Fitzy

You're going to see the boys in Michigan and bring back a heap of parts for OUR cars?

The last one is my fave - says it all.

The energency brake will have to wait... Does anybody else see a problem with this? 🤣

Hi Mike, I'm hearin' ya. Prices for everything have skyrocketed and playing with old cars is now akin to buying paintings from the old masters. Lotsa cash involved and most of what you pay for is hidden from sight. Spent lotsa moola on new suspension & steering? Unless you crawl under the car, you'd never know! We all know that unless you've had the car forever and paid almost nothing for it initially, you're not going to make any money. Let's be honest - it's throwing money into a black hole. The way around this is to quantify those dollars as 'pleasure.' Yeah, I know. I also struggle with the concept of setting fire to money and getting apparent pleasure from it. Lots of peeps have an addiction - gambling, alcohol, drugs, whatever. If like me your addiction is an old car, you're doing fine in comparison to what you COULD be addicted to. And anyway, once you're tooling around in that nice Firebird, it'll be worth it. Kids these days will be raised on fuel economy and greenness instead of horsepower. We got lucky.

OFF TOPIC ALERT: Okay, it seems there are a bunch of us who all grew up about the same time. So, who remembers The James Gang? As a kid, as part of my 'childhood,' I would plant myself next to one of my father's quadrophonic floor speakers and make cars out of Lego whilst listening to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes, Santana and The James Gang whilst the old man would enjoy a joint. I recently rediscovered The James Gang and downloaded the Yer Album and JG Rides Again. Truly great stuff. Joe Walsh was a master of the heavy guitar riff. The car? It's still sitting there.

At last! Another 65 GP. Our numbers on this site have now swelled to 2. You got questions? I have been through the mill and back with mine. At least yours is a nice original low mileage example - mine looked like it had been dragged out from under a tree when I got it.

These are gold. I like the 'gangster' bird. Stay outa THAT neighbourhood.

BE QUIET, Peasant! Ah, Monty Python. They certainly nailed it with that little clip. The Autocrats vs the Great Unwashed. Not a lot has changed, except that the Great Unwashed now drive Pontiacs. Peel me another grape, Deirdre.

You will now all bow before me - Ringo reckons I'm now a Grand Master. (Claps hands twice) Bring me a goblet of wine and some grapes, the latter to be administered to me by a nubile scantily dressed young maiden. Man, I'm gonna love this. I wonder if she's good with wiring?

This is really funny. Who remembers this song? I was about 12 when it was on the radio.

I used to be a flawlessly good looking man until I bought a Pontiac. Now I am a hideous heavily scarred homeless crazy who keeps talking about the end of the world. Musta been those rusty bits that cut me.

"Man up and pull it." Surely the Quote Of The Year! Come on, we've all been there.

That looks good. The fish look GREAT! Another day of my life dissolved as I spent it under the dash grunting & swearing. I managed to fabricate my Mark 2 nylon chopping board adapter interface between the old fuse box and the new one- this time with room for relays. I also managed to neaten up not one but two wires, so it's a start. Some prior person had butchered one of those wires and it was held together with 2 scotchlocks but with abrasion & cut marks in between. That's all fixed now - only 50 wires to go. Oh, and I wrapped an oil soaker pad around the exposed floor shifter because I almost sliced my head open on it, again. My head seems to find every hard unyielding surface it possibly can whilst I am twisted into inhumane positions.

I've had more car problems than you've had hot dinners, but have never had the ol' wipers not turning off scenario. I've had the blades stop wiping (in the middle of a storm) on my Renault and the arm fell off completely once on an old Holden, but that's it so far.

The next time you go to your doctor and complain of a sore tummy and he brings out the RAM Sludge Syphon, it's probably time to change doctors.

