75 HJ One Tonner "Catalina"

[Torquative]

Hey all,

well I'll keep a photo diary of my progress here.

Bascially bought this ute off a work mate who had it sitting round for 12 months. he bought a bike and cheap Corolla run around car after losing interest in trying to maintain and work on the ute.

So its become a project car for me, my mates and my dad, whose loving every minute of it!

She has earned the nickname Catalina because for an Australian Classic car so far all the replacement parts have 'made in mexico' stamped on them

Basics:

'75 One Tonner HJ
253 V8 with Quadrajet carby
Four on the floor, converted from trimatic
electrics shot, brakes shot, rust in the usual spots.

So far ...

Got it hom early January 2009

Sat round til April due to funds, started it last weekend

- Stripped the interior, seats, dash, carpets, steering column
- found rust on the passenger footwell which was expected as the passenger door doesnt have a door seal and this was left sitting in the back yard for 12 months plus untouched
- removed original wiring harness
- ran new wiring harness

Easter long weekend me and dad attacked it some more

- dismantled and cleaned up the starter switch, then connected it to the wiring which took some thinking and working out
- found 2 of the ignition leads were round the wrong way, corrected, and all of a sudden she sounds more throatier!
- repainted the column shroud and handbrake from chipped and peeled black to just black!
- installed new ignition barrel as each door and ignition were on seperate keys (so I needed 4 for the car, one for each door, one to start and one for the fuel tank lid)
- removed rear tray and started to prep the rear chassis rails for painting

Will keep everyone updated with my progress. Its all electrical at the moment, next will be the headlight switch, brake switch, indicators etc.

Bascially its still a mess to look at as i havent done any panel work yet, but its gettin there. Things like the brake booster and air cleaner housing will be cleaned up under the bonnet, new guards are going on outside, have a new floor panel to replace the rusty one, new seats and carpets on the way.

Some photos:

Day I got it home






Interior strip out



New wiring harness installed



Old harness removed



The work area



Tray off

[Jo3_Blo]

Good to see progress being made mate.

How will you go about painting the chassis rails, because I know its really easy to take the tray off, I've been thinking about doing this for a while myself.

Would it be a waste of time to use pressure pack paints you reckon? (I'm not after a really high quality finish or anything, just want it to look better than it does (some surface rust) and also don't want it to scratch up in the first 5 minutes.

[Torquative]

Im just going to rough up the current paint and spray with an air gun. I have some "GMH black paint".

Its mostly faded more then anything, figured the tray had to come off to wire up the rear lights so i might as well paint while im at it

[Jo3_Blo]

Fair enough. I might have to invest in a small compressor. That way I'll be able to do mine when the time comes.

[Haydz]

hey matt. any more progress on this. dont be a slacker and let us know what your up to

[keza87]

I don't believe there has been! I know what colour its gonna be painted though That's when the time comes.

[Torquative]

well yeh I actually havent done much. With my warehouse moving, then Kezas warehouse moving, then Andrew working overtime, then dad working weekends, then the end of financial year, birthdays, cold weather, the fact its dark when I get home and a few other issues in and around home ... havent had a chance to do much.

Heres the latest

Steering column cover painted and clear coated properly this time... cant believe the black gloss paint costs $40 a litre but the results are worth it !!



New dash



Im told its off a Monaro GTS 350. I havent ever seen them like this - it has the water and oil temp guages fitted from factory and yes, a genuine 745 XXX on the clock. The lady I bought it off showed me their last blue slip which was dated 2007 which had only a few hundred kays under that

The biggest latest addition



Its an entire front end off a HQ GTS. I was watching the V8 Supercars at Darwin a few weekends ago and they had the Historic Touring Cars out, with a few HQ GTS Monaros. Lining up on the grid they looked awesome, sleek yet tough. The front end on mine is destroyed, its not worth trying to save any of the panels. Having a quick look on ebay this bloke was selling one. It didnt sell at auction, I offered him next to nothing for it, he said pay for it now pickup when ya can its all yours! It also has an almost new radiator, horn and even inner wheel arches (which everyone sells seperately ...) He literally just unplugged the wiring and unbolted it from the firewall.



