Dave's '79 GLD Rebuild/Refurb Thread

[DaveGLD]

Hi all, I've been a little quiet since I joined up but I've finally started working on the GLD! Going to try and itemise all the things I fix and replace and make note of my progress in this thread - I've noticed there are a few other '79 GLD threads so I hope I can both contribute and learn from everyone else's experiences!

Bit of background, the car is a 1979 GLD 4sp Manual, brown vinyl interior. I am the second owner, purchased from a German gentleman named Klaus who purchased it new from Lanock motors in 1980. Sold it as he has a crook hip and doesn’t like the manual anymore. Here he is enjoying one final sit in his faithful GLD:


Here it is after bringing it home, still looks pretty much the same now.




The car has lots of surface rust, I've tried a few areas of the car with cut and polish (T-cut) and this has removed the surface rust, but the paint is still very thin and there are many spots where the paint has just 'gone'. For now I am planning to just keep on it with the cut and polish to keep the car presentable and sort out all the mechanical and interior work first, leaving the bodywork until last – I hope that by doing it this way I can enjoy the fruits of my labour and enjoy the car so that when the time comes, I’m more motivated to fork out for the respray (or have a go at doing it myself!)

Since buying the car a few months back, I have been gradually sourcing the various 'missing' bits and pieces. Between two wrecks at Upullit Lonsdale and Elizabeth (self serve wreckers), ebay and a few online orders I now have almost all the parts I need to fix the things that are broken, missing, non-original and/or untidy. I want to keep the car original with the view to eventually having it on historic rego.

So without further delay, here we go!

1 - BATTERY & CHARGING SYSTEM REPAIRS

Two weeks after purchasing, I tried to start the car and it wouldn’t. No problem cranking the engine, but just would not fire. The car would start instantly when jump started, so I figured it was a battery issue. Also, I noticed that once the car was running, the charge light would glow faintly when the lights were on and the car was at idle – after poking around other threads I figured it could also possibly be a dodgy regulator – compounding the starting problem by not fully charging the battery.

Over the last two weeks I have had the battery charger hooked up for hours at a time, but still could not manage to start the car under its own power. There was plenty of juice for the glow plugs and the battery would crank the starter motor for at least a minute before going flat, but the starter sounded like it was spinning much slower than when it was being jump started. The battery in there was rated at 420CCA – Not sure on the exact factory specification, but the century battery catalog recommended a 600CCA battery (DIN63LMF) or 500CCA as a minimum (DIN53LMF Size).

Purchased a 600CCA battery this weekend, installed it and the car fired straight away! I reckon the combination of a lower capacity and maybe the battery being a little old meant that there was just not enough oomph to crank the starter fast enough, especially after the current drain of the glow plugs.



Also fitted a new voltage regulator, the carbon brushes on the regulator in there were worn way down. No more charge light at idle with the lights on now, so I think my starting/charging woes are gone!

2 – VACUUM PUMP DIAPHRAGM REPLACEMENT
Brakes were stopping the car in a straight line but pedal pressure was very hard when I first drove the car. From what the PO told me and other threads on here I removed the vacuum hose from the brake booster and there was very little vacuum at the hose. New diaphragm kit from ebay went in on Thursday and all is now sweet! I did this with the pump in the car, some of those lower screws are very tight to get to! Very handy having the recess on top of the coolant reservoir to put nuts and bolts in though!

Took it for a blast around the block today and am very happy with how it drives! As far as I am aware, the car is now mechanically sound – however I did notice a slight noise coming from the front end that sounds like it may be a wheel bearing or a brake disc rubbing, will have to check this out when the car goes in for its first service.

Stay tuned for more updates!

[hiho]

Nice to see another GLD in the hands of an enthusiast!

[Jarred]

Good to see another GLD getting some love, rather than just ending up in the tip

[killingwithasmile]

black smoke represent!!

ps interior pics!!

[revnit]

Seems to be every new build lately popping up is a GLD which i think is awesome

[DaveGLD]

Cheers for the messages of support guys! Here are some interior shots too:

Front seats are very good, apart from two small tears (exit wounds? ) on the drivers seat and what looks like a ciggy lighter burn on the passenger.


Rear seats and door cards are immaculate. Looking at the shine on the seat belt buckles indicates they've only been used a handfull of times!


There were about three sets of floor mats in the car, so the original carpets underneath are still good! The dash is badly cracked (although from looking at other posts and other cars I think this may be the norm for a Mk1). In this photo you can see some of the 'customizations' Klaus has made to the dash area - the alternate ignition switch to the right of the centre console, the aftermarket voltmeter, the manual pushbutton for the glowplugs (small black button to the right of the voltmeter), the untidy non-genuine radio with odd speakers (ugh) and the manual override for the thermo fan (the knob to the left of the hazard lights). Then there is all the untidy wiring hanging under the dash as a result of the aforementioned mods. Fortunately I have all the bits I need to undo all this, hopefully it won't be a nightmare to return the wiring back to original.



