Greg's 79 245GL Barn Find

carnut222 · 2018-07-29T03:42:39+00:00

After cleaning it up, it sat in mum's shed until July 2018, when I finally got it shipped down to Daylesford where we live.

Ex850R

Vee_Que
Why not get the lot from the 264gle iceton has?

I believe all the best bits are sold.

Love the work!

carnut222

Vee_Que
Why not get the lot from the 264gle iceton has?

Yes, I’ve just been there yesterday on the way back from the clearing sale at Rod Patton’s down in Phillip Island. Got the power window harness, power mirrors and harness and switches from the 264 that Mark has, so now I can do the master window switch panel on the driver’s door with ease. Plus a set of new 240 rotors that I didn’t really need, but Mark convinced me to take them off his hands...Thanks @iceton1975 for that and cleaning out my wallet! The mirrors I got from Mark are really good (Just some minor bubbling of paint on the bottom surfaces which I can touch up). Happy with that as well as the wagon full of bits I got at the clearing sale. Need to sort through everything today.

carnut222

Was putting away the grilles I bought down in PI Sunday and ran across a NOS grille I had stashed away - correct one for the car, so YAY! This car is not worthy of all these good bits I’m afraid, but why not? I do think I’ll save the new mirror and put on the ones I got from Mark instead.

Also cleaned up and painted the spare tyre cover I got down at the sale. It’s the later-style short-pile fuzzy fabric, but was blue. Looks OK just using some black vinyl & fabric paint. It seemed to soak in real well so I guess it covers the fibres pretty thoroughly. I also experimented with painting a couple small samples of leather, vinyl and hard plastic to see how they come out. Will let them dry then do some testing to see if they hold up to abuse. If OK, then I might paint the tan rear leather seat I have from the EV conversion. Also need to have a black centre handbrake console so will have to paint one of my good tan ones unless anyone has a later-style black one to swap. Will also have to paint a blue door pocket, which should work OK as I had a hard time determining it was blue and not black even when I held it next to a black one.

Here’s a pic of all the power window harness bits I have to sort through. My cheap Chinese wire terminal removal tool set arrived in the post so I can now get some of those funky round pins and such out of the connectors without damage (hopefully!)

Coffee time! :)

Ex850R

Kool!

I have good paint finish after thorough cleaning the plastics and a quick wipe with,I think,prepsol,being careful not to melt it.....

Plastic pre spray is available and maybe clear sealer over top?

carnut222

Been working on wiring...got all the power window wiring sorted and installed, along with the rear window motors I got from @DCW242 . Pulled through the rear speaker wiring on the 93 sedan harness to route it to the rear doors (originally ran to the parcel shelf in the sedan). Also got the power mirrors from @iceton1975 cleaned up and touched up the paint. Unfortunately the driver’s side one only goes left/right, so I decided to install the new one instead. No reason to save it for posterity anyway! :) The driver’s door wiring has a mess of wires going through to the body with the master window switch panel, but all good. Guess that’s why I spent so much time cutting the new large oval holes for the rubber accordion grommets. Next step for the doors is to tint the remaining 3 windows so I can install the glass, and also route the rear speaker wires into the rear doors.

I need to decide what radio I’m going to put in. Found 2 of the high-mount late 240 radios that have the separate amp. Looks like they have a removable surround so could potentially use one of those in the lower position using the DIN faceplate. Also found an earlier-style original low-mount unit, but I need to decipher the wiring. The radio has knob adjustment for fade and balance, but only appears to have output for 2 speakers. It does have some sort of funky additional wire connector that looks similar to the later-style one that goes to the amp, but different size pins? Will run that past Craig Rasmussen in SA as he does the Bluetooth upgrade to the early radios so I’m sure he’ll know what to do.

Also got the foil/butyl patch stuck down on the driver’s floor. I forgot I wanted to install the driver’s left footrest (from a Commodore or Falcon - I can’t recall - but have that in my other 240 and it’s great).

