HQ LS Monaro restoration.

12/10/2025

Stripping back the inner guards today. Chemical paint stripper made life a bit easier. Next week I'll wire brush it all back to bare metal and remove surface rust before treating the metal then getting it into epoxy.

21/09/2025

Back into it. Guard day

03/08/2025

Door day, all doors are now on and aligned. This door hanging jack really helped to get the doors on with minimal fuss. Still working on the wet and dry sand amd will paint the guards up soon.

29/05/2025

New door handles arrived today by Rare Spares. These will look the part on the freshly painted doors

25/05/2025

Door day, 3 coats no runs was a nice warm day to paint. Took the nose cone back a little and hit it again with more single stage. Still wet sanding the body but won't be long and the doors will be hung back on the car. Once the doors are dry they will be wet sanded also before cut and polish or clear. Haven't fully decided if I'll add clear but so far like the factory single stage look. So may just cut and polish. Well see. For those using single stage you can clear 2k single stage as long as you sand down with 800. Use same brand clear as the single stage and you can add 10% colour to the clear to give it depth and make all your colour blend in

04/05/2025

Few runs but the whole cab will be wet sanded down anyway. Cab is now painted in three coats. So I can now get the doors sorted and back on the cab.

29/04/2025

Close to painting the cab. A bit more detail work on the hand sanding then I'll tape her up and next updates should be dressed in paint.

16/04/2025

When preping, directional light is your best friend. You see where the issues are on a panel even before you block it down or hit it with guide coat. I'm using the battery operated Ryobi light. Has 3 dims I usually use the low setting. LH side is almost done and then ill do a once over the whole cab before hitting any bare metal with primer. I've spent a lot of time both sides where the sill meets the rear quaters. Its funny because they will be under the trim anyway but I know the trim will sit flush against the body. I could have removed them but I do like the chrome and stainless steel trim the LS has and sets it aside from the GTS model. The goal is to get her as close to factory as possible.

14/04/2025

Slow progress but LH side coming up nice and straight. Once finished some epoxy will go over any body filler or bare mental and then a few days from now a light sand and we should be masking the body up for paint and final look over.

10/04/2025

More body work. RH side is pretty much done. Just have a few spots to sort out then will cover in epoxy primer. Onto LH side rear quaters. Roof is done, front plenum done. All door jams done. Final stretch before checking bodylines then paint.

06/04/2025

I've been a little quiet online atm but that's because I'm doing the boring/exciting/detailed part of the build. I'm getting the body ready for paint. Was going to do the door jams then mount the doors then paint it closed door... But I've decided to paint the cab first. Then paint doors and then mount it all. Just going over the whole cab before I dress her in blue. Doors are ready for paint and the guards need a once over before they are painted so I think well see this come together quickly

23/03/2025

Sunday update. I will be sharing some more photos shortly. Currently working on rear quarter panels and door jams getting ready to hang doors back on.

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