Holden HZ Ute - Ireland

[drewcrane]

YUP diggin that, very cool

[dubvalman]

After returning from the sand prison - where I work I found the parts for my Valiant had not arrived yet. As I am waiting for the missing bits to finish the drum to disk change on my 62 Valiant I used the time to do some modernising on the ute.

The finished projects to date are;
Fatmat the cabin and doors


New underlay


New carpets and swapped out the bench seat for some all electric buckets


Fitted centre console - not sure now if I will go for the T-bar shifter. I have one but I do like the column shifter. May fabricate a cup holder for this console instead.


Refurbished all the gauges. Sourced and had fitted a replacement clock - these never work but now with new mechanics and electrics and the old style face and needles it looks nearly factory.


Refurbished and installed factory style intermittent wiper control


Install central locking - how it all came together. I am still using original Holden seat belts while I source new belts to suit the new seats buckles.




And still no sign of my missing Valiant parts

[dubvalman]

Recently returned from the sand prison (Late August 2017) and took the opportunity to swap out the cylinder head on the ute. I do not know the history of the original so have been using a lead additive to save the valve seats.

I removed the old head;



I had sourced and purchased a reconditioned head through my good friend Mike, at Rare Spares in Perth Australia and he freighted it over to me. The timing was great it arrived about 3 days after me and I was all set to do the job. The new (new to me) head comes with the hardened seats and all new guides and seals. Has been machined flat and with the few thou gone of it will lift the compression a bit.



The condition was surprisingly good for a car of this age and there was only minimal carbon build up at the top of the cylinders. No lip either, which was nice. I cleaned the deck, pistons, header flanges and the thermostat housing etc. and powder coated the parts I would be reusing – thermostat housing heater take-off etc.



I also refurbished the intake, refurbished the carburetor and replaced the hoses for both the radiator and the heater. I fitted all new gaskets, new thermostat, new temperature sender, new fuel filter, repaired some engine wiring and invested in a set of E3 plugs and topped it off with all new vacuum lines. I had an oil catcher on the shelf so I took the chance and fitted that – not sure they do much but if it will keep the oil grime out of the PCV, out of the intake, then it will be a nice addition for the small amount of money it cost.



Bolted it all back together, and after a check for torque, clips, gaskets and not missing tools it was ready for a test run and fluid top ups.



No leaks and runs sweeeeet! Better than factory and for a 38 year old car; smooth and quiet. It starts on the button, no hesitation or spluttering and pulls like a good thing. One happy camper! But then I had to return to the sand prison – one sad camper

[dubvalman]

I was back from the desert again and it was time to work on the Ute and decompress.

The project for this visit was to fit the tonneau cover.



After several measurements and numerous remeasuring it was time to start putting holes in the sweet paint job.



So it was measure - measure - measure - drill - clip - cord; measure - measure - measure - drill - clip - cord; for the next two hours



At the end I think it looks pretty darn good!



I expected this to take longer than it did - so with the job done I decided to fit OEM electric window units. I had managed to locate some through a wrecking yard in Australia and had them shipped over to Dublin.

Doors before





After stripping down the regulators and motors; freeing up and lubricating the regulators and reconditioning the motors all work sweeet - smooth and quiet. It was time to install them.



New switch controls and the doors all buttoned up - the windows swish up and down and its another little improvement to help my driving smile grow even bigger

[Cannonball]

How cool is that, you got some great work going on, well done

[Cannonball]

Unfortunately the camera does not do justice to the colour the car is now - it does not capture the sparkle or the pop of this colour.


Bought this HZ ute in Scotland in 2014.





Finally imported it into Ireland in 2015 and brought it up to my paint guy to get a respray which we figured would take about 4 - 5 weeks.


Off with the vinyl and should I start to worry?




Hmmmmmm more of what lurks below the vinyl!





Digging deeper and its not looking good!





Will there be any vehicle left at this rate???????????





Mike from Rare Spares Perth to the rescue with new metal!





Starting to look a bit more factory - no holes or rust bubbles left.





Next in line for the paint booth - end of March 2017




Waiting for trim - April 2017






Looking sharp. The tyres are the wrong size as these rims where bought for my Valiant S Series and the profile is smaller than the tyres that came off the ute. I was checking the look - and I like it!

I am a bit confused you said you bought this ute in scotland,, pic of a grey ute, you take it to your paint man its yellow ?????????????????

[dubvalman]

The Ute has a column shift and I like it. But Fitting bucket seats from a Porsche Cayenne after the bench (which I really liked) collapsed due to rust in the frame and was not repairable and unfortunately a replacement bench seat shipped from OZ was more than I paid for the Ute - left me needing an alternative creative thinking solution - enter Porsche Cayenne seats . Then when I added the centre console I had a dilema - do I fit the new T-Bar shifter unit I have or leave the centre console looking like it doesn't belong with no T-Bar in it? I decided as there is no cup holder I would change the centre console insert and add a cup holder. Then I thought might be nice to have a hands free unit that doesnt fill up the space under the gauges in the dash?



I designed an insert for the centre console, and from there started designing my Micro Stereo Hands Free unit. I have now finished my A model of a micro stereo, MP3 player, hands free phone and FM tuner for the Ute. It also has security warning lights built into the panel which illuminate 15 seconds after the key is turned off. It can be used to earth the coil -ve or tacho feed, thereby acting as an immobiliser. I was going to connect the blue lights through the central locking but made the rookie mistake of not checking the output from the central locking unit. The central locking unit only gives a pulsed 3v dc signal when on - my blue security lights in the console are 12v dc flashing LEDs. so, the two aren’t compatible. DOH!



I will be making some other versions - different finish on the centre panel and try out other electronics and different cup holders - things to do in a lockdown

I am having some air vents for the Holden GTS and Premier model dashes reproduced and hopefully the finished product will be of OEM quality. I know that these are hard to locate in OZ these days - as my attempts at getting good quality second hand ones has proved they are becoming scarce and the condition is not improving. I have had no luck finding new ones either.

[dubvalman]

"I am a bit confused you said you bought this ute in scotland,, pic of a grey ute, you take it to your paint man its yellow ????????????????? "

The Ute had a grey vinyl wrap on it when I bought - that was my reference to it when I said "Off with the vinyl and should I start to worry?"

[rfullarton]

center console is looking great .. i would try to make it look as stock as possible and maybe remove carbon look unless you are modernising the dash as well