Recent Snaps

Celebrations at my house tonight.

Today was not without it's trials and tribulations, but we got there in the end.

Still lots of fiddly little bits to finish, but at least I can use it now.





Some back story on the rear side windows:

The ones that came out of it were laminated glass. They were not matched, one had a dark tint, they other was clear. The clear one also had a small hole and was starting to delaminate.

I had another set of windows out of another van. They were not lam, but toughened glass. But it turns out they are a little bigger and won't fit (for sale if anyone wants).

While attempting to put the good rear window in, it dropped out while putting in the locking strip. Smash. Much swearing and kicking random objects ensued, much to the horror of my helper.

But really that glass was not a good fit and part of the reason it dropped out.

At this point I had the choice between making the hole bigger or getting new laminated glass cut. Cannot trim the toughened glass.

Since I had treated the shell with POR-15, and those window edges are prone to rust, I chose the new glass.

O'Briens were the cheapest of the quotes at $325 total. But they wanted the car there at the shop to make templates etc.

So the plan was to get the car prepped, get CTP insurance, get comprehensive insurance, drive it up in the morning, get the glass, then onto Blue Slip, then on to Queensland Transport.

Things started going wrong when at revs & under load it started running on three. This got worse till it was only running on three and going at snails pace by the time I got to southport. Was suspecting head gasket. Not happy.

The big spud-head at the Windscreen place jumped in, flung the door open too far *ouch*, stomped on the throttle which caused the cable to pull out *wince*. So I had to stuff around under a hot bonnet.

They said it would take a couple of hours.

A bit later I snuck down to the workshop area to see what other damage they had done. Just grubby finger prints all over the white stripe so far. Was there in time to see that they had finished cutting and shaping the first window, but had cut it too small, apparently stuffing up the template somehow. Not inspiring.

Not long after that the big boss man came and kicked me out "for insurance purposes". I hate leaving my car with numnuts.

A bit later and the glass was done. On to the blue slip a few hundered meters up the road.

So I manage to slowly get the Monster truck up the road to my mate who is an apprentice mechanic. Great shop by the way, good atmosphere.

He does the inspection and points out some minor things I need to take care of and gets his boss to write me the blue slip. I also get him to check the timing. I park back in the car park while everything is written up.

Once done, I go to hop in and try to take off. She wont start. I suspect head gasket still, but compression test says everything is fine. Clean plugs which look very sooty and she fires. Onto the Exhuast Gas Analysier which says she is running far too rich, hence the fouled plugs.

They have a dyno there, but no one confident enough to tune a SU.

I'm suspecting the needle and seat myself.

So my mate calls the closest carby tune & injection place, before sending me around.

The poor old brick barely makes it. When I get there, the bloke says he has no time, and won't even help me despite the fact it once again wont start... So I'm stuck in his car park.

So I call Dion, and in the mean time hot foot it (literally) down to the AutoPro to buy a cheap plug spanner and a new set of plugs, thinking the plugs are fouled.

I'm back and putting the first plug in by the Dion gets there, and it's 3pm. I need to make it to QT and get rego that day, or I'll have to restart my CTP insurance policy. PITA.

The plug spanner is bending and being a bitch, but I manage get the plugs in and she fires. The plan is to get it a couple of kms up the road to the local mini mechanic.

We make it there just, and his initial diagnosis is the same: head gasket. But a compression test once again shows otherwise, and the water in the radiator looks fine.

He reckons the same as me, the carby needs looking at, but says he doesn't know much about HIF44 carbs, and doesn't have time till the new year anyway.

So I go to limp home and manage to stomp out the throttle cable once again before even taking off. Trying to get that back in is a bitch, it has frayed and the engine is hot. So I buy a new one on the spot. Mini mechanic also set the timing again, and I take off.

Miracle: she is going much better now!

Down to Queensland Transport to try to get rego. I know they like to look at engine numbers, but it is after 4:30 now, so unlikely anyone is still there to do it, but figure it is worth a try anyway. We are in just before they lock the doors so that no new customers can come in.

Once I reach the counter, the girl is in a hurry to get rid of me, so no inspection, runs to grab my new plates, and that is it!

[14th Dec 2006]

Doors on

Stuffing around mounting doors etc.







Feeling a bit swamped by all this fiddly stuff... was aiming to get rego this week...

[Dec 4th 2006]

Wiring & Painting

Well I've been working hard but a little slack with the updates.

Got the old loom out which I was planning on replacing.



It has various burnt connectors and burnt wiring:



Also some butchery by the previous owners:





But once I pulled all the tape off, most of it wasn't that bad, so I decided to patch it up and keep it.



Most of the wiring in the rear end was butchered and half burnt out. I'm amazed it ever work while I had it on the road. So I replaced that with wire whose colour matched as close as possible (without the coloured traces). Also wired in relays for the headlights.

It was pretty easy to get it all working again. A bit of stuffing around buying wire and connectors chewed up some time. Now to get some fuel and fire her up.

First to mount the fuel tank. The tank mounts into the beaver panel on the vans. And I had created a new one from scratch. So out with the square drill to get some holes for the plastic things that you can screw into:





Rode the deadly treadly to the petrol station to get a few litres of fuel. Whacked it in and she was firing but not nicely. Fiddled with the timing and got the leads in the right orders and she roared into life. Too easy.

