Companies new Executive Ute . . .

As previously reported, the Shed is getting a new corporate ute sponsored and sign written by the Executive that drives the Corporation known as Hodgey's Hotrod and Customs.  Chassis is Toyota Hilux and powertrain is Cleveland. Nah not that black fella from the Cleveland Show, but genuine Ford Cleveland cubic inches. None of that metric shit here folks, there's no better place to be pushing big cubic inches than in the back of a ute!

 Hodgey is a fairly 'largish' sort of chap and when he starts pushing those cubic inches anything could happen, there will be shit flying all over the place, hence the major structural support beams you see welded into the chassis.
If this ute's rockin', we don't want it squeakin' too

I think that I posted a pic of this cabin before, but as you can see it's directly sourced from a '42 shit-box and time-travelled into the new millenium by Dave's dad and Andrew is going to chop the shit out of it to make it look meaner than a ginger and black alley cat. . .

VW Manx . . .

 After Dave finally got all the stud bolts drilled the Manx can now sit down on its own wheels and after the suspension mods carried out earlier by the guys, it sure has a cool looking stance . . .

Not seen in this pic but Dave now has the old dash out and is installing the steering column and will then build a new dash for the bug . . .

VW Manx . . .

Drop in brake drums and discs? Dunno what they're supposed to drop into, maybe a bucket or something? Poor old Dave has had to work his arse off (doesn't matter, he cold afford to lose a few pounds) to re-drill and then re-thread the right stud holes for fitment of the billet whels that were also supposed to "fit right up." Because of the casting process the rear of the discs and drums have heavy re-inforcing in sections and this had to be carefully turned down in certain places to allow for fitment of the studs. Not to worry, they are all done and job is looking great. . .

'55 Mercury . . .

Finally Andrew has received the new shortened diff back from Geelong, fair bloody dinkum, I'd hate to be hanging by me balls waiting for this bloke to get a frigging job done! The Mercury has been sitting around for two weeks while this bloke has piss-farted around and scratched his arse over this job. Anyway diff is back and Andrew can get back into the fitting up of the tri-angulated suspension that includes some pretty fancy airbags. . .

Lower trailing arms are in place and Andy is starting to measure up and locate the upper arms before welding in the air-bag brackets. . .

FE Holden . . .

Finished tub in LHS rear quarter will now easily house the big billet rims. . .

Dave has to now start installing the new 9inch diff that has just returned from being shortened.
Diff will be hung from new 4link set-up that has been sourced from the 'States' . . .

Good Luck Johnny . . .

Good luck for tomorrow big fella our thoughts and best wishes are with you .  .  .
No good praying for you coz your escalator heads the wrong way, but we are thinking of you.
For those of you who don't know what's going on, mind your own bloody business. . .hehehe

New Work Ute . . .

Toyota ute chassis has been supplied generously by local artist and general all-around goody guy, Trev. . .

First job is to re-set the rear springs so that the new ride sits smashed on its guts. . .

Howz this for a fantastic cabin for the new work ute. After a heavy session with the gas axe the new cabin will be ultra chopped . . .

HJ Prem . . .

Dylan finished off the mini tubs for me yesterday/today and they look great. This is interior and rear seat still fits with a bit of a 'push'. . .

LHS in the rear shows neat finish and waiting for final touches to be made in boot before the whole area is sprayed. . .

The panels behind the rear seat have all been welded in and boot is completely sealed from main cabin due to fuel cell being located in the boot. Mini tubs look great . . .

Problem Child . . .

For those of you who have been wondering what Andrew has been doing of late, well let me tell you that he has been taking care of that 'problem child' old man of his. Johnny just flatly refuses to play nice with his toys and keeps bringing his trike back broken and getting Andrew to take time out to fix it. Today they basically had to totally remanufacture the whole exhaust system and re-bleed the brakes after he spent the whole weekend terrorising most of the folks out around the Haddon Dog Trialling Range. It was the annual x-mas break-up and Johnny decided that after taking all the kids for a ride that he would do some bush bashing and sand dune jumping. There's just no stopping this mad-man when he's cranking the throttle . . .
Andrew has decided to give him a position of responsibility to see if that will curve his antics and now has Johnny doing the parts pick up and delivery on his trike. Only time will tell. . .

FE Holden . . .

