Well it all started about 3 years ago ... a guy in the Canberra EJ/EH car club was trying to sell his HJ Monaro to finance his next project. I liked the look of it straight away, and found that it was in good condition and VERY original. A few weeks later (still at age 18) I had borrowed the $$$ to buy my 2nd car.

Details:
· Original (and tired) 253ci with 60,000 on the clock (not sure if it was 260k, or 360k)
· Trimatic · 2.78 diff · Premier Rims and Hubcaps (standard)
· Twin HJ Premier front (standard on the LS)

Click on the thumbnails below to open larger images

The car stayed in an original state for another 14 months (while I paid it off). Shortly after I fitted some 16" Billet rims (Prime 247: 16/225/50) This gave the car a HUGE improvement in handling and ride. More mods followed with the stock carby being removed and replaced with a 350 holley, and the old dizzy replaced with a HEI electronic version provided by ICE. The car was a great daily driver for another 12 months, until I spotted an injected 304 from a VS commodore + Turbo Hydro 350 going for the right price.

6 months passed, the Trimatic was starting to have some major issues and with the 253 getting slower, guzzling more petrol it was time to pull it off the road.

Project Timeline - Engine Replacement:

Day 1:About 3 hours into the project, the front was off the car and all ancillaries had been removed from the 253. A few hours more the 253 and trimatic were removed.

Day 2: The whole day was spend striping the engine bay back to bear metal, this is a long and boring job. Paint striper makes for great pink blotches on skin that last for several days.

Day 3: washed the engine bay down with prepsol, masked up the front guards and under coated the engine bay. Not long after that came the 3 coats of High-Gloss black. The project was sailing smoothly, or did I speak to soon!

Day 4: with the front off the car, the new 304/TH350 was installed with ease. But why didn't the gearbox crossmember line up? I left that and started on the custom extractors. 20 minutes of stuffing around and still no joy. It was about at this time the penny dropped. Then Engine mounts were still the original commodore ones, basically setting the engine 3 inches to far forward. The engine hoist had already been returned, 2 hours of messing around and the engine mounts were replaced with the ones from the 253. Funnily enough the extractors went straight on and that gearbox crossmember fit like a gem.

Day 5: Front of the car was put back on and most of the custom wiringloom was fitted (this is really easy).

With increasing work commitments, the project was put on the back burner for another 2 weeks. With no sign of work getting any easier the car was sent to the Mechanics to be completed. 2 months later my Car was completed with nothing short of a HUGE bill, needless to say a lot of the expense was in parts, and a lot of the delay were from suppliers of these parts. There are still a few mods to come yet, and obviously the ironing out of a few bugs in the system. But over all it has turned this dinosaur into a more modern car that is a pleasure to drive.

With 20/20 hind site I don't think that I would do the conversion again, you are kidding yourself if you think the EFI conversion will cost you less than $10k. For those sorts of $$$ a much more powerful 350 chev can be fitted. I guess it all depends on what sort of car you are after, a nice streeter, or a Quick ¼ mile car.

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