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posted on August 27th, 2005 at 07:30 PM
I hate bodgy stuff (not VW but V)
Well, Ive had this VE for a few months now and Im making good progress,
it's a very sound unit and bloody straight with all the bits mostly intact.
A really strong slant 6 and decent mechanicals. Owned by an old Greek couple for eons who loved it, sort of.
Anyway, what is really amazing on this beautiful old beast is the amount of bodgy shit done to it.
Not as bad as a car that had been owned by 25 backyard bodgers like say an old torana or Charger but bodgy nonetheless.
When I got it the amount of cleaning up needed was obvious, the thing looked terrible and it looked rusty but it wasnt. Con decided to preserve the
old girl by drowning it in fishoil. He poured the stuff everywhere, into every door jam, chrome strips, roof gutter, all over the place.
Gotta sand it all back and wirebrush and sand, and sand some more.
A respray is the only option, Im well into that already.
The two mirrors are both different and the left one was half held on with Liquid Nails ! WTF!!
Silastic! The thing is full of silastic or silicon gel acting as a loctite on chrome strips which should be using clips not ground down 3/16 screws
and nuts. The silastic is holding on the letters and just about anything else
that could rattle loose. Been cleaning the stuff off for days.
Bottom radiator hose had plastic strapping and fencing wire pulling it out of the way of the fan belt which was running very close to it???
Turns out the hose was on backwards and just needed to be turned around in order to run behind the fan belt with heaps of room. I laughed at that one.
Heater stopped working so they left heater hoses running to nowhere in the engine bay and put bodgy taps in the hoses to stop the coolant loss.
I fixed all that up today, the demister ducting under the dashboard was a combination of radiator hose, pvc plumbing pipe and shitloads of silastic
holding it all together. What a mess. Lots of messy wiring and yellow insulation tape too. They could have at least used black tape!
Had to clean that up before I installed the DVD anyway, all fixed now.
Battery leads I had to replace, the originals were either too short and/or too weak and the super neat job I did on the whole power supply including
cleaning up years of acid and rust looks great. New terminals and heavier leads helps it to kick over with a vengeance now.
The wheel bearings were stuffed. $50 and a few beers later they were done. Needed tyres too. and wheel alighnment. I lowred the front and it has that
great stance now.
Numerous other little bodgies I have fixed and no doubt I'll find more.
What have you found in your old cars as you took on the rebuild and restoration stage? Any serious dangerous bodgies?
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" You're not a team player "
Desert Bug
Wolfsburg Wizard
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posted on August 27th, 2005 at 11:24 PM
Well done sax, don't ya just love them old valiants!!
Excentric (wife says) VW nut, having owned 250+ VWs in 40 years.
sax
Insano Dub Head
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posted on August 28th, 2005 at 08:02 AM
Between that, and the beetles, maintenance just got a whole lot easier, cheaper and more fun. It's a great feeling to have fixed something properly
or even improved it on something that's 30-40 years old.
It looks like the net has done for us Mopar fans what it also did for us VW fans, parts and info are easier to obtain now than when I had my last
Charger 20 years ago.
At school, in my day you were either H....n or F..d. I wasnt. I felt the call of the big Chryslers strongly and never looked back.
Unlike the 'other' types of car, Volkswagen and Mopar are more than just cars....
" It's a waay of life maaaan "
Im shitty I cant be in Brisbane today for Moparsunday....Ahh the swap meet!!!
" You're not a team player "
pod
A.k.a.: paul mrvw061
Compulsive Aussie Vee Dubber
i`ve got to finish this thing one day
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posted on August 28th, 2005 at 08:58 PM
love the old vals too,rebuilt an ap5 from pieces and she went well too, the all chrysler day is on soon at the fairfeild showgrounds, is a good time
for getting parts and looking at some nice vals
try this for bodgyness, had a hr holden where they had fibreglassed the back floor pans in ,only noticed when i was under the car with a light and it
was shining into the cabin:vadernn[ Edited on 28-8-05 by pod ]
