Some old pics of the adjustable watts linkage and adjustable rear spring platforms for the rear suspension.
The Big Banger has been shelved short term in order to get the Walkinshaw and the SS Group C vehicles finished for summer.
Some images of the first couple of weeks since this car was started. Spare wheel well in the boot is removed and a new large exhaust housing area has been formed in its place to allow a 120 litre drop tank to be installed centrally in the rear.
Rear guards and doors are cut away to allow the 20″x 12″ rear wheels and 315×25x20″ tyres somewhere to live. The fuel filler is removed and positioned further rearward (so the arch flares do not prohibit the fuel filler door from opening) and the old hole filled in.
The car was put on our spitt and the underside sandblasted before being etched, primed and all seams resealed. The entire underside is then sprayed with a Water based chip proof coating to resist stone chipping and reduce cabin noise. The entire underside was then painted in 2K Formula Blue and the chassis etc sprayed inside with body wax to rust proof it entirely.
Some older progress images of this build.
The VL was put on the spitt and stripped completely before being POR 15 was applied to the bare metal areas. Again all seams were resealed and the entire underside double coated with water based chip coat. The entire underside was then painted in Panorama Silver, basecoat and Glasurit 2K Clearcoat.
The body was then turned back level and the firewall modified for the Hydraulic clutch setup and all of the un-wanted holes in the egine comp welded. The seams were again resealed and the engine bay painted out. Body wax was sprayed throughout the chassis etc and the allready powder coated suspension components, were fitted. New ball joints and Nolathane bushes were fitted throughout and every nut and bolt replaced with new components. The fuel and brake lines and heat shields for the exhaust were remade and refitted. The fuel tank was also repainted and new in-tank pump installed.
Attention to detail is obvious in the second image and is far better than the original cars build quality was.
The vehicle is now back on its wheels and final stages of refitting the fibre glass body components and body panels for final “gapping” and pre installation is nearly completed ready for paint in the coming months.
I have recently bought a 2 owner VK Royale as a parts donor car for the Commodore projects we are currently doing however, it was too good a vehicle to part out so it is now being turned into a “Blue Meanie” that should have been built in 1984.
I had already built up a strong 304 cu in engine for the Walkinshaw project with 5 speed T5, and LSD when I decided instead to use a later model fuel injected engine and further correctly spec the VL. Now the original, rebuilt running gear is surplus, so it is perfect to slot straight into the new VK project and puts us that much further ahead with the job.
The VL suspension, X-member and diff etc is already sandblasted and will be powder coated black this week and fitted with a full compliment of Nolathane bushes and new ball joints.
The full and final spec of this car is not going to be revealed until it is completed but anyone who genuinely knows these cars will guess what we are doing from the progress pictures no doubt if you look carefully. It is gauranteed to be a unique looking car here in NZ and probably in Australia too I suspect.
The VK is fitted with full blue interior as were the original cars. Formula Blue paint colour and usual decals and mouldings will be fitted to authenticate this build as well as some one off modifications and a 120 litre aluminium drop tank. The spare wheel tub in the boot floor is now removed and a new panel and heat shield is fabricated to replace it. This will allow us to run the exhaust further outboard on the left side and “centre” the bigger drop tank in the rear.
This car is going to be completed by summer along with all of the projects currently in our shop.
The newest project in is a VH SS Commodore. This car came in late last year for a fresh coat of paint in the engine bay while the engine is out and being freshened up.
The owner again is an old friend and an extremely passionate Holden fan. Its now been decided that the VH will get completely stripped back to bare metal, some minor rust repaired and resprayed to factory spec colour, inside and out.
Pictures of the car will be added shortly and this one has a special interest for me, so most of the work will be attended to as I can schedule the time myself.
The Gran Torino was finished last week and is undergoing final panel fitment and aligning before being delivered back to the owners for final assembly.
The white stripe and black pinstripe border are all painted on and cleared over along with the final coats of red colour and it looks terrific.
Thanks to Shane for his efforts and commitment on this project. We took this job on only a month before Xmas with still quite a bit of body work needed. Given that we closed for 3x full weeks over the Holiday season, this vehicle has progressed quickly and it is great to have such a great group of genuinely talented guys to help undertake these types of projects.
