Series 3 VS Ute restoration

[Watejs06]

G’day all,

Thought I’d put together a thread for my 1999 Series 3 SS ute. I’ve recently purchased from Melbourne and got it on a truck over to the west coast (Perth).

I’ve been building cars for many years, have always got a project on the go. I enjoy the journey of seeing an older car come together, and what power we can produce. I’m not fussy when it comes to vehicle makes – Holdens, Fords, Nissans, Toyota, BMW and the list goes on.

Leading up to this purchase I had done a bunch of travelling, so I decided to not inspect this car in person, which has not worked out in my favour. I did get a friend to take a look for me, but you never get the entire picture.

Some basic info:

• 174,000kms
• Factory Manual
• Black car
• Resprayed about 2 years ago

Anyway, here’s a few photos of when she arrived at my doorstep (my old man drove it home, as I was away).


https://postimg.cc/B8rVcvqs] [/url]

https://postimg.cc/ZWhng8Vy] [/url]



I haven’t fully decided on a direction that I want to go yet. The old Iron Lion has many options for making grunt. Although I do like the look of the Whipple 2.4 Supercharger, plus they seem to make good numbers.

Regardless, I’ll correct the constraints from factory, as a trial to see what can be done.

• Rebuild with more compression (pistons)
• Modify up a Bannana manifold to see what that will achieve.
• Ported heads for some air flow

will update this thread as I go, mostly to track the progress and things I learn !

 

[Forcedvp]

Great find! Nice low Km S3 ute. A Whipple will do nicely under the bonnet.

 

[Drawnnite]

Keen to see how you go with this.
Looks like a fairly clean base to start with.

And am kind of impartial to a Black S3 Manual Ute (and jealous of the 2 extra cylinders)

 

[afstruct]

Keen to see where it goes.
Also, = I'll spend your MEGA coin you don't have !!
==Torque Power , Little Praw block , Higgins heads, Harrop PD supercharger,interchiller, all the fruit = ( forged etc )= all matched up !!!

 

[Watejs06]

So, yesterday I managed to spend a few hours on the ute, to have a good look over it and start getting rid of the nasty stuff.

Firstly, this thing needs to be licensed – here in WA we are pretty primitive when it comes to modifications, as this ute is close enough to standard, we’ll just fix it up and take it over the pits.

List of non-roadworthy items:

• Tyres are shagged
• Indicators don’t cancel after turn
• Under bonnet insulation falling apart
• Battery not secure
• Pedal rubbers
• Door seals incorrect, doors not closing
• Suspension shagged and rear sitting on bump stops
• Brakes shagged
• Diff noisy / pinion bearing need replacing
• Exhaust has leaks

Seems like a lot, but managed to get a few things done with a trip to Rare Spares for new parts.



Also uncovered a very poorly installed sound system, which took a while to remove. A subwoofer was mounted in the tray, next to the fuel tank. The MDF box had been wet, and started to rot in there, absolutely stank and there was the beginnings of rust in the floor.



The next thing was some garden hose has been used as cabling conduit, I haven’t investigated this yet, but I suspect it was for a reversing camera which no longer exists.

https://postimg.cc/1VqPKtV1] [/url]

https://postimg.cc/f3zzhDpY] [/url]

https://postimg.cc/JGhChG0d] [/url]

https://postimg.cc/s1vMZDM1] [/url]

https://postimg.cc/gXPPcsLv] [/url]

 

[Phillbert]

The no cancel of indicators will prob be the Steering Wheel cam lug broken off the Wheel, quite common.
Most of the others seem simple enough to do most yourself to save a dollar.

Nice investment depending what you do.