Time to get back at it!

carnut222

Thanks to Craig Rasmussen, the radio is good to go (wiring-wise anyway - I haven’t tested it yet!) I missed the round plug on the back of the unit when I was trying to figure the wiring. The additional lead is for an external graphic equaliser. Long story short, it’s all plug and play into the 93 wiring harness. Summary: I’ll be using the early low-mount CR4220 unit with the late 4-channel amp, with speaker in each door. Should be great “period” sound (i.e. terrible!) Just need to find a convenient mounting point for the amp as on the later cars with the upper radio position, the amp is mounted on the back of a shallow storage cubby in the low-mount radio position.

carnut222

Couple updates to follow. Applied additional layer of butyl sound deadener on the rear load floor base, and also a layer on the inside of the RH quarter panel behind the wheel (LH side had it from the factory). Also put a bit on the sides of the rear wheel arches as it seemed to drum when I tapped it. The upper curved bit is stiff due to the shape so probably doesn’t need any. Topped off the rear floor with a foam mat with mass damping on top (leftover bit from a rear footwell), then a layer of absorbent cotton mat, then custom-cut carpet (both from the 93 sedan boot).

carnut222

Also been working on the wiring for the overdrive. Converting from auto to manual so needed to swap to the manual relay. Found a correct relay plug in my spare bits (probably from the 740T I wrecked?) since the manual OD relay has additional terminals. Got it all wired up and tested. I was struggling a bit to come up with the best way to route the wires from inside to the transmission. The new foam bit around the gear lever had a small hole for wires to pass through, but I wanted to be able to have plugs both above the floor and below the floor to enable the foam bit to either stay with the body or the transmission when installing and removing the transmission. I struggled to find the correct wire colours with the correct end terminals. The mess of wires on the floor is leftover bits that I had brought over from my storage shed...in the storage shed I have 4 large plastic tubs of wire harnesses that I keep going over and raiding...anyway, the result is OK...and no chance to accidentally hook up the wires incorrectly as all the connectors are plug and play and/or have same wire colours. Haven’t tested the reverse switch or 4th gear switch in the trans top cover, but will do that before installing engine and trans (if I remember!) OD relay mounted on side of centre console and ready to go. I think I’m about ready for carpet. I’ve also been trying to tidy up the wiring under the dash before I install all the ductwork. Coming along OK. I’m probably going to hook everything up and test before I install the dash as it’s much easier to access the wiring for any issues while the dash is removed. Last bits of wiring to do are the tailgate and the tail lamps...oh, and I still need to join/route the wires for the cruise control, oil pressure and outside temp gauges and vacuum lines through the grommet in the dash panel.

carnut222

Sometimes the the simplest things take the longest time to get right! The wiring harness (sedan LH2.4 install in 79 245) has been a real challenge. I try to do it right. Things like installing the later-style dome light switch for the tailgate rather than the early-style push-in one that is notorious for having a poor earth to the body...well, not so easy as the aluminium scuff plate has to have the notch widened for the new-style switch. Done. Then fiddling with the rear wiper and tailgate wiring to integrate that into the sedan harness. I ran a separate harness from the wiper stalk and wiper relay back to the tailgate and rear washer pump, but had to intercept the rear defog wire from the sedan harness where it exited to go to the sedan parcel shelf...and sedan wires for the boot central lock motor had to be extended to reach to the RH side tailgate hinge harness. Installing the later-style dome lights with have a separate earth, so had to extend the sedan boot light earth to reach the rear dome light...the list goes on! I’m now finished with the tailgate wiring and have connected it at the hinges and reinstalled the headlining. Just have the tail lamps to go. I’ve removed the tail lamp lenses and housings to clean everything up and check the globes. Will have to splice the sedan wires into the wagon harness as obviously the end fittings on the sedan are totally different than the wagon. Coffee time! :)

Anyone had a go at polishing the aluminium scuff plate? I’m wondering what the best option is to tidy it up. I couldn’t use the nicer one I got from a later car as the design of the load floor changed when the small triangular filler plates were deleted...so the later one won’t fit.

Ex850R

Car paint cut will polish it. Toothpaste even.

I've got a little machine for electro polishing stainless and aluminium , must try it on ally!

carnut222

Got the wire codes matched up for the tail lamps now, but needed to do a bit of rust treatment on a spot below the LH side tail lamp. Looks like maybe the tail lamp gasket leaked causing a bit of water to come in on the sealer putty, small water trap so a bit of surface rust and a small perforation on the inner reinforcement panel.

Tail lamps out and will clean up and cut/polish around before reinstalling them.

Also had to enlarge one hole (circled in green - which was existing child lock lever hole) and drill a new hole (circled in red) to enable fitting the new-style tailgate latch with lateral rubber wedge blocks on the sill striker plate, and internal reinforcement for the latch. Still haven’t decided what to do about the lock cylinder - have removed the old one and need to compare and see if it can be modified to allow the remote lock actuator to be used. Otherwise I’ll enlarge and shape the lock cylinder hole to accept the new-style lock cylinder. I did discover the black outside handle will fit with no mods, so decided I’ll probably use that since the chrome one has a tab broken on the lock bar retaining cam. Getting there, but fiddly work! :)

Ex850R

Geez , if you add up all the hours it's gonna cost me more than $50 ey....

