Been busy.
Lots of various random work happening on all projects. Updates tomorrow night.

f**k it here goes.
S3 Tickford dash facia for the Fairute. Yeah its a wank but looks good.


Picked this 5.0 NC up for a good price , so cleaned it up , got a pink slip on it and sold it off to generate some more Jewish project coins.
Has had deposit taken , just currently waiting for buyer to pick it up.


Radiator on the Ghia started to leak so it was a case of f**k it do it properly , so the Ghia got a new radiator and external trans cooler fitted to it. The trans now completley bypasses the radiator and just runs the external cooler. Seems to do the job well.




Come back from holidays and got some new ink.


Very proud of this piece of work. The sitting was a Christmas present from Donna to me and it took this long to get an appointment as the artist is very busy.
The idea (as crazy as it is) was mine as I am pretty much obsessed with both the Grim Reaper and Ned Kelly. The design was drawn up by mate and member on here Edzie and needle was put to skin by Brush Taylor who did my first tatt many many years ago.
Unfortunately it has refueled the tattoo fire. More work to come with any luck.

Maverick is stripped down pretty hard and the old body should be coming off the chassis this weekend.

Finally did this afternoon what many people thought I wouldnt do.
I was even questioning my ability to be able to do it myself.
The point of no return has been reached and passed.
RIP to the White Nugget.




Should have it finished off over the weekend and fingers crossed if some pesos I have due to be coming in from various sources arrive . I will be buying the new spray gun and paint next week , sandblasting the chassis and then painting the chassis on my RDO the week after.

Seemed to have develloped a gearbox noise and a bad fuel smell............

Got a few jobs out of the way today.
Have a camping trip out to a good mates property coming up , but without a 4x4 on the road I wouldnt be able to take my camper trailer.
The answer was to fit a Haymen Reece towbar to the ute instead of the factory flat tongue one.
This way I could take the drop tongue I use on the Mav for towing car trailers etc , flip it upside down and use it as a raising tongue. This way the camper trailer will tow level instead of nose down.
Just have the remember to not open the tailgate with the tongue in.


Found some chrome door handles etc at the wreckers when I went to scab some plugs to hook up the ghia door lights.
Getting fancy here.......LOL


Repaired the ABS fault. Found that the wiring to the left rear wheel sensor had got caught between the chassis and spring on morning on the way to work when I pulled a very very quick and sideways entry into a street and got a lot of axle tramp. Reterminated the wires and tied back up and all seems well in the world.

Now just need to strip out the dash and firewall and remove the front. Interesting work will start next week.

Jewlane sold so thats one thing out of the way.
Instead of doing some constructive work , my brain got a dumb a*** idea after some input from the goat shagger and another idea has come up to be implemented into the new build.
A quick overnight trip to Mexico saw the purchase of this


The Mav will be getting an AU serpentine conversion done to it. Was cheaper and easier in the long run to buy the entire motor with ALL the bits.
Will take the front dress for myself and the rest will be sold off to top the wallet back up.

You have a PM...

Still chugging along slowly.
I keep finding things that can be done bigger and better which slow me down.

Yo have done the experiment, now you will do it with all the lessons learnt. You will do well mate.

Last edited by SWC on Thu Mar 21, 2013 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thankyou.

Have been having a fiddle with the serpentine setup and I have to say its going to work.
I wanted to keep my powerbond balancer as it wasnt that old and wanted to keep the timing marks that the e series balancer has (AU has no timing marks due to coil pack).
Also the top bracket on the AU front dress was pushing against the TFI plug on the dizzy when it was done up.
So some thinking was in order.
Xcabbi supplied an E series lower pulley , but pointed out that the E series pulley with AU front dress sat out about 10mm too far forward for it to line up.
This got my brain turning over.
I made up some 9mm spacers and purchased longer bolts.
By putting the 9mm spacers behind the AU front dress mounts to space it forward , I got all the pulleys to line up with the crank pulley. WIN.
Some grinding was required on the top bracket behind the idler to give full clearance to the TFI. Easy done.
So now I have a E series pulley and balancer lining up with AU front dress. Only drama is the water pump. The pulley needs to come forward 10mm for the belt to run in its original spot. A trip to Dazfab sees a 10mm spacer for the water pump pulley organised.
The side effect is now with the E series pulley being larger in diameter then the AU one , the alternator etc will be overdriven. Extra chrage at idle whicle winching etc will be a very welcome thing especially once I fit one of these http://www.rjminjectiontech.com/collect ... s/alt-7787

So this is how it sits at the moment.


The air con mount needs modifying as it is too close to the chassis rail. A plate will be fabricated which will mount it slightly higher and further out. I am having next week off work so this will be attended to then.

Its only a small thing in the big scheme of things and doesnt seem real important at the moment , but it is one more thing nearly complete. Lots of little complete jobs finishes a project.

Ahhh Front dress and serpentine belts, fun arn't they. Well done Matt, nice win.

The Jew has struck again!
Todays Jewish purchase will see the Fairute finished with the install of leather seats and fitment of Fairmont/Fairlane spec climate control dash , an electric brake controller for the Mav , more Jew coin raised for the Mav project and Dons Ghia get a factory sunroof!
Some other members cars here have also been lined up to benefit.
Todays purchase.




AU2 5.0 Fairmont Ghia.
Vehicle is a rather rough example but still has lots of good parts on it. Still registered until late next month.
Guy was selling it in a hurry as he busted up with his missus and needed to raise a bond for somewhere to live by Thursday. So yeah paid very little for it in the big scheme of things.

Nice score Matt

Nice pickup Matt. Donna will love the sunroof.

But..............

Getting a bit worried about this ute. Thought a ute was a man thing, tough, rugged, out doors type. Leather seats, climate control, chrome door handles etc etc mmmmmm....

Becoming a bit of a concern............