1972 Lj Torana

[orangeLJ]

Thought I might aswell throw the old girl up for anyone who is interested

 

1972 LJ torana, had it since I was about 15 (22 now)

 

I originally bought it from the wreckers for $1000, (was looking for an EH wagon or ute at the time) was complete and relatively straight (and with no rust)

 

Had thrown a leg out of bed and spewed that good ol' rusty water everywhere.

 

Was running a column shift trimatic gearbox and was "olive" green with a white roof and chrome striping.

 

Me being your average 15 year old, I stripped it down before anyone could take any photos and therefore the only photos I have of the car before work are a couple that my brother took

 

this is one of them-

 

 

from there it was fully stripped and beaten-

 

 

engine bay painted

 

I slapped together a new motor for it (under the watchful eye of my old man)

 

was 30 thou over, fresh pistons, standard rods, stage 3 holden head, 8.5:1 compression, very mild camshaft etc.

 

All up, including machining the engine cost $2k to build up (love having friends in the industry)

 

Originally had a weber from a fairlane on it, but later changed to a WWII carb.

 

Having the car running before the painting made it shit easy to move in and out of the workshop in the mornings.

 

car painted

 

It was only ever meant to be a "quick" build up to replace my daily at the time (95 charade on 15x8s :blush: was a fun little car)

 

But after everything started snowballing it kind of became a bigger project and took around 8 months of flat out work (every arvo and every weekend aswell as the days I used to skip school)

 

Full interior retrim was done by another friend and totalled another 2k worth of work (Mcdonalds funded most of this)

 

 

 

 

This was the first time the car rolled out of the workshop complete

 

It still needed some minor work

 

I started off running an Opel 4 speed box, 3.08:1 banjo rear end.

 

 

Anyway, after a while the WW 2 barrel carby just wasnt cutting the mustard (I was on my red Ps still, ohh the irony)

 

These came off another LJ that we bought, stripped and scrapped (was VERY rusty)

 

 

Over the years I spent $1500+ on those carbies, with rebuilding them, new bits here and there and making them look like this-

 

 

 

Went pretty bloody well with the triple SUs on it too.

 

 

Car got some toyota love while I was on my green Ps, steel case celica gearbox, CRS bellhousing (mechanical clutch), heavy duty clutchplate and a yellaterra explosion proof billet steel flywheel.

 

 

 

I'm kind of all over the shop with pictures and stuff, so I think I will leave the history bit at that.

 

This was a fun time to be 17

my charde, VK and torry.

 

I was in the process of selling the charade and bought the VK calais for $150 in parts, threw it back together registered it and put a set of wheels on it.

Was great to get a choice of cars to drive! haha\

 

some random photos-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The original motor made around 100kW at the wheels running on a shithouse tune (very very rich)

 

A while after that I fitted 308 rocker gear (higher ratio, basically like having a cam with bigger lift)

 

I drove it like that once or twice, then pulled it apart (I seem to have a habbit of that)

 

I stripped the motor down and rebuilt it-

 

 

ACL flat top perkins pistons

Starfire H beam rods

Fully balanced rotating assembly

 

Had the head decked and rear of the ports throated (havent fully de-shrouded the valves, thats next on the list)

that upped the compression to about 9.8:1

 

Fitted a cam that lies between a 40/80 and a 35/75 (XU-1) cam, custom ground from a fresh billet cam by a good friend.

 

Car was instantly better.

 

then decided once again to pull it apart.....

 

smoothed the engine bay, hid the wiring, sold the SUs and fitted 40mm webers

 

 

 

Did the transformation in 3 weeks, spent every night after work in the shed (I work in sydney too)

 

Got it ready the day before my mates wedding (the deadline)

 

 

Thats about up to where I'm at now, Ive replaced the black carpet with a tan colour and I'm just saving to get the kickpanels retrimmed, boot carpet remade and the shifter/handbrake boots sewn into the carpet.

 

Most of my time and money has been filtered into my missus' ute that I'm almost finished (will throw up another thread)

 

I still need to finish off my custom dash and fit it, aswell as getting around to knocking up a new boot install for shows and crap.

