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Hullo hullo! About time I updated my own thread, seeing as I've been prodding others. Not much physical progress has been made since the Minor was tucked away early December. I have been busy doing the things, though. I promise! Have a build post about the sandblasting cabinet we made for cleaning up panels etc. Step one: take one largeish sized fridge Step two: clear away all unnecessary extras Step three: zap on some legs Step four: weld up a base frame This was the best result of the loss of my welding cherry Step five: weld on some big heavy duty castor wheels and attach the legs. The back legs have a pivot point at the top and the front ones have pivots top and bottom, as they were originally going to be adjustable for various heights of midget. Currently, they are not, but it may still happen! No pics of this bit, so have a photo of the aftermath: I learnt my lesson. No more unprotected welding for me! Step six: add plumbers pipe and some other random fixings and hose to provide dust removal Step seven: cut holes using slitting discs and oxy torches Step eight: find more plumbing bits to use to hold blasting gloves in place Step nine: install glass viewing windows Step ten: fail Step eleven: try again, this time not tightening with screws too much and just allowing the silicone to bond. Succeed Step twelve: Install blasting gun and hose Step thirteen: wedge blasting gloves in hand holes with MORE random plumbing bits Step fourteen: test. Decide that height is workable and armholes allow for resting elbows comfortably on edge to support weight, but issues with beverage dispensation apparent. Add air filter to opposite end of cabinet to dust removal to allow for proper air flow Step fifteen: scrounge more plumbing bits and a random bucket to serve as the dust filter Step sixteen: add some sheet in to funnel the media down in to middle a bit (this didn't really work very well and still doesn't, we just move the pickup point around. We tried various methods of vibrating the media down in to the middle but they were all excessively noisy when and not very effective) Step seventeen: Add finishing touches such as shopvac full of water to remove dust, convenient shelf and most importantly, beverage holder Step eighteen: add internal shelf so that items do not get dropped in to blasting media and lost. Add media Step nineteen: test final product. Make amendments to design over following days to improve So there you have it! A sandblasting cabinet in 19 easy steps! Costs involved buying sandblasting gloves, media and a regulator with a water trap. Use during the day in 30 degree heat with humidity meant that the tanks were filling up with hot air and not condensing by the time the air got to the cabinet, resulting in wet media clogging up the nozzle on the gun. Another water trap right at the cabinet, plus fixing a broken water trap on the reserve tank solved this issue nicely. On the subject of dust removal, basically the shopvac sucks the air and dust from the cabinet down and up through a pool of water which drops all the finer particles (now useless for blasting) in the bottom of the bucket, resulting in this sludge: Upgraded to a better blasting gun with ceramic nozzles as the steel one was borked. The windows were the glass shelves from the fridge, the plumbing equipment was up on the mezzanine floor, the shopvac was a semi-broken one floating around as a spare. Total cost of the cabinet = $35 not including blasting media, which is ground glass. Filled it with about 50kg of glass for about $70. We were using less, but found it easier to just have more and shift the pickup line about than try and get the media to fall down in to the middle. But now, results! Some bits blasted, rust converted and then cleaned up ready for priming: And the primed! Unfortunately by brush as the shed was full of cars not agreeable to overspray. Had to knock some of the scuff plates back in to shape a little, but the front grill is a little worse for wear. I have blasted a few more panels but am having issues with not having enough reach to get at the ends properly, so need to install another handhole in either end I think and increase the length of hose on the gun. But that will be in a while yet as the shed is well busy at the moment as it's coming up to Variety season so Jono and his dad are working on some of the Variety Bash cars. Such as the XXXX Bus: Sorry about the horrible photo and size; not mine and not hosted by me. This is a pretty cool bus, though. It seats 8 people in a lounge setup around a beer fridge, has the capacity to hold quite a few kegs, and has an external tap to dispense said beer at the end of a days driving. Only downside is the horrible beer that is XXXX. Other things that have been happening related to that fridge include re-purposing the vacuum pump from it: It has been shanghai'd in to removing gas from air conditioners in cars destined for the scrap heap, etc to be used to refill cars that need regassing. I have regassed my daily now using LPG (r134a just wasn't cutting it) and now it's deliciously chilly. Just need to clean the evaporator out to get the most out of it. Anywho, that's about it for now. More major things in the pipeline that shall be revealed soon providing they come to fruition. Cheers, Matt
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robw
Part of things
Posts: 90
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Nice bus!
