387 replies to this topic

[toryman76]

Small update. Still plugging away at it on the weekends. Geez its hard only being able to work on it on weekends! Anyway, I missed a couple of parts to get powdercoated so decided to paint them myself. Gearbox cross member and steering coupling gaurd were stripped back to baremetal, cleaned, primed, top coated in GMH black and clear coated. Probably a bit overboard for a gearbox cross member but it looks nice!

 

 

I was so happy with the finish that I am even contemplating clear coating the engine bay. What are your guys thoughts on a shiny black engine bay? The panel beater talked me out of 2-pak in the engine bay because of the gloss finish, so its still acrylic which means I can still clear coat it myself. The small work I have done in the bay I am already easily chipping the paint no matter how careful I am, so my thinking is that with a clear coat it will give it some further protection. Oh and also it will look shiny! Thoughts guys?

[toryman76]

So I spent the week contemplating the engine bay and I decided to clear coat it. I must say I am very very happy I did this. Firstly upon closer inspection I think my panel beater was a little bit careless in places and had a little bit of overspray in there. So I tidied it up with a 1200 grit wet rub, cleaned with prepsol and hit it with roughly two coats of black mixing through the clear finishing with about four or so coats of clear. It has really made it pop and contrasts much better against the glossy yellow. Hopefully it is a bit more 'durable' now too, but only time will tell! Not much else done on the car as this turned into a huge job... So it was two steps forward ten steps backwards but I am much happier with the bay now.

 

[Covert]

looks great 

[toryman76]

No update since mid last year... Gee I am slack! My project is still ticking along. I have now installed the engine and the front end. Little tip for anyone looking to try and do what I did, don't install the engine to the cross member first!! This worked ok for my trial fit with old bushes, rubbers etc but with new bushes etc it is just all too stiff. So I think the best way to do it is the traditional way in through the engine bay after the front cross member is installed by itself. Reason being is that it becomes very difficult to align the trailing arm bolts to the chassis as the whole unit is so rigid.

After the engine was installed I had to open up my hole for the gearshift because I originally didn't make it big enough for the rubber boot kit. This was awkward given I already had the gearbox installed. I took it very slowly and carefully with the grinder to open it up to the correct size.

I then embarked on rebuilding the heaterbox which proved to be challenging when trying to source foam for the flaps. After a failed trip to Clark Rubber I ended up using some foam that you can buy from AutoBarn for under bonnet insulation. It has a sticky back and is around 10mm thick. It has a mesh type stuff over it so all I did was peel that back so its just the foam. Seemed to be as close as I could get to the original stuff whilst trying to use something that was reasonably heat resistant.

I have also replaced all the underdash insulation with carpet underlay I got from a local trimmer.

I have started mapping out my electrical wiring too. I have sent off my main wiring loom to an auto elec to have the mods done for my electronic ignition as well as a few additional wires for the tacho, temp gauges etc.

Anyway I hope I don't leave it so long between updates next time! Heres a few snaps.

 

 

 

 

[toryman76]

Few more things done on the weekend. I finished putting together the heater box as well as completely stripping the steering column for its new paint job and cleaning/re-greasing all components. I was originally going to do the lower bearing mod as detailed on the forums but decided against this once I realized the lower bearing was in pretty good nick.

 

Can anyone tell me whether or not the heather box is meant to have a gasket between the box and the firewall around the mounting bolts? I don't recall one being there when I took it off but I know it has been removed by the previous owner due to the re-cored heater. Also on the far left of the photo below is the original yellow squishy rubber gasket that seals the pipes to the firewall. I have seen someone on here doing a neat mod with a aluminium plate and two grommets. Can anyone tell me if this plate is meant to be sealed to the box and the firewall using something like windscreen sealant?

 

 

[toryman76]

That's a nice little tip with the bumper bar mounts! I didn't think of this one. If I ever need to do this again I will be sure to use that idea. I ended up trying a series of ratchet straps etc until I found the right combo to get the outriggers in. 

[toryman76]

Had another big one on the weekend. I had my main loom modified for the electronic ignition (simply added the extra wire for 12V) and added an extra wire to cater for my oil pressure gauge. I found that my main loom had a spare brown wire which I will utilize for the tacho. The water temp light wire will be re-routed to be used for the water temp gauge. The loom was simply given to me with the extra wires in there so it was up to me to work out where I needed to run these wires for taping them up. I ended up re-taping them all the way up to where the engine loom plugs in. No idea whether I will plug them from here or run them direct yet. So the main wiring loom is loosely back in the car.

