OUR CARS – TORRENS
GT TACKLES HIS BIGGEST TASK
TWO DECADES of sitting outdoors had taken its toll on my farm-find 1979 VB Commodore V8. The boot floor was crusty, the spare tyre base was pretty-much non-existent and the left sill and floors were goooone!
After sourcing a few parts from other cars, I began the daunting rust repair work: In fact, after transporting it home and with beer-inhand having a closer look, I’d wondered if the old rusty Commodore was worth the time, the effort and the money….
Hell yeah!
I began the rust work at the rear of my Commodore and moved steadily forward, replacing all the rusty bits with the donated parts. Successfully completing the boot floor and spare tyre well got me in the mood for the biggest job: the left sill. Being part of the skeleton of the car, it was critical that I didn’t allow the body to flex and introduce problems such as uneven panel gaps between the doors and the body. As hinted, this is the biggest single repair task I have ever undertaken as a home-based DIY restorer, but by using traditional trade techniques - such as bracing the body – I
installed the replacement sill and re-hung the doors with factory-like accuracy. In fact, with a little tweaking of the Commodore’s four sets of door hinges – and by finessing the fit of the front guards to the front doors and the bases of the A pillars - my car is ‘gapped’ better than original!
After the welding, I ground-down the high spots and applied some primer and seam sealer. Before welding, I’d removed most of the Commodore’s factory applied in-cabin sounddeadening material, so it was replaced. A cabin-full of new stick-down sound deadener cost around $400 (ouch!) but it was a necessary spend as despite its tatty appearance, I didn’t want the noise levels in my Commodore to be like a stripped-out race car.
I was keen for my Commodore to be as-new underneath, too. With the car raised as high as possible on chassis stands and with the driveline removed (more about that in a future issue) I invested several hours in wire-brushing years of
“I DIDN’T WANT THE NOISE LEVELS IN MY COMMODORE TO BE LIKE A RACE CAR”
surface rust and loose factory sound-deadener. After some masking, I applied a fresh coat of under-body schutz to the four wheel arches and much of the undercarriage, including the back-sides of the two front guards, too.
It was a big DIY job that I spread over several weeks of evenings and weekends. But with the major rust repaired and the underbody restored, I’d ensured my VB Commodore V8’s future!