. What happened? Gotta pay the cost to be the boss. Im such a jew but made the effort to 'make' the look complete. The roof and door shuts are factory, someone has hit the sides and engine bay with CAT yellow, horribly. They missed most of the sills, sprayed over silicone on the bumper and then flatted off the sides but never polished it.. Its in pretty good shape. Theres a split in the bonnet skin, lumps on some doors but ultimately a good one. I already have a tin of 2K paint to respray it..Its a richer, slightly orange shade.Think NYC cab. Eagle eyed will notice we blacked out the trim around windows. Im not sold on it but its certainly not a bad move. The carb gave some trouble so was pulled down and cleaned, new accelerator pump. Gave it the usual, new fluids, rocker cover gasket, filters, plugs, leads, cap, rotor, points, vac hoses, heater hoses, heater tap, water pump, belt, washer etc. Its been on the road for almost a year now. Ill drag out some more photos in the coming days 38 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Mk1 Posted April 26, 2020 Author Share Posted April 26, 2020 I got these from a guy who was looking to buy it in a previous life. sheesh 4 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted August 14, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 14, 2020 Bugger all use In the last 6 months due to it living outside and being unsavoury To defrost/demist on the Colder mornings meant i was a bit surprised it needed another warrant this week! She passed but it needs love, so now I have a new pitman arm, idler arm and lower ball joints to install. I was kinda putting this off because I’d planned to convert it all to power steer (hard parts differ) but never really saw anything promising pop up in the market so have flagged that for now. Also want to put a urethane isolator ring on the coils to lift the front a little as it scrubs a lot. Need to put some clamps on some fuel lines, buzz up a hole in the muffler and see why rear brake is dragging on one side. All pretty straight forward! Since last update I had a go at repairing the bonnet.. the leading edge had cracked. When sanded back I found that some weapon has put a new front on and only welded about 1/3 of it. Their welds on the swapped portion of frame We’re shit too and breaking so gave it all a fizz along with trim holes in bonnet and guards.. it’s still shit and doesn’t sit nicely. Bonnets are rare in good nick for the XD and I didn’t want to spend ~$350 for a goodun...then one appears locally for $25 start no reserve! I won that un-rivalled and will collect tomorrow. Its missing some frame and has crust but much much more workable. The morning I won that another appears in the city and it’s in great shape but paint stripped and has pin dents in places. Someone else is bidding but if it stays reasonable I’ll try get that too and run instead. ..almost a picture less update and we can’t have that, so here’s crummy pics. (the gaps in bonnet are about 6-8mm) and a lockdown pic while I was doing a bit of everything and cycling between jobs. 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted August 19, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 19, 2020 The yellow bonnet wasnt flash in person, the skin is mint but the frame has rusted away around the whole front edge and down the sides some..so it flaps within its self. It’s fixable but I’m not interested right now. i ended up winning the auction for the tidy-as one so will get it this weekend. i had an unholy cunt of a time trying to get the pitman arm off. Broke my pitman puller and several tools along the way, rooted my jack handle from wailing on it with a hammer trying to bash it off the spline. The go was taking the whole drag link off which frees up half the battle and some tension I guess, brought a new puller and introduced more heat and it slid off. Then a bad part number crossover Means the new one turned out to be for a powersteer model, no bueno. Deep breath. saga. Idler arm was easy as, a joy almost. Bottom ball joints.. one was aftermarket so was bolt on, pretty easy. The other side was factory and has fucking great Steel rivets holding it on. Much drilling, grinding, bashing and swears later in a tight spot it started to move but wasn’t pining. Turns out there’s two spotwelds holding the cast part to the bottom arm.. lovely. In the mean time the cable tie holding by the hub and brakes up out of the way snapped and crushed my wrist, so that was cool. Also burnt a finger unexpectedly on a hot drill bit. won in the end but pretty worse for wear. The wheel cylinder for the lame side was fully frozen so binned that and got another set.. ive done one side, the other can wait. Fanged some hose clamps on fuel line too. There was no chance of leakage cause I could barely pull the line off but it does look safer. And a recycled picture So you dont feel too ripped off after reading this shit 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Mk1 Posted August 25, 2020 Author Share Posted August 25, 2020 It drives really nice now and brakes are epic. Who would have thought. The tidy bonnet is lovely. The top needs wheeled back and etched but its bloody good to be fair. Next phase is reset the leaves 2in. Have ordered new bushes for these, and some lower control arm bushes so then the whole front is lush and ready for another wheel alignment 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted October 5, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 5, 2020 I failed to take after photos, but that’s the FIRST coat on the floor. She’s safe for ages now. Wasn’t Really crusty but wasn’t really protected if you know what I mean. peeled back the best bonnet yesterday and epoxy etched it today. forget how big they are when they are off the car. will chuck it on and leave it black for a while cause I’m a dirtbag. also finally got some proper coil spring spacers. 10mm nolathane ones, whipped them in yesterday and although I haven’t driven it I think I’ll be happy with where it will end up sitting. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted January 25, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 25, 2021 Added a piece of trim that came with the car but was shit to attach so I put it off for ages, then painted that and the handles. also tinted the front and rear indicators. