Gary's Baby . . .

Gazza's roadster is certainly looking a lot better now that it's all back together. Not a bad job considering that Gary was told on more than one occasion that the job at hand "couldn't be done."

Side on view shows that Hodgey has also had a little bit to do with the suspension. The front has been lowered an inch and the rear has been lowered a full three inches. Looks tuff sitting down on its guts. . .

'55/56 Chevy Pick-up . . .

Dave is back on the Chevy Pick-up and is currently fabricating engine mounts and a new cross-member for the auto geat box. LS3's might be the same size on the outside but they certainly have more grunt on offer on the inside. this one is currently running a 96mm throttle body . . .

Gary's Baby . . .

Driver's side nearly finished and the outer skin has been bonded to the frame and any gaps have beenfilled with fibreglass filler. The old Roadster now looks sensational and Gary, for once is happy as Larry. . .

Suicide or no side, so they say. Full suicide doors for the Roadster and just the way Gary likes it. Dylan can't be seen in the pics but he's busily drilly holes in the floor and fitting 'Lockserts' for the new Lokar shifter. This car is seriously close to being handed back to its owner and then it's on to the panel guys for a bit of finishing off work....

Billy Duffy -- Auto Electrician . . .

Here's my Baby, third time lucky. Billy is checking over and re-wiring all the mistakes that have been wired in by the previous two auto elecs. She's finally in good hands and I couldn't be happier. . .

Gary's FE needs a few replacement and new wires to account for the new fuel injected motor, so Billy is giving it the once over and wiring up the new motor as well as the control computers...

Did I say new motor? This thing is poking out huge horsepower and is nearly ready for the 'giddy-up' . . .

Bikes aren't a problem either as can be seen from Billy's own Harley sitting and waiting patiently for a spare minute for the boy to finish off the wiring and crank over that angry looking Hog. . .

Business card for Billy, no job too big or too small. Whatever your problem, give him a call and have a chat . . .

Gary's Baby . . .

Driver's side front guard has been blended in to the longer doors and the new dor frames, looks pretty good from where I'm standing . . .

Passenger side quarter panel has been extended down also and you can see by how much in the pic. If you look at the middle of the new work you can see the new piece welded in place. Note that I snuck this quick pick before the boys had a chance to finish blending the welds in with a bit of work from the flapper discs . . .

Peter Bird . . .

Hey Peter,
Sorry mate but I just found all your questions about the '55 Chev Pick-up, bloody Blog doesn't list the comment on the face page and I actualy have to go looking for them elsewhere? The best person to talk to about the mods on the car, especially the Jag front end mods is Andrew. Either give him a call on the above number or get in touch with him via Facebook, he's really talkative and very helpful.
HTH,
Bruce. . .
https://www.facebook.com/#!/andrew.hodges.984

Thunderbirds are Go . . .

Hodgey had got this 'Flipper' lookin like a million dollars. . .

Did I say it was a 'Flipper'? Trouble is his lovely lady has taken a shine to it and wants to add it to the managerie that lives under their house . . .

Gary's Baby . . .

Plenty of good looking tin-work here, just have a look at the finished door surrounds here. . .

Same door jam from a different angle, truth be known, this is FN superb metal craft whichever side of the fucking river you're from!

Passenger dor and Hodgey has started fitting in the door locks. Inside of door view and system works like a charm . . .

'D' carefully playing cut and paste on the rear quarter panel of Gary's '34 Roadster. No fucking around here, this area has to have three inches added to it . . .

Finished product and it looks like it was made that way. I certainly hope that the panel people are able to do all this metalwork justice and not cover it all in. . .

Gary's Baby . . .

Have a close look, no have a real close look at the work carried out to make up these door jams for the conversion. What was once a gaing hole along the full width of the side wall is now a carefully sculptured masterpiece with five edges for the door frames to butt up against as well as the hinge joints cut-outs and the door locking mechanism, this has been a baptism in fire for the boys, but guess who came out on top? Well that has to be Gary with the rebuild costing a third of what he was quoted in Melbourne and looking a darned side better! For those of you who have been writing in and asking, the car is a '34 Roadster, sorry for the omission . . .

Coupe Central . . .

 Coupe heaven, you got to be happy with this corner of the shed?

Look sideways and you can add in an LJ Coupe to the picture. Now that my HJ is elsewhere for a while, every car in the shed has only two doors. We have the two coupes on the hoist, the LJ, a '55 Mercury, '76 Thunderbird, 40's Ford Pilot, '29 A MOdel Tudor and a '50's era F100 pick-up as well as the Rat rod ute that is leaving us tomorrow, finally. . . about time for poor old Danny and Chris.

Gary's Baby . . .

