Luke's 260 2 seater

[juz0]

Thats damn cheap though $500 plus good tires. I was quoted $200 per wheel to widen steelies to 8 inch.

Will you need flares with those sizes you plan on getting?

[77260Z]

Still undecided about flares. I think i'm going to go without flares to begin with and just roll and pull the guards a little before I repaint. I can always go flares later on but it's a lot harder to go back to stock after you've cut the guards...

[gav240z]

So you're telling me that area was basically bogged over with nothing underneath? That's pretty shocking really.

[77260Z]

So you're telling me that area was basically bogged over with nothing underneath? That's pretty shocking really.

 

Yeah that's exactly what is was. Looks like they'd cut out the old rusty patch of metal and just slapped a heap of bog in there. There was even some cardboard underneath to stop it all falling down the quarter. Super dodgy.

[77260Z]

Alright, been getting into the rust.

 

This is where we left off with a little extra cut off:

 

I made up a little patch for it and welded it in.

 

 

And this is it with a bit of bog and some primer. Still needs final shaping but I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out.

 

 

 

 

I then moved on to the rear bumper and there was a patch on the left rear that was a bit rusty so I made up a patch for that.

 

 

 

 

There was also a patch on the right rear bumper that when i got into it with the wire wheel it turned out it was all bog. So this is how it looked:

 

 

I made up a little patch for it but there was more rust around the tail light, so I removed that to get a better look at it all.

 

 

 

Made up a patch for the top section and welded it in.

 

 

Then welded in the big lower section and put some primer over it as well as spraying the inside to try and prevent it rusting in future.

 

 

 

And this is what's up next, another section that had they'd done the dodgy on with bog:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm ordering a patch section for the rear hatch as well as for the drivers floor pan so when they arrive I'll crack into those as well as smoothing out all the sections where I've patched.

[juz0]

your doing some awesome repairs there!

what are you using to shape all your patches?

[gav240z]

Nice work getting all that rust out, if only previous owners did things properly... makes the mind boggle a bit doesn't it? I think you'll know each square inch of this car before you're done with it.

[77260Z]

Thanks for the support guys . Ah just shaping the patches by hand basically, a few different sized hammers and a bit of creativity. Fairly noob at it all still so it's a pretty time consuming task.

 

I got back into it today and got a bit more done.

 

Started by pulling of the hatch panel by drilling out the spot welds, there was a fair bit of surface rust between the two surfaces as well so I'm glad I'm replacing the whole thing before it gets put in paint.

 

 

 

Then started to make up some patch panels for the rusted section underneath the hatch panel.

 

Made the bigger/easier one first and it turned out pretty well.

 

 

 

Then made up the smaller section which was an absolute pain due to the shape of it but I got there in the end. I got it all welded in before I had to stop for the day.

 

 

 

Next time I'll be grinding back the last welds, putting seam sealer along all the edges and grooves and spraying the back of the panels I welded in to prevent rust in the future. The hatch panel is ordered so when that turns up I'll be back into it.

[d3c0y]

Looks good mate, keep up the good work!

[77260Z]

Small update:

 

After uni on Friday I got the lower hatch panel ground back and seam sealed so it (hopefully) won't rust again. Also sprayed in behind to help prevent rust.

 

As the patch panels rocked up yesterday I cracked into getting the hatch panel on. Lined it up and massaged it to fit a little bit, enlarged the hole for the boot catch a little and drilled out all the plug weld locations then put it on and welded it up. I had a bit of a play on the old panel to make sure I was getting plenty of penetration as my last welds were a bit weak. Ended up turning both the voltage and the wire speed up to get a setting I was happy with.

 

 

Then I just ground it all back and seam sealed around the hatch panel. The seam sealer was a bit messy but its sand-able so I'll clean it up a bit next time.

 

 

Also had time to fix this last little bit of rust on the rear panel.

 

 

 

How the rear looks now:

 

 

 

So now that's all done it's time to move forward from the rear. Onto the quarters. There's small rust patch near the quarter window on the passenger side and I think I'm going to smooth out the aerial hole as well. Also need to get the drivers side quarter looking a bit better where I welded in the patch panel near the roof. Then onto the doors and the drivers side floor pan.

[77260Z]

Finally an update. Been very slack on it lately but got the drivers side floorpan finished off today. Was pretty liberal with my welding and with the seam sealer. Will be putting underbody deadener on it shortly and it won't be rusting for a long time.

