What did you do in your shed / man cave today?

[edz]

Vinyl top on the center console lid in the old Hilux is all sun cracked and scratchy, Missus was on my case about it pulling threads etc on the sleeves her jumpers  and to go to an upholsterer to get it recovered ..

Nup,  $80 for that ... Not worth it, $10 off cut of vinyl as close to the color as possible from the upholsterer,  30 minutes to remove lid, make up a template / trim and glue up a  cover / refit... Industrial grade Superglue is great stuff..      Done,  stop the Nagging .   

[Jeepers Creepers]

I currently have, about $900 worth of paints, thinners, primers, sandpapers, face masks and all the crap needed to paint Austin Powers.

I'm about halfway through assembling a makeshift spray booth so we can keep the crap to a minimum.
I've got my painter arriving Friday to start on the car.

Getting a 7 x 3 metre tarp as a roof for booth up was interesting on my own. (lucky its the Austin and not the Fleetwood.)

I taped a couple of white drop sheets to it, then flipped it and began attaching it to the trusses of the shed.
Now i'm doing the same with the walls and I have to make some sort of door for it, so the Austin can go in and out as required.
Probably end up with a roll up arrangement with a bit of alloy pipe (old pool broom handle) attached to it with a T handle, just to make life a bit easier.
It will never be a perfect spray booth, but something will be better than nothing, that's for sure.

I'm pretty keen to see the little jigger is its new paint.

We've matched the blue, so it will eliminate the need to repaint the interior and engine bay.
All of the blue in there is really good.
I went with a Mercedes's arctic white for the roof and sunvisor.

I've got cool little number plate "light bolts" due in today.
Small bolts with a slightly bigger head that contain an LED light for the plate.

[Jeepers Creepers]

My temporary home made spray booth is ready to roll.
The lighting system I've put together is working well. (Only blew the circuit breakers twice)
The Austin is naked except for a G-string and a smile.
My painter is due here in the morning around 9am/ish.
He'll be staying with us until the paint work is done too.
I've got the shed all cleaned up and all the products ready.

Austin Powers is getting a make-over for the next few days. 

[speewa158]

Spent the morn creating a Finsker  set for a Mate that's doing it tuff at " Come By Chance NSW "
Anything l can do though small to try to ease his burdon by some is well worth doing for him .
                                 Drought is a real leaveler   .
l will deliver the Finsker set  to him & play with it ,  in a few weeks so he will know he is not forgotten .
                                             

[edz]

Never heard of it before so had to look it up    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPEVn1Xavb8    ..  thought it may have been similar to quoits .

[Jeepers Creepers]

Hmmmm, crazed paint removal.... 

Back, arms, legs.... aching all over

We go into the booth? for some primer this morning.

[Jeepers Creepers]

more of the same.... we have the white done..... i'm near stuffed.... blue today

[Jeepers Creepers]

Geez, i'm stuffed... but we have a painted car now. (not very good pics)

Its nowhere as dark in the homemade spray booth as the photos would have you think either.

[Jeepers Creepers]

and some more...

We went with acrylic lacquer as the car had been painted in that previously.
We also had to match up to the interior, as the paint in there was pretty good.

For straight off the gun, its pretty bloody good.

It will sit now until next week when we 1200 wet rub it and then buff it. 

[achjimmy]

Looking good jeepers. Love the colour 

[Jeepers Creepers]

It should be finished and ready for sale in around 4 or 5 weeks with any luck.

[Jeepers Creepers]

hmmm, from Tuesday. (looks darker from further in the booth)

[#jonesy]

Looking good.
I hope you have some air extraction in you "booth". Some of the photos look a bit misty.

[Jeepers Creepers]

Yeah, in the end, we zip tied a wall fan to the upright car ramp and taped it into the booth.

It worked in a Jeepers Creepers sort of way. 

Noel reckoned he could see what he was doing, it was blowing fumes out of the Tarpaulin Hilton, so we were happy.
I've had a headache for 2 days now, but I think that was from when I walked into the roller door and nearly took it out of the tracks.
It was positioned at about 180 cm up.
At 181 cm tall, I cracked it a ripper, as I was in a hurry.

Damn near knocked me out I think. (or maybe it was the fumes)

[Spada]

I've had a headache for 2 days now,

Head like that, I'm not surprised 

[sparksy]

Is that a little datsun 1200 in the engine room.

