703 replies to this topic

[notna]

G'day people. This is to become my L32 SL/R resto thread.

Don't expect fast paced action though. I like to take restos slow and achieve my goal in my own time. The outcome..... is always as perfect as the picture I have in my head from day 1.

I'm not new to Torana's. I bought my first in 1991. Then had another 3 before moving up (?) to Commodores in 1994. For the last 10 years I have restoring Minis, the most recent was a 3 year labour of love and regular restoration feature in the international Mini magazine 'The Mini Experience'.

A few YouTube vids of my recent work here.....

Part 1. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=B7FIohASiVk

Part 2. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=2z2hF1Y8mxY

Part 3. http://www.youtube.c...h?v=X0I9uhDBEnI

[wish I knew how to embed those in here....]


Anyway, now I have gone back to my roots, and moved back to Torana's. My goal was to find one that matched the last Torana I owned. A manual L32 SL/R. Sadly I bastardised my last one back in 1993.... so now I am making amends and restoring this one back to 100% factory original condition. "Just rolled off the production line" is my thing... I love and appreciate any car in that condition.


Picked it up like this a few months ago. Overall, It's in pretty good condition! Motor is knackered though. Doors rusty. The rest is quite good!




So I stored it for a few months until I was ready to begin work, and today I whipped the cover off, blew out the cobwebs, and had it towed home.






When I got it home, I decided to give it a blast with the high pressure water cleaner, to get rid of the crud and stink. Whoooops.... i forgot how Torana's love to leak..... there goes the carpet!




So with carpet now in the bin, I decided to sus out what lies ahead.

When I do resto work, I like to tackle small sections at a time, and not move on until that part is finished. To me, the worst part of this car is the front end. Sadly, but I guess to be expected on a car 34 years old, it has had a front ender and sudstandard repair. I want to unstitch the rad support and inner guards, and source decent replacements.

This is why....





Looks scary huh?!? I'm not afraid though..... I can fix anything, and I LOVE a challange!

Previous owner also left me with this lovely work..... A common repair, but he could have done this a bit neater!






...and for now, that's it.

This thread will no doubt slip down the ladder while I'm doint my thing, but as I complete things I will update it and keep you all informed of progress. One thing I'm certain of, this resto WILL be finished. I'm not a quitter and I can't stand seeing projects being abandoned because someone went too hard too early. Slow and steady is the secret... well for me anyway.

Cheers!

[notna]

Yep... both front rails forward of the crossmember are kinked. If I can unstitch the rad support and battery tray, I can get at the rails to give thema bit of heat and massage them straight. I'm sure most people would shy away from that, but as i said, it's a challange and I'm up for it!

Rust behind bonnet hinges was hacked out and not repaired. I just need to weld in patches there, although the messiness of the cut will make it hard to make repair sections.

The car came with a full set of rust free doors, so that is sorted. Rear passenger 1/4 has had a rust repair. I will redo that one a bit neater. Drivers rear 1/4 is mint! Floors, sills, rest of body is mint. Screens are in.... no rust showing "yet" from underneath, but I am scared to remove them!! Most of us know what will be there!

Cheers!

[notna]

A little progress on Project Poopaya this weekend.

Firstly, I spent half the weekend in hospital after having a massive allergic reaction to some prescription medication. That was NOT fun I can tell you. My son was concerned (as you'd expect), so I suggested he help me out a lil and undo some bolts on the front end. I showed him which ones, gave him the spanner and told him which way to turn, and he undid about 4 or 5. A little champ he is!



So with front apron and guards removed, more nasty surprises.

I swear when I look at the front end, the top of the rad support seems lower on the drivers side. Anyone??



And check out this interesting repair for the lower rad support section...... NOT my work I mite add!!






No shortage of work for me on the front end alone. I'm a sucker for punishment.... and after my last resto, I swear I said "NEVER AGAIN!!!!" lol....

