My new purchase - Dictator GE cabriolet - is finally home

[nzcarnerd]

The purchase of this car was finalized just a few days before the lockdown. New Zealand has relaxed restrictions and for the last few weeks we have been able to travel. Unfortunately it is now winter which means short days and unpleasant weather. To some extent we were lucky with the weather - especially in regard to the ferry crossings. This morning - Sunday - the trip back to the south was near calm. Cook Strait has a reputation as one of the most unpredictable stretches of water.

 

The car was in New Plymouth, in Taranaki on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand, about 220 miles from Wellington, the capital city and the terminal for the ferry to Picton in the South Island. From there it is a 200 mile drive to home in Christchurch.

 

The car is the Dictator GE which I enquired about here a few months ago. I already own a very scruffy sedan of the same model so have plenty of parts. Once it was established that this would appear to be the only surviving right hand drive example of this model I had to have it.

 

The late owner had purchased a sedan for restoration in 1968 but when this cabriolet came available to him in 1970 he bought that to restore instead. The sedan remained unrestored in the same shed, donating some parts along the way, until we exhumed it this week. I don't know how long he spent on the cabriolet but it was registered for the road in 1990. I don't know how much he drove it but the odometer was only showing 3904 miles when my son first looked at it. With the running around testing and sorting it, along with the long trip home it is now showing nearly 4,500 miles.

 

The trip home was relatively uneventful. There were ongoing issues with the exhaust manifold. This seems to be an Achilles heel with these, I think due perhaps to a not very good design and also to poor casting techniques. The important thing is the car made it to its new home under its own power. It was something of a mission and would not have succeeded without some help, particularly the friend of my sons who lives not too far from where the car was and has a roomy shed where repairs could be done. 

 

One major issue I found with the car was that the late owner must have been not very tall as the seat had been raised about two inches, meaning I have so far been unable to drive it. Son, William, who works as a mechanic fixing older cars was enlisted to drive it home.  One task for sooner than later is to reduce the seat height.

 

 

Son Harry brought his '94 Land Cruiser along to tow the big trailer. Here exhuming the sedan. The location is only a few hundred yards from the sea and the condition of the sedan reflects that.

 

 

Loading the engine from the sedan. There was also a GL engine to go with it. There were also numerous gearboxes and parts, along with lots of good stuff, and not so good stuff. 

 

 

Loaded ready go. The van, a 2001 Nissan El Grand has plenty of power - 3.5 litre V6 - but limited towing capacity due to its unibody construction. The Land Cruiser, with a 3 litre four cylinder turbo diesel, is the opposite.

 

 

The GE in the friend's shed receiving attention. The tyres on the car were 30+ year old 6.00 x 20 Lucas so we took two of our own wheels with brand new (BFG) 5.50 x 20 - the correct size - with us to put on the front. The debate now is does the car look better on silver wheels or rich cream.

 

 

Roadside repairs about 100 miles into the journey. The golf bag door was handy for retrieving tools. A pity it is on the 'wrong' side of the car.

 

 

Difficult to get a shot of the car ahead and the van's speedo but that was its comfortable cruising speed - about 55 mph. 

 

 

Seven a.m. this morning, Sunday 28 June, checking in at the ferry terminal.

 

 

On board the ferry Strait Feronia.

 

 

Waiting to be allowed ashore.

 

The car has no heat riser so when the weather turned cold on the journey home a hastily built shield helped reduce carb icing.

 

 

At Kaikoura, about halfway between Picton and Christchurch the trailer suffered a broken spring leaf. Luckily a strop was available to tie the two axles together.

 

 

 

 

 

Six p.m. Sunday, home in the garage. It is raining heavily outside. Tomorrow Monday the task is to find somewhere to store all of the parts that came with it.

 

The whole mission would not have happened without the help of my two sons. I just paid the bills and drove the 'easiest' vehicle.

 

 

[r1lark]

Wow nzcarnerd, great story/pictures, and fantastic trip!! It's cool that the car was DRIVEN to its new home.

[Mark Huston]

Congratulations!   I am happy to hear that you’re GE Cabriolet is home now and that you had a memorable adventure.   My friend, Kevin, who has the mirror twin to your Cabriolet, has the same seat height issues you are experiencing.   We have come to the conclusion that people were a lot shorter 100 years ago.   

[nzcarnerd]

5 hours ago, Mark Huston said:

Congratulations!   I am happy to hear that you’re GE Cabriolet is home now and that you had a memorable adventure.   My friend, Kevin, who has the mirror twin to your Cabriolet, has the same seat height issues you are experiencing.   We have come to the conclusion that people were a lot shorter 100 years ago.   

 

I wonder if it has something to do with the way the seat back is connected.  Our sedan has the seat attached to the door pillars at each side. although it has removeable bolts that allow it to recline. I don't know if that is an original feature though.

 

The seat in the cabriolet is not attached at the side. I think it is hinged on the seat base.

 

More to come on this.

[studeboy]

You mentioned manifold issues? I had trouble using the replacement manifold gaskets that were a flat type. There are no bolts at the end of the exhaust manifold so it tended to blow out there. I finally got a set of the original copper sleeve and asbestos gaskets. A separate one for each cylinder. Since I installed them I have had no problems with the exhaust gasket.

I also had the manifold surfaced.

[Carsnz123]

Their main issue is cracking where the hot box attaches. I need to spend some more time with the gas torch and braze up the rest of the cracks plus reinforce where the bolts go. They are very light weight things. The 4 cylinder Plymouth exhaust manifold has more mass. Interesting you mention about the original setup having individual rings. I've fitted a similar setup to vintage Rolls Royce's in the past. Bit of an ass to get them to sit in the right spot but seal very well and quite happily survive the big 7L engine backfiring. 

[nzcarnerd]

Solved the seat height issue with just a couple of hour's work. The restorer of the car looks to have added a wooden filler piece. Remove that and hey presto - I can now see out the front.

 

The seat back hinges had been screwed to the wooden filler piece. We have now screwed them to the floor which where I think it was originally - even found some holes lined up.