My Mk3 Zephyr
By Peter Doherty
Restoration Part One
My name is Peter Doherty,. I am a farmer near Outram,
Dunedin and I am a new member to Galeforce Zephyrs. I have always had a passion
for MK3 Zephyrs and at 16 yrs of age my first car I owned was a Mk3 which I had
for almost 10 years, with trouble free running during that time.
I have had many cars since, sticking to the Ford brand
and currently drive a Falcon XR8 and a Ford Ranger 4WD. I have always wanted
another MK3 and have been seriously searching for the last couple of years and
finally found what I was looking for, a car that was still in good original
condition, clean of rust, still registered on original plates and warranted.
The car has only done 98500 original miles and believe or not one lady owner
for the first 27 years of its life.
I new the car needed tiding and I was prepared to do
this as I preferred to tidy up this car than some that I looked at that were
either too far gone or had cheap make over’s that still required lots of work.
I cruised round in my new MK3 for a few months and
during that time I worked out what needed reconded on the old girl, although
everything seemed to work as it should and it sat nicely on the road. The
engine went well and still pulled up the hills thought not “quite” as good as
my XR8. However the engine was fuming and smoking, so I decided this is the
first job that needs done and I was hoping that a set of rings and bearings and
possibly valve guides would be all that was needed, but I was not that lucky.
The bore had 15th wear the crank and cam needed ground, though
luckily the head was in pretty good nick, so a few bucks involved. Due to the
problem we had sourcing quality pistons at a reasonable price my engine
reconditionor suggested we put new sleeves in the block and use the old pistons
which were in like new condition. He was much happier doing this than using
copy pistons that he has had trouble with in the past, this also worked out to
be a much cheaper option. At this stage the block is back together and I am
about to assemble the rest.
The interior of the car was in very good original
order with only the driver’s seat having some rips in the vinyl. I placed add
on trade me and I managed to obtain from a Zephyr fan in Auckland the original vinyl
required to repair the seat, which is now at the upholsterer being repaired.
The dash had the usual cracks and I tossed up whether to vinyl cover or send it
to Auckland and have it properly redone, not a cheep exercise. I decided for
the full redo of the dash as I’ll be looking at it for a long time and it would
annoy me if it didn’t look right. The carpets and the rubbers will also need
replacing
I thought while the engine was out it would be a good
time to paint the engine bay, then I thought that it was pointless doing the
engine bay on it’s own, I might as well go the whole hog and paint the lot
The body on the MK3 is in pretty good nick, no rust,
but a few small dints here and there and there are three shades of green paint.
The front passenger’s door had been replaced at sometime with a poor condition
second hand door, in amongst all the spares I got with the car there was a
replacement front passenger’s door, which was in perfect order. I striped all
the glass out of the car apart from rear and front screens, got the guys that
know what there doing to remove, though the back screen just about fell out as
the rubbers were well gone. At this stage the body is at my painter- panel
beater mates, progress not as fast as I would like but it will be worth the
wait. The car will be painted a metallic
green similar to colour in photo, yes I know I should keep it original but hey
I won’t be selling the car in the for see able future so might as well paint it
the colour I like the look of.
Well that’s all I can tell you at this stage and I
will keep you informed in part 2 of my story how the restoration and reassembly
is going.
Restoration Part Two
My panel beater painter friend (Mark) was looking
forward to working on my Zephyr over winter while his own business is generally
quiet, however one of the firms he works for decided to buy three helicopters
that needed repainted, so Mark’s quiet winter never happened. We did make
progress but slower than I hoped, as I found out we seemed to spend more time
going backwards than forwards, doors, boot and bonnet removed. The preparation
of the body took a lot longer than both of us thought. Once all the old paint
layers were stripped off there were a few more slight hidden problems and there
were a few more places that needed attention. Little rust in the tops of the
front guards to be removed, the rear right guard had been replaced at some time
and poorly attached, so this required attention. There were a lot more smaller
dints than I thought that had to be repaired and lots of cold winter days
preparing the car for painting, although for a car that was nearly as old as me
the body was in pretty good shape (“like mine”). I decided that because the
interior was finished in green, that I would stick to green as the exterior
colour. The colour I chose was a light metallic green called Zest, a BA Falcon
colour.
Mark painted the engine bay first, for two reasons,
one to make sure I was happy with the colour and two, enabled Alex(my mechanic
friend) and I to put the engine and running gear back into the car, while the
rest of the car was still being prepared for painting. The engine had been
fully reconditioned, including new liners, using the original pistons with new
rings and dudgeons, the crank shaft was ground with new bearings, the cam shaft
and followers ground. The head had valve guides done, plus valve grind and
rocker gear ground. Fly wheel machined, plus new clutch and pressure plate. I
had the radiator cleaned and rekitted brake and clutch cylinders. I had everything
ready to go for reassembly or the car.