Meanwhile, cleanup and prep all the doors.





Engine bay nearing done.



Tried to bleed up the brakes with no success. Then the master cylinder started leaking fluid into the cabin. I had put a kit through it a couple of years back. Time for a new one. That arrived during the week and I fitted it up. Brakes are better, but need more bleeding.

Also installed the windscreen. Left the seal in the sun for a while, and it was pretty easy. Haven't put the locking strip in yet.

Today was top coating the doors and bonnet, and fiddly bits like door hinges and seam covers:



Lets see where this stripe should go shall we:



Rear doors before the clear coat:



As usual for my luck, some white came through the masking, as you can see on the lower left door there. Had to mask the white and redo some of the blue.

Getting closer...

[26th Nov 2006]

Building up

More bolting stuff on today. Extractors, manifold, carby, alternator, engine steady, rod change, etc.







Could probably fire it up tomorrow if I pushed.

[Oct 28th 2006]

Engine install

Dropped the motor in today.

Took some stuffing around in the morning putting everything back on the motor. The plan was to have siclad help me drop it in.

But then discovered that I didn't have the bracket that goes from the engine mount to the radiator shroud.

Siclad dropped in for an hour or so on the way through.

Had to stuff around and go up to Southport and find one on another motor I have
up there.

The install technique was a new one for me: chain block swung over the I-beam in
the roof of the garage, mini is on caster wheel, slip it in under the motor & lower. Worked well enough to do by myself. Was scheming up how to hook a 12v motor up to the chain block though, since keeping the chain off the bodywork is a challenge. Could be a nice little project later.

Bright work

In between getting 4 stitches in my finger and getting a new set of tyres & oil for the motorbike, I managed to clean up, paint the under side and reinstall some of the bright work on the monster truck today.

The back side of the bumpers and mustache was covered in rust, so I rust converted, then coated in rust inhibiting paint.




Chrome work was polished up with autosol metal polish. Came up ok. Bumper has some dents, may get a new one eventually.

Also polished up one of the flares. Had to take a look at it with this weeks new aquisition: 4 x Yoko A539s.



The wheel isn't on, it's just sitting in there.

Waiting of a new set of front brake hoses to show up, otherwise I would have dropped the engine in today.

Polishing

Started polishing today. Cut back the clear coat with 1000 wet and dry then 2000. The some cutting compound. Notice the difference between the two front gaurds:



The obligatory self portrait:

Engine cleanup

Sprayed the engine today.

The red actually cleaned up quite well, and I was tempted just to leave it like that.




Not sure if I really like the new colour yet.





I need to make up a plate to cover the fuel pump port, and fit a new harmonic balancer before installing.
[8th October]

Rolling shell

Put the front subby back together today. A bit of stuffing around to go over to dewey's place and salvage some good nylon cups for the upper control arms.




Managed to get the subby back into the car by myself without doing any damage to the paint.



Tightened up the ball joints and in went the hubs.



Hooked up all the brake lines, and hand brake cables.

And WOW rolling shell for the first time in years.



Looks like the W & P arches may not cover the 12"x5"s on the metro disks.



It's amazing how much more motivating it is to see it going back togethers. Still feels like there is a mountain of stuff left to do.

Rear subby insteall

Wednesday was a heap of stuffing around for not much getting done.

I couldn't get one of the brake lines off the old rear subby undone where it meets the hose to the trailing arm, despite a good WD40 soaking. So I had to hack it out with a hacksaw blade (the hose part, I had new hoses), thinking I could grip the thread in the vice.

No joy, it was soft and just turned in the vice. Next, hold the nut and try and easy-out. Nope, and nearly broke the easy-out in the process. So off to the brake place to get a new one made. No, don't stock that nut anymore to make a new one. Fortunately had one at home so more suffing around to go get it.

The first place wanted $20 to make up about 40cm of line with fittings I supplied. Forget that. Next bloke wanted $5. Big difference.

Slapped the rear subby back together and into the car.



New cones and hi-los.



Still sitting far too high even with the hi-los wound right in. Hoping it will settle a bit over time.



Almost half way to being a car again.

Stripe & Clear coat

Today I got up early to ride up to brissy to get the white for the stripe from the PPG guys. Should have got it the other day when I was there with the car but forgot.

Got Yo to help me mask it all up.


The weather was threatening the whole time. So I decided just to go with a single stripe to make it easier. Eventually it started to spit rain, so into the garage.






Went to lunch feeling pretty happy, but had actually made a big fcuk-up, yet undiscovered.



I had forgotten to mask the vent hole. When I sprayed the white it got inside the tent and onto my lovely blue paint.

So I had to scuff and retouch some of it. Of course to do that we had to now mask up the nice white stripe. Some choice words were muttered.



Later on it was time for the clear coat.




Some more minor stuff ups with drips from the gun, etc.
Hopefully it will buff up ok.

Makes me realise how much experience matters when doing this sort of work, and how I have none. I was contantly learning by making mistakes. I'm sure a professional would have had a good laugh at me today. Oh well, hopefully it will atleast look pretty from a distance and keep rust from spreading.

Looking forward to having a rolling shell again soon.

[26th Sept 2006]