Hodgey says "Ho Ho, where's me dough?"

Hi Guys and Gals,
We tried to get Hodgey into a Santa costume for our x-mas photo shoot but he was too big for it, BTW, it was the largest size on the rack too. But we must admit that Hodgey looks sooo much healthier now that he has put all his weight back on after his recent illness!
Anyway boys and girls, everyone at Hodgey's shed wishes you all a very Merry X-mas and a Happy New year and remember to keep the money coming in 2015! Merry X-mas. . .

Hodgey's Tudor . . .

As you can see the trim figure of the big fella crawling around underneath his rod getting a couple of minor niggles fixed before the x-mas runs to the beach and Port Fairy. New lower trailing arms and tightening up the adjustments on the rear coil-overs to raise the bum a fraction to hel the ride characteristics. 'D' is also in the cabin making up a new 'hat' for the diff so the girls don't have it so rough on their bums when the rod goes crashing through the rough sections of Victoria's well kept and manicured roads. . .

'Slider' . . .

This is model number Mk II and the new poly pipe 'tyres' are very obvious. The front forks are still presenting prolems and Hodgey is going to swap them back to the original mountain bike forks in an effort to stiffen up the front end and stop the wheel loosening off and getting the wobbles. . .

Hodgey is also looking at selecting a slightly larger main sprocket to get a bit more acceleration from the rig. . .

'Slider'. . .

 Here it is, this is Mk I version. At this stage there is still a leaky brake cylinder so 'D', the test pilot, will have to either wear out his boots or crash into a wall to stop. . .

 It's not very often that you see 'D' really having fun, but by the look of the grin on his face, this thing is off it rocker. . .

 Just point the front wheel and the arse end heads off in that direction, this critter is insane. . .

The wrong sized poly pipe has the rear wheels out of shape and shaking the shit out of everything, including the goose neck and handle bars. It got to the stage that turning the wheel madeno difference, it just went where it wanted to go. Half a dozen phone calls later and two new pieces of large internal diameter poly pipe were fitted and Mk II is now a sweet thing. It goes like a came that's just been shot in the balls and handling the slides is "Easy as.", according to 'D'. Check your wallets folks, these things are ready to fly out the door with orders coming in already . . .

Ziggy's Studie . . .

 Here she is folks, you can't get he much more finished than this. All we are waiting for is a wiper arm and then she hits the road. Permits are all signed and she's ready to roll. . .

Motorized Drift Trike or 'Slider' . . .

It might look like a pile of gobbledegook but today the frame was sand blasted and primed. Yesterday the boys purchased a new motor for it because the one that they had was waaay too powerful for the job required and might have even meant that the trike had to be registered. Hodgey also purchased a length of poly pipe to fit over the tyres so the trike can do what it's meant to do, slide its arse all over the place. I will get up to date pics tomorrow and keep you posted. Don't forget that if you want one of these then you better get in early because Hodgey is only making a small batch and then that's it. . .

1929 A Model Tudor. . .

 All the floor bracing is finished in place. . .

All that's missing is the sheet metal flooring that Hodgey was busy measuring up today. . .

HJ Prem . . .

 'D' welding in a plug to fill in the hole that used to be the boot lock. Boot will now be opened via an internal release . . .

A quick wipe with a bit of bog then a quick sand and you won't even know the lock is missing. Thanks 'D' . . .

Cliff's F100 . . .

 Cliff's supplied a new front end for his F100. By the look of the condition of the inner guards, etc., there must be a shortage of parts out there because there is a lot of rusted panels arriving for repair these days. . .

 Fair dinkum, the quality of the rusty panels that people are supplying is nearly beyond belief. It's getting harder and harder to find decent second hand parts and the expectations put on Hodgey and other fabricators is bordering on rediculous.

Case at point, 'D' has to cut this door completely in hlaf to weld in new inner and outer panels due to the bottoms being completely missing due to rust. . .

Motorized Drift Trike. . .

 Ain't much I can say about this lot folks but you saw it here first. These blokes have finally bent their banana's too far and lost the fucking plot! Fair dinkum if you want the full story on these new 'nut-case- toys then get on over to YouTube and have a look at this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX4fCTO44Ic

Hodgey has got hold of an over the top go-kart and pulled it apart for all the good bits and has been busy bending up a tubular frame and springer front end. Right now he's trying to work out how he's going to attach a four foot long exhaust to the back of this insane trike. . .

