Learning new skills

In redoing the big green machine ready for its new career as a rally car, I am learning new skills. Today I have been re-plumbing the brakes and have learnt how to double flare pipes. I had to search the interwebs to learn how to do it, so buying the kit this morning and managing to find a store that actually stocked 3/16th Bundy tubing (a fairly hard task in the tropical North, after a cyclone cut off the main highway and in the middle of the Christmas break on New Years Eve!)

So all kitted up, I tried my first double flare and it turned out alright

So I am now in the process of refitting what seems like metres and metres of brake lines and I am hoping to have it all completed before I return to work!

Back at it

Now that the threat of cyclone has passed, I have taken the opportunity to degrease and clean the engine bay. Layers and years of grunge have now been removed from the old girl.

Layers of oil, grease, paint and sound deadener have been removed revealing the original red primer, still in surprisingly good condition.

The cross member has seen the light of day for the first time in many, many years. I think that all those years of being soaked constantly in oil have preserved the car beautifully!

 

Battening down the hatches

A few weeks off around Christmas normally means I can spend some quality time on the big green beast but at the moment I have been taken over by other priorities. The soon to be Cyclone Grant is expected to cross land sometime in the next 24 hours, so rather than just kicking back, wrapping presents and tinkering on cars I have been cleaning up the yard, stacking up the garage, stocking up on supplies and making sure everything is put away.

Well we’ve had a reprieve and Cyclone Grant has now crossed the coast about 200km away as a Cat 2 cyclone. No problems here though, so Christmas was celebrated in the traditional way with dozens of family and guests and heaps of food and drink.