Mattml430

Congratulations on becoming a grandfather for the first time. The car is looking just amazing. That was a nice fix on the radiator.

Started getting the tanks ready today for plating the radiator surround. I’ve put another row of anodes into the bottom of the tanks to try and get some better coverage on the surface facing downward in the tank. Hopefully this works out ok. We will know tomorrow as we have a 36 degree day here so a good day for plating in the heat. Nickle anodes in the tank. Copper anode tank. I originally made these tanks for my roadster bumper bars. washing and acid tanks.

Thanks Nat I appreciate your comments. Ben and his family absolutely love this old car it’s been part of their family for 100years which in itself is pretty amazing. They are all looking forward to seeing it finished and have all been following the whole thing closely so their appreciation is 100% felt in every way. When you think about growing up and getting old having an old car in the background through 4 generations it would just be so much part of your family. It’s crazy how attached you can become to a car. Being able to do this restoration for Ben’s family has been pretty amazing, giving them back the car as good as new to go through another few generations is quite a privilege.

Thanks Doug, I’ll be giving it a few runs to make sure everything is working and running well. Ben’s family has quite a few plans for her straight away, It’s his daughter’s wedding at the end of this month. After the Wedding he’s taking it down to his mums place and the whole family is going to have a photo done with the car. He said the car is the talk of the family so it will be well cared for and used for sure.

I heard from the upholsterer today and he should have it all done by next Wednesday or Thursday. He’s finished the interior and seats and is doing the hood / Top now. Can’t wait to see it done.

The upholster sent the vinyl back because of that and got some that looks almost identical in colour and sheen. I will take some pictures of the tanks with the new anode set up once I have them done for you.

I haven’t started on it yet Doug I’m going to just rearrange the anodes in the tanks a little bit to see if that helps get better coverage. It’s all ready to go though, I’ve got it wrapped in plastic to keep it in perfect condition. I’ll definitely keep you updated on the progress.

Tan leather for the seats and a door trims, A matching vinyl for all the other bits and pieces. Hartz hood material for the top in a beige colour.

Thanks Nat appreciate it very much. Hopefully one day down the track some young fella will fall in love with making wooden wheels and I can pass it all on. The copy lathe definitely makes light work of making the spokes. 4 at a time with the pattern in the middle. 😂👍

Without this forum and help from you guys on here there is some things that would be hard to find out. A little bit of help and different comments on things goes a long way to helping out. So thank you to everyone that followed the restoration and put there 2 cents in. 👍👍I do really appreciate it.

Just the centre up to the curves will be covered I think Mike.

The old girl is off to Grant White upholstery tomorrow for the interior and Top. Ben decided to go with a dark Tan interior and mid tan top. I think it should look great all done. steering wheel is finished, it got about 7 coats of clear. Hood bows are also fixed in. They are definitely a time consuming job getting the tapered end to fit in correctly. I got the side curtain frames made out of some 16x3mm flat , I used 5/16 stainless steel pins so the don’t rust She got a good hand wash to get all the work shop dust of it before going to grant’s. Loaded on the trailer ready for it’s bit over an hour’s drive to grants. Onto the radiator surround now while it’s away.

If it’s the same business it’s still going today Doug , Now known as Paterson Cheney. They have Isuzu, Toyota, Mercedes and probably other dealerships here in Melbourne. I think they started in Port Melbourne.

It’s quite surprising what the deaths are caused by I will admit. Interesting hey.

Yes mate Ronny is a great fella he sent me these pics of Busselton yesterday. A BBQ chair bit Ron on the ass the other day and layed him out flat. 😂

I don’t think Doug was saying so much about them killing you but more biting and stinging you. We have plenty of them here , I had a red belly black snake going across my driveway yesterday and my stupid dog was trying to sniff it so I had to try run both of them over so the dog would run the other way. Don’t know where the snake went I couldn’t find it. Probably up under the truck somewhere now. 😬🫣

Don’t get me started Doug. I think it’s disgusting how people aren’t proud of the country they were bought up and live in. Governments are listening to wack jobs and not real people anymore. Australia is still one of the best places in the world to live I think.

We had a great turn out at our club today for Australia Day. We cooked a big old BBQ for everyone it was pretty good. There was a lot of cars there today.

I have quite a few Gee Jay tins amongst them all. Some are in perfect condition too.

Yeah I wasn’t sure weather they still existed. The box I have is probably pretty old.

Well the old dodge made it out of the shed today under its own steam. Took it for a quick drive and just needed to adjust the brakes a little. Took it for another drive and she runs and drives just beautiful it surprised the shit out of me how well it went and sat on the road. Few small jobs to do still and it’s off to the upholsterer on Tuesday for the seats and top.

I have some of all the parts I bought of Bill Eldridge. It’s in a GJworks grab kit. I don’t know how old it is but has come in very handy. I’ve never been able to find them either. The address is on the picture, maybe try calling them.

I will be fitting all the new linkages that I made today into it tomorrow so once the wheel and steering column is in I can then take it for a test drive. I get great use out of my dad’s old P&N tap and die sets. These things are probably 20 years older than me and still cut perfectly. all the new linkages made up from the old ones. I’ve gone up a size so if there’s any play in the holes I can drill them out to the next size up.

The steering wheel is all together and ready for painting. centre spokes all polished up ready to be fitted. I use hot melt glue to stick it on my wheel facing machine so I can get it perfectly round and flat. Machining the inside and outside edges. Trueing up the face to be clamped together. One half all trued up ready for the end of the spoke to be cut in. each half has the spoke end housed out with the joins 60 degrees apart. spoke Locke in once both halves are joined together. All glued up with epoxy. Out of the clamps after about 6 hours and I can clean up the edges and rout a rounded edge on them. I stick it in the lathe to speed thing up a little and it gets it sanded nice and even. it gets glue back onto the wheel table and I router cut some finger grooves into the back of it. Finished sanded with 320 grit and ready for staining. ready for a coat of clear. After the first coat I’ll remove the tape off the wheel centre and give it a quick polish up, and then clear coat the whole lot so it will always look like new.

Thanks Doug. No there wasn’t a seal under them.