Thought it was time to share my ute story. The first picture here is from about 1975, me and my old man trying to fix the ute. I think this was the last time it ran, after we pulled the head off to fix a welch plug, and couldn't get it going again. From memory we bought the car for $75, even back then it was too rusty for rego.
It was once well loved, with wilsonia guage, Maxrob? steering wheel, Nasco heater, sports mirror. There are also a few picks of where the ute sat for 35 years or so, with pretty much no change other than more rust, and some scum bags breaking all the glass.
Over the last few years as the owner of the property was selling it I have gone about getting it back. Not much left underneath it. Plenty of holes, not much structure. The side on picture shows gaps at the bottom of the doors showing how much the body is collapsing.
More recently, I have picked up a shell from ebay, which has been living at Dubbo for the last 30 years or so. Not sure how I will go but have pretty much everthing I need to put a ute together apart from door glass.
Next step is to start pulling the Farm ute apart to salvage what I can. Other than that I have a few things I need to finish around the house before I can seriously start on the shell I have picked up, including building a shed for it. My original plan was to put the good stuff like the gauge in the wagon, but my plan is now to rebuild the ute as an original plus added options.
The wagon has plenty of company now!
More photos in link to PhotoBucket.
http://s1237.photobucket.com/albums/ff461/fc-229/