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Finally got some photos off my phone. A nice old British barge came the other day to join the old American barge laid up for some transmission work: Has the fancy rear passenger picnic/scotch tables and everything! And here's the American one: Bit dirtier as it's been here a while already. Cheers, Matt
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Hello again. Here's a random update on goings on at the shed! So in previous posts I mentioned the XXXX bus which goes on Variety Bash and a few weeks ago we took it, plus the CROWN on the Variety Mini Bash which is just an overnight affair to give the cars a shakedown before the big event in August. Here's some photos of said event: Taking the bus to the meeting point for the start of the bash. On the road for maybe 20min, and it's time for the first beer stop! The CROWN And last of all, the 'sweep car' that comes along last and makes sure no one is left behind. About 20min after this, said 'sweep car' was left behind and radioing for help. The bus being the slowest, we were only just in front: This was actually the only real repair that needed doing for the whole journey, so pretty good shakedown by my count! The pin on the accelerator pedal that feeds to the uhh, non standard engine seized. Most of the time spent fixing it was spent removing the bash plate on the underside which had been sealed with silicone on to stop it rattling. -_- Anyway, fast forward to the evening, past hours of rattling around in a big old bus drinking good rum (none of that horrible Bundaberg wibblepoo), past a lunch stop and 3 or 4 more beer stops. There was an interesting bit of road that was rather steep and corrugated which put the steering and brakes of the bus to the test, which it almost failed (cue controlled sliding down a hill with a corner right at the bottom). And then right after was a nice river crossing: Time for me to swap vehicles I think! I decided to jump in the back of a Ford Galaxy that appeared to have a back seat free (the owners of which were mildly surprised but took to it well enough after a few more swigs of beer). Joked around a bit, rode for a few km with them and then we arrived at our afternoon pub stop, which was a pretty cool bike stop, it turns out. This is an ex-ambulance that managed to keep it's entire kit upon decommission. From here we arrive at our destination for the evening, a tiny town with not much going for it called Casino (guess what they don't have). - Actually did a quick google to see what that's about and turns out it's named after some sister-city in Italy. /shrug We head to the RSL for the evenings entertainment! But there's some stupid machine by the front door that you have to scan your license on to prove that you're over 18 or not going to do a violence on someone or something. Who knows! Either way, no one could work out how to use it so there was a person there overseeing the machine that did away with employing someone for said job. And then it wasn't even very good at reading the license anywho, as shown by my mate Trent's receipt: After lots of drinking and eating, we call it a night and then head off bright and early (not really) for the last part of the bash. Not many photos were taken here as I was rather ill (food poisoning, I swear) but points of notice were the long steep hill to the border between NSW and QLD and the bus oveheating and having to rest near the top, and the CROWN overheating and stopping at the top due to the thermo fan packing it in halfway up. After cooling it down, we followed it slowly in Jono's support car and we eventually got to Nimbin, weed capital of Australia: Left Nimbin after a look around and a coffee, stopped at this cool truck stop with a really interesting shop full of tie-dyed sheets/curtains/rags. Couldn't get a photo of the actual shop itself because some hippy/homeless bum was outside smoking a pipe and I'm guessing thought I was going to steal his soul if I took his photo? I didn't even notice him until he started yelling at me, he blended in that well. Anyway that's the last of what I shot. From there, it was a short run to the finish line (surprise, another pub!), dehydration and then home for a long soak in the pool. That's it for now, as that's a large chunk of post, will update with the little car progress that has been made later on. Cheers, Matt
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Ok! Time for a real update! Well, sort of. First up, for the last month and a bit, after deciding that the body was too far twisted to be good to use with all the power I'm going to be adding, I have been chasing cars. A friend of mine went to a swap meet and met a guy who had a rear half of a shell (but cut in to quarters? ) which otherwise would have probably worked to repair the rear of my shell. BUT! He knew a guy who had not one, but FOUR cars he was trying to offload for quite a reasonable price! One which was registered about 3 years ago, one which is complete but apparently a bit flaky, and two more for spares. I was told they were all 1000 series of various body types. Anyway, I got on to the guy from the swap meet eventually (1 week of calling), and determined that yes, there was four. They were 1000s of 2 and more door variety. He may also have a ute. So I ask him for this other guys number, to which he responds with 'I'll have to find it, and I want to talk to him anyway so I'll give him a call and let you know" Cue two weeks of nothing as I wait and wait, eventually giving up and calling him back. He'd forgotten. So he promises to call him next week when the guys out of hospital (wait, what?). So we're now at four weeks and I'm getting a little impatient! I call him up again a little annoyed and ask that he just give me his number as I want things to get rolling again, and he finally gives me a number and mentions that he has the four cars. But he has another friend who has a ute if I'm interested. That may be pursued later, who knows? So for the last week I have