1983 Touring Wagon - It begins

[GunFactory]

Finally got down to the wreckers.. No MY wagons in sight just two sad brumbies and about 5 or 6 L series. So much fun - like a treasure chest.. wish there were some wagons though

Grabbed this bullbar from the front of an 1989 brumby - single headlight model I'm not sure if there are legalities attached to my improvised indicator mounting..??

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Sanded and painted the tow bar - holy shit this was a damn mission to get off - the brumby was wracked by beach abuse..

I also scored some nolathane bushes for the front torsion bar (i think thats what its called) only got the frontmost - will have to go back for the other two.

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[Rodeo4jake]

Both good scores at the wreckers there mate. Those indicators would be fine there I would've thought. Clearly visible & securely mounted.

Cheers Jake

[El_Freddo]

Both good scores at the wreckers there mate. Those indicators would be fine there I would've thought. Clearly visible & securely mounted.

My thoughts too.

Little kid in a candy store right GunFactory??

Cheers

Bennie

[GunFactory]

Haha - yes, I loved it. So many parts in such a small vicinity - if there were more MY's I would be addicted.

Cheers, yeah I was going to cut holes but they are in pretty tight.

$125 for the bar and lights
$45 for towbar
$5 for the bushes

Is this in the range of good prices for the wreckers? do you ever bargain or just go with it?

Cheers

[TOONGA]

seen the same bar on ebay for 250 dollars in the same condition no lights

$125 for the bar and lights

seen a tow bar for an my wagon for 100 dollars on ebay

$45 for towbar

get a bucket and fill it with bushes at that price

$5 for the bushes

Is this in the range of good prices for the wreckers? do you ever bargain or just go with it?

yes, yes and yes

I bargain all the time at the wreckers down here, but occasionally I just pay as the price is very low anyway

TOONGA

[Cliff R]

Which wreckers ?
Did you need to modify the bull bar mounts. ?
The bar I had looked to be the same as yours and it was off a Brumby and the bloke I sold it to was to put it back onto a Brumby again. No mount issues.

[GunFactory]

Which wreckers ?
Did you need to modify the bull bar mounts. ?
The bar I had looked to be the same as yours and it was off a Brumby and the bloke I sold it to was to put it back onto a Brumby again. No mount issues.

There were modified mounts on the brumby which I took and it has lined up pretty well, theres some slight droop where the bar wraps around the side - not to big a deal.

Dapto 'You-pull-it'

[GunFactory]

Just a quick post to note that I have put almost 3000km on the wagon since buying it oct/nov 2012.

Despite the fuel pump dying and some very intermittent stalling problems its been trouble free driving with two 450KM round trips.

Bloody awesome car cant believe it.

Massive thanks due to this forum and it's members for making the seemingly impossible that bit less scary and offering up a wealth of information and experience. Good stuff.

[RSR 555]

Great to hear and we are all happy to help

[GunFactory]

Hi all,

Have been having a damn good time with the wagon, have kept the suspension wound up for at least the last 1000km and have noticed some strange tyre wear. However, if thats the price for the car to handle nicely I'm accepting it for now... new front struts are $$$.

Here are some photos from the recent adventures

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Last night I decided to hunt for rust...

I investigated a suspicious looking bit of touch up paint near the rear quarter window seal. After taking off the small plastic shroud and picking at what looked like nail polish... Ouch!

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[GunFactory]

I also had a little pick at some little bubbles behind the LHS front wheel. I had been denying their existence for a while..

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There also appeared to bee a substantial ammount of sand in the water drain hole/space inside the panel behind the mudguard.. Salty perhaps as there is no bubbling or rust in the same spot on the RHS.

Where I discovered the rust in the rear LHS window (previous post) I also noted that this was very close to where the rear windscreen water bottle lives.. which I found due to a very wet boot floor was lacking the majority of its rubber feed hose. May be a long shot but looks as if the water could have been spraying from the remaining hose onto the inside of the metal..... I'm grasping at straws here but will know more when I take a look from the inside.

So. I do have a little rust despite spruking that there was none so many posts ago.. Damn!


Any thoughts?

[Bantum]

Yep, I'd be looking at all the commonly known spots & test for usual signs of rust, by tapping, proding, scrapping, etc ( ie: with a screwdriver ) & removal of fender / door to check in behind there - you should also check under the bonnet hinge area as well ...

[Silverbullet]

Also have a really good look right in front of the rear wheels where there is that "dog leg" angle between the wheel arch and the rocker panel. they seem to be hot spots for rust as I'm finding out. If the paint is bubbling, it means it's rusting from the inside and is actually alot worse than it looks from the outside. If you've had water spraying inside the rear panels I'd be having a really good look down inside the panel where the outer skin is folded and welded onto the inner skin (another place you'll find dirt and dust piled up) on the inside. Virtually impossible with the naked eye, I've found one of those "inspection cameras" with the long bendy cable is incredibly useful for finding rust inside panels. They seem to be sold at every supercrap and DIY style automotive shop these days.

