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.

haha sounds good mate. its a very educational experience indeed, i started my black ute over 2 years ago and it will probably take me another 2-3 years to get it on the road, i also picked up a 2nd ute which will take a couple years to finish as well. very educational and frustrating at times indeed.

looking forward to hearing more about your story and could possibly even meet up sometime as im in south brissy not too far from you.

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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good stuff, i think ive changed every thing on my car except the wiper blades.

and glad to see im not the only one that uses shopping bags for gloves some times. i feel kinda normal now.

keep learning as your going, personally i never touched a car or mechanical things til i got my first car, and it was a disaster. so wasnt until 5 years later i threw my self in deep with a mini. I still am not confident enough to rebuild a motor or gearbox, but you can do a fair few things just by trying.

Mik you were never normal.

im not confident enough to rebuild motor or box yet either but i can pretty much pull everything else off and replace most bits and pieces, my next big learning experience is pulling the dash out and replacing the clock with that tacho.

Looking good there ,im liking the orange colour kinda looks like vermillion fire from the back ,same colour as my ute !

Good to see another ute being brought back to its former glory !

does look like your ute colour jesse.....


good luck with your build champ
look forward to seeing more pic's and progress

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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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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wow how mide were the old rear wheels? 7s ? they would look so good on the back of my ute !

nice work ,keep it up!