'55 Mercury. . .

The firewall of the Mercury has all been filled and ground down ready for a coat of paint to make it look a bit nicer, but the work to fill all the spaces certainly takes time and considerable talent. . .

Time to start filling in the massive gaps in the wheel tubs, another time consuming process where you need to do lots of little welds and then grind them dow for the perfect finish. If you try doing it with one long weld, you will get waaay too much heat into the steel and it will buckle all over the place while cooling down. . .

FE Holden . . .

Here we go again, gloss black paint and polished metal all in the one pic and your looking at it thinking what the hell is all that shit? Well there's a polished fuel cell by Wheels, and the gloss black floor pan by Hodgey, there's also some coil-overs and braided fuel line. As to what it is and where it is, you figure it out yourself!

Big'n Black and slammed on its guts . . .

 The big fella trying to impress the crowd with his one-armed push-ups . . .

 Have a look at the length of this bloody thing, I nearly had to climb over the fence to fit it in the screen. . .

 His instructions were to put it in the weeds, well at the moment we don't have too many weeds, but it's certainly sitting low to the concrete. . .

Pretty good shot even if I do say so myself. Might have to ask for a pay rise after pics like this making his blog look so good. . .

FE Holden . . .

 Dave's been working fairly hard on this job and once again it's all the bloody little things that slow you right down. The old B&H gear selector has been removed and a period correct, ot hot-rod style, selector with digital read-out has been installed. Well it's half way done, Dave's been sooking and carrying on about how hard it is to get his big mitts into the tiny spaces, so Quicky is going to finish it on Thursday. Apart from that, the rest of the interior is ready for the trimmers. . .

The twin air cleaners just sneak a peak through the bonnet and it would be touch and go as to whether the cop would allow it on the day I suppose? Andrew has been working hard under the bonnet, removing all the colored anodizing on all the Speedflow fittings, they look a bit like a dog's breakfast with all the different colors connecting up the braided lines, so now with the anodizing removed it all looks like it's just polished alloy . . .

The custom bonnet emblem is another situation where the 'bling' seems to have been taken a bit too far? Fair dinkum, there is bloody bling on everything and it needs some serious trimming back. . .

New Arrival . . .

This one is straight off the tray truck and will be on the hoist tomorrow. As you can see from the size of the rubbers hiding underneath the bum of this thing that it's been here before for some pretty serious tub work. Well the new work is even more serious and includes chssis connectors and other strengthening mods due to the engine bay receiving a new 502(Ithink) c.i., bent eight with a massive asthma pump added to the passenger side to create enough boost to scare the chickens off laying for the next six weeks. . .

New Work Ute . . .

 Cabin section standing up on its edge after Dylan has welded in the new flooring sections . . .

This side is a better view as it shows the bracing that he installed before he measured up the sheet-metal and cut it to shape and size, then added a bit of the mig wire to the flooring sheets.
It looks like it's turning out to be a fun little ute and a great project for Dylan to hone his skills on. . .

Lessons Learned . . .

This is a picture of Bruce with his head pulled in.


Sorry Leese. . .

New Work Ute . . .

 Dylan working hard on the new flooring for the new work ute. Making plenty of sparks, we like sparks!

 New flooring supports in place and all ground up ready for some sheet metal and a nice big tunnel. . .

Have a look at this pair of hobo's. The roof's had about 5inches cut out of it and it still looks like Dylan's going to need a child's booster seat before he's allowed to go for a drive. . .

The old rod is starting to come together really well seeing as it's only a part-time, fill-in job for Dylan to do and was only started two weeks ago.

FE Holden . . .

 Right-e-o people what we are looking at here is the hand-made cover that is sitting between the wheel tubs. This was made up to cover up all the new suspension and mounting points that now sit about 5inches up into the old boot space. If you look carefully you can see the two large holes that allow sockets into the top mount of the coil-overs. Most shops leave this area uncovered and it's a bit like getting your fish and chips without any wrapping paper, not only does it look shithouse but it makes a mess when you try and carry them out of the shop! This really tidies up the boot space. . .

Now I'm sorry fellas but I'm trying to do the bloody impossible with the next two photos. Photographing black on black is like trying to fit your thumb up a squirrel's arse, it don't work. Hodgey has made up an amazing cover plate for underneath the back of the car. It completely covers all the exposed areas except the bloody great hole that will eventually be filled by the fuel tank . . .

If you look carefully you can see the refractive reflection of the coil-over shock in the right side of screen, this is all the cover plate painted in gloss black. When the car arrived there was the same old standard braided fuel line and pumps and filters hanging everywhere that seems to be the 'in' thing at the moment, to Hodgey it looks like some lazy bastard can't be bothered doing the job properly or hasn't got enough imagination to work out how to finish a job neatly. I'm just gonna have to work out how to take better pictures so that I can do full justice to his abilities with the metalwork . . .

FE Holden . . .

 First time in a long time that I've seen the FE on the ground. Time to screw the rear doors back on and send it off to the trimmers . . .

Plenty of the pretty stuff here, enough bling to keep the Kardashian's happy for the next three series . . .

All bling aside, this is a pretty serious small block and commands a bit of respect when the tyres start turning . . .

Work Ute . . .

 Dylan's been working hard on the new work ute and as you can see both the doors are now welded up and hanging in place. . .

