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.

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.

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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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.

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.