 

Ive also got these to fit and sort out-

 

 

 

 

 

just need to lower the car, change the offset (3 piece wheels, already have the new outers) and roll my gaurds!

[MYSTIK[RL]]

mmmmm ROH venturo's nice choice of wheel :blush:

[JiP]

WOW!! Dam that looks good man!

[orangeLJ]

Thanks guys.

 

Yeh the ROH's came up cheap, were meant to have good tyres and fit perfectly.... didnt work out that way!

 

Ive got tyres and the new smaller outer rim sections to get them up to scratch, just havent had the time to do anything!

[Des]

Update ?

[orangeLJ]

Not much to update really!

 

It hasnt moved for about 2 months, Ive been too busy with working on the house and trying to get the ute finished.

 

After tax time it should get a bit of love!

 

Its hard to think it has basically been out about 5 times in 12 months......

[JJT036]

I was just reading Street Machine August '08 and spotted this photo on the 1st page of "On Any Sunday".

 

Nice Torrie by the way. I've always loved the LJ's.

 

Josh :lol:

[Finn.KE30]

Love the car man, its freakin hawwwwwwwt

[67Rolla-Ken]

Don't think I've commented on this car yet. An LJ Torri was my dream car all through high school, then when I was old enough to get a car all the LJ's were either too expensive or bogged up buckets of s*@#!

 

This car looks fantastic!

[oh what a nissan feeling!]

love it, such a nice car!

[orangeLJ]

Well I suppose I should put up the last lot of photos I took of the car, bit different to how it used to look!

 

copy paste from another forum-

 

 

well I suppose I should put up some pictures of the finished product-

 

interior with new carpet, shifter boot and handbrake boot, also new kick panels

 

 

engine bay-

new catch can, new catch can braided lines and fittings, new fuel lines, fuel regulator, and econoclamps (can't quite afford braided banjo fittings at the moment)

 

 

 

and the thing I worked on in the lead up the most-

 

and the woman that lets it happen-

 

Also had a bit of a play with my new DSLR before we left, just need to sort the photos and then I'll whack some up!

 

but this is one shot, straight off the camera and untouched-

 

 

:D

 

Only things "left" to do to the car now is to finish the sheetmetal dash facia and whack it in.

 

let me know what you think of the finished product guys/gals, its been a rough couple months to get it back to a decent stage :)

 

 

 

couple more pictures-

 

 

 

I think the new carpet has made a massive difference to the interior, this is what it used to look like-

 

 

 

our "stable"

 

will be +1 next year (LC GTR) The green one is my old mans legit XU-1, full resto (5 years worth) finished 2 years ago.

 

Purple on is the newly finished trackcar, hasnt turned a wheel on the track yet (can't get time off work to take it out)

 

 

Well havent done much with the torana, driven it a few times since toranafest though! love getting it out for a cruise now its "complete"

 

still have a few things to sort out, need to buy a -6 cap to fit over the drain on the catch can, need to sort out the alarm wiring and stuff and get the new dash finished (ordered my last gauge from the states last week)

 

Really need to put a ryco filter back on it though, Fitted a donaldson one (freebie from work) but they are designed for diesel engines and vertical mounting, so no drainback valve=clacky noises on startup!

 

Might give it a run up to newcastle in the morning (going to auto one to pick up some rares parts)

 

and just cause I love this pic

 

[oh what a nissan feeling!]

looks insane, very neat work!

[Des]

High five :)

[orangeLJ]

Well lets see if people can guess whats going on here?

 

 

 

 

 

We had a couple cars of ours there.....

 

 

 

our "guest" drove this-

 

 

 

Totally the better looking brother....

 

 

 

Secret mens business-

 

going lappin'

 

 

family business :) (minus the redhead, he had to go to work)

 

 

 

And lastly, the big redhead doucherag is selling his car, so took some photos, I'll only whack one up because its just a big polished turd! haha. jks.

 

[haydoss]

Sick as! seen it on gmh.com. My dads got an LJ 4 Door aswell as a HT GTS, still trying to convince him to get started on them :P hopefully will be doing a 355 in the LJ