'66 Town & Country in NZ

Kiwirover

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Auckland, New Zealand
Hi folks, thought it was about time I did something on here instead of just staring at it every day. I bought my '66 T&C off a forum member (Hi Chris!) a couple of years ago and shipped it out to New Zealand. Then proceeded to take a very long time to get it road legal. But it's on the road now! So time for a but of a project thread.
The old girl arrived in November 2016 on a flatbed in the middle of a torrential downpour, probably more rain than this car had seen in years. That quickly showed that she wasn't at all watertight so it was a rush to get her undercover at work. Chris was kind enough to include a pair of standard rear springs which were promptly rebushed and swapped. I wasn't too keen on the jacked up rear look. I also rebuilt the rear brakes at the same time as the axle seals had leaked all over them.
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Front brakes and suspension seemed fine so I left them alone. Bit of cleaning revealed a small leak in the bottom of the gas tank so I removed it (not easy) and had it cleaned and repaired. Also found the steering rag joint was on it's last legs so I replaced it with a Range Rover one. Also did the usual tune up job on the engine- plugs, leads, filters, belts etc. I didn't trust the ancient pair of gauges slung under the dash so i replaced them with a set of Moon ones. Also replaced the fuse box with a modern blade type and fitted new flasher units.
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The headlights were replaced with halogens and a modern harness with relays. (had to change the lights as they dipped the wrong way) The new gauges revealed a few issues;1. the alternator was overcharging. I fiddled with the old regulator with no luck, then bought a new electronic adjustable one. Which apparently doesn't work with the old single field alternator... So I picked up an old Mazda alternator that was lying around and threw that on. 2. The oil pressure wasn't great and on occasion if I braked or accelerated hard the oil pressure would drop to zero for a few seconds. Then one day, when I was moving the car from work to home the oil pressure disappeared for about 30 seconds. I took it straight home and pulled the sumo off. Found some remnants of a big end shell lodged in the pickup screen but no sign of it being current damage. So I cleaned the screen, knocked the dent out of the sump and welded some basic baffles in, then fitted a high volume oil pump. Seems to have fixed it. I also replaced the fuel pump, fitted an electronic dizzy and an Edelbrock 600cfm to cure a persistent flat spot.
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Also cleaned and painted the obvious bits of the motor and replaced the coil after this pic was taken.
 
I'm more into restoration but good job on getting the old girl road worthy. Since you've gone this far, I'd recommend you change the single reservoir master cylinder with a dual reservoir one. That's an exciting ride when you loose brakes completely. Not something I'd recommend :steering:.
 
Great to hear your driving her. That's what I did. I bought this car from the well known Imperial guy Johnny Rosen. I drove it pretty much everyday for a year. Good luck with it and hope you get many more happy miles of driving.
 
Nice ride, in a far out land! Drop us some more pics!
 
Nice wagon - do those handles on the rear mean it's a 3-seater? Lots to like about white w/red interior........ ENJOY - and keep us posted on its progress......
 
Yes, brake system upgrade is on the cards at some point. Master cylinder is easy, can you buy the appropriate distribution block anywhere?
She's only a 6 passenger. I think the grab handles were added later as they aren't mentioned on the broadcast sheet.
Would love to hear stories about Johnny, they were alluded to in Chris' original thread but no details.
 
Bodywork came next. There was very little rust in the car, only 3 spots required attention: Trunk floor, spare wheel well and RR quarter panel. After a year of waiting for my panelbeater to have space in his shop I finally decided to just do it myself. My welding isn't the prettiest but I did a decent job of fabricating new panels.
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Sadly the massive tow hitch on the car had to come off as you aren't allowed anything welded to the structure without certification. That was a hell of a mission to remove! I also had to remove the chrome trim from the roof. The trim is clipped on over a steel channel which is screwed to the roof but this channel was rusting away to nothing and in serious danger of infecting the roof panel itself. It'll go back on once I figure out a non-invasive way of attaching it. Also, while I was waiting for some parts to arrive I decided to strip the beige front panels. They had been replaced some years prior due to a minor prang but they had about 47 coats of paint on them and plenty of filler and dents so the whole front end came off and I stripped it back to bare metal. My panel guy was happier to see a few panels by this point so I left it with him to straighten and paint them.
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A question kiwirover. When you do your brake conversion are you going Drum rear and Disc front. Many distribution blocks will work but they're different with drum-discs and disc front and rear. I'm assuming you're going drums-rear, discs front that's the easy way. Contact our resident wrecking yard supplier Murray Park in Tiffin, Ohio. USA Tell him to tag all 5 lines on the proportioning valve for you so you'll know which lines to plumb where ie: front and rear Master cylinder chambers. front left brake, front right brake, and rear line to the rear split connector. Piece-ah-cake, Jer
 
