Thread: Shonky's '58 Series II SWB

Looking Great, mate!
Coming along real well, End of August looking good? I'd better get a giggle on with Mary

My hands smell like brake fluid

It's going to be a hell of a fight to get him good for August!

Going at it hell for leather though!

Damn right you'd better get going! Theres gonna be some real egg on your face if you can't get your complete car on the road before I get my bag-o-bits special there!

their not that much left to do apart from paint and fit is their???
bt as useall it will be done to your high standards

Still haven't touched the chassis yet Jono! It needs a new rear cross member but I have it on the stockpile and it shouldn't take too long.

After that...
- paint chassis
- swap the gear over to the new firewall
- brake reline, reshoe and recylinder
- engine and gearbox in (and find out if my g/b is rooted...)
- recover seats
- tune and adjust motor, brakes et al.
- find set of bartreads for Ambrose so I can pilfer his radials for Gus
- rewire
- assemble
- register

Painting will have to wait!

Sounding good Andrew .Fingers crossed on the Gearbox.

FINALLY got my freakin' paint today!

The paint shop had called in a favour with one of their suppliers who have a warehouse near me, but they didn't tell me that the rep they gave it to only goes back to the warehouse once a week! They also told him that it wasn't urgent!

Today being Friday, I was getting worried that I hadn't had word that my paint was ready to be picked up at the supplier's warehouse so I got the reps number off the paintshop and gave him a call. Turns out I wasn't going to get my paint until next week.

The rep was at Campelltown and very kindly offered to meet me halfway (thinking I was at home in Baulkham Hills). Unfortunately I was stuck at work at Homebush - so the bloody champion delivered it to my door, after knock off time, on a Friday! He also lived at Wollongong so had to then turn around and go back again to get home!

What a restoration of my faith in humanity - it seems there are still a few decent people out there.

So - Gus is now ready to go in the paint department!

Got to splash some paint around this weekend!



The firewall is now in colour, although I am thinking I might put another coat on – just for good measure. I also have the wing in first coat and have put it together so I can do additional coats with it in one piece.



I managed to not overdo it and cause runs (I have a tendency to be impatient and overpaint ) until the last two passes, down the door pillars. I thinned the colour out nice and wet for a nice gloss and got a small run on each side. Oh well… I will just rub it back and either go over it again or just buff it out.

I did a big shop the other day – got a whole heap of bits in one big painful hit. I now have most of the little bits I need to finish Gus off, but have a few other bits on order.




The finishing touch? I swapped Gus’ plates over. The new firewall is officially 143800259 - Gus!

I took Friday off work last week so the missus and I could head up to the farm. It was supposed to be a big family gathering weekend, but it didn’t end all that well. Why is it that relatives think that because you have a farm, they are entitled to do as they please? I wouldn’t set up a tent and a fire right in front of their garage, or use their chainsaw to cut down a heap of good timber to take home – and leave the saw blunt and the farm without wood, or walk mud through their house, or tell them where they can and can’t sit in their own lounge room.

They worked hard though… apparently. It seems that straining the top two wires of a 100m fence and then wandering off leaving the tie-wiring to someone else is a hard days work for 7 people, and entitles them to have the run of the place. We should be so grateful! Whilst our now unwelcome ‘guests’ had a mid afternoon nap, then a round of drinks by the fire, then dinner, Adriana and my sister helped me finish the fencing – well into nightfall and the onset of a bitterly cold tablelands eve.




It wasn’t all doom and gloom however.

A friendly reprieve came just in the nick of time on Sunday morning, in the form of Bill (Black Bill) and Diana (Lotz-A-Landies) with the car trailer behind the Rangie.

It was time for Gus to leave his piggery rest, and return to suburbia once more!

I had spent a fair bit of time getting the Holden engine ready to come out, and had got all but one awkwardly placed nut in the adaptor plate. After trying all sorts of methods for two days, Diana had a go and got a good angle with a socket and the whole stud came out. Good to go!



Bill wanted to play tractors so I let him do the honours. The old Major was pressed into service and the engine was dragged out!
Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of play in the primary pinion and a bit of clunking happening in there. I don’t have time to rebuild the box so I might just source a good box from somewhere. Anyone got one they want to part with?



A good bit of push and shove got the chassis moving and despite two flat tyres making life hard, we got Gus up on the trailer by hand (no winch).



Ambrose was loaded up with parts and followed the Rangie powered Gus down to the house.



I brought the pressure gurney with me, and attacked the muddy, greasy lump. Unfortunately the little washer wasn’t up to the job and so a lot of muck will have to be scraped off later. Whilst I was playing Sadie, Bill and Diana set to work undoing some of the wrongs of my useless relatives. By the time we left, mum had a good stack of neatly cut firewood and a freshly sharpened chainsaw. Bill and Diana got more done in one hour than the ferals did in 4 days.

We left the farm a little later than anticipated, and unfortunately a motorcyclist had been killed on Bells Line of Road meaning it was closed. The Great Western Highway was absolutely bumper to bumper – the worst I have ever seen it.

Stop start traffic up a hill like Mt Victoria, in a bloodbox, certainly gives your braking and clutching legs a workout!

Nearly 6 hours later (after driving up the M7 with no eTag to save time) Adriana and I arrived home. Hats off to Adriana – anyone who has spent any length of time in the narrow passenger seat of a bloodbox will know that they are NOT comfortable!

Bill and Diana had made a detour to visit a fellow REMLR-ite, and arrived at my house a short while later.

After some tricky reversing up my awkward driveway, we had the back of the trailer poked in the garage and with Bill acting as ‘Gus brakes with a rope tied off capstan style, Diana and I pushed, pulled and bounced the beastie off the trailer and into position. The was not enough room to get completely off the trailer, so the engine crane was pressed into service to lift the front end clear of the trailer so it could be driven out from underneath.



Gus is now home safe and once I have the firewall finished, I can get cracking on the chassis. A new cross member is ready to go on, and some repairs will be needed on a crumpled dumb-iron.

Just over a month until All British Day!