Popular Post jackeo21 Posted August 30, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted August 30, 2020 Sold my GX toyotas and acquired this gold HQ kingswood, tastefully equipped with a 202/traumatic. Reg on hold was the main selling point, plus I decided it looked reasonably solid during a hastily organised nighttime inspection. Got it home and dug straight into it! First to go were the VC commodore plush front seats, I've never sat in something so comfortable in my life but they're definitely not staying. After looking it over a while, I've found a few areas that need reconstruction but overall it's pretty solid for what these are. Standard bog spots around the place but overall a great base and something I can have on the road reasonably soon. For the next year or so I'll be keeping with the 6 cylinder powerplant, however next year I'd like to go for a V8. I have a few ideas but not letting them get the better of me at this stage, hoping to have this down to beach hop in November/OS drag day in December. Plan is simply get wof, tidy paint, wide steelies (or period mags potentially), and a few other mandatory wag bits and it'll handle daily duties as work's close/why not. cheers Gross under the bonnet. Inner guards are at the blasters, and this motor has been swapped out in favour of a good runner. The interior, with a hacked dash and VC seats before I stripped it. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jackeo21 Posted August 30, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted August 30, 2020 First things first, was to strip the horrid interior, and remove the front end to see what I was facing. It's been off the road since '03, where it appears someone had begun a teardown of the front suspension for a rebuild, but instead gave up, lost some important nuts, and roughly bolted it back together. Front steering joints had been unbolted, which made transporting it a mission. However this problem is fixed, and it only needs some new bushes/brake bleed to be operational. I sourced a brown ute bench seat (ute's have headrests and sedans/wags don't). Much harder to do than I had anticipated! But it's improved it 100%. I also found a premier wood dash facia, and a nice black dashpad that needs some straightening. I took the column apart and have restored all that, ready for reinstallation once my interior is black. Should give a much nicer feeling once I get it back together than mouldy, faded and split brown! Next up, I installed a 202/trimatic that came from an HZ ute. Runs nicely, and didn't take long at all to swap in as most of the engine mount bolts had been lost. The car didn't come with a driveshaft but I've managed to find one which is great. I took a look at my rad support panel to find that rust had gotten the better of the lower section, as they so commonly do with these. A replacement rare spares panel and a few hours later and it's as new. Spent today chopping away at the body, but also got keen to tackle the exhaust and get that setup. @MACKAZ did me a deal on a 2 barrel inlet/headers which is awesome, for now the 2 barrel setup will wait for the future but I thought to fit the headers as a start. However I didn't consider that these (probably commodore) headers may have fitment issues and found that they hit the firewall when I tried bolting them on. Some cutting and welding later and they fit and the exhaust is done. Fuel tank is full of 17 years of water/varnish mix and to be honest I'm not sure the engine enjoys running on it but nonetheless goes. Need to pull tank and drain, the lovely folk at holden didn't install a drain bung for me. The car as it sits. These come apart so easy, it's super good. Painted my steering wheel up and came out better than I thought. Hopefully it doesn't wear too bad. 24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jackeo21 Posted September 8, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 8, 2020 I've been working away at this determined to have it done before November. It'll be a stretch but to see that fresh wof sticker land on my windscreen will be a bloody good feeling. I repaired a small section of corrosion damage to my front nose panel (surprisingly good nic overall) and gave it a rough and ready base/clear paint-up, I'm not fussed getting an average finish because the whole thing will get a birthday next year anyway. I threw it back together and sat it on the car, now it awaits my inner guards to come back from blasting, and for me to finish working on the top panel, so it can be reunited with the front guards and bonnet. I've also re-co'd some bits to go back in once my floor is painted and the interior can go back in. I purchased a new ignition and keys because the old one was so worn it didn't actually need a key to turn so while it was apart I painted the column and cleaned my gauges. Next up, i'll be working on installing front suspension bushes, trans filter kit, and doing some mechanical maintenance to bring it up to daily driver standard. The points need doing, and I'll probably do the cap and rotor while I'm at it. Runs o.k, but with the worn points and sub-par gas it misses and coughs and all that carry on. Also swapped out the manual pedals for the larger auto brake pedal. The car was half manual converted (roughly too) so it's headed back to auto and will probably stay that way. Fitted up the 14x8 wheels to the rear. Unfortunately the rears don't take hubcaps but the fronts do, so it'll have a bit of an oldschool drag look to it. I'd also like another inch out of the ride height. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jackeo21 Posted October 1, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 1, 2020 Work around the top panel is nearing completion, having painted my dash today. I also cleaned up the floors, and fully coated them in an epoxy etch primer to save them for years to come. I've sorted a driveshaft to get me moving, so now I need some inner guards to complete the car. Hooked up the heater, transmission hoses and a few other little things, it starts and runs nicely now. After I run a tank through it, it should really sharpen up as it has the odd miss from bad fuel. Pushing hard for Beach Hop and Drag Day in the coming months. My goal has been to get a warrant before Octobers end so I'm sticking to that, I think it's possible. 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jackeo21 Posted October 29, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 29, 2020 It's less sad now Screen in today and did a nice coat on the floor to seal things up. Carpet acquired too. Full set of new seatbelts on the way Determined and doing what it takes to get to Beach Hop come Novembers' end! oh and see you at drag day (if I don't break it!) Overall stoked with the progress and proud of what I have managed to achieve. Dad spent his youth mucking around with this series of Holdens and as a nineteen year old, hearing the many tales of different shenanigans that happened back in the day involving these things only makes me more determined to get it going. Old times seemed so much cooler. Next up is for me to install carpet, finish up dash install and fix wiring. Then a few suspension bushes, tie rod ends, test drive, wof. mint. 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jackeo21 Posted December 12, 2020 Author Popular Post Share Posted December 12, 2020 WOF acquired! we are legal! over the last month or so I've gone hard to get this thing legal to use over summer. Whilst I didn't make beach hop due to it being unreliable, I still managed a WOF and even attended drag day yesterday, although I didn't attempt a 2 second pass due to not having a coolant overflow tank properly setup as well as coolant leaks. but, regardless, it's going now and I've been idling around town trying to iron out problems as they come. the photos added are of how it sits now. the front end is super on the piss (panel wise) so my next step is to start straightening it all out and getting it to look a bit better. I've been fighting the engine as of recent, it idles on 5 cylinders (very noticeable in gear) but when driving its normal. Not sure what this is about, have changed carb, checked all vacuums, changed dizzy, new points etc etc but the problem won't go away. Hit the discussion if you're able to help in resolving this as it's quite frustrating! slowly but surely I'll get this sorted a little better than it is now and hopefully have it going all summer. cheers! 14 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jackeo21 Posted January 12, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted January 12, 2021 The Q has been treating me fairly well over the last month or so. In between leaking plenty of ATF, oil, having a "less than advertised" amount of cylinders, and overheating, it's been pretty reliable. I took it to Tauranga for a week and all went well, turned plenty of heads and always gets a thumbs up which is pretty neat! While the 202 has been chuffing away on daily duties I've been collecting bits to put my 350 in place. Bought a modified Ford 9" diff that has been made to fit underneath an HQ. Even came with a driveshaft to suit a TH400 which is perfect for my application. Tidied up the motor today with a fresh coat of paint, new oil pump and new gaskets. Things look good under the pan so I'll skip on a rebuild until the car gets a resto at some stage. With the kumehu swapmeet coming up I'm hopeful that I'll find the few bits and pieces I need to start the conversion. Hoping to do my swap in less than a week so I need to get everything together first. I think I'll just end up stuck on things like throttle cable and trans cable setup. With the TH400 I need a way to connect the gearbox to the column shift. 22 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jackeo21 Posted February 8, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted February 8, 2021 Right, almost there now! Engine in car Transmission also in car Ford 9" diff into car, all going good Driveshaft into c... …nope Turns out the driveshaft I was sold suited a TH350, not a TH400 x1 New Driveshaft later and the drivetrain is in. Have taken my time to get everything hooked up and tidy. Now I've just got to fab something up throttle pedal wise and it's almost test drive worthy. Spent yesterday making up an exhaust. I'll leave it at the diff for now and get someone more experienced to do my over the diff bends etc This is what it sounds like and I'm quite ok with driving it back and fourth to work like this Getting really keen to go for a drive now. Also sorted another set of wheels that I'll repaint and throw on soon with new rubber. Old style "rocket" brand rims with alloy centers pressed into steel barrels. Will add that heightened sense of danger to each drive. Aiming to have it road-going by the weekend all going well. Managed to sort the shifting ordeal although it doesn't line up with the marks on the dash (I doubted it would anyway). Will work for now. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jackeo21 Posted March 31, 2021 Author Popular Post Share Posted March 31, 2021 Been running the V8 for some time now and it's been a ton of fun. Just did beach hop and the car gave no trouble. Ended up finding a standard inlet manifold and running a Quadrajet which goes good. Aside from some exhaust issues I've remedied, it goes nice and has been heaps of fun driving to work daily. As something else has come up I've decided to sell the car. I'll have an advert up in the buy/sell section here on OS but it's already on tm and fb. Had heaps of fun putting this together. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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