Bob's '54 F100 . . .

Yep this is Bob's '54 F100 that he drove to Ballarat to pick up his '34 Coupe that he had rebuilt here at Hodgeys. Not much wrong with it but the list seemed rather extensive for a Whip with not much wrong with it. He didn't like his power windows any more quite simply beacause the wouldn't go up and down? Shit happens, I say. . .

This is the part that I don't understand? Not much wrong with it, shiiit, have a look at the new bulge in the rear chassis. . .

Better still, have a gander at the quality of the welding job. I can tell from the welding that hodgey has been giving this his best, look how much weld is in those joins and then look at the plasma cut braces that look like they belong there, cool, so ery cool. . .

So, when you cut great chunks out of the chassis that only means two things. One, this Baby is going to be so low that it's gonna look like a dog with worms dragging its arse across the concrete down South Rd in Morabbin, and Two, any major changes to the suspension always means trouble for the Fabrication Department later on!!!

Fabrication Department, yeah that's Mr Hodge as well. With the tub off the back of the Truck, shit loads of metal is removed and then new fabricated whell tubs are put in, then there needs to be a big arsed bulge added to overcome the small problem of a diff now runnig
ng so high that half of it is now inside the tub. . .

Salty . . .

Old Salty, she's looking the goods isn't she?  The boys have done considerable work on her to get her back into shape. Those black steelies really set her off, I was kinda unsure because I was happy the way she looked with the Salt Racer mags that she was wearing but now she's been sitting around with the new steelies, I reckon she looks like the duck's guts. . .

Gotta love the old Flat Top. I don't think that there is a better looking motor for one of these old Hot-rods. . .

Well this fucking set up, didn't it cause some problems for Dave, including a complete revamp of the rear suspension set-up because the shockers would now longer be able to sit up into the boot space and then they couldn't fit wider out because if the rounded panels on the skirting. I think that they decided to run it without shockers in the end, hoping that the Engineer won't notice??

I bought a Jeep . . .

Here we go folks, yep Nigel bought a Jeep. After buying this Jeep he had to go to Qld to pick it up, no worries there. While he was in Qld he decided that the ride height was a bit low so in went a f
brand new lift kit. Bewdy mate, off we go back to South Oz. Yep you guessed it, half way home the oldJeep had a hissie fit and threw pistons and other shit all over the place. Not to worry folks, Nigel goes home and the shit box, I mean my new Jeep, finds its way to Hodgey's with a hand written note to fix this fucking thing and throw an LS3 into the gaping hole in the front. Yep, Nigel bought a Jeep. . .

'54 F100 from the Burger King . . .

When Bobby the Burger King from Bob's Burgers in Morrabbin came to pick up his '34 Coupe he arrived in this very fine piece of American tin work. . . .

Only trouble is when you spend all your time turning burgers, you kinda get the shits when the flipping electric windows won't go up and down. So the big fella left her behind for a bit of a tune up seeing as she ain't pleasing The King like she used to. . .

By the time you read this, this fine arse will be on the rack getting its bones cracked and tweeked until she's back in shape and Bobby can once again take her out and let the glass down so that the wind can flow through his fine head of hair like it used to . . .

Damn fine arse which ever way you look at it. . .

Salty . . .

Last time that we left Salty, Dave had his head firmly entrenched in the braking system but that's not all that has been carried out on the old girl. This is the cluth set-up that has been installed on the LHS of the gearbox, only trouble is that gearbox is a US part and the car is converted to RHD. What to do???

In this pic you can see that Dave has run a fluid line around the back of the gear box to a fluid reservoir that is mounted behind the brake master cylinder and then made up a linkage from the clutch pedal to the clutch reservoir and although at this early stage, it's a little bit heavy, with a bit of fine tuning it will be a great, short throw set-up . . .

Salty . . .

This is the '27 Willys that we like to call Salty because she is being modded to look like an original Salt-Racer. She has been completely stripped and is being rebuilt from the ground up after haveing her chassis all cleaned and painted. Dave has hand laid the new steel brake lines and has been impatiently waiting for over a week for the new brake booster to be delivered. . .

Up front, things are about the same and she is ready to move forward, and sidewards, after Andrew hand picked a new steering system for the rod and then set about making sure that it all worked and would please the Engineer. . .

'48 Chev Pick-up Cab . . .

This is a '48 Chev cab that was dropped in for some quick repairs by the boys. Owner supplied some new lower front cowl sections and they were quickly cut and welded into place. . .Super nice fit from the American aftermarket boys. . .

This is the passenger side that has already been completed, you will notice that the cab is in RHD configuration and also that Andrew had to carry out some considerable hand moulding the rear panels from scratch. The cab went away super tidy and ready for the next work instalment. . .

Weekly Update . . .

Yeah I know, you've all got the shits with me because there aren't enough updates. Well things are about to change and I'm gonna sneak in early for the pics and try to get back to a more normal routine.
BTW, all you crazy, rusty junk lovers that headed over towards Newstead on the weekend, how do your wallets feel now?  Woohoo, Faaark me!!!
Anyway Bitches, sit back and enjoy some of the action from last week . . .

Bobby's Coupe with the lot. . .

For those of you who didn't know, Bobby wanted a little darker shade of green so rather than pull the old girl apart again, which would mean another visit from a Fat Controller (Engineer), the Boys hatched a careful plan with Trev the Magician painter who seems to get all those 'special' jobs that need a "Round box/Square box" approach. This is an area where he excells and NO, you can't have his last name or phone number!!!

Little Coupe was run up onto stands and wrapped up like one of Bobby's Burgers ready for some serious 'condiments' to be added. Not sauce this time but carefully hand-blended tinters to add just that touch of 'drama' to the already painted rod. . .

Poor old Trev, look at him go. He's like a madman when he's got a gun in his hand and instead of flowing hot lead down range this old Gunslinger flows paint like Houdini or one of them other famous Bullshitters. Hahaha, talking about bullshit, it's certainly flowing here tonight. But believe me, our man Trev is quite honestly one of the true gentlemen of the trade and a bloody Master to boot. . .

Here she is, she's been hanging around for a while and is almost part of us now but what a finish. Bobby's happy, you bet, but so are we !!!

Michael's 'Vicki' . . .

Constant roundabout going on here folks. Bobby's Coupe is out the door, engineered and Bob was one very happy Muppett driving it home to Melbourne. You can see that the indicators have been brought outside the guards to please the Engineer. Then, fair dinkum, we had to back Bobby's Bird outside when Mchael Taranto pulled into the yard with his mental '56 Vicki in tow. . .

This beast is back to have its, rather large garden hose type, fuel lines fitted and then everyone stand back as she's fired up for the first time! Fuck, what a racket that will be, might have to close the front gates for that one, just for public safety of course. . .