Post by gollop on Jul 1, 2010 1:20:09 GMT
Hi I'm Gollop
A Brit living in Sydney Australia, moved out here about 7 years ago and have always had a classic as my daily diver (Volvo Amazon, Spitfires, and a ton of minis). I was actually looking at getting an older Holden or Ford to start with (sorry) but then I came to my Senses and went back to British
I looked for probable a year before I found this little Beauty in Canberra.
It's a 1969 Arden Green P5b which was brought over in 1971 by a British Diplomat who lived in Brisbane, the first thing he did was to fit AC which is diffenatly essential as I brought the car in the height of summer and it would get very Hot being such a dark colour.
I've been slowly but surly fixing the old girl up as I go. All the electrics where "broken" when I got it, but since have traced all the faults easly because most wheren't plugged in!
The car had a recon Range rover block back in 2001 and I've been tidying the engine bay, replacing rubber, sorting out sagging leaf springs with some Monroe gas shock absorbers etc etc. Whats great about it being a car from Australia is that there is Zero rust a fact being from the UK I can much appreciate, I live near the beach so I've fitted electronic rust protection which is an absolute must.
I was a bit of a non-believe in it but after a week of running round trying to get some one to under spray the car every mech I spoke to recommended it. For all the UK owners seriously do it! I've had to put a cheap roof rack on the car (I know sorry) but being insulated to the cars charge it has started to rust where as the car hasn't got a spec on it!
States in Australia all have different laws concerning inspections and as I live in New South Wales I had to get a Blue Slip to register it here (like an MOT).
It only needed 2 tyres a pair of windscreen wiper blades and a idler which turned out to be the hardest to source but I ended up getting it reconditioned. Whilst it was in for the blue slip the alternator also Decided to die! It had been slowly dyeing over the last year and it thought this was as good as time as any.
When I pulled out the old Alternator it looked like something from a tractor and was only kicking out a trickle of 15 amps from new
So updated it for a 65 amp Bosch bad boy. So whats next?
Well I'll be tackling the engine bay in a bit more depth soon I'll be putting up photos, interior is original as is paint and at some point in the next couple of weeks I'm going to sneak up on it and attack it with a couple of gallions of T-Cut! ;D
The paint is actually good with a couple of minor blemish's but is covered in thousands of tiny tiny scratches and would probable win candidate of the year for a good cut and polish.
The new plates for NSW are GO.11.OP in a nice gold on black (still waiting on them) I was actually amazed but ROVER (the number plate) is still available in NSW for a couple of hundred bucks a year! Any body?
How do I put more photo's here?
A Brit living in Sydney Australia, moved out here about 7 years ago and have always had a classic as my daily diver (Volvo Amazon, Spitfires, and a ton of minis). I was actually looking at getting an older Holden or Ford to start with (sorry) but then I came to my Senses and went back to British
I looked for probable a year before I found this little Beauty in Canberra.
It's a 1969 Arden Green P5b which was brought over in 1971 by a British Diplomat who lived in Brisbane, the first thing he did was to fit AC which is diffenatly essential as I brought the car in the height of summer and it would get very Hot being such a dark colour.
I've been slowly but surly fixing the old girl up as I go. All the electrics where "broken" when I got it, but since have traced all the faults easly because most wheren't plugged in!
The car had a recon Range rover block back in 2001 and I've been tidying the engine bay, replacing rubber, sorting out sagging leaf springs with some Monroe gas shock absorbers etc etc. Whats great about it being a car from Australia is that there is Zero rust a fact being from the UK I can much appreciate, I live near the beach so I've fitted electronic rust protection which is an absolute must.
I was a bit of a non-believe in it but after a week of running round trying to get some one to under spray the car every mech I spoke to recommended it. For all the UK owners seriously do it! I've had to put a cheap roof rack on the car (I know sorry) but being insulated to the cars charge it has started to rust where as the car hasn't got a spec on it!
States in Australia all have different laws concerning inspections and as I live in New South Wales I had to get a Blue Slip to register it here (like an MOT).
It only needed 2 tyres a pair of windscreen wiper blades and a idler which turned out to be the hardest to source but I ended up getting it reconditioned. Whilst it was in for the blue slip the alternator also Decided to die! It had been slowly dyeing over the last year and it thought this was as good as time as any.
When I pulled out the old Alternator it looked like something from a tractor and was only kicking out a trickle of 15 amps from new
So updated it for a 65 amp Bosch bad boy. So whats next?
Well I'll be tackling the engine bay in a bit more depth soon I'll be putting up photos, interior is original as is paint and at some point in the next couple of weeks I'm going to sneak up on it and attack it with a couple of gallions of T-Cut! ;D
The paint is actually good with a couple of minor blemish's but is covered in thousands of tiny tiny scratches and would probable win candidate of the year for a good cut and polish.
The new plates for NSW are GO.11.OP in a nice gold on black (still waiting on them) I was actually amazed but ROVER (the number plate) is still available in NSW for a couple of hundred bucks a year! Any body?
How do I put more photo's here?
But hey its all chrome!