You guys wouldn't have heard about the cyclone that hit Groote Eylandt where I work - I forgot to mention it. Whilst I was on R&R at home, a Cat 3 cyclone hit Groote and has caused so much damage to infrastructure that we all thought it would close. Anyway, apparently there's a LOT of manganese still to be mined and the Mine will rebuild but it's gonna take months. There was massive damage to the highway (we use road trains to shift processed product to the port area) the haul road (dump trucks take raw earth to be processed) and to the port area (where a conveyor loads bulk ore carriers.) All suffered huge damage and so there's not much happening right now. All contractors & casual workers were told that there's no more work. I am very fortunate that I am once again driving coaches and am therefore considered 'essential,' so my job is secure. I am lucky to be able to fritter money upon the car.

Another productive day today. I pulled all headlight & front park/indicator connectors out, released the little tab that holds the spade connectors captive inside the plastic plugs and sparked them all up with some emery and a small wire brush. There was nothing dramatic to report but at least I now know when juice gets there, it should be unhindered juice. Whilst there, I found lotsa mud wasp eggs inside the chrome headlight surrounds. This damn place is alive with critters and they will invade whatever space is open to them. I also installed the new LED park/indicator bulbs. The bulb is dual purpose - a different set of coloured LEDs depending on the function selected. I also installed the new LED specific flasher can. I can't test anything yet coz battery is out of the car being trickle charged. I pulled my fuse box out and am going to modify it's mounting board so as to accommodate the relays I have planned (hi Andy!) One each for high & low beam headlights, one for blower motor and one for the air horn. Engine bay wiring is now complete and I am satisfied with it. Front & back of car is all done. The dash wires will take some time, a commodity of which I have plenty of. After it's all done and I start testing stuff, if I'm still not getting a healthy 12+V to the fuse box I'll have the alternator & reg tested for output. Oh, and I sent my fuel gauge and the Frosty tach to a specialist in southern Queensland and asked that modern mechs be installed in both. It'd be nice to have a fuel gauge that actually tells me what's going on. I also picked up a labeller and some clear shrinkwrap so as to label all wires that feed into the fuse box. Yes, that one in the pic is my first attempt so it's a bit wobbly. They will improve..

It's important to have a scapegoat - this one's called Frosty! So...is that you closest to the other Goat? Had a bit of a day today. I thought I'd start with the easiest electrics which is anything behind the rear seat. All I had to do was clean the various bulb contacts and shine up the little spring loaded pin that provides the juice to the globe. I did the reverse lights, number plate light and the stop/tail/indicators. Oh, and I fitted my spanky new red LED bulbs. I need to check the fuel gauge sender unit earth to ensure it's a good contact and the back of the car is sorted. Then I threw myself into the engine bay. I pulled apart and then meticulously cleaned the bulkhead connectors. I can't see a need to rewire if everything already works. I figure as long as all connection points are clean & tight and that the wire ends are in the same clean condition, shit should work. Whilst in there, I cleaned up the horn wires, blower motor wire and oil pressure & temp gauge lines. I also cleaned up the wiper wires and neatened everything so that it is all virtually hidden. I drilled a small hole under the blower motor housing and routed the right hand engine bay wires through there to avoid having them snake around the firewall. I enclosed whatever I could in split tubing conduit and am pretty happy with the result. Will fit LED flasher can and front indicator LEDs tomorrow. The rat's nest under the dash is the job that's gonna take a little time. I'll post extra pics tomorrow.

Not perfect, you say? You're gonna have some fun here! She looks great.

My Fairlane had a BorgWarner diff and to drain it, you removed the rear cover, which of course meant installing a new gasket as well. Fortunately it should be a once in 5 years job, so no biggie. I wonder what the reluctance by manufacturers to install a drain plug is? My TH400 has it's original oil pan and guess what? No drain plug. You can buy aftermarket ones with a drain plug.

I'm gonna guess the one standing closest to the GTO. Is there some significance to the pic you guys are holding up?

As long as it doesn't clash with your gorgeous blue eyes. Disclaimer: I have no idea what JustA looks like. I certainly hope he doesn't have a ponytail.

We still use inches for tellys, car wheels & for when bragging about penis length. Otherwise, it's metric all the way. You guys can keep your 64ths of an inch...except when measuring a Kiwi schlong! 3 or 5 64ths should cover most of them. NOW the fight starts!

Whoops - sorry. I thought it was Sheep Outlaws vs Australia. And THAT is how we got from racing to sheep.