I thought it would be time to start a project build on my Ute. Bought it just after new years for about $750 but had to trailer it home. Was previous owner’s project but drove it up from Canberra and got T Boned on the way. He didn’t know the full damage to the back so he sold it cheap. So then we chucked it on a trailer and drove it back home.

We started the rebuild by cutting the rear right quarter off to see the damage the accident had done. Me and my son s**t ourselves when we saw the wheel well crumpled in halfway. We let decided to leave that for a bit and get the engine out. We had NO engine crane available so me, my son and a couple of other mates strapped the engine to 2 long poles and lifted the engine out and attached it to a engine stand. While I was at work I got my son to fully strip the interior of everything and he did a pretty good job, leaving only the hairy glue on the ground, the wiper blades on the inside and the steering column.

We decided to strip the complete front of the car. We unbolted the fenders, bumper, lights and grill (nice metal one with separate light surrounds) and took the hood off. We haven’t stripped the engine bay fully yet because we still have the master brake stuff in there and a little bit of tubing and things on the fire wall.

We went out and bought 200b struts of a member on OzDat I think and tried to figure out how to fit them. We found out that you have to cut the spring perch from the 1200 struts off and widen the middle to accept the 200b strut width to fit it. We also used the bottoms of the strut (forgot what they are called) so we could use the 1200 control arms.

We fitted those and bought 4 R31 rims that we will eventually chrome with a couple of other things. We also bought 2 120y seats to fit in the end and went and bought a right quarter to replace the f**cked one.

We went out to a mates place who is also rebuilding a ute (83 model I’m pretty sure) and let us grab his dash which had the circle holes for speedo, tacho etc etc.

We cut out the left quarter because it was molestered with odd dints and chips and we are planning to get a new left quarter later on. We also got a used tailgate from my mate which is in way better condition but is a) not the right one for our model or b) one of those crappy repo ones that doesn’t fit properly.

In the last week we had the arrival of our set of extractors and electronic dizzy.

Pics will be up in like 2 hrs when I find them thanks for reading….
.
Nick (and my son Jacob [this is his car])

looking forward to seeing more of this one.......

You did end up with a #OOPS#ty aftermarket tailgate cause i brought one of them...
you can still modifiy it its 10mm to high at the top lip. i cut mine and welded back up and its good as new now...
just takes a bit of mucking around.

I like your seats too they look nice in there...
keep the updates coming.

nice work...

I'm also doing a ute project with my stepson.. although at this point it's mainly me!

the inner guard looks repairable. I just ordered some prefab trailer guards from Guardian guards which could be handy in the repair. this may be of interest?

http://www.guardian-mudguards.com.au/ ... =com_virtuemart&Itemid=53

Cheers

Ed

thanks ed for that option .. before we were going to create a inner guard from the left one since it isnt crumpled. but i will look into the guards cos they could work easily.

nick

a while ago i cut the inside bit off the left quater to see if there was anything i could accidently cut.. there wasnt and today i peeled of the outside edges off the car and grinded the spot welding tabs. didnt get ALL of the grinding done as i couldnt really be f**ed taking the wheel off to grind the wheel well. more updates later....

awesome mate, ill be passing one of my ute on to my son Eli when he is 18

yeah this will be my sons first car.. he has actually done more work than me on it haha

haha my son is only 6 months old so he doesnt help much

might be a couple of weeks before i really get going with the ute becuase i am moving houses and that doesnt leave much time to work, so ill have updates in about a month or so :)