Bush Mechanic

Dang-blast it, Mum, I forgot the rabbit traps.

Excellent! Thank you Jeff, for that in depth reply. You have put my mind at rest. I am not familiar with SPI products, but I'm very happy with the Wattyl epoxy primer that I have used on several cars in the past. No doubt a similar product. I will go with a sanding sealer first on the door shut faces. (It's a tourer body, and no doubt will be subjected to rain at times). Then carry on as for the sheet-metal. As you mentioned, the complete wood structure will get the sealer/primer before the sheet-metal goes on. It's interesting that you mention glue. So many people have told me tha

Jeff, you are a bit ahead of me, and may be able to help. I am new to painting wooden framed cars. It looks like some of the wood frame is exposed and visible? I was wondering how you prepped the timber before applying the primer. The body that I am re-wooding at the moment has the wooden door pillars visible when finished. Originally they were hand painted in the top-coat colour. As it is raw wood, I'm thinking I need to seal it before the primer goes on. I have some water based primer/sealer ready to go on, but am a bit concerned that the grey etch primer may not get along with t

I confess that this happened to me in my youth. Fitted new press type ball joints in the street, with a hammer. This distorted them enough to make them tight. Exactly the same driving symptoms. The car passed it's roadworthiness check, but I had to fit another set of ball joints, as it was dangerous to drive. That is where I would look first.

As stated in my post above. 'To lengthen a spanner, standard practice would be to use a ring/open-ender, with another ring spanner hooked into the open ender. Which is, no doubt, what you guys said, but the terminology left me behind'. It seems my terminology also left you behind, Mr. Padgett. I'm well aware that us Aussies speak differently, and that our humour and irony is often completely missed on the US forums, but the cultural differences help to keep it interesting.

This American spanner talk has left me a little confused, Guys. 'Box End' is possibly an Aussie 'ring spanner', closed circle at each end. Open ender is of course the one you use to round off nuts. 'Flare nut wrench'? Could it be an injector spanner, a ring spanner with a cut-out to slip over the injector pipe? And what do you call your sockets? Umm, those individual short round tube spanners with a square shaft drive. The back-bone of the tool-box. To lengthen a spanner, standard practice would be to use a ring/open-ender, with anot

That's interesting. I had not heard of them getting a VW engine. I imagine they had to beef up the frame a little to handle all that horsepower.

As Ernest Hemmingway said, 'Always use enough gun'.

The Trabant seems to have died a fitting death in the former Eastern Soviet states, but I see a few on the road in the poorer rural areas of Latvia/Lithuania/Estonia region. More so ten years ago, and fast becoming an odd-ball machine there too. (As if they weren't already!) Many finished up in the UK, where they became a trendy accessory in the 80's. I was rather tempted by a well kept example in an Estonian car yard, at a ridiculously low price. But when you get it home, what do you do with it? They are funny little things, made from cardboard and plastic, and a smoky twin cylinder motor-bik

Travelling through Armenia shortly before the covid, and we were struck by the very large concentration of Ladas. Probably above 50% of all cars in the countryside, and 25% in Yerevan, the capital. They appeared to mostly be early models, with a predominance of sedans, but also a good number of the NIva 4x4s. While most were in rough shape, a few had oviously been completely restored. We would be travelling carefully over rough unsealed roads in our motor-home, and the little Ladas would pass us at speed, with the suspension banging away on the potholes. In the villages there would be a works

My son is rather proud of the extensive repairs he has just completed on his Golf. So someone sent me this.

Does it annoy anyone else when they put the hoist under a trailing arm and bend it? Probably doesn't matter in this case, as it all has to come out for resoration, anyway.

Loud and clear.

Thank you for posting that, Sebastien. Much time has passed since I last sat on a 'reaper and binder' getting chaff down my kneck. I enjoyed the reminder.

Great progress, Ed. If you want something done, get a busy person to do it....