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Custom Ute Restoration

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Turning 3 Wrecked Cars Into A Masterpiece

This is the story of how I converted a 1970's Holden Panel Van into a Holden Ute. "Ute" is short for Utility Vehicle and would most likely be known as a small truck to my American friends.

This was a project that I started in 1995 after I destroyed my Holden Panel Van in an accident. I completed the project at the end of 1996, so all up it took me 18 months to complete, $7000 and untold hours of labour! The project started out being a simple build which I had planned to take 3 months. But...as with all good things, I got carried away!

I had already bought another Holden Panel Van minus the roof to start the project with, then when I crashed mine, I had the motor and gearbox to to add to it along with some other parts. All I needed then was a Holden Ute that had a roof I could use. Luckily a friend came to my rescue after his dad's one was crashed into.

In The Beginning

The Three Pieces Of The Puzzle

This was my 1973 HQ Holden Panel Van that I bought as a 16 year old in January, 1990. It had the look of a 1975 HJ Holden though as it had HJ front panels. I restored this in 1993 but it was only quick two week strip, repair and paint job. Nothing was customised and the motor and interior were left as they were. It had a 253 cubic inch V8 engine in it with an automatic transmission.

This was my 1973 HQ Holden Panel Van that I bought as a 16 year old in January, 1990. It had the look of a 1975 HJ Holden though as it had HJ front panels. I restored this in 1993 but it was only quick two week strip, repair and paint job. Nothing was customised and the motor and interior were left as they were. It had a 253 cubic inch V8 engine in it with an automatic transmission.

This was my 1973 HQ Holden Panel Van that I bought as a 16 year old in January, 1990. It had the look of a 1975 HJ Holden though as it had HJ front panels. I restored this in 1993 but it was only quick two week strip, repair and paint job. Nothing was customised and the motor and interior were left as they were. It had a 253 cubic inch V8 engine in it with an automatic transmission.
In 1994 I upgraded the engine and gearbox to a 308 cubic inch V8 engine and a top loader manual gearbox out of a ford. This engine had been modified so it was louder and had a lot more power. That power got the best of me late one night when I was driving home after a few beers with friends. I spun off the road and into trees where the car kept spinning. I was lucky to get out alive.
This was a 1971 HQ Holden Ute that I bought for $500 for the roof and the Ute ID plates. This way I could pretend to the registration people that this was the car I had restored and not a Panel Van turned into a Ute which would have needed an engineers certificate. The previous owner had not long before bought two new doors for this car so I got them thrown in for my project as well. Bonus!
This was the HZ Holden Panel Van that I bought off a friend for $150. He had stripped the car and cut the Panel Van roof off in preparation for turning it into a Ute himself. Then he must have worked out that it was beyond his skills so he asked me if I wanted it. Holden Utes and Panel Vans shared the same lower body, which made the conversion a lot easier.
You can see here that it was cut straight through the windscreen pillars. And look at all that wiring. Spaghetti! I had hours of fun sorting that lot out.
It was just a basic rolling chassis with little else attached to it...not even a roof!

Need a repair manual for your project?

Mine was invaluable. Especially the wiring diagram page!

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In The Workshop

The body was pretty beat up, but nothing that I could not fix. The good thing was that it was in almost original condition so the rust that was in it was easy to spot. It had not been hidden previously so there were no nasty surprises once I stripped it back to bare metal.

The body was pretty beat up, but nothing that I could not fix. The good thing was that it was in almost original condition so the rust that was in it was easy to spot. It had not been hidden previously so there were no nasty surprises once I stripped it back to bare metal.

The body was pretty beat up, but nothing that I could not fix. The good thing was that it was in almost original condition so the rust that was in it was easy to spot. It had not been hidden previously so there were no nasty surprises once I stripped it back to bare metal.
Just after I had welded the new Ute roof on to the Panel Van's lower body.
As the lower part of the Ute Roof had some rust in it, I had to weld some patches in to put some strength back into the structure.
Some of the front panels I was still able to buy genuine and new at that stage. I doubt whether they would still be available today. Other parts I was able to buy second hand in good condition such as the guards.
I paint stripped the whole body back to bare metal to make sure that I got all of the rust welded and repaired properly and that no issues would pop through the paintwork later on.
Panel Vans do not have this panel behind the seat to separate the tray from the driving cabin as the Utes do, but luckily they were available after-market from a company called Rare Spares. It came as a three piece set up with the main panel and two corner gusset pieces.These all had to be welded in place. I also bought some of my weather seals for the doors and rear windscreen from them.
Another shot of the car in the near empty workshop. I was incredibly lucky to have a boss who not only let me store the car at work for around 18 months, but he also let me work on it after hours and never charged me for electricity or most of the materials that I used.
I could only get the body resonably straight without body filler. A lot of people freak out about plastic body filler being used in their cars, but it is perfectly fine if it is not used to thick and the metal underneath is clean beforehand.
Most of the firewall in the engine bay was sand blasted to remove any flaky paint and surface rust prior to painting. The Brake Booster was also sand blasted and painted.
The end result of the firewall. It was painted the same colour as the exterior of the car was going to be and the heater unit and brake booster were painted gloss black. By this stage the rest of the body had been repaired and was in the undercoat/primer stage.

DIY or Pay Someone?

