HJ Prem . . .

 Bruce's x-mas present, right on time. . .

Full wiring loom for the HJ from Summit . . .

Am I ever going to see your face again. . .

Is it true? Has Hodgeys Mercury decided to leave and take up residence in another's shed?

HJ Prem . . .

Twin Ford AU fans for the HJ front end will assist in keeping the new motor's temper under control. . . we hope?

Ranchero. . .

 Dylan has jumped in, boots and all, with the mods for the Ranchero. Keen to get an early new year start on this one 'D' has tacked in the new floor panels that he made up himself and even strengthened with swage lines, good work 'D'. . .

As you can see, there's gonna be a fair bit of metalwork needed in the back of the old ute. The huge space under the floor at the rear of the cabin is going to provide some excellent storage space to place quite a few 'out of the way' items, so a huge bonus . . .

FE Holden: New day, new direction . . .

Vic Roads has closed its engineering/rego dep't for x-mas, so no rego's until the new year. This means that the FE is now going onto 'H' Plates for a while and all the uneccesary parts are coming back off, talk about a pain in the arse, but what you come to expect from VicRoads . . .

FE Holden . . .

Not what you expect from a big dollar transmission, this appears to be the first release of the new T700R 2speed. someone forgot to hook up the 3 & 4 gears by the look of things. Not to worry, the boy's don't seem to be doing much these days but chasing faults for people trying to get their cars regoed for road duty. Might be simpler if people planned the process from the start?

What next? . . .

Looks like it's gonna be one of 'those' weeks in the shed. Johnny's havin a real shit-fight with his trike at the moment with a constant flow of gremlins pissin him off. At the moment it is constantly overheating and not running right. . .

FE Holden . . .

Don't blame me if there's been no updates recently, it's all because of this monster. There is, and always will be, a hell of a difference between 'H' plates and full rego. This one is going for full rego and has been kicked all over the oval by the engineer. First hurdle is an exemption for the 350 motor due to power to weight ratio. This requires a weigh bridge certificate and dyno forms as well as the engineer's approval. . .

After fitting all new seat belts, the engineer didn't like the mounting point beiing too weak and flexing during a rapid stop. Subsequently the boys had to make new mounts that carried all the way through to the wheel tub. Try doing that and keep both the engineer and show judges happy.
But as usual, the boys have exceeded both requirements with flair . . .

HJ Prem . . .

 After installing and removing about 15 sets of rear springs, we have finally reached the right ride height for the HJ. Sitting low and mean and still plenty of room for the engineer to work with and not low enough to worry the usual attention seeking Highway Patrol. . .

It might look a long way from being finished. . .you're right! hehehe, but it had to be set up properly underneath befre going anywhere else. . .

New Tray . . .

Things don't stay the same around here for long, except if your a HJ Prem? But as you can see this new tray is nearing completion in the fabrication stage. Dylan is now finishing up the lengthy task of stitch welding all the tray plates to the sub-frame. Hodgey has just ducked out for a few litres of etch primer and the next time that you see a pic of this tray it will be all spruced up and painted . . .

'55 Mercury . . .

Vastly different pic from yesterday's, the front end has been completely removed leaving only the front section of the chassis mounted in place on the rack ready to be welded and blocked in. . .

Bert's Drifter . . .

 Window selection time for Bert and his modified Drifter. This style fills the opening completely from side to side and the factory black shading on the glass will cover the frame surrounds . . .

 This time the glass sits in the middle and will be surrounded by metalwork. Note that on both styles there will be a rear mounted wiper and stop light mounted in the metal work above the door . . .

The big boy showing off his newly made up rear door for the Drifter. The door opens upwards and the glass panel will open up seperate from the main tail gate . . .

Your choice Bert . . .

'55 Mercury . . .

Andrew and Dave have fitted up the front panels to line up the chassis and body together so that they can fit the new front end. The boys have been doing it the old fashioned way with string lines and cross-over measurements going in all directions to make sure that the front end is perfectly centred before the Migs are fired up and the welding begins . . .

New Tray . . .

The boys taking a light-hearted approach to installing a new tray onto this old tow vehicle. It's now being set up to carry plaster sheets for its new owner . . .

Bert's Drifter . . .

