the risky shortcut to jindabyne (FCCOOL Tidy up)

[gp]

Talk about a glutton for punishment! I hope you make it to Jindabyne, but as one of the others said, you'd have to be a magician to pull this off!!

Good Luck

:-/ :-/

[FC-V8]

Leon
          I have seen cars totally rebuilt in a day by the Tech apprentices at the Bathurst races, but I thing they would be struggling to finish this in time. Good luck to you I hope you make it. Is there a award for the quickest rebuild ? if so its got to be yours.
Glenn

[Martin]

my greatest nusance is that I cant bang hammers or run power tools late at night

Can't see the problem, Leon.

If everybody's asleep, they won't hear you.  

Anyway, what's a few sleepless nights? Coulkdn't you take the smaller bits into the lounge to work on to reduce the noise for the neighbours?  

Good luck, I hope you make it to Jindabyne - it will certainly be a talking point and should earn you a few beers (or bourbons)

Martin

[gp]

 

[NO NAME]

Once again I haven't made as much progress as I liked, spent most of the day cleaning the floor.

[NO NAME]

here is a shot from the rear. I wish I was a magician but I am relying on the sanding faries to come in and strip my paint of.
I tried rubbing a door today and it took 3 hours to break through the blue. man I laid on some paint last time, unfortunately this is its first time back to bare metal, previous colours were white,green, light gold, darker gold, and black/red. all these colours are here with some primer in between in spots, I was going to hand rub the lot but I might have to look into alternatives.
As for using the hammer and power tools in the lounge room I dont want to wake my kids up but I have all my chrome next to my bed ready for polishing when I go to bed.
this afternoon when I was using the grinder my neibhour on the left had a jimmy hendrix cd playing so loud that it was drowning out my big qudraphonic set up in the garage, I couldnt believe it, he must have a nice hi fi but the hendrix that loud seemed quite out of character for the old fella. maybe my worn out supercheap grinder is a little on the loud side.

[NO NAME]

here is a fresher pic, I think tommorow I will have to hit nitrous.

[NO NAME]

here is a sticker that will be stripped of the fire wall, cut from a american auto's sticker wich i dont think they have anymore, new one probably has a vt commodore on it.
the way my car is looking at present it should be crawling back into the coffin.

[Tailshaft_Tim]

Goodluck Leon - absolutely unbelievable mission ahead of you.

We thought WE were busy getting the Nats ready and have been hoping both wagons being finished by Ed Ho & Ed Singleton make it in time...  we've mourned the most recent "apologies" from the likes of Julius Goboly & Ken McLean who won't have their sedans ready and sadly, Bec and I even gave up with our own FC wagon.

AND THEN... we find your pics of the wagon scattered all over the front yard.  All I can say is that we really hope you make it mate, glad you have some help around you and hope you are feeling better soon.  Either way, gotta be proud of a gutsy effort like this.

Don't give up mate, see you in Jindabyne.  Cheers, Tim.

PS. Anyone know someone at Channel 9 to organise some kinda new "Restoration Rescue" tv show to turn up at Leon's place?

[NO NAME]

Yeah, I started taping in the beginig but the camera shit itself, fortunately it still takes still photo's but I was going to make a short doco on the rebuild.
I am starting to get rid of my flu, I think my diet was lacking vitamin C from the diet of beer and bourbon.
I haven't really made much progres today, almost looks as if i went backwoods, the holes are now bigger in the floor and there is more of them.
This sucker should be pretty rust free after this, I am also planning some structual strengthening since I have a hot six and stuff all suspension.
I finally filled the old hole in the floor from when it was a manual as the current hurst shifter is cable.
I am about 3 days behind already and was previuosly planning to paint on friday/saturday, weather has been perfect still and warm every day since starting I hope it holds out till the week end or Ill be stuffed with the painting.
I still have to shape the gaurds and shave my door handles as well as strip, patch and bog it all.
I need some pipes bent if any one knows any one with the gear in sydneys west.
I also broke a steel brake line the other day that I will have to fix.
My arms and legs are pretty impregnated now with grinding and welding sparks.
today arrived my new eelco lakes pipes caps, the pipes still need to be made,

[NO NAME]

I think I jinxed myself, heaps of metal changed colour today with rain. fingers crossed it will clear up tomorow.
you guys with nice big sheds don't know what your missing.
unfortunately my little garage is now that crammed with so much crap that I can't even work in there.
if there are any over glutten for punishment out there who would like to lend a hand feel free becuase after today my chances of making it are pretty slim.
here are some new photos.
this is the front that was set up in the garage this morning wich should be the front going on my car.

