Frankensteins GQ Resurection

[OLY]

Alright guys, I'm about to embark on a what i can foresee being a very long mission to build up a 4WD. it will be a bit of a project/hobby to keep me entertained and to give that all important sense of satisfaction of building something unique and personalised.

I've decided to put up thread to show the progress because i have read a lot that you guys have put up and found them a great source of info and inspiration, it will also help me keep track of where i am up to and hopefully serve to keep me on track and not give up.

So here is the starting point or "canvas" for those of you playing at home. It is a 1992 GQ Wagon 4.2 Litre EFI Manual i think it is a RX Model although the rego papers say TI. it cost a grand total of $1700 dollars and still had a couple of months rego. It didn't run very well but after some new spark plugs, valve clearance adjustment, timing adjustment, and replacement of some leaking fuel hoses it was a hell of a lot better on both petrol and LPG. It is very rough inside and out and is sporting a total of 520 odd thousand kms. It's only saving grace is that it has all the electrical options i wanted ie power windows, power mirrors, A/C, Electrical aerial (even though it's broken) and it is 100% rust free. although there is a few dings and twists in the doors and front guards the body itself is straight and solid. or at least that's my justification of buying it as a good starting point.

it came with a pretty poorly made roof rack and some cheap roof spotties that weren't wired up so they came off pretty quick, i sold them for $50 bucks. (it all helps in the long run)

[MudRunnerTD]

Nice one mate, enjoy the ride. Parts are cheap. Consider finding another if you have the space as a parts car as there will be plenty flogged out on that and replacement 2nd hand parts will be cheaper as a whole car in fact what you have is actually a pretty good parts car.

If you go that way its important to buy a parts car with the same engine as all the bolt ons will then suit your needs.

Or, put an LS1 in it when your 520 donk gives up, if it ever does.

Enjoy mate.

[OLY]

Thanks MudrunnerTD. funny you should mention getting another for spares, i'm actually a couple of months behind in getting the thread up, it's run out of rego now and i have picked up complete TD42 diesel one, rusty but fairly unmodified and not bastardised so should make for a good conversion. The EFI engine has great power but there is just something that i prefer about the power delivery and low down torque of the diesel. i'll get some photo's of the donor up tomorrow

[OLY]

a couple of shots with the rear windows out. decided to change from the sliders to solid windows, was pretty quick and easy only took an hour or so. I've lost the progress photo's somehow. this one shows there isn't any rust under the widows at all. I'll grab a couple of new ones of the solid windows fitted in. I put new rubbers in that i got off ebay for $60 each. they were a fair bit thicker than the genuine ones that were on the windows and I found that it actually made them easier to fit as i was doing it on my own, they kind of held themselves in place a little better and fitted in nice. pretty pleased with them
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I also changed the front doors as they were dented and i found the drivers side was a little second hand looking at the bottom hinge. I managed to pick up the pair of front doors complete for $30 each, I still have to fit the lower moulds but needless to say the drivers door closes alot better.
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[OLY]

Here is the installed photo's of the solid windows with the chepo ebay rubber seal, they seem to sit a bit better than the genuine seals i have used previously and are definitely thicker than what was on the windows when i got them

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[SharkyGQ]

Nice work mate. I wouldn't mind changing out my sliding windows.

[OLY]

So as mentioned before after driving in the GQ for a couple of months it's been good but just found the 4.2EFI somewhat lacking... so i thought over the usual suspects for engine conversions and what not and the more i thought on the subject it just seemed to come back to the TD42 Diesel as the best swap to suit my needs. before i could really give it any more thought one came up cheap as chips and not far away, the best part is it has all the power options (although in a state of disrepair) that i wanted so the wiring loom would be a simple straight swap over (I hope). the body is more rust than steel and the interior smells funky as. it hasn't had the loom chopped up luckily and hasn't had a whole bunch of random crap added and been messed about with. it winds over real slow on startup, i'm thinking either an earthing issue or the starter is gummed up on the inside so i'll have to have a look into that and it seems to starve for fuel at times, initial inspection seems to point to the primer pump bleeding back. i have a spare one there so will swap it over and see what happens. it's been living it's life on a turf farm so i wouldn't have a clue what sort of fuel has been running in it. i drove it the 150kms home on a permit and it seemed to run fairly well when it was up and moving so i'm hoping it is decent engine.. time will tell........

The Diesel Bucket
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Seems to have knocked into a few things in its lifetime front guards are both a bit bent and horrible alloy bullbar is only good for scrap
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This one shows some of the rust in this bad boy, in all the usual places
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This photo really doesn't do justice to how dirty the inside of this thing really is
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[OLY]

Thanks mate.
i'd recommend changing them, the sliders just seem to hold all sorts of crud and moisture and start to rust. not to mention how easy the slider clips are to break into and with the amount of patrols being stolen lately anything that might help is worth while in my opinion

[OLY]

now that the photo uploader has stopped being a pain in the neck, the heart of this otherwise dead patrol will be being put into the body of the white one
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will be starting the conversion over the next couple of days and hopefully will have it up and running fairly soon. i'll post some progress shots along the way

[rusty_nail]

looks good mate! cant wait to see how far along you actually are!