Hi. Is this forum still active? I have my cars in storage and haven't been on here

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Good to see some new pics of the ute. Well done Pete.

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Not long now NES. Congrats on getting this far over the years.

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Sorry I have not posted in a while but am still working on the cars.

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Well, I still have not given up on my cars.

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I bought a new welder and have some more parts to start working on the cars again. Good to see some familiar faces still at it. Dedication!

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Good to see you guys still into it. I have scraped more funds together and should be getting back into my builds again. Keep going guys. Doing a good job.

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Some great pics there that's for sure. Hope you enjoy your build.

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Pics of the radiator tie member condition. I am a bit further along now and have the patches cut cos I am replacing all the metal along under the radiator side of the front piece cos its all a bit thin there. We made our own with the FE but this time I wanted to try the repro ones cos they have the holes in them and I don't need any strengthening like the V8 car.


Some more pics of the old patches and rough rear corner of the car.


Some areas with dents removed and the roof stripped. The left rear quarter only has a bit of rust at the front near the wheel that I will patch.

I made an inner boot section/wheel house corner because it was rusted out. I have seen a few methods on here to do this. I made it bigger for a start and am contemplating whether to butt weld it in place or just put it over the existing good piece at the top with an overlap cos i figured if it has weld through primer behind it, the area might be a bit stronger that way and saves time.

Working OK now but I gave up last night.

Congratulations on finishing your build mate.

Awesome JB.

OK. I have started planning the radiator and did some more work on the subframe. I bought some single stay 2k paint colours and I have narrowed it down to a few blues. Funny how most young people want original blues or very similar but I am still thinking a metallic or pearl blue. Not sure if anyone is interested in seeing the sample, but I love this particular ppg blue, close to original. I have disassembled the grill and the frame is to be blasted (I think it's this one 😕) and I stripped the chrome down to nickel and getting ready to reverse plate some bits. Set up to solder the pot metals and have set up a metal polishing station with three separate bench grinders.

So considering that I robbed the bumper mount from this car and the beautiful rear seam below the fuel filler will be donated to the taxi so as to keep that original, I will now be altering the bumper, narrowing the ends to hug it into the car. I will custom make new mounts both sides and lot the bracket, making the bumper adjustable somewhat.

Work continues on the adaptation of the vs fuel tank mounting. And I have decided to do a coilover rear suspension. I have an idea from an iveco truck for the rear end and suspension but don't want to get ahead of myself. Been gathering stuff and doing fiddly bits in the background.

Took rear end out.





See an old patch and it's all heat affected and panelbeated and stretched to buggery. So the crash (not huge though) flattened the inch wide part of the mount that gives it's bulging shape so they had an inch of bog on the outside of the mount to take up the space 

 



The left side is quite awesome with only a small patch needed in that usual spot



There were a few minor dents that I got straight here and there and the roof had a weird depression in it that's surface rusted. There's rust in the forward left boot channel. I will chop donor bits out of the custom fe to keep this as original as possible. I shall post pics of progress on subframe but kids hogging my computer.

I'm back. Been a long boring story but now on the right combo of heart meds and to my surprise some epilepsy meds, so I am 200% better and not going funny in my head anymore. So, I have been very busy getting more tools together and finished the shed and organised the huge parts bins from doing both cars. Saved up for some more panels and got the Austin truck going and got that where I want it. Just sold my other truck today so am fighting like a seagull with the missus for some funds..... I might get some scraps if I am lucky! Got a few sneaky sales from stuff I sorted in the move. So a new compressor is much needed. I would love to replace my current Iwata gun with a Devilbliss gti pro or an Iwata 400 too. Got a new inverter tig setup, just a small one and finally an argon bottle.

I ordered the subframe radiator support from Ray which fits awesome and I love the drain/inspection holes. I found that the main body of the car was quite out of whack. But thanks to my awesome mates down the road they did some technique when welding (I missed it but I'm thinking they shrinked areas with coldness after welding, I forgot to say that previously) but it is now completely straight sitting on concrete. So after straightening out the subframe I am currently welding the patches in and am about to install the three sections of the radiator support tie members. It's important to use rope or ratchet strap to pull the upper end of the radiator bolt holes before going ahead further, so that it's all square (easier second time around).

Stripped all paint off the car and knocked out some dents and assessed any damage. Got the heat gun out and got the bog out of the rh rear bumper mount and the rounded bits near the taillight which uncovered a suspicion that it had been hit on the bumper on the corner.

So I have decided to cut the fe customs bumper mount out, which is perfect and put this original piece in the taxi. I decided to cut all the old school braze weld out and a patch and the heat affected area that was brittle as hell. It's so thick at the base below where the original spot welded seam would be that I will leave the rear one third below the mount as is. Then I will replace the mount first, then order a quarter rust panel from ray and work my way forward towards it. The inner lower dogleg is awesome as is the inner. It's good cos they brazed in a new inner boot panel from the shunt so it's not rusted.

Hi. Been off for a while. We did an assessment of the car and it was pretty far gone so we braced it all up and did some of the structural bits before blasting like inner and outer sills and butt welded some patches and pans in then blasted it to get the crap paint off the pans that were fitted.

That was on my FE. Since my blaster is mobile and I have a setup allowing for it, I did what Ken suggested and lightly blasted the inner sills on my fc after roughly cutting out the outer sill and cos this fc is much better than the other car (which I wouldn't have trusted not bracing but this one has solid floor and inner sill) I again listened to the guys here and used paint stripper and a polishing wheel with 80 grit on panels. My  blaster said to blast the floor from underneath to find pin holes. We didn't find many and lightly blasted both sides of inner sills. After now doing 2 of the same car, I think each car may need to be assessed individually in some respects.

I found that the rares pans on the fe were OK but the two sets of cross members that meet the gearbox mount area between the A pillars (front of main body) we're short and really not useable at all. So if I do a four link etc I might use them somehow then. I spoke to ray recently. He sent me an updated list. I have a few bits to get but not much left to get. We made our own bits from the A pillar across but using a mates fab workshop. We did them exactly like the originals in a decent gauge.

It's been a while since I logged on so it looks like a lot of progress to me. The colour is very cool and the wheels too.

I'm back. So you too are finding life getting in the way of your dreams. I better go see what photos have disappeared and put something on my page. I am here to offer encouragement lol.

The finish line is within sight now. The engine looks really good. I love the colour.