Today I also managed to replace the rear hatch strut - super easy job, just remove the cirlip, slide out the pin, repeat for the other end, out with the old and in with the new! You have to watch those circlips though - they have the tendency to fly off - not such a big problem unless you have a gravel floor - had to spend 5 minutes crawling around trying to find the lil bugger after it camouflaged itself! So now I can finally ditch the sawn-off broom handle that was kindly supplied in the boot by the previous owner! Will also have to do something about the rear parcel shelf board - is warped and the ends have broken off so it no longer stays where it should.

[DubSteve]

Good to see another is saved, head up mate

[Peter Jones]

Your car has had air conditioning at some time in it's life.

The ignition switch is a common fault, but it's easily replaced to get rid of that 'extra' ignition switch.

By the looks of things you need to replace the front strut bushes and for some reason your GLD missed out on the anti run on retrofit to the crankcase breather system.

Sing out if you need any info, I've had about 4 GLDs of this era.

Should be a great project, look forward to seeing another one saved!

Pete

[gldgti]

Nice little project there mate!

All the things you have described are dead set GLD features - sounds exactly like my old GLD.

One thing on the bodywork side of things - Check for rust way down the bottom of the a pillar - not at the base of the windscreen, as is really common, but way down at the floor, on the outside (like at the back of the wheel arch.). I have seen rust here on quite a few GLD's, and its a darned sneaky spot because its often covered with mud there.

Interior looks great, you're lucky to get door cards in such good nick.

Well done

[Jace]

Check for rust way down the bottom of the a pillar

That's where the worst of my rust is. At least it's easily weldable.

Those two holes in the underside of the raintray what gave away air-con Peter?

[Peter Jones]

Those two holes in the underside of the raintray what gave away air-con Peter?

That and the fuse box turned sideways.

[DaveGLD]

Cheers folks, very well spotted Peter, the car did have aftermarket A/C fitted at one stage but there was none of it left when I bought the car. It's probably obvious to anyone except a noob like myself, but how the bejesus could you tell from my crappy low res photos that I need to replace the front strut bushes?!!! What a sharp eye!

I'll have a look at the body in due course, the rust doesn't seem to be as bad as it looks - the spare wheel well is virtually rust free and other problem areas people have told me to look at don't seem to be bad. I have a spare set of door handle escutcheons to replace the crappy sun damaged ones so the door cards will certainly clean up well - just a shame about the holes being cut for the crappy speakers!

Anyway, a little more progress:

4 - WHEELS & HUBCAPS
Wheels were very dirty and rusty, missing hubcaps when I bought the car:




Took the wheels off, gave them a rub down with 600 grit wet&dry and then a nice coat of paint - I used motospray 'heat proof' in 'Aluminium' from motormate - I've found that this is good for wheels and engine bay areas as it has a satin finish and seems to stick better and repel less than regular acrylic. I was missing about four hub cap trim clips but managed to score some off ebay. Fortunately six hubcaps came with the car, but were very dirty. I used meguiars next generation all metal polish and they polished up unbelievably well! Took all the crap off and left them super smooth! I thoroughly recommend this stuff for polishing any plated or exposed metal - it's fantastic!

Welcome to Meguiar's Australia, the Leader in Car Car products

So now all four hubcaps are fitted, all four wheels painted and tyres blacked - one of the easiest jobs I've done that has dramatically improved the appearance of the car!





5 - INTERIOR LIGHT

This was a quick and easy one, interior light was found in several pieces under the passenger seat. I used a small amount of Jif and a gentle scrub brush to remove the dirt from the headlining.


New one installed, although I've noticed that it only works with the manual 'on', so I may have to look at the door switches.



Coming along nicely sofar! I love doing these sort of jobs - makes you feel so positive as you can see some real progress!

[killingwithasmile]

the wheels came up a treat!! great work..

[MeeM]

Excellent job so far mate. This looks similar to what I'll be doing to my Mk1 ... when I eventually find one. I'm learning a lot already Glad to see another Mk1 being saved.

[DaveGLD]

Okay, time for an update. Has been quiet for the last month but last week I finally took the car in for its first service - all good except the problem I was having with front end wheel wobble was diagnosed as worn wheel bearings and a worn front R/H balljoint. Will have this fixed in the next week or two.

6 - REVERSING LIGHTS
One thing that the service picked up was that the reversing lights were not working - so I checked the fuse (which was ok) and then checked the switch - the reverse light switch on the manual cars is located on top of the gearbox (very accessible).



You can easily test if the switch is faulty by removing the two spade terminals, pushing the rubber insulation back and joining them together with the ignition on - if the reverse lights now work but don't work when the terminals are reconnected to the switch when reverse is selected, then the switch is faulty. Switch just unscrews - but be careful not to drop crap into the gearbox.

Early cars had a funny arrangement with a sensor/microswitch and a bracket, the later (77ish onwards) had a plunger type switch which screws into the gearbox. Managed to find a spare one at the wreckers and now my lights are all good!

One annoying thing that happened today on my drive into work was the front drivers side headlight. Pulling up to stop at a traffic light (gentle stop, no hard braking), I heard a loud 'smash' - the glass lens of the headlight had fallen off! Grr! Fortunately I have a spare, but still annoying as that headlight was the nicer of the two!



The work continues! After replacing the headlight my next job is to remove the crappy non-original air horn and fit an original horn so that I have room in the engine bay for a windscreen washer bottle (currently missing).