 Bert has certainly come up with a radical plan for his Drifter. Hodgey has been busy making up the framework for the new one piece rear door with seperate glass opening.

 This close-up shows the new door frame and the depth of the actual design necessary to accomplish the requirements of the owner . . .

Hodgey holding the new tail-gate door-skin in place. Skin was moulded by Wayne Walsh who did a superb job as per usual. Hodgey now has to make up the rear glass that will open seperate to the door and also has to mould in stop light and wiper mount as well as latch for opening. This is going to be one special piece of glass. . .

Johnny's 'Shoebox' . . .

This is Johnny's pride and joy and has just been in for a new fuel tank and guage, new from back to front it's now possible to know how much petrol is in the tank. Beautiful example of the classic Chev . . .

'55 FE Holden . . .

TUFFFE is all finished and just waiting on the Engineer's arrival to sign off on all the work and then it's back to its owner . . .

Show duties or highway miles, it's your decision, this baby is ready for both and will handle the highway like a maniac. It's already proven itself on the show circuit . . .

'32 Ford Roadster . . .

 This is one that the boy's created 3years ago and it's in for a new starter motor. . .

350 chev stroked to 383 and running a supercharger from The Blower Shop and twin carbies, handles beautifully . . .

'48 Buick Sedanet . . .

Big and brown '48 Buick. This one belongs to Marcus from Tiki Beat fame and has been laying around for a while awaiting parts and final fitment. Well time has come and the boys have got it nearly ready for the road, motor was started today for the first time in 10years today. After a bit of a clean-up the big old motor roared into life and ticked over like a clunky old clock, but she now runs and runs well . . .

Nigel's back . . .

Remember that nutter from South Australia with the 700HP Firebird? Yeah the one who kept breaking it and then his next trick was to stuff a blown 400 chev into some Hillbilly's moonshine rig from the depression years and called it a Gasser, well the clown's back! This time he's gonna go completely nuts and drop a 50's FTruck onto a piss-ant Hilux ute chassis, bag the thing and then use it as his delivery vehicle. If you live in Adelaide, I'm givin ya six months notice, leave soon!

Donor vehicle in for major break-down, motor and gear box already gone. . .

Instead of break-down, maybe I should have said break-up? Her skirt is lifted leaving the tub and chassis. . .

Look at the fat face on this nose heavy cruncher. No wonder they used it for breaking down road blocks in the back woods, selling their 'Hillbilly mouthwash' . . .

'55 Mercury . . .

This car seems to be getting a bit of 'air' time lately? Diff is finally back from the bloke in Geelong, he's certainly not worried about taking his time, but geez he does bloody good work. . .

Cracka of a diff but it's gonna get a pounding when the twin hair driers start spinning. Good way to dry your hair girls, let your man put twin driers on his motor and all you have to do is put your head out the window at 200 and it'll be dry in 10secs. Either that or rip ya bloody head off, win, win, fellas. . .

Cadillac Fleetwood . . .

Have a look at the size of this mongrel, geez talk about boat people, you could house a family of them in here and no-one would know, except for the lack of life jackets!
Cadillac Fleetwood folks, she's in to be lowered and how the fuck Hodgey is gonna do that is anyone's guess and he's also gotta get rid of that purple roof, much to Johnny's disgust, coz purple is his favorite color . . .talkin about Johnny, nah better not, he'll kill me if I tell you. . .

Baby Steps . . .

Alright people, obviously small steps were waay too quick for some of you so we are going to slow things down to Baby Steps. . . hahaha geez, I crack myself up. Settle down you lot, someone rudely asked "what the bloody hell does Hodgey do all day?" so apart from telling him to mind his own business, I thought that I might let you all know how busy the big fella is and then you lot fire up with all these conspiracy theories and start panicking. . . .madness, but remember that we can't upset Fat Toe!

'55 Mercury . . .

Front end to Joe's Merc as I promised. The boys have worked really hard to piece it all together and mount it onto the rack in roughly its right position. Looks the goods and certainly has superb workmanship. Worth the money? I certainly think so. . .

 Details of the outer assembly with tubular arms, Air-Ride system and power steering rack. . .

Another view of the Merc with front guard positioned to check placement of the new front end and how it runs with the classic body lines of the Merc. This car is avision and certainly looking the goods at the moment. In the rear you can see the newly rolled flooring by the Hodgeman himself. . .

