Is this the best project car you have ever seen?

[DoubleChevron]

Poor old car .... The neighbors definitely think whoever lives in this place is insane .... I just backed the car out of the shed and thought a few laps of the court to dragging the brakes down the hill is what I need (I need to clean the rust off the front discs.... they do a lot of grumbling and not much stopping at the moment)... 100meters up the road "BANG" .... the back corner of the car drops .................. hmmmmm..............

I got out and looked ................ What else could I do but start laughing ......... I put the car on high ... it lifted a small amount and ran out of LHM ...... sigh.... so I wandered back down the road chucked some LHM, the jack prop and the wheel braces in the range rover and rumbled my way back to the ID ............ Poor ID19 ... it's rear guard sure is copping a hiding lately. A while back I backed it out of the shed and straight into the trailers drawbar that was hiding in the grass (not to mention it was dark too ) Now the wheel has fallen off. I guess it's still not much more bent or battered is was to begin with either way

Why funny ?? I don't fit a bolt these days unless I can tighten it up ..... My grandfather told me years ago, the trick is if you must leave a job ... NEVER leave a fastener screwed in but not tightened. rather remove the bolt so you can see it's missing.... I've always done this for the last few years. I can however remember ... it must be 18months ago ... putting this wheel on the back ... and not being able to find the special wheel brace for the car to tighten with. I can even remember thinking to myself "I bet you forget to tighten that and it falls off the first time you drive the car" ......................... Well it lasted about 3times, 'cos I've probably driven two laps of the street in the last 6months ... sigh....

from the first page of this thread ...

Can you see all the difference a couple of years tinkering has made :roflmao: I grab 1/2litre of paint that matches the car and paint the undercoat on front door and the black guard the right colour (don't worry the black guard looks nice and "aged/crazed" like the rest of the car so should match well ).

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[richo]

There's the odd good pic there Shane.
Really pleased to know it drives under its own power once more. Bravo.
I recall its (assisted) departure from Mandurang South.

 

[Greg C]

So pleased to see it out in the sun with the suspension up. Very pleased you want to paint it the colour it is. Not the most fashionable colour but the ID wears it with pride, I can see it smiling.

 

[DoubleChevron]

Oh ... that numberplate has to come off .... I used the bumper bar from the black car that had that plate on it. The car isn't allowed on public roads yet. I just need to verify it's safe for use. Bolting the wheels on securely may help in this en devour It'll be painted a colour of my choice (ok ... likely the kids choice) when it gets painted. I just want it to look all one colour. One black guard looks stupid. If I refit the original panel all prep'd and painted it wouldn't look right... you'd have this one perfect mirror like finish on one panel, and all the rest wrong (given that panel had been stripped back to bare metal and metal finished as much as possible ).

I'm leaning towards a dark red with black roof .... or maybe all black ..... or maybe the colour it is now. I can't make a decision

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[DoubleChevron]

There's the odd good pic there Shane.
Really pleased to know it drives under its own power once more. Bravo.
I recall its (assisted) departure from Mandurang South.

I managed a good piccie Sounds unlike me .... My wife mentioned it was a "Supermoon" tonight that was supposed to be at it's brightest at 9:10pm.... The moon looked amazing out of the house windows across the paddock ..... SO I thought, "why not wait until the moon is at it's brightest and take a few piccies of the car"

Yeah at 9:10pm the moon was wwwaaaaaaayyyy to high in the sky It would have been hidden behind the car in this shot at 6:00pm.......... interesting fact. Put the old camera into night mode and it looks like it takes about 10photos and "blends" them.

It doesn't get much better if you sit the camera on a distant fence post take the piccie.... I sure aren't a photographer that's for sure. The car however started on the first grunt of the starter and drove happily out into the paddock even though it was only 2.0degrees C outside.

If we ignore the moon... this is amazing the photo you can get even though it's dark being after 9:00pm, 2days after the shortest day of the year. You can even tell the grass is green.

Look at that, even with faded 50year old headlight lenses, the charge light glowing dimly as the engines idling with only a 50year old generator struggling to pump out enough amerage at 800rpm ... Yet low beam is far better than the XM's high beam :roflmao: :roflmao:

I'm as good at taking photos as I am at bolting wheels on

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[JAJEA]

I need to concur with Chris that any protective coating the cure rock hard is not what is needed / required in the car restoration.

Decades ago (1980's), I was looking for a Mercedes W114 sedan and the time spent, number looked at (with Merc Buffs to assist my search) you would not believe that we got it so wrong!

Behind the solid thick protective coating under the Merc 280E was ... nothing! The steel panels were not existent - all rusted to oxide powder! Had we not spent the time, I would not have been so disappointed.

Hence, I will not use any protective coating that forms a rock solid coating over metal because when/should rust sets in; the rock solid coating will not "bulge" to let you know that something is wrong.

