Jacko's Project

[Ausjacko]

Stop – the handbrake
Rounding out this week, I ordered the hand brake handle as mine is cacked. Apparently, it is a common issue and original ones not damaged are a fallacy.



Lastly, I found a genuine clutch master to slave cylinder hose for $20. It has the original bundy tube and black plastic like flexible hose. The PO had used a more robust hydraulic hose at the slave end joined to copper tube to the master.

Well, when the hose arrived I test fitted it – or tried to. Turns out the tube nuts on the hose are 7/16 24 tpi. The threads in both the master and slave are 7/16 20tpi. In other words, it was like trying to fit a fine into a course thread.

A visit to my reliable brake and clutch place had me sorted. Apparently, a few Holdens require an adapter nut (PBR MC54), as shown in the HT Gospel, to mate the hose to the cylinders. Can anyone explain why you would not just make the hose to match the cylinders?


1 March 2016
Handbrake continued.
Well the handle arrived and I used the cone of death to strip the assembly. You guessed it, into the environ booth for a prime and then a couple of coats of satin black.

While the assembly was drying, I fitted the new handle. Pretty easy as this is held in place with a rolled pin. Post drying time, it was good for reassembly. Only interesting part here is how the draw handle is kept in place; similar to a Mustang from what I recall.

There is a pin that is removed by partially pulling the handle out until the hole lines-up with the hole in the body. To install, it is a little easier as you can hit the pin in from the slide side, no need to line the hole up BUT be careful not to hit it through too much.







Fully assembled, it went from this:



To

[Ausjacko]

5 March 2016
Travelled to Big Mc’s on the weekend to catch-up with Kerry and Carol; great weekend. Although not as eventful as Hybrid and GBX’s photo shoot while a robbery occurs in the same service station, Saturday night was filled with great food, good company, one small and then one almighty explosion. The first bang led to the dog from an adjoining property coming over. The second was so loud we felt the pressure wave and the dog (and I) jumped.

Car was on the best balanced rotisserie I have ever seen. Blasting revealed a small rust spot in the front drivers side rail right at the front radiator cross member, a dodgy sub frame bolt and slightly bent sub frame rail. There were also one tear in a support on the floor and Big Mc removed the four bolts that were filling the seat bolts- these should be longer and from the top down to hold the assembly in place.

Big Mc had primed the body earlier in the week. Well the Holdon fastback (is that better) looks bloody fantastic. Big Mc is confident the car’s floor and other parts are original given the seam filler still evident on the sub-frame to firewall panels and other areas.

Had a good look at the area under the rear quarter windows where Holdon installed the rust guaranteed fibre strip; a strip installed to stop quarter panel flex and gather moisture. Big Mc recalls fixing some of these cars under warranty as the fibre strip had already started to rust the panel from the inside in more humid areas around Sydney. To prevent this particularly dumb combination, Big Mc informs prior to welding the lower edge of the patch panel, he will use dobs of epoxy stuff in a tube to support the panel; this stuff is water resistant.

Have a task to find new sub-frame bolt/s and rear spring shackles. There is no way we can see that these will install the way they are with the bushes- there is no room. Big Mc suggested altering a set to make them the same and then flipping them 180deg- makes sense when you see it.


16 March 2015
Well have been busy on ebay and the interweb generally- no, not on those sites.
In summary,
Cloth tape arrived, allowing resumption of loom activities.
Flasher can arrived for the LED
Fender badge boy is proving difficult and has promised to send them this week- I feel a dispute coming on.
Shackles pins are stupid expensive and so purchased the whole shackle and bushes for less and have sent them to Big Mc
Subframe bolts purchased online addressed to Big Mc. These arrived the other day at my place- doh! Charlie form American Autos was coming down here and dropped in an express post bag. Bolts are now on their way to Big Mc’s.
Purchased more split braided tube. My regular seller is in hospital but found someone else.

In comparing the wiring diagrams to the looms, I noticed that there was provision for a horn relay. As my car does not have a relay and only one horn, I went searching for answers.

Apparently, this car should have two horns, with one going missing during previous repairs I suspect. Normal cars had one; Broughams and Prems two were an option; on the GTS two were standard (as long as you had radius rods Pete) and three were an option across the board. IF, you had three horns, then you needed the relay. The two horns consisted of high and low note units mounted on the same bolts on the chassis rail.

After some Gumtreeing, I secured a high note horn from Perth. In short, this is a long way to explain how checking your loom for colour, cracks and breaks can give you a horn; cool.

Unwrapped the dodgy part (most of it) of the engine side of the loom to compare it and it was a bit of a mess. The figure 8 two core of green and dark green running to the reverse switch on the gearbox had melted in a few spots – on the headers I suspect. Now, after a few hours interwebbing, I now know that this colour combo in figure 8 does not exist, unless I want to order 100m of it specially - NOT. Found a guy who does repro sections and grabbed one from him in exchange for the length dimension so he could make it; another body part gone. Used a really col plug pin removing tool to remove the old section and inserted the new one.

