WB Ute Revival. in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia | Cars

WB Ute Revival.

Locality: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

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• Automotive, aircraft & boat
• Personal blog
• Cars
• Vehicle restoration service

24.01.2022 The first month.

21.01.2022 Doors bloody doors. Rust protection wasn't a big priority in the 80s.

18.01.2022 Mixed it up a bit today. Assembled the car body and track frames of a 1-15 scale, remote controlled Komatsu D455A-1 bulldozer for a mate.

18.01.2022 Fully refurbished and rust free front end ready for transport to Cairns to start a new life on another old classic.

18.01.2022 G'day guys and girls, I've decided to start a page for the rebuild of my Holden WB ute. Its going to be a long and arduous process but hopefully it will be all worth it in the end. It started out as an Alabaster white ute, had a 202 6 cylinder engine, 3 speed automatic column-shift transmission, bench seat, standard dash and front end, built in Adelaide. I bought it in late 2018 with a smooth 253 V8 running dual fuel, but primarily LPG. It looked reasonable from a di...stance with a few rust spots showing through in the usual spots. As the first month of photos will show, there is a lot of rust under the many different layers of paint and body filler. A bit about myself, I'm not a professional in any automotive trades, I'm a qualified sheetmetal worker so hopefully that will be a useful start. I've done a few paint jobs and basic panel work before but never a full car. I'm planning to have a go at everything on the build myself aside from the electrics and mechanical aspects. I'm yet to decide on the final make up of the ute, in an ideal world I'd love a GTS dash, guards and Statesman Caprice front end, but all is driven by a very tight budget due to being on a disability pension. Without going into detail, I'm not always able to get around well enough to work on it, or able to do full days, long hours etc, but I do what I can when I can. I'd appreciate comments, opinions and advice along the way, especially if you can advise of better ways to do whatever I'm working on at the time. Just keep it civil and help make it an enjoyable page and project. Hope you enjoy the ride. Ray. See more

17.01.2022 Big gain on the weekend. #ratwithagoldtooth #upgrade

13.01.2022 I did say that my bonnet was near perfect and seemingly rust free, but curiosity got the better of me and I'm glad it did. Nothing to cut out but worth the effort to sand the surface rust off, hit it with rust convertor and epoxy prime every square millimetre of metal inside and out. Should be good for another 40+years now.

11.01.2022 Been doing a few rust repairs and fitting GTS flutes to these hz guards for a mate who's parting ways with his WB Caprice front end, which will take pride of place on my ute.

09.01.2022 Came up alright.

09.01.2022 Doors, doors, doors. Slight setback today, spent a few hours fully stripping the driver's door which I thought was near perfect with little to no rust. Once I got every millimetre of paint off though, it was a different story. The rust that is there is very repairable, and much less work than the passenger side door, but it also has a few stress/work-hardened cracks around the door handle mount and top hinge area. But the bigger issue is that I've worked out (with a lot o...f help from hq-wb utes and tonners page) that my driver's side door has been replaced at some point with a door that doesn't have the side intrusion protection, which my passenger door does have. I was hoping to avoid removing the skin off this door, but now I'll take it off and fabricate a new side intrusion bar for the driver's door. My OCD won't allow anything less than perfect symmetry. See more

07.01.2022 Getting the complete front end fully stripped, any rust repaired and primed, ready to sell in mint condition. Caprice front to replace it. Will be moving back onto finishing the rust repairs in the driver's side floor then onto the main body. Have picked up a shift-kitted, fully manualized T700 4 speed auto. Engine will be bored, balanced and assembled soon.

07.01.2022 Nice change of pace to find a straight, rust free panel for a change.

05.01.2022 21st April. Finished the rust repairs to the upper sections of the passenger side door and beefed up the side intrusion bar connection while it was off. Now I'll wait for the repair section for the bottom of the door to arrive, hopefully on Thursday or Friday. #WIAwelding #Millerwelding

05.01.2022 I don't have a lot to show for the last 3 days or so and yet I haven't stopped. I've been attempting panel work, rust repairs, straightening and basically digging further down the hole. Couldn't find anyone selling an old door with the side intrusion bar so I fabricated one, as seen in the first few pictures. I haven't cut and shaped it to the finished sizes yet but that's on the cards tomorrow. 3 more rust repair panels arrived yesterday so I'll be able to finish th...e door inners in the next couple of days. Sold the 253 and trimatic on Monday, which was picked up today. That money may go towards a WB Caprice front end. If that happens I'll be selling the stock front which I've spent several days on, stripping and straightening. But if the Caprice front doesn't eventuate, I'll put that money towards a GTS dash. Considering adding GTS flutes to the guards. It's not a collectable car, nor is it matching numbers, so I may as well make it exactly how I want it, if I can make it happen financially. Doing a couple of days on a mate's 1955 F100 next week so it will be a short week on mine, but any cash I can make doing work for others, is how I'm able to make my ute progress. Other than selling parts off the ute, it's the only way it's possible at all. Hope you're all doing well and getting a bit done on your own projects. Post your progress pics in the comments. Cheers. Ray. #WIAwelding #Millerwelding See more

04.01.2022 The rust replacement panel for the bottom of the passenger side door didn't show up so I just cleaned up everywhere else and primed it, ready for a black acrylic before lining the skin with sound deadener, the same material as what will go on the floor. All internal pockets and channels inside the door frame have been treated with rust converter then primed and all lap seams have been soaked with rust converter too. Also got the driver's door stripped to reveal all the dodgy patch-up jobs from the past. This door is pretty much rust-free, so I'm happy about that.