mild resto underway on my first gq

[timeslayer]

so i got this poor ol girl and have decided to give her a few more years of fun on and off the roads. problem is i just wanna drive it already! but she is not so ready yet.








the paint is in despicable condition, cracks and rust everywhere, check the bull bar





so the body needs an overhaul, and theres a fair amount to do inside and underneath aswell but as she is at my mates as that was the closest location for me to "not" drive an unrego vehicle to when i got her. also he has all the tools for panel work i dont have. but he doesnt want it sitting around for 6 months while i do a full resto top to bottom before rego like I would like to do it, I have to get the body work and paint out of the way, pass a quick roady, and drive her home to finish off the mechanical restoration/modification. I would have prefered to do things in a different order and with much less haste but so be it.

so heres whats been achieved so far, and im hoping to get to undercoat by this evening, and final paint next week finances allowing.











all rust has been cut out and whole car copped a litre of rust converter over and under it. plated the rust and smothed over and almost finsihed sanding out the crazy cracking






Unfortunately the gas tank is 5 years over due so decided to pull that out and go for unleaded only. as this wont be a daily driver its not such a loss, but it doesnt run quite right on petty, hoping cleaning the carby out and tune it will sort that.



the bull bar is a throwaway, so ill be looking for a new steel bar soon or perhaps make front and rear bars to suite these that will be going in before final paint.





and a nice fire and marshmallows to finish a busy day



To be continued ...

P.S. I am thinking for color a beige off white similar to the 60 series cruisers but lightened up a bit. maybe like a new paddle pop stick or pine color? thoughts or ideas? dont want super gloss or to be washing it all time either.

[BigRAWesty]

Top start and good to see it done right..

As for colour mate, go nuts.. Your doing it once so why nit stand out.. I'm a fan if the Ford GT tango orange.. But also acid green..

[Frontbumfab]

Good too see another one saved from the scrap bin. Whatever you paint it make sure you leave some for the.bead lock rings. I mean if your going to go that far

[timeslayer]

damn had to take the hire compressor back and mine just will not cope with the flow required to operate the whizzer and so much sanding still left to be done any one wanna lend me a compressor for the arvo. ha.

[timeslayer]

ImageUploadedByMotorculture1377749054.958724.jpg damn this cracked shit paint

[Parksy]

Love your work timeslayer. Rust is the devils work.

[timeslayer]

ooh yea its a dirty job alright

i got about 3/4 of roof sanded today, and found just above the windscreen there was/ is a bog patch thats cracked, and sanding the bog revealed several high spots where the steel came through with a lot of bog still around. combine that with all the fragments of glass all through interior under carpet everywhere and i think its either been rolled slowly or had a tree dump on it.

any how the sanding came to a halt with the return of the compressor so turned my attn to putting body lift in. i thought after reading some posts and the instructions that came with that it was goin to be much harder. especially the rear 2.
ha well i undid all 10 bolts and thought that was too easy wheres these hard ass rear ones. spotted two more rubber pad from underneath and thought aha there they are. grabbed the hole saw and dropped a pair of 40mm holes above the 2 rubber "mounts" and found nothin. turned out theyre just there for body to rest on. grr. oh well some more holes to weld up lol.

moved on went looking for fuel lines, brake lines wiring harnesses etc to loosen up or stretch. nothin needed to be touched at all. i was like this should be harder. so i tentativly started cranking the high lift on the front and up she came, in went blocks and new bolts. got the trolly jack and chunk of 4x4 under rear and pumped the handle and up she came, in with two rear blocks, quickly followed by the 6 in middle. sltill looking for lines pulling tight etc. nothing. its as if its had a lift before. even the radiator shroud has been cut perfectly to match.
the only thing i did have to do was to bash the floor to allow for 4x4 low range selection, and trim the rubber and carpet a little and knock the steering shaft out a tad. very happy with that for now.

sorry didnt get any pics of body lift yet but will do and post if anyone wants to see.

got work for a couple days now, but hopin sunday ill get back onto it.

apologies if im boring crap outa ya all, i hope someone will find my at times long-winded ramblings of ineterest

[Parksy]

Don't hold back mate I enjoy reading it. But photos are better too.

[timeslayer]

decided to get a bit more serious with the sanding equipment and just be done with it as this paint is ridiculously thick and gummy/waxy to sand of in places for some reason.gone one side done this afternoon.













so now to repeat untill she all looks like like this. bit of spray butty and shaping to be done here n there, bit more paint, bit more sanding aargh...

[cvando]

good work mate. it looks like its coming togeather well