Would you have the patience to take on a project like this?

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Yes I would love to get into restoring a car myself.

jksterling says:

Patience yes, time and space no.

WerewolfCustoms says:

Since I'm a car & tool freak - I say DIY! :)

No, it does not interest me. I would rather pay someone to do it.

 
Even the engine got a makeover. These 308 V8's were originally red in colour.

Even the engine got a makeover. These 308 V8's were originally red in colour.

Even the engine got a makeover. These 308 V8's were originally red in colour.
It was good to get the engine sitting in place as it felt like I was finally getting somewhere. The more parts that went on and stayed on, the more it seemed like a real car.
The front panel and headlights went in at this stage so that I could finish wiring up the engine bay.
I completely rerouted the wiring throughout the engine bay, hiding it inside or along the side of the chassis rails down low. Whilst it was not totally out of sight, it was a lot neater than the factory wiring in the end.
I had to modify the transmission tunnel in the floor to accommodate the Ford gearbox and the quick shifter. I had to also cut a section out of the cross member under the floor and brace it by welding pieces into it in a new shape. As well as that, the gear linkages from the transmission to the shifter were off a completely different car and I had to continually keep modifying them bit by bit with trial and error as I drove the car.
This photo shows the newly installed exhaust headers as well as the lowered Pedders suspension springs.
Having a hoist at work for this project was invaluable. Note the holes in the rear quarter panels for the turn signals. It was a last minute decision to weld these up as I had decided to go for a cleaner look in these panels.
You can see in this photo the spot where I blocked up the holes. There were also a few other little dings and scrapes from the car sitting around so long. So I repaired them and blocked the whole car down again before giving it another coat of primer/undercoat.
I decided to tint the final coat of undercoat with some of the car colour. This way if there were ever any stone chips in the paint, they would not be as visible. This photo was taken after I had wet rubbed it all down with fine sandpaper ready for the paint.
The first photo of the Ute with it's final paint. I painted all the interior parts of the panels as well as all the undercoats stages, but I did not paint the exterior. I am trained as a Panel Beater, not a Spray Painter, so I had a qualified Spray Painter that I worked with do it for me. The colour was a custom one that I made myself using only three tinters. Green Blue, Blue Green and Strong While. It then had a blue pearl laid over it before the clear coat.
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The End Result

Putting it all back together. Nearly finished.

Putting it all back together. Nearly finished.

Putting it all back together. Nearly finished.
The shine outside was awesome.
The shine continued under the bonnet in the engine bay.
I liked the look of it without all the wiring running across the top of the inner guards. Having them colour coded instead of the factory black made a big difference as well.
All finished and on the road! I do not really like this photo though as the car is missing a side mirror in it. Most people do not notice but I do every time I see it. I scratched it after the car was on the road so I had taken it off to fix it when this photo was taken.
The car almost blends into the colour of the summer sky and the ocean in the background!
I feel pride whenever I see these photos of the completed car as it was such a huge project and many people thought I would never get it done. When I took the roofless Panel Van out of my driveway to take it into work, my neighbour thought I was taking it to the dump. He did not believe that I was intending on repairing it!
I submitted these photos of the car to Australia's largest custom car magazine. I got a call from the editor a few months later saying that they wanted to send a professional photographer around to do an article on the car. I had sold the car by then though so I forwarded the new owners details to him. I heard through the grapevine a year or so later that it did end up in a magazine, but I never saw the article.
When I started the project, I had planned on keeping the car indefinitely. But not long after I finished, I sold the car as I wanted to move interstate and planned to buy a house in the not too distant future if I liked living there. I sold it for $12,000 which gave me a profit of $5,000 for all my work. My labour costs were much more than that though of course, but I did not keep track of the hours I spent on it as I did not build it to make a profit. I did it for the love of it and the sense of self satisfaction.

Classic Holden TV Ads From The 70's

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The Interior was one of the few things that I did not do myself.  

Some Background Information on The Car

Holden Kingswood
This is a Wikipedia article all about this type of car.
The Holden Panel Van
This is a great article which tells the story of the Holden Panel Van
The Ute - Classic Holden Cars
When the first HOLDEN UTE was built it was designed for the man on the land and as a small delivery vehicle. Little did GMH know that this design and usage would change over the years to be an Australian favourite.
Van Council of Victoria - VanNats 2001
There are some amazing Panel Vans here.
Holden Ute - Holden.com.au
This is the latest Holden Ute. It has certainly evolved over the years!

Being In The Trade Saved Me Thousands

I was able to do this project cheaply not only because I had the skills to do a lot of it myself, but also because I was able to get trade price or barter for parts and services. The Exhaust system was fitted at cost price, the interior I had done for nothing as the Motor Trimmer required parts that I had. The tyres and wheels were at trade price. The paint job was a direct labour swap. The bucket seats I got for free after I did some work for a mechanic. I also sold all the leftover parts. :-)

Have you restored any cars before?

What do think of my project?

  • jksterling Dec 20, 2011 @ 3:58 pm | delete
    We restored a '60 Impala some years ago. This is a great story thanks for sharing.
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About RawBill

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RawBill

Hello world. I am 39 years old and married with two children from the Gold Coast in Australia. I am interested in Personal Development, Healthy Raw Ve... more »

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