Seen better days. . .

Nice ride with an even nicer faded paint job. . .

Nissan Patrol. . .

A young bloke walked in off the street and asked The Awsomenator if he could make up a rear bar and spare wheel hanger for his Patrol? No worries leave it with me and I will fix it up. You can see the bar taking shape here. . .

Awsomenator using one of his crooked eyes to try and run a straight line with the side panel. He's alright if he closes one eye, but if he leaves both of them open then shit could be going anywhere!. . .looks like he's doing alright at the moment though?

Finished bar back from the powder coaters and original Patrol tail-lights are in place. Fantastic looking unit and under half the price of the quote from Nissan. . .

Plenty of strength here for the heavy load that the spare wheel imparts on the pivot and nylon bushing. . .customer is deciding as to whether he wants a jerry can holder fitted as well. Awsomenator was ahead of the game on this one and included the mounting brackets for future fitment. . .

Ziggy's Studebaker. . .

Rear springs have been removed, cleaned up and painte and custom lowering blocks made-up and installed. The brake calipers have been removed and sent for refurbishment. . . 

New hangers have had to be organised after it was found that those that had been fitted 'elsewhere' to the vehicle were not long enough and another section had simply been welded on to extend the old hangers. For reasons of safety and legality, Hodgey has binned the old hangers and supplied new units for the job. . .

Plymouth. . .

Rear doors have been welded in and door handles shaved. Front of rear door has had the old 'front' section refitted so when the front door is opened it looks as per original. . .

Driver's side same as passenger side and now waiting for the big roof chop. . .

Old internal skins of the rear doors being trimmed up for re-fitting to interior. These will be used to hold rear glass and for door custom door trims to be measured and fitted. . .

Look Out. . .

Johnny's on the war-path. We all know that Friday is Trike Day, not even an act of God can change that, well last Friday Andrew decided to take in an urgent job and the trike was pushed to the back of the shed. Well that act of lunacy was bad enough, but Johnny's just worked out that this week is Good Friday and that will mean two weeks without any work on his pride and joy. To say that the atmosphere is a little tense in the shed at the moment is a monumental understatement. We have no idea as to how Andrew is gonna dig his way out of this one, but one thing's for sure at the moment, no-one is standing close to him just in case they get caught up in the collateral damage. For my part, I have included this lovely pic of Johnny and his pride and joy in an effort to "soothe the beast."

Plymouth. . .

Last time we saw this one the owner had decided to give it a roof chop and turn it into a 2door coupe. well off comes the rear door and out comes the B pillar. . .

This pic shows the door 'stretched' to new coupe length with a sizeable piece added from a donor pair of front doors. . .
You will also note that the B pillar has been welded into its new position and check out the perfect gap between the pillar and door. . .

One step backwards here as Hodgey measures up and fits the old B pillar into its new location. . .

And here's one we completed earlier, passenger side all fitted out and ready for the next major disruption. . . a 4inch roof chop with the rear window layed forward. This is going to be one mongrel of a job with the rear window being heavily curved and scarce as rocking horse poo!

F100. . .

Conversion to RHD is neering completion with steering hooked up out front. The shaft runs at a fair angle but she works like a dream. . .

Inside the cabin see's that things have been ticking over nicely with the steering column set up in place and new floor and dash mountings have the column sitting at a great angle to allow complete vision through the windscreen and also through the wheel for a full view of the gauges.
Dylan has also mounted a new brake pedal in a nice position close to the accelerator. . .

It's Back. . .

We thought that we had seen the last of this bike, especially seeing that the owner was so happy with it. Well, it turns out that he's sooo happy that now he wants to register it and ride it on the street every day. She's gonna need a set of front brakes for rego though and that's what she's down here for. . .

Next Victim. . .

Andrew first saw this car twelve and a half years ago and now the owner has brought it to Andrew asking if he can fit it into his shed in an effort to get it finished. . . 

She's a '37 Studebaker with a Torana front end that someone has sliced in half to make fit and the LHS rear wheel sits nicely in the middle of the rear guard while the RHS rear wheel is approx., 4inches too far forward! Nice blue firewall though. . .

Gidday Burt. . .

Burt dropped by yesterday with his '77 Charger.
Nice looking unit hey? That XR8 bonnet bulge would seem to suggest something sinister lurking under the hood. . .???

This particular Charger is a full 300C Chrysler implant into the '77 coupe. Engine bay is an exact copy of the outlay as seen in the 5.7lt 300C

 Full 300C interior has been transferred into the c
Charger. The floor panels had to be lowered and flattened so that the seating position was low enough to allow vision through the window and not the slit between the hood lining and visors. . .

Full four wheel disc braking with factory ABS controls. Every sensor from the 300C has been installed into and working as required in the Coupe. This thing drives like a brand new car and is very efficient with approx 10lt per 100k/m. . .

Chevy/HX sex change. . .

Tub is off for fitting up of the gas tanks and checking/strengthening of mounting points. . .

Twin gas tanks are now mounted up and tub mounting points are in process of being strengthened. Diff has to be moved forward 100mm to place the rear wheel in the centre of the wheel arch. . .

Johnny's Trike. . .

Inlet manifold has now been finished and carby mounted and cabled up ready to go. Hand fabricated piping in and around the frame is a very time consuming process and sometimes it's one step forward and then two steps back. . .

Mounting bracket for the gear selector cable for the Trimatic gearbox. This is the first incarnation and will probably end up getting fiddled with for perfect positioning.

