This is a progress report on the Riviera’s New ToyAs you can see by the early snaps the car looked OK but after a closer inspection it needed a lot of TLC. The engine and Gearbox was removed and the car was shipped to Alex at A V Smash Repair in Oak Flats. Alex replaced all 4 foot wells, changed the badges on the front guards and made some repaired to the firewall, he also did some touch up work on the paint, Great job Alex, thanks.
When the car arrived home we did a complete mechanical strip down, we striped the car completely of all mechanical parts.
The first job was to repair the fire wall the car was originally an Air Con car, the air con had been removed and replaced with a big block heater and heater box, the heater was from a different car so that had to be modified to make it work, also the hole that was cut in the firewall I think was done with the aid of a small axe, also the car was fitted with HEI Distributor and to make it fit, the firewall was modified with aid of a large ball pane hammer, all that was repaired and painted
Underneath the car was completely scraped and wire brush along with the inside floor, inside the doors, the boot floor and inside the rear quarter panels, they were then all given a coat of rust converter and a couple of heavy coats of Ormoniode a bitumen based body deadener .
All the parts that are not to be Powder Coated have either been sand blasted or wire brushed, degreased and then given two coats of POR 15 and stored ready for reassembly. Parts that could not be restored were purchased from Classic Industries in the US some parts from Ponti World at Oak Flats, and a lot of parts came from Ebay. Where ever possible I prefer NOS, but NOS parts are becoming very hard to find or they unreasonably priced. The parts in the following snap are just a small portion of the finished parts waiting for reassembly.
Then the sub-frame underwent some repairs and then was taken to the Powder Coaters along with the upper and lower control arms, the front coil springs and radiator support bracket.
When I got these parts back from the Coaters the body was lined up to the sup-frame with aid of the locating dowels and bolted up. With the sub-frame bolted securely with the locating dowels spot on, the diagonals to the front of the sub-frame were out by almost one inch. With aid of some chains and a friends Porta-Power we got them to within one sixteenth of an inch. It doesn’t take long to say, but this task took a lot of time and a great deal of very bad language.
Once the sub-frame was in the correct position we reassembled the front end
The next job is the installation of the rebuilt 396 that is in the process of being rebuilt by Dr Chris and Resident Toby, at the Mustang Hospital which is located at SMS Performance, Padstow.
Other jobs that have to be addressed is the repairs to the inner guards so that they can go to the Powder Coaters, repair the transmission tunnel were the gear lever comes through the floor the car was originally an auto and is now manual and the floor was modified with the same tool that was used to modify the firewall, hopefully there is a replacement panel available, if not I will have to fabricate one. I am also having problems locating the mechanism that fits in the hood for the Cowl Induction, I can get one from the States but I am finding that suppliers in the States do not give customers in Australia the same consideration as I assume they give to their local customers.
To this point I have taken over 200 photos of the restoration and kept an on going tally sheet on total money spent, so that who ever buys the car when it is finished will be able to see that I haven’t taken any short cuts and that any part that could not be restored were replaced with new parts, either NOS or good reproductions from reputable suppliers.
Phone 02 9829 5072
Phone 0438 658 458
Phone 0432 136 333