Further looking suggested the PO has used trailer multi core to extend the loom to match the 350. This saw yellow go to brown that had broken at the twisted and taped join. The blue go to green and my favourite, the red to the starter went mostly red, though the fuseable link then to black, after a bullet connector or two; just to keep you on your toes.

Thought it curious why there was a two pin connectors on the brown wire going to the alternator; it was broken in any case but odd nonetheless. Unwrapping this run revealed the green wire for the water temp sender. Clearly the PO did not have this connected and checking the motor showed no sender to match. More interwebbing…

The gauges are all VDO, so I jumped onto their website and found part 320-002 is the water temp sender for gauges (not the warning light). While there I found the oil sender is 360-004. Don’t need this but you can never be sure. H2O sender ordered.

For the light loom, that runs on the drivers ide of the engine bay, I soldered a new headlight connector on (using the correct colours). Like the other looms, I used wax and grease remover to clean it up, wrapped the junctions (where a cable splits from the main run) in the cloth tape and used the self amalgamating tape for the rest. Looks like a new one.

I then checked all the wiring (“he said that before and connected the oil and water wrong,” I hear you say) and checked everything again using the multimeter. Engine looms done, now for the interior and boot.

[Nuts]

Jacko, you asked "Can anyone explain why you would not just make the hose to match the cylinders?" The answer is as obvious as "why do cars with Lucas electrical systems fail?"

It's a Holdon, That's the way it is just get over it!

[Ausjacko]

And that's why they refer to Lucas as the Prince of Darkness.

[Ausjacko]

11 April 2016
Collected the chrome from Electroplating Technology. Great job but the price is pretty high.


15 April 2016
Dropped door strikes, boot strike, bonnet trim and front eyebrows to Steve’s

On advice from the FiL, I went to Woden Valley glass to get the mirror for the side mirror. Good and helpful people. They advised to use silicone and paper inside the frame to stop it rattling. Should have paid more attention. Test fitted it on the weekend and did not apply enough silicone. In trying to get the mirror out I cracked it. Back to the glass store on Monday.

17 April 2016
I had purchased the MDF sheet for the parcel shelf , rear seat back and two front kick panels some time back. Today, I used my new $39 jigsaw and cut out the rough shapes. I have left the pencil line in the hope this gives me enough ‘wriggle room’ to make them fit nice and snug.

25 April 2016.
Remember I have been trying to find the second owner, ‘Steve’, well found him. After using a few bits of the info Peter D had dropped (ignoring the wrong surname), face book and the white pages (still have the Detective skills) I sent Alice the wife a facebook message. As this went unanswered, I decided to give them a call. Sure enough, found the correct person in Caboolture! He was interested to learn how the car was going and gave a few details of it when he had it. In short, he bought it in 1974 off an older guy on the northside somewhere via private sale. The photos I have of the car were taken in Joyner Place in Flynn. He said it never had the aerial in the roof, had a tow bar, twin system and factory radio. He sold in 1977 to pay off a tax debt.


3 May
There were two sun visors for sale in ebay. Before diving in, I thought I should check the condition of the ones from the car, that were covered in a grey material like the roof lining.

Removed the covers from the sun visors to reveal sandalwood vinyl. They were grubby but otherwise in great condition. Removed the screw from the swivel mount bracket that locates the bracket in a groove in the visor top rod and shimmied them off. There is a cool little plastic tube that secured the clamp to the rod and I was careful not to lose these.

Cleaned the brackets in kero and gave them a polish.

Gave the visors a scrub with a tooth brush and then a nail brush in a mix of jiff, dish drops and warm water. They came up well but one side on each one had a dark rectangle mark on them. When I reinstalled the brackets, I made sure these marks are against the roof in the ‘up’ position. You will see them if you swing the visors down but how often does this happen?



(the bottom one is cleaned)


Over the last couple of nights I have copied Big Mc's photos and words from this thread into a document. I will insert this into the larger build document; this one in fact. In doing this and pasting the photos into photobucket and then the links back into here, I read that one of the adjusting bolts for the quarter window on the driver’s side (the one in the front door) had a threaded bolt. I do recall this and while the car is away, I want to use the time to get as much ready for install as I can.

Pulled the window brackets out and mucked around trying to ID which bolt I was referring to. After about an hour I went back and re-read my words and then realised it was the actual front quarter window frame I needed. Once I got this out of safe storage, yep, I did remember that adjusting bolt was completely flogged out.

I was going to use a helicoil in the thread but the hole was so badly flogged there was no chance this could work. Plan B: weld a nut into or onto the tab. Nut found in the tins but bummer, the arm is cast. Plan C: use JB Weld to secure the nut to the tab. The US mags give JB Weld a good wrap in securing metal to metal. Found that JayCar sell the stuff and it comes in two tubes like araldite. Filed the rear of the tab flat that cleaned the paint off it. Mixed the parts together and hopefully have welded the nut in place sufficient for it to provide the adjustment needed.

