Still finding plenty of little jobs, like getting guard blinkers working. Fitted a pair of those shiny headlight reflectors. What a difference! Almost as good as a Bellett now.
Handy thing having a mate who is scrapping junkers now, went and found a radiator recovery bottle to prevent the green wee everytime I park. It fits & looks like it was made for it.
New seatbelts arrived today. Very nice job. 4 x Inertia reels will add safety and comfort, and a good colour match.
Finished polishing too - a fair difference.
Must be time to get a few pics!

Booked for roadworthy tuesday. Excited? Yep!
Cheers, Matt.

its a bit better than y florian but i only paid $100.00 bucks for mine . but my work shop and parts manuals are perfict condition .
cheers gricey

Any chance of some pics Gricey? Or are you just going to surprise us at Coona!?
Another Florian lives! Good news.
Cheers, Matt.

yay! another florian!
the more the better!
Glad to hear the progress on yours farmer.
So the LUV windscreen rubber is a good fit on the front? i have to replace the rubbers on the front and rear screens on mine found a leak in each, but luckily its kept under shelter!

The windscreen bloke was good enough to save the original, with chrome in. The KB/Luv rubber would fit, but alas, no chrome groove. (a-la Wasp)
Cheers.

ah cheers, ill get mine looked at soon enough id like to keep the chrome too!
cheers and i cant wait to see more of aunty mary!

Hmmm, No plates yet!
The overheating problem came back, so I took out the thermostat.
No difference.
A bit milky under the oilcap. Maybe the haed's a bit loose.
Retensioned. No difference.
Guage sender unit? Changed. No difference.
Ah well, OFF WITH HER HEAD!

This might have something to do with it -




Not a lot of coolant flowing around cyls 1 & 4!

I feel a cleaning, surface grind & stem seal replacement coming on.
Thursday.
Put that rego check back a week.

All the fun of the fair!
Cheers, Matt.

mate you do keep at it ...also whats that little red bellett ..new to the fleet has the bellett wheel trims also geez where do you find em ? greg gets the qld stock and are they qld plates on the car? cheers davo

looks better than my spare head! (looks better than my head!), better to get it fixed now before it causes more problems later!

Post a photo Mr Fibbles so we can all see what YOUR head looks like, then we can compare??? LOL
Gotts give Matty credit he is focused on getting "Aunt Mary" to Coona???!!!

Good spot Davo!
But you can see it on the 'Rumor Mill' thread. More about it as time allows!

Flibbs mate, that's not the spare, that's the one I took off!
Fortunately I did get a spare with the deal, so I took the pair of 'em to Canberra today.
They prettied up the spare (less corrosion) 'while I waited'.



Very better! Amazing what a good bead blast, valve grind & shave will do.
At least it's clean now!
$240. Pretty fair.

The original head is not beyond saving, but will require a bigger spend. Sometime.
They swapped the exhaust valves 'cause they were better.

Thanks for the encouragement Dave(M), All good fun! (Kind of - dollar drain is less so)
*Bonus* Got a trip to the big town in Doris!

NOW, just gotta slap it back on after work tomorrow arv.
Cheers, Matt.

that looks nice all cleaned up! luckily these heads are easy to pull of and throw back on!

WOW Matty, that was reasonable charge for the "head job"!!!
Cleaned up really well, that was a win having the spare part with the deal.
I still have those bits put aside for you too!

Thanks Dave. If you have room, I'll collect them at Coona. Real nice of you mate!

While in Canberra yesterday & having lunch under a tree, I noticed 'ACT Radiators' opposite,
Hmmm, ya never know....
So I walk in & ask the lady on the counter "Would you have a Radiator core for a '69 Isuzu Florian?" And she didn't say "A what?" No, she says, "Ol mate's been here a long time and has kept some older stuff. I'll ask."
3 minutes later she walks out & puts a core on the counter. "Anything like this?"
"Yeah, a lot like that!"
I'll be going back when I save a few $ and get that fitted!

What's nice is being in the right place on the right day with a bit of time on your hands.

And I can't knock Canberra. Yes it gets cold, and there are politicians in there, but it's got some great buisnesses with people who seem to work most of their lives at the one place.

Cheers, Matt.

Update: Presented for a blue slip (Roadworthy) yesterday. Alas, FAILED!
Seems there is a split in an inner & an outer tie rod boots, and one had a split pin missing.
I should have looked more closely! Can't say they aren't thorough!
Amongst the parts though, is a complete used steering linkage. Recovered 2 good boots, fit tomorrow, re-present on Tuesday. Should be good.

While I was waiting, checked out some new Mitsubishi metal at the dealership. (For Tracy's parents, not me!) The salesman had seen the Florian & said he's always been a fan of them & Belletts since the day. He is currently restoring a Colt 1100 sedan! Small Bellett/Colt world!
I've directed him to "Old Colts Aust" and Bellett.net, of course!

Close, real close.
Cheers, Matt.

So today I got to take the photo I really wanted!


Plates affixed!




A third trip to Young in the rain, but this time, NO OVERHEATING!, NO faultering, NO dramas!
Passed roadworthy, then to the R.T.A., and I only had to go back 3 TIMES to obtain the plates! First, the hand written reciept wasn't good enough 'cause it didn't have chassis & engine numbers, previous rego details, colour, mother's maiden name & what she had for breakfast! So, off to make a stat dec, then back. Then there was 1 digit wrong on the green slip. Can we change, sign & date it, then tell the insurance company? NO. Back to the office, tear it up & start again.
Ahh, you all know how it is!

But now, - Have plates!

The overheating? There was STILL crap in the block that flushed through & clogged the radiator.
This time, I ran water into the inverted bottom radiator hose, while blasting compressed air into the block drain hole. HANDFULLS came out of the thermostat hole!
All clean now!

And the faultering? There was crap in the main jet AGAIN! (Third removal of carbie).
So I took the top off the fuel pump, and those recesses were FULL of brown crud. (There was no mesh screen on the needle & seat inlet fitting.)
Cleaned that out, and now ALL SWEET.

And the motor is a bit cleaner-



Now we CAN drive to Coona!

Cheers, Matt.

well done matt perservere and you have ...looks great cant wait to see it in the flesh (metal) cheers davo

you have done well, she looks real nice, wish i could get to see her in the flesh but not this year i guess!

Now she is looking like the sweet ride you will need to get to Coona.
So great that these cars are really easy to repair. Not to say that i have seen some mechanical repairs that make you shake your head. Like removing all the springs as the new shocks dont fit thru the hole in the frame?? Thats what a rotary grinding bit is for!
MRRR Fllibbbllleesssss is hot on your tail, Matt. Dont think his will need quite the mechanical works yours has but he will be putting some more hours in the clean up. And our Rego process is still quite simple.

Great to see it being taken for a really good run and being used.


OZ