by HOLDEN RULES
Now that my son and I have got his “new” car — a 1979 HZ Holden Kingswood — home from Invercargill to west Auckland, we have to sell his first vehicle.
That vehicle is a 1983 WB Holden Kingswood flatdeck ute.
Even before we got the car, the son had been spending time tidying up the ute. He had decided the ute wasn’t practical enough, being, at best, only a three-seater, so wanted to sell it for the best price he could.
The deck was a bit ratty, so it came off. That revealed that the sides and tailgate were more rotten that expected. So they were junked too.
Together we just managed to lift the deck frame-mudguards — 2.1m long by 1.8m wide, heavy and difficult to handle — clear of the chassis. It went into the garage for sanding and respraying. We also took the opportunity to do the same to the chassis south of the cab.
My 20-year-old bought timber for a new deck and sides. I bought orange-red paint so the sides would match the truck bodywork.
He enlisted the help of a neighbour to get the deck frame back on — then a second neighbour. Thanks, guys.
He cut the timber himself, drilled the holes through the timber and the steelwork, and fitted everything nicely. I primed and painted the sides.
It was looking good enough for someone to buy — but there was still a problem we had been aware of. The starter had conked out.
We both tried to remove the starter — and found that couldn’t be done without removing all the manifolds. Not a pleasant prospect, in effort or extra expense. In the meantime, after all our fiddling with the starter, it worked again, albeit rather reluctantly.
Meanwhile, although the truck was running again, it was overheating. It took a bit of time, but the son eventually figured the likely problem was the thermostat. He bought a new one, I fitted it, and that problem went away.
He cleaned up the starter contacts, and it seemed to perform a bit better yet.
We discussed it. Maybe we could sell it now as it is? No, said the son. He wouldn’t want to sell the truck to someone and have it die on the buyer a few minutes after picking it up.
Caveat emptor applies when buying the kind of vehicle we plan to sell. It certainly applied to us when we bought the HZ from a seller who failed to acknowledge a major leak, or leaks, in the fuel tank when he advertised it.
But the 20-year-old’s approach is the moral one. He’s done good.
— Holden Rules lives in west Auckland, a centre of Holden and V8 appreciation.