After much delay (about 8 years) I have finally started playing with Dacey the 1977 G60 Patrol in an attempt to restore her.

This first video is a pre-restoration condition report. At least that was the intention, it is more of just a rambling waffle.

If the above video doesn't work - you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqpxVmlx-vc

In part 2, I actually start doing stuff and remove the bonnet and soft-top. 

Stay tuned if you want to see a non-practical computer geek try and restore an old Patrol.

   

So if you have been following along, you’ll know that a while ago I was driving home in Oscar my Pajero and one of the wheels fell off. 

That did a bit of damage but I was able to put him back together again. I had been planning to replace his wheels and tyres anyway, but this was a good encouragement.

So now Oscar is sporting new tyres and brilliant white sunraysia-style wheels.

White sunnies are a pretty retro look these days, which is probably why I like it so much.

   

This is Oscar with his original Pajero rims.

 

And again with his lovely new wheels.

Now I just need to fix some of the million other issues with him….

Ever have one of those days where everything seems to be going fine and then the wheels fall off?

 

Well, Oscar (the Pajero) and I had a bit of excitement on Saturday night. Coming back from Burnie doing 100kms, when one wheel decided it wanted to go on it’s own adventure.

I’d felt some shaking and thought it was a wheel bearing – but apparently it was actually just a loose wheel. In hindsight it was obvious, but that’s hindsight for you.

So suddenly with only 3 wheels attached, I had a bit of a wild ride. All things considered though, Oscar was very well behaved considering he was missing a wheel, and I was able to pull over without any major incident.

The guy behind me saw sparks go everywhere and pulled up behind me. I think he thought I was doing a runner, as soon as I’d stopped moving I jumped out and ran down the road to catch the runaway wheel before someone else ran into it.

I rang Turkey to come and pick me up (I wasn’t far out of Burnie) and waited for the RACT to come and collect poor Oscar. He wasn’t going anywhere on his own.

   

My RACT membership comes with 15kms of free towing, so Oscar was dragged back to Burnie and dumped in Turkey’s driveway.

Turkey then very kindly ran me home to Devonport and my other car.

 

Conveniently being a long weekend, I managed to get back to Burnie in the morning to check the damage in daylight.

 

The brake rotor has been flat-spotted, and the studs have been bent or entirely sheered off.

 

The bottom of the ball-joint should have a nut – but it’s all been entirely vaporised.

 

This is the other wheel, with the nut that should have been there.

So with some idea of what I’d destroyed, I headed to my mate’s place in Deloraine to steal a wheel off a donor car he was wrecking.

 

And then it was back to Burnie to set up a temporary shed to protect me from the rain. Turkey’s shed isn’t quite ready for occupation yet, but we could have used it – except with only three wheels there wasn’t a way to get Oscar from the driveway over the gravelpit into the shed.

It was miserable weather, but the gazebo kept most of it off while I got a replacement wheel assembly installed. It’s probably half an hour’s work for a competent mechanic – took me all day.

But Oscar has 4 wheels again. The replacement is not finished – I wouldn’t drive it any distance like it is, but he’s mobile enough that I can put him on a trailer to bring back to my place now.

So, that was my excitement for the long weekend.

So from there it progressed from the original idea of just messing with it - to actually doing some repairs on his much loved, but rather sad Pajero.

So we relocated the Pajero to my shed and got to work.

You'll note that Wes's first reaction is to look at the exhaust - it sounds soo much better now!

Also - to explain the random salad in the video. Tom and I did a Maccas run for desserts and the other guys texted us what they wanted. Jason just said to "grab him whatever" which is an especially dangerous thing to say to me - so he ended up with a Caesar Salad and Ice-cream.

Oh, and Jason edited the video together - so blame the music on him.

 

One of my mates was getting married in Sydney, so I was booking accomodation and a hire car, when I realised that the hire place had Mustangs available!

So of course, I took an extra couple of days leave and went to Sydney early to explore a bit behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang!

Oh, and to celebrate Wes and Lauren's wedding too...