All the bits that were stripped out or taken off the
car I cleaned polished and where necessary repainted, so that when it came time
to rebuild the car there were no hold ups. I purchased complete new rubbers for
doors and windows and managed to track down all clips for chrome etc that were
needed. The seats had been repaired and looked as good as new. The dashboard
had been recovered by Dashboard Restorations in Auckland and looked better than
new. The inside roof lining was in good order, but had the usual stains, so we
decided instead of replacing it, Mark sprayed on a white vinyl liquid that the
lining absorbs rather than a paint that only sticks to the outside. The vinyl
spray came up great and looks as if it is a new lining
Finally the car was ready for its first undercoat of paint
(forward progress at last) the undercoat was sanded again ready for top coats.
We trailered the car to where Mark could use a bake oven. The Zest paint went
on first then the clear coat over the top. I was rapt with the colour and also
the quality of workmanship that had gone into coming up with the final
product.(well worth the time and effort). Mark gave the paint a final cut and
polish and the car was mine again and
trailered back to my workshop to reassemble all those boxes of parts,
which I was pleased were well labelled and also I took lots of digital photos
before I pulled things apart which proved valuable when came to reassemble as
memory not that great several months down the track Avon from Smith Glass came
out and reinstalled the front and back windscreens for me, rather tricky job,
pleased I didn’t have a “crack” at that myself. Avon managed to get a new
laminated windscreen (yes new) with slight green tint for just over $200 which
was much better than putting the old wiper scratched one back in.
My goal was to have the car up and going by Christmas,
but with only a month to get it all back together, plus run my farm I knew I’d
be pushed for time.
All the engine and running gear was already back in
the car, so body and interior left to go. Firstly I worked on the outside,
putting all the chrome, grill, badges etc back on. The old fourteen by eight
inch Trident mags that were on the car came up like new with a good polish.
I then moved on to the job I hadn’t been looking
forward to, putting the doors back together, glass back in new rubbers etc.
These jobs though tricky went better than I thought. The new draft stop around
the door frames first then gluing the door rubbers on, pleased my son gave me
hand to do this as the extra pair of hands made it easier. New window channel
and door glass back in.
Once I finished putting the doors back together I
moved to the interior, new carpets then the seats back in and the new dash top.
Finally the car was starting to look close to the
finished product. My boys talked me into upgrading the sound system and they
bought me for Christmas the latest Sony CD MP3 player, but I drew the line when
they wanted to fill the boot up with a big sub woofers (“Ya gotta have the
beats dad”).
Now it was time to fire the engine up, Alex my mate
came over to help me with this job and we set the engine up as best we could
without it running so that it would hopefully fire into life. Firstly I wanted
to get oil pressure up before starting the engine. The motor after reconditioning
was very tight and even with the plugs out the starter was working overtime to
turn the engine over and no sign of any oil pressure on the gauge. We decided
to tow it in third gear a short distance, but still no oil pressure. Advice was
needed and Graeme who reconditioned the engine lent me a pressure bleeder,
which used compressed air to pump the oil into the motor through the centre
unit hole which primes the oil pump plus circulates oil around the engine.
After doing this we wound the motor over and oil pressure came up straight
away. We put the plugs back in and on the second turn of the key she fired into
life. After checking for leaks etc and slight timing adjustment we ran the
motor for 25 mins at about 1/3 revs.
The first test drive went well, slight clutch
adjustment needed, but I had a smile from ear to ear. Since having her back on
the road I have struck no problems and living out in the country on winding
country roads, proved excellent for running the new engine in.
My partner and I went on our first long trip in the
weekend down to Invercargill near the bottom of the South Island. The car went
sweet, with no problems and the fourteen inch wheels gears it up nicely so that
it cruised effortlessly along at 60 mph. The engine has a real purr to it
through the free flows and coby exhausts.
Down south Z cars are still very famous and we had
plenty of positive comments from the locals on how well my MK3 looked and
sounded. Several guys came over and talked about the days when they had their
own MK3’s and what they use to get up to, doing the laps of Gore’s main street
and one guy said he spent more time in the back seat of his MK3 than the front
seat(well we won’t go there!!!!)
I would like to thank all the family and friends who
helped me out with this project and how would we get on without the internet
these days.
Well not sure what I’m going to do next as this car is
about 95% complete to where I would like it, I might have to find a sister MK3
to do up, but for the moment I’m enjoying driving around in this one and my
Falcon XR8 has only been out of the garage once in the last three weeks