[Ausjacko]

9 May 2016
Went to Andrew’s and used his guillotine to cut the radio blank panel and tabs. Came home and did the final grinding and test fitting of the panel in the fascia. Great fit and should come up well. I will call Andrew later in the week to spot weld the tabs to the rear and then veneer the front.


20 May 2016

Back to Andrew’s to use his spot welder; great device. At home I did a bit of trimming, filing and bending of the tabs to make them work through the fascia.



Veneered the timber to the radio blank. As it was pre-glued, borrowed the iron to do this.

Here you can see the glue side







Sanded it and then went to Les’s and used Rosewood to stain it. Had to wipe it over with metho as the stain was very dark. Filled it with grain filler and it is a perfect match.





Spent an hour cutting out a stencil for the GTS lettering on the front of the radio delete. Have asked Leilland JBB to see if he can cut one out at school any sharper; yes, seeking assistance from the kids.

Glued a couple of spots on the grille including filling one of the screw holes on the rear that was threaded. Will mask this off ready for painting the valleys black- oh joy a fiddly bit.

Have spent a bit of time trying to understand the origins of the clutch slave cylinder bracket. Need to confirm this is the correct one for an 11inch clutch that I have. Interestingly, the 11inch was used for the big block Camaros, Chevelles and corvettes in the States.

Using the paint code from another site, I cleaned up the GTS badge from the front grille and used a tooth pick to drop paint into the badge. Looks like enamel (like you did at school with the copper wire) and is as good as new.

Went from this:



To this

[boofhead]

Great work.

[cage]

That badge is superb Jacko, well done mate. Bet the beer after that one tasted good.

[nassi]

Excellent work, especially that badge.

[chopmgw]

Neat job on that badge jacko.

[Ausjacko]

Seats again…
Have been discussing seat options with Drew. He suggests leaving it until the interior is in the car and the shading will be better to select the right fabric/leathers.

As I had both seats out, I thought I should refurb the runners AND remove about 10 kgs from each seat! To say these things are solid is an understatement.

Unbolted the tracks from the seats to reveal a 1979 date stamps; always cool to find these and it fits with what the 2nd and 3rd PO’s told me; that is PO3 put the Recaros in and it must have been early in his ownership. The tracks are obviously hand made and pretty well. They have the ability to height adjust it three positions.




Looks to me like they used standard Recaro seat tracks and made the mount. Cleaned one side up with the cone of death. Think I will weld more steel on the feet to spread the load over the floor and use the existing floor holes. Still no luck identifying the actual model of the seats other than Recaro. Any clues anyone?

[Ausjacko]

25 May 2016
Spent an hour last night masking up the grille ready for painting the black small lines.

The HT front cross member I picked up on that auction site has been collected and should be on it’s way here.

I have been worried about the clutch slave cylinder bracket for a while. The large bolt does not line up and I suspect the PO made the bracket; pretty substantial but it does not line-up particularly well. Rang Dellow, Jeff the owner actually, and ordered one from them. Their website incorrectly states it is not for an 11inch clutch which is what I have- I fear another dilemma emerging re this clutch…

[Ausjacko]

5 June 2016
A catch-up
Right, been a bit distracted with other things over the last couple of weeks. The front end arrived and I spent a day cleaning it up. It was caked with oil, grease and sand through the years. The pressure washer made no discernible dent in the cleaning and I left it sprayed with kero for a couple of hours. This helped but there was nothing else for it other than to sit there with a screw driver and scrap that grud off.








Looks OK but is now in the shed as it has been pouring over the last fews days preventing the final clean. I removed the sway bar and steering drag link to make it easier to move around.

The clutch slave bracket arrived and fits perfectly. The one on the car was made by the PO who did a fair job, even down to angling the lower leg to improve the angle of engagement with the clutch fork; not a bad effort give the thing is 10mm thick steel plate! But the lateral bolt did not line-up and I think it was only the bulk of the thing that allowed it to work without it. Not to mind, I have a good fitting one now.

The grille. Well, after a couple more hours of masking and carefully cutting away the four grooves (running the length of each rail in the grille) I was ready, but…

As I was studiously cutting, with a small craft knife, the masking tape from these 3mm wide grooves, I wondered how the hell they did this at the factory. The grille part numbers are the same, just that the GTS ones are painted black. ‘Hold on, have I got this right?’ I wondered to myself in a moment of self doubt. Off to check the interweb and books. Sure enough, I had gone the ‘Everest’ on the masking when I only needed to go up Redhill. The whole of the centre part where the fins are is painted in satin black not just the bottom of each groove.

It only took me 5 minutes to remove the 3 hours of masking and cutting I had done.

Here is the progression from cleaning to masked to finished.

Image






GTS stencil.
Leilland JBB dropped over a sheet of GTS stencils on tear proof paper. Great work and should allow the radio blank to be customised the way it should have been.

[Nuts]

You'll need to have the seats engineered Jacko.

[Ausjacko]

Nuts, did some checking on the seat runners/base and they are after market for Recaro. Does the engineering requirement come from the fact they are different seats? It was registered with them previously.
Cheers
Jacko