G'day all, I'm from the land down under and recently I purchased the abovementioned car. It's just an old V8 model and not something exotic. Naturally enough it is in rough shape but apparently the motor runs or was started briefly a few years ago according to the previous owner. I have been told it was one of six that were imported to Australia.
I'd like to preserve much of it for the next owner and as a result I have no intention of chopping it down. I don't want to restore it though but rather I intend to keep all the bits and pieces plus spares for someone who may want to bring it back to original form. In other words, this old beastie deserves respect.
I do want to upgrade brakes, suspension, motor and trans and rear end plus rust repair and paint to get a highway cruiser. As my son says, it's a full on gangster car and even rough it just looks so cool so I want to see it roll down the highway.
I'd love to get a bunch of questions, comments,sugges(//)tions or even demands that I do the right thing!
My brother and I recently got running my 1940 LaSalle hearse. It was seized, so needed a motor teardown and reassembly with cylinder honing and not much else. The old motor makes a good bit of power, but cooling is still an issue. The three speed transmission is just fine. Needed new wiring, so we went with a 12V system.
I think it's worth spending a bit of time to make it into a working stock style car, to enjoy that form of it. You can always decide later to replace the drive train with newer things.