'D' trying his hardest to look 'bad-arsed' but not really succeeding. Anyway this thing is well under way and will be capable of about 75kmh once she's fully rigged up, but that's not the idea of these toys. The rear wheels get inserted into poly-pipe sections and you rev the shit out of it and off you go with the arse end slippin' and slidin' all over the place. Then it's time for full on drifting competitions, these machines are fully sick. Have a look at the YouTube link and see how long it takes you before you're on the phone to Hodgey?

Ford Pilot. . .

This one is coming along nicely with all the sheet-metal flooring in place. Starting to look like a car. . .

Sorry Darren for giving your Pilot to Fat Bob. . .

1929 A Model Tudor. . .

 Full flooring sub-frame is in and getting ready for some sheet-metal . . .

 This thing looks tuffer than Woodpecker's lips. .

Sits nicely on those huge rims. Just for fun, when this thing gets full rego it's coming back in for a full air-bagsuspension job so she can sit real low. we mean parkin' her arse on the ground, low. . .

1929 A Model . . .

 Hodgey throwing plenty of heat into one of the finishing welds on the tail-shaft loop . . .

Look at the quality of the welding that Hodgey turns out, perfect ripples. . .

Sub-frame and rear end finished. . .

 Time to throw the old tub back in place and see how things fit? Dave the photo bomber is at it again, can't take a pic without him trying to sneak in and make it look like he's been working hard. Typical serial pest. . .

Tub is basically in place with just a little cutting and final fitting to do. What did I tell you about Dave? Like a big blowfly buzzing around the camera. . .

Ford Pilot Rod . . .

 Huge wheel tubs cost a bloody fortune in steel let alone the time it takes to hand mould each one into place. . .

 Both tubs in place and now it's time to do some structural work to the floor sub-rails before the flooring . . .

These tubs allow for 400mm of tyre width, so you can imagine how big these wheels are seeing as they're taking up the whole bloody space available . . .

1929 A Model 'chopped' . . .

 Andrew has been hard at making up the rear chassis for the A Model. There's a lot of work that needs to be done to bring this chassis up to standard. . .

 Triangulated four link by the look of things. . .

This chassis is an unreal combination of custom made mounts and rails. Most of the majot joints still have to have custom cut fish-plates welded in yet. . .

Joe's Mercury . . .

Neat looking addition to the front left hand side under the guard is the air conditioning lines.  . . .

'59 Dodge 'Suburban'. . .

 New job in the shed is this big Dodge 'Suburban' wagon. . .

The name says it all and it is only one year younger than me and is in far better condition, let me tell you. . .

Fat Bob's Burger with the lot . . .

 Stainless steel sheeting is in place behind the seats. . . .

The seats have been put to correctly measure their placement and to aloow full travel. Notice that false floor stencil is also in place for the measuring process, don't want to make any mistakes at this late stage in the build. Next job and the Burger runner will be out for the new exhaust system. . .

Fat Bob's Rod again. . .

 Tubs are in and allow for over 400mm wide tyre. That's friggin huge. . .

With the wheel blocked into place it shows how big the rim and tyre combination is when compared to empty tub in previous pic?

Joe's Mercury . . .

Joe's big Mercury sitting fat and happy on the blocks. Front bumper/grill assembly has been fitted along with the two doors and brand new front seat.  . .

Shorty's Shit . . .

 Looks great but sounds fucked. Having a lot of trouble with the motor that was supplied for the build. . .

Finally running, but still not quite right. . . .

Swiv's Bobber . . .

 I tell ya what, this thing is never gonna get worn out, coz the parts keep getting changed every second month. This bike never looks the same from one month to the next. . .

No matter what configuration the ciccle takes, it always looks a great litttle scooter. A new tank and a few other things and she'll be back on the road in a couple of days. Always looks good this ride!

L'il Pickup . . .

Probably the worst pic that I've ever taken and put up on this site, but I was kneeling down on a sharp fucking stone while trying to nurse my grand daughter and take these pics single handedly. Sooo I'm very sorry about the quality of this pic Trev, I put Ava dwn and the rest of the pics are OK. . .

 Fair dinkum, you gotta see this bloke working to believe his talent. This whole car took about twenty minutes, he's a genius. . .

 Fresh air intake will work a lot better with groovy pin striping. . .

As you can see, the sun was high in the sky and very hard to get proper definition without an umbrella or some sort of shade. Should of used Hodgey's old jocks, they would shade the whole fucking car!