Trial fitting the motor.

After getting somewhat disheartened with doing body work and repairing panels I decided to have break from that side of things and move onto things which are more fun for me. So over the weekend I fitted up the motor to the car so I can start working on making an exhaust for it and seeing what problems I would have in the future.

I was hoping that at least the dump pipe would fit but no chance as you can see in the photo above. The motor couldn't lower down as it was hitting on the front end so a full new exhaust will be in order.

Besides the exhaust everything fits very well and there should be enough room between the chassis rail and the turbo.

Second coat on boot

Over the week end I wet sanded the boot again and applied another coat of colour.
There is a weird patch on the boot which I'm not sure about, it looks whitish almost like it's 'frosted'.

It's a bit hard to see in the photos but you can see it more clearly on some angles and on other it's not there at all,

And the other side

Did a fair bit of work last night and removed the driver side guard and nosecone.

Started to flatten some things out and got surprised at how much better it looked in only a few seconds.

Hopefully tomorrow I can wet sand and colour coat the boot again but it depends on the weather. If not I'll start grinding, welding and cutting the front to make it look nice and ready for the guards to be put on again.
Thinking of cutting the lip of the rail where the guard is welded too? At the moment it is missing pieces and is bent and mangled. It's not too noticeable but I think it will make it a lot neater and also mean less effort for me to repair.

Passenger side guard off

I finished taking the passenger side guard off today.

I tired my best, some bits came off messy and I will have some fixing to do where I was abit too rough :( but all in all it should be alright. I suppose the next guard will be even easier and come off better.

And here is the boot again but in a hi-res photo, it's stil drying only a few more days till wet sand and final colour coat.

First Colour Coat

Over the weekend I laid down my first colour coat. It turned out alright, the main problem I have is bugs! It's funny how not only am I learning about painting but also how to paint in my environment.

On Saturday i'll wet sand and then shoot some more colour. Lets hope no little bugs or things find it's way but I think I've worked out which doors need to be open and closed.

Almost ready for colour.

Painted the underside of the boot in GMH Black.

Looks good but it will need another coat as when I flipped the lid over to sand the primer on the top the underneath got scratched as it slipped a bit on the table :( Well another lesson learned for next time.

Just after wet sanding.
I cut through the primer so need to put another coat on again, but it's so smooth!
Hopefully I can get some colour on the weekend and that when it will start looking even better.

New Spray Gun And Process So Far.

After finishing my 10 week panel beating course I decided to work stop working on all panels at once and focus on one at a time to see if the way I'm doing things will turn out alright in the end.

I picked the easiest panel (the boot) and finished striping the paint off it.
Then I bogged up what was required and after that I sprayed some etch primer down.
I let the etch primer dry, very very lightly sanded it as I applied it a bit to heavy and then sprayed some normal primer down.

I got a new (but cheap) spray gun as I was having some problems with my old one.
The new gun is a WorkQuip Gravity Feed Spray Gun.
I've been told it will do me fine as I'm sure my skill will let me down before the gun will.

Tonight I will try it out with some hi build primer.
I'm not sure how much the hi build will cover up as the metal I think is too rough, but i'll wait and see.
I'm glad I decided to work on one panel at a time because if it's no good I only have to fix one panel not four.

I suppose it's going to be trail and error for a while anyway.

Problems

Finally got some time to have a good look over the car and I don't think I have much good news.
I tried my best with the photos but it's hard to take them of gaps etc.

The drivers side floor needs to be cut out and re-welded as it doesn't align up with the chassis rails(think that's the correct term).

My biggest problems are with the front guard alignment:

As you can see one side has a gap which is on the large side (no big deal if it was even). Where as the other side has no gap and has been cut and bashed in to make it fit. I'm not to sure what I'm going to do here but I think I might have to remove the front guards and nose cone to realign and start again. I know the cars were never prefect but it's evident something is not right.

The scuttle to front guard alignment is out which also needs fixing:

Window channel has had some repairs but needs a bit of work to look right:

Panel work started

Some pictures of unloading the Torana at home.

Took the passenger side door and boot to my weekly panel beating course (Boot for my mate to work on)

Here you can see the biggish dent in the passenger side door, a few others could be felt.

In this photo you can just make out the small dents on the edge and the holes on the right that need to be welded.

So far they look like this:

The big dent was pulled and beated, a quick beat was needed around the door lock and above the handle.

Need to make a plate up for the corner of the door as it's got a few rust holes.

Also a few small dents on the lower half which was hiding under filler but after that this door should be all good.

The small dents where pulled and needed a little beat, also the holes were welded up.

The boot is pretty good as does not need much more work done on it.

Home

We arrived home at around 2:30AM.
The total distance was 2883km's and it cost $460 in diesel and $269 to hire the tandem.

9 1/2 Hours to go.

We just took a wrong turn but nothing a quick U-turn can't fix.
Only around 9 1/2 hours to go, the van is loving the big hills with the extra weight ;)
We will probably drive all night and get back to Melbourne at around 2:00AM.

Car is exactly what I expected, therefore it is strapped to the trailer, ready for the 1400km trip.

Sydney update

Ok just picked up my mates intercooler and accessories, heading back onto the Highway.
Another 7 hours to go until arrival at Coffs Habour.

First stop over

We arrived at our destination (Tumblong) just past 1:30.
Must of slept well as there were about 10 trucks when we got here and now there are none.
Just finishing up breakfast and on track to reach Alfords Point at 12:00.