As you can see, Dave has spot welded the new inserts into the 4inch tub extensions and will follow through with a full welding job piece by piece so as to not over heat and buckle the thin tub materials. Big day for Dave tomorrow as the 9inch diff arrives back and has to be fitted along with it's 4link suspension system, should look the "duck's guts" as I have seen the 4link kit sitting in it's boxes and together with the new coil-over shocks, it's a bloody impressive looking unit. . .

HJ Prem . . .

Good day for the HJ today, after a thorough scraping out of all the gunk in the floor channels of the boot and welding up all the holes it was time for Dylan to mount the Jaz fuel cell. Geez this kid works hard and does a bloody good job and no complaints about all the dirty scraping and cleaning before he gets to do the actual work. Tomorrow we will be fitting in all the fuel lines, etc. Thanks Dylan for always helping me out, I really appreciate it mate . . .

Another Day Closer . . .

Just to show all you good folks how generous 'My Andy' is, you can see that he took the hint and welded up the extractors for my beloved HJ Prem. . .Thanks Andy!

BTW, he also said that if I didn't shut the fuck up about my Prem he was gonna do naughty things to both of us. . .

FE Holden . . .

 The following pics are more look and admire than look and read, my words are few, let the images speak for themselves. Well sort of, I can't completely keep my mouth shut. . .
LHS rear tub is all welded in and just waiting for centre section. . .

 RHS (that's where the driver sits) rear tub welded up and waiting for centre section. . .

 LHS chassis rail moved 4inches inboard to allow for the 4inch tub expansion. . .
Finish is pure quality and will be stronger than original and neater too. . .

 RHS (that's where the driver sits) rear chassis rail moved inboard 4inches to allow for the 4inch tub expansion. Is there a picture starting to develop in your head yet?

Just a quick peek up this lady's skirt and you will see enough attitude to kick you square in the nuts if you decide on getting cheeky. . .

'55 Mercury . . .

 With twists and turns like this it reminds me of the Mad Mouse at the Royal Melbourne Show. This is the finished conversion of the chassis mods for the old Merc to allow those big rims and tyres to be hidden away. This chassis rail was straight before the mods and you can see that it now has a complete's width removed from it and repositioned to allow the big tubs. . .

 Both sides complete and you can see how far inboard the rear chassis rails have been taken. the finish on the job is that good that it is very unlikely that anyone would pick it from standard.

This is the before shot and shows how Andrew cuts the rail and welds in the 'bendy' bits. Pure metallic art work. . .

'82 KZ750 . . .

 Bit of an unusual job this one, but each to their own. Owner brought this Kwaka in for some mods to turn it into a quasi 'bobber'. I say quasi because he is adamant that he wants to keep the original tank and a few other things that would normally be switched out. . .

First job was to convert it into a 'hard-tail' and then Dylan has been patiently making up the wrap around exhaust system. The exhaust is made up from patiently cutting up and welding bends and stright pieces of pipe and fitted millimeter perfect to the contours of the engine.
Hard tail frame was made up from scratch from new chrome moly tubing, not an easy task with the original layout of the bike fighting all the mods at every turn. When the Kwaka guys made up this design they certainly didn't make it 'bobber' friendly. . .

'55 Mercury . . .

Jaimie from PK Sandblasting dropped the chassis of the '55 Mercury back today after a thorough clean-up. The frame was then straight up onto its rack and Andrew was right into it with the oxy and bloody great hammers removing all the unneccesary pieces ready for the frame to be re-shaped for the monster wheel tubs out the back. Now that the chassis is back this one will start moving along at a fair pace and yes that means no work on the HJ Prem. . .bugger!

Another day closer . . .

Here we are again folks, another day closer to the completion of my good old HJ Prem. Nothing was accomplished today but I did manage to pull out the extractors and put them in the middle of the aisle so that someone will fall over them tomorrow and hopefully get the message that they need welding up? Anyone want to place a bet that they are still there in the exact same position Thursday morning when I go back in?

FE Holden . . .

First port of call tonight is down the back with Dave and the FE Holden. Poor old Dave got his knickers in a knot yesterday when I reported that he had finished both new wheel tub extensions. I don't know what he's sooking about because it kinda makes him out to be a really good worker, but anyway he wanted you all to know that he's not the fastest tool in the shed but he came close to finalising the second side today. Well done Dave you keep plodding along mate. . .

HJ Premier . . .

One day closer to completion folks! Granted nothing's been done to it for bloody ages, but it has to be one day closer to being finished than yesterday? BTW, there was nothing done to it yesterday either!!! I wan't you all to ring, write, text and ask the big fella what's going on with the HJ?

