121 replies to this topic

[red6]

Hi guys just thought I'd let u know why i haven been very active on here of late. Since finishing Uni at the end of last year I have moved to Melbourne at the beginning of the year and sadly the Lc has been put into storage as i dont have any off street parking up here.

It may be up on blocks for a year...may be for much longer. See what happens with work/travel/life. I miss driving it a lot but at the same time having driven different Torana's as my daily drivers for the past 7 years its been nice to not have to worry about theft, damage from other drivers and the $$$'s we all no are involved in maintaining and modifying these types of cars.

I'm pretty happy with the way it sits at the moment and hopefully will have some decent money to throw at it when the time comes to take it to the next level.

I'll still browse the site regularly to feed my Torana addiction but probably wont be as active as i have been at times.

All the best,

Rob

[debkar]

Hi

Glad to hear you still have the LC, and at least car is safely stored,

Hope you get to drive it again, very soon, certainly is a great looking car

Regards Simon

[lcgtr1970]

i was just wondering what has happened with this little beast as i used to follow this thread for updates quite regularly. its a sweet little car.
good to see its still there and will be god to see what happens in the future with it. keep us posted when the time comes to start back on it.
cheers

[red6]

Been doing a few rust repair's on the Lc.

When I found out that Aus Muscle car parts were reproducting the sill panels I had no excuse other than to tackle an area of the car which has needed attention since i first bought it. Still have to complete the bottom of the front guard but pretty happy with the progress thus far considering this is the first time i have done anything like this. There are a few other problem area's to tackle once this is sorted, but this was by far the most major repair needed on the car.

I'll let the pictures do the talking.

[lcgtr1970]

nice!
that 5th photo could be a new ad for cascade draught...or have they paid you for product placements?

[red6]

how did you find the fit red, thay are very good i think.
what price did you pay???

cheers gong

I paid $320 + freight for the panel, at the time the only place to purchase the panel was directly from aus muscle car parts.

You couldn't ask for a much better fitting panel it did reqire a few strategically placed clamps where the panel meets the a pilar but that's to be expected. If only the rare spares rust panels i have for the bottom of the guards were such a good fit...

[red6]

Have also taken the floor back to bare metal and gave it a similar treatment with POR15 as inside the sills. Had previously taken parts of the floor back to bare metal and sprayed with etch primer but rust was starting to resurface again. Have also given the rest of the floor a good coating of fish oil to keep it protected.

[red6]

Suffice to say progress has been a little slow on the Lc of late.

 

Have been living abroad/traveling for the last 3.5 years, however will be back in Australia over Christmas. Have started to pick up a few bits and pieces so I have something to keep me entertained while I'm home.

 

Going to be swapping out the current 34 ADM Weber for a 38 DGMS Weber. The current carburetor is a bit rough and doesn't have a proper choke setup. For those that don't know the 38 DGMS is a manual choke version of the 38 DGAS fitted to V6 'Essex' Capris ect, they are pretty much the biggest downdraft Weber you can get in the standard 32/36 base plate configuration. Much more common over here than in Australia and hence alot cheaper to pick up a good quality second hand one. Its a bit of an increase in capacity, and is synchronous rather than progressive so should produce more power.

 

 

Going to add a proper fuel pressure regulator and hoping to replace/refine the linkage system as its far from perfect. Bringing a bunch of Jets with me from the UK so will be able to fine tune it at some point in the future.

 

Also going to complete the XU-1 brake upgrade, as I have the caliper spacers and a set of the thicker slotted discs waiting in the shed.

 

Looking forward to tinkering with it over Christmas and getting the thing going for the first time in nearly 4 years. Haven't driven anything in the last 3, so to say i have missed driving it is an understatement!

[Heath]

Welcome back. Certainly has been a long time. 

 

Look forward to seeing some more happen with it. It was always a great looking car!

[red6]

Well trip back to Australia over Christmas was successful. Torana was resuscitated after not being started in over 3 years. Was pretty simple by any measure, tyres just needed some air, borrowed battery from another car, bit of Aerostart down the carburetor and the 202 roared faithfully back into life. Got to love the reliability of an old Holden red 6!

 

Blew a bit of smoke until things warmed up/settled down a bit, but that's to be expected. Was running far from perfect but nothing a new set of plugs and a bit of tinkering wouldn't fix, seemed to improve the more I miles i put on it.

 

Car has weathered remarkably well given that it is (unfortunately) stored repetitively close to a beach, so there is a bit of salt in the air. Some of the cheaper chrome work (airfilter/thermostat housing) has deteriorated a bit but all the original Holden stuff has been unaffected - although another cheapo chrome air filter I bought about 8 years ago which was stored in a different (inland) shed was similarly deteriorated. So I'd say it's the product more than the environment.

 

Put a bit of polish over all the chrome work so should survive another couple of years without deteriorating to badly. Luckily the majority of the rust in the body has been cut out or ground back and treated so this hasn't been adversely affected.

 

Gave everything a bit of a wash and general clean up of the interior and was content driving it around for a few days, tidying it up a bit and blowing out a few of the cobwebs!

 

Edited by red6, 10 January 2014 - 04:07 PM.

[red6]

After things had calmed down a bit post Christmas I started to have a bit more time to muck around with the Lc. I have had the parts assembled for this conversion for the last 4 years, however as the car hasn't been seeing much road use it hadn't been a priority to fit them up. Although it's something I always intended to do to compliment the XU-1 booster I added back in 2007.

Anyway - Boxing day I pulled off old standard front discs, swapped across the hubs, repacked the front bearings and replaced them with the wider DBA XU-1 rotors. I split the standard calipers in half and put a kit through them, whilst adding the XU-1 caliper spacers. Painted it all up and fitted with EBC Red Stuff pads which I bought across from UK with me. Pulls up much sharper than before, although as it's see's relatively little road use I haven't been able to push it properly yet. No doubt the combination of the pads and rotors will deliver much more benefit when the brakes really start to heat up.

