Yea the big tub under the bonnet near the firewall is supposedly the radiator overflow as observed. It has a big rubber tube going from the top of the radiator near the cap straight to the tub. Was like that when I bought it and I have no idea why the guy before me installed one so big, or one at all even. As with a few things on the ute, it makes me suss why its that way and not the original setup. I like the washer tank positioned where it is and its quite big, must have come from some other late car of some sorts. It actually sprays over my windscreen though so not sure its too handy because all it does is wet the roof and tray haha.

Sorry to steal your piping there unfamilia, I actually had no idea someone like yourself has done it before. Do you have any pics of how yours turned out? I'd be interested to do something else with my door panels.

Cheers guys.

Yea I have a respirator that I'll use when spraying. Can't go back on the 2 pak now that I've already spent the coin on it, wasn't cheap either, that's why I want the proper size air compressor to do it or else its a huge waste. Won't be able to bake the paint either so I just hope the hardener will do its job.

Thanks for the responses everyone. The 2 pak compatible primer I bought is mixed at a 2:1 ratio (2 parts primer, 1 part thinner) which I was mixing a little on the thin side to get better flow out of the gun with that compressor. Currently there is 1 1/2 coats on the ute since I was having troubles.

Haven't sprayed any of the 2 pak top coat yet but the can says is a 10:1 hardener ratio and mix with 40-60% thinner.

Looking to get a 6 CFM rental compressor, as most of the rental places have that as a minimum for around 50-80 dollars a day.

Do you guys get all your priming and painting done in one day?

Hey guys just wondering whats the go with air compressors to use for spray painting? I had a bit of trouble using my friends compressor last weekend when I was spraying primer on my ute. Thinking that its not powerful enough for the gun as it didn't kick off the entire day I was spraying and the gun kept spraying intermittently. Any tips would be appreciated before I go rent a bigger compressor. Cheers.

A few months ago I read a forum on how to paint your car with a roller and foam brush. For me I thought this would be a novel idea since I don't own a paint gun or compressor and I can't really spray in my garage anyways since I don't own it. I started by testing out some black stripes which I had always planned to do ever since another member tried them out on his green coupe. So I bought a roller and some thinner and made a super thin wash of gloss black and layered up about five coats on the hood. It was more a test than anything but the stripes stuck because they added about 10 hp to my ute. At least the hoons here around the Gold Coast think so because I've had a a ford hatchback, a black supra turbo, and some dodgy white van all try to race me on separate occasions when stopped at a light since the stripes went on. I don't participate in that by the way. With the hatchback I pretended like I was going to race them when the light turned green, but I didn't move on purpose and sat there watching them fishtail across the intersection very stupidly.

What did add a few horses instead, I hope, was the installation of a Weber 32/36 DGAV and oval port intake which I bought from bert. Decided to upgrade the carb because the existing one had a dodgy air cleaner that would pop off every once in a while and cause me to stall (hence the duct tape in the photos). Had a friend help me install them because I didn't feel confident enough to do it myself. Makes the A15 alot louder thats for sure, and the throttle is definitely more responsive, and I even reckon the engine idles alot better than before. I do have a slight hesitation once in a while that carried through from the original carb when the engine's running cold but I'm not sure what causes it. Makes the engine bog down when I accelerate but if I let go the slightest bit or floor it instead the rpm's come back and it takes off again. I've been told by other members it could be my distributor or coil or the accelerator pump in the carb but I don't have the experience to troubleshoot these items. Changed the air filter element to a red one also because it looks nicer and I thought maybe the old one was causing the problem, but no it wasn't. Mini breather installed as well.

Lastly was refinishing the sports bar in gloss black as well. Not sure if I'll put the bar and tonneau cover back on though as I like the slim look with them off so they are currently for sale if anyone wants.

The idea of painting the whole car with a roller fell through. I decided to go the traditional route and sand/prime/paint the ute myself with a spray gun which the next post will be about as this takes my build thread to present time.

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More pics added from progress during the rest of the year up until a few months ago. Trying to get my build thread updated before I paint this weekend so there may be a few posts tonight.

First off was simply changing out the old rear view mirror which was severely aged. Fitted a new one I bought on ebay from Thailand for 25 bucks all up and its been great so far...not genuine though for you die-hards. Next was the purchase of some 14 inch wire mesh rims that came off a Sunny race car in Warwick. Drove 3 hrs up there from the Gold Coast on a weeknight after work and picked them up for $200 then drove back, kinda crazy I know. Spent a few weekends refinishing the inner parts but the chrome dish was in pretty good condition already. Thought about sanding that back and refinishing the chrome like some other members have done but I'll get to that someday. I basically sanded the hell out of the inner parts by hand...wish is a mission with that wire mesh pattern, then primed, and painted with some Killrust gloss black. Probably would have skipped the primer or bought a better paint in hindsight but I think they still look good. I've seen other members with similar rims and I think they will go nice with my overall paint scheme - orange/black

With the help of my girlfriend who sows really well, we started refinishing some interior parts including the door skins and the sun visors. I found this faux fur type fabric, that's not too fur like which shimmers quite nice in the light and we decided to put some orange piping around the visors to make them pop a bit and match the rest of the paintwork. Also added the piping to the door skins which I made out of 8mm MDF sheet, but I don't think it turned out as good as I imagined...may do something else to highlight the orange somehow since it came out a little wavy...suggestions? Also bought and installed a bright 5-ball orange shift knob from Rocknobs for $20 to go along with the overall theme and I love it. 8-balls are overrated.

