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My Torana Rebuild

Calaber

Nil Bastardo Carborundum
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I've often wondered just how accurate the quality of standard panel pressings is. The old Toranas were pretty roughly thrown together at the factory. Have you had to do a lot of fiddling to get the panels neatly aligned with minimal margins?
 

383 hatch

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Na, not really actually. To be honest, the bolts have a fair bit of adjustment built in from the factory, so it takes a bit of adjusting to get them right, but the fit is quiet acceptable. Given how much work this car has had carried out on it, it all fits up very well.

All the panels will be hung on and gapped up before the car is primed just to make sure everything will fit nice once it's done. That way, if i need to adjust the gaps a bit (by modifying panels) it can be done then. Once it's all painted it's too late.
 

383 hatch

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Hmm, something appears to be missing here....

IMGP3051600x450.jpg


Oh....There it is. Mmm, with new shiny bits :p

IMGP3052600x450.jpg

IMGP3053600x450.jpg


So, that's what i did tonight. Just a quick dummy assembly to check deck heights and piston to bore clearance. Turns out it's 0 deck height straight off the bat, awesome, just what i wanted. Also, piston to bore clearance is fine too. This motor was rebuilt not long before i got it, it was pulled down because it had no go, turns out it had dish top pistons. No comp will certainly make it sluggish. It was already 0.040 up, so it was ready for my 383 pistons already. The bores are very good, so it just needs a hone and a good steam clean, clean up the decks, get the rotating assembly balanced and it's good to go together.

Another thing, because the rods i'm using are made especially for stroker use the block doesn't need any clearancing for the 383 crank. Bonus. It's all worked out really well.
 

78_torana

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Hmm, something appears to be missing here....

IMGP3051600x450.jpg


Oh....There it is. Mmm, with new shiny bits :p



IMGP3052600x450.jpg

IMGP3053600x450.jpg


So, that's what i did tonight. Just a quick dummy assembly to check deck heights and piston to bore clearance. Turns out it's 0 deck height straight off the bat, awesome, just what i wanted. Also, piston to bore clearance is fine too. This motor was rebuilt not long before i got it, it was pulled down because it had no go, turns out it had dish top pistons. No comp will certainly make it sluggish. It was already 0.040 up, so it was ready for my 383 pistons already. The bores are very good, so it just needs a hone and a good steam clean, clean up the decks, get the rotating assembly balanced and it's good to go together.

Another thing, because the rods i'm using are made especially for stroker use the block doesn't need any clearancing for the 383 crank. Bonus. It's all worked out really well.

Thanks mate. How's yours going?
Gbox has been done, it's ready to be picked up so got a mate going to get it as I'm at work. Il be racing it this sat at nostalgia drags, hoping to go low 12s. Already did 12.6 with 1900 stall on bp 98. Now got manualised auto 2800-3000 stall and e85 tune with about 10-15 extra hp n 25nm more torque. An 11 uncooled wud b nice :)
 

383 hatch

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Been fairly hard at it this weekend.

I started Friday night after work by paint stripping the bonnet. It had some rust in the rear corners from sitting on the ground, so i got to work on that Saturday morning. I had a donor bonnet that was absolutely rusted out, but the corners where i needed were good...Go figure?

After i'd done all the rust repairs on the bonnet and straightened out a previous repair, i gave the guards a bit of hammer and dolly lovin' to straighten out a couple of repairs that weren't quiet to my satisfaction. That was the day gone.

I did however, manage to weld up my low mount alternator bracket i've been working on after work during the week.

Today, i fixed a small rust spot in the nose cone, then deoxadined all the front panels then gave them a couple of coats of epoxy primer. I also gave the radiator support panel and inner guards a coat of epoxy aswell, the engine bay isn't quiet finished yet as there are a couple of small things i want to do, but it was starting to surface rust so i thought a coat or epoxy couldn't hurt.

Pics:

Low mount alternator bracket i made (not welded in this pic)
IMGP3054600x450.jpg

IMGP3055600x450.jpg

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IMGP3061600x450.jpg

IMGP3062600x450.jpg


I'm really pleased with how the front conversion has come up, the inner guards won't even be picked as being modified once it's finished which is what i was looking for.
 
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