Axistr's new project (SANDY)

Is it Windsor blue and atlantis Blue. Back in the day my best mate had a Windsor Blue van that looked good. I always like the look of caribbean turquoise as well

Looking Good, cant wait to see the colour go on !!

The lighter blue is Deauville Blue and the darker sample is Impulse Blue. Still having trouble deciding which one to go with. The Bursons store manager is friend of mine who mixed all the samples. I also got him to mix me up a sample of Ultra blue but when he finished mixing it he tossed it in the bin and said your not painting your car that colour. When I have seen Toranas that the owners said its ultra blue they have been a metallic, apparently its not going by the speck sheet on the paint mix machine.

I think both colours has there own charactor....but I prefer Deauville Blue. ..

Now that the weather is worming up I managed to do the final rub down today and ready for colour. I was going to spray it in the shed but in realiaty there is just to much dust floading around. My neighbour has stock piles of top soil stacked up against his fence and 10 meters from my shed, so I have decided to send it to the smash repair shop that my son works at and spray it in their spray booth.

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Edited by axistr, 25 September 2018 - 05:44 PM.

I was hopeing to get the Panno home before christmass but it just didn't happen, and I prefered it to be done right rather than rush it. All the removable panels have now been painted and very shiny straight out of the gun. Body to go in the booth early next year.   

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Nice colour Lenny......top job as usual 

We finally have body colour. shouldn't be to much longer before its back in the shed. Just the blackouts to go.  Getting real bored at home with no car to play with.

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Don't you love it how panel shops have no issue getting filler dust absolutely everywhere?

It'd be pretty easy to do your front end alignment now. Do you know anyone capable of that? Just kidding. Thanks for your previous posts on alignment. It has helped me heaps with my LX.

Great work Lenny!

Regards, Steve.

Well its finally all painted, I went down to the panel shop last week and fitted up all the panels to make it easier to get it home and less risk of scratching the new paint. I hate assembling cars that the panels have been painted separately, but so far so good no scratches. Back in the shed and getting stuck into the assembly.

Had a go at tinting the windows, first timer and reasonably happy with the results, but a job probably best left for the professionals.

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decided to add an extra stop light to make sure no dick heads run up my ass, the originals weren't much chop in the direct sunlight. Nice and bright now so no excuse tailgaters.

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Should give those reflectors a squirt silver as well.

Some new trim turned up last week, it took me three days to install. I was not in a hurry so decided to do an initial fit and let it sit for a day to help remove some of the creases and ripples. Over the next 24 hours I kept giving it a tug and stretch here and there till most of the ripples were removed, then give it a quick go over with the heat gun to remove the remaining small little ripples. Happy with the results.

The headlining was made by a forum member C&G auto trimming. Its the third headlining I have purchased from them and all have fitted excellent.

Thanks Cindy, well done.

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That looks awesome.  Love the project (a bit jealous actually). What brand of adhesive did you use? Cheers Ron

Thank you for the compliments Lenny - as you know its 50/50 how its made and also how its fitted - you played a massive part in the way it looks

Like honestly thats fitted as good as any trimmer would - so well done to you

Im pretty sure that everyone would agree "is there anything you cant do"? haha

That looks awesome.  Love the project (a bit jealous actually). What brand of adhesive did you use? Cheers Ron

Thanks Ron, I used bugger all glue.  Sika brand spray contact cement was used arount the rear upper after I was finally happy with the rest. In the photo you can see contact cement all over the side panels, that was from the previous owners headlining fitment. They sure must have liked contact cement it was everywhere. I intend to deck out the back so it will get covered soon. 

Thank you for the compliments Lenny - as you know its 50/50 how its made and also how its fitted - you played a massive part in the way it looks

 

Like honestly thats fitted as good as any trimmer would - so well done to you

 

Im pretty sure that everyone would agree "is there anything you cant do"? haha

Thanks Cindy, Ha Ha if you ask my mrs she will give you an extensive list of things she reckons I cant do.