I spent most of Sunday taking my time re-assembling the steering column. Pretty glad I did this soon after stripping it down, as it was quite involved I found. I didn't go to the effort of striping down the ignition switch as it felt really good to me, but I did clean and re-grease the indicator switch. I re-greased the upper and lower bearings and re-assembled the unit. I found the hardest part was getting the c-clip back on. I ended up making a sleeve that was a neat fit over the shaft and just long enough to get the steering wheel nut on. I compressed the spring by doing up the nut, them carefully pried the spring away from the sleeve and pushed the clip on. I didn't like the hole left at the bottom for the column shift links so I made up a cover plate out of some aluminum.

I cleaned up all clips for the front nose cone and tried my best to carefully pry these over the holes using taped up screw driver to open them up and trying not to scratch paint, but it was nearly impossible to do this without a small amount of paint coming off... Not ideal but I didn't see any other way. Anyway, indicators are installed, as well as the bumper mounts and the front bumper.

Here are some photos.

 

 

[toryman76]

Been a while since my last post. Been ticking away on the car but doing lots of little things mostly in the engine bay so not much to show. This weekend I got the exhaust up and the fuel tank installed. Not far off from firing up the engine, probably in the next month or so.

 

 

[toryman76]

Saturday 30th of July 2016 for the first time in 10 years I heard a running engine in my Torana, and more importantly its a nice 5L V8 instead of the 6cyl it started life as. To say I'm happy is an understatement!! The first 20min run in went pretty smoothly with only one hiccup of leaking oil out of the sender/switch bulkhead on the oil pump. We fixed that up and all was good. I have a few electrical gremlins to deal with but having run the engine in now these issues seem like small fry.

 

Now on to the interior. 

[ben23]

Congratulations mate shes coming up a treat. Can't believe you kept the motivation to keep building it after all this time, I'm two years into my Torana build and I'm already over it haha, still up to the rust repairs, hopefully ill be ready to send it to the panel beater soon. The first start is always the best, got a injected 5 litre and auto lined up for mine. So keen to get it running eventually. The worst part I find has been making a decision on colour. Which master and brake booster did you use?

[neglectedtorana]

Beautiful car and great work keeping the build going over a long time plus the 4 year break.

Well done!

[purrlx]

Well done getting the engine going, just the motivation to finish a project.

[Cook]

Well done.  I can only imagine the feeling of hearing it purr into life.  Cheers Ron

[toryman76]

Yeah thanks guys. It was pretty special actually. Dad and I have been working on this together and when we both heard it running we had a little moment! Motivation has certainly come and gone over the years but I am fully committed right now to getting it on the road.

 

Ben - I have fitted the brake booster and master to replicate the A9X setup. This master has the incorporated proportioning valve as I wanted to clean up the brake lines etc in the engine bay. It is a reconditioned VH360 booster and a brand new P10050 master cylinder I purchased from Terry at Hydroboost. He was fantastic to deal with, knew exactly what I wanted and his pricing is fair especially for the hard to find VH360 booster.

[toryman76]

I've have been ticking along pretty nicely these last 9 months since my last update and the car is nearing the finish line. For the first time I can finally start to see the light at the end. Brackets for console been fitted, carpets been installed, roof lining is in, front two seats are in, all seats have been reupholstered, original door cards back in, pinch weld and scuff plates fitted, SLR instrument cluster finally purchased (off getting reco'd as we speak), speakers fitted to kick panel area, front and rear windows fitted. So not much left mostly interior work, but I couldn't be happier with how its all coming together. Will post up some of my latest photos over the weekend.

[toryman76]

Only a month late updating with photos

 

'Original' wiper blades were in a pretty ordinary shape. One was bent upwards almost at right angles. Managed to save it with some patience and a hammer...

 

Rear seats installed with original seat belts. New custom vinyl parcel shelf installed. I think I have used the wrong clips here though. I feel like these ones are meant to be a larger head. Can anyone confirm? I have used the same clips as I did for the kick panels.

 

 

After the front and rear windows went in

 

 

[308mate]

Tory looks great mate congratulations. Enjoy.

[Redslur]

Coming up beautifully.  Keep at it!

[toryman76]

Cheers fellas. The list is slowly dwindling down now.

[Heath]

Continuing the great work! Everything is looking immaculate. Brown trim has certainly warmed on me.

[toryman76]

Honestly I was a bit worried about going yellow with brown interior but all my door cards arm rests etc were in immaculate condition that I couldn't bring myself to buy new ones. Now that I've got it all in I think it looks unreal and it certainly is something different. Not a colour combo most would go for especially with chrome yellow. But I'm super happy with how it's come up.

[My390]

Looking great. About ten years ahead of me. Just started taking panels off. Catch up soon. Your better looking Uncle. Plenty of good info here.

[toryman76]

Welcome aboard!! If you need any pointers sing out. Definitely must come see the new toy.