Cheers,

John

 

[caparobertsan]

It really does need painting incredibly badly, at the moment you can never let it get wet. I've coated most of the accessible areas of the hull/chassis (except for underneath that I'll do in time). The bodywork is the same as it always was. I quite like the patina of it, but the paint is old .... very old.... many decades old, and has crazed back to the bare metal (like laquer does when aged). I haven't really done much to the car, it's just taken me a couple of years as I've had so much other stuff happening. The cars sat for months at a time without being touched.

I'm hoping to be able to start driving in around a bit in a few weeks time to see how sorted it is. It still needs wiper blades, washers and sun visors re-installed before it'll pass a safety inspection, other than that it's good to go. All the suspension is good, brakes done, new tires, all the ball joints, bearings and bushes are as new, the spheres are regassed, every single hydraulic line has been flushed, every rubber hose replaced... the front ends setup .... the interior is replaced, I've made the firewall as "air/fume" proof as possible.

the dash has been bead blasted, painted and re-assembled. Everything under the bonnet has been stripped, tested and coated while being assembled.... Like most thing D's I started with "just swapping the motor" ......................... then ended up with the nose of the car stripped back for painting, then the firewall stripping clean, then the dash out to sort the wiring, the front floors out for repair, which allowed me to see the back floors needed painting, which found the tank cover was unbolted, so I pulled the seats out ........ which lead me to fiddling in the boot and fixing the boot floor, which in turn lead me upto the back window and winscreen which I found had no paint and were covered in surface rust .................. which means I had to pull them out to clean/coat them ......... which lead me to finding the roof should come off to tidy up the windscreen surround and cant rail ......................... get the picture of how things snowballed :roflmao: :roflmao: None *NEEDED* doing as such, but if I'd used the car, it would have rotted away before my eyes if it got wet. There really was no paint left on anything (what paint there was I could scrape off with my thumbnail).

It'll be a running, driving car that looks pretty much identical to what it did in the pictures on the very first page of this thread. the difference is it now doesn't really matter if it gets water in it, or driven on wet roads (other than of course the panels themselves rusting). The final step once painted will obviously be to fill all the hulls box sections with oil. This will be the very last thing to be done ... when the cars finally painted (probably a couple of years from now). Otherwise if you find anywhere that needs welding, you set the car on fire doing the welding 'cos of the oil you poured everywhere :roflmao:

seeya
Shane L.

Yeah similar thing happen to me. Yesterday I was trying to remove front side air vents because they are plastic and cracked. But I needed to remove top cover where rear view mirror was bolted and also bottom cover where vent control knobs are.
Because it is open now I can see more imperfections such as dirt and rust. So Now I fee I need to take care of that. Otherwise I do`nt want to see it! I just want to drive it around~!~
Yeah, I decided not to turbo charge my car as well.

 

[DoubleChevron]

Yeah similar thing happen to me. Yesterday I was trying to remove front side air vents because they are plastic and cracked. But I needed to remove top cover where rear view mirror was bolted and also bottom cover where vent control knobs are.
Because it is open now I can see more imperfections such as dirt and rust. So Now I fee I need to take care of that. Otherwise I do`nt want to see it! I just want to drive it around~!~
Yeah, I decided not to turbo charge my car as well.

Just don't look .... the more you look ... the more you'll find and the more bits the car will end up in ( 'cos once you'll see it you think "there's no way I can leave that the way it is ...........".

I learnt something new today. If you leave an ID19 idling with it's headlights on for 20minutes while you take photos of it, but don't drive it anywhere............. There won't be enough charge in the battery to start it of a cold morning afterwards

You really do need it spinning at 1500+rpm to generate enough power from the little generator to drive the headlights without draining the battery.

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[caparobertsan]

Just don't look .... the more you look ... the more you'll find and the more bits the car will end up in ( 'cos once you'll see it you think "there's no way I can leave that the way it is ...........".

I learnt something new today. If you leave an ID19 idling with it's headlights on for 20minutes while you take photos of it, but don't drive it anywhere............. There won't be enough charge in the battery to start it of a cold morning afterwards

You really do need it spinning at 1500+rpm to generate enough power from the little generator to drive the headlights without draining the battery.

seeya,
Shane L.

Ahhhhh that`s what I do! But I only drive on weekend occasionally. I think 45days /year is enough for me.
Yeah I only want to pull apart if necessary. eg oil leak.
I was repairing my cracked air vent and steering top cover by reinforcing fibreglass behind but I know it will not stick that old plastic. But stronger than before.
I was wondering If I can 3D print some plastic parts. But I leant it is quite time consuming and hard thing to create a 3D IMAGE...Have you tried it that online 3D image creation tool before??:roflmao:
I also have spoken to person who used to make plastic bucket by injection moulding. It cost 150000 for bucket moulding!