Plenty of work here for Hodgey. The new doors are made up bulk style as an aftermarket replacement for original replacement. The doors are made up in a jig that was prepared on a car from elsewhere and you must remember that all of these cars were made up individually, so no two are exactly the same. Therefore these multi fit doors need a lot, or a little, bit of attention depending on the car being fitted. This driver's side door has need 'the lot' of work to fit . . .

From Flipping Burgers to Flipping Cars . . .

We've got Bob the Burger King's '34 Coupe up in the back shed and we've now gone from Bob flipping his burgers to Hodgey flipping cars. This is a lovely example of an early Thunderbird that Hodgey has bought in to clean up and turn it over. Amazing car in a great condition. . .

'29 Model A Tudor . . .

Braking system, Take 2. With the old system not really working, or looking, the way the boy's liked, Dave set too and set up a new system using the same parts but in a different configuration . . .

Close  up shot of the new brake pedal and the master cylinder now tucked up under the dash . .

Poking the camera up in under the dash and you can see where the master cylinder now rests, right in the middle of the old fuel tank. . .

Gary's Baby . . .

Dylan working hard on firstly bending and then shaping new door channeling for the ex-coupe. Surprisingly good how easily the old doors came out and how well they preserved over time . . .

Andrew welding in the side walls and fitting new hinge blocks. As I said, it's surprising how easily the old doors came out and how well the door channeling has stood the test of time. . .

'55 Mercury . . .

Dylan's been slowly picking away at the list of patch-work jobs on the monster Mercury. This job, along with most of the others, was a complete pain in the rump. A close look at the small panel that needed replacement and you will/should notice that the hand made rear panel has four curves on one side and is V shaped on the other. No straight edges to work with here!

Gary's Baby . . .

Dave spent more than a couple of hours grinding filler and paintwork away from the old door outlines that have previously been welded up. As I said, Gary has the '34 in to have the doors re-fitted so he doesn't need Hodgey and the boys to lift him out of the driver's seat any more. . .

As can be seen from the straight edge, Dave nearly needed a back-hoe to dig out all the body filler used to fill in the welds of the old door job.

'29 A Model Tudor . . .

Dave has been working hard on the steering column in the Tudor and it's not as simle as just cutting a hole and screwing it in. Angle of view from the driver's seat and height of the steering wheel, etc., all come into consideration. This one is not very friendly as it also has the big Mopar motor out front that has the oil filter sitting exactly where the steering column exits the firewall. . .

Gary's Baby . . .

Just a quick 'before' shot of Gary's baby before the boys get stuck right into it and start cutting out the door sections for replacement with working, all steel doors. Gazza's getting a bit long in the tooth and it's harder for him to throw the leg over the side of his faithfull ride these days and before long he will be needing a block and tackle to hoist him into the driving saddle. Maybe Hodgey can fabricate an articulating arm that comes out of the boot, grabs Gazza off the floor and dumps his arse into the front seat and Bob's your uncle?
Side rails have already been removed. . .

'29 A Model Tudor . . .

Small collection tonight folks, not a lot going on by the look of things, but 'things' can be deceiving! This is an old Willwood pedal box that's being used insead of the more normal unit with the master cylinder attached to the firewall. They were originally going to go that way but it put the brake pedal in a very stupid position and basically undriveable, so the boys dug out an oldie, but very bloody, goodie!

Dave has been spending quite a few hours trying to get the Holden HJ steering column set-up just right to sit in the Tudor. Not the job it was designed for but an extremely good, collapsable, donot unit. . .

'29 Model A Tudor . . .

Dave has mounted the rack and pinion steering into the front of the A model . . .

Hand made brackets for the rigid mounting of the rack and pinion . . .

Dave welding in the hand made brackets to hold the steering system in place. These brackets were cut out of 5mm stock with a plasma cutter for easy shaping and cutting of the heavy metal, the rest is just time taken with the grinders wearing 'flapper' discs . . .

Bob's Burger King Rod. . .

Extractors wrapped in 'Titanium' heat-wrap. Be careful what brand you buy, this was a new product from a very well known source and Dave paid the price by suffering all night and the next day from serious itchiness from the very fine fibres that got into his skin. His hands were rubbed/scratched raw from the resulting itches that also spread to most of his body . . .

The exhaust can either be 'open' at the end of the engine pipes or for legality and street use, it carefully snakes its way underneath the body and after passing through a couple of mufflers is dumped out the back . . .

Tail-pipes waiting to be installed. These pipes haven't been painted black, they have been given the heat treating process that different companies use different names for. This system was treated over in Castlemaine. I think that the most common name is "Jet Hot" coating, although I'm unsure as to who did this system? If it's that important that you know the source then give Andrew a ring. . .

Bob's Rod with the lot. . .

Here she is, straight back from the painter's shed, and what a Painter he is! Trev has come through with the goods once again. If there is anyone out there doing better 'patina' paintwork then I'm yet to see it or meet him. . .

Front view shows that the boys have to start again and reassembly the rod for the final time before 'hand-over'. . .