TOM Posted January 22, 2011 Author Report Posted January 22, 2011 Ok so a couple nights this week were spent trying to salvage a very bent tail-gate - they are understandably quite rare. I don't have any pics of when we first started on it, but the inside was really badly dented and it had actually bowed the whole panel towards the back of the car. After much debate on how to straighten this, we settled on using the engine crane to pull sections out by drilling holes and mounting a steel plate underneath the panel. Holes can be filled easily... Remembering that we are not going for a show-quality finish by any means, this ended up working extremely well! The setup in action It was significantly worse than this when we started It took 7 holes drilled, a lot of tapping with panel hammers and probably 20 pulls with the crane from different ares... But evenutally, the gap was getting smaller and the panel was lining up ok And as it now sits with all panels hung, some alignment still needed Just the outside of the tailgate and some minor prep to go and she's ready for paint Quote
ae824ate Posted January 22, 2011 Report Posted January 22, 2011 Awesome work guys, looks great. Its great seeing people save rare/classic cars and take care of them. Top job!!! Quote
TOM Posted January 23, 2011 Author Report Posted January 23, 2011 Test fitted the wheels today, Tasman (Australian made) 14 x 6 with 205's at the moment, but will have to go smaller for lowering This is a semi-restored set, he has a fetish for these wheels so a better set may be used eventually Quote
Tume Posted January 23, 2011 Report Posted January 23, 2011 Oh thats hot with that wheel choice :P . Quote
Chobis Posted January 23, 2011 Report Posted January 23, 2011 Yes it's Ian and I heard the story - hope you got her home OK after the swap meet? Was it carby blockage? Yep Stout got home no worries after the swapmeet. Carby blockage indeed. Clocked her too on the way home so the odometer all went back to zero's to start again. :) Some ingenious work you blokes did to get the tailgate straightened up enough. Whoever came up with that idea deserves the last beer in the fridge. Well done chaps. Great progress. :y: Quote
TOM Posted February 13, 2011 Author Report Posted February 13, 2011 (edited) Yep Stout got home no worries after the swapmeet. Carby blockage indeed. Clocked her too on the way home so the odometer all went back to zero's to start again. :) Good stuff! Must have been cool when she clicked over to all zero's! Well after the straightening of the inside of the tailgate, work started on the outside. This panel has consumed many afternoons/evenings and several cartons of beer, with many weeknight sessions of filling and sanding completed. Some tapping was done to remove the worst bits, but no amount of tapping was going to prevent the inevitable layers of filler! Some ingenious wooden blocks were also epoxy'd into place for extra bracing Mmmmm...bog You may notice something odd at this stage... The strip in the middle is being left for...ideas... At this stage will be buzzed back a bit shinier and then cleared over so it looks pretty much like...THIS!!! :dance: Other ideas are japan black laminate or stained timber. Other ideas welcomed! The chrome strips and tail-lights were dummy fitted to fully demostrate what we're on about here... Some inor filling to go then the final body prep takes place, but for now we put a few coats of primer on as we're taking a break for a few weeks. Then once that's finished, work will probably start of Ian's next aquisition, this early front ute... Cheers, Tom Edited February 13, 2011 by TOM Quote
twisted2 Posted February 13, 2011 Report Posted February 13, 2011 (edited) never been a fan of crown but the ute are seriously good looking machine :yes: Edited February 13, 2011 by twisted2 Quote
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