'55 Mercury . . .

 Hand made from three pieces of sheetmetal by Dylan and he's done an outstanding job. This is the control console for the air-con unit.

This is a pic of the console mounted up under the dash and also shows the big square mounting box for the full screen nav, video and entertainment unit by Pioneer. . .

Phil's 'Country Sedan' . . .

 This is the finished tow-bar fit-out by Dave. This is the second one that Dave has done for Phil and as a result, Phil is sending more cars up for the same fit-out. . .

 Just a couple of outdoor pics so that you can get a proper look at this beautiful cruising machine.

HJ Prem . . .

After carefully telling you all about Hodgey's hard work making up my tail-shaft, a job that nearly killed him I might add, I forgot to show you the finished product; Sexy isn't it?

Bert's Drifter . . .

 Rear tail-gate on Bert's Drifter is really starting to take shape, it's seen here sitting in place to check gaps and hinge placement . . .

 Inside of the tail-gate and you can see the amount of metalwork and welding required to get this thing into the right shape to fill the hole. As it sits right now, it's only about a quarter way completed with plenty more work to be done before it's mounted for the final time . ..

Outside profile and you can see the amount of small 'spot' welds that are required to hold all the sheet metal to the frame . . .

HJ Prem . . .

 New front tyres finally added to the blackened GTS rims with chrome centre cap. These things will look fully sick when the car gets to sit down low over the rims with its new paint job. Paint scheme is really going to 'make' this car . . .

New tail-shaft needed to be made up because the old one came from a four speed(M21) and 10bolt combination. Now we have Turbo 350 and Ford EL Borg Warner diff centre. Andrew got stuck into it this morning and used the original shaft tubing, cut to length, Ford coupling from an XH panel van and the front yolk that was sitting in a box full of second hand yolks gathered up over the years. After I ground all the surface areas back to bare metal, I then applied 3 coats of flat black enamel and she's all set to get mounted into position sooner or later. . .

'55 Ford "Country Sedan" . . .

 Big Phil asks Hodgey about a new tow bar for his '55 Ford Country sedan, how they get a sedan from this body shape is beyond me but that's its title and it even has the badges on the rear quarter panel to prove it. Long story short, Hodgey says yes to the towbar and Phil is wrapt in Dave's work so he brings in another one for the same work. . .

 Not sure if the second one is also a '55 or whether it is a '56, doesn't really matter. . .

 Beautiful clean lines and very tidy inside, this car is a regular on the road. ..

How's that for an enginebay on a car that is approaching its 60th birthday? Dave's well and truly into this fitment and should be nearly finished by now . ..

Ranchero . . .

The old Ranchero is looking really good at the moment with newly made flooring in the back tray of the ute. The old stuff was that bad that a metal fabrication company was comissioned to roll up some new sheeting with the correct profile and it matches perfectly.

The cabin has new flooring and rear wall section all welded in and ready to go. The ute is now off to the sandblasters to get the cabin and engine bays sandblasted ready for painting. Once the front sprngs are back she will be able to roll/steer up onto the tow truck without the necessity of any heavy lifting . . .

HJ Prem . . .

It's not easy to see from this picture but there was a hell of a lot of gringing with a dremel from the steady hands of the big fella to get the front end to fit back into its original holes. When first completed, the CSR electric water pump was resting heavily against the AU fans. Not to worry, it all fits now and Dylan has done his usual fine welding work and got the ICE system welded in up under the dash, where the glove box used to sit. Still plenty to fit in under the dash with new electric heating unit and new wiper motor for the new cable driven system. . .



Little Dragon Bike . . .



Perhaps a little misleading when the title says that our friend is a dragon when in fact he is a dinosaur, T-Rex. Well this is him all finished up and ready for Casey's birthday. Little Case has an inoperable tumor and all he wanted was to ride a dinosaur, so the boys set to it and now Casey will be able to ride his own dinosaur for his birthday. It was a case of all hands on deck because Casey's birthday is next week and the Doctor's don't give him much further past that point to enjoy his new present. If anyone wants any further details you can contact Andrew. . .

Um Dunno ???