The panno got its first wash last week and to ensure I didn't have any water leaks. All good.

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This week I got into the brakes. The van was a country car for most of its life and with only 142,000 km on the clock most of the brake components look original. I measured up the front disc rotors which showed that they were still in spec to machine. I knocked out the bearing and found they were marked "Timken made in Australia", wow haven't seen these around for many years which enforced my feeling the rotors were probably the originals. 

I went down to my old workshop and asked to use the brake lathe, I was always very anal in the way I run my business and kept the workshop and equipment. I had to spend 1/2 an hour to unseize the cones from the shaft so I could mount the disc. I don't think the disc machine or workshop has been cleaned since the day I left. Grrrr makes me soooo mad to see it in this state. I still own and rent out the workshop and feel like kicking them out very soon. This machine always look like new the whole time I had it, it cost me plenty of coin so I had look after it.

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Anyway the discs machined up ok, sand blasted the components and overhauled the calipers, new bearing & seals, pads of course, new master cylinder, new rear drums, shoes and wheel cylinders. Brake feel brand new.

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Just waiting for the door trims and seat covers to turn up so I can complete the interior.

Seat time. Over the years I have only done a few truck seat foam and cover replacements and I don't claim to be an expert in auto upholstery by any means, I'm only a dumb truck mechanic but always up to the challenge and confident enough to tackle the job.

I managed to track down some HZ front seat which needed new covers, a good clean up , service and repaint the seat bases and tracks.

I removed the old covers and found the foam a bit discoloured but in very good condition for 40 year old seats. So ordered  new covers and door trims in black which turned up last week.

After a bit of cleaning I removed the steel wires from the sewn in pockets from the old covers and fitting them the new covers.  You firstly start crimping them to the seat frame which is located within the foam, I use fencing wire C clips and crimp tool and slowly work my way around until the cover insert section is secured then pull the outer sections of the cover around the back which also secures with steel C clips to the rear frame.

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All was going well, rolled it over and continued to pull the cover into the correct position and secure it around the back. When I rolled back over I noticed how loose the insert section was. I tried pulling and moving the cover around with no success. So I removed the cover rechecked every thing and started again, exactly the same end result. The cover fitted everywhere very well except the insert section. I grabbed the old cover and measured the insert across from the piping side to side which was within 3mm wider of the original cover piping, but when I pulled the cover side to side to remove the ripples and tighten the cover the measurement was close to 20mm wider than orginal.

I even got the other new cover out and tried it on the seat same result. Unfortunately the insert is 10mm to long top and 10mm to wide on both sides. So I decided to fit the seat base covers to make sure they fitted OK, no problem with them fitted quite well.

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So next step, I called the company that supplied them to discuss the issue I have and in my opinion the insert was not correctly sewn in.

OK I have had the conversation with the supplier/manufacturer, I've used this company a few times over the years for door trims and found them to be top quality and excelent workmanship. After the phone conversation I also sent a photo of the fitted covers to the owner and his response was "yeah it looks shit bring it back and I will fix it". No worries there was no need to get excited, he also mentioned he could probably do it while I waited. Its a 3 hour drive round trip so that suited me.

So yesterday I did the drive and spoke to the owner. He took the seat backs off me and quickly measured across the inserts. I also bought along the old original Holden covers so he could measure and check it out. He grabbed a rule and measured the new and old covers and said its only 2mm different. I said yes but the measurement was measured across a slack fitted insert and to remove the excess slack you would need to pull it apart by a further 20mm. He looked at me as if I couldn't read a tape measure. I mentioned again that in my opinion the insert was cut or sewn in incorrectly by 10mm all way around. After a few minutes he said go away and have lunch and come back in two hours and he would fix them. No worries, took the wife to the local shopping centre, only just arrived and got a text saying the seat backs were ready to go. I was under the impression they were going to remove the covers, unpick the insert sewing, resew them in to the correct size and refit them. My first though was bloody hell that was to quick to do that even with a couple of trimmers on the job.

