Figured I’d start a thread for the new ute. This one was purchased for my daughter, who has inherited her father’s love of old Holdens. She was doing her own grease and oil changes and rebuilding carbs in primary school, so I figure she can learn a few more skills on this one. Plan is to preserve it for now, and let it sit idle until I get the EK wagon on the road. The ute then becomes the next project, aiming for a tidy up to original spec.
The ute was previously a Queensland car, and was located in Toowoomba in 1999 with rego NPV105. Sold by Gary Ziser to Dave Mac in Sydney a few years ago, and recently bought by me.
Subframe number: EK18708B
Engine number: B319029
Firewall plate:
EK2106-9112S
TRIM 563-983 (Mephisto and Chianti red)
PAINT 585-4685 Silverton Grey Dulon solid acrylic lacquer (a 1962 colour)
INSERT
TOP
Looks like the engine has been rebuilt, or at least given a decent tidy up. Starts easier than the FB
. Apparently the head was rebuilt, which looks right – nice rust-free gasket surface and new gaskets. I’ll give it some running hours to free up the valve train, then run a compression check and see how healthy it is. Gearbox operates nicely through all three gears and no unusual noises. Some oil spray underneath says that it has had a pinion seal let go at some stage, not sure how long ago though. Brakes are operable, but front left and right rear wheel cylinders stick in the bores. Might free up, though the brakes need going through anyway.
Body is pretty damn good – very little rust. The two floorpans are shot, but not badly so. 5c piece sized bubbles in bottom of each front guard. Passenger’s sill has a hole in the leading end. Small rust hole under battery, and evidence of earlier battery repair. Tailgate, doors and spare wheel door look good. Body has been repainted at some stage, with a pretty fair job done. Car has had a small shunt on the drivers guard, just under the blinker fitting. The driver’s rear quarter had been stripped before I bought it, and had just started to pit. I cleaned off the surface rust with a Strip-It disk, killed the pitting with rust converter then gave it a prime and a few rattle-can coats of epoxy enamel. The colour on the can lid was waaaaay lighter than how it came out, so the rear quarter is now badly mismatched. Looks ugly, but it is only there to preserve the panel for now… respray to come at some stage. Still have to vacuum the debris out of the panels and fishoil it, but that is a good job for Number 1 Daughter.
Tonneau has had a hard life, but will do for now. As far as I understand it, the original tonneaus did not have the elasticized shock cord, and used lift-the-dot studs, presumably mounted on the tub top edge (?). The ute has double-height lift-the-dot studs (with self-tapper ends) under the rear window, then riveted shock cord fittings along the side. Does anyone have any idea why double-height lift-the-dot fittings were used? Single-height ones are normal for mounting tonneaus to panels, with double-height ones use to join to thicknesses of tonneau together. I assume the double-height ones are not original? If someone has some photos of an original tonneau I’d appreciate it.
Seat trim is very neat, though the inserts have been replaced with perforated grey vinyl ala 1980s. Door cards are nice too, just some small tears where the handle reinforcing plates have rubbed.
A little bit of the cars history came in the ashtray – entry pass for the Darling Downs Veteran and Vintage Motor Club Inc.
Cheers,
Harv
.
