Thread: 1963 S2a 88" (2.25p) "Doris"

G'day!

We have recently purchased our dream car... a 1963 S2a, 88", named Doris.

Purchased from a farm in NSW, she is currently unregistered, but driveable. Although she was last driven 2 years ago, after a battery transplant she fired up pretty easily on the 2-year old fuel (2.25l petrol). The engine runs very quiet, all gears, forward and reverse, 4WD and high/low range all seem normal. Brakes work (as well as a series ever work when standard!), and clutch action feels good.


Trailered home, she's sitting in our garage waiting for us to get back from our overseas trip in a couple of months, whereupon we will start working on getting her back on the road.

She appears to be fairly stock, except for:

• Stromberg carburetor fitted (suspected original Solex in a box in the back),
• Bullbar fitted (now removed, and free to a good home, as it won't be required),
• Rear crossmember replaced with some welded steel section,
• Who knows what else?

She came with some spares:

• additional engine block. Application of grips on the crankshaft turns the engine over, complete with rods and pistons,
• additional head,
• additional diff (not known if front, rear or neither!),
• additional axles (as above, but suspect matched with above!),
• additional front panel (with grill and headlights),
• some buckets of as-yet unidentified stuff.

She is destined to become the daily town car for the fairer half (replacing the current Daewoo Lanos), and weekend short drive car.

This is our current rough plan:

• Remove all of the bodywork, inspect bodywork and chassis (firewall!) for rust. Firewall has a couple of bubbling spots, but doesn't look too bad... (yet!)
• Learn to how to sandblast, weld, and generally repair any damaged of the above,
• Assess the engine, with the possibility of a rebuild/refresh where necessary,
• Reassemble, re-painting along the way. We currently have our hearts set on the rarer "sand" colour body, with limestone top. From our research, getting this colour might prove troublesome, so any advice would be greatly appreciated,
• Replace the rear crossmember with a more genuine item, and find some below-door panels,
• Leave the engine fairly well stock, with the exception of perhaps an electronic ignition, and investigating the possibility of fitting a brake booster (but leaving the drum brakes). Investigate the feasibility of converting to run on unleaded (don't know much about this as yet) while assessing the engine.
• Fit a heater!

Regards seating and registration, the following is what we would ideally like to do:

• Replace the aging and non-standard front seats with the Exmoor Trim "Deluxe Front Seats", and fit to both sides in the load area the Exmoor Trim 2-Man bench seats, giving a 7-seat total,
• Fit seat belts to all positions (understanding engineering certificate may be required for this, but happy to do so) - assuming lap belts would be sufficient.

We would also like to have the ability to have the roof on in winter, but to remove it in summer, and replace with a canvas roof hood and sticks. If this isn't a possibility legality-wise, then we would probably stick with the hood and sticks (pun intended).

Anybody who has had experience with doing this or know if it's possible (or not!) to be done in Queensland, your advice is greatly appreciated. We have been scouring the threads in the past few weeks, but getting a definitive idea on our setup is proving difficult.

Cheers!
Michael and Anneleis

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