Australian Belly Tank

[Milwaukee Midget]

I spoke to Goggles on Friday, and he was sitting with Deb at the Philip Island penguin parade, waiting for the penguins.
No, really!

Ah, the romance of a honeymoon getaway.

Is Morgan Freeman the parade marshall for this aqua-avian smelt run?

[Dr Goggles]

Ok, I'm back proper this time.

The last of our house guests left yesterday, Maureen from Belfast via London an old teaching buddy of Deb's, she's no spring chicken but boy she can party with the best of them....Yes, we were at the Phillip Island Penguin Parade...we were offered a few days at my cousins beach house and decided that would be the perfect way to show Maureen some of the local wildlife....



There are 32,000 of them at the Phillip Island colony..everyone rushes in and fights over seats next to the beach to watch some sneak across the sand...then on the walk back across the dune walkway you realise they are practically falling out of the trees bleating and flapping their little flippers so much that even the Japanese girls get bored with the cuteness of it all.........Maureen was watching three of 'em stagger up a grassy path like drunks at closing time with bellies full of fish when a wallaby broke cover and nearly jumped right on top of one......
We saw koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, fruit bats, even old bats in fact if it slithered swam, flew or hopped we saw it do it's thing. And, for the locals we even saw a magpie catch a mouse( and no, not in a fauna park), that was something to see.... One part of the Phillip Island fauna community that is doing particularly well are the rabbits, we ran one over the first night we were there.......

We left the island at a more opportune time than the Colonel and Corrinne, we circled Westernport bay and then caught the ferry across Port Phillip and drove along the Great Ocean Road (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ocean_Roadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Ocean_Road) to Apollo Bay. The next day we took our Irish friend to the Old Melbourne Gaol where Ned Kelly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly) was hung, the Irish have a special thing for our Ned.

Yes ,the wedding was a wild time, the bride , through no fault of her own she stressed to me , was an hour late.The weather was perfect, the bride sang Bob Dylan's "The Wedding Song" , the groom sang Barry Manilow's "I Can't Smile Without You"....... The reception was a blur. We had a song-list of 20 songs to be played by a moving feast of guests in various combinations, a logistical nightmare on a good day.....but we didn't think it fair to hire a band to play in front of our friends who'd be bored, put out they didn't get the gig or un-necessarily harsh critics so we made them sing for their supper... amongst others the bride sang Nutbush City Limits and Teardrops by the Womacks....

The best man as I said earlier headed north two days later to stay with family before heading back to Galway Ireland, he fooled us all with his fevered preparations for his speech, throwing it away at the last minute and telling of the happy couple's visit to his place in Ireland '08, an event that involved traditional Irish hospitality applied with abandon.

Ok, I'm going out to the shed , first things first, I'm going to tidy up.

[kiwi belly tank]

You were looking pretty tidy in the wedding pic but I spose it went down hill from there.
  Sid.

[Dr Goggles]

I made a start.

It's a shame that the Rev is in China because I think his fondest memories of working on the car are from when I have cracked the shits after tripping over stuff and started a clean up, this usually involves getting the air compressor cranked to 120psi and blowing every microscopic piece of grit and dust around the shed about fifty times and then out the door.It is best to do this on a still, wet day like today because then once it eventually finds it's way out it stays out......it's probably another reason the Colonel gets the motor out of the car at the first opportunity and takes it elsewhere....anyway Rev, shame you missed it....I had it in my ears nose and mouth...and I actually blew some out the door. Now, it might look like a bomb-site but trust me it was a minefield before the tidy up....f knows why I have or keep SO MANY jagged mangled, rusted and for all intensive purposes useless pieces of steel lying around......



Then I washed the car once I'd had a bit of a tidy up.It had that usual " I've been ignored" coating of black dust that seems to be the perfect mix of sharp dust and grime that wounds paint and defies easy removal.....

then, I had a sit down with Ol Pumpkin head....



The rule in the pic indicates roughly the point where the carrier would centre the axles, it looks to be about 20mm out and there is really only another 10mm we could pick up by shifting the pumpkin over and as it stands I estimate that it is already 10 to 15mm off centre to the left, so we are going to need some new axles.

here is the carrier in place, without thrust washers...the centre is further over than I estimated....defo new axles.....should have read the earlier posts from when I started this.....



I just did some rough measurements to double check....adding the first and second measurements and then subtracting them from the third tells us the gap between the axles and where the centreline should sit in relation to the bearings.







