Frankensteins GQ Resurection

[SharkyGQ]

Yeah I hear ya lot of them going off lately. What did they cost to get OLY?

[OLY]

Yeah I hear ya lot of them going off lately. What did they cost to get OLY?

picked up the pair of windows for $100 second hand and just grabbed some new aftermarket seals off ebay for $60 each delivered. pretty quick and easy to fit and look good i think.

[SharkyGQ]

Thanks mate would love to change them. Might be while before can do but will do it

[SharkyGQ]

How did ya go with the conversion OLY?

[OLY]

hey guy's unfortunately haven't had as much time to work on the patrol as i had hoped, i did get a small amount done though, but first i'll shoot up a quick shot of the poor quality dirty and worn steering wheel that i took off and the one i replaced it with, it's a little larger in diameter and much nicer to drive with.
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ok so i did find a little time to have a play with the diesel donor car. i pulled out the seats and most of the insides

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whipped off the bullbar and bent front guards

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undid all the cab mounts and phoned a mate with a hiab on his tow truck to lift the body off with a snatch strap through the front doors and another through the rear sliding windows

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[OLY]

a spare boat trailer makes a good spot to store a spare patrol cab

it's about this point that i have to take a moment to commend the previous owner for some quality modifications starting with the exhaust (i'm not sure why they did this but at least it provides some amusement)

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and next up the quality repair to the lower control arm

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[OLY]

after living on a turf farm this shows some of the dirt that didn't get chipped away while trying to lift the body and really highlights the need to pull the covers off the front coil towers and clean them.

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the next part of the job is to pressure wash the chassis, engine, gearbox and everything to see what i have to work with.

Trying to decide if i'm better off to:

A. just cab swap and not have to worry about changing fuel lines and everything over and also having the chance to brace up coil towers and things while the cab is off and simply "plonk" the white cab on and wire it up

or

B. now that everything is easily accessible pull it off the diesel chassis and swap it onto the petrol chassis

[OLY]

So after a couple of days of heavy rain the yard turned to slush, it took 2 patrols just to pull the chassis out to where we could load it onto the trailer, in the dark, in the rain... lovely.

anyways got it to my parents and put in in my old mans shed after soaking it in degreaser, blasting it with the pressure washer, soaking it in degreaser again and blasting again. now it's a little more respectable and a bit easier to work on.

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I've decided to use the diesel chassis so i can play with it a bit with no cab on it. so today i ripped off all the bits of the horrible exhaust system

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removed the factory sway bar disconnect and split it apart so i can use the plate to run extended aftermarket disconnects

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i removed the rear shocks and springs, one of the shocks has a bent shaft must have happened when the control arm broke. here is a quick snap of the control arm removed from the car with the previous owners dodgey repair, .

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now with everything out of the way i started making some rear coil tower bracing plates, i just cut a strip of cardboard 100mm wide (same width as the steel i had and was the widest piece i could fit before the pressed curve started on the towers) then just bent and cut it to the shape i wanted and transferred the pattern onto the steel with a sharpie, grabbed out the grinder and started making noise, was going great until i ran out of steel and it was 4:50pm i'll have to get some more tomorrow and get the plates i have already cut bent to a 90 degree on the marked line.

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so as i had hit a roadblock for the arvo on the coil towers i set my attention to the engine mounts, pulled out the passenger side, you know the factory two-part engine mounts

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i cut what was left of the rubber off the base plate and trimmed up the sides, cut the bush housings off the busted control arm, then drilled through a piece of RHS steel with a hole saw

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that's as far as i got today. i'll get some more steel tomorrow and hopefully get the engine mounts made and the coil tower braces ready to weld at a minimum, have to see how i go, most of it i'm just making up as i go along, that's half the fun

[rusty_nail]

how do you remember to stop and take pics mate! i usually get so into it that i forget to pause and take a snap lol.

[OLY]

how do you remember to stop and take pics mate! i usually get so into it that i forget to pause and take a snap lol.

haha i have the same problem usually but so far i'm doing pretty well, i'm in my week off at the moment so just plodding along relaxing and enjoying it while i go