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Good original car but it was a wreck

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Published on 26 August 2012

I bought this off Ebay several years ago, it spent most of it's life in Central East New South Wales as I understand it. As such it was a good clean car that had been well maintained only it had a dust up with a tree and lost. I was told the park brake somehow released or was not on properly and subsequently rolled itself unpowered down a hill to the tree. The damage really was quite minor mainly limited to bonet, grill, bumper, radiator and valance damage, well that's what I thought. It wasn't untill I was stripping it down that I found damage into the front of the cross member. It turns out that it was not too bad, not in a structural support area and reletively easy to fix however time consuming. After removing all front panels, grill, radiator etc I drilled out all of the spot welds along the front support structure panels. With a little effort the whole front end from the front of the wheels forward was off. I made a cut in the front of the cross member on the inner side of the radiator support and removed the damaged section. Prior to doing this I heated the area and managed to successfully pull out the damaged section as it had been cleanly pushed back 13mm and dead straight. I had it sitting in the right place but there was some distortion to the metal that was very hard to get right given I couldn't get into the cross member. It was only a small section so easier to replace. I removed the front end from a donor car which happened to be my first car when I first got my licence. It was a sad moment cutting up that car but it was riddled with rust having spent twelve years next to the beach in South Melbourne fully exposed to the weather. I had sold it to a bloke in the early nineties and had the oportunity to buy it back and he assured me it was still in excellent condition and provided loads of maintenance receipts and evidence of a proffessional respray. I bought the car only to find I'd been robbed by this under handed old bloke but the worst thing is that I'd paid $5000 for a car worth no more than $500 to $1000. A good lesson. I didn't hear the end of it for months from the boss. I cut and ground the doner section down to the seams leaving nice clean original weld surfaces. After much clamping, tapping and measuring the donor section was ready to be welded in which I did on all of the original spot weld points. A small seem weld on the front of the cross member with a little bit of weld cleaning and a touch of body filler gave the car a whole new straight front end. After this it was only a matter of painting the newly added section which was done after a full sand blast. I actually blasted it before fitting which gave me good clean metal surfaces to weld. I sandblasted and painted all replacement parts including the radiator, horns, radiator protection panel, etc. The alternator also suffered a chipped pulley in the crash so I removed it, stripped it, blasted it's external parts, painted repaired and refitted that. It was a completely original alternator so I painted the shroud in the origianl grey. Whilst I was at it I also cleaned and painted the air intake tubes, filter tube, exhaust manifolds, under side of the bonet, and anything else that needed it. I removed and serviced the water pump and fitted a new gasket. There was a heap of other little things that have slipped my mind but were done. All of the panels went back on and fitted perfectly so the time taken to measure and clamp was worth it. The engine didn't need to be touched as it runs as smooth as silk. In fact it started first pop after not being turned over for two years. One needle is a bit sticky in the left carb but that will be sorted at first service before it goes on the road. I've sorted a few issues in the interior, fixed the alternator light which didn't work along with a few other electrical faults including the clock. Replaced the indicator switch and centre console as it was cracked. It helps having several cars worth of parts to draw on. This car is now back to being what it should and it drives very nicely. It's at the paint shop getting a new paint job in a new colour being light cream which is what most English Police cars of the time were painted in. After this I will be getting it signwritten with old English Police livery and adding all the other bits like two tone siren, blue light etc. We will then be entering it into the Queensland Variety Bash. I'm really looking forward to driving this car as I've invested at least 200+ hours into it. An experienced repairer would have done it much quicker but I have to admit I'm very fussy and I restored/refurbished every part that went back onto the car along with lot's of other parts so it will look close to new when back from the painter. The old P6 is quite an easy car to repair and I really enjoyed the process. Of course there was the odd moment of frustration and times where it was left for weeks without doing anything getting the motivation back. Got a lot of satisfaction out of it in the end. It's also easier working on a car that actualy has some substance and decent thickness in the metal.