'41 Willys Coupe . . .Dash 2

 Ah yep, this is number 2 from the same owner AND wait until you see number 3 when this one is finished. Yep, I'm hearin ya brother, but Willeys are cheaper if you buy 'em 3 at a time. Anyway this one has approximately the same idea to it, take someone else's project and turn it into something special. No problems there normally, but this one is a full racing chassis with full roll cage and all the fruit. Our job is to get it "more streetable" which these days includes an Engineer's Certificate and full roadworthy. . .

 What we have been presented with is a full tubular chassis and roll cage with complete fibre glass body. Drive train is Small Block Chev, auto and a 9inch diff that is hanging a 4link rear with coil-overs. Inside there is a Kermit green dash that is fully decked out with Auto Meter guages. Shit, nearly forgot the best part? Inside are mounted 2 electrically driven leather clad, sumptuous Jason recliner/rockers. . .

 Big bum on the old girl, maybe it's the tiny rear windows of the Willys and the super tiny aftermarket rear lamps? One things for sure, it's a big lookin boot. . .

 Auto elec's nightmare in here! Got no idea what it all is or even if any of it's connected? Looks to me as if someone just grabbed a handful out of the scrap bin and threw it under the dash just so it looked like something had been done. . .

Did I mention the intention. . .Them theres are dragin rims, most likely dragin you into court if you get to spinnin them on the street. . .

Yep. . . !!!

Anyone got a mate or some idiot at work that would look good in one of these for Christmas ???

'58 Oldsmobile 4 Door Pillarless

To start off with, this is where all the work is going to happen, underneath the car. As you can see, there is a shed-load of space under the old girl and plenty of room for modification. . .

Unreal amounts of room inside those wheel arches and every inch of it will be used when the '58 sits down low on the massive billet rims that are part of the proposed build, any suggestions on the style and size of the rims ??

Have a look at this lot, fair dinkum if you dropped this bastard on your foot, you'd have to dig a hole 8inches deep into the concrete to get your friggin toes back. I said to Hodgey that by the time he cuts all the unwanted shit off this mongrel thing, took it all to the S/H steel joint next door, he could fund his girls through school for the next 3years . . .

Andrew and the boys have to raise the chassis rails and fit an air bag system to all four corners. This system has to be self leveling to keep the aforementioned engineer happy. The other big 'ask' is that the transmission and tailshaft tunnel has to be significantly raised from from to rear, no problems I hear you say? Have a look at that 'X' beam in the middle of the chassis rails and the central loop that the tail shaft has to rum through! Have a look at the size of the bloody beams, I mean, like, f*#k me they are friggen huge. . .

1958 Oldsmobile 4 Door Pillarless

 OK let's get the ball rolling. This pale blue land yacht was unloaded at Hodgey's shed and the Big Fella said, "D, I want the top half on stands and the bottom half on the jig." A jig is a big steel rack-like thingie that they put the chassis' on to stretch 'em, bend 'em and just generally cut the shit out of them. I added that part for any girls who might have been reading, now you can either keep up yourself or ask your old man about it later, in any case stop reading his computer and get back to the kitchen. . .

I must confess that when I first saw this I thought that someone had cut a chunk out of the B pillar and Hodgey was gonna have to repair it? Anyway, that's what a 4door pillarless looks like. There's gonna be some serious tin cutting and shutting with this one folks, not only is it getting dropped into the weeds but she is going to be fully engineered the whole way. Yep regular check-ups from Pete. I like the color !!

Big arse on this ole girl, she must be from Rio? If you have a look at the LHS tail-light you will see the old "Hide your fuel filler behind the tail-light" trick that was pioneered by Chevrolet?

Johnny's Bedtime Stories. . .

Righto you blokes, y'all wanted the scriptures to return but before you go any further we all have to pay homage to Johnny, because without his persistence, and a few rude words into the ear of his favorite scribe, these fabled transcripts would not have been returned to the pages of legendary gossip columnist and aficionado of all things fine metal, ME . . .hahaha. hehehe

From now on fellas, these pages are only to be spoken of at social meetings of all things male, ale, chrome bumpers aad will be un-officially called Johnny's Bedtime Stories and must be ushered with a whisper. . .


