This is an insanely good write up, keep it up. Are you going back to original or are you going to have some modifications too?

Did that box section come cut away on both sides like that?
If so...thats kinda a weird thing to do...cant have been rust there?

I thought it might have been for that reason...but couldnt imagine anyone doing anything so drastic.
I came across this trying to fit my seats...ended up shimming the rails about 22mm higher instead.

Datjas and I made a start on paint today.

When I was sanding in the door jams I noticed the passenger door had been opened way too far at some stage, it had torn the metal and bent it outwards.
Who ever had the ute before me decided to hammer things straight enough and bog over it.
I decided to get out the hammer and dolly set to straighten it back up, and then weld things back together.


Once the ute was sanded and cleaned, We gave everything a coat of high fill primer.


Im finaly at a stage that feels like i have done more that just undoing bolts, Im very pleased with how things are so far.

I still have a lot of work to go,
I have to fix the drivers guard, decide if my yellow door is good for the pass side, hopefully sort out a pass guard or fix what I have, Figure out which tail gate to use, make some mounts for the front beaver panel. Prep and high fill prime all those parts.
Put it all back together again. guide coat and block everything and make sure all the body lines line up.
Pull it all apart again, cover it all with some normal primer again, then sand it hopefully for the last time to be ready for some colour.

Im not going to touch the body for a while so I don't get shrink back marks in the paint.

But at least it is progress.


I would be real keen if you could send that pic please Leith.

Thanks Todd,

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I made a mount for attaching the front panel on my ute today,
These are usualy welded infront of the tension rod mounts but I decided to make mine bolt up in the centre.

Here is what I have done today, it is surprisingly solid and easy to bolt up.

I was lazy and cut my old one into a million pieces leaving the ute completley intact and did the same to the front end of the yellow ute leaving the panel complete as well,
I didn't mind doing this because i had a shit ute with a good front and a good ute with a shit front.

If you are going to unpick your front there are a series of spot welds below the head lights, one on the
radiator support and the welds on the very bottom near the tension rods.
Im not too sure how to undo the spot welds and keep both the car and the panel intact.

I thought there must have been a better way to do it.

I also did mine to straighten it up, and to get a nice paint finish between the car body and the panel when I paint the ute.

Hi Ash,

Great work on the rebuild, coming together nicely.

What are you planning to do engine wise? I'm always keen to hear about engines.

Chris