Sic 'em Rex. . .

Interior is nearly finished with just a couple of things left to do. All important product stickers for a bit of bling and at least an extra 10mph faster. All goes well for this beast, painted in a 'fast' red and plenty of stickers should add at least 20mph to the total elapsed speed, this thing is gonna be a killer. . .

Strange Happenings. . .

 Stange beginnings at the rear end. . .

 Beautiful lines and curves of the Strange 9inch diff. . .

 Billet axles as thick as your wrist. . .

Rounding out the package is one of the most amazing tail-shafts that I've ever seen. . .have a look at the size of this chrome-moly monster.

Quick job but steep learning curve. . .

The Big man was approached by a young 'tradie' and was asked to make up a new custom tray and dog kennels for his 4by and right away Andrew thought that it would be a good exercise for the apprentice to tackle. Andrew set young Dylan up with John to supervise and guide him through the process. John is a master craftsman from waay back and just the sort of bloke to show Dylan the correct way to do things without setting everything on fire, even if it is John himself that Dylan ends up burning. . .

Gasser now turns. . .

After some very complicated surgery, the Gasser now has tremendous steering capabilities with the help of some old and new parts machined and pieced together like it was supposed to be there.
Actually works far better than the old system that was extremely vague. . .

Johnny's Trike. . .

The Enforcer overseeing the creation of his monster ride. No room for the faint-hearted around here, any sign of weakness and you'll be ridin' Bitch in the seat down back of this evil man's ride. . .

Tick. . Tick. . Tick. .

 Fuel cell mounted in rear of Pick-up and custom red tint rear lexan windscreen. . .groovy

 Hand made front shocker towers are a really nice touch but a tower of strength. . .pardon the pun

The Big-Boy adding the finishing touches to the radiator mounts. . .huge capacity of radiator makes me think that this is one 'hot' project. . hahaha

Have a look at this. . . Easy Rider

Peter Fonda and Jack Nickolson eat your hearts out, have a look at this crazy bloody ride that's dropped in for a re-fit. . .Peace Man.

Slowly but surely. . .

Steering system has been giving the boys a few headaches, as the frame and front end sit the steering requires a pump that pushes instead of pulls and all the pumps around these days operate in the opposite direction. A pump was sourced from a HR Holden and fits in nicely.

 It's all the little jobs that are taking up the time and the 'To Do' list pasted onto the windscreen is still fairly long. BTW, the Gasser has had new hand cut windscreens fitted since last report. . .
Looking good.

With all the MSD finally stowed away under the dash and various other places, Quickie is now able to get a solid run at the wiring. It doesn't help him knowing that the engine guru is arriving Friday to fire up the massive big block to breathe some life into this Cranky Custom. . .

Photo Shoot. . .

Live to Ride photo guru Knackerz rang the big fella for a favor, he needed some great cars and bikes for a quick photo shoot with the lovely Mia. . .

Mia would be welcome to sit anywhere she wanted, but she certainly makes a difference to the big man's special ride. . .beautiful lady!

Slowly but surely. . .

 How's this for originality, old hardwood floor boards in the back. . .

 Interior slowly coming back together including Mack Trucking Corp switch panel. . .

Gauge cluster looking good in hand made instrument panel. . .

Moving to the interior. . .

The boys have moved to the interior and started the fit out. Check out the hand made door panels made up by Hodgey. we're undecided as to whether they stay clean-skins or suffer the rust treatment as well. Auto-elec, I've forgotten his name because it's been so long, moved in today to start all the wiring too. . .

Things move fast in this shed. . .

 Yesterday the shed doors were closed on a bare chassis and today things have been screaming along at a cracking pace. . .cabin is on, chev big block is back, nestled between the rails and doors are hung. . .

 Tub is back on, diff is hanging in place and old-style drag slicks with white walls are mounted up. Glow Heating and Cooling are the crowning touches to the, mostly, hand painted body work.
Glow is the name of Nigel's company after being founded by his father in 1945. . .

 Faded and rusty paint job literally has to be seen 'in the flesh' to fully appreciated the masterful finish. Words don't adequately describe what the eye see's. . .

Another hand painted sign on the front fenders. .

 

Nigel's Gasser gets updated to Rusty Red. . .

 Nigel's Gasser sitting on the jacks before being taken down and turned from this. . .

 . . .into THIS !!! Professionally prepared rust finish mixed in with the weathered looking red.

 Completely clear coated, this is the finished look and won't rust any further. . .

Nigels asked for a weather-beaten look and Trevor has delivered the goods. . .in spades!

Update. . .Johnny's Trike

The Director sitting in the Director's Chair and asking all the hard questions, "Where's my bloody trike?". . .

 Look out it's gonna be on, Johnny's looking for his whip to get things cracking. . .

 A rib-cage of tubular steel, not even Batman can beat that. . .

Tubular frame mount following graceful lines to the rear where it's going to be solid mounted to the shortened 9inch diff. . .not that Johnny's got a big arse, it's just that the boys are expecting some serious burnouts from the old fella!

It's been heavily reinforced in around here just incase Johnny decides to wring its neck in a fit of anger. . .

Street Machine Faux Paux. . .

 For those that didn't pass Grade School a faux paux is a fuck up and Paul Tuzson made one when he said in his Street Machine article "Legally High" that "Valiants also need a front end swap because it's just too difficult to make the system (Airide) work with torsion bar suspension." This old girl looks great slammed on her belly in Hodgey's yard after a quick air bag fit out. . .

As a matter of fact she was waay too low to get off the hoist. . .

 Hand made rear hangers and a set of 3inch lowering blocks supplied by the customer and it's 'ground floor' only from now on. . .

 Front end bags sitting in nicely. . .

Front view with shock re-mounted and she's still wearing the original drum brake system. . .

Christmas Rush. . .

 Anthony's 'Bobber' looking better all the time, now the paint has been removed from the tank and rear mud guard. . .

 This is where the big interest arises from now on, this 'Gasser' has to be driven out the door before christmas, oh it has to be finished too!
Front end has been removed for painting of the chassis and a bit ofradiator fabrication before final rebuild. . .

 Huge extractor systems are designed to go straight out the side guards and rearwards through the front outer guards. . .Big motor, BIG pipes!

 Driver's side is much the same as the other side except that Dave had to cut the extractors and re-route them to get them outside the inner guards, current design was waaay too short. . .

 Dave busily remaking some of the mounting plates for the Pick-up's cabin so that all the lines and curves are perfectly symmetrical when bolted up. . .

 

 

 Big Bad Johnny lifting the tub away from the Pick-up, Herculian strength needed for this job and Johnny does it with ease!

 As can be seen in this image because of the huge width of the outer guards, only very small mini-tubs are required to completely house the massive drag slicks. . .

LHS of the tub shows that only a 75mm cut-out was all that was necessary to take the tub frame across to the chassis making for some small tubs.

 

 

Golden oldie from a bi-gone era. . .

Nigel's Gasser is moving right along with its new tub and guards now in place and something for you oldies out there. . .a Balance Bar, used in the sixties to stop wheel spin. The old timers would fill it up with lead, steel, rocks, anything that they could find to add a bit of weight to the rear end to pull that arse down and get a bit of extra grip. . .

F100 Long-whheeled base. . .

Just a real quick update on the F100, the dash is all cut'n shut and the instrument cluster is in place, good work from the apprentice. . .