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted January 30, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 30, 2021 Warrant looming again soon, been watching this bubble in the corner growing. Today was the day. The inner was pretty heavily pitted so whacked a quick easy patch in happy with that. another wee hole up top, I’ve never had this trim piece off this lower guard blew out when I did the first repairs on the inner side when we got the car. I never bothered doing it justice cause I thought I’d replace the whole bottom one day. Still on board with this thinking so cleaned up, rust converted and slammed a patch in. It would have simmered away slowly over a few years but the wag lives outside so fast-forwarded the rust 28 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted August 20, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 20, 2021 Have been driving this as my daily since I sold the 1200 at the start of the year. New lockdown means I can do a few jobs. my mate had a set of extractors come up so he finally got them off and I grabbed them. Supposedly do good things for fuel economy. Shame I drive it for 7 months before they arrived! Ive always loved that Trust blue look and it will contrast well with the yellow. found a flange gasket I’d hoarded that fit nicely after elongating the bolt holes a bit. The pipe before the flange is a bit ugly but I’ll see if I stays or goes once offered-up to the car. Depending on lockdown length, I have enough product to panel and paint it too. Been on the list a long time but it’s been perfectly useable as is. 19 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted August 20, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 20, 2021 I inadvertently stocked up with parts last week so I have new wheel bearings, discs, pads, brake hoses and a proper non-recovery radiator cap to go on at some point 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted April 3, 2022 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 3, 2022 When I put the tow bar on almost a year ago something wiring related occurred and the fuel sender failed. I couldn’t find one anywhere and got a universal sender and gauge in desperation cause I was dailying it and it was unrequired stress. problem was I could never get it to seal nicely and didn’t want to modify tank because id always prefer to keep this sort of shit original. As it spends most of its time tucked up in the back yard, it reeked of gas and just wasn’t cool. Mrs found a falcon wrecker out north Canterbury and he let us loose on a few wagons to see if any worked..found 3 variations but one identical, slung it in and Wooohooo 1/4 of a tank! also grabbed the last missing dash part..a tiny rectangular knob to operate the vent! 30 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted March 21, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 21, 2023 Just taking the last of the exterior rust out of this old slag and giving it a quick spruce up. The bottom foot has been shabby since we got it so it will be a big improvement when it’s all one shade of the same bloody colour! Can put in the new tail lights we found on marketplace, and source some door-to-glass rubbers since they have turned hard as plastic about 20 years ago. Also toying with the idea of using a mk4 cortina rear rubber bumper insert as a lip along the bottom of the front bumper ala XE and ESPs.. they look way way better but are hens teeth nowadays because of that. Shes lived outside a lot of the time we’ve had it, hasn’t done it any favours but I always knew it was getting a birthday and that parts that deteriorated were still available. It’s been in the flash new garage all summer so it’s bones are dry and ready for a new coat! 21 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted March 22, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 22, 2023 Seems I forgot to update this over a year ago with some more cancer removal.. She loves a dump run, almost all I use it for lol! 29 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted April 2, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 2, 2023 Few crummy pics of the progress up to today. The bonnet is like making a golf ball smooth but at least there’s no rust in it yet! It got a good dose of spritz and needs a few more hours but the rest of the car is good. Manda tidied up the bumper and scraped off the poorly adhered previous layers, it needs a wee plastic weld then it can be prepped too 26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted April 7, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 7, 2023 Cake is iced! 17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Mk1 Posted April 10, 2023 Author Share Posted April 10, 2023 Well we got it rubbed back and I shot the base coat. Went terribly! I brought this metalux paint when I did the Datsun, and the red was transparent as fuck. Yellow being yellow, I thought oh hell, I’m in trouble. A mate had a tin of mustard yellow so I was all on to bash down the mustard then the topcoat would cover easier. My ground coat was too heavy so it ran, then a heap of fisheyes appeared. Must have come from the wax & grease rag or the last minute latex gloves I used from a hair dye set. Pretty fucked off, but glad I’d decided to mask the roof, hatch and bonnet so I could minimise overspray and have more control by doing those secondary. I was planning to wet-on-wet the base then the topcoat. was looking forward to de-dusting the shed too but I guess that has to wait! 6 1 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Mr.Mk1 Posted April 16, 2023 Author Popular Post Share Posted April 16, 2023 Well I’m half way there. The base coat went on BEAUTIFUL, like best I’ve ever laid paint. the top coat went on thick. Guts.. Thinned it more but cautious of runs like last time. Ah well, can’t un-do it so put plenty on. Got a sweet run on the front guard that will shave off but the car is pretty legit otherwise! Now to wait for it to harden and I can back-mask it and blast the roof, hatch and bonnet. Disclaimer* I never gapped the panels, I just wanted it sprayed and to put an end to the god forsaken dust in my nice shed.. so we can line it up another time/winter 28 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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