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Aussie '66 411


milesiles

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Hey,

 

Just signed up, looks to be a great site with lots of useful info. I am fairly active on some other car and bike sites so look forward to contributing what I can.


Bought this 66 Bluebird 411 recently. It is licensed and runs and after a few minor cosmetic and clearance issues are sorted it will join my garage, but most importantly this will be my daily drive.

 

4466e5g_20.jpeg1413549_20-1.jpg801711a_20-1.jpg87229jd_20.jpeg

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welcome really nice looking car!!! cant tell but are the front fenders rolled? are all the 411 windshield wipers like that?

 

 

The front fenders are stock.  All 410 and 411 wipers are the crossover type, not the "parallel" type.  Makes it easier to make both right and left hand drive cars without needing a different sheet metal for the area in front of the windshield.

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Ok, so this has already turned into more of a project than I thought...

 

On closer inspection the whole undercarriage is shagged. the clearance problems are because the struts had collapsed, which I already knew. So have a new set on the way, however the ball joints are also seriously requiring replacement. The wheels will not be going back on until this is done, probably with rod ends and bushes to be thorough. I have hopefully sourced some of these (not an easy task) but will have to wait till after the Easter weekend to confirm.

 

As this car is far from original it will not be getting a full concourse like some of my other projects. As the paint is not original and getting tired in some spots it will have the small amounts of rust cut out and probably matte black plasti-dipped all over. As the seats don't appear to be original (as they are cloth buckets and the rear is vinyl and are held in with wood) they will probably go, possible to race buckets?

 

The front arches have been flared slightly, albeit not very well so they will get cleaned up and flared inside and out, a little more to reduce clearance issues, along with the rears. Possibly with the addition of airbags... A couple of new lenses, globes, badges etc and thats about it. It may get a motor upgrade at some stage too.

 

The wheels are Fortran rims, 7Jx14" offset 4.3mm with slightly stretched Achilles 175/65 R14.

 

I will take some more pics as I go. 

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Cheers, yeah I am looking at the rarepart.com ones, however I am just waiting to find out if i can buy straight from the U.S. or if they have any relationship with rareparts.com.au.

 

I will be looking at refurbishing the original lenses first, some have faded, some are cloudy but none are cracked. I may be able source some NOS parts and have had hard to get ones re-made in the past.

 

Also looking at airbag's front and rear, just doing some research. 

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ive got 2 nos round lenses, but the long rectangle one i have one of. i also only have a right side housing, still trying to source quite a bit of stuff. the car was just a shell and is only being built to take to the track but it still needs to look good.

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It's not the tax, we don't have to pay any import duty or GST on anything under 2K. The exchange rate is pretty good these days too. The biggest extra cost is the freight. I just bought some struts from the U.S. as my local supplier is useless and reckoned they did not exist. It cost me more in freight than the struts cost, but at least they are on their way. So if the local site is connected with the U.S. hopefully I can save on some freight for the ball joints and rod ends.


 


I am finding that there are still a lot of NOS/OEM parts for these to come out of New Zealand. 


 


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Ok, I have heard back from rareparts.com and they have no affiliation with rareparts.com.au, but not good news unfortunately. They do not have any of the BALL JOINT FRONT LEFT LOWER, BALL JOINT FRONT LOWER RIGHT or the TIE ROD SLEEVE FRONT in stock and would require mine as samples to have them re-made. With me being so far away this may turn out to be counterproductive.  After I have exhausted the JC Whitney option (scratch that they are unable to help either), I may have to source someone locally to custom make a set, repair the ones I have or I may even do what I do best and bastardize a set of similar ones or the 411 trailing arms to suit or look at a coil over conversion? Adapt and overcome.

 

I may just have a whole bunch of these made and become the sole world supplier of them. It could be my retirement plan.

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I may just have a whole bunch of these made and become the sole world supplier of them. It could be my retirement plan.

 

sounds like a killer plan, but with maybe only 150+ cars worldwide that are being driven/built i would guess they'd need to be $500+ per peice to retire on at anypoint

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  • 2 weeks later...
Ok, so I may have sourced a set of Lower Ball Joints. I just paid for a set of knock off's on a website that is itself a knockoff, of Ebay.  Trust me I have searched all over the world, these are the only ones I have found so far. 
 
****Suppliers name removed as they are useless****
 
Although I don't like this part:-
 
Important terms:
We do our best to keep items in stock but due to sales to local customers, Online customers outside of ebay, as well as in house customer jobs we cannot guarantee the item to be in stock, therefore All items in our ebay store are considered special order items unless stated otherwise above the description. All special order items may take an additional 6 weeks before shipment. (some rare applications have taken as much as 8 weeks(NOT including the shipping time) Most items however are shipped within 5 business days. Special order items are ordered direct from the manufacturer on a per order basis. If this is a problem please do not bid. If you need the item sooner please check with us to determine if the item is currently in stock, or to determine the estimated shipping date.
 
I have emailed to confirm that they are in stock but have not heard back. They are not cheap at about $120 each but are about the same as what Rare Parts were asking, who were out of stock and wanted mine as samples (which would have added weeks). I have not ruled out getting a bulk lot out of China, I have been speaking to one or two suppliers about price and availability.

 

I have ordered all the remaining rod ends and other parts from Rare Parts.

 

Struts are on the way.

 

Still working on bushes.

 

Almost progress...

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For rubber parts try www.suspension.com.  This is Suspension Restoration Parts Co.  319-C Motor City Court, Modesto CA 95358, USA. 

 

2 Items I have checked but not ordered [i didn't need them] are Tie rod boots, P/N 9-133103, US$4 per pair and Ball Jount boots. P/N 9-13110, US$4 per pair.  A foot note says these also fit MG front ends, so there may be hope in OZ for a local source.  Good Luck!

 

P.S. Arizona HitMan may have ordered some of these parts.  If so, I invite him to join in on the quality end of the discussion.

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I'm also chasing a set of ball joints for my 411 and have pretty much had the same luck as you Milesiles,

 

I saw the ebid ones and thought they looked a bit dodgy but let me know if you have any luck, I'm definitely in the market for a set

 

One of the links I got on my Google search was to an old for sale ad from AZ Hitman on Ratsun saying that he had one lower ball joint spare as he bought one too many

 

Can get a full set of uppers and lowers from Japan but they are about AU$650 which is a bit exxy

 

Watching with keen interest!

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