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[tuxedo123]

Hey everyone, 

 

I joined the forum a year or so ago and was a previous member, but I figured it would be a good time to start a build thread.

 

My dad and I picked this car up about 8-9 years ago and it looked pretty straight, it had an Ecotec 3.8 with a borg warner and a 5speed in it. We quickly removed the Ecotec as it should be a V8. We then stripped it back, found the usual rust and bog and poor repair jobs, no fault to the previous owner. It was a father son project for them, and I don't believe he was a panel beater so possibly out of his depth.

 

My dad is a panel beater by trade, although retired now he still has the knowledge and skills that he can pass on to me and teach me as well.

 

We completed the rust repairs such as window sections, battery tray, radiator support and other rusted bits. We have the plenum to tackle as well but dad managed to find a complete rust repair section for the dashboard and plenum so I'm in the process of picking spot welds to remove it and swap it out.

 

I moved to Melbourne a while ago and so it has sat idle for a while but now, I have the space and a shed so I will be bringing it back down here so that I can start to make some progress on it. I will be working on the car myself with the help of dad coming down to visit and getting it to a point where I can hand it to a panel shop to paint it.

 

My plans are to stick and LS1/2/3 with a tremec TKX, 9" diff and have some more modern features such as air con and speed hut gauges. Hoping to smooth out the engine bay a little bit and neaten it up in there. Colour will be something along the lines of a metallic blue with blackout and an A9X scoop on it. I have a pretty good idea of how I would like it to turn out, just a matter of bringing my vision to reality now.

 

At the moment, the front guards, bonnet, nosecone and scuttle panel are in primer to keep the metal protected. We completed the panel beating on those and we are happy with the condition we have got them to in terms of straightness

 

I'll post up some pictures shortly of where it was at when I moved to Melbourne and then hopefully keep the updates coming as I work on it. I'm sure I will have lots of questions as well for those who have done it before, but this is forum is a great resource so I know that any question I have will be answered.

 

Looking forward to sharing with you all!

 

 

[tuxedo123]

I figured I better put up some photos of how I left it when I moved to Melbourne.

Sitting nice and dry under some car covers, the doors we have completely re-skun them all.

Some photos of the work we did on the guards before priming them. We wanted to minimise bog, so we metal filed and panel beated them back in to shape. The bonnet has the smallest skim of bog right at the front where the bonnet meets the nose cone, and I remember the guards have two tenths of bugger all in there.


A very good rust cut for the plenum, not sure how dad got on to this, but he has done an awesome job chasing up bits and pieces for it while I have lived in Melbourne. We have almost 2 of everything now.

 

In my spare time, I would go into my tiny shed in the inner north house i live in and pick spot welds to relax. A bit of a maniacal way to relax but it worked.

Door frames were very good for rust other than the usual spots in the corners.



Once I get the car down to Melbourne and sort it out in the shed, I’ll chuck up some more photos of how it is and keep adding as the works progress.

Edited by tuxedo123, Yesterday, 04:07 PM.