That's if you are serious about preserving the vehicle, and with how good a condition that car is now I would be

[Subydoug]

Hey Gunfactory,

I recently dived into some panel repair on my 82 touring wagon. Id deffinately be jumping onto it before it gets bad.

Unfortunately in my case the previous owner had just bogged over the rust and resprayed the whole car, so I really had my work cut out. Ended up putting about 3/4 of a sqr meter of steel back in the body, and I still havent done the rear door and around the front windshield.

Here are some pics to show you what to avoid .

Mainly of one section I fixed but you can see how bad it got. One section was full of wet dirt which wouldnt have been helping.

Regards

Doug

[GunFactory]

Thanks for the reply's Bantum, Silverbullet and Subydoug,

Hahah I'm pretty apprehensive about going digging... I hope its not too bad. I should do some research about rust repairs. I don't have any welding tools or experience and hope what i find isn't bad enough to warrant it.

Man -

Unfortunately in my case the previous owner had just bogged over the rust and resprayed the whole car, so I really had my work cut out. Ended up putting about 3/4 of a sqr meter of steel back in the body, and I still havent done the rear door and around the front windshield.

Here are some pics to show you what to avoid .

Mainly of one section I fixed but you can see how bad it got. One section was full of wet dirt which wouldnt have been helping.

Regards

Doug

That sounds pretty rough, I guess they didn't plan on keeping it long hey? boggles me as to why they would respray it knowing there were issues like that under the surface.

If you've had water spraying inside the rear panels I'd be having a really good look down inside the panel where the outer skin is folded and welded onto the inner skin (another place you'll find dirt and dust piled up) on the inside.

That's if you are serious about preserving the vehicle, and with how good a condition that car is now I would be

I will have to have a think about this hey, I have the car booked into the mechanic on Monday, I really want to know how the engine is going to hold up, I love the car and really enjoy tinkering with it so hopefully theres some good news in there.

Yep, I'd be looking at all the commonly known spots & test for usual signs of rust, by tapping, proding, scrapping, etc ( ie: with a screwdriver ) & removal of fender / door to check in behind there - you should also check under the bonnet hinge area as well ...

when you say under the bonnet hinge, do you mean under the windscreen wiper shroud? or is there another spot?

I have tried once before to take that shroud off, but it appeared to be fused with rubber or something like sikkaflex to the windscreen/panelling... should it come straight off or is a crafty technique to hide something?

Also Regarding the kind of dusty, not really rusty rust that is present on some parts of the underbody what does one do to make sure this doesn't become something more? is there a spray of sorts?

Cheers again for all the help/thoughts/suggestions.

Regards,

Eli

[Subydoug]

That sounds pretty rough, I guess they didn't plan on keeping it long hey? boggles me as to why they would respray it knowing there were issues like that under the surface.

Some People are just lazy, or they didnt know any better. Probably just scraped the paint off were it was rusted and bogged it up. What I found though is what you can actually see from the outside only reflects about 1/5 of the actual rusted out metal. I just got a screwdriver and walked around the car stabbing. If It went through I had struck rust and it needed further digging.

For a Temporary patch to stop it growing more, heat the area up with a hot air gun and stick some dessicant on or near it as best you can. Then after a day or two, spray it with fishoil to help keep water out. A car cover helps to if its sitting outside. You can pick them up on ebay for around 60 bucks.

Regards

Doug

[Bantum]

Yep - under here :



It should come out easy, once all screws + wipers are removed ... ... can be a bit trickin with bonnet open.

Note : You'll need to remove the 'gutter cover' to get the fender off any way ...



Be careful with the plastic bits as by now ( due to age ) they could be brittle ...

You'll also note the metal tabs that are supposed to slot into a plastic locator just under window seal, this is another area to look out for rust. If the window seal has gone hard + leaks, there will be rust under it too !

[tex]

Hey did that Brumby at dapto with the caved in passenger door still have the floor Matt's?

[GunFactory]

Cheers guys,

I think I have a task for the weekend then - a bit of rust hunting.

Hey did that Brumby at dapto with the caved in passenger door still have the floor Matt's?

Tex, I'm not sure that I remember a brumby with a caved in door.. There were two when I went last (about a month and a half ago now) one had a large part of the door cut away to get the window/door lock out. There were certainly some floor mats in one of them. I don't know too much about brumby's, but It looked like one had plastic mats that went around the back of the seats too... but I cant be sure.

For a Temporary patch to stop it growing more, heat the area up with a hot air gun and stick some dessicant on or near it as best you can. Then after a day or two, spray it with fishoil to help keep water out.

Where does one acquire fish oil? and in what form?

Cheers,

Eli

[Bantum]

The usual auto store like Supercheap / Repco - should stock it + Come's in tin cans ...