What have you been up to this week

[John Abbott]

OOOOO  Georgey..... I am getting a hankering for some pics buddy . Dont keep me in suspence

[Bedfordcrazy]

Hey johnno, here are the pics of my Ford Transit power steering rack. We had 2 new rods machined up, and 1 of the ford rods was in good nick so we re threaded it. We also got 2 new bedford tierod ends.

All i need to do now is find a reliable sheetmetal guy, he cancelled again today, so another day down. At this rate i think i will be forgetting about a lot of the body work and just get some of the rust done and call it a day, cause this guy just does not get it. For me i have just about had enough now and i think if he cancells one more time it will be the last time. I mean i am offering this dickhead thousands of dollars in work into next year, and he is treating it like a sunday picnic, man i just dont get the attitude.  So if someone knows a guy here in brissy, PLEASE let me know.

george

[MaTTe]

Hey ladies and gents,
I haven't had alot of time to do things I'd like to be doing lately, but have been busy all the same..
as some would know i was wrecking a wreckers a few weeks back, and ended up with quite a bounty.. some things are very usefull to me, others are more useful to others.. i have a thread floating around the forums somewhere..

I have spent a couple of hours over a couple of days installing BA falcon power windows into my van, this was not as easy as I first imagined, but well worth the effort. I also ordered a one touch power window module and have wired that in, just gotta connect it to the alarm so the windows roll up when i lock the van.
I now need some time to make up the door trims to suit, I have VERY temporary trims in at the moment, purely good enough to roll the windows up and down, and close the door.. still gotta connect the power mirror wires into the switch, but that's the easy part..

I have been working - for money - lately which is a welcome change, i have been able to pay for a few things that've been on the list for over a year now, and am starting to get ahead again, however working 11 day straight stints has been difficult in terms of free time to achieve things..

I have managed to pick up some 11mm plug wires and a new set of plugs, so i just now need to get the wires crimped so i can install them, and hope they dont mess with the stereo due to the low resistance.. (im happy just listening to the motor.. )

I've also got a new tool coming from the US that will expand tailpipes so I can make slip fit connections as i make up my new exhaust on the van, this will make it easy to get things right before welding anything.. so a bit of free time will be very handy sometime over the next month or so..

I have also received word that the next batch of sound deadener is almost ready so I will make a new thread for that shortly..

The van is currently filthy dirty, and has been for weeks.. I am desperately awaiting time to give her the good clean she deserves..

So what've the rest of you been upto?

[John Abbott]

Thanks to Matte for getting me a box of that wonderful sound deadener.I dont have the means to organize that myself so it was wonderful to be able to go Matts place and pick it up and take it home.    I have been busy fitting  new bushes and painting up the rear suspension of the vp commy that i am fixing up for the misses and the kids. The car has to go over the pits around december so everthing has to be mickey mouse. I am learning how to get the error codes out of the onboard computer. Next job to do is the crank angle sensor behind the harmonic balancer, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. The big bonus is that i am learning about these v6s so when i go to do the conversion on my van i will have a better understanding of how they tick .

[ben]

you amaze me johnno! im scared to death of car computers!

[Bedfordcrazy]

me to, i'm letting my sparky and mechanic sort it out, as for my vp shell, i was going to scrap it at the end, but i am considering painting up the shell and doing a replica brock 05 car. I already have the 1:64 / 1:43 and 1:18 scale diecast, so why not 1:1 scale  my wife is not to sure about the idea, we'll see.

george

[MaTTe]

Things have been pretty hectic lately, been working flat out amongst other things..
I decided that I hate HZ alloy calipers enough to change them for HQ calipers, this was not quite as simple as I hoped, the mounting brackets my HZ calipers had, were HZ specific, so I had to make new ones for the HQ calipers.
Funnily enough, when I was doing all the work on the van 6 months ago I held a HQ stub next to the bedford stub(with disc on) and they looked near on identical, it wasn't until I had pulled the caliper and disc off that I realised I do actually have bedford stubs, the shape of the mounting bracket was in keeping with the shape of that on the holden stub, unfortunately the HQ caliper fouls on the bedford stub with that bracket..
So I spent a couple of days sharing my time between the race car and fabricating up the bracket for the HQ caliper, it turned out great, if i made it again I'd make a small change, but that is neither here or there..
In the process, we discovered the master cylinder was buggered(it has done bugger all kms, but having it sit for 6 years caused the seals to perish, so it had poured about 2.5litres into the booster.)
The booster then needed to be reconditioned.
On close inspection I think the stubs are machined too, so theres another important mission to have them replaced..

Once I had a recon booster, new master cyl, and recon calipers, I was able to mount the brakes using my new caliper brackets. This all went together pretty well, and once installed I realised what it meant to have brakes again.. I struggle to understand how the van managed to stop over the last few months.
I also picked up a bucketload of low down torque and top end power due to the booster no longer leaking robbing me of power..

2 days after the install($800 odd in parts) the brakes paid for themselves when someone decided to jump on the brakes infront of me on the freeway, i was almost thrown thru the windscreen, the back end started to come around, and I wiped off 50km/h instantly, I was surprised when the car infront of me was still infront of me, I should have been in the back seat of their car..

So needless to say I've been a pretty happy man of late...

Until today..

I was cruising around the corner turning off the freeway(southern direction) onto hutton st in the left hand lane, turning right. went over the ripples in the road, and the van understeered..
Aftet the van straightened up i noticed the steering wheel was off centre and very light. Further down hutton street almost at scarborough beach road the left front made a massive screech so I had to stop in the middle of the road during peak hour traffic and have a look, only to find my wheel facing 45degrees away from where it should..
Once i had it up on the grass I inspected the problem only to find the tie rod end had pulled out of the steering rack, so to cut a long story short I'm up fopr a new steering rack.
Luckily there are some great members on here able to help out in a pinch, so I should be sorted tomorro, but I advise having your steering racks checked, as this could have been fatal..

a bit of food for thought..

[obsession]

feel for ya mate did that on Garrett road bridge once in peak hour ........not pretty pic

[Abodator]

Hi guys.
Last 4 weeks in workshop was spent by me and ... you can have a look at my photo archive ... ;-)
Here: http://www.cf280.in.odessa.ua/img/archive/02/ (photos from IMG_1153 till the end of page) and here: http://www.cf280.in.odessa.ua/img/archive/03/ (all photos in gallery).

Warning: This isn't just "best pix of the year", but "day after day" photos.
So, you can found huge amount of photos, different angles of view for each place, etc.
I am not professional photographer. All photos is for my memory only. Or for yours. :-)

If any questions, please write it here: http://www.buga.com.au/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=2&topic=1681.10

[BlackBedford]

G'day

I have had a big weekend as usual...
I spent a day helping a mate install a 1.5kva solar setup. It was fun watching the meter run backwards.
I went around the Garage Sales and spent a little bit of money and got a heap of toys including a good GPS for $20.
On Sunday I took the grandkids, and scooters, to the Zoo. While scootering at high speed  I hit some water and lost it. Everybody who saw it thought it was very funny. I didn't think so as I have plenty of bark missing all over.