Nice car mate... Looking forward to the pics. Where are you located?
I'm in sydney east... Moved here for uni and havent looked back. I lived near chadstone in melb for a while back when i had a valiant hehe.
Anyways. Here's a drip-feed of some more photos I had lying around in various places plus one I took tonight on my housemates camera again:
I would have loved some wheels with dish but I got these things for a steal and couldnt afford nice dished rims on a uni-budget. still I think they will look pretty darn good even if they are a bit nineties
This was a very sad day for me
... I had heaps of people over the following week tell me about seeing "a cool old car crashed not far from your place"... *tear*
It looked like a great car but the paint was getting tired and the clear was peeling not to mention hidden rust EVERYWHERE. It was always my plan to respray and rust repair but the crash added 6 months of metalwork to the build.
Engine bay before the crash.. I still have this engine... it was actually unharmed due to all the force hitting the rail... we were unbeleiveably able to start it up after the crash after crossing some wires for ignition. I'll be using this engine temporarily while I buildup a l28et the l26 stilll goes very hard though with MS, ported head, manifold and cam- shitloads of torque and revs (ask mark!
)
Luckily I had a 260c sedan that had just run out of rego and whilst a bit ratty had very good panels and rails. It was sad to cut up this car as it was my first datto but it felt a little like a older brother giving a kidney to his gifted younger sibling - the coupes are so rare and so neglected these days, i didnt want it on my conscience putting a great one into the grave.
We took the entire front left rail, radiator support rail and attached pannels but cutting it out of the floor then carfully grinding and drilling the spot welds.
FRANKENSTEINCAR! ...we welded the new rails to the floor of the damaged car after removing the bent rails by drillingg out the spots... we had a professional come in and do the radiator support join which we felt to be the weakest point if not welded correctly and had everyhting else inspected at the same time. Also added a bunch of steel bar to inside of the front rad. support to stiffen it up and relieve the pressure on the weld... spoting it in the whole length of the beam... no more wobbly front end!
On a further note we welding in some more steel reinforcements to the rails adjacent to the lower sills in order to "stiffen up" the frame a bit and for extra safety as alot of rust repair was conducted in these areas.
Two more photos just for the hell of it: the first is a ITB assembly I've been sneakily putting together for a while now... dont have a newer image but its all welded together now and is waiting for me to make some throttle linkages etc. This will be part of the l28ET powerplant that will EVENTUALLY get into the car.
The second image is of my good friend mark happily using his clean 280c to tow my cedric 330 SGLE to its current garage or residence where it awaits patiently in fishoil... one day this will be an awesome project.
Next for the coupe is hilux calipers and slotted rotors and dropping that power plant back in.
Thanks for reading folks and special thanks to Michael and Rory K, Mark A. and Patty the irishman amongst many others for making it possible to get to this point...
100's more photos to come if i ever work out my darn camera lol
-pete