[thriller]

Nice work, keep it up.

 

Many body repairs left to do (that you currently know about...)?

[77260Z]

Nice work, keep it up.

 

Many body repairs left to do (that you currently know about...)?

 

Thanks mate. Just looking to get all the rust out then a half decent paint job and get it back on the road as soon as possible. This floorpan was one of the last major ones. The front fenders and bonnet are sorted, so all that's really left are the dogleg(s) and the doors that have a bit of rust left. Will all be patchable, especially in the doors, and will give me a chance to thoroughly rust proof them afterwards too.

[CroS13]

Hey Mate, good progress on the car!

 

Have you attacked the drivers A-Pillar yet? if i recall there was abit of rust in that area too.

 

Did you end up selling your skyline?

 

Rudolf.

 

[77260Z]

Hey Mate, good progress on the car!

 

Have you attacked the drivers A-Pillar yet? if i recall there was abit of rust in that area too.

 

Did you end up selling your skyline?

 

Rudolf.

 

Yeah mate there's some pictures of it on the last page. Yeah the R32's gone now, and so is the prelude that may have been in some of the earlier photos. My daily at the moment is an e46 323i. Picked it up cheap as it had a cooling system issue but that's all sorted now and it's honestly one of the best daily's I've had. Hopefully I'll be cracking back into the Zed this afternoon and I can make some more progress.

[77260Z]

So got back into it a bit more this afternoon (was a fairly rough morning given yesterdays activities). I think the drivers door had a poor window seal as the bottom of the door is pretty rusty and the top of the sill right underneath had pinholes all along it as you can see here:

 

 

So I cut out the section and fabbed up some replacements out of the cut offs from the floor pan. Tacked then stitch welded them in:

 

 

Finally I got the wire wheel on the rear section of the drivers side floor and got it all cleaned up and back to mostly bare metal or solid paint. I gave the seat risers a few coats of rattle can gloss black and put down body deadener on the rest of the floor. I'm not too worried about a little extra weight from the body deadener, I just want the car to be relatively quiet and comfortable and to NEVER rust again.

 

 

The photos aren't the best as my phone's camera is playing up at the moment. But gives you a general idea of how it's going. Still got the dogleg's to go and the drivers side door, but I'm definitely making progress and can see the light at the end of the tunnel now 

 

[77260Z]

Sorted out the drivers side door yesterday. Had a fair few rusty bits in there so I was a bit worried but it wasn't as bad as I first thought. Getting the glass out was probably the worst part. Does anyone know where to put a replacement for the door glass attachment? Hard to describe but the metal part where the glass itself actually attaches onto, mine is pretty rusty and probably beyond repair.

 

I'm going to scrape around with a wire brush on the inside and get as much surface rust/gunk off as I can then spray in something to try and seal it up. Any suggestions on what to spray?

 

Here's a few pictures of the repairs I did anyway:

 

I'm not sure what mirrors I'm going to put back on it, so I welded up the mirror mounting holes on the door. I can always drill out new ones in the future.

 

There were a couple of other very minor bits I fixed up but nothing worth showing. There was an interesting crack though that I welded back together, hadn't really seen many cracks like it before.

 

 

 

[77260Z]

The dog legs rocked up from the US yesterday, they were $150 for both including post from 'tabco'. Seemed to be a pretty good fit.

 

Anyway, this is what I was dealing with:

 

After I cleaned it up and welded in a little patch to cover the rusty/holy bit.

 

 

I went around the patch I put in with seam sealer and then hit the whole inside with some spray paint to try to prevent future rust.

 

 

 

And finally the finished result with the new panel welded in and the bare metal put in etch primer:

 

The other side is not as bad, but still rusty and needed doing. I'll weld in that side next time I'm out there to work on it. I've cleaned it up with a wire wheel and put some paint on it too, just like the other side, just didn't take pics of it.

 

 

[77260Z]

Wow, it was 2014 last time I updated this thread!

Some work has happened in the mean time, but of course not as much as I would've liked. All of the rust repairs (above) have been completed and as much as I would have like to have painted the car myself, it was getting to the stage that if I didn't get someone else to do it then it would never get done. Just before Christmas I got the car to the spray painters and it was resprayed the body with the doors off. Hopefully it will now be protected from rust for a long time!

