18 replies to this topic

[El_Freddo]

This is Sunnie the Brumby, my mother inlaw's daily ride. Back when she was running a very thirsty Ford Fairmont Ghia that had a blown HG we were looking into new cars for her and I talked her into a Brumby.

It took us 6 months to find this one. In hindsight we offered the dude too much but that's where the market was back then.

She then spent some time with an old school friend for him to sort out the rust under the windscreen, in the front of each door and the sill panel below the windscreen rust (water + gravity!).

Here's Sunnie with a second set of doors while the originals were being repaired:



Quite a bit of work went into Sunnie the Brumby while she was in the shed:







Door being treated:









Rims copped some paint too (looked 1000% better after the spray job!)



Almost all back together:



The finished product:



After passing rego it was time to start adding things to it from the wish list. First was the better looking 6 gauge sports dash found in some older touring wagons, sedans and coupes:



This is a stock Brumby instrument cluster with a small, one foot wide dash board where it mounts.
After a bit of this:



We ended up with this awesome result:



I also fitted AC while the dash board was out much easier to get the wiring in place and add the Evaporator into the air ducting system at this time.

Fast forward a year or two and I finally got a new floor covering sorted:



It looks heaps better with a floor covering! The centre console is out of a touring wagon too.

Electric windows were added. Later the windows copped some tint too.

Central locking was installed:



Still yet to make it remote central locking...

We added Power Steering while we had the engine out for a clutch replacement (xmas pressie):



Got a new front bar for Sunnie the Brumby:




So now it was time for some fun. Australia Week a few years back up on the Murray on Gunshot Island:



Fishing with the Brumby (this is what happens when you can't be bothered to get your deck chair):



Back in Benders:



Old photo of the two subi's together before R.Scoo grew up:



Cruise control was added (best thing ever!!):



Hanging out with a newly EA81 powered friend (EA81 being the engine type of the old MY's):



So that's the story of Sunnie the Brumby so far. She's rolled over the 350,000km mark in the last couple of months and is still going strong.



Cheers

Bennie

[Barbbachello]

Im so glad we have a brumby person on the forums now. Love how nuggety and 80s spec they are.

[Hypnotic]

What a mad build.

 

So much awesome.

[El_Freddo]

Im so glad we have a brumby person on the forums now. Love how nuggety and 80s spec they are.

I love how rugged they are, their simplicity and what can be done with them if you want.

There's another thread in the pipeline, just need to sort out an issue and find some time

Cheers

Bennie

[AB501UT!0N]

I love brumby's so much and my dad had too and I also wanted to do one up!

 

Thanks for sharing your story about the old girl mate and I hope she keeps on going for alot longer yet  

[El_Freddo]

Absolution, you're in the right place to pick up a brumby if you really want one!  Just be patient to pick one up for the right price in the right condition.

 

I reckon you'll be gob-smacked as to how simple they really are!

Cheers

Bennie

[Morgan]

Maaaaad

[El_Freddo]

Cheers mate!

Bennie

[Adam]

Awesome Stuff!!

[BG11XV]

amazing job mate i love these gems !!! top work !!!

[El_Freddo]

Thanks guys, still a lot of work to go really! The old girl would benefit from a respray but we can't afford the downtime or the respray

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Three weeks ago Sunnie the Brumby was in for some long overdue work - usual wear and tear items were replaced:

 

 

The front right bearing was making noise, this was the catalyst for the work. 

 

 

The front shafts were clicking, front discs had a lip and some interesting grooves.  

 

 

While “in there” I swapped out ball joints and tie rod ends as I can’t remember the last time these were done and I didn’t want to be pulling the front end apart again any time soon!

 

I went for sealed bearings and did the usual - wash out the factory packed grease, dried them then repacked with some fresh high temp bearing grease, then replaced only one seal:

 

 

The seal was orientated to the outside of the hub, spacer put in place and some extra grease added to avoid the grease exiting the bearing to the otherwise empty space between the bearings:

 

 

This little tool was totally awesome and I wish I’d got onto it years ago.  No more pliers for me - so easy that hand brake equipped calipers are no longer seen as a PITA to reset.  I did have to get a 3/8th adapter to use it with my half inch drive kit:

 

 

Put it all back together and it looks something like this:

 

 

And then repeat on the other side!

 

After this Sunnie copped a new set of front tyres and an alignment.  Then we did the pick-a-part circuit in melbs (oh - and found out one of the new shafts was clicky right out the driveway after it was installed!).

 

Since there was a 50% off gearbox week at PAP I decided I’d grab an L 5spd for Sunnie, and I knew that in Campbellfield there was the perfect candidate that I saw the weekend before.  I got there and the guys at the yard had removed and probably crushed it that day.  Spewing.

 

I grabbed another carb from a brumby at Centre road as Sunnie’s one has a lot of shaft play.  I did the swap once back at home with a minor clean out.  I should’ve thought about how to blow all the little ports and what not out with air as I just cleaned up what I could and went from there - only to have the car not run properly on the open road.

