Putting the pieces of the puzzle back together!

The next few days/weeks consisted of the putting the final touches on the body work. After what I originally thought was the final coat of paint...we started sanding again. I was a bit sceptical, not really understanding the concept of scratching the car more to make it look better. I didn't think it could get much better....but boy was I wrong. The finest sand paper and a good cutting compound were used to bring out the final gloss look. It now looks amazing. The little subtle touches were also touched up to be made to look a thousand times better - door handles, mirrors, wipers and just other little bits.

It's hard to tell but the car is actually really shiny!

So with the body work all done (minus putting the front bumper and head lights on), it was time to move on to the next part - reassembling the engine. With the bits and pieces I had lying around this was going to be interesting.

So we worked out what was needed and I set about trying to find parts. Mostly I didn't need to much, and the parts I needed weren't too hard to find (thankfully). So on one of my days off myself and Gren set out to pick up gaskets, oil seals for my distributor and a clutch. Autobarn was the first stop, then Nissan spare parts at Petrie (which didn't have my parts yet) then to Albion. At the recommendation of Glenn and Red I got my clutch from Direct Clutch Services (and after the help and assistance I got from Jerry, I would suggest them to anyone!). So after the 20 min wait for the clutch and the journey to the atm that only had $20 notes ($600 in 20's is extremely awkward!) we headed home.

The clutch plate, pressure plate and freshly machined flywheel!

The following days were then followed by piecing the engine back together...well not the engine, but the bits connected i.e. the inlet manifold brackets etc. Which didn't take quite as long as originally thought, so it was onto the gearbox side. Time to fix the original problem, the throw out bearing! With new bearing on and (hopefully) working smoothly, we re-assembled the flywheel and clutch assembly and then wriggled the gear box and transfer case onto the engine....makes it sound so easy.

The engine with all its bits!

So hopefully in the next couple of weeks the engine will be back in the car. I'm sure that that is going to have its fair share of dramas. I can't wait!!