been calling this number and sending a text or two attempting to get a hold of this elusive fellow, and today I had had enough and came up with a plan. So I called up the swap meet guy, explained my dilemma, and asked him what car club the owner was a part of. A quick bit of googling later and I had a phone number for the president of said car club, and a short phonecall later the ball was in motion! In less time than it takes to take an O2 sensor out of a Mazda MPS, I was back on the phone with the president who had called him and was getting through just fine! So I double checked and lo-and-behold, I'd been given the wrong number! The guy was now expecting me to call, so it was rude not to call him on the spot, and now I'm waiting on an email (assisted by his not so elderly daughter) full of pictures of what could be! Being just under 1000km away to central Mackay, I'm not that keen on taking a truck up there to find that the cars are rubbish, so if the photos don't give me as much of an idea as is required, I might do a quick 2 day trip during the week and take a look myself! But some form of non-stagnating progress!!! Have been starting to lose my mind having nothing to go forward with! D: Saying that, there has been SOME progress... Take one complete donor car: Last time I'll see that amazing green skull knob ( I feel it may clash with the intended interior of the car, so it won't be transferred)... Remove the bonnet, unplug things, cut other things, and then a bit of weight reduction. Flatpacked for your transporting convenience. Seems a little large to be going in such a small car... Take a box full of loom Take out all the bits that you may need in the future Then remove the rear suspension, diff, etc. Hope there is enough weight left in the front after taking the front suspension including strut towers off. Fail Wrangle what's left of the body on to a truck ready to be weighed in! And that's where I'm now up to. No more donor car, just donor parts. Cost of donor car $525. Scrapyard is being tight at the moment and only offering $100/1000kg for car bodies. Less all the heavy bits, it means that so far I've made back $47.20 on the Pintara! I have a pile of panels and other bits and bobs to sell off and try and make some more money back from that though. Well, that's it for now. Shall hopefully have an update on the new car/s soon! Cheers, Matt
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I wonder if you could help a chap in the UK with a Pintara: link to post He's had his driver's window smashed (again!) and is having difficulty getting a replacement or getting anyone to post a replacement from Australia where there seem to be plenty of Pintaras.
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Last Edit: Mar 7, 2014 11:31:54 GMT by Deleted
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Ah. Yeah mine is/was an R31 which is a different shape window I believe? Could be wrong though. I think the issue is with shipping companies being willing to post them. Too much risk of breakage I'd imagine. Just had a look at a glass mob and they list different glass for the U12 and it looks pretty different. However, the U12 Pintara is pretty much a U12 Ford Corsair so might have more luck under that name? Pudding full of proof: www.autoglasswarehouseandglazing.com.au/shop/ford-corsair-ua-sedhatchj-1989-driver-side-right-side-front-door-glass-366And a quick google gives me mention of said Corsair on wikipedia, that fount of all not-always-right knowledge, without even leaving the google page!
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Last Edit: Mar 7, 2014 12:14:32 GMT by varelse
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I will pass it on. Cheers
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No problem. If enough people were interested, a crate could probably be a more effective way of shipping various bits of glass across. Fill up a small crate with enough glass packed in well and it should be pretty secure, and a company shouldn't have many issues moving something like that. Be cheaper for postage too depending on how much got shifted. Anywho, another interesting bit of tin showed up at work today: And here's another from a few weeks back: Cheers, Matt
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Mar 20, 2014 10:35:41 GMT
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Events are afoot! Just got off the phone with the gentleman who I have been chasing for moar cars! He has described them a bit better and I am pretty keen to get the ball moving. First, some pictures, courtesy of his daughter (it's not my hipstergram photos, I swear!) The brown one on the left is one of the runners. I can't remember which one was which but one of the runners was built with Toyota power and running gear. (4age maybe??? ) Apparently he drove it fine from one end of town where it was to the storage..shack, where it is now, unregistered, because the guy who built it didn't try to get engineering planning done until after the car was put together, and it ended up costing too much! Free car for Gordon, and soon, cheap car for me! The black one is apparently pretty rusty, as is the yellow one. The yellow one is someones attempt at a rod I think? See below. Not sure what to make of that.. But will be parts and panel repairs anyway. /shrug Can see that the black one is a four door splitty like mine! Not sure if this is the last of the MMs or a very early Series II but it means I have two roofs to play with. (I am determined to have a splitty with blade grill and some other bits and bobs.) Last of the four is this 2 door coppery one, although apparently it's gold. This is the other runner, and will be either Toyota powered or a 948cc Minor motor from another vehicle. There is a dent in one of the doors on...one of them, but Gordon assured me there was enough spare panels to sort that out. So maybe more free stuff? The cars are slightly out doors, I think only the brown one is under a tarp, but the gold one is undercoverish. All of