Not sure Jer. I have nothing against the drums really. It's got the HD 11x3" which are really pretty good and finding a donor disc setup in NZ is next to impossible which means shipping from the US at great expense. Back in my youth my brother had a rusty but cool '69 Newport with the same drums and they were astoundingly good. Later he bought a '71 New Yorker with discs and I didn't like them at all, found them grabby and unpredictable. So i'll likely stay with what's in it, it's just that everybody says i'll face certain death if I don't change that master cylinder...
 
Murray Park would be your Go to Guy for a Drum-Drum Master Cylinder too, and he ships all over the planet. Same request for the 5 line location on the Proportioning Valve Tho'. GL with it what ever you decide, Jer
 
Subtle! I like it!
Anyhoo, after almost 2 years of fruitless searching on Ebay for the missing Town & country badges off the rear guards, I found a pair in the space of a couple of weeks! Lucky.
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I'm subscribed, love all the wagons. I have a great deal of respect for anyone overseas working on American iron, especially anything like a C wagon.
 
Thanks guys. Yes, parts can be a challenge down here. Small things are easy enough to ship but it's not like I can pop down to the local wrecker and get another bumper...
So all that work meant the car was ready for compliance. Basically to register a car on NZ roads for the first time it has to go through a very thorough safety inspection where they check all the brakes, suspension, lights, tyres etc and also any kind of structural damage or rust. Or any signs hidden damage. It wasn't too bad. They failed it on a brake light problem (turned out to be a worn indicator switch. Replaced with new) Front brake imbalance, and engineers report required on my rust repairs.
The brakes were a mystery. Everything looked great, pulled up straight, but on the brake rollers they showed a 30% imbalance. After a couple of days fiddling with adjustments I ordered new shoes, cyls and hoses. I had just started taking them apart when I discovered the problem. Someone had fitted the leading shoes on one side and the trailing shoes on the other!
The repair cert was a pricier but simple issue. I just handed the car over to a local workshop that handled compliance repairs. They had their engineer look over it and check my welding. He had them clean up a few areas of surface rust under the car and re-weld the spare wheel well then treated it all with rust kill primer and fresh underseal. All for $1000. Happy me. And she went back for a recheck and registration. New plates!
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That meant I could start driving the car and enjoying. First task was to swap the wheels for a set of Magnum 500s I had managed to find.
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The whole time i'd had the car parked in various garages I had never gotten anything out of the original radio but static. But I was driving home from work on about the second day of legalness, stuck in traffic I started playing with knobs and the radio burst into life playing a bit of Chuck Berry! There isn't much on the AM band anymore there is one station that plays '50s to '70s music so that's been my highly appropriate soundtrack ever since.
I've done my best to seal the leaks. Managed to squeeze a bit of sealer into the corner of the windscreen which took care of most of that, Stuck a bit of draught excluder foam around the top of the door jambs and sealed the rear side glass rubbers with clear nail polish. Did anyone ever find a source for those side glass rubbers? And i emailed a company about door rubbers, they replied saying they could do them for a wagon so i emailed back asking for a price and never heard back from them. Any other potential suppliers out there?
In the mean time i've been driving the old girl to work every day and loving every minute. She looks a bit odd with a freshly painted front clip but in order to paint the rest I will have to take her off the road for a bit to do all the prep work (I'm quite slow) and i'm enjoying driving too much to do that yet. Here she is earning her keep at Xmas time.
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