About 6 months ago I found some round mirrors at Supercheap and put them on, they were fairly inexpensive too. Originally planned to use them as fender mirrors. I drilled out new holes and screwed them in...stood back and said sweet! That was, of course, until I tried to open the hood and couldn't because it wouldn't clear the mirrors....doh! Must be a rookie mistake. Still was quite happy with the way they look in the normal position on the doors as plan B.

Lastly was refinishing the grill and handpainting the original logo to restore it to a near original condition. Masked up that grill really sharp and sprayed it gloss black. Did the same with the logo, that was a tricky one to mask. Then I got some blue and red enamel paints from a hobby shop where you buy those paints to create model cars and planes and such. Carefully hand-painted the logo with about 6 coats of the enamel and it came out pretty fine.

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I've got one you can have for postage but it's not the original one. God knows what it came out of but it worked for my ute, just depends how desperate you are. Maybe search your local wreckers for an original?

Thanks for the comments guys. Its definitely a great way to learn but I always have this fear that I'll stuff something up and cause a few grands worth of damage somehow...so there is some hesitation to just dive in and go nuts. Shopping bags work great unfamilia...you aren't the only one hehe. Oh and I'm keeping the witches hat orange, it just makes such a statement I think...purchased 4 litres of matching 2 pac to recoat it...official name is "blood orange"

Some more quick info that I left out about the ute when I purchased it is that it came with a fully working A15 engine already installed (sweet!). Transmission was also converted to a 5 speed, dunno what type though; Disc brakes installed on the front; 2" exhaust system; Custom horn (sounds like that annoying one you hear at a football game from some dude in the crowd); Custom over-sized aluminium glove box; older style CD player + speakers; Supercheap Auto type wood steering wheel and floor pedals; Sports bar and tonneau cover with attachments; some spare parts left in the tray. I believe the rest of the ute came pretty much stock. Ute was unregistered.


Okay fast forwarding about four months after purchase with this post's pictures. By now I had grinded most of the rust back to bare metal with a hand grinder, lightly bogged where it needed it and put a quick coat of primer over to make it passable for RWC. The more serious spots I hit with rust converter and patched them with a fiberglass reinforced filler, then sanded and lightly bogged over. In order to get a RWC I also needed to fix some electrical items (with a mates help) including a faulty wire at the reverse light switch which took us ages to try and switch out. Found an access panel under the interior carpet after three or four hours which I'm not sure was originally there but it made it a bit easier to work on that area of the transmission. Dash lights were fixed due to a faulty wire. License plate lights also rewired. Dodgy headlight also replaced. New spark plugs (first time ever installing these myself) New battery and a few other things. Fingers crossed and it passed RWC first try, but I think the inspector had a few datto's of his own. He really didn't like the play in my steering wheel though. Several weekends of work invested I was glad to finally get her on the road.

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Sounds good mate would love to meet up and chat sometime.

Okay here's the first of several pics that I'll be uploading over the next few days. The first pics are day one of self repairs where I am sanding and grinding some rust spots on the body in order to get it roadworthy. Thought this would be an easy task but the more I touched it the worse it got. The main spots which the pictures don't show are at the rear wheel wells, above the driver's door, right front wheel well, and other various spots.

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Hello everyone,

Well it's been just about one year since I bought my '76 ute and later became a member of this forum! Love driving my ute and I often compare driving it to those who don't know what its like to drive one, that its like driving a super-sized go kart. I thought it might be a good idea to start a build thread to show what I have done to my ute over the past year or so.

Being the first car that I have ever owned in 10 years of driving where I actually changed something on it myself other than the wiper blades, this thread will probably not appeal to those more advanced on the forum and with a bigger budget. I've set out to drive the ute as a daily vehicle and tune / fix it up along the way bit by bit where I have a little bit of money here and there to spare. So far its been fulfilling, educational, and frustrating at times...(when I am sitting on the side of the road) To those of you who offered me advice so far...thank you. Looking forward to getting it to the point where I am satisfied in my mind's eye.

As of late I am working on the paint, which after three straight weekends of sanding and prepping, sanding and more sanding, I have sprayed the first two coats of primer on it.

I figure I'll start posting pics from the point when I bought the ute from a guy in Michelton, Brisbane and drove it home if I can dig up all of them.