 

[DoubleChevron]

You'll find 45days more than enough...... I've been driving my CX all the time lately. I'm only upto 32days and I'm half way through the year. It is amazing how little you use non-daily/commuter cars.

Last year I used my CX 35days (from memory) that was for the entire year, using it as a 2nd/tow duties car as required.

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[gerrypro]

Last year I just managed to get my Light 15 onto the second page of the log book. The previous year I did not even get that far into it!

 

[Roger Wilkinson]

One of mine (the Land-Rover truck) has just gone a whole year with no road use at all! It has had some farm use though.

If I am going to use it on the road hardly ever or not at all, it's better to pay $60 for the year than $600.

Roger

 

[DoubleChevron]

Well it's wearing her shiny numberplates .... (hey I wonder if there the only shiny thing on the car ) .... I've just spent 20minutes driving up and down the street out the front of my house............. This is one sweet old car .... The motor hasn't been happy at all since I fitted it ... fouling up plugs and not running at all nicely .... Well 20minutes running has done it the world of good.... She's cleared right up, idling well, sounds fantastic .... I forgot what a grunty motor it was for an ID19 (it wouldn't surprise me if was bored out with holden pistons etc... Is sure is a lot gruntier than the rebuilt one in town). The power steering is great, I'm most pleased I fitted that.... The brakes are really shitty ... but getting better and better on every application. There 200% better than they were yesterday It's definable the best ID19 gearbox I've ever used too.

I'm do a few short drives ( yes car walking home to get the car trailer distance over the next couple of weeks and start making a list of jobs that need to be done.

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[gerrypro]

Well Done Mate

 

[Roger Wilkinson]

Good work, Shane. I'll come round on Sunday morning for a drive, if that's OK.

Roger

 

[DoubleChevron]

I should be about .... we have a birthday party for a 1year old Sunday (so yeah, SWMBO will likely be a "little" stressed out ).

 

[Roger Wilkinson]

It will be early. I'll be in and out before she notices.

Roger

 

[IDear]

Congratulations Shane! You've done well and thankyou for sharing your restoration experiences with us so graphically.
As an owner of ID 19's, you've helped me with information to enlighten me on the differant ways to restore these cars.
It confirms to me, what this forum is always about. Thankyou again !
Michael

 

[DoubleChevron]

I work about 10minutes from home... So I thought I'd take the car in and show the people at work (yeah most of them had heard about it ).

Hmm...... The exact spot my old carby CX used to die and freeze the carby on the way to Uni all those years ago I come to a frantic stop. As the outside of the windscreen froze over in a hell of a hurry. Gee's those wipers are brilliant ( as they shed there wiper blades on the frozen but not wet screen ). Oh well, a rag off the back floor and me jumping madly out to wipe the screen works too. Another set of wiper blades, and the holders on the arms crimped tighter keeps them in place, even wiping a bone dry screen now (yes I checked, I HATE wiping dry screens with wipers). The heater sure isn't worth a pinch of sh!t either

My work collegues are most impressed ................. "Hey Shane, is that your wreck out in the carpark ... Did that really make it here :roflmao: I guess your wife is coming out to rescue you again tonight :roflmao: .... "...... I was told by a few people that "there's people walking around and around your car, then pointing at the sticker in the back window and laughing "............. "You get used to that" I told them ..." they look for a badge trying figure out what the hell it is, but there isn't one " ............

Then about 5minutes from work ... BUGGER RAIN ...................... oh shit ... hang on it's green ..... I do a frantic look at the temperature gauge ............ it's sitting on over 200degrees F .......... OMFG .... How hot is that in real temperature ...... #$@#% thermostat #@$#@ :cussing: :cussing: I pull over and as soon as the engine drops to idle the #@$#@ thermostat opens.

Enough of this crap. That could have cost me a motor.

Now the thermostat shouldn't refuse to open, a brand newie, this time with holes drilled in it to allow coolant bypass it. I'd forgotten the thermostat didn't like to open if the engine is revving... Damn it all, the car this motor came from used to do that trick if I jumped in it and went driving and highways where the motor was always revving and not slowing to idle for intersections etc...

Heater core out, new thermostat in and fresh coolant again.... We'll drop the heater in for "rodding" ASAP.

Plenty of stuff to do ... for starters the generator is charging at 12.8 -> 13volts which is no good at all. That's barely a trickle charge to a calcium plate battery. We need about 14volts. I wonder if I can adjust the regulator

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[richo]

Keep at it mate, Roger has plenty of engines. i'm genuinely surprised you hadn't at least tested the operation of the thermostat, given the age of the car. Your everlasting "faith" in this old sh!t is amazing.

Engine bay looks a treat.

Keep the car sans identification. A UFO number plate would keep them guessing.