'55 Mercury . . .

The new front end arrived from Rocket Industries today after being ordered and custom made in the States, with a six week turn around. The boys were just starting to unwrap the pallet load of goodies when I left, so pics to follow on Monday. What I saw certainly looked good quality workmanship, so that will put a smile on the owner's face. Now we just need a certain diff builder from Geelong to pull his finger out and make good with his promises and the Merc will be flying along and be able to be taken off the rack and onto it's own four feet. . .

Bert's Drifter . . .

Dylan havin' a real go here folks. Fair dinkum, this kid puts out exceptional work, any time any day, as long as it's not Monday or Friday, or if the wind is blowing coz that upsets his hay-fever. And don't even mention work if he's sister is in a bad mood coz that completelu unravels his planets. But today seemed to be a good day and the planets were all lined up, but we're gonna have to ring his mum to buy him a belt for his shorts because we're sick of looking at the crack of his arse all the time. . .mum please ???

Now Bert decided that he wanted reversing lights and a low-profile number plate 'fitted' to his new bumper bar, so luckily for Bert, Dylan's planets were good to go and job's done. . .

After a few minutes with the grinder and files Dylan was more than happy, elated might be a better word, to climb in under Bert's Drifter and re-fit the bumper bar for only the fourteenth time. . .Good onya D.

Just another day . . .

Just a normal day in the car-park at Hodgey's, these rigs are what the worker's ride and drive, so can you imagine the shit that get's dragged in to be worked on? Except, of course, the really nice EH wagon and the bad-arsed HJ Prem that's just waiting to burn rubber and blow decibels and shit everywhere at its first chance. . .they're two really nice cars owned by two very nice and law abiding citizens with only 16 outstanding arrest warrants and convictions between them.

Bert's Drifter . . .

 New full width bumper bar is now being closely fitted to the rear and the contours are amazingly close to original side bumperettes. . .

You can see where Dylan has cut the bumperettes down and welded them to the ends of the new bumper to complete the system. Just a bit more grinding and a lot of polishing and this thing is off to the chrome platers for that added bling. . .

FE Holden . . .

Dave's finished re-routing the tail-pipes and given them a nice flat black coat of paint. When I left today, Dave and Andrew were modifying a Harley fuel cap and new hand-made inlet for the fuel system and this refurbishment is just about finished. Looking reeal cool . . .

FE Holden . . .

After getting the FE back from Griff's Upholstery yesterday, Dave put the car straight up on to the hoist and got rght back into it. Only things left to do are cut up the tail pipes and re-route them around the new four-link suspension and coil-over shocks. You can see here that he has one done and is in the middle of grinding up all the new welds before painting and fitment. . .

'55 Mercury . . .

After all his hard craftmanship yesterday, Dylan remounted the dash into the Mercury this morning. It's been a very productive day so far. . .

Bert's Drifter . . .

Dylan had been woking hard on grinding, sanding and polishing this newly profiled length of plate steel that is going to be Bert's new full width rear bumper bar. Andrew has had the steel plate put through a 'brake something" machine, which is basically a very large and heavy metal profiler that does a very good job of copying the profiles of certain bumper bars and makes it easier for sme of the larger custom jobs, Dylan has been filing, etc., all the creases to give them a rounder, fuller look instead of the squarish appearance they have when removed from the press . . .

FE Holden . . .

 FE arriving back from Griff's Upholsters, big Dick can be seen unloading. I didn't say he had a big dick, I said it was big Dick, I didn't say he had a small dick either, FN hell, I haven't even seen his dick, so let's just say it's Dick and he's a bit big?

Inside rear compartment and seats have been modified to allow for the new tubs that were installed. . .

The new materials used in the rear match the front perfectly. . .

Inside the boot loks top notch and the panels, although filling spaces, still leave the boot looking spacious . . .

 Pull down back panel hides the boot mounted battery and windscreen washer. . .

On her way to the back door and straight up onto the hoist for the rear ends of the exhaust system to be re-fitted. Due to the massive custom job carried out byAndrew and Dave, the exhaust is now going to have to be re-done from the mufflers back . . .BTW, Griff did a bloody great job with the upholstery! Kudo's to you mate.