 

So I was forced to again strip the carb down, made up a little nozzle from a selly’s caulking gun tube with a car’s air valve to use with my little air compressor, then blew everything out that I could.  I even mustered up the courage to remove and clean the jets being very careful not to mix them up!  Playing with the carb really made me appreciate the EFI system, I'm such a convert from back in the old days!

 

Took it for another drive and it was the same if not worse - gave it a number of foot to floor runs where it would accelerate then proceed to die.  This told me the secondary was opening (wasn’t previously) but then it was being starved of fuel so no bang to make things go.

 

I turned around did a couple more then whoosh, we were off - and now we’ve only got a small idle issue to deal with as I’ve not tuned the auto choke.  Otherwise we’re pretty happy with the swap.  Now to check the change in fuel economy if any.

 

 

Cheers

 

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Now it's HG time. Only found out by chance when Mrs El Freddo said her mum was putting "a few litres" of water in the radiator to drive from her's to our's :/

So Mrs El Freddo drive her home while I cracked into the job. The back up plan was our scooter to get my mother inlaw arou d while I'm working on her car - only to find upon return to MIL's that it's been stolen

11am mustered up the courage to work in the crisp cold weather outside. Copped some rain in the process. 6pm the engine is a short block ready for some cleaning and further assessment of the shape of the heads.

Now to order new parts and hope they all arrive during the week to go back together this weekend.

I'm also keen for a 5 speed L series box - trying to find one hasn't been straight forward. Now is a great time to do the work as the engine is out and we need to do something with the clutch as the old one is at the point that we replace it now to save pulling it out again in 6 months to a year... There was an L series in ballarat up for grabs for nix, but the dude wanted the whole thing gone and I can't have a wreck out the front of my place

Pap and Jolly's are not turning up anything that's useful for this little project either

We'll get there one day with an L series 5 speed box! One day.

Pics to come. Probably next weekend or early next week.

Cheers

Bennie

[NQRSoobee]

The Brumby looks a treat.  gl with the rebuild, hopefully some of the plans will come together.

 

DANG!  To read that your rides been stolen.  Gutted!  Put all the work into something only to have some low life cut it short.  DANG!  Hopefully it will be located without... issues.

[El_Freddo]

Thanks NQRS. Luckily for us the scooter was located and has since been returned minus it's plates. After playing around with it for a bit it's now running again WIN! Very lucky!

On the Brumby front - last week gave me nothing in free time to fully clean up the heads. Having a look yesterday I reckon it'll be best to have the heads shaved as I'm suss about the area where the HG was leaking. It probably is flat but to be sure I'll send them in.

Some parts haven't arrived yet, and I'm yet to order some from my local parts place too. Next weekend I'm pretty sure we're away so there's no time to work on it then either :/

It'll come together though!

Cheers

Bennie

[El_Freddo]

Well the head gasket work is slowly coming along.  Work got in the way big time on this.  Very frustrating.

 

Heads off "closed deck goodness"

 

 

Crusty sump gasket:

 

 

Thank goodness the sump practically fell off, I thought it was going to put up a fight.  The gasket put up a good fight from the sump - probably being the original sump, it was basically welded on.

 

So I've done little bits here and there when I could.  Probably the biggest time saver I've had was cleaning up all the bits.

 

I wanted to replace the valve stem seals - ordered a valve stem seal kit and only got 4 valves, thinking this was wrong I went back to my parts joint.  Got another set.

 

I pulled the valves off the head only to find that the EA81 does not run an exhaust valve stem seal.  Ancient!

 

I ended up doing a valve regrind - glad I did, this is what they looked like before I started:

 

 

This is what they looked like after:

 

 

That should seal up good and proper in comparison now.  It'll be interesting to see how it runs now power/economy wise.

 

Tonight I got the heads on, tomorrow I'll double check the torque of the head bolts then fit the intake manifold etc.  All going well I hope to do a run in the car late tomorrow - weather pending.  I don't have a pic of the heads on yet, I'll get one tomorrow before I do the valve clearance settings and fitting the intake manifold.

 

Cheers

 

Bennie

[Barbbachello]

EA81 for next power build cos CDB lel. Are those factory head studs??

[El_Freddo]

EA81 for next power build cos CDB lel. Are those factory head studs??

 

Closed deck block - factory

 

Head studs - factory

 

Power output - maybe 50kw - factory

 

Rip a Bennie, skid.

 

In a paddock no worries (4wd skid goodness).  On the road it's nothing but traction action

 

All done and dusted last week.  Sunnie the Brumby is running very well and seems to have a bit more poke - most likely due to the valve grinding work that was completed.

 

Now to sort out a CV joint and things would be sweet - then onto the 5 speed conversion...

 

Cheers

Bennie