What have you been up to this week

[Jason 253 CF]

Well done John, I have been meaning to do my manifold on the ss but wasn't sure if I could do it. At least I know now if I stay motivated I might get a similar result

[MaTTe]

As some of you know, I have spent the last month and a half working toward getting the yellow sticker removed from my van.

I am convinced the officer had a girlfriend/wife cheat on him in a van with one of you BUGAs, either that or his daughter was willing to abide by my van's rules...
In any case, he looked hard to find an issue to yellow sticker me with, and in the end found 5. 3 minor, 2 reasonable.

Once I fixed those things, the pits managed to find another 16 minor things. All of which were easy to fix, except for:
the cracked lower bush due to my inability to find balljoints, and then the fact that the shells on my powdercoated control arms had been pushed out. This resulted in me having to acquire super pro bushes to finish the job, however are now done.
I had to install sunvisors, ended up ordering VE commodore visors with the lighted mirrors (figured if I was doing it may as well do it right). Unfortunately the VE mirrors mount differently to the VT mirrors I had looked at in person, so I had to reengineer the mountings using modified versions from my old BA falcon. I'm quite proud of the end result, despite it being an effort and a half.
The HZ steering shaft required heavily reengineering. ball bearing fitted to the lower part fo the column, excessive play removed in 3 separate locations. The HZ uni joint was replaced with a HQ version we had kicking around with zero play.
I had to be able to 'blow hot air onto the windscreen' so acquired 2 12V hair driers and connected them initially side by side, however ended up going inline to increase heat and air flow. doesn't really work as a demister, however is 'legal'.
The previous installer of seatbelts in my van obviously thought it a good idea to drill out the threads on the 'nuts' attached to the body in the original mounting locations, thus putting nuts behind the panel. This would have been fine prior to the expander foam being used to fill the panels, however took me hours to be able to even feel the nuts in the panels..

All in all, the van is the best its been in a long time especially on the handling front.

This being said, I still have a mass list of things I intend to do to my van as all would expect

I still need to get photos of the sun visors for you all, however enjoy the control arms for now..

[ben]

wow matte what a nightmare good to hear youve got it all sorted now.

i been getting one of my workers to do few little thiings on my van to bring it u to scratch.

and here is the latest ive got to with the tilt front. more photos in my fibreglass post

[petrolhead]

Does this mean you are a "trophy" hunter now LOL

[John Abbott]

FINALLY.... finished restoring the mags for my daughters car First time using 2 pac paint but bloody happy with the result

[wendyh]

wowowo they look great !      

[Mark B]

Looking GREAT John  well done

[BlackBedford]

G'day

Around here we call it Xmas in September. It is the annual Council kerbside cleanup that goes over 4 weeks. The amount of good stuff put on the kerbside is unbelievable.
I park a Pantech truck in the suburb and then use the Suzuki Carry van and a trailer to cruise around picking up stuff doing regular drop offs into the truck. The Suzuki will do a u-turn in any small street, runs for next to nothing and will haul a load.
I keep some stuff, give a fair amount away, sell some through the auction house, and scrap the rest.

Not a bad earner for a few days work.

Today at one stop I picked up 3 identical Samsung LCD TVs with dvi and dsub vga ports. they all work fine! A 3 screen upgrade for my PC is on the job list.

[Dano]

Just been doing all those jobs that get avoided, finished rear door trim, drivers lock mechanism, inside door handles, wheel balancing, alignment rewire the stereo.....

[Marishka]

wow, great result Johnno.
 those mags look brand new now.
you did well.