After what has seemed like an eternity we have finally made some headway with Jerry’s One Tonner. As usual there has been a million and one things keeping us from it but there is light at the end of the tunnel, at the moment it looks like a 12V bulb in a 6V socket but it is there none the less!

All of the large rust sections have been cut out and replaced, including the wiper cowl and both sides of the floor pan and the cab has been mounted back onto the newly painted (black enamel) chassis. We still have a few smaller areas to take care of, the front of the left hand sill panel is a bit ordinary and then there is the roof. Between the antennae hole, the holes where the sun visor was screwed on and the numerous dents along both sides and front edge I’m sure we will loose a lot of sweat there.

We did away with any unnecessary holes in the firewall, of which there were quite a few due to the lpg system wiring and air conditioning. After the primer had dried we then set about painting the firewall, heater box, brake booster etc etc in fast-dry gloss black enamel. Why fast-dry enamel? The first reason is that this is never going to be a show car and fast dry enamel is a lot cheaper than 2-pack. The second reason is that it is glossy straight out of the spray gun, can you imagine how hard it would be to cut and polish an engine bay?

Once the paint was well and truly cured the heater box and brake booster/master cylinder went back in and we set about tidying up the dash wiring and fitting a few bits and pieces. The GTS dash from the donor ute was fitted and wired up, the fuse box was replaced with a new universal blade-type fuse unit and a lot of now unnecessary wiring was removed.  

At this stage we got way ahead of ourselves and decided to fit the engine. We had planned to complete all of the bodywork before turning to the mechanicals but with the engine and transmission sitting there taking up space and both of us keen to hear it running again we made an executive decision and wheeled it in. Bolting it up was a breeze even with a stuffed back – if only all cars had a removable front!

We temporarily fitted a mechanical fuel pump and cranked it over without the coil lead to fill the carby bowls and prime the oil pump. We then plugged the coil lead back in and waited to hear that awesome noise that only a cammed-and-headers-only V8 can make. Not exactly first turn of the key but not bad for an engine that has been sitting for more than twelve months -

(apologies for the video quality, should have used the camera not Jerry’s mobile phone)

So that is where we are up to now. Over the course of the next two weeks I’m going to document the work we do on the roof as I think there will be some good information on straightening panels to come out of that. Until then…