A WB Ute called Mrs Marsh

[OldDog]

Thanks mate, yeah it'll be a nice "old skool" type WB (well thts the plan anyway)

Bit cranky this morning actually, a few weeks ago as part of my planning i spoke to a local exhaust bloke and asked whether the Pacemakers would fit in the ute with the A/C in place, he reckoned yeah, plenty of room.......well there ain't!

I'm thinking he got mixed up with the different heater unit shapes,ah well. The rear two pipes touch the A/C unit as you can see, so its a toss up whether i get the headers modified or fit extractors which should clear. Only problem there is i lose the better flow of the pacemakers

 

[OldDog]

Well heres the latest round. We've started modding the Pacemakers, i couldn't bear to replace em with something less, i just love those mandrel bends Heres a pic of the chop

I've also stripped out Mrs Marsh's interior and got to work on the spaghetti that is the wiring I managed to pull out the alarm, the old dual fuel gas system plus quite a bit of just redundant wiring.

And while i was there found the source of the burnt wiring smell.

The melted wires are a dodgey joint whre the alarm splices into the original harness. Its going much slower than expected but i'm getting there.

 

[VK SL 3800]

Mmmm i love being able to just watch projects coming together but not having to feel the heartache that is attached with doing it.

Good work.

 

[Jonno]

awesome thread mate well done

 

[OldDog]

I've had to take some time off working on the ute as i had to build a dirt bike for a charity ride. Back into the ute today and so far i have the gas tank in at the tubing run to the front

I've sealed and preped the fllor, fitted sound deadening, the old carpet for the moment and installed the guts of the B&M shifter

I've done the mods to the Air con box so that it clears the headers, i just cut apart the base of the old box the redid it in the new shape using fibreglass

And while the fibreglass sets i'm now working on the horror that is the wiring harness, and splicing in a 4 speed fan and Ais conditioning which wasn't in the old car.

All going well i'll have the dash and wiring, windscreen and door mechanisms / glass fitted tomorrow.

 

[Morton]

You are a beast of efficiency. Clearly done this more than once

<3 the lifting frame for the old shells ^_^ I could learn a thing or two from you!

 

[Lumps of cheese]

Excellent detailed build so far mate. Can't wait to see the end result.

 

[OldDog]

Thanks for the kind words guys. Yup this has sure turned into much more than my original plan of doing a fast build. Almost every part of the car has had to be rebuilt apart from (fingers crossed) the engine and gearbox.

Everything, from the headlights to the steering column to the diff have had be pulled apart and refurbished. Half way through i realised that i may as well just take my time and do everything right the first time.
So after this weekends marathon, the ute now has the front end on, the engine, gas, tailights and dash are wired up. I ended up making a whole new rear wiring loom as the two i had were stuffed. I ended up breaking the old windscreen getting it out of the grey shell (for some reason i have no luck with windscreens) so the car is booked in for Thursday to have a new one fitted. Its going to be a mad rush in the next few days as i still don't have blinkers, brakes, or the engine running! LOL

I painted the nose this morning and it looks good in a pic but unfortunately i didn't match the colour well enough and its a bit light. Its an easy panel to remove so i'll correct it later.

 

[OldDog]

It's ALIVE! After a bit of fiddling around this evening i gave it a quick stab of the starter and it fired right up! Its got one noisey lifter so that may give me some trouble, or maybe i'll just leave it idle for a while and see if it pumps up. Otherwise it sounds very healthy I've been held up the last few days so i guess it won't be ready for tomorrow, ah well. I have all this Sunday to finish off some of the bits and get the damn front blinkers and the windscreen wiper motor working.

 

[OldDog]

So i've got the beast on the road, got the windscreen fitted and have fitted a gas prime system so i can start the thing easily. The starter motor mount repair has given me a bit of trouble so i'll have to fiddle with it until i get the right gear mesh, it doesn't always engage the ring gear. Anyway, so i took it for a good long run this afternoon and its deceptively quick, but just not quick enough. It's running pretty well but theres just not enough punch, not enough "smack in the face with a mallet" affect. I think i need to dump the auto for a manual box. I think i need to hot this engine up some more. I'm planing either a dual quad setup or a tunnel ram, i'll have to get in touch with an engineer and find out how much engine i can have poking out the bonnet and still have full rego. Wonder how far a blower pokes out the bonnet? I may even take the time to fit a 9 inch and do just the one engineer report.
So yeah, not sure if i should run an old school 4 speed like a Muncie or a Toploader, or if i should go for a more modern 5 speeder. Whats a good 5 speed that can handle a bit of pressure?

Cheers
OD