Rogue Trooper

[Bedfordcrazy]

for sure john, its all in the attitude. The reason i am just trying to get a definitive answer, is so my van is all legal when i pull it out of the garage for the first time. Nothing worse then getting pulled over by a cop that is by the book and knows his cars and rules, and you get defected on the way to a show. That could kinda screw the rest of your day up lol. I guess i will just hit my engineer with both exhaust ideas and hope he approves the one i really want.
George.

[Marishka]

move 2 VIC George they let anything on the road down there hahahaha

[Jason 253 CF]

Yeah don't know who u have been talkin to mate down in vic if your car is too moderfied power and sound wise to a certin point the cat or van or truck can be black defect which means the car is band from the road for 12 months and can't be re reged or sold in that 12 month period and this is true a guy with a vn ss got it. Also in vic if a cop defects ur car or van and declares it a major you must supply a full roadworthy certificate and engineer pappers for modified vehicles. I think your thinking about adelaid and nz they get away with heaps

[Marishka]

nagh mate, the last 5 old vehicles ive seen regoed n on the road from vic have amaised me,
ur right about adelade 2 though , ive seen a few corkers.
every state in Australia should have yearly pink slips (roadworthy,s)
and get the shitboxes off the road, before people are killed.)

[Rogue Trooper]

Well George if it makes you feel any better mine will be going out the rear end.

wow , awsome job Rogue, ur van and busy,s are my 2 fav custom beddy,s,

Anyways back on topic, thanks very much for the comments Mezz and Dano, and Marty, yours just made my day. Better make sure I finish it now. 

Busy has been very naughty because he hasn't been working on his lately. 

[BusyKiwi]

*wheres that raspberry icon* lol. I plan to get back into it the week after next - weather permitting

cheers marty.

Rogue, how about a pull out handbrake, like the older utes and stuff, jags used that style as well and would be the right ratio for your diff.
I used a toyota handbrake and had to mess around with ratio's from jap to jag. I can't fit the pull out type, dash is to low and can't get the pull on the lever.

[Rogue Trooper]

That's kind of along the lines I was thinking. Might have to rework a small portion of the dash near the steering column to get it to fit nicely but I haven't skinned any of the dash yet so that's not a major. Need to get the shifter in first so I can see what I've got left to play with.

Interesting about the ratios. I just had a pull-up style lever out of a Mazda previously mounted on the engine cover and was hoping to use it again but the engine takes up a fair bit of room so don't think it'll work too well again. It was a bit of a pain anyway as I always had to disconnect the handbrake and cable before I could remove the engine cover so it might work out better having a firewall mounted pull-out unit.

I've got a Jag wrecker local so might go and have a nosey there first. The guy who runs it is quite funny. He's rather gruff and short when you first arrive and by the time you've got your stuff and ready to leave you can't get out the door. I got the grand tour of his race car the last time I was there. It was pretty impressive too. 

[Rogue Trooper]

Well I wanted to see what all the work I had done so far looked like and these are the results. I put the dash back in last night. Took me about an hour and a half, couldn't believe it. I mocked up the shifter by sitting my old one in place with a couple of blocks of wood under it to get it to the approximate finished height of the one I am installing. I also left out the blower and heater as I will be doing some welding on the dash after I finish the shifter and it will save me melting the plastic with weld splatter.

I am very pleased with the results. Once the dash is skinned it should really start looking the part.

The first picture is the closest one I could find that shows the bare firewall I started with. This was when I was experimenting with fitting an EB Fairmont dash. The shifter in the picture is the old one as is the engine cover.



And this is what the cab of the van looks like today...

[Marishka]

far out, thats how they shoulda built them in the first place me thinks,

[Bedfordcrazy]

hey rogue. this is looking great, i thought mine was going to blow the mind, yours is catching up quick. My design is very different to yours, which is what customising is all about, imagination. I can't wait to start posting my pics. Where will your hand brake be mounted rogue, are you going to lift it up, or just keep it on the floor. To me very uncomfortable ? Do you have any better pics of the dash ? Looking good mate.
George.

P.S  who needs drugs and alcohol to get high, when you have custom bedford vans.