Apart from Dylan fine grinding and sanding the little dragon bike, there doesn't appear to be much going on in the shed at the moment. I looked under Gary's Buick at one stage and found Dave sound asleep and as for the big fella he's been down the back working on some chopped up chopper lookin thing? I don't know what the fuckin thing is, I don't get too excited by those crazy bastards who ride around on two wheels with the front wheel that far out front that you near need a compass to locate the stupid fuckin thing. Anyway, if it's yours, Hodgeys been working on it. If it was mine, I'd cut 6feet out of each front fork, sell it for a profit to some young bloke and still be able to ride the cranky lookin thing around. . .
BTW. All views expressed in this blog belong entirely to the owner Andrew Hodges. So if I say your bike looks like shit, take it up with him, not me!

Little Dragon . . .

Little Dragon bike taking shape now. Hodgey spent most of the night and early morning glueing and shaping styrene foam to the frame of the bike and after a bit of early shaping, the job has been handed over to Dylan. The reason that Dylan has been carefully chosen for this task is that he still has his collection of dinodaurs and still plays with them every night before Prime Possum tells him that it's time for his kiss good-night and to snuggle into bed and have sweet dreams.. . .Goodnight boys and girls. . . ... . .. .

Little Dragon . . .

Little dragon with the steel work nearly finished.
This afternoon Hodgey will be cutting out foam blocks and gluing it to the sides and tail, etc. When the foam is dry it will be time to dans it into shape and then out to Trev's for a special paint job to finish it all off. . . .

RRRRoaarr. . .

Ranchero . . .

All the structural work done in/under the back section behind the cabin and it's time for the flooring to go back in. The 'Big Hodgeburger' went around to the sheet metal boys today and asked them nicely if they could make him up some more of the original style flooring, it will be interesting to see what comes back, they are usually pretty good. . .

'66 Impala . . .

'66 Impala, very nice example of the breed, actually bloody great car in great condition. Some like the original wheels and some don't, not my decision, or they would be gone. . .

Owner brought the big bus in for a lowering job and it's not all that easy to keep these big yachts nice and level once you start playing with the ride height. All the springs react differently to a little bit of 'bang and clang', so you have to be very careful and keep a very close eye on the tape measure. . .

This one looks fantastic sitting out front on the concrete. Luckily those concreters weren't bent when they layed down this slab because it's really helpful to have somethng flat to check the final result on. . .

Good looking interiors on the old girls with a strange set of guage clusters located in the console directly in front of the gear selector. These are the main engine guages and the bloody clock is located in the dash. . .

'57 Chev . . .

 Big, Bad Barry's '57 back in for a rear wall to seperate the boot from the rear of the car. Fuel fumes have been filling the cabin and making trips a little 'fuzzy' but the head-ache at the end is a fuckin shocker. This is the outside boot section all finished up and looking the goods. . .

This is the inside section, not quite finished and I think that it was nearly too hot to spray the body deadener coz it was ending up in a puddle on the floor. Job's complete and Bazz is killin' a few dozen long-necks down at Queenscliff with the big Hodgey-man, who btw hasn't bothered turning up at all this week; Well most of it anyway. . .

Ranchero . . .

This shows where the real artistry is folks when a straight pice of metal can be pushed and pulled and twisted into new inner guard shapes like this.
For those of you wondering, it certainly looks like Dave is a survivor of the 60/70's with all those love, hate, peace tattoos on his wrists. . .

 This section belongs to Dylan, on a day when he decided to turn up. Radiator mount has been repaired with new sections of metal welded in and looks like it belongs there. . .

Combined effort from both the boys here and you can see where Dave is currently employing 62 clamps to hold/shape some new metalwork into the rear bed behind the cabin. . .

Doctors . . .

I must apologise for the lack of contact folks but there has been a reason, you decide if it's good enough. . .I went to the doctor the other day and in general chat he asks me what I've been up to? Just taking a few photographs i says and he replies that he also has a camera and that he's gonna jam his camera square up me arse! Bit harsh I'm thinking? Anyway Friday comes and goes and now me doctor has a lovely set of 'Holiday Snaps' as a result of his recent rip up me arse. Fair enough I thought, but I better keep this a little quiet, wouldn't want any rumours getting started now would we?
But then the ultimate insult, no-one rings up to find out how me 'clacker' is feeling, so I'm thinking fuck'em, no more blog. But then I remembered what a bunch of sooks that you all are, so I relented and instead of anymore car pics, I'm gonna show you all my Doc's holiday snaps instead. . .