Rebuilding of Old Timer (EK wagon)

[parisian62]

you guessed it Terry. RB am assuming you're referring to the long piece of timber I was too lazy to cut? or the caster wheels that had already started to fall off?

I get plenty of offers of 'help' which is great..I've found vacuuming and children under 5 seems to work well... ...the trouble starts when there is one vacuum and two 'helpers'...

[Hewart]

Awesome work there Stewart!!
Keep those pics coming!!
Love the story behind the old girl too.....
Great progress mate!!

[mrs ratbox]

no actually i wasn't being a smart rrrss i went to somebodies house years ago around yor area to look at i think an EK ute, and the garage/carport area looks the same from memory, don't remember the street name but the house was right near a sharp curve in the road

[karsten]

good work mate,,, there alot of unpleasnt jobs mate but puting em toghether rewards you aventualy

[parisian62]

Thanks Les. I hope you're getting into that wagon of yours...

RB......when Loui my welder guy came around I think he got a nasty shock at my trolley 'handiwork' I'll post up some pics of a real trolley soon. I've been in the area about 16 years...I can only think of Craig Wilsons FE ute but I'm sure there would have been plenty of others crusin the streets before my time. I do remember an FC sedan with a 350? at the end of my street and round the corner for a couple of years...now that thing moved...

karsten...I've always be proud of my ability to pull something apart...its the putting it back together that I seem to have trouble with...

[lulu]

Excellent work there Stewart! Nice progress pics & updates

Loved the video too! I cracked up when your son kept saying "noooooooo" to starting the car up.
So cute

Lulu

[Mephious]

Great shots Stu !!

Nice video also

[Dee]

Hello Stewart,
good progress shots - these are the stages we don't see in finished cars.

When you've done it properly - and you will, its the reassuring knowledge that you did do everything properly which gives you the security of knowing you won't have to pull it apart again later on - it's a lot easier to work on these problems now before putting it back together.

Less haste - less waste...

Keep going - enjoying your posts.

Dee

[parisian62]

thanks Scott and Dee. Lulu - All Thomas now says is 'I wish the EK was finished and we could drive it...'

As mentioned a real trolley was built from 2" square steel tube. At this point I should introduce Loui, who without his help, the rebuild of Old Timer would still be a pipe dream....

Lucky for me I was in a local paint shop talking to a bloke about trying to match the Parisian Lilac paint. We got talking as you do and it turned out he lived just around the corner from me. I mentioned that I was also looking for someone to do some rust work. Before I knew it he was on the phone to Loui "yeah yeah it just needs some pans welded in" I heard him say... The next day Loui came over..."I thought it only needed a few pans welded in... " Anyways we struck a deal and the first job was the trolley.

I'd picked up a set of 4 solid steel castor wheels from an auto auction which were bolted to plates which were welded to the supports. The two front supports were bolted through the A pillar and the rear supports were bolted though the rear leaf spring suspension bracket and the whole thing joined together with 2 lengths of 2" square steel running the full length of the car.



Getting ready to go the the blasters...the green corner pieces next to the red brick wall had been cut out from another wreck and were destined to be reused at the bottom of the A pillars.


Now we had 'wheels' again it was time for Old Timer to be flat bedded off Austec Dry Stripping....

[mrs ratbox]

stewart is this present time now or are you posting bit by bit up to the stage yor at now, if this isn't what you've just done
know what else sucks the wagon i cut up had lots of sections it looks like you may need, i know a guy that may cut up a wagon if you need sections

[parisian62]

Hi RB,

I'm still playing catch ups...the pics of the body on the flat bed were taken on 30 July 2007...

thanks for the offer for sections. At this stage things look pretty good in that department. I got the fuel tank surrounds from you and EK283 (Greg) and also some gutter sections from Greg.

[Dee]

Hi Stewart,
if this is catch up - you probably have it home again?

If you intend to do what Lulu has done inside their wagon - there may be a problem with POR and some of the ways strippers

Just one suggestion - if you are going to use the POR system on anything which has been bead blasted - you need to "key" it - sand blasting is fine - the stuff will go straight on - but bead blasting, it will peel off....... hope I'm not too late..

It's all in the instructions on the POR cans..

Dee

[parisian62]

Hi Dee,

Yes it's well and truly back home. Many thanks for your concerns re POR. My pockets aren't deep enough to POR the whole car...so no need to worry about that.

regards
Stewart

[parisian62]

It was mid September 2007 when I got the phone call I'd been waiting for from Austec..."It's done and ready to be picked up"....

Austec use plastic beads to remove the paint and then garnet for the rust. Here's Old Timer just about fully naked....save for a coat of keyphost which is a rust inhibitor whilst awaiting primer.

I was very happy (and relieved) with the result...and suprisingly no 'new' rust areas were found.













A few previous patch ups revealed....



not good...

[EKSPCL]

Sort of scary when you see them stripped back like this and think how many of them out there are being driven around like it
The owners probably have no clue