AP6 Safari update

Well since my last post there has been a hell of a lot more time put into the Safari, special thanks to several people for their help in trying to get the car ready for Chopped, sadly at 10pm on the Thursday before Chopped it was decided the wagon would not be up to the task.

So Ian Cook finished off the exhaust and helped out with a few other odds and ends in the lead up before the car was dropped down to good mate Clive Polidano at Old Time Auto's where the front suspension was all checked over and reworked as the previous workshop had slapped it all together. Many more hours were spent by Clive sorting out a lot of little odds and ends along with making new brake lines and getting the car to a drivable standard.
In the meantime Rob Simons got to work making a good tailgate out of the three I had plus a repo skin.

Time was running out, the week before Chopped we had found an issue with the engine not firing on all 6 cylinders, the tailgate hadn't been finished, the front end needed aligning, we needed a roadworthy and registration, plus lots more little non critical stuff I wanted to do before Chopped. Priorities meant that getting the car running, booking a roadworthy and rego would at least get us to Chopped.
Tuesday night before Chopped the tailgate shell was returned and fitted to the car. Thankfully Rob's guys at Paintcraft had done a pretty good job with some minor hinge alignment the fit was pretty good. Next job was to fit all the mechanisms back inside the tailgate, once again Cookie dropped around to help nut out a few issues with the glass winding mechanism and it was all done. Thursday I had the car booked for a roadworthy first thing, thankfully it passed although on the drive there I noticed the engine still wasn't running awesome even after borrowing a new 600 Holley from Cookie's XM Falcon Coupe. After the roady it was back to Old Time Autos to try and do some further diagnosis where we discovered number 1 was the issue, we tried changing back from Electronic Ignition back to Points, but there was still loads of spark, took the rocker cover off and apart from a lot of condensation all the rocker gear seemed to be working OK. Compression testing revealled good pressure both hot and cold, pressure testing the radiator found no issues either. Gun Engine builder Jamie Bourke from Engine Action was called on and dropped around in no time to help nut it out. We figured it may have had too much moisture in it and a good run out the road may clear it out, after more than stretching it's legs no real change other than discovering when the engine was warm and you ease in the throttle it fires on all 6 cylinders. More changes and diagnosis revealled no fix. I took the car to the Vicroads office where it was issued with a new set of plates in the hope we could trace the issue. After a few more good drives out the road there as no change but it did seem drivable and likely not to do damage before we checked the radiator, all but dry.
So now it looks as though the engine will be pulled out to find what quirky issue lurks.....