 New roof line has been welded in and Dylan has done a great job of radiusing the corners and curves of the new rear screen . . .

 LHS of the cabin turned out to be a little bit harder to line up than the driver's side, but not to worry, a little extra time taken by Dylan and the lines are looking fabulous. I'd hate to be the glazier that has to cut out the new piece of glass for this screen . . .

How cool does this view look? Four inch rear windscreen shouldn't be too hard to keep de-fogged, seeing out of the bastard might be another story?

FE Holden . . .

Dylan working hard at  welding up some support brackets for a cover/diffuser system for under the rear of the car. Previous builder just hung fuel lines, fuel pump and fuel tank under the rear of the car and it looks like a bit of a dog's breakfast. Andrew decided to lift all the fittings up into the cavities and recesses and then cover up the exposed areas with sheetmetal so that it not only fills in these ugly exposed areas but will also channel the air straight under the car and reduce the amount of turbulence that destabilises the rear end at high speed . . .

New Work Ute . . .

This is what happens when you chop about 5inches out of the roof of your car, you need to section your doors to makes the bloody things fit again . . .

Speaking of the roof line, The Dylanator has been spending a few hours, nearly all fucking day, on tidying up the joins where the roof line re-meets the cabin . . .

 This is the roofine finding its way onto the windscreen pillar. Smal windscreen to be looking out of, especially with Hodgey's big block of a head . . .

 Most folks wouldn't know this, but this picture is one of the rarest images on print at the moment, Dylan actually doing some work on a Monday, this is scarcer than rocking horse shit!

Well here's the progress so far flks, kinda looks like it should be starring in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or some fucked up rare-arsed flick of that era. Wouldn't surprise me if Mary Poppins jumped out of the back seat with a few dozen penguins?

FE Holden . . .

 New diff has arrived back from the painters and now it's time to add some brakes and get her back underneath. . .

Diff is now back where it belongs and the coil-overs are making an appearance also. Dave is getting the easy job of re-fitting the drum brakes, i dunno how it works out but Dave always seems to end up with the simplest of jobs? Like really, how bloody hard can it be to re-install a set of FE Holden drum brakes?

GM Day Ballarat. . .2013

Gidday folks, well what a fuck-up today was. You've got the Bacchus Marsh Rod Show that's been running for a hundred years on and then the idiots from Ballarat Early Holden Club decide to run their second only show on the same day! Anyway Hodgey, being the great bloke that he is, sends me out to Dowling Forest for some pics while he takes his bunch of critters down to Bacchus Marsh for a family day. Not only does he see all the 'different' cars on display, he gets a swap meet to browse through and a shit load of things for the kids to do.
Anyway, if anyone is interested, there's a few pics of today's cars from Dowling Forest on Hodgeys Gallery page. Just click on the link and the little man inside your 'puter will connect you up with the pics. . .

New Work Ute . . .

 Hodgey decided that there was just enough time after the tow truck job to mark out the roof chop on the work ute. Once the boys get those power hacksaws going it doesn't take long to remove the scalp of the old timer . . .

 Relief cuts made into the rear cabin section so that when the two remaining pieces are brought together and beaten into shape, there is enough room in the relief cut to remove the excess steel.

 Poor old Dylan, whenever he had to get into the cabin section to help out with the moulding together of the upper and lower sections there seemed to be some strange odour that was rather off-putting and made it very hard to concentrate, The only common occurance before Dylan's entry to the cabin was Dave's exit from the cabin. Maybe the two strange phenomena could be linked somehow?

5inch roof chop and the cabin is sitting back on the Toyota chassis and looking good, even if I must say so myself . . .

Front on view of the new cabin section and she looks bitchin'. This is gonna be one crazy work ute, complete with triple strombergs sitting on top of a particularly attitude proned Cleveland.

Learmonth Rd tow truck . . .

 It's tuff work being a tow truck and the rear wheel carrier arm has had a major malfunction and just shit itself . . .

 Now we're not really sure as to whether Dylan is taking really close measurements here or he's just gone to sleep, either way, there doesn't appear to be much happening . . .

 This is the arm that snapped after years of work and Dave and Dylan, after careful measuring were able to get hold of a new one from Mesh and Masonry . . .

Lining up the actual lifting arms before welding them back into place. Not as easy as it seems with Dylan in oneof his playful moods anything could happen . . .

'39 Mercury Coupe . . .

'39 Mercury Coupe with a fairly large 'chop' to the roof line in for some chassis modifications . .

 Coupe is in outstanding condition and being a coupe is a very rare specimen and originates from Argentina . . .

Not too many modern updates here, anout the only new thing under the bonnet is the rather small battery . . .

Now for the chassis works. The old coupe has been lowered considerably and Hodgey is the master of notching the chassis rails to allow an extra three inches travel in this case. As can be seen, this rail is unaltered and the old rubber bum-stop is being held in place for photographic purposes . . .

 This is where the magician has perfomed his stroke of mastery and the notch is finished and the chassis rail is actually stronger with other mods carried out on the inside and not in a position to be photographed. Hodgey has yet to replace the rubber rebound stop with a newer modern unit that is of a special rubber and gives the same rebound effect being only 3-4mm thick.

Just a quick pic of the interior and as can be seen there is not much out of place and is in pristine condition, although I think that the clock is still on Argentinian time?