416 replies to this topic

[orangeLJ]

Info on the magnetic earth???

would make life sooooooooo much easier!

[dirtbag]

There's quite a bit of room to get to it through the glovebox hole.

The magnetic earth is pretty good. Still needs to go on bare metal, but it hangs on really well. Plus you just turn the knob to release it.

[S pack]

Maybe a stupid question.. but how do you fill the master cylinder???

LOL, I was thinking the same thing.

[Neils LX]

+ 1 was about to ask but now have the answer.

[UCANG]

Well it's been a while between posts, so I thought I'd do a quick update.

I rust converted and primed the rear quarter and engine bay first.

Welcome back Dirtbag -
I got a question: How anal are you when you weld in your patches? I'm always grinding welds down, and re welding and grinding, and filling in pin holes etc etc so it looks like there was never a replacement panel in the first place. Is this just overkill and a waste of my time? I notice with your patch welds, there is like a 'squiggly' outline on where the new panel meets the old (where the join is).
Cheers

[Mort]

hey Dirtbag, your up early, (or up late)
HK Monaro is my 3rd fav car after HQ monaro,
is it yours or a customer?

Hi guys. I like the stacking them on their side comment Paul : )

Barman, unfortunately for me this isn't mine.

I'll be doing pretty much everything on this car, body, paint, suspension, assembly etc. It'll be basically a stock resto, except for the ride height and driveline. No body mods at all. Just the way an HK monaro should be : )

I can't wait to get stuck into it.

I'm pretty sure the owner is happy to stick with the glide. I'd have a manual, but that's just me. I'm still going to enjoy building this car.
Hey Brett, what did you want for those 10" convo pros?

Just to quote a couple from the first page.

Not having a go but read not just look.

Dirtbag is our resident fixit guru, he's that busy with everyone else's projects he doesn't really have much time for his own.

Edited by Mort, 20 November 2011 - 06:53 PM.

[dirtbag]

Well I've done a bit more to this thing since I last posted. Not a lot but a bit.

I can't remember if I've already posted this, but I've now done the other side of the engine bay.







I've also fixed the rust under the rear window.









So after cutting the old outer panel off I ended up with this open seam. So I welded it up. Exciting, I know : )







I then replaced some of the inner metal.





Same as on the other side.







I then cleaned the inside up a bit and rust converted it.





Then I glued the outer panel on.







That's it for now : )

[UCANG]

Very nice... did you leave the inner panel in rust converter and welded the top panel on?

[dirtbag]

No the inner surfaces got the same etch primer as the rest of the car. I just haven't got a pic of it. I still had to sand it off though where I had to weld, but seeing as it wasn't primed from the factory I think it's still an improvement : )

[r2160]

I love reading these articles!

cheers
Glenn

[dirtbag]

Hahaha boob magazines are the clincher : )

How serious are you? Do you want just brake or clutch too?

[bullitA9X]

hey dirtbag you are an absolute GUN with your metal work m8have enjoyed looking at all the pics and your working on the best looking coupe holden ever made i love the torries but the hk is something else....

[dirtbag]

Thanks bullit, I appreciate that : )


UCANG, sorry I haven't replied sooner to your questions. Yes I do try to metal finish everything as best as I can, but the rear quarter on the monaro isn't properly finished yet, as the rare spares front section didn't replace all of the previous dodgy repairs so I still need to cut a bit out and replace it. Also none of the car has been panel beaten yet so that'll line everything up better as well.


Well I've done a couple of little things to the car lately. Just small but I can now say it's rust free at last : )


There were a couple of small holes in the passengers door jam. I just die ground them out to find good metal and welded them up.







I then popped the engine bay back off so I could fix a couple of little bits.

First thing I did though was finish seam welding the top of the engine bay. Normally I wouldn't recommend fully welding seams like this but on a car where the whole front is just bolted on I feel that's a good enough flex point : )





This is the small amount of rust that's on each side of the engine bay where it meets the firewall.





So I cut it out and repaced it.





Then on the inside on the drivers side at the base of the rear seat someone had done this. i have no idea why. The other side is fine.





I'm just going to replace the face of this part, rather than trying to straighten it.





I cut the front off which made it a lot easier to straight the top section of the bit that I'm keeping in place.







I know it's not a very interesting post but it's all getting there. Next job will be to mount the engine bay with all bolts and do the rack and pinion conversion, then I can hang all the panels and get the gaps sorted.

[dirtbag]

Well I did a little more on this one too.


I started by bolting the engine bay back on with all bolts this time. What a fun job that was : ) Here it is with just the top two on the firewall. Even struggling to get this bit on by myself was still the easy part : )





Anyone who's had to do this will know just how tricky it is to get the 4 lower chassis bolts in place. The original bolts got pretty hammered trying to get them out so I bought new ones from rare spares. Cheap too. Only $75!!!!! Yikes, for 4 bolts! Oh well, had to be done.





I then started hanging panels. I started with the boot as it's the lightest : ) I managed to get the gap reasonably straight with a bit of adjusting.





Then went on the doors and front guards.

The door gaps will get a little bit of attention when the time comes as I'm not happy with them at all.









Guard to door gap isn't too bad, but I'd like it to be a bit closer.





The top of the guard curls in to the body a bit so I'll sort that out too.







The main reason for wanting the engine bay bolted on fully was so I could sort out the rack and pinion conversion. It's a CRS one.

Unfortunately the decision was made after the front end was powder coated but I rang the powder coaters and they said if I sand out the edges they can touch it up so that's good.

To say the CRS instructions are rubbish is a mighty understatement.





The kit also came with a plate to weld under the crossmember. It's a straight piece but the crossmember isn't so I'll need to put a couple of small folds in it.





Once I was happy with the positioning I welded the mounts on. I'm not the greatest welder in the world but this wont fall off : )





I folded the piece for the underside so it follows the shape of the crossmember.





Once I sanded the powder coat off I welded it on.





Ready to go back in the car.





The steel sleeve for the front crossmember bush was pretty rusty and crusty so I machined up a new one. I'm going to machine another mm off it so it can get powder coated when the crossmember gets touched up.





I had to drill out a couple of holes I'd covered in the engine bay where the steering box used to sit. I just drilled them from the other side as the holes were still there.





I also had to trim a little bit off the lip on the chassis rail.





So I could bolt this bracket on.





It then gets this shaft carrier mounted to it.





Next step was sorting out the uni joints and steering shaft, which comes in one big length that you cut to size yourself. Lazy much CRS!





The Uni joint that goes on the rack was easy enough, but the shaft is too bit to fit in the other unis, so I'll need to ream them out. What a bloody pain! Also, the steering column is miles bigger than the shaft provided so there's no chance it's going to fit. This means I'll have to pull the column apart and machine the end down. I don't mean to be a whinging assbag but for what this kit cost I expected better. Also some instructions would be useful, other than saying if the shaft doesn't fit ream the unis.

Here's the column and shaft together. Considering the shaft is too big I don't know how they expect the column to fit in one of their unis.





Well that's as far as I got yesterday as I don't have a reamer so I'll have to wait until tuesday to get one as tomorrow is labour day, whatever the hell that means? hahaha.

Edited by dirtbag, 06 May 2012 - 10:10 AM.

[wot179]

Good ol CRS............some things never change.

That shaft carrier is as ugly as anything Ive seen them make.

Functional,but poxy looking.

Can you change it or are you stuck with it?