 

 

[r2160]

You shouldnt need the fuel regulator for the Weber. The seats in Webers are good with up to around 7psi

 

cheers

Glenn

[red6]

Was under the impression that the standard late model blue/black fuel pump puts out between 5-7 psi depending on wear/gasket thickness ect. Have done a fair bit of research and frequently read that Webers operate most effectively with around 3.5 psi. I have purchased a Malpassi regulator and am planning on potentially mounting it off the two threaded studs on the 186s inlet manifold, with some sort of fabricated bracket.

 

After completing the brake upgrade the next logical step was to start swapping out the 34 ADM Weber for the 38 DGMS Weber. I wanted to leave this until last as the time available was limited and wanted to avoid a situation where the car wasn't able to be driven/moved if things got a bit complicated with the conversion. The 34 ADM required much longer studs than the 38 DGMS so I quickly realised I I would have to take a bit of a leap of faith and trim them down to fit the 38 DGMS. Anyway I pulled out the grinder and quickly had the carburetor mounted up. Next hurdle was the accelerator cable - again this required significant modication (i.e chopping in half) to get to fit. As the existing set up had a threaded end on it which was to large for the Webcon accelerator bracket which I had fitted. Got it working in the end but its all VERY agricultural! - so didn't really fell like taking any pictures to share. When the car returns to the road it will require a new custom cable but what I have working now is sufficient to provide measurements from and get something which is perfect.

 

The performance gain from the 34 ADM progressive to the 38 DGMS synchronous was significant. After using several different combinations of carburetor on this and other 186/202s (Single Stromberg, Dual Strombergs X2, WW2 Stromberg and the 34 ADM) I now believe that this is the one which will be staying put. The performance is more than sufficient for a street driven car and I like the idea of running a single carb which makes tuning ect much less of a hassle. Also in years to come with the ever rising cost of fuel, I hate to think of the cost of feeding a set of triples. I'd recommend anyone who is looking at any of the conversions I listed above just skip all the R&D time (although I guess it's all part of the fun!) and go for a 38 DGMS/DGAS. Behaves quite sedately when cruising along but really pulls hard as soon as you put your foot down and generally the engine feels like its taking full advantage of the rest of the engine modifications (head, exhaust, cam and ignition). Will need to get the standard choke cable lengthened or look at running a HK/HT/HG one which I'd assume would be slightly longer and interchangeable? Also measured up under bonnet clearances for a K&N filter so will have to look into the available sizes.

[red6]

Well after 6 years, 2 months, 23 days my Lc is finally registered again!

Roadworthy process was all pretty straight forward, had to get a couple of new tyres to keep the inspector happy. Decided to give to give Maxxis CS735 205/60/13's a go, after talking to a few people they seem to be the pick of whats still available in this size before making the jump up to $180+ semi-slick type tyres.

 

Will be adding a few pics to the thread of the work that's gone into it recently to bring back up to scratch. Still a bit of messing around to get it back to 100% but will be much easier to know what needs doing now I can take it for a decent run.

 

Few pics of the finished 38DGMS conversion - by far the most thorough conversion I've done yet. Had to get original choke cable lengthened, a custom accelerator cable made up and fabricate a return spring bracket. Also added the Malpassi fuel pressure regulator along with a K&N air filter and crankcase breather.

 

Edited by red6, 30 May 2015 - 01:39 PM.

[red6]

Time to get this thread up to date! Some pictures of the carnage behind the rear passenger side wheel:

 

The rear quarter once the paint had been stripped back. The Car had previously been hit in this area, repaired and then subsequently patched to repair some rust a few years latter. Needless to say it was a bit of a mess!

 

Delving a little deeper into the old repairs.

 

Surprise, Surprise, Bog!

 

All the original metal in this area was  very thin and covered in a mixture of fiberglass, sound deader, spray putty, rust and bog.

 

So out it came!

Edited by red6, 23 January 2016 - 10:32 AM.

[red6]

Was feeling a little overwhelmed by how involved these repairs were given this is the first time I had attempted anything like this. Was a pretty steep learning curve but I just broke it down into smaller tasks and kept on plugging away at it. The repairs are by no means perfect but its a hell of a lot better than it was. I also learnt a lot in the process which will be invaluable when the time comes to give the car a full rotisserie rebuild in another 5-10 years.

 

Some new metal going in, along with a couple of smaller patches.

 

All the internal repairs painted up in POR15 and a smear of seam sealer.

 

Rare Spares rust repair patch in place.

[red6]

After all that welding and grinding I decided it was time for something different to break up the body work. I removed the under dash panel as it was split in the middle where they all break. I replaced it with another second hand Sandlewood one I purchased 8 years or so back. Scary what sort of money these are worth now.

Wires, wires, everywhere!


While I had the steering column out I made up this little plate to bridge the difference between the automatic and manual steering column. Had a metal shop punch out the hole  in the middle and then trimmed it down to suit.


Put everything back together and also treated myself to a reproduction Lc Gtr Steering Wheel. Also took the opportunity to take the code off the ignition barrel and get some reproduction GM Keys cut up.

[red6]

The old windscreen locking strip had lost most of its chrome.

So I replaced it with some new stuff. Think the seals were replaced in 2004 so they still have plenty of life in them yet.

Edited by red6, 30 January 2016 - 05:43 PM.

[nanbar]

I have seen this get around the northern suburbs of Melbourne. Very mean sounding little 6 in that. Still had Tas plates when I saw it last quite a few years ago. Is it still around?