I’d like to say “I’ve seen worse” …. but I haven’t!
The body
The body was in a hell of a state. The main challenge was to rectifiy the botched repairs from previous owners. The front end had been replaced with a poor aftermarket clip from a later year car, the doors were not from the original car and the bonnet was an inferior replacement. The boot lid was also very badly damaged. Hum…what’s left?
The history of this car is a mystery, all I know was it was imported to Australia in 1992. I can see that someone attempted a right-hand-drive conversion that didn’t go very successful. On the bright side, the chassis had been restored and was pretty original. Everything else was pretty bad and most of the trim parts were missing.
Fixing the body would be a major undertaking involving a new complete front clip, replacing the used doors from a 58 and redoing the right-hand-drive conversion, this time properly. There was also an interesting collection of odds and ends hidden under the old repairs!
Some of the mods
The main modifications involved widening the rear quarters to take a wider tyre. When it’s done it’s hardly noticeable when you look at the car, but that extra 1.5 inched of rubber will make a huge difference when trying to harness that LT1 power.
Another major change will be the relocation of the fuel tank to the rear where the old spare wheel was located. This does throw up the challenge of where the fuel filler will go but I have a cunning plan for that…
With the old fuel tank space now freed up there is plenty of space behind the seats for some of the electrical components, such as the battery.
John Ward
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