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" love to install 308 strocked to 327 or 350

Nice to see you keeping these beauties on the road. Couldn't afford a GTR XU1 in the late 70's but got a '73 two door LJ in turnpike orange with a 4 speed manual, a "hot dog" exhaust and twin Strombergs for $3,000 at the time. Raised the back, added chrome rims with wide tyres on the back and smaller on the front, added a spoiler and lived the dream. Great memories and should have held on to it. If Powerball ever gets up I'll be knocking on your door. All the best with your projects mate.

nice work 💪👍

Absolutely stunning Damian! 🥇

❤

Hi Mate. Beautiful restoration. I’ve got a ssv in the same colour and looking to get a respray and was wondering who did the work for you on the gts ? And more importantly, were you happy with their work ? I’ve always been worried about getting the colour matched. Cheers, Rick.

Certainly want both lol. Personally I'd take the restored over unrestored .HOWEVER in my mind the unrestored is more valuable sentimentaly and I'd like to use such a iconic vehicle so the restored ultimately is a win for me

Great find there. I love the LJ. Could you give me the paint code please as I am building a DDA LJ GTR XU1 model and I would love to paint it the correct purple.

Headlining has the wrong size listing on it. Looks like a 50 mm fold instead of a 40 mm fold as per factory. Did you seal off the rear section between the rear and side window?

Unrestored one every day, no fake epoxy paint etc.

Love them. Whilst only a standard car, my brother purchased a brand new metallic pink 4 door 2850 with a 4 speed from the little Quorn dealership back in the day. He was a country teacher at Hawker for many years. Unfortunately it was written off one night travelling back from a “staff meeting” at Craddock pub. I used to wash it for him whenever he came home on holidays and I fitted the GTR caps and nuts off a family friend’s LC that was also written off.

Love your work man and these cars ❤

excellent work ----never had any luck with lightweight flywheels myself ---stock weight was best

I miss sitting behind that off-centred wheel.

Stunning cars, great work 😊

That fuel tank looks great- are reproductions available? Normally they got dented and knocked around.

That was awesome, didn't know you were local. Cheers.

Great job Looks amazing

Good job Damo. 👍

Beautiful job 👍🏾 I’ll keep an eye out for that one.

Its great to see a person that cares so much about details u are doing a great job thanks for sharing it

What a beauty and very good work 👍👍👍

Looking good, love the colour!😊

To restore or to maintain ~ I owned a LC XU-1 ~ Very late production ~ in fact one of the last LC. ( I always intended but never got to contact GMH and talk exact details ~ No pooters then eh.) I luved the car ~ would have kept the car BUT ~ I think that restoration of body and paint is truly the big issue ~ and this is where mine failed despite regular "fish oiling" of the body" in a seaside environment! I modified the be jeez out of it but endeavoured to maintains stock appearance ~ It was that same similar colour you showed at the end of your vid. Purple/ black. Was that a stock colour? I assume it was custom as I bought it from a panel beater in Canberra ! That lead to some serious issues as the paint deteriorated after 3 years ?! I had to have the front rotors machined every six months! As they would warp. Only after I replaced the stock rims & fitted ‘Bathurst’ mags did this cease! I partially “restored” the car ~ had the engine rebuilt at approx 50K miles. Took it out to 190 and a modified ‘Superflow’ head. Stock carbies rebuilt. Fitted a 4 core radiator. Stock 3.08 diff. We rebuilt the gearbox ( but it then jumped out of second gear violently. We replaced the second gear cluster.) I fitted full harness and a Hopkirk seat ~ Modified wiring and lighting significantly ~ Race Torsion bars front and rear. Plus an electric cooling fan ~ I drove the car the way it was designed and at top speed the whole car Hummed ~ I NEVER took risks ~ I NEVER put others at risk ~ I was NEVER fined ~ (one speeding fine in 1972 in my 186S HR touring pack) ~ I NEVER had an accident ~ The tail shaft internal packing came adrift and it was rebuilt and the packing removed. (Despite this rebuild the front uni exploded on me several years later but miraculously it held together as I was at full throttle at the time ~ “Just blowing out the cobwebs.” Someone up there was looking after me!) But it fractured the main front drive bearing in the gearbox + broke the bell housing ~ could not find an original housing ~ Took months to sort the car ! Finally rust set in on the base of the windscreen left and right ~ I talked to local panel beater and he simply said it was structural and get rid of the car not worth it ~ (OMG isn’t hindsight amazing ~) I sold the car for ~ wait for it ~ $1500 ~ ( I later friended a bloke and his wife in Sydney when I got back into motorcycles and he too sold his LJ XU-1 for the same price with the exact same issue ~ NOW I know differently ~ ) So does one restore or maintain~ guess I for one did the later ~ but regret EVER parting with the car ~ Would love to know what happened to it ~ it did go back to Canberra approx 1986 ~ It was painted SILVER then ~ sacrilege !