[Jeepers Creepers]

Is that a little datsun 1200 in the engine room.

2 litre, single overhead cam, duel spark plug Nissan Pintara engine. (CA20)

Its pretty cool, 8 spark plugs, twin coils...... something a bit different.
5 Speed gearbox, so overdrive of course.
Power assisted Fiat disc brakes.
MK1 Cortina diff.
Telescopic shocks all around.
Sway bars front and rear.

It will be a good car for someone soon. 

[Fizzie]

2 litre, single overhead cam, duel spark plug Nissan Pintara engine. (CA20)

Its pretty cool, 8 spark plugs, twin coils...... something a bit different.
5 Speed gearbox, so overdrive of course.
Power assisted Fiat disc brakes.
MK1 Cortina diff.
Telescopic shocks all around.
Sway bars front and rear.

It will be a good car for someone soon. 

But she's never going to win a Concours as an original-in-all-respects vehicle!

[Jeepers Creepers]

Ha ha ha, no.... 

I'm keen to get this one registered so I can drive it around a bit.

We'll take it to a couple of cruise nights etc.

Anything with fins, chrome bumpers, quarter windows and dipper switch on the floor, i reckon is pretty cool.
Add in whitewalls, metal sunvisor, 8 spark plugs and wide steel wheels, then i'm really happy.

[Spada]

EDIT, fixed the picture links.

Was wet and miserable all day, so a good day to tinker in the shed with some beer and thinking music 

Got a trip coming up that will involve lots of alternate days driving with and without the trailer, so the plan was to fit up some in-cab controls for the airbags..........just cause I'm old, fat, and lazy. Already had a compressor mounted under the seat, so all I had to do was acquire the bits and work out how to mount them. Pic 1- Here's the electrical and plumbing bits i was planning to jigsaw together.

Started by making a mounting plate for the hardware. Used a scrap bit of 4mm ABS I had lying around. cut it to size and then baked it in the oven until it was all soft and wobbly, then I pressed it into the shape of the floor under the seat and held it in place until it cooled. Then I could do a rough-in of the plumbing and solenoids to check everything was going to fit. Pic 2- Here's a picture of the rough-in.

Pic 3- And then with the plumbing and electrical all mounted and connected-

Once I'd worked out where everything was going to go, the base plate was attached using the bolts from the compressor mount, then the compressor was remounted, everything connected and pressure tested all the joints......typically, one of the joints leaked, and it had to be the one that required complete disassembly to get at to fix  Pic 4- Here's a picture of all the under seat stuff done-

Then it was time to move up to the control panel. It was more arse than a busload of poofters, but the store bought panel was almost exactly the right size to fit into the ashtray hole of a 70 series, just had to trim 5mm from the top edge so the gauge cleared the bottom lip of the hole in the dash and file about 1mm off each side. There was a bit of dicking around with the wiring as there were 4 wires for each momentary button, and 7 wires for the gauge, but it's all hooked up to be powered from accessory. The digital read out for the gauge is on when ever the ignition is, but when the dash lights come on, the display dims to half light, and the 4 buttons are illuminated. I may end up disconnecting the lights in the buttons as I think they may be a bit bright, although they are down quite low so I wont really know until after I've done a decent night drive?
edit- I've since wired the illumination for the 4 buttons to feed from the compressor switch, so they only come on when the compressor is turned on.
Pic 5- Anyway, here's a picture of the dash display-

Cheers

[glenm64]

Very flash Spada 

[Pottsy]

Some very clever blokes on this site, I can assure you I ain't one of them when it comes to mechanics or electrical.

[Pete79]

Despite finishing drinking with my BIL at 4am this morning, today I somehow mustered up the strength to knock up a set of trestles to build my trailer on.



Space is a bit of a premium in my little shed, so I couldn't make a proper set of solid welding stands.
At least these ones can fold down flat and get stashed away when I'm done.

[edz]

" STOLEN "   !!     ..      Thanks Pete, same issue with space ..

[Pete79]

I wanted to use RHS or channel iron to give me a flat working surface that I can clamp stuff onto.
But I had the tube and angle iron in my steel rack and my brain wasn't up for figuring out any sort of fancy hinges and stuff today...