I've since pulled the engine and resprayed the engine bay to the same colour as the rest of the car (Audi Nardo Grey).

I have a 2.8L stroker (stroked to 3-3.1L) ready to go in with some Mikuni triple carbs. These are 40PHH - will they be big enough for the 3L displacement?

Next step is to re-wire the car (you used to have to turn the hazard lights on for the indicators to work), drop the motor and gearbox back in, replace the window and door seals and start putting everything back together! Still a while to go but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel now.

Some pictures attached!

[AndBir]

42 minutes ago, 77260Z said:

These are 40PHH - will they be big enough for the 3L displacement?

Not from what I have seen mentioned.

[CroS13]

Hey bud!!!

I'm really happy that you saw this project through!  Hats off to you for fixing all the rust in it. When i went and looked at the car i figured it was only good for the scrap heap.

I'm actually really surprised you got her done in the end. I figured when you stopped posting way back... 6 years ago, That you uncovered some terminal problems with the car and just gave up or passed it on. 

Funnily, enough, in your introduction post, (i just re- read it), and i said i passed on your car to get a "good" 2+2 with no rust.... well... it also took me 7 years to fix all the rust in mine myself, and get her painted. I only had mine finally painted late last year too.

I'll be keeping a keen eye on the rest of the build mate! 

Any more photo's of her painted?

And.. oh..... let me rummage through the archives........ i recon i still have some photos of the car when i went to look at it...

yep:

 

.

.

.

 

got heaps more, i think about 30 photo's of it.

 

Man.... this really brightened up my morning seeing this post, really... I'm glad you were able to save her!

Rudi.

Edited April 18, 2020 by CroS13

[77260Z]

On 4/18/2020 at 11:52 AM, CroS13 said:

Hey bud!!!

I'm really happy that you saw this project through!  Hats off to you for fixing all the rust in it. When i went and looked at the car i figured it was only good for the scrap heap.

I'm actually really surprised you got her done in the end. I figured when you stopped posting way back... 6 years ago, That you uncovered some terminal problems with the car and just gave up or passed it on. 

Funnily, enough, in your introduction post, (i just re- read it), and i said i passed on your car to get a "good" 2+2 with no rust.... well... it also took me 7 years to fix all the rust in mine myself, and get her painted. I only had mine finally painted late last year too.

I'll be keeping a keen eye on the rest of the build mate! 

Any more photo's of her painted?

And.. oh..... let me rummage through the archives........ i recon i still have some photos of the car when i went to look at it...

yep:

 

.

.

.

 

got heaps more, i think about 30 photo's of it.

 

Man.... this really brightened up my morning seeing this post, really... I'm glad you were able to save her!

Rudi.

Hi Rudi - sorry it took so long to reply! It's great to see those old photos of her! It was definitely a bit rough :\

[77260Z]

I've been living away up in Townsville, away from where the car is located (Brisbane) but I got stuck down there in the recent lockdown so made the most of working on the car (while I was working from home) and got some work done. It's starting to get to the stage where everything is starting to go back together which is definitely exciting!

I put in the replacement engine (Turns out this is an L26 which was 'apparently' stroked but it seems odd to stroke an L26 instead of an L28 so I'm dubious about that - has reportedly had head work done and has a mild cam at least) along with the gearbox after giving them a clean up. I also pulled out the front cross member, steering rack and front suspension components and gave them all a clean, a coat of paint and some fresh bushings.

Those with a keen eye will notice that the clutch fork is missing *face palm* - box will have to come off again to install a new throwout bearing and the clutch fork. I'll take this opportunity to put a new HD clutch on as well. I left the tailshaft off at this stage so I don't have to remove it again when I do this work.

I also removed the rear suspension and diff (which was an absolute mess) and gave them a clean up and reinstalled with new bushings and a new diff mount. As a note - has anyone seen the 'attachment' that is on the front diff mount? It doesn't look stock - but I reinstalled it at this stage.

Also included an extra photo of the colour as it came out of the spray booth.

[gilltech]

By attachment on the front diff mount, do you mean that thick metal plate? (Or is it a double plate...? um, need to check). Anyway, my '74 RS30 - which I've owned since '84 so pretty original - has it - it's a jacking point although a long way to reach under the car to get to with a DIY home sized trolley jack.  

[77260Z]

Yeah that makes sense that it's a jacking point - it's definitely solid (read: heavy) and looks a bit more home made than the other components so it got my attention.