Being tubbed, it ain't really gonna look stock...

Unrestored cars is worth a lot more money than I restored car. 💯💰

brilliant salvage job

Leave it for sure. For me most resto paint jobs are just way way better then factory and takeaway from the car, you have done a nice job on that one man.

You didn't seal the doors to stop moisture warping your door trims

I’ll have a low mileage unrestored one any day of the week. You can never restore them like factory using todays reproduction parts. Even the reproduction vinyl is crap Actually ck XU1’s raced the XY’s not the XW’s

Colour looks cool to me, the colour would be the last thing I would be concerned about.

I restored a HQ sedan about 35 years ago and painted it the same colors as your Torana. lol

Horrible color , does nothing for the legendary xu1 🤪🤪🤪

too much talking for me and not enough time lapse ...

Both beautiful!Unrestored when that well preserved!

My only spit with these Torana's was the LC & LJ was that the front left/right fenders & nose were bloody spot welded & lead filled to hide the seams. An absolute nightmare to replace if you had the misfortune of a front-end collision. Many if not all of the early model Holdens had bolt on panels. On a more positive note, your skill set is phenomenal. Craftsmanship, attention to detail all top notch, A1 Superb. Automotive art at its best.

What a beautiful restoration/rebuild on the LJ . I appreciate the effort that you guys put in to getting these old girls back on the road. A very professional finish 👍🏾🇦🇺

'70 LC gtr, my first car. paid $1300 for it second hand in 1978, 2 months b4 my 16 birthday. I still have it today. far to many memories to ever part with it,

I'd take the unrestored any day, it's only original once. Both are very nice. My little brother has an LC with a twin turbo Maserati in it, at least it did, was even on the cover of Street Machine July/Aug 95, had a 327 back then.

So this for America 🇺🇸. Miss. International purchases. In miles.

Yes please 🙏

I love this kind of stuff.Been a Holden man since the day I got my license and still are to this day. Currently driving a Rodeo crew cab ( work vehicle) and have a VS Spack Ute for the weekend. Beautiful vehicles you have there 👍🏾🇦🇺

Brisbane is northern Australia?

They are both great!Here in NZ our salty humidity would ensure that most cars left in the garage for 37 years would be knackered.

Great video, I totally respect your patience and your professionalism

These were the favorite of the postcard bandit , he had a beige Torana S LC that he made into a LJ XU1 Tribute 192 red torquer head tripple webbers pulled wheelstands im talking maybe 2" painted red/orange like SS HQ all his mates from around Belmont WA had them early 80s motor was worked to the hilt

Most definitely leave it, most were modified by later owners back in the late 70s early 80s had a few mates who had them over the years and they all altered them none were bathurst though as far as we knew but that wouldnt have stopped them from putting bigger cams on them changing carbies extractors etc, so to have an original unmolested one to me makes it even more rare, and more useable as you dont have to treat it like its made of glass so much as you would a restored one after paying all that extra money, i think a collector would want the one thats untouched

0-100 time?

haha iam 18 agane 62year old ozzy

i dont know about unrestored spot welded front end. all the fronts of these cars have hidden issues and you car see it when the front panels come off as it has been more than 50 years and holden had no paint under alot of places.