324 replies to this topic

[Bart]

mmmm....english wheel. Mine's not a super dooper mega dollar one, but it does me fine.

Take a pic of it, show us your goods mate
I've been watching too much Biker build off, love the way they shape the "gas tank"
Have you seen Scotty's Choppers? They hand fab their guards, tanks etc, he's in NSW near Port Macquarie

Edited by Bart, 15 July 2010 - 10:16 PM.

[dirtbag]

It's not a great pic but you can still sort of see it.

This is the start of one of the cycle guards for my volksrod.





Yeah, I love the work Scotty does. The aluminium fabrication is amazing.

[dirtbag]

Hi Michael. I've never used K&H rust converter but if it's just a clear(ish) liquid then I'd give it a quick sand and etch prime then topcoat/seal it.

If it's been on there for a long time, re apply it, then after it's dry give it a quick sand (180 dry or something similar) and then etch etc.

Maybe see if there's any info on a K&H website perhaps about whether it needs to be washed off or not?

[Bart]

Looks great dirtbag
Have you shaped anything a little more intricate?

[dirtbag]

Not on this car. Well, not yet anyway : )

[Bart]

I want one of them to.

Not enough shed space.....

You need a bigger shed mate
Our work place joke is, we need a bigger shed and a smaller house.

[Bart]

Yeah i know the feeling...Butt...

House is 80 sq/mt, shed is 160 sq/mt......

Just waiting for the house to accidentally burn down so i can build another shed there

Cheers.

Um, maybe you should edit that little burny thingy

[dirtbag]

Well I finished that panel behind the tub today.





And gave it a coat of rust converter.





That was all I did on the 69 today as I had to get something else done.

I've been working on a friends 1975 Pontiac Firebird on and off for a while now and the next job I have to get done is to fix the rust in the radiator support panel.


I know it's a bit off topic, but hey, it's something to look at : )





Here's the new piece I made welded in. I made the new piece from 1.6mm. It made shaping the roll on the edge of the opening a bit harder, but will be stronger than before.





The other side was a lot worse. The whole front section had totally rusted away and wasn't joined to the lower main support any more. Not ideal : )





I replaced a bit of the main support, where it mounts to the chassis.





Here's most of the repair done. There's still a couple of little things to do, but at least it's all joined together again. I love using my new panbrake for folding this stuff up : )




After a bit of the usual rust converter.








It's not super pretty, but it'll do the job.


Well the next few days at least will be working on the hatch, so nothing will be happening here for a little while, but wont be too long : )

[Statler]

I'm envious of your brake press!

You can retire & make droptanks now.

[dirtbag]

That would be nice. Clean too, not like this rusty stuff. Pity I don't have an AC/DC TIG : )

[dirtbag]

Kush, I did get the other headlight in the hatch : )


Mick, yes, my wife's firebird is a different car again. It's a 68 model.


Here it is the day it arrived.





It was a bit of a mess. Not as bad as the 69 I'm doing now, but not far off it either.







New floors too.





I made new tubs that were a bit taller with square edges so the 20s could go up under the guard further without hitting.





I also replaced the pontiac rear quarters with camaro ones, as the camaro ones don't have the stupid vents in from of the rear wheels. Smooth is good : )





The chassis before cleaning and modifying.





I had to section and reinforce the main crossmember a fair bit to fit the nissan V8. I also modified the nissan power rack as well. It had to be shortened 35mm each side and use different tie rod ends to fit. I also modified the nissan steering column and am running that as well.





The sump was in for a major workover, but the good thing about the VH45 motor over the lexus is these have a full sheetmetal sump, not a half alloy one, so it's a lot easier to do this conversion.


The sump had the pan at the front and it needed to be at the back, so I screwed it to a piece of form ply and cut the whole thing off except the lip. I rotated it 180 degrees, added 30mm to it's depth and took the hump out of the centre section. Then it fitted like a bought one : )














I'm in the process of converting the dash to RHD. The steering itself is finished, but the dash now needs to be changed. I'm also running the nisan guage cluster. Just to try and keep everything compatible.







The rear will be about an inch and a half lower than it is in this pic when it's finished.





There's a lot more to this story than what I've shown, but it gives you some idea of what's going on.

Edited by dirtbag, 20 July 2010 - 01:17 AM.

[dirtbag]

As for the 75 firebird I did the radiator support for, it's one of my friends cars. He's had it for over 8 years and I've been toying with it for him over the last 2 years.

It needed lots of little rust repairs. You know, the really annoying ones. A hole here, a tiny hole there, but it all needs to be fixed properly so took a little while. There were some previous repairs that needed touching up, but it only took about 3 days to get the shell into primer.

I also painted the inside and underside in a dark grey 2 pac with 20% flattening base. Looks nice enough, but if it were mine I wouldn't have gone with the flattening base. The chassis and engine bay bits - inner guards, radiator support etc will be in the same colour.


Couple of the rusty bits.





Nothing is as fun as having to unpeel panel skins (in this case the bootlid) to fix small bits of rust underneath.














Finally having it in primer meant I could paint the door and boot jams. I also did the top of the dash.





The colour is called Lapis blue from mazda. Nice colour. Looks really good in the flesh. It's painted in COB.








