1979 Holden 1 Tonner Ute resto

Daved_XB

I'll be keeping the hanging panels here till I strip them back to bare metal & do any repairs needed... but I only need the blue bits & don't need the black bits, so I'll unbolt them & they can go to Bryans too as I'm running out of space to store bits I'm not working on.

I'll just stack them up at the back of the shed for now until I get a chance to work on stripping them back 

Now she just sits waiting at the front garage, till she goes on the weekend

Daved_XB

The Ute is gone now & safe & sound in Bryan's shed for him to do what ever he wants to do to the rear tray & also to tidy up & paint the chassis

I'm not exactly sure what Bryans plans are or what the timeline will be, but I'll do my best to try & capture update pics as he works on it & keep this thread going as a log of the build. I have my ideas which would be to remove every single nut, bolt & bracket from the chassis, clean it all back to shiny bare metal then prep, prime & paint it before putting it back together but I'm not sure that that's everyone's idea of fun.... & Mrs_XB keeps reminding me that this is not my car & not my project so I'm not allowed to just take over & do it all... 

I grumbled something about her not being my real mom & went to the shed to look at the Camaro... as soon as the Dodge goes to paint, I think I'm going to start pulling that car apart for it's restoration.... yes, that sounds like a great plan.. have 3 cars on the go at once in a million pieces, how hard could it be....

Daved_XB

I've been messing about with my own projects & ignoring this one for a while, so time to get back into it to get it ready to go back to Bryan... 

First up the last rusted section on the cowl needed to come out, drilled out the spot welds & then cut the section out.. forget to take more pics of this step sadly

I've also put a slice thru the face of the cowl section that I'd replaced earlier as the shape just isn't right & it needed to be lowered so that the top of the cowl is at the right contour to the top of the door & the front guard... 

Also starting taking the paint off the front guards & that brought up a interesting feature of the Ute... the passenger side guard is the correct shape in that it has a nice concave curve in the panel above the front wheel opening 

But the other side is flat... in fact it's actually a little bit convex

This had me wondering if this was a guard from a different Holden model that was close but different in this way.... so I took the grinder to it & turns out that it's just a stupid thick layer of bog filling in that nice curve. I now really really to know how someone working on the car can decide to make the two front guards completely different? I get that you can't really see both at once but still it's head scratching .. 

Daved_XB

Got a bit for done on the Ute.. so as part of getting the face of this right it pulled a new concave dent into the top of the cowl. This is very common in metal shaping, you get one part right & in doing so that deforms another section

You can see how deep the depression is here

Time to break out the puller & reshape it 

That's close enough for now.. the last mm or so will be sorted at the the metal finishing stage.

Next was the rear bulkhead which has several sections rusted thru, I cut out the rust piece by piece 

Daved_XB

Then just started cutting up small patches to weld in

That's another section of the Ute now rust free again... I couldn't tidy up the welds fully as I'm out of sandpaper for my mini air sander & the grinder is too big to get into the tight curves, so I'm just slapped a load of primer over the bare metal for now.

Daved_XB

Went out to the shed after work tonight with a plan to start offering up the rust repair section of the cowl & seeing if I could get that fitting half decent.. It took a fair bit of cutting, bending & reshaping but it will fit.

It's mostly welded in now, not fully as I have a little more fettling to do to get it right... but it's looking good I think. 

Daved_XB

Got a bit more done on the Ute this weekend, I'd been putting off the repairs to the lower rear cab corners for a while now. But you can't put stuff off forever, the passenger side is pretty bad

But the drivers side is much worse & I've no idea why Holden made these a complex curved shape, you can't actually see them really once the rear tray is back on the Ute... to be honest I did just think that I should just replace them with a flat section of steel as that would only take about 5 minutes a side.

First step is the simple one... just cut out all the rusted metal 

I've got the cab on an angle to make it easier for me to work on, was almost tempted to put it on the rotisserie for this bit

Once I'd treated all of the metal I can now access thru the holes I then started cutting & making patches to weld in

Daved_XB

These where complex curved little bastards so I didn't take a lot of photos as I was too focused on just getting the job done as I'm determined to get this thing finished as soon as I can so I can get back to my own projects.

All things being equal, I'll make a start on the drivers side next weekend

Daved_XB

Got a good chunk more work done on the Ute over the weekend... the drivers side lower rear section was much worse as you saw above. I forgot to take some pics here but I made a new section of the outer sill panel first & fitted that... then I made the complex curved section out of two pieces

Then a bit of CAD design to make the patch for the rear buttress section 

That's cleaned up well.... I'm really happy with how that section has come up... kinda of a shame you won't really see it as it'll be hidden by the tray

Daved_XB

With that done it was time to attack what I think may be the last of the rust in the cab, this was a small section just about the rear window

Now it's time to move onto the hanging panels.... lets start with the front guards & I have to give huge props to Mrs_XB here, this isn't our car but she's been out stripping the paint of these panels as she's keen to see me finish this favour & get back to working on our own stuff.. the process was Mrs_XB got the majority of the paint/bog off with the chemical stripper & then I cleaned the final layers back to shiny metal with the grinder

The drivers side is really good, just a tiny bit of rust behind the wheel opening & some old trim/badge holes that Bryan wants me to weld up

Daved_XB

The drinkers side guard had a stupid amount of bog on it... no idea why as it's also in great condition. Same small patch of rust behind the wheel opening & on this panel it has a full row of trim holes running the whole length of the guard & double the amount of badge holes... so definitely a guard off a different model is my guess so 

We've made a start on the bonnet too

I plan to try & do an hour or two more a night after work this week as I'll be at the F1 GP this coming weekend & so I can't work on it this weekend & I don't want to lose the momentum  

Daved_XB

I'm a bit late writing up this update as most of the work was done the week before F1 GP & a little bit after... but here we are, so the bonnet took an age to get back to bare metal & most of the credit must go to Mrs_XB as she did all the hard work on this & the other hanging panels. These panels have been painted twice with aftermarket colours, but no one ever took the old paint or bog off, they covered the old paint with bog (no idea why) & then painted over it... but off it all came..