Arrived back at his workshop within an hour of leaving and my seat backs were sitting outside in the sun. The owner quickly come up to me as I approached the seats and said don't they look great. They removed the covers and put extra foam only under the insert. My first impression was it surly didn't look like the original seats and looked puffy in the insert area. He tried to play it down saying it look great. Hmm don't think so, told him I wasn't impressed with the fix. I really hate having to take things back and get into an argument with people and if I had the equipment I probably would have had a go fixing it myself but I don't. In the end I said I would take them home and assemble then to the bases and see how they looked. There was no point standing there and trying to argue the point he had already made his mind up and thought his short cut fix was good enough.

I left his workshop very disappointed and defently didn't expect what I received.

Ok this is my thoughts, I don't believe in bagging out a company on the web especially when your only hearing one side of the story. I will not mention the company that's between me and them. I owned my own mechanical repair workshop for 35 years and employed between 8-10 people. I know how hard it is to get every job done perfect every time. During my business ownership the warranty return rate was around 1.5% which I think was reasonable for a mechanical truck workshop considering we had six mechanics and invoiced around 100-150 jobs per fortnight, and considering that some customers didn't have a good mechanical understanding to make a correct judgement call if it was a fault of our workmanship. Customers sometimes put blinkers on and its always someone else fault never theirs.

My father always said to me "in business son the extra cost of the job is soon forgotten when the customers  doesn't come back complaining". If you have a warrant its going to cost you money or a customer or both so make sure you get it right. And don't always take your workers word for it because they always say that they did the job perfect, make an impartial judgement and investigate it properly, and cutting corners rarely works.

With my little whinge over I got home an assembled the backs to the bases. when I noticed another problem. They have pulled the covers so tight to try and remove all the excess slack from the insert the outer bolsters are much flatter and the lower section foam has pulled up so tight there is now a very noticeable gap between the base and back.

Maybe its me, I know I'm a bit fussy but I don't think I am unreasonable. I didn't rust them and said I didn't have a deadline to be finished. I could have go the trim in ebay and saved myself close on $400 but I generally prefer to use people I though I can trust do the job properly. And if I did have a problem I would be looked after. Something that y don't always get on ebay products.  If I fit some lambs wool seat covers I wont notice the flaws but it will always be in the back of my mind. Anyway look at the photo below and please tell me I am worried about nothing ?

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It's not nothing, looking at those seat backs it just looks wrong with that puffy insert.

Did Premiers or Statesmans have extra padding? Maybe he just used the wrong pattern to begin with?

Hi Axistr.
The end result isn't great at all. Perhaps the trimmer should go into partnership with the Machine shop that did the work on your engine. He should have corrected his mistake properly and apologised.
I guess like most things you will have to fix his stuff up yourself or find a closer trimmer that can fix it up. This sort of thing makes me mad. Mistakes happen sometimes but it's what is done to make it right that really matters.

I wish you good luck with what you do about this.
Warren.
 

It's not nothing, looking at those seat backs it just looks wrong with that puffy insert.

 

Did Premiers or Statesmans have extra padding? Maybe he just used the wrong pattern to begin with?

Yeah didn't think of that, the seats were most likely originally from a sedan or wagon because the covers attached differently at the rear. I ordered HZ Sandman covers and they are open at the rear and need  plywood covers. I realised this later and had to make plywood panels. Only the vans get them. Thinking about it, if something was loose in the back nd hitting the brakes hard might send a projectile through the seat back or worse spinal injury. so in they go.

Warren, Yep it got the better of me so I decided to remove the covers and fit them a bit different. By no means perfect but much better. As I said I am a bit fussy but  not over the top, and I suppose I expect company's to run their business simular to the way I conducted mine.  

Anyway on wood and up wood, I cut out some plywood panels today and painted them simular colour to the back, the Mrs looked at them and said she hated them white and started an argument (F++k). I had some black vinyl left over from one of the Torana build so I ended up covering them today. 

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