Australian Belly Tank

[grumm441]

Save your breath Lofty, there's heaps of laughs left in this yet.... but, no unless I have some ridiculous productivity burst in the meantime it won't be ready for the Chopped show....

Huh!
Why not?
G

[Dr Goggles]

Save your breath Lofty, there's heaps of laughs left in this yet.... but, no unless I have some ridiculous productivity burst in the meantime it won't be ready for the Chopped show....

Huh
Why not
G

Customary to use a question mark after a question, but what the hey,

YOU'RE ON!

[grumm441]

YOU'RE ON!

On what?

[ben james]

stewie,you're getting insaner by the day

[Milwaukee Midget]

You don't even have to get it all done - get it to the point where it rolls, take it to the show, and invite a bunch of your droogs to help you finish it there - right in front of everybody.  Then, fire it up and take it on its maiden voyage to the cheers of thousands of adoring fans.

Wait a minute - that plan doesn't work real good . . .

[Freud]

Take the car and the Office Girls to the show.

The attendees will ogle the girls and forget the car.

They may appear as avatars in maguromic's posts. WOW ! !

Problem solved until the girls get better offers and split.

FREUD

[Dr Goggles]

You don't even have to get it all done - get it to the point where it rolls, take it to the show, and invite a bunch of your droogs to help you finish it there - right in front of everybody.  Then, fire it up and take it on its maiden voyage to the cheers of thousands of adoring fans.

Wait a minute - that plan doesn't work real good . . .

They do put on bands at the Chopped Show , but they've never had a slap-stick act before......

Take the car and the Office Girls to the show.

The attendees will ogle the girls and forget the car.

They may appear as avatars in maguromic's posts. WOW ! !

Problem solved until the girls get better offers and split.

FREUD

Someone leaked the program, they're probably sorting through those offers as we speak.....so much for that grand plan....sssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[Tman]

Somehow Tonys avatars always enter the conversation!?!?!?

[Freud]

Tman......that's the tall and the shorts of it.

FREUD

[Tman]

Tman......that's the tall and the shorts of it.

FREUD

The really short shorts!   Notice how they are always smiling?

[Dr Goggles]

The night before last I went at it with the propane torch. If you notice in the pics above it has remnants of black paint sort of looking stuff on it, there is some filler and then the black stuff, dunno if it's old tar or worse, it smelled like creosote....anyway in it's former life as a pontoon the tank was obviously "cleaned up" at some point which involved a bit of bondo and a coat of something to seal it. Now, it's not getting a show finish but even for me the top section looked pretty tatty so I gave it the FLAME!

A torch knocks that crap off in no time flat, it was a slightly hairy operation as everything that came off was molten/flaming.....now all the bondo is gone and so is the black stuff...I'll give it a rough over with a randomn orbital and it should clean up OK.

Another little thing. On weekend I was visited by Geoff Izzard and his dad Ken( they've been around before), Ken was likely the first person in Australia to build a car using a bellytank when he built a "special" in the fifties that he ran in anything he could enter it into. He used the tank pointy end first, but we'll forgive him for that . It's an honour to have been able to get to know Ken. Geoff brought him around because they'd seen the "new" build and the excitement was too much....... Ken has offered me some heim joints that he had "lying around" to use on the little tank, now you all know I'm the sentimental kind so of course accepting parts from the first Aussie tank builder was a no-brainer....

Last night I got the torch out again for a bit more of a go at the bits of filler and goop, then I gave the top section a few taps.....it seems to be about 12 guage plate used in it so it needs a bit of encouragement, it looks a little more serviceable now, but as you of course know there is no end to the amount of time you can put into a piece of steel that is in a different shape than it's supposed to be.

[landsendlynda]

By the way, I'm enjoying the mooosic.  Wayno

So am I!!  Thank you so much for the CD!!!  I'm likin' the look of that big head poking out of that little hole...kinda reminds me of a prairie dog sticking its head out of its burrow!!!

Lynda

[Dr Goggles]

By the way, I'm enjoying the mooosic.  Wayno

So am I!!  Thank you so much for the CD!!!  I'm likin' the look of that big head poking out of that little hole...kinda reminds me of a prairie dog sticking its head out of its burrow!!!Lynda

Thanks Lynda,the pleasure's mine.

Now, it's been a busy two days....the landscape hasn't changed a whole lot, but there's a lot more stuff nailed down.

This could not be a more different affair than the Spirit of Sunshine's born in CAD gestation .......this is ...Cut to fit, weld , drive.

Yesterday I boxed the rear of the chassis and sorted how I was going to attach it to the rear axle. I gutted the motorbike and got the engine sitting in the rails and some rudimentary mounts arranged...



I gave myself a nice burn and at same time reminded myself of some little safety adages that really don't seem to change , no matter how long you've been away... Welds are hot,skin , particularly areas like the inside of the arm, face feet, back of knees are really really sensitive....foundry gloves, leather sleeves...yeah, I've got 'em....but here's a gem that I remembered while I was looking at the area 4 inches up from my hand that was missing a big piece of skin. " When you are doing a series of beads in an irregular area, like for instance,a roll cage, or even a CHASSIS work toward yourself.....that means you'll never be leaning over a red hot weld, or resting your arm on it.



Today The Colonel and PJQ came over . It was all stations go Pete got busy sorting out some engine mounts Graham set to sorting the wiring for the motor. I went at the front end. I managed to nail the chassis, finish welded that and then turned to the steering box.



I managed to get the mount worked out and then commenced cutting the steering column. Like an idiot I turned the shaft and it would out of the worm ....cutting a long story short it required some intervention from the Colonel, a wash and a bit of farnarkling before we got it to work properly again, good one Goggles. I shortened the tie rod....flipped the drag link upside down and it was starting to get going. Pete had the motor mounted in such a way that we'll be able to tension the chain, he also cut up the mesh from the air box and made some little covers for the velocity stacks. Grummy had the wiring pretty well sorted at this stage and so we tried cranking it, we didn't have a fuel tank so I armed myself with a squeeze bottle of gasoline and a can of aerostart.....so when the velocity stacks caught fire, and the aerostart, and my hand.........eventually it fired and sounded ( without any exhaust on it )like a golf ball been shaken inside an empty can, not exactly "tough".



There still isn't any chain on it yet, The Colonel took the spline sleeve from the pinion and hopes to hog out the inside of a 14 tooth sprocket to weld to it. Here you can see me holding the piece of pipe against the primary sprocket which is what it will be welded to, stepping it out to meet the pinion which will have the cog welded on the spline sleeve.



I've got about an hour and a half of daylight after work each night and then Saturday , I'll try and get to the show Sunday......busy week....

[Milwaukee Midget]

Hey, Cowboy - You're building a tank, not a branding iron.

One of the reasons I got rid of my welder - other than I'm no good at it - is that last winter when I was welding the spline on my steering shaft, I caught the back of my arm with a spark, instantly reacted, and cracked my coconut on the roll cage.

Midget or "Sprite", the confines are tight. 

[Elmo Rodge]

Midget or "Sprite", the confines are tight. 

I'm a poet
I know it
Hope I don't blow it
Wayno