What have you been up to this week

[rubman]

O.k. george i sit on the side line of this site and not say much but to see you give up now after all you given to buga is just not you mate. You are highly motivated all the time getting around the best you can, just have a break from the van for a few days and hopefully feel better hang in there bro
regards stuart

[Bedfordcrazy]

Hey guys, well i have had a full day to think my situation. I am hoping to see the metal guy next week, so the goal is to get him to do the last major modification, then he is gone. From there i will try to find someone to do the easier simple mods, flares and so on, my mechanic has told me of another guy he has seen working on his customers cars. He apparently will only work on one car at a time which is good, at the moment he has just started on a 57 chev, so he could be at it for a while. Dont worry guys, the chances of me selling my van are very slim, i think i am just exhausted dealing with the sheet metal guys crap.
As for doing some of the work myself, well it might be a case of getting in and doing a lot of the grinding and clean up work myself, there are a lot of welds that need to be cleaned up. We will get there.

george.

[Banksx2]

C'mon George, you can't stop after all the hard yards you've put in - this is just another speed bump on the road to completion and by some of the hints you've let slip this van of yours is gonna be Legend!

As Johnno and rubman wisely advise, take a break, then finish the Legend...you know damn well how fast six months goes in a rebuild and I bet you've got a million little things to prep for the finished product in that time. Get that van to a show and I'll turn up in person to vote for it!

Just remember - behind every dark cloud the sun is just waiting to boil your arse!!!

Garry

Edit - Just read you post above - YES!! If we had a pumping-fist emoticon I would deploy it here

[cfjeff]

yeah stick with it george, its very hard to see a custom show bedford through to completion, it takes a lot of determination and a lot of disapionment from people who let you down. The most frustrating thing for me was relying on other people to do the things you are not competent at. I consulted (or maybe was mucked around by) 3 sheet metal people before I got the result I wanted. The first guy I was told to try never even showed up or rang back, but I still gave him 6 weeks then another mate said he would got his mate to come and see about doing the job. well he at least turned up and measured up and siad he couldn't do anything for 3 weeks, great I thought, we are going to be under way at last. But no after another 6 weeks passed no show again. Then while talking to another mate he suggested his sheetmetal man. He also came round and measured up and said he was flat out for the next 3 weeks then he'd be able to start. Well true to his word he came up with the goods and pretty much on time, and he produced all the sheet metal for the rest of the project. And he didn't charge for the work, "nah don't worry its only made from off cuts at work and it wasn't too hard to do" Well I tell you Shane (the sheet metal guy) is a great find and a friend, I'm always going to him for stuff. You sot of feel gulty when he does work for you and wont take any payment for it.  When his Capri needed some electrical work I said no worries when would you like it sorted, I'll come out to your place and do it. So the next saturday I was geared up to go out to his place and he turns up at my place with the car on a trailer. I told him its no problem to come out to his place, but he insisted. Less than 2 hours later had it all sorted for him. And no I didn't charge him, I still feel like I ripped him off after all the work he did for me, but thats just the sort of guy he is.

 Thats just one of the set backs I had building my beddie, there were others, but they all become minor once you near the end, if there ever is an end. Perhaps just break your project down into stages and bite off or tick off things over an estimated time to complete or goal to have ready for. Sure it dosent have the wow factor of the big reveal to the adoring public or your peers, but you have to consider your sanity.

 I say adjust your goals and have fun and above all keep on smiling, stick it out George and never say die, don't let other peoples misgivings get you down. take time out to reflect and look foward.

Cheers Jeff

[MaTTe]

George, i know it can be frustrating, but when you think about it, these blokes have 10 people liek you all wanting their work finished yesterday..
your best bet is as Merlin said, put an ad in the paper asking for retired tradies, as they tend to have alot of time on their hands and WANT to work on something worthy of attaching their names to.
Failing that, contact some of your local hot rod car clubs and ask them for the names of highly respected tradies, generally the best ones are the ones with a business consisting of them and their wife. I'm sure you'll get plenty of options, and with those blokes you can judge their work on their previous builds, plus they'll generally give a realistic time frame.
Dont be disheartened, just roll with the punches..


Now on a different note, thanks to Merlin I now have a VERY good steering rack installed in the van! Whilst it had collected a bit of sand over the years, as most probably have, I ave it a bit of a flush thru with some Microglide, and lubricated all joints with the microglide, and my steering is now softer than previously. Stupid me didn't look too hard at the threads on the tie rod ends, and it looks like Merlins dog was chewing on the thread on one, but a bit of cleaning up with a hacksaw and a file had the nut torquing up and the van driving again.
Funnily enough I now have a vibration in the steering, seems like a wheel out of balance whether it be from removing a bit of tread while the steering was separated, or whether the steering is now so firm that it has made the previous issue noticeable, i'm not too sure. I'm in the process of sorting out new tyres for the front anyway, so a wheelbalance is not far away.

Gave the motor an oil change today, also went and bought some RCAs for the new amps I bought a few weeks back, so i'll have a go at installing the RCAs and the new deck tomorro, and if I get time I'll have a look at wiring up the amps, just gotta find a roll of speaker wire, and mount the rear speakers and she'll be good to go.


And..
I went out to buy some chev hubcaps to hang in the shed, and met an old bloke that used to have a Bedford. It was a LWB with a gullwing rear door and XA rear lights, not sure what the front lights were but the grille was horizontal silver rods between the lights. Looked quite good, i'm gonna try to get a copy of the pictures over the coming week, may be a van you lot know of.

Cheers,
Matte

[Bedfordcrazy]

Hey guys, well we capped off a great week this morning, went to pick up a set of new tyres for my wheelchair, and on the way out got rear ended by some drop kick who needed the whole carpark to reverse out of. Being a tray back ute that hit me, i got it high up, taking out my reverse camera and some badges. The van will be on hold now so that i can do the body work on the cruiser. oh well that life.

george.

[grandad]

tuff week for you george lets hope next week is better

[Bedfordcrazy]

oh yeh, this week will involve getting an idea of how much it will cost to repair the cruiser. You need to look twice to see the damage, my guess is i am looking at between $600 and $1000 to repair, and 2 days, so lets see how close i am to the mark. 80% of the cost will be disasembly, will post a pic later today when i take one. Oh well this is part of life, just have to deal with it now, and fix it so it dont get worse, then i am going down to jaycar and pic up a drive-cam system for the truck, if i had it this time i would of had him by the nuts, but because i had started to move and did not see him till impact, i cant proove who was wrong, so cop it this time and, fix it and cover myself next time.

george.

[Bedfordcrazy]

Well just been down to have a look at my truck, and the damage is just a bit worse then first thought, the worst of it was hiding between the jams where the number plate lights are, thats all twisted. mmmm could of been worse, never a good time to have a bingle, just lucky i was almost stopped, thats how fast i was moving.  Here are some pics.

george.

[Banksx2]

No doubt about it George you hit this week with the ugly stick!!!

Garry