them get a coating of ATF every couple of months apparently so borked paint but hopefully pretty solid still! I was going to hope for the best and drive the trucks up without eyeing them personally, then there was discussions of a family friend who lives in the same town who could check them out for me. BUT! I asked him what he wanted for them, after being told by the original contact that he was chasing about $900, and he mentioned that he'd been originally after $1000, but wouldn't go below $400. $400! D: In light of this, I think that I will fly up myself to check them out next week and go from there. I want to make sure that at least one of them is solid enough underneath to work with. If both runners aren't good, I'll use one and parts out the Toyota gear as it should bring in a few pennies, being hard to find now. Flights will be about $200 or just under, versus around $250 in fuel and a 20 hour round trip if I drove up. I'd rather just do that once with the trucks, thanks! I am soooo keen to get moving on this project again! I have space sorted out up at our farm property, just need to build a lean-to to house the not-being-worked-on ones, and have a cunning plan to get enough traybed up to Mackay to transport everything back. Last thing I need to organise is bolting panels from my Minor back on so I can take it up to the farm on the way past so it's out of the way. Anyway, that's enough over-excited raving for one night! Cheers, Matt
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Mar 20, 2014 14:02:13 GMT
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So that's 4 donor cars for $400-1000? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me, especially considering the price of Moggies over here, that kind of cash might get you one.
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Mar 20, 2014 23:47:34 GMT
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Cheers, Matt Haha.... Supercheap on Bogan Rd.... Vulgalour - This would be a rare exception in Aus. People want too much money for old tat. Usually a single, unrestored moggy would go for $1-2k,
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Yep, I paid $1300 for the first one, and look how it turned out. Usually a decent condition one, people want $3000+ Hence why I'm jumping on this. There's apparently another parts car in Bundaberg for $200. I'm tempted to swing past on the way back down to take a look but what am I going to do with SIX of the damn things? :\ I only want one. Sciclone, does that mean you're a local, then?
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You could make a Transformer.
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Mar 21, 2014 21:41:39 GMT
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A Transformer with muttonchops who just drank tea WOULD be amazing... But they usually transform out of one, not six. Except for the big multi-car ones I guess. That'd be a sight at a car show!
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Mar 21, 2014 22:24:15 GMT
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Great reports and pictures , love that Firebird Formula
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72 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400. 95 BMW E34 525i Manual. 80 Lotus Elite, sold 86 Mk4 Escort RWD V8, sold
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Cheers mark. Hopefully I'll be able to report on actual progress soon! Its too wet at the moment to get the cars out of the cane field they're in but should be a bit drier when I head up in a week and a halfs time. Just gotta build a ramp so I can fit 3 cars on the truck and one on a trailer. Expecting it to cost about $800 plus just for fuel for one truck so don't really want to take two!
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Great to read about all your projects and road trips!
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Mar 31, 2014 10:49:12 GMT
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Much excite! Tomorrow I jump in a truck and take the MM up to the farm to abandon for a while, and then onwards to Mackay to welcome some new old tin in to the family! Had a few hiccups, what with the intended car trailer having been sold, finding one 4 hours out of town that was available, and large enough. And then only today getting access to a similar one about 30min away. Just some final decisions made this evening about how to load everything up, but I think we have it sorted now. So well keen to get things underway again. In other car related news, was looking at an old HJ Holden at the shed that was having iffy electronic speedo issues. After a bit of diagnosis, turns out the MSD ignition system is putting out over 20 volts of noise, and happens to be located right next to the main wiring harness on the firewall. Oh, and the harness is zip-tied to the MSD wiring as well. -_- Something to remember not to do if and when I look at aftermarket ignition in the Minor, then! Will post some pics in my spot thread of said car. There is lots of chrome. Possibly too much, while somehow not enough... Aside from that, have won some wheels off the bay for my daily, just gotta get them shipped up. Hopefully that all goes smoothly... Well, time to go organise some things, and hope that the sudden and furious rain we are getting doesn't close down/wash away too many more roads between here and Mackay!
Cheers, Matt
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Well, we made it up and back in one piece! The load was... well, let's just say it was something to be proud/ashamed of. Secure, but looked reaaally dodgy. But got back drama free, unloaded them all at the farm, loaded up the Toyota one and brought it back home for some fettling. Providing I can get it through engineering, looks like a good base to start from. As far as I can tell, it's a 3K motor, so a whopping 40 kW when new! Will investigate more when I'm back from a pop culture expo. Pics then! Cheers, Matt
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