What have you been up to this week

[John Abbott]

Whew..Lucky you didn't hit a water tank ...

[petrolhead]

  Sorry couldn't resist, you left yourself wide open with that one

[BlackBedford]

Whew..Lucky you didn't hit a water tank ...

Lucky I wasn't in my van as it was a big fall.

Did a good deed this morning. Just down the road from my place is a T intersection just over a rise with lots of loose gravel on the road. At least once a month there is another set of long skid marks leading up to the signage. This morning a semi cleaned up all of the signage and 3 fences, somehow managing to miss the big ironbark trees and 123kv power poles. Amazingly he managed to stay upright and get it back on the road. He was fairly shook up but a decent bloke so I helped him plug a leak in his fuel tank, cheered him up by explaining that it happens regularly and he did better than others before him. I told him to piss off before someone showed up and placed a big fine on him. Oh and I forgot to get his last name or the rego on the truck.

[Bedfordcrazy]

Well it looks as if my build is coming to an end, not because we are finished, but because my trades are unreliable. I should of been in the workshop now doing the last of the major custom body work, but for the second time in 2 weeks i am sitting here with no work happening. My mechanic has just told me that medically he may not be able to finish his part, so with no tradies the dream could be over. If i want to piss around with the sheet metal guy it will get done, in the next couple of years. If this is the crap i have to deal with now while the van is in my workshop, imagine how slow it will go when it gets to his shop, and i could never trust him to tell me the truth about actuall hours worked. It took me almost 2 1/2 years to find a mechanic and the same for the sheet metal guy, so to try and find someone new now, i dont think i want to go through that again, so i think it is time to just cut my losses and shelve the van, eventually you need to face reality and know when to stop. The truth is the van should of been at last weekends hotrod show on the gold coast, and the reality of getting there next november, not likely, and to keep shelling out money for something that may never get back on the road, insane. So will i sell my van, dont know, probably not, will it ever get done now, probably not.

george.

[John Abbott]

Whats the go with the mechanic george? Is his back stuffed or something? Maybe ask him if he can recommend another guy to take over.    Dont sell it mate,hang in there buddy

[Warren]

Sorry to hear this George, but as Johns says see if you can get a recommendation on another mechanic.

As for the metalwork, have you thought of doing it yourself ? have you got the capability to learn ? would you phisically be able to?

Often if you want a job done right you have to do it yourself

Dont give up, look for alternatives - what about talking to the local trade school.

Warren

[Jeff]

Ahhh!....I can understand your frustration George, but a job takes as long as it takes.
Throw the deadline away and just finish one part at a time. One day it will all be done.
You're a stubborn old buga, or you wouldn't have got this far.
Don't give up now, please. Get on with your life and just have this going in the background......keep it alive, but downgrade it's urgency until the tide has turned, (as it will) and a bit of an effort will make a big difference.
The right people must be out there.
 

[Bedfordcrazy]

Hey john, yeh the mechanic is legit, he stuffed his knee, which means he can't get into all those fun positions. He has a couple of guys working for him, but as he says, they just can not think outside the box, so he has to baby sit them on some jobs. I will be talking to him monday - tuesday next week, and see. Worst part of it is, with the mechanicals we are about 80% finished. When he did his knee we were designing the radiators, air-con and shifter, and we would of been finished till it was time to pull it all apart to rebuild the motor, diff and gearbox. The decision i need to make now is do i continue with the body [when numnuts turns up] and hope his knee is ok to finish, without the mechanicals, the body will just sit there looking cute. His doc told him they can repair his knee, but there will be no work for about 6 months, his wishing he had of got income protection now.
The other thing john is, i dont want to be working on my van in 2 or 3 or 4 years from now, i have been working on it now since june 07, and if there were guys out there that want to work and do quality work, i would do a donald trump on the sheet metal guy, but in qld they just do not want to work, and if they do they charge like its their last job. We have a couple of custom rod shops just 10mins away, but they wanted to charge me $20,000 just to do the power steering, disc brakes and V6, and thats me supplying all the parts, and an open ended build schedule, and that does not include getting tow trucks, and running back and forth everytime there was a problem, and they would not let me in the shop or take pics, so yep. My mechanic suggested i forget doing a show van and just paint it as is, but if i did that, i would be as pissed everytime i looked at it, as i am now, so, i would sooner just park it and never finish it as to do a half hearted job. I dont want to quit, but i dont want an endless build either. Oh well i have some big decisions to make b4 next wednesday.

george.

[Merlin]

chuck some ads in ya local rag for retired tradies and do some interviewing then if you cant find your people then you can make ya decision from there

[John Abbott]

OK ,if the mechanics doctor says lets say 6 months for his knee to come right, rest the project for that time until he can start again. Look back as i did at your gallery and see how far you have come to this point, and i betcha you are pretty proud at what has been acheived. Could be alot worse George. Imagine if he couldnt work on cars AT ALL Have you got any more pics to put up on this site to show us all where your at? (i luv pics ) You dont strike me as the sort of guy that will let a 6 months spell defeat you...
STICK WITH IT GEORGEY     dont sell,dont sell,dont sell