This vehicle was towed in last October having collided with a Mack truck. These vehicles are manufactured in fibreglass and this one was suffering from osmosis which compounded the stress and secondary damage from the impact. A full set of replacement front panels was ordered up and replaced from the windscreen forward. Some structural damage around the bonnet latch/bulkhead area had resulted from the accident so a light weight carbon fibre cloth was used to repair and reinforce it securely.
We managed to get good s/hand parts quickly for it and the whole job was completed and the owner picked the vehicle up in time for the Xmas holiday’s
Recently we met a great couple as clients for some insurance work and as seems to happen with us, they have become good friends and supporters of our company.
Goeff and Sam came to us in November with their Ford Gran Torino, which had spent a couple of years since they first bought it, getting rust repairs and body work done at another company locally.
They were pretty specific about their requirements, finish the body work and final detailing and paint it red and white to the TV show, “Starsky and Hutch”, car colour scheme and they came armed with pictures and measurements, colour swatches and paint codes.
Again we have been fortunate enough right about the same week to engage another quality spray painter with an impressive resume of restoration work locally. The Big Gran Torino was taken on at the start of December as was Shane and he was comitted to the job full time. I have done final body repairs around the car and it was sprayed with 3 coats of Polyester Spray Filler, hand blocked, 2 pak primed, re-rubbed and finally sprayed with 2x coats of 2k white tinter. This 2k “intercoat” allows us to see any imperfections we may have missed more clearly and ensures a beautiful ”clean” and even topcoat.
The paint was baked at 70c and the car is sitting now until new Year and will get final paint and completed by end of January.
Looking forward to seeing the end result of this project so quickly.
The GTR Skyline wide body conversion has been completed since late October however with all the pressure to get customers projects and day to day insurance repairs completed for the Xmas holiday period, reassembly and final detailing has had to wait.
Steve has repainted it in a special high clarity black tinter which looks terrific and so much harder looking.
The massive 18″x13″ rear and 18″x11″ front 3x piece rims look awesome and really fill out each of the 90mm wider guards.
Steve had a couple of long weekends and late nights in the last few weeks before Xmas and he is now driving the GTR and getting a lot of interest from people of all age groups, keen to know what is so different about this vehicle.
Great work Steve! The car looks awesome!
The body work is finished on the VL now and as is common on the earlier models, more rust was uncovered in the usual places once we started on it, front and rear windscreen edges and boot seal flanges. A new lower rear window panel was sourced through Rare Spares in Christchurch and is fitted to completely eliminate that problem and I have made new boot flanges and welded whole new sections in place to deal with that problem once and for all. The lower front windscreen panel has had new sections made and some previous (poor) repairs cut out and redone. As is often the case, when the last repairer attempted to fix the front screen rust , they have neglected to reinstae the drain hole either side so water has been trapped in the rebate and accelerated the rust problem since. All of the repair areas have been sandblasted and rust inhibitor applied.
All 4x doors have been replaced with exceptionally good used items that I happened to have had here as spares for the Big Banger and each of the remaing panels have been stripped of all paint, filed to check for damage and fully etched and 2 pak primed ready for final painting.
Noise matt has been applied to the entire boot area including the inside of the rear 1/4 panels and tubs along with the rear parcel shelf and bulkhead. This makes a huge difference to the level of road and exhaust noise in the passenger area.
A T5 Borg Warner World Class Gearbox is being installed also as part of the freshen up.
The 304, 5.0 litre engine is also copping attention now while it is out, with a very strong camshaft replacement, and various other internals to complement the Big Valve heads & extractors allready fitted.
The rear bumper is being widened now to suit the wider rear guards and arch’s and will further accentuate the the wide, low rear end profile.
Painting the car in the factory Panorama colour is due to start at end of this month and once the engine and gearbox are reinstalled.
1 off Super Heavy springs, shortened shocks and swaybars are all fitted with a full compliment of Nolathane suspension bushes and the brakes will be changed also to 330mm monsters before it is finally road ready.
