My Torana Rebuild

[Reaper]

You put a UC dash into an LH???

Yessir.

Reaper

 

[383 hatch]

????

What is the question?

You put a UC dash into an LH???

LOL, i know, that sounds like crazy talk to me...Each to there own.

nice workmanship bv6! my pop is a retired panelbeater of 30yrs he did his time through the late 50's through to late 80's....alot of hands on skills with no bog at all back then!
good to see you take alot of pride and perfection in what u do!
when i was looking at the rearend conversion pics where the rear wraps around to the quarters........
was it an illusion or was there a bit of sinkback in the panel where it was welded??
if so what do you do when it comes to counteract it???
keep up the good work...lookin foward to the updates

Thanks mate. Yes there is a bit of sink back where the quarter section was welded in. It's bugger all really, but i'll hammer and dolly it all up then put a little skin of filler over it. Nothing will be metal finished on this car, i'm not going that crazy as i believe there is nothing wrong with body filler if it's applied properly and it's not 2" thick.

 

[ari666]

man, chevy orange will just blow you away with a blue engine bay. when you say "silver" for the manifold.. are you talking painted silver, raw manifold, or polished? personally... and youll knock this right back, but personally i would keep the raw alloy look. i know its a bitch to keep clean, any speck of oil on it is pretty much there for life, but black rockers, black timing cover, black aircleaner (all with chevy logos) chevy orange water pump, block and heads, raw finished intake and raw holley, HPC headers, black leads, black cap, billet dizzy, hidden coil or mallory MSD and blaster coil, stainless cables
...

oooh yes please.

 

[Pub247]

Undecided atm. I have decided on the body colour though, it will be going the Cyan blue like it was, but with the Torana black outs on the bonnet and around the window frames.

I think it depend on what colour the block will be but with that in mind silver goes with anything

I think hazy asking if it will have the full kit on it. I know that you don't like the flares but I always wanted an LX Hatch with kit minus boot lip in gun metal grey look tough as #### I reckon

 

[383 hatch]

man, chevy orange will just blow you away with a blue engine bay. when you say "silver" for the manifold.. are you talking painted silver, raw manifold, or polished? personally... and youll knock this right back, but personally i would keep the raw alloy look. i know its a bitch to keep clean, any speck of oil on it is pretty much there for life, but black rockers, black timing cover, black aircleaner (all with chevy logos) chevy orange water pump, block and heads, raw finished intake and raw holley, HPC headers, black leads, black cap, billet dizzy, hidden coil or mallory MSD and blaster coil, stainless cables
...

oooh yes please.

Ari, i've been seriously considering Chevy Orange, i reckon you're right it would be a nice contrast. I'm actually thinking about getting the manifold HPC coated (along with the headers). It won't be polished, not a chance. Everything else, you have pretty much hit the nail on the head....Except the air filter, the K&N one in the pics is the one that's going on it (at this point, my mind may change .

I think it depend on what colour the block will be but with that in mind silver goes with anything

I think hazy asking if it will have the full kit on it. I know that you don't like the flares but I always wanted an LX Hatch with kit minus boot lip in gun metal grey look tough as #### I reckon

No way, no flares for this baby. IMO, i think flares actually look like an after thought (well, they were anyway), i love the clean look of a Torana with no flares. This is why i went with mini tubs to fit big rubber, otherwise i would have taken the easy way out and bolted flares on it. Also, flares never look right with the bigs and littles stance, they need big wheels all round to fill the flares.

 

[ari666]

I'm actually thinking about getting the manifold HPC coated

YES! hpc has a nice weird finish. not quite alloy, not quite chrome. only thing is: do you want to trap that heat in? i have always seen manifolds as a means of letting heat escape from the valley. also itll mean the runners will get a beating of heat from the valley and wont have anyway of letting it out :s all that heat will circulate through the runner and increase your intake charge heat massively. (i dunno, just sayin)

but yeah that K&N filter will suit, didnt really notice it till after i posted. much better breathing from those things anyway. although i have to say it looks a little faded, you gonna replace with a new unit? gonna go black element? please god not red, thatll be way too many colours.

 

[383 hatch]

Well, it's funny you say about the heat thing. I had the blower HPC coated on the V6, and believe it or not, it was actually cooler to touch after it was coated then before when it was just raw aluminium. Before it was coated, you would burn your hand on it after a good hard run, but after it was coated you could hold your hand on it....Go figure? Also, with the Victor being an air gap design, the heat shouldn't really get to the intake runners anyway. If you coat the whole manifold, the coating on the underside could actually help keep the heat in the valley instead of it transferring to the intake?. Who knows?

The filter just needs a re oil, it's actually in really good nick. When i re oil it, i'll put it on pretty sparingly so it doesn't really stand out.

 

[ari666]

Also, with the Victor being an air gap design, the heat shouldn't really get to the intake runners anyway.

AH, yeah yeah. got ya.

 

[383 hatch]

Little bit of progress today.

Did some more work on the front conversion. I pulled the front back off and repaired the rust around the bonnet hinges and also removed the outer lower tie bar. I repaired the inner and outer tie bar from where it had a little hit, painted the inners then welded it all back together. Once that was done, i fitted the front back to the car and assembled all the front end and gapped it all up to make sure the front was in the right spot. After a little persistence, it all gapped up perfectly, the bumper also fits nicely. That was most of today gone...

Next step is to pull it all apart again, strip the paint off then weld it all on.

Pics:

I know this isn't anything to do with the Torana, but here is what i've been doing for the past week.

I tubbed my old mans HR for him (he helped). 15x6 and 15x10 Convos help it a lot

So, there you have it. Now the HR is out the way, it's back to the Torana.

 

[ari666]

After a little persistence,

ok, i gotta ask: "a little persistance" translates to how many hours work? im just asking because i think i must have spent around 4 hours on JUST my front bumper. the guards, cowl lower valence etc were done over a number of weeks, and the bonnet still doesnt line up.

so yeah, how long is "a little persistance"?