The car used to be white with blue stripes over the top. It runs a formula 400 bonnet, which looks like it has 2 small hornet scoops at the front. That's where the stripes start, one on each scoop, and finished on the boot. The new paint will have the blue with sparkle silver base for the stripes, and this time they'll go right over the rear to under the bumper.

Just for fun, and without telling the owner, I painted the stripes on the dash top. Wasn't sure how he'd take it. I liked it, and luckily for me so did he when he saw it : )









So there you go. That's all the firebirds and camaros in my life at the moment : ) I did do a full resto on a 67 convertible firebird a little while ago, but it's all finished now luckily.

I still have the 63 Bonneville 2 door to finish off having finished the metal work on a 1959 Plymouth Suburban wagon to fit a set of 20x16s under the back and still have the 3 rows of seats. That was a mission : ) It's owned by the same guy that owns the Bonneville. Lucky bastard....

As for the 75 firebird I did the radiator support for, it's one of my friends cars. He's had it for over 8 years and I've been toying with it for him over the last 2 years.

It needed lots of little rust repairs. You know, the really annoying ones. A hole here, a tiny hole there, but it all needs to be fixed properly so took a little while. There were some previous repairs that needed touching up, but it only took about 3 days to get the shell into primer.

I also painted the inside and underside in a dark grey 2 pac with 20% flattening base. Looks nice enough, but if it were mine I wouldn't have gone with the flattening base. The chassis and engine bay bits - inner guards, radiator support etc will be in the same colour.


Couple of the rusty bits.





Nothing is as fun as having to unpeel panel skins (in this case the bootlid) to fix small bits of rust underneath.














Finally having it in primer meant I could paint the door and boot jams. I also did the top of the dash.





The colour is called Lapis blue from mazda. Nice colour. Looks really good in the flesh. It's painted in COB.








The car used to be white with blue stripes over the top. It runs a formula 400 bonnet, which looks like it has 2 small hornet scoops at the front. That's where the stripes start, one on each scoop, and finished on the boot. The new paint will have the blue with sparkle silver base for the stripes, and this time they'll go right over the rear to under the bumper.

Just for fun, and without telling the owner, I painted the stripes on the dash top. Wasn't sure how he'd take it. I liked it, and luckily for me so did he when he saw it : )









So there you go. That's all the firebirds and camaros in my life at the moment : ) I did do a full resto on a 67 convertible firebird a little while ago, but it's all finished now luckily.

I still have the 63 Bonneville 2 door to finish off having finished the metal work on a 1959 Plymouth Suburban wagon to fit a set of 20x16s under the back and still have the 3 rows of seats. That was a mission : ) It's owned by the same guy that owns the Bonneville. Lucky bastard....

[Bart]

Love to see the Bonneville

[dirtbag]

Not sure how I managed to put the same thing in there twice, but hey, if something can be screwed up on a computer, I'm your man : )


Hi 2DR. It depends what I'm welding as to whether I'll do full welds or spot welds. If I'm doing structural/chassis work I'll do full welds, but for little things like this radiator support I find spot welds easier, as I can make sure the 2 pieces are in line all the way along easier, and it's going to get ground down anyway, so I don't really care how crap it looks after I've welded it : ) Plus, there's a lot less chance of distortion doing the spot welds. If I'm doing more involved panel work, like a sunroof fill or 2 door conversion I'll tack things together with the mig but then weld it with the oxy, as it's a much better weld for panel work. It can be panel beaten as opposed to the mig weld which cracks when hammer and dollied.

As or plug welding, it's very handy and very easy. For thin panel work I use an 8mm drill to drill the holes. Then once the panel is ready to get welded on, make sure the new piece being welded in is sitting flat on the existing piece (you can look through the 8mm hole to check that there's no gap between the two pieces) and then weld away. The only hint I can give though is make sure you start the puddle (weld) inside the hole on th existing metal, not on the new metal, or you'll most likely just fill the hole and not get good penetration, meaning a weak join. Start the weld right in the middle of the hole, then once it's started a good weld rotate the mig in a circle outwards until you've welded the edge of the hole to the existing metal. I really suck at explaining things, so I hope you can make some sense of that????

[Bart]

Nice conversion, shit a brick you got more room in your engine bay than i have thats for sure
Theres a bloke in NZ who makes stroker canks for the VH engine. Cant remember his name, he has a race boat with a VH stroked and bored to 400 cubes and makes 800 + hp.

Edited by Bart, 20 July 2010 - 09:37 PM.

[dirtbag]

Love to see the Bonneville

Hi Bart. Well I stick up a few pics of the old rusty mongrel for you : )





Here's a quick look at some of the rust.







This repair was so solid I was able to rip it off with my bare hands : )





This is the underside of that same repair. If you can call it that.





You know how big these things are, so can appreciate what a crap job it was stripping it back to bare metal with a 7" grinder : )





While I was propping the body up to take it off the chassis I got a clearer look at the chassis. Nothing left. In fact, it broke in 2 once I'd put the blocks of wood in there to lift the body. Luckily the owner has another chassis.





And here it is bent in half : )





It was nice to be rid of the old chassis and have it mounted on the rotisserie. Now the real fun begins : )









It doesn't really look too bad in this next pic, but it shows the inner sill and floor are trashed, and the floor supports and seat mounts also have chronic rust issues too.





I don't know how many pics I can put in one post so I might leave it at that for now and come back later and do more.