Lancer A72 Purchase / Restoration / Daily Use

[Nehan]

I have an undying urge to purchase a Lancer A72 wagon. I learnt how to drive in this car and now feel the need to own one of my own. i have had a look at the prices and i've noticed you find them in the ranges of 200,000/- upwards based on condition mainly. I prefer to buy one in the lower ranges as i would like to attend to everything from scratch as opposed to picking up where another left off.

Please advice in general how much this would cost if i broke it down into 2 phases. additionally please advice if you think the phases need amendment.

Phase 01 - Full body and interior of the car.

Phase 02 - Full Engine Restoration.

Thanks in advance.

i would also like to use this car as a daily driver for the pure driving pleasure it has never failed to provide me.

Is the above a possibility considering the car will be half a century in a few years.

Best Regards,

Nehan

[Davy]

Hi Nehan, Welcome to the forum!

It's great to hear that you're interested in a good old first gen Lancer. I had one myself for 13 years and like you, it was my first car as well as the car I learnt to drive in. I too restored it in two phases like you (once in 2003 or so and then again in 2010), and surprisingly attended to the same things you're thinking of doing in each phase. You can read all about it in the thread below:

You should be able to get a rough indication of the prices as I think I've already posted them in the thread. But do note that they're really dated and should be significantly different now. One thing I can tell you is that you will not have any issue sourcing parts for the car, given that how popular it is on Sri Lankan roads.

 

As the car being half a century old, that's what makes these gems valuable more and more. If not for unavoidable circumstances, I wouldn't have parted with mine. 

Good luck and I say go for it!  

EDIT: Also, do search the forum, we have many other threads discussing the A72 Lancer.

Edited June 28, 2018 by Davy

[Nehan]

Thanks that was a really great insight into a true enthusiastic build.

I must agree with some of the comments. (stickers may have been a misjudged addition :p) 

But all in all the end result is outstanding.  The details behind the engine build is really intense and i must say it looks brand new from what i can see. it is indeed a pity that you had to sell her after the amount of work you put in.

Forgive me for asking but i can't seem to locate any figures behind the build cost.

I searched on the thread you added along with a general search on an A72 build.

Please advice on a rough cost for both Phases if possible so i can prepare myself for the expense.

I would love to have it in its original condition. Nothing too fancy!!

Only things that i would like to have different would be an AC unit. 

Side Mirrors as per the original on either side of the bonnet. (if i can find the parts)

Interior as per factory default. A very basic stereo system (reverse cams or any new fangled additions are not of interest to me)

 

Thanks once again for the quick and prompt response.

 

Regards,

Nehan.

[matroska]

Finally finally finally a thread that offers a glimmer of sunshine amid the gloom of all the permit, Vitz, Civic2018, and Sedan for 4 Million threads. Respect OP...good luck with your plans  and please do share some pics when you do buy one  These 1970's cars are extremely lovable. 

[iRage]

All the best in your endevour. As to how you have phased it...it all depends on what you want to do with the car and the condition you bought it in as well as how you plan to time the phases. Also, balancing it is a bit of a tricky thing to do.

For example....if you buy a running car in generally good shape (and you do get quite a few A72s that are in pretty decent nick) which you want to be your daily would want it to be mechanically sound before going ahead and doing the body up.....so obviously the first step would be to do the engine work. The benefit of doing the mechanical work first is...there is a high risk of your body work getting messed up during the engine work...so you save up in that (at least in emotional agony if not money and time). Whilst doing the engine work you might want the engine bay area of the car attended to.

Then on the other hand, if the car is mechanically sound and the body is in bad shape you will have to get the body work attended to first so you can actually start using the car. But save some of the OCD details for later on.

Your phasing is a good start...but remember you need to be flexible about it. When i was doing my resto, what helped me was rather than having two broadly defined phases I had quite a few specific phases...suspension, brake, engine exhaust, rust, etc...then based on my plan for the car I was able to prioritize (e.g. if I dropped in a more powerful engine, I would make sure I fix up the brakes and suspension before I throw down money on a body kit). Then obviously you need to cross reference that with your cash flow.

Well..that is just how I went about it....another would go about a different way. There is no hard and fast way and method of doing a restoration....it depends on the car, the purpose for restoration and the person. If you want a hard and fast way and method...then there are garages where you can just park the car, give them a lot of money and then pick it up in a few months.  There are cheaper alternatives too, but the A72 wagon you drove in might have turned in to an Elephant back Nissan AD van when you drive out.

SIDE NOTE : There is no such thing called an 80s Elephant Back Nissan AD van. Elephant back is a Corolla from the 90s and the AD van I am referring too is from the 80s...  

 

[Davy]

5 hours ago, Nehan said:

Thanks that was a really great insight into a true enthusiastic build.

I must agree with some of the comments. (stickers may have been a misjudged addition :p) 

But all in all the end result is outstanding.  The details behind the engine build is really intense and i must say it looks brand new from what i can see. it is indeed a pity that you had to sell her after the amount of work you put in.

Forgive me for asking but i can't seem to locate any figures behind the build cost.

I searched on the thread you added along with a general search on an A72 build.

Please advice on a rough cost for both Phases if possible so i can prepare myself for the expense.

I would love to have it in its original condition. Nothing too fancy!!

Only things that i would like to have different would be an AC unit. 

Side Mirrors as per the original on either side of the bonnet. (if i can find the parts)

Interior as per factory default. A very basic stereo system (reverse cams or any new fangled additions are not of interest to me)

 

Thanks once again for the quick and prompt response.

 

Regards,

Nehan.