Only just squeezed into the back of Kezas ute (thanks buddy) although the tail gate needed to be strapped shut. Ironically had I had the one tonner it would have fitted perfectly!!

The ute it come off, which was a fresh restoration not that long ago ..



Total number of kays in one day just to get the damn thing



Original 30-something year old Rory badge



Finally my storage area



One advatage to work moving a warehouse is theres shelves that either need to disapear or be thrown out, so I rescued some of the better stuff. These ones held Land Rover service parts, havent they come a looooong way!!! Only problem is now I have more room for rubbish in that corner! You'll also be able to just see the top corner of the red bar fridge at the bottom, it still lives with us!!

So the dash is wired in, the indicators and various other switches are about to be wired in, next step is the floor pan (which I have a brand new one sitting out there) so I can start to chuck the interior back together, and move onto the panel work. Cant do much with the panels til it gets warmer, but theres some mechanical stuff I need to do which will be heaps easier with the front end taken off as I will be able to get into the engine from any angle.

Ive also fixed the brake issue, rebuilt the booster and cleaned out the lines, although one of the calipers is stuffed so I need to find a replacement one.

[Torquative]

oh and yes Ive decided on a colour, but no it wont be revealed til its done ...

and after finding one of the brake calipers damaged I have since found a set of Girlock calipers.

From what I can gather the Girlock calipers were fitted to the bigger 308's and 350's as their physically a bigger caliper, so I guess like putting HSV brakes onto an Executive, except these ones bolt straight up. Went to pick n payless today in the hope there would be a PBR caliper and thought I had no hope, that was until I found a HJ V8 Wagon that had just been put there - calipers still in tact. Asked for a quote, the bloke says 30 bucks each, I was quick to nab em coz theyve been going for $150 to $300 on ebay, only problem now is I twisted the metal supply line and it snapped clean in half, so I need to replace that now grrr

[Jo3_Blo]

Nice man,

so what was happening with the brakes? IE- what was the symptoms of the problem?

[shaneomate]

ahh the HJ One Tonner is beautiful

[Goon]

Nice ride man keep up the good work!!!

[Torquative]

been a while since ive updated this, although not alot has happened.

Okay I went back to pick n payless and grabbed a brake line. Luckily one of my workmates, who has a HQ Kingswood, was grabbing stuff of a car next to theone I needed, and he had what I forgot - a flat blade screwdriver!

Bloke at the front said "whats that?", I replied "brake line for a VS Commodore, how much mate" (I had been quoted $30 to have one made up so I was happy to pay anything up to that). He asked "is that all" - "yes" - "seeya next time mate"

So the girlocks are on, needed some cleaning up and could do with a caliper kit through it as one of the rubber seals has a nick in it, but old mates at Rare Spares didnt have one. Important thing is I need to move it next weekend so we can use the space out the back (44 gallon drum and fire is going in its place) so at least this time I have a brake pedal when I press it!

Bled the front brakes and wallah, brake pedal! Need to do the rears, which I am hoping to do tomorrow, to get rid of the old gunky fluid.

Gonna get stuck into it again in about 2 or 3 weeks time, the floor needs to go in next so we can do all the wiring and finish it, as we need to secure wiring to the floor pan. I'll finish painting the rear chassis rails now the days are warmer so I can wire in the rear lights and bolt the tray back on.

Finish the floor, finish the wiring, the interior starts to go in and the front comes off for some engine work and new panels

[Ado]

Just want to tell you that its a standard HQ front not a GTS,still better than what you had though.Oh and that dash cluster if from a HJ Premier.

[fuzzy2308]

man how did you get a red fridge?

[swiftymcfeat]

Good luck with the project. Looks like its coming together nicely.

[Torquative]

hey Ado yeh I sort of worked that one out after looking at some photos, anyhoo was still cheap enough for everything I got and thanks for clearing up the dash too, I keep getting conflicting information I just wish if people didnt know what their talking about they'd admit it to me because I have NFI, this car was built before I was even born.

