Ratwagon's project Trois, the 720 "Sleepa" Uterus

[Ratwagon1600]

So, RW is a self confessed OCD sufferer.

 

Ive recently hit my 50th birthday and decided ive probably got 25 years of wrenching left in me.

 

My OCD, and my yet unwritten bucket list leaves me with a bucketload of projects to do, so, I welcome you to.......... my 720 ute project.

 

Straylia calls these types of vehicles "Utes", short for "Utility Vehicles", or as we love to call them "Utes"

 

The 720 came to my attention, and, to cut a long story short, a round trip of 11 hours later see's it in my driveway.  There is no structrual rust, and a tiny bit if surface rust.

 

My bucket list has a note saying RW must build a "Sleepa".

 

Sleepas in Straylia are any vehicle that looks stock from the outside, but, underneath has the heart, and drive train of a Lion.

 

So, the plan at this stage is to get it registered/roadworthy, following this, seriously moar low, bolt the twin 45 Dellortos onto the L series motor as well as a bucket load of other bits I have (Lightened flywheel, HD clutch, Extractors etc etc).  Once Ive had a bit of fun, V6 (Buick) Commodore motor, and after that, possibly Turbocharged, but, more likely Supercharged.

 

And........., for the Oic whores, Oics....., and more to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wayno]

Sleeper is a VG something TT!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trade it for a 720 double cab(4 door), they are cool and you actually have them over there. :lol:

Nice looking truck, it's kinda funny how you guys have flatbeds most the time, we have to make them from scratch over here as they all have boxes except on really big trucks.

What year is the truck, 1980?

The passenger side front marker light is the wrong year for that truck, that one is for our 1983+ trucks.

On the column transmission shift lever, you guys got all the strange stuff, at least it is strange to us over here in the USA.

[Ratwagon1600]

No trades, I like the single cab :)

 

Its a 1982 model.  Haven't driven a column shift for about 25 years so it should be fun.

 

Ive thought about all kinda swaps including the VG.  Buick like V6 motors out of our Holden Commodores are a dime a dozen over here and I already have a couple of (free) donor cars to pick from including one with a 5 speed gearbox and not the auto tragic transmission.

 

Ultimately it will either end up a turbocharged V6, or more likely the Supercharged V6 that came out in some of the Commodores here.

 

Original floor mat, just a shame the drivers side isn't in as good condition.

 

 

Engine bay pre-swapsies (going to leave the L series in there for the short term).

 

[flatcat19]

Geez. That thing is in amazing shape. 

[Charlie69]

Nice 720!  Congrats

[Draker]

Nice!!

[]2eDeYe]

Excellent score. Any plans to find a bed? 

[wayno]

I wonder where they got them stock taillights if there was never a bed on it?

Interesting passenger side dash tray, looks more like a 521 tray that has some room for something than our 1 or 2/3 inch deep tray depending on which one you have, here is my 2/3 inch deep tray depending on where you measure.

[Ratwagon1600]

Excellent score. Any plans to find a bed?

 

Negative, for me the flat bed rocks.

[Ratwagon1600]

I wonder where they got them stock taillights if there was never a bed on it?

Interesting passenger side dash tray, looks more like a 521 tray that has some room for something than our 1 or 2/3 inch deep tray depending on which one you have, here is my 2/3 inch deep tray depending on where you measure.

Havent paid that much attention to the dash configuration. This is the first one of these ive owned having owned 510's for most of my life, so this is sorta new for me. Same with the taillights? Im not even sure they are original.

[Draker]

Do you happen to have an update to your dime thread?

[Ratwagon1600]

The update is, there is no update. 

 

The Dime is parked in the shed for the short term whislt I work some magic on the 720. 

 

Im going to have to do something with it so I dont totally lose interest, I've just got a hankering to get this conversion done.

[wayno]

Havent paid that much attention to the dash configuration. This is the first one of these ive owned having owned 510's for most of my life, so this is sorta new for me. Same with the taillights? Im not even sure they are original.

They are original 1980 thru 1982 taillights.

[Charlie69]

The cab and chassis trucks were shipped to the US with the stock tail lights tied on top of the frame rails.

 

Ratwagoon it looks like surface rust where the paint is chipped on the bottom of the wheel wells.

[Ratwagon1600]

Hi Charlie, thats the beauty of the body on this one, the only rust is the very minor surface rust Ive posted in the pic.

 

This particular utehas spent its whole life in a dry rural part of Australia, away from the coastal regions which so often cause the rust in cars down here.

 

This was another reason I was prepared to do an 11 hour round trip to get it; Rust free examples are just too hard to come by otherwise.

[Ratwagon1600]

Ok, so, some work done.

 

Pulled up the rubber mats and sadly a little bit of rust.

 

 

 

Nothing RW cant fix.

 

Replaced the front disc pads and all good.  Rear brakes, well........., eeeewwwwwww

 

 

Sooooo, some RW magic, and.........

 

 

 

Still a lot more to do with the cleaning up, but, its looking ok so far

[Charlie69]

I have a stock 1980 bed and tail gate in good shape no rust but the shipping to you would be expensive.  This is a clean truck.

[Ratwagon1600]

Thanks Charlie. I had a friend visit the other day and he said "needs a proper tray (its what we call a bed) on it".

 

In true Aussie fashion, I told him to fuck off, and handed him a beer

 

I appreciate the comments about the vehicle as my goal is to, without spending a lot of money (keeping it for my 510) to keep it as clean as possible!

[LTJ]

Good looking 720!

You guys are making me miss the ones I had years ago!

[Ratwagon1600]

Fuck.

 

Cant beleive how long since ive done anything on this truck.

 

Got motivated this week and lifted it up in the air to put some new shoes on it.

 

Off with the light truck tyres and on with some roadworthy 14 inch tyres \i had on some other rims.

 

 

 

 

I put new disc pads in it when I first got it home.  Looking at the front brake lines yesterday the flexible ones looked a bit ordinary so I ripped them off and headed to the local brake store, and of course its Saturday so its shut.  Decided the calipers could do with a clean up and rebuild so started on the drivers side one.

 

 

 

After a bit of love in the bead blaster.

 

 

And a lick of high temp paint.

 

 

This is as far as I got before the F1 qualifying started.

 

Ill finish the rest off this morning.  I've decided to pull down the hubs while Im at it and give them a bit of love as well seeing the calipers will look out of place on the rusty old hubs.  I'll do the wheel bearings while im at it.

 

[Ratwagon1600]

Rebuilt front hub and disc with new wheel bearings.  Much prettier!

 

 

Pretty new Straylian Registration authority compliant front brake lines.

 

[Charlie69]

I wonder where they got them stock taillights if there was never a bed on it?

Interesting passenger side dash tray, looks more like a 521 tray that has some room for something than our 1 or 2/3 inch deep tray depending on which one you have, here is my 2/3 inch deep tray depending on where you measure.

As far as I know the trucks are shipped in as a cab and chassis which has stock taillights wire tied to chassis.  Trays/Beds are dealer installed.

[tr8er]

So nice!

[Ratwagon1600]

So nice!

Thank you.

 

Looks much better when compared to the before pic.

 

I kinda get anal retentive about some stuff and want to detail the bejeebus out of it.

 

Ive got a certain idea with this build that eventually most stuff under the truck will be highly detailed ( painted, polished etc) and under the hood will hopfully sit a supercharged V6 with the rst of the truck looking semi ratty.

[Ratwagon1600]

Pretty.

 

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Yuk.