Need 320 Help Please.

[Crashtd420]

Trish,

Give it a lot of thought. They're only original once. Something that can't go back original on such a rare machine might need to be given serious consideration. Just my humble opinion. I realize that some would disagree.

 

Steve

2nd that.... I'd even keep the paint as is if possible.... good possibility it's original.... may have been neglected but looks all there....

[Crashtd420]

Well I just realized your steering wheels are on the right.... must be Australia... and I guess holden isn't rare there... seems like Australias Chevy

Keep forgetting not everyone here is in the United States ...

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Trish,

  Give it a lot of thought. They're only original once. Something that can't go back original on such a rare machine might need to be given serious consideration. Just my humble opinion. I realize that some would disagree.

 

Steve

Normally I would agree, but that one looks a bit rough. If all the panels can be banged back into shape without any welding or body filler, then yes, I would definitely try to restore it mechanically and leave the body alone.

 

One other possible deciding factor, you're never going to find all the window rubber. 320's are hard enough to find rubber for, and then throw in the factor of that rear window. It is going to be challenging. You can't really re-paint a car or truck and reuse old rubber.

[Trish_72]

The thought of keeping the paint has been tossed around unfortunately some of the panels are way to banged up for that to be possible left rear especially. The right side of the truck is pretty straight except for under the door where it has been pushed right back in.

 The left side is real bad,( full of filler that needs to be ground out, one suggestion that was made was to cut and re-plate  that entire section but I have decided that I would rather a few scars on her than having her chopped up. 

 

Well I just realized your steering wheels are on the right.... must be Australia... and I guess holden isn't rare there... seems like Australias Chevy
Keep forgetting not everyone here is in the United States ...

Yeah the older Holdens aren't especially rare over here but finding one that is at least usable is getting harder and a lot more expensive, the problem is they made so many of them that when they died they were scrapped, at one point you could get one for about $500 registered and on the road where as now it can cost more than that just for a front panel that is banged up and needs a heap of hours work

[wayno]

If you could find a good donor NL320 panel you could likely fix that rear panel, but you could not replace the whole side as the U320 is around 6 inches longer in back of the fender well, but around the taillights it is the same I believe.

It's a tough route to restore something so rare, you have several/most of them over in Australia(12??), but most of them are like yours, in need of a parts truck, and those that do put them up for sale want a lot of money, there was a cheap one east of Brisbane, I seen it on Gumtree a while back.

Zeke lives in Canberra, I know he has one, he might have a second also, but he has not been active here since Sept 2013.

[Trish_72]

I placed a wanted ad on Gumtree and received a few replies unfortunately nothing of any benefit so far.

One reply I received was telling me about Zeke, but as I don't have facebook I am so far unable to contact him, I have asked that he be directed to my gumtree ad so hopefully I will be able to find him.

 

Heading to a swap meet on the weekend so will make a wanted ad for there as well you just never know what some old farmer has in the back of his shed. Have to follow up with a wrecking yard that I pointed towards yesterday. I'm still along way from needing my tail lights and back bumper so still have some time to continue the search.

[wayno]

Zeke http://community.ratsun.net/user/4634-zeke-aus-li/has not been active here for a long time, I believe someone on here said something about him customizing his U320 that made him mad and he deleted most of his posts in his thread.

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/25702-shanks-pony-u320-addiction/

The update on his U320 has more content.

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/50185-smaaaall-update-on-shanks-u320/

There is another U320 owner in Canberra also, it's been a while for him also(feb 2016).

http://community.ratsun.net/user/17875-63u320/

Here is another U320 owner, he is a little more active, but he is in Queensland.

http://community.ratsun.net/user/15087-watsuuuup/

Last I heard from Zeke he was in England working as a chef, that is a long ways from his project.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Hey Trish...get facebook. If it helps you get in touch with Zeke, it will be worth it.

 

And then delete the account if you don't like it.