This is bloody copyright too, so piss off. . .

As Promised. . .only one day late

 For the big opening, Andrew pulled one of the old guns out for the big display. . .

 The front yard offers off street parking but the street out front has plenty a space for those just dropping in for a chat. . .

 Have a look at the floor space, woohoo! And hold onto your hats fellas because this is only half the space available under the one roof, yep it's ferken huge. . .

 This is the new machine shop and just to show of, Hodgey even has enough floor space to assemble a couple of those crazy two wheeled machines that some of you think are cool ??

Phat, very phat, this joint is sooo cool it almost gives me a tingle down my spine. . .

We're Back. . .Yep, we are back !!!

      Hi Guys, just in case you hadn't noticed that we weren't posting any reports or updates, it gives me, great pleasure, with just a small touch of the shits 'n giggles, to let you all know that we are back in the Blogging game. From Monday onwards we will be taking over your computers, tablets and smart phones, well for some of you that will be dumb as dog-shit phones, but anyway take it from me, when you turn on your little electric communicating device, we will be there.
      Our 'Brand New' format for 2016 will be exactly the same as the one we finished with in 2015, and as previously if you've got any complaints the same rules apply,,,,stiff shit !!! So Guys 'n Gals check back Monday for your long awaited return of "The Blogger". . .

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. . .

Most Important Date . . .

Hi Guys/Gals,
This is Ron and Ron's story, unfortunately, starts out like many stories that Hodgey has heard over the years. Ron contacted Hodgey and said that he needed help to finish a project that had been previously been worked on but need a few changes and had a time frame to be finished. Hodgey said no worries and the Ford Customline was delivered all the way from Western Australia. Hodgey new about the urgency of this particular 'time frame' and set to work organising the work that had to be outsourced such as a full respray. Anyway the old girl eventually turned up back at Hodgey's shed and the boys got stuck right in and started dressing this Lady's new paintwork with chrome and bling. Sooner rather than later, the little lady was ready for the Engineer and when he duly arrived the boys took him out for a spin and when they returned the new motor that the car arrived with had a massive heart failure and basically shit it's pants completely. Unfortunately the Engineer was still present and the certificate was staying in his pocket. Hodgey had to turn the car around quickly and after a quick little 'shits and giggles' session the motorr was removed and something with a bit more reliability was placed between the frame rails. Finally the Engineer was good enough to add his signature to the paperwork and the painted lady was on a truck heading back to Perth. If you are wondering about the time frame, well this weekend is Ron's daughter's wedding and he kind of promised it could be her wedding car. As for Ron, he's all smiles and why not, he gets to give his beautiful daughter away on her special day after driving her to the wedding in his own 'Special Lady' . . .

PK Sandblasting . . .

PK Sandblasting, I'm just trying to think of the best way to describe the quality of work, the volume of work and the fact that it doesn't matter how much work there is to do, or how badly the shit has hit the fan, you are always met with a friendly smile and handshake. . .

 Quality of work, well I know for a fact that every bit of work that goes out of Hodgeys shed has had a visit to Jay to be cleaned up. My personal project has had every part that is removable sandblasted and the parts literally come out like new. When you visit Jay's shed and see the size of some of the metal fabrication that big engineering firms regularly drop in to be cleaned and painted, it makes you wonder how in hell he can get on top of the stuff without being a bloody monkey, fair dinkum, the shit is huge!

Give'em a call and discuss your job. Jay will give you a 'no bullshit' opinion and he sticks by what he has to say, and this is pretty rare in industry these days.
Ring: 5335 8339 and talk to Michelle, or
Ring: 0413 391825 to get Jay direct. . .
Champion team doing champion work. . .

Mechanica. . . Nice Toyrana

This was one very nice ride and in my humble opinion was probably the car of the show? Big statement, but a bloody nicely understated rig with all the good gear where it needed to be. . .

Love the Weld wheels and if Mr Weld is watching this, please give me a call with a good offer (for free) and I will buy a set. . .

Huge motor that's very neatly dressed with hidden wiring and an extremely tidy engine bay.
Car Of The Show for sure !!!