Bush Mechanic

This may explain the confusion.😊

Mad comic's strip about useless tools and presents. The 'Chrome plated swizzle stick' has stuck in my head for 60+ years. It was right on the money, as usual. Right up there with 'home knitted yoghurt'. The exhaust tube expander which burst on the first application could be my worst useless tool, but it has some stiff competition from the arc welder attchment suposedly used for spot welding from one side of the metal. Brilliant for burning holes in sheet metal.

I have tried a few, and currently use 'Navigator', which runs on 'Map Factor' maps, an open source mapping system. Find something has changed? Just send in the info and they will update the maps. Download maps at home, or you could run on phone data. Vehicle parameters give Motorhome and Truck options, which may suit your 30' vehicle. Many choices of road type exclusions, to keep you out of the heavy traffic. We have a dedicated mini tablet in a dash mount. Easy to see. I have only used this system in Europe and the East, but it covers the US, and well worth a look. Not sure about waypoints, b

The price you paid sounds about right for the wheels and rings. Media blasting here in Tasmania is currently costing A$270/hour, which would equate to US$209/hour. Painted in primer is extra. Unfortunately the local blasters are closed until the end of January, so I have had to do my own blasting. It is NOT my favourite job.

Paul,if my pit had wheel diverters I would be tripping over them constantly. In my case, I don't remove the cover boards until the car is in position, and remove the majority from below, standing them along the wall. Easy, and you still have a flat floor when the pit is not in use. I guess your idea of a pit depends on what you have been exposed to. With common sense, they don't have to be a danger. And I doubt there is anything as convenient as a pit for installing engines on your own.

John, is that granulated plastic ? It sounds like something I need. I looked for walnut shell, but that is not available here in Tasmania, and quite expensive shipped from the mainland. Ed's vapor blast looks like a good thing, if it becomes available at hobby price level.

Before the home workshop lifts, ramps running up to two horizontal planks was a common sight in rural areas here. Six robust posts supported the planks. Scary things to drive onto, and difficult to winch a dead car up. But they gave good access to the underside. You still had to get up there to pour in the fresh oil, though.

I blasted mine with fine glass beads, at low air pressure, (around 50 psi), then hand rubbed the finish with scotch-brite. They cleaned up very nicely, and the scotch-brite removes the flat look. The very fine swirls in the finish may not be for everyone . It looks good to me, but I'm not into showing the cars. Maybe try different methods on a scrap casting.

Hello, Hard Drive. Welcome to the forum. When I built my inspection pit, I also did a lot of head-scratching about the depth. What I came up with is a pit 5 feet 2 1/2inches deep, 32 inches wide and 15 feet 6 inches long. I am 6' 1 1/2" tall and the depth is about right, at 11 inches below my head height. There is nothing I would change about it, and I am mighty glad to have it. It spends most of the time covered with recessed 2" x 12" boards. I am walking and driving over it constantly, when not in use. One end is ramped at about 45 degrees, with a steel framed set of fixed steps

A small soft paintbrush dampened with water or alcohol would be my first try.

Rusty, the first wood frame that I looked closely at was a Wayman bodied Rolls. That probably infected my subsequent thinking, to a degree. Brother Greg ( an old Coachbuilder), has dug out some construction plans for horse-drawn Ambulances, so everything is now advancing in the right direction, thanks.

Excellent reply, jdome. I like your thinking. We posted at the same time. We have the cross members bolted down with eight 10 mm coach bolts. And the European car that I am restoring at the moment has one of those 24 inch x 3/8 boards across behind the front seat, and we all marvel at it, it being so unusual here. A pale pinkish timber. And still sound after 100 years of abuse. The timbers used in carriage work here in Aus are different from those in the US, but the local equivalents. The old guy with the ironwork in his chook house called it cedar, apparently, but from talkin

And keeping moisture out of the joints could be a real issue. I finally made contact with the brother who had a carriage building/restoration business in the 1980's and 90's. (He goes bush, prospecting). He was emphatic that it should be built as tight as we can make it. Also the frame can still twist in the span between the box and the firewall. So our thinking has come full circle, and that is the current plan (I hope). I will try to post some photos of the project, when we are more advanced.

Traces of the damage are still there, in some welding on a rear reinforcement. That intersection is still an accident hot-spot, despite the new roundabout. The streets are on a hill. There were quite a large number of good quality cars in Tas then. But they continue to drain away to the Mainland and Europe.

Thanks for the diagram. This is our 'sliding joints behind cover strip' option. Currently our first choice. Not sure what is meant by boxing the frame. Tom, they are actually the same box, transferred to different vehicles. We are trying for as close a copy of this as we are able, using the photos and iron-work for reference. Ha! It is the memories of excessive chassis twist on my '48 Morgan which leads to my current concerns. We haven't any 'body pads' as such under the five cross members. The style of construction of the base is dicta