Love yerwerk

carnut222

Another fiddly job today...used the Dremel with a small cut-off wheel to remove the tailgate lock cylinder tubular sleeve. Best I can tell is it was projection-welded to the back side of the outer panel. A set-screw through the side of the sleeve is what held the lock cylinder in position. After removing the sleeve, I was able to use files to enlarge the hole and shape it appropriately for the new-style lock cylinder. This was necessary to accomodate the central locking motor. You can also see a bit of the new-style black tailgate handle. I swear I have a 2nd black handle that had better gaskets on it, but do you think I could find it? Bugger...this will have to do. I’m sure I put it right where it should be for use on this project...but it’s not in the “hinges and handles” bin or the “locks and latches” bin...WTF?

carnut222

Big time, small progress. Finally got the new lock cylinder, wiper motor & mechanism and central locking actuator installed. Made up a small rectangular reinforcing plate for the top wiper motor bracket mount as there was some stress cracking around one of the attachment holes in the inner panel. Also ordered a “245GLE” badge for the tailgate...since it will have all the bells and whistles! :) Just want to test the motor then the tailgate will be more or less completed. Need to paint the trim panel black when the weather warms up. Winter has arrived again in Daylesford!

Badge coming in the post. Will remove the “fuel injection” backing plate and just install the 245GLE badge where the original 240GL badge went.

Ex850R

I like your steady work. It's nice to have a shed and room to work.

We had a cold snap,big wind and hail storm!

Don't put away the woolen jumpsuit just yet......

Where is trim panel you speak of?

No chance of a big coonara to heat shed?

Burn animal poo in it? A jet heater you could make up yourself.

carnut222

Ex850R
I like your steady work. It's nice to have a shed and room to work.
We had a cold snap,big wind and hail storm!
Don't put away the woolen jumpsuit just yet......
Where is trim panel you speak of?
No chance of a big coonara to heat shed?
Burn animal poo in it? A jet heater you could make up yourself.

It’s not too cold in the shed as long as I leave the roller doors shut on cold days. No pic of the trim panel as I won’t install it until after I paint it - just the carpeted Masonite panel that attaches to the inside of the lower tailgate portion to hide all the giblets!

carnut222

More progress on wiring today. Got the cruise control wires connected where they pass into the passenger compartment. Got the auxiliary gauges (vacuum, outside temp, volts and oil pressure) wired up and tested the globes. Need to sort out some LED replacements as the aux gauges are super dim even when hooked straight to the battery. The globes themselves are bright but when inserted into the back of the gauge, with the blue filter inside the gauge, it becomes pretty dull.

Also tinted the remaining 3 door windows. I’m getting better as I go. Lesson 1 - have a helper to avoid having the tint curl back on itself when you peel off the backing. Lesson 2 - do it inside the house, not in the shed on a windy day with the roller door open. Lesson 3 - clean it, then clean it again. Lesson 4 - use heaps of soapy water solution on the glass and both sides of the tint when applying. I followed the above and got better on each one as I went. The final piece looks like it only has one tiny spec of dust in it. I have great respect for the guys who do this for a living! I’ll do the rear quarter windows when I pull them out to replace the gaskets. Not sure about the tailgate glass - I have a feeling it will be a bugger doing it with the defroster grids on the glass surface. Should have done it when I had the tailgate off to replace the hinges.

Will let the door glass dry for a while before I install it...rears are 15% VLT and fronts are 35% VLT. COFFEE TIME! :)

carnut222

OK, some good news and some bad news. SUNNY DAY! I got the rear side windows out. Left side zero rust. Yay! Right side, drain hole at rear corner must have been blocked and caused rust, which has previously been repaired...nice hole I poked through! F**K! So sad! Anyway, good news is it will all be hidden behind the seal and the black-out shadow line tape kit, so shouldn’t be too big of a deal to rectify with a bit of bog and liquid nails! ;)

Ex850R

Good work?

It is a Stunning day.

carnut222

Here’s a close-up of the drain hole at the rear of the wagon quarter window...I looked on my 91 which has the newer-style slotted gasket with no metal trim and it also has the drain holes, so something to look for if you’re pedantic to make sure they’re not blocked. The left one was easy to view with a mirror, but the RH side has a reinforcing plate and sits sort of above the body pressure relief vent assembly so a bit harder to sight. Interestingly they will drain straight onto the spare tyre or RH compartment behind the rear wheel...so don’t store anything there you want to keep dry! I assume only a small amount of water would get past the seal lip...

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