Red fridge came from work, dont know where it came from before that

Still havent done much **grumbles** need time on a weekend which isnt going to plan a.t.m

[Jo3_Blo]

Well on the dash - I was lookin at a 75 HJ ute the other day (kinda kickin myself for not buying it but anyway) and it had the same style dash as yours.......with the rectangular speedo. Kinda cool really I spose, very old school y'know.

ADO would probs be right in saying yours is a prem dash as well, as the standard dashes woulda just not had those extra guages, and yours does so yeah, if I could remember if this ute I saw had those gauges I'd be able to tell you for sure, but we'll leave it at that for now lol.

GL getting some progress done mate. Started on the dastardly rust yet? Your drivers side looks alrite, just the pass side that looks yucky lol.

[Torquative]

ive got a complete floor for both sides, might as well do both for the extra $80 odd

nah we're going to start on it next weekend and see how we go

[Torquative]

Well between watching Garth Tander cleanup at the Phillip Island 500 in fantastic style on the last lap, I managed some work on Catalina as well.

I grabbed the new seats from a mates brother, their VS Berlina seats in fairly good nick. Doesnt matter, their free and in 100% better condition then the VL seats that will come out of it.

Then I got stuck into the floor ...

The floor panels are made up of 4 pieces, a RH front, LH front (so where your feet go), RH rear and LH rear (where the seats bolt). I thought we'd need to change all 4 panels.

As you can see during a trial fit the floor doesnt "exactly" fit.

Last weekend at muscle car masters at Eastern Creek the announcers told how Rare Spares have reproduction parts that are 100%, but this tends to tell another story ...



Doesnt matter, as it is we only need to fit one panel out of 4 because the rest havent been attacked by rust yet.

I dont have any "before shots" but you can see from one of the very first photos how the floor looked.

During the cleanup ...



The offending rusted panel removed



After cleanup and rust converter treatment





Ive got some more photos but their not uploaded yet.

So esentially after I attacked the floor with a wire brush and "flapper disc" it cleaned up well and better then I thought, ripped off all the surface rust and treatment, although there was alot of fine red "rust dust" everywhere, through my clothes, through the dash panel, on the concrete. It was only the passenger front half that had to be completely cut out because it was destroyed by rust, but the rest was fine, only a minor rust hole here or there that we've cut out and will patch shortly.

Its all been rust converter treated, once the new panel goes in it'll all be rust inhibitor treated too then the interior goes back in.

So I invested 90 bucks to pickup a cheap "temporary carport" from kmart, it wont last long and is just about already falling apart - I just need it to last til I have the new doors on and door rubbers on, to stop water getting into the interior like it had been otherwise I'll be just undoing all my good work!

Work will come to a temporary stop for the moment coz Im busy the next few weekends as is dad

[Torquative]

not much of an update but for those following Im on holidays at the end of next week (just in time for Bathurst 1000) so I'l get stuck into it again.

Floor panel going in then rust proofing, finish wiring (radio/indicators/fan/wiper) then onto paint stripping/prepping, rust cutting and priming the cabin ready for spraying.

[Jo3_Blo]

Looks like you've made some good progress mate. Keep it up.

Your floor panels seem a little longer than mine.......would you be able to post a pic of the front drivers side pan sitting in place in the vehicle? No biggie, just curious to see if the panels are actually different or if its just me.

Yeh, AFTER you buy the rare spares parts, everyone tells you how their shit and don't line up right lol.
Apparently the short cowl panel ends (which I bought) don't line up at all..........

Do you need to repair your cowls or are they good?

[Torquative]

I can do that for you for sure, next week when I'm working on it I'll grab a pic.

I havent looked at the cowels in great depth yet, I'll know in the coming few weeks. I'd like to say no because all that was restored a few years ago, but until I check it out I wont know for sure!

Also if anyones reading this I'll have some things for sale/going cheap in Sydney

- HJ Front bumper bar chrome, fairly good cond but original
- mounting brackets for this bar
- 2x front guards, condition?? Im stripping 2 sets back and taking the best and offloading the others.
- bonnet in decent condition, same as the guards, have 2, will strip back the paint and take the best of the 2

[kingswood country]

What's happened after the last post, 1st time I've seen it and very interested now

[ari666]

lol, blast from the past...