There is a small patch of rust on the bonnet & a section of bad surface rust underneath that will need sorting 

Also there are 3 holes that have been drilled into the bonnet... but in very odd locations that make no sense, there is nothing that I can think of that would mount to these very odd locations... so they'll get welded up too

With them sorted the bonnets been primed & put away as it's ready to go back to Bryan now

Daved_XB

The front guards all had trim holes that needed welding up & a tiny patch of rust just behind the wheel opening

Bryan also wanted the radio aerial hole welded up on the passenger side guard top 

​​​​​​​These have now also gone into the I'm finished with you pile

Daved_XB

The doors are the same... many coats of primer, bog & paint just layered up 

The drivers side door is perfect, except for the old trim holes that will need to be welded up, I've also ground back the two lower edges of the inside of the door that is most prone to rusting & in this they are fine.

That's that door done now...

Daved_XB

The passenger side door sadly isn't as good... there are two old patches on the face of the door that are only partly tack welded in, so I'll have to fix that later

The front bottom corner is rusted out & will need patching  

The other bottom corner is much worse sadly....

My plan is to get this sorted this coming weekend

Daved_XB

Spent 2 days cleaning back & treating the floors... man it's a **** dirty job

Then a fresh coat of primer

Then new seam sealer

Then two coats of my fave Raptor paint

Krombopulos Michael

Does it ever get to a point where it would be easier to source a replacement door thats in good order rather than restore what you have, or is the restoring just that much more cost effective.

Daved_XB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118973054#Comment_118973054

It does sometimes... the rust in that door looks bad, but that's not a very hard patch to make once I've cut it all out... so it's an easy fix.

Also they don't make reproduction ones so you'd have to roll the dice & buy an old one & hope that it's better than yours. A few years back I sold some panels & what I did was take the panels back to bare metal & advertised those pics.... turns out I'm mental & no one ever does that, so the ones for sale are all painted & as such you have no idea what's under the paint & no one selling doors is will to let you take the paint off to see the metal before you buy it sadly.

CreadanLady

Do you mind if I ask what the price tag will look like to get this car finished?

Some of that work looks eye wateringly time consuming and expensive.

I assume these sort of restoration jobs are the preserve of the very well off. You're basically hiring a mechanic full time.

Daved_XB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118974089#Comment_118974089

Well, you have to remember that I'm currently living in Australia (so any figures below are in Aussie $) so your mileage may vary... there is one big issue with classic car restoration & that is that companies overcharge for anything to do with classics as far as I'm concerned.

For example if you had a 2008 Toyota Camry & it had some accident damage & needed a little work & some paint you'd get an ok quote for that work & paint. If you rock up with a classic car needing the exact same level & effort of work or maybe even a little less... you're quote will be 3x the Camry quote as the world assumes that as classics are going up in value the owners are rich & as such they overcharge.

I'm not sure if you're aware but I have several threads on here in this section & the only way I can afford to have my cars restored is by me doing all the work (excluding the painting). I couldn't afford to own all the cars I do if I was paying someone else to do all the work.

This Ute belongs to my Mate & I've been doing all of this work for him for free because he's a mate, he pays for the materials but my time & skills (yes, I use the term loosely) I'm donating. My other friend who painted my XB (hope you're reading that thread too... shameless plug) is a professional panel beater & he reckons I've done about $15k in panel work on this ute if my mate had gone to a professional shop.

When I'm done the Ute needs to be painted... I think this will be $15-$17K to paint based on current market costs for classics here in Aus. After that it needs either an engine rebuild or a complete create engine... so $5-$7k there & then it needs to be reassembled (that will be free as I'll help do that bit)... then there will be costs for new odds & ends like wiring, dash parts, seat reupholstering etc.

All up I think my mate is up for about $25k min to get this finished & on the road... these old Utes are going up in value every day so when it's finished it'll be worth a little more that it cost to buy & restore so hopefully he'll think it worth it. Of course there is no upper limit on the cost of a car restoration as you can always go mad with parts... for example instead of a nice $5k engine my mate could easily spend $50k on a 1000hp monster.

Daved_XB

Went out to the shed for an hour after work tonight... cut the rust out of the door, this is a big step as this is the very last of the rust in this Ute now 

It's heading into winter here now, so it gets dark & cold early, so I decide to only patch & fix one side tonight... obviously I went for the easy side first so made up a simple patch

Welded in

Primed

I'll probably leave the other side till Sat morning now

Daved_XB

I did the other side of the door today but I forgot to take pics during the repair... I made the repair in two pieces, the first a simple flat section & then I formed the shape of the section patch on the panel by welding areas into place & then using a hammer & dolly to shape the patch so that it curved all 3 ways it needed too

You can see from the finished pic below where I ended up having to put some pie cuts into the patch to get it to fold into the tight curve I needed 

Daved_XB

Had to make up a little section of roof rail, I hate welding these as they are so thin.... I used a much larger bit of metal as I read somewhere once that it can act as a heat sink & pull some of the heat away from the thinner metal, no idea if it works or not... but it's not a hardship to do 

Well that's it for me, I'm not sure what other parts of this project I'll be hands on with on this Ute... it went back to Bryans this afternoon & it's his job to find a painter he's happy with now... I'll update as I can if I get sent progress pics