Thanks.

As for the stickers, it was when I was in my younger years where movies and the wrong kind of influence had gotten to me. ? But as the years went by and the kid inside of me subsided, I got rid of the stickers and attended to what really matters like the engine, suspension, steering and brakes.

Sorry I thought the costs were in that thread. From memory, the paint job in 2003 (involved stripping the car down, tinkering and painting) cost roughly around 60K. The bodywork took a few months to complete and I was in the garage every single day, sometimes helping out with the bodywork. I stripped the car on my own and put it back together also on my own because I didn't trust the garage guys to mess up trims, wiring and other delicate bits. During the bodywork. I replaced all rubber beadings, tail light lenses, missing trims, and restored the chrome bumpers as well. The rubber beadings alone at LP Gunaratne was about 20K, I swapped the 12" steel rims with 13" alloys as well so the final number would have been somewhere around 100 - 120K.

The engine restoration (2010) included a port and polish as well as all those brand new parts you see photos of in that thread. The engine was meticulously restored with a lot of love and care by a good friend of mine, a retired MINI race driver who is passionate about cars. I let him take his own time on it and every time I went to his workshop, it was as if though that worn out 4G33 is slowly turning into an engine that looked like it just rolled out of the assembly line. I think this cost me the most - probably around 80K due to porting, polishing and all the parts that went to it.

I don't even remember how much the brakes cost, but the front discs were recon ones from a A72 sedan. Sourced them from Panchikawatte and I think they were around 8000. I had to buy the main wiring harness of the car that goes from the dash to the engine, because I had a problem after rats have chewed through the wires when the car was unused for about 6 months. I had the car re-wired and all electrics overhauled and that cost 36K (I remember this distinctly because this took a really long time).

Again, these are prices from 2003 and 2010, so not really accurate for today.

[iRage]

3 minutes ago, Davy said:

Sorry I thought the costs were in that thread. From memory, the paint job in 2003 (involved stripping the car down, tinkering and painting) cost roughly around 60K. The bodywork took a few months to complete and I was in the garage every single day, sometimes helping out with the bodywork.

Late 2014 - early 2015....the body work for the Trueno cost 185,000.... I was there almost every day or so and granted I did get them to re do a few panels several times because the details of the body lines were a bit off. The same work at another reputed body and paint crafting garage would have been a bit under 300K if my memory serves me right (calculated it based on the hourly rate they quoted me at the time). It took approximately 6.5 months. but that also includes some mechanical work which I chose to do concurrently.

For the interior in 2015....famous places like Deen's and Nawala cushion works quoted 400K - 500K to do the seats and re-paste the door cards (originals were pretty good and all that was needed was re-pasting. Found an old independant guy who does restorations on old Morris Minors and stuff....the guy charged something like 8000 and then the material which I went and bought cost about 30,000 (and I still have extra).

Can all the parts for the A72 be sourced locally ?

 

[Twin Turbo]

Cool project,

Do keep us updated on the stages/progress of the  car.

First step will have to be finding a good non crashed relatively rust free  starter. early modles had drums all round  so yuou might wanna upgrade thgem and booster assisted master cylinder.

we'll get to the A/c later.

 

[Davy]

12 hours ago, iRage said:

Can all the parts for the A72 be sourced locally ?

I'm not sure about now, but back when I was restoring, I found all engine parts from Panchi, the rubber bits and mouldings from Darley Road. Wiring, disc brakes, steering box and some of the hard to find engine parts (timing belt cover for example which was cracked on my car) was sourced from the "watte" area in Panchi (the watte next to the BMC building and runs along the canal). This area had several A72 Lancers that were stripped for parts. Some had really good body panels and even chrome trim bits.

I found brand new brake cylinders, a brake servo, tail light lenses from various spare parts shops in Colombo, Ja Ela and Gampaha areas. Some of the mechanical bits are same as the parts that come on the L200, T120 Delica and the Lancer Box, so you just need to know what to ask for.

I remember I had a cracked leaf spring once and I was surprised to see that the first leaf spring shop (somewhere in Ja Ela) I went to had over a dozen of springs labelled "LANCER WAGON". Another time, the chrome ring around one of the headlights was damaged and I could find a brand new one in Nugegoda area.

Another interesting thing I found out at the time is that lenses for lights for older cars were apparently being manufactured in Sri Lanka (somewhere in Panadura if I remember correctly). In fact, the tail light lenses I had on the car after the restoration were locally made according to the guy who sold it to me. They looked pretty good, but the colours faded away within a couple of years. 

Few of the things I couldn't find were a new or recon carburettor. While a lot of mechs advised me to swap it for a carb from a newer car (some said TownAce Noah carb), I decided to overhaul it and use it. The choke was a bit off in my carb, so cold starts were a bit rough. The handbrake adjuster mecnianism that comes inside the rear drums was the other thing. Couldn't find one for the life of me. They just wore off (bad design). I found out that a lot of people swapped the entire rear dial plate with parts from the Lancer Box to fix it.

Edited June 29, 2018 by Davy

[varotone]

I recently fell in love with wagons to the point of buying one for the only purpose of restoring it. Currently my eyes are on a 1980 lancer wagon. I'm trying to haggle the offer.

Appreciate the work by @Davy for the amazing restoration.

[Davy]

1 hour ago, varotone said:

I recently fell in love with wagons to the point of buying one for the only purpose of restoring it. Currently my eyes are on a 1980 lancer wagon. I'm trying to haggle the offer.

Appreciate the work by @Davy for the amazing restoration.

Thank you and good luck with your purchase!