[LHSL]

Good luck with the restoration. The previous owner it seems didn't know what they were doing. I haven't forgotten about the photo of the rear dealer sticker you requested. I think I may have a little time up my sleeve before you really need it!

Cheers,
Phillip

[lxsstorana]

Nice torana and great work with your mini, very impressive!

Good to see your son helping out with your project.

Get well soon and get back into the garage.

Cheers Mick.

[lcgtr1970]

looks like some fun lay ahead of you there! sounds like you know what youre doing though so should turn out sweet. nice colour too...ill be keeping an eye out for updates on this one.
cheers

[Statler]

and after my last resto, I swear I said "NEVER AGAIN!!!!" lol....

Where have i heard that before?

[notna]

A bit more progress today..... radiator support removal.

Firstly I decided to have the right tools for the job. In the past when drilling out spot welds, I have just drilled right through them with a conventional drill bit. I saw somewhere a spot weld drill bit, and went out this morning in search of one.

Hard to find they are! Ended up buying one of these.... a spot weld cutter.



Before you drill out your spot welds, you have to know where they are. A quick wizz with a hefty wire wheel will remove all the paint and grit that accumulates over the top.



This is what the spot welds look like when cleaned up.



I didn't realise until too late ( I drilled pilot holes), but this niftly spot weld cutter has a spring loaded tip. You pin punch in the centre of the spot weld, and the tip locates in that spot, then retracts as you apply pressure and cut around the spot weld.



Once all the spot welds had been attacked, a little "tap tap" and....



And them some more "tap tap" and a little "jiggle jaggle".... and off she comes.



Next I am going to remove the battery tray and the same panel on the other side of the engine bay, so that I can straighten the chassis rails, which are a little out of shape forward of the crossmember.




I am already ahead of where I wanted to be with this resto..... I was aiming to take this one slow and enjoy every minute of it. I think things will slow a little now while I wait for a NEW radiator support panel to become available. I could repair the old one, but I am a fan of nice, new panels =)

More to come......

[notna]

That's good spotting! I'm pretty confident i can get this 100% right though.

Your's does look obvious. Mine wasn't as bad as that, but you could still pick it.

Spot weld cutter was $24 and I got it from a tool shop. It is reversible, so when one side is worn out, you screw the cutter off and turn it around. Bunnings, Repco, etc don't seen to carry them. It made the above job VERY easy =)

[notna]

....and a little more today.

Battery tray was a really poor excuse for anything, really. Out it comes.



And with it removed, I can now easily access the chassis rail, and straighten it out. New battery tray will go in afterwards, obviously =)



And that was all I could do today. Probably a good thing that my angle grinder burnt out... lol... because that got me out of the garage!!

[notna]

ooops double post...

Edited by notna, 08 August 2010 - 05:22 PM.

[notna]

Thats a grouse project you've got there.

"grouse".... lol... that's my nickname!

Minor update today.... completed a little bit of chassis rail straightening.

I tackled the passenger side rail first. It was the better of the two. I figured I'd practice on this one before tackling the drivers side, which is a bit nasty IMHO.

BEFORE:




AFTER:



.....and a pic of my garage. Toy #1 on the left (Supercharged Mini Cooper S), Toy #2 on the right (the Rana).



...as always... more to come.

[notna]

Really? Is yours bent in the same spot?

[notna]

Drivers side rail all sorted now. This one was the worst, and came out DAMN GOOD! Very happy indeed!

[notna]

Nothing much of interest to post of late, other than this.... me welding... LOL =)

 72172_453243492490_604512490_5270348_7529455_n.jpg   96.87K   3 downloads


I have a few rust repair sections to weld in next. Ran out of welding gas, but I have since got some gasless MIG wire. Give me gas MIG any day, but if you are only going to grind your welds back afterwards, blobby gasless MIG is fine.

[StephenSLR]

It looks awesome so far.

Mine's an L32 but just about everything mechanical isn't original.

s