Recent Posts

So today I completed the leaf packs - new bolts, spring liners and a lovely orange rustoleum finish (Wests Tigers underbody colour scheme  ) The front springs have been rubbed back and repainted to match.



The old girl is now completely stripped less the wiring from the cab to the tailights. I have left them in place so I can pull a draw wire through next time I am out there. The wiring harness is missing a few components so I will need to do an audit on the harness to order the missing components and cables in the right colour schem. That will be a fun task! As it was a commercial vehicle I will need to add the missing bits that I will be adding:

• Reverse lights
• Radio
• Cigar Lighter
• Dome light switches
• Brake Warning Light
• Glove Box Light
• Ignition Switch Light and
• Indicators (including converting the brake light indicator to a combination reverse (white) and indicator (orange) LED

I bit the bullet and purchased a rotisserie for this build - why I didn't fork out the $ previouslyis beyond me. It is so much easier to work on.





I think I spun her around a dozen times to get most of the dirt and dust out. It is still coming out of the rails so I will need to get some air/leave on rust converter and fish oil in them.

Found some addtional rust under the cowl - not too bad and identifed some "bog" based panel damage repairs just behind both doors - so I will have to sand out the bog, beat the dents out a little prep for paint. The rest of the body is straight. I identified a little more rust to be repaired but pretty straight forward repairs. The most challenging being aroudn the fult tank. the POR is in the post so I will get some fuel rated JB weld to deal with any pinholes I find.

I found that there wouldn't have been room to pein over solid rivets in the fuel sender. I have riveted it using blind rivets with a standard gun and will seal the rivets with POR to prevent leaks.

Progressing slowly but surely!

Hi Jolls,

I had a set on my FE sedan when the springs sagged a bit. They were helpful and also appeared stop some body roll as well. They were also called uplift springs.

Cheers

Thanks Graham,

Just finished refurbishing them - replaced the spring liners, rubbers and bolts - repainted in orange (had it on hand) so they are good to go back in.

Cheers

Hi Jolls,

I had a set on my FE sedan when the springs sagged a bit. They were helpful and also appeared stop some body roll as well. They were also called uplift springs.

Cheers

Thanks Vern,

I bit the bullet and purchased the Gabriels as I got a great last minute EOFY deal. I couldn't find the Monroe deal I was looking at prior at around the $70 mark so they were back up at $100 plus per corner even with the discount. The Gabriels were on offer at 40% off so I took the punt based on some research I had done inthe background. Your post has reassured me!

Cheers
Craig

Jolls ..I have Gabriels on my FC Special Sedan ( stock ) nothing special but no problems either ..Vern ..

Thanks Blacky,

Appreciate the feedback. I have heard that Monroes are a pretty comfortable ride even on the rougher roads. I plan to have the ute on standard rego so will clock up a few miles around town. No doubt will drive it over the the Landcruiser - so much more style!

 I ordered one today, will report back one I receive it and fit it.

 I run Monroe gas shocks in my FB ute and have no complaints, it does  a reasonable amount of km every year so not just a sunny sunday car.

Hi Team,

I need to replace the shocks on the project FC ute. The posts in relation to shocks on the forum are pretty dated. I have sone a bit of research and identifed several options including: Monroe, Gabriel and Sachs at at $60-70 mark per unit, Koni at around $220 per unit and at the bottom end Repco at $50 per unit (rear only). What are your expereinces with these brands and what do you think is the best value for money option. I don't think the FC warrants Koni's!

Cheers

Between work today I was able to sneak in a little effort on the ute.

I wanted to prep te fuel tank to be sealed with POR 15, but when I went to pull out the fuel sender yesterday I found it had been sealed in with what looked like JB Weld. It was certainly harder than body filler and was grey in colour. My plan was to clean the tank to prevent a vapour explosion from sparks and then grind out the JB Weld with a an angle grinder and the dremmel. When I took it outside in the sun to start this I noticed one edge looke like it was lifting so I grabbed a cold chisel and a hammer and took to it as an experiment. It started to flake off in small chunks so I kept going and half and hour later I had exposed the cap over the sender unit and with a bit of effort I was able to pry it out. The "sealant" material did not stick to the tank itself but was bonded to the sender cover. I was able to get if off with a bit of effort on the wire wheel. I can only imagine that the fuel sender was leaking so it was sealed in.

I removed the sender unit - it was stuck solid in the empty postion. The tank insides are heavily varnished so it will take a bit of work to prep it for the POR. I put the tank aside and focussed my effort on the sender unit.



First job was to blast the crud off the outside - took a couple of minutes to do and it looked good I drilled out the rivets and separated the rheostat from the moving contact.



The internals were covered in varnish and stuck solid. I could not get any movement.



Not wanting to break anything I decided to stick the float and contact into some fresh fuel to "melt" the varnish. I cut off the float so it would fit in a small jar and soaked it for a while - no luck with that.

I had the twin carbies lined up to go into the untrasonic cleaner so I hit the added some more fuel to the glass jar and stuck that in with the hot water and finish dishwashing tablets amd let the untrasonic cleaner do its thing.

The fuel sender parts came out clean on the outside but still had varnish on the inside - but the varnish just flaked off when touched - so a couple so minutes with a pick and small falt screwdriver and the interior was clean.

The heat and vibrations had softened up the fuel varnish so I was bale to slowly get the float arm to move and finally with a few more dips in the warm fuel and a bit of carby cleaner spray the movement freed up. A quick check for continuity and then resistance readings 0.2 ohms at empty and 33 ohms at full and we had enough to make a functioning fuel sender.

So I used the MIG to weld the float arm back on and we were good to go. Hand assembled and tested it could get the full range of movement and had 0 ohms at empty and 32 ohms at full. Close enough for me so now it is a matter of finding some brass rivets of the right size and we have saved about 180 beer tokens.

As for the carbies - came out clean - still need to go over them.