Strap yourselves in! The least exciting, most frustrating journey awaits!
We often talk about the struggles of “off the shelf” parts.
Sometimes it’s due to poor QA work, sometimes just bad product design.
But lots of the time it’s due to two things-
- cars built from factory, to the tolerances of a 4 year old’s colouring.
- decades of minor modifications by multiple owners
This is a story of the first.
What started as a quick set of extractors and a dual exhaust on this beautiful papaya hatch, turned into a bit of a headache.
See, the 308 and gearbox that graces the engine bay (we found out later) was sourced from a HQ.
Passengers side extractor- perfect. Flanges welded, sealed up tight and ready for the rest of the exhaust to be fabricated.
Drivers side.. well clutch linkage, steering shaft, steering universal, floor, engine mount, random other bolts.
You name it, it was having an intimate relationship with some pipework.
At this stage, we spoke with the owner and checked the tags.
That confirmed a few things.
- the clutch linkage and pedal belonged to a 6 cylinder setup.
- the engine mounts were most likely HQ and not Torana.
Luckily after reaching out to the Torana community we were able to find some excellent quality products to solve the dilemma.
Engine mounts, V8 half cable rat trap mechanism, pedal tang and some quick cardboard aided design to punch a hole through the firewall for the cable setup.
Finding the issues and sourcing parts (and waiting on delivery) is a huge part of these kind of jobs and it’s hugely satisfying to see it all come together.
Its a very nice example of one of the most iconic Toranas and now it sounds as good as it looks!