Gives us 185mm -(77 + 87)= 21mm (min)

[grumm441]

So.
1: what are you doing at home?
2: how close was I with the measurements?
G

[Dr Goggles]

So.
1: what are you doing at home?
2: how close was I with the measurements?
G

FMD, what does it look like?...unless I got my calculations wrong I still have a week off, no-one has rung up asking where I am , so......

Your measurements were fine but your maths was off, I'm taking the axles I have here to Taverner's tomorrow to see what I can do to get the centre point moved 40mm if that makes sense.......they have new blanks , I figure we can buy one new one and get it splined and get the long one shortened so as to be 40mm longer than the short one is now......

Then we need to find a kit and then we need to find some shims and then.....I'm wondering if it might be better to take it to a diff guy( yeah, I'll ask Taverners).....after all it's heavy but I can unbolt the rear superstructure and take the whole lot on the truck.

You've got my number

[Jon]

I've heard Grumm is pretty good with a welder;

6 step process

(1) Work out the how much longer the short ones to be.
(2) Cut both axles with the offcut from the long axle longer than the offcut from the short axle by the distance in step 1
(3) Swap offcuts and turn/grind them to a point
(4) Weld them up while keeping them fairly straight between centers
(5) Shove them in dry sand and drink some beer while they cool
(6) Bump them true in a press

They will do a year

Cost; cutoff and grinding wheel, migwire and gas, beer.

Getting to the salt; priceless

jon

[grumm441]

I've heard Grumm is pretty good with a welder;

I don't know who you heard that from

You've got my number

374

G

[Jon]

I've heard Grumm is pretty good with a welder;

I don't know who you heard that from

I hear voices

[Dr Goggles]

I've heard Grumm is pretty good with a welder;
6 step process
They will do a year
jon

Grumm is a gun with a soldering iron, welding jobs tend to land in my lap.

If I was going that way I'd get some 33x50 (the axle forgings are 33mm) hollow bar and sleeve them, it'd cost a little more but it'd be a lot easier to manage getting the length spot on....plug weld them with holes right through the bar so they'd be matched stress wise......hmmmm, cheap, and on site......

Geez we're bums 

[grumm441]

I can weld, but Goggs did half of a welding course
G

[Dr Goggles]

I can weld, but Goggs did half of a welding course
G

yeah, but I passed the whole thing with 100%, surprising as that seems.....the greatest tuition I received was from my dad's German mate Rudy Baer " Bah, don't velt like a deekhead.......zat looooks like bardsheet, here let me "

I found the first test piece on the tube we used for the frame today, not a picture perfect bead, but full penetration.....that car isn't coming apart anytime soon.

[Dr Goggles]

btw: peoples, here is a rough that the Rev has done for a t-shirt....... I've thrown in some back-chat from the email too.....


Reverend Hedgash wrote:
       
       
         Started on the tee shirt... Not quite right yet but some nice bits coming out.



       
        I am trying to get that balance of nativity and accuracy.
        Comments?
       
         rH+

Goggles wrote:

        I think, to improve the nativity aspect that you should draw a goat and a donkey looking on.....we already have the three wise men. otherwise it's ace, not so keen on the shading marks that are perpendicular to the direction of travel.

Hedgash wrote:
Ok, do you mean the ones on the body? On the wheels, Or the parallel ones to travel off the wheels as speed lines?

    There are other shading methods, benday dots (halftone screen print style) etc.

    I am going to throw it into some different graphic programs to have a look at that and to get it a bit more balanced in overall style; it's a bit of a hotch potch  of techniques...

    Just watched Le Mans the Steve McQueen race epic. Fuck that film's slow. Nice cars though...

    Dik

Goggles wrote:
   
The ones on the body. Can you try it with a rising sun behind it maybe? Or maybe a "Spirit of Sunshine" in the harvester font?


Hedgash wrote:
Sure. The horizon line is quite high but that might work....

[Milwaukee Midget]

Or maybe a "Spirit of Sunshine" in the harvester font?

I'll take 2 T's, a hoodie, a chef's apron, a set of the wine glasses and a couple of can cozies - send me an invoice.

Or is it too early to pre-order?

[Seldom Seen Slim]

Unh, fellas, how 'bout giving Nancy and me a shot at being your American distributors for the shirts and other team memorabilia?  'Specially since we can manufacture all of MM's mentioned items.  Full color (photographs as well as drawn art) and not (repeat NOT) silk screened and therefore longer-lasting, and best of all -- low shipping costs.

I mention this to let everyone know that we do team stuff more and more these days.  Nice start there on the car -- who's the artist?