FE Holden. . .

 Exciting new job arrival at the shed is this liquid black FE Holden sedan in show quality condition, but as you do when you get hold of something in pristine condition you send it to Hodgey's shed to cut the fucker up? Owner wants bigger 'bling' in all four corners, so it's out with the meat saw and into the wheel tubs or a bit more space. . .

From the outset this is a quality car and it is being treated as such. All parts of the car not being worked on are carefully covered and removed from any chance of mishap, even the rear screen is padded with packing foam and taped inside and out for protection. . .

 Inside the car all the rear trimmings have gone and hoodlining is again padded and taped for protection. . .

 A sneaky peak under the front covers and you're looking at one of V6's front end conversion kits along with huge brake upgrade. Motor is an extra tuff Chev small block with custom extractors exiting through the inner guards. If you look carefully you can see a Holley fuel pump hanging down on the far side, granted this is just sitting there while the household renovations are being carried out, but f#ck me, what a noisy bastard of a thing to have hanging under a car of such quality?

Look's like Dave's had his way in here? Fairdinkum, this bloke is like a bloody big fat termite with titanium teeth. Give hime half an hour and he will cut your shit up good and proper!

FE Holden . . .

 Dave has finished cutting out the two wheel tubs and a quick clean up of the edges and they're ready to go back in. Before the sectioned tubs are ready to be re-united with the rest of the wheel arch there has to be a fair amount of boot space removed to accommodated the larger and wider rims. . .

After a little bit od fiddling around and a lot of measuring the inner tub sections are now welded back into place. As you can see from the pic, tere is a very even 4inch piece of plate steel to be welded in between the two tub sections to make them whole again. There you have itkids, 4inch mini tubs in one day, or close to it. . .hahaha

Get well soon Gemma . . .

It could only happen when Hodgey decides to take his little brood on holidays.
The girls have had fun playing and splashing around in the pool all week and Gemma has now got a serious ear infection. A quick trip to the doctor see's the family stuck in Qld for another week, poor buggars, stuck in trpical Qld and not allowed to leave.
Anyway Gem, all our love and get well soon. Oh and tell Dad not to worry about the fire. The brigade got to the shed quickly and you can hardly see any damage at all after a quick clean up. . .
See you all when you get back. . .

A Model Roadster . . .

 Dylan working hard after the last few days and has made and installed the rear cabin wall. . .

Next up is the front inside firewall and front section of the transmission tunnel. Lengthy work and really time consuming to get right. . .

A Grubby Act . . .

How's this for a grubby act? Boss decides that it's time to take his lovely wife and kids on a long overdue holiday. Nothing wrong with that you say? Dave and Dylan have got their wages and holiday pay and a bonus each? Yep, nothing wrong with that, correct! But what about your trusted scribe and photographer to the stars? He gets told to piss off for a week and don't be seen loitering around the car-park. How cruel is that?
Now the Irony. . .
Boss has spent a small fortune, large fortune by anyone else's standards, on getting his lovely family up to the Sunshine Coast and onto the 16th floor so that they can get a 180degree view of the sun. Weather report for Sunshine coast is fine and sunny with 24'C and the weather report for Ballarat is fine and sunny with 26'C. Hahahahaha, I'm laughing my fucking head off, tell me not to loiter around the car-park?
I'm gonna get sunburnt on Sunday and be sick on Monday, I'll teach him to piss off and leave me behind!
So folks, no more reports until either Baldy gets back from his holiday, or I get over my sunburn. . . .

Your trusted scribe and photographer to the stars. . .

'55 Mercury . . .

How cool does this look, slammed on its guts and those big billets hidden away like they were gokart rims. . .

Sitting nice and level, this is going to be one hell of a low rider. . .

Unfortunately she is just a couple of centimeters low as per the lemonade can requirement? The law's the law and she will have to come up 1cm at the rear and 2cm at the front. . .

'55 Mercury. . .

It's a big boot space in the old girl. . .

Until Dave gets out the grinder with a cut-off wheel fitted and then. . .

. . .you get this laying on the floor. Old boot section and wheel tubs removed in one operation and more importantly, one piece. . .

Those wheels are gonna take up a lot of space and the old 9inch diff is gonna be a few inches shorter when it gets plonked back in. . .

Plenty of room in the wheel tubs for those gigantic bloody billets. . .