Rolly's 76 Soft top

[Rolly]

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Ok then, this is the next chapter in both mine and the Patrol's life and I envision a long and loving relationship. By that I mean me spending my much-loved money over a long period of time fixing, modding and pouring premium fuel down it's thirsty throat. I haven't got a name for her yet but I picked the old girl up down in Sydney 2 weeks ago (regular viewers may recognise her from the gumtree ad). As far as I can tell she's an MWB softop with the only mods being the bullbar, rear bar, roll bar and the bar-inducing V8 . It's only a little V8 but it's what sold me on the car. The 71 wagon I had 15 odd years ago saw 20L per 100km so I figured if I'm going to get that sort of economy it might as well sound good doing it.

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That's it for today. Next step is do a bit ready for rego then I may look at making some extended shackles so I can squeeze in some 33" muddies. It's only going to be a weekend/camping toy and there's lots of mud in the Barrington Mountains where we do most of our camping. Hmmm.....Mud Patrol?

[G60michael]

Wow, rolly what a beast, one of the neater patrols getting about still, will be awesome to see another old patrol back on the road.

Got to love a V8, First V8 G60 i drove had a old 253 slotted between the chassis rails, it was mated to a 5speed and had no brakes, it certainly was good fun and i accidentally layed some skid marks across the park :roll

I love the scenery of the barring tops area, noting but breathtaking, its one place i want to got camping with my 66 when i get it registered, Just imaging a old g60, soft-top canvas on, Parked on a creek bed, and a camp fire added in

[Rolly]

Thanks Michael, and I agree. Need to see more old fourbies on the road hey. I'm looking forward to the looks I get when I rock up to my favourite campsite in this old beast. Rarely do you see a '60's or 70's model fourbie these days, it's all plastic patrols, toy toyotas and leaky landrovers and their owners dribbling on about their latest ARB bolt on accessory while the car never leaves the campsite (bit harsh I know but you get my drift .
Mate if you want to experience the Barrington area let me know when you have the '66 on the road and I'll show you the place. We do regular trips (Easter is huge!!)
I'm lucky enough to have started 4x4ing and camping with the most awesome friends I've ever met and have watched their kids grow up and get fourbies of their own and they are now making their own little future 4x4 drivers.
Hopefully by keeping this old girl alive and clambering her way through mudholes in front of these kids I can keep the past alive and maybe they'll want to keep one of these old beasts alive in the future.

[RiverPatrol]

Awesome pics and story! Thanks for sharing. Can't wait to see some of those camping pics, too. Nice Patrol!

[mdawg4x4]

Nice looking Patrol.

[miller]

Really neat conversion. Good to see you can use the original gearbox cover.

Ive just been on the Dellows website to see if they make a adaptor for the MQ/MK auto

Thanks for sharing

[Swerve]

Really neat conversion. Good to see you can use the original gearbox cover.

Ive just been on the Dellows website to see if they make a adaptor for the MQ/MK auto

Thanks for sharing

x2

[250g60]

Hi Rolly, The G60 looks great. I live just up the road at Nelson Bay, good to see another old patrol near by. If you need any bits or want to go drive some tracks let me know, i know plenty around Medowie, Seaham and Dungog

[Rolly]

Hi Rolly, The G60 looks great. I live just up the road at Nelson Bay, good to see another old patrol near by. If you need any bits or want to go drive some tracks let me know, i know plenty around Medowie, Seaham and Dungog

Thanks 250, I've done a few out the back of Medowie before the RAAF closed it up (ahhh, the smell of Medowie mud!) and Jerusalem, Dixies etc at Barrington are a must do everytime we go camping but I've never done anything Seaham way. Still got to get the old girl on the road though, it's sooo painful having it sitting in the shed and not being able to try that motor to see what she sounds like under load. I'm thinking it'll echo quite nicely through Frying Pan & Coachwood

[Rolly]

Well the project has started in earnest. I had a heap of pics I was going to post of starting to fix the rust spots coming out in the panels but once I started to dig down deeper I thought "My God !"
Someone pulled this thing out of the scrap bin, added about 100kg of bog (220lbs to the members still living in the '50s ) then slapped about 20 coats of paint over the whole thing.
It was time to sit down and do some thinking. Do I want to do this? Really??
Well it took about 2 seconds to answer that question and then a week or so of deciding how I was going to go about it and how much money did I want to spend?
I'm in essence a very lazy person and it usually takes a few drinks to spark any semblance of motivation so the idea of spending days on end grinding, bogging and sanding didn't sit well with me and the realisation that it would probably lead to the advanced stages of alcoholism by the time I was finished led me to a decision I'll regret financially but will be better in the long run because my relationship with this old girl wil be lifelong and what I do right now will pay off in the future.
Therefore I'm ordering a complete fibreglass front end: Inner & outer guards, bonnet, radiator and windscreen surround. Bugger it, you only live once.
That said I've started on the cabin and I must say that removing what looks like tar paint that has been brushed on straight over surface rust is not fun, wire wheel or not. I've been doing a bit after work each day then coating it with rust converter. Here's how it looks so far

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