Rats nest be gone

this is the trunk as of Jun 2011

finally doesnt look like rats nest...

Smoothies anyone???

The old wheels come off.... and remember the smooties i bought a few months ago........

Well,,, they've been sandblasted, powdercoated and rapped with some new 80 series tyres.... yummy....

Are we there yet!!!!!!

...... well not yet.... but atleast its at home.... and its ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!

Temporarily put the rear lenses on....... me likey 

Are We There Yet

a week later break system is almost complete and the wiring is almost done...

Dual circuit reservoir placed were the water reservoir used to be...

Wiring almost done....

Engine READY!!!!!!!!!! to go back into the car!!!!

hmmmmm!...

Off to see the Wizard!!

i've done all i can on my own...... everything else will be done at the shop

Exhaust replacement

Old Exhaust ..........

New Exhaust........

New Exhaust..... painted BBQ pit paint...

Engine coming together 1

AAArrrrrGGGhhhh!!!! dont make me angry!!!!... you wont like me when im angry!!!!!!!....




a few days later.....

Main Harness Snaked into Car May 2011

Ok so everyone knows i got a LHD wiring harness set from Wiring Works... its an excellent kit but how do i use it for a RHD car......

So i had this bright idea of running the harness through the right side of the car and reverse all the headlight and signal light wires from left side to right side.... interestingly it worked..... but every other wire that ran from the fuse box to all the switches on the dashboard did not quite line up and needed to be extended....

anyways below are a few photos of my attempt to wire my right hand drive car with a left hand drive wiring harness...

I drilled out an exit hole at the rear next to the battery area
then i drilled these holes at the front of the door frame
then another hole at the trunk... tried to get it to look like the hole on the left side of the car....
Cleaned up the fuse box.... all the copper soaked in coca cola for 10 minutes...

Main harness snaked in from the engine compartment and down to the battery area....
then put through the hole i made near the battery area.... then snaked towards the front along the door sill...
.... and through the two holes and straight up through the hole in the trunk....
the main harness reached the fuse box. starter wire, generator and oil pressure wire all reached their respected switches and fuses....
switched the right side light wires to the left side and vice versa ......

.... but the horn wires, high beam wires and ignition wires could not reach their switches... duh!!!.... all these were extended and extra earthing were put in by a proper auto electrician... which will be done at the shop where the engine is being rebuilt....

Misc Seals in the trunk May 2011

This is the headlight bucket-to-truck seal.... went in with a lot of silicone grease and a lot of fingering... my fingers where numb for a week (wuss)



anyways the signal light seal wasnt cooperating like the other seal...the part that goes into the trunk was so big that it didnt fit into the hole in the trunk .... even with lots of silicone grease and alot of fingering it didnt want to budge.... at last i after literally two hours... i shaved some of the rubber and got it in... then i looked at it and said WHAT THE HELL DID I DO???!! it looked terrible... i know nobody is going to notice it but.... sigh.... im not going to show you guys how it looks like here... anyways so the right side is in and i didnt want to do the same thing to the right side...

so... i used my brains this time and used a taped up small screw driver to drive the rubber into place... it worked and i didnt have to shave the rubber at all... although i did had to use a lot of force...... now if only i did that the first time with the left side...
here is the right side all nice and all....

Engine Tin Sandblasted May 2011

will be painted satin black ceramic paint

Steering Column May 2011

Here is my turn signal switch which was hacked by the previous owner to make way for a sports steering wheel... will replace it with the new switch below... this will be temporary as i am looking for an SWF version... the one below is some crappy Taiwanese made stuff... does its job though....

Unbolted the rubber coupling and the the column bracket and pulled the whole assembly out... the steering rod didnt want to come loose cause there was so much of grime, grease and paint on it...but the turn signal switch came off easily only one screw

That grey bit on the steering column is the original colour of the car..... its the only part that i have seen the original colour on... didnt find it anywhere else on the car... it was a nice feeling seeing it for the first time... i was like woah!!.... looks like Fontana Grey...

There was something keeping the parts together... with a small screw driver i pried what looked like a bearing off from the column.... then the whole thing came apart easily....

The bearing looks like its made from copper.... it had a circlip holding it together...

as you can see it was bone dry... im sure bearings need greasing ,....

So i greased it up real good and put everything back together....

I took the steering rod out because im planning to upgrade it to a collapsible type from a post 68 model.... and then mate it with the 70s Aussie Standard Beetle steering wheel i got many moons ago...

that will be show in a later post...

Shifter Bushing Hell... Apr 2011

How can something soooo small be such a pain to replace......... aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrr rrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh... !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Removed the shifter to see whats down there,,.. and as suspected the Shifter bush wasnt even there... must have disintegrated and gone before i was born...

The whole shifter rod will have to be removed from the front of the car... to do that you will need to detached the coupling bush thingy which you will find under that cover under the back seat above the chassis vin number... then go under the car upfront and look for a plate that is on the Head Pan of the chassis... (its where the front beam is attached to chassis)... remove the plate and then look into the spare tyre well inside the trunk for the round inspection cover in the middle... Remove this cover and you will be able to look all the way through the tunnel...

Now get back into the car and start pushing/pulling or what ever means to get the rod out toward the front of the car...... when you get towards the end of the rod at the shifter hole... the rod should be peeping out the plate on the head pan... at this point if you are only changing the shifter bushing ... just replace the bushing and using a pair of pliers with rubber tape around its teeth tenderly but forcefully (you will know what i mean) ... levy the rod back into position...

But i wanted to clear up the rust and dirt on the rod... so i took the whole thing out clean it and greased it to hell.... you can see the clip from the old bushing still on the rod... but still no sighting of the the old bushing,....

I used a broom stick (just the stick) to push the rest of the rod out... it will come in handy when you push the damn thing back in.... i've read that its easy for some but harder for others... for me it was the latter...

I later found out that when pushing it in the beginning stage you will need to turn the rod towards the left side of the car (if you are standing in front of the car looking at it... this means your right side) so that it will clear all those mysterious tubes and what-not's in the tunnel...

so do this as slowly as you can and the rod will go in smoothly ... as soon as you feel resistance stop and pull it out a little till is smooth then push it in again (yes this is better than porn)

once everything is in place... bolt everything back together and go through the shifter with glee...

a close up of the new shifter bushing placed in its slot.... by the end of the day if you did it like me... you will be all sweaty and dirty and you will need two many three showers.... ;)