This is the problem area with the trike sitting so low and the selector lever swinging down to a clearance height of only 75mm things are gonna have to change down here? Remember that four exhaust pipes have to run through here also. . .

HJ. . .

HJ sitting up in the air for a "First Inspection" from Michael. Michael is happy with the serious under body mods carried out at this stage and is 'happy' for the build to continue with his now full list of mods to be carried out. It is sooo much easier working with an Engineer, especially with the new laws that have just passed through Government. Yes that is the motor for the build and is a mild stroker. . .
Owe Dylan a debt of gratitude on this one too, the poor kid has spent a couple of days underneath scraping and wire brushing all the muck and deadener from the floor surfaces; it's a bastard of a job, BUT, thanks mate. . .

Chevy/HX sex change. . .

Dave's been working hard on this one. The Chevy body is now sitting completely on the HX frame. As can be seen in the pic, there is a huge amount of room in the engine bay. . .

Front section of the subframe will have to be shortened fractionally so that it can be boxed in and generally 'neatened' up so that it looks like it grew there. . .

Rear cabin mount underneath, still a couple of small alterations before it's fully welded up. . .

Floor inside the tub had to be raised approximately four inches to allow for clearance of the rear half ofthe One Tonner's full length frame. Inside the tub there is still a wall height of 360mm and nothing looks out of place. . .

F100. . .

Turning out to be a popular build this one.As you can see Dylan ha hand crafted a set of shocker towers and tacked them into place awaiting Hodgey's final check before allowing them to be fully welded into place. As can be seen the front cross member has been welded into place and all open sections have been boxed in. These are the little things that turn an ordinary job into a first class finish and makes the difference. Quality workmanship comes from people taking their time in the slow lane. . .

Dylan tacking in the driver's side shocker tower. . .

Sshhh, tomorrow's Friday. . .

This is where the trike was left off last week folks, but no more talk about Johnny's little tree stumps. Rumor has it that last weekend while sitting at the 'puter one of his little stumps took root and he'd still be there if it wasn't for the quick work of his lovely wife and a chainsaw!
Just remember. . . you didn't hear it here!

Another new job. . .

Nice looking Chevy Pick-up. What's wrong with it? F*#ked if I know but the whole cabin and tub are to be removed and installed onto the HX One Tonner frame below.
Just for the purposes of full disclosure, the Pick-up is right hand drive and has previously been registered in Australia. . .

This is the one tonner that is the donor vehicle for the above cabin and tray. Dylan hard at work with a rattle gun getting the panels of ASAP. As can be seen from the excellent photo taken by an outstanding amatuer sleuth, the donor car has been involved in a fairly heavy front on game of biffo with another vehicle. One would wonder as to the HX's suitability as a sound replacement for the running gear of the Chevy. . .

Dylan's at Hoggwarts (apprentice school) today and the dismantling will have to wait until next week. . .

HJ. . .

Firewall repair work and blanking plates hand made and welded in by Dylan. His alterations and craftmanship on this job has been outstanding considering that he is only a few months into his apprenticeship.

Wiper motor removed and more holes filled, just waiting now for the painter to get started on the firewall and spray a few coats of a really reflective gloss red to make a statement and a slight contrast to the main color scheme. . .

Dylan's been at it again with more rust repair work. Driver's door is very sad and will have to be replaced. As stated, this is Dylan's first big solo project and the owner is happy to have him on board. . .

Well Friday IS trike day. . .

Gear lever has been polished and grooved for both appearance and strength and it has also had an Ivory Billiard Ball knob fitted. . .

The Nightmare. . .have a look at the plumbing job that's facing Hodgey at the moment. Hand made exhaust and inlet manifolds that have to fit in and around the tubular frame of the trike. . .

The Big Man at work on part of the inlet manifold, as previously stated it will be housing a Harley Davidson "Screamin Eagle" carburettor and a very low profile air cleaner so that there is plenty of room for Johnny's stout little tree trunks. . .

Not Again. . .

Sorry folks there will be no updates tonight because the dickhead photographer just happened to leave his camera in the shed. . . AGAIN.

Anyway, for those of you 'In The Know' you will realise that tomorrow is "Trike Day".
Yep, you guessed it, it's Super Friday, the day that Andrew looks forward to all week long;
Dylan's off at Hoggwarts and The Awesomenator is left to fend for himself while Andrew spends all day working on Johnny's Trike. You've been warned, anyone who rings Andrew or arrives un-announced to see Andrew is gonna experience a whole new world of hurt from Johnny who's now standing guard at the roller door with some kind of ice pick. . .

Where to start???. . .

The old Plymouth, I told you this would be back, well it didn't even leave! The owner has now decided on a full roof chop and turning it into a two door coupe. . .

The HJ continues to motor on, so to speak. Dylan has welded patches into all the holes left from its doof doof days and the boot area is now completely sealed from the cabin and as you can see, the mini tubs are in. . .

This is a new one to the shed, a young bloke has just inherited this from his dad who made the car himself in his garage/shed out in Clunes. The Cobra is in for a full road worthy check and repair for registration. . .

Another new one to the shed is this '57 Chev body. The sub-frame has been sitting in the yard for a few months after coming in to be sand-blasted, old welds ground and cleaned and repainted ready for the body. . .

Finally, Boss Hodges Hogg. The big fella has fitted a new 21inch front wheel and lowered the rear-end 'Gangster' style. He's also fitted fog lights and an eye-brow cowl to the head-light. . .