[NO NAME]

I am lost for ideas to shape the front of the gaurds around the planned canted quads. original plan was to make the shape from rod and tack it on the patch around it, after buying the rod I realised I couldn't bend it so I tried to think up some alternatives.
I don't know if this will work but this is what I was banging up before it got to late to bang, it is folded steel bent around with slots cut on the inside of the curves.
does anyone know of any informative websites on custom body work?

[NO NAME]

these chrome knobs Arrived today, there is 30 in total to be spread across a expanded mesh grill.

[NO NAME]

here are the new old power window swithes, they were originally fitted to chev/ pontiac/ olds/ buick, they first apeared on the upmarket variety of cars in 1959.

[NO NAME]

here is a patch we banged up for the rear floor.

[NO NAME]

I was originally going to fit a 45 player, then I decided on a muntz 4 track but you can never find one when you want one.
this eight track is a bit modern for the FC but its all I have that is vintage stereo, one advantage of these is the range of tapes, as you can probably see the tape in this pic is brand new sealed in plastic.
I may put it in temporarily till a early muntz pops up avaliable.
at least there is a kind of vintage reason for the stereo speakers , how ever the car will also have a dvd player hidden that plays cd/mp3 etc.

[FATBOY]

thick fencing wire bends pretty easy and its cheap from your rural store

cheers fatboy

[customFC]

Hey Leon.
The rod is still the best idea.
If the rod you bought does not bend, it is too thick, go buy something smaller. The rod I used to form my taillight extensions was only about 5-6mm thick.
How big are those chrome balls? 30 may not be enough to fill the grill cavity. I have 21 stars just in the center of my grill.
Good luck with the project.
Regards
Alex

[Hewart]

Speaking of balls.... I reckon you've got 'em for trying to do this so close to the actual Nats mate.... Hope this Sydney rain dosen't slow you down tooooo much....

Hope to see you in the Snowies...!!
Good luck with it all!!!
Cheers
Les.....

[NO NAME]

yeah the rain has sure stuffed things, my only ready panel that was in etch primer is already rusting through. everything is sloshy or rusty, a couple of days ago I had lots of clean fresh steal and it's getting quite frusterating.
chances of making it get slimmer by the day but I am not quiting till its done.
to finnish it now I really would be performing the impossible but then again is anything impossible?
I really needed to make my car more while the sun was shinning, I tried to use the day the best I could by doing some of the running around.
On the way to getting the expanded steel for the grill I found the vinyl place I have heard about many times but never found.
I have been trying to find some vynil to match stuff I bought 8 years ago but never had any luck till today.
two different vinyls I bought from two different places in two different brands that I was worried would now be obselete were both in stock at the warehouse I went to in villawood. the place is called daileys and they had everything from that crappy stuff on tangara seats to genuine US made Nuagahyde. I was tempted to redo my whole interior when I spotted the pearl white vinyls and the Nuagahide seemed real cool too, iThe Naugahide is nice thick quality stuff but it's also soft and flexible. the vynil I use is capri marine and has the closest properties to Nuagahide but is half the price.
while I was out my uncle came over and strung a tarp up over the car but it was still really to wet and sloshy to start grinding steel and welding so we just looked and smoked smokes.
I had another play with the front in order to tackle it with the rod and start looking at shapes and stuff, man them customiziers of the 50's and 60's must have been keen guys. no wonder everyone now takes the simple path of stockers, and todays youth bolt everything onto their cars (apart from the new sports ute guys)
hopefully tomorow I will get some sun shine again becuase today was a big flop.
my balls are not actually balls but a flat knob, not completely flat but maybe like a squashed ball. the are actually cupboard knobs, they sell for about $8.80 each in bunnings but I got them for US98c each plus shipping, still cost a bit but hel of a lot cheaper than buying from bunnings.
I was nearly going to get 33, hopefully 30 will give the grill some effect but.
As for my own balls, they are massive big huge things.