Rusty EK,s Ute

[John]

awesome to see some progress mate !

[Rusty EK]

Slowly getting there John , got most of the mechanical stuff done , still a few little bits to do , but mostly interior stuff now .

Sure there will be a heap of little things to fix when I can get it on the road and take it for its first drive .

How are you getting on now , hope life is improving for you

[RedWhiteFB]

Thanks for that Rusty. That's pretty much what I've done. I like the idea of the sleeve. I don't have a lathe at work to use; so I might have to be a bit more creative.
I love how even the chicken is having a quick look at your gearbox to see what needs to be done.
Good luck with getting back on the road in time!!

Cheers,
Aaron.

[Rusty EK]

I love how even the chicken is having a quick look at your gearbox to see what needs to be done.

Lol , Just before I took the pic there was four goats under there too .

[DOLLER60]

Rusty that's a bloody huge trailer! Its a ripper

[Rusty EK]

It is , easy to back being so long , not so easy around town though , and you would think easy to see but .

While taking the ute to town for the gearbox had a old guy come out of a merging lane and just cut out behind my ute , stupid old bugger didn't even see the trailer and EK , it must of been millimetres between him and the trailer when he realised and swerved off .

I was already on the anchors and the horn waiting for the ensuing carnage , scared crap out of me .

[Rusty EK]

Got the ute back from the gearbox guys , they found a couple of stuck valves and some broken springs , but said they wasn't sure if that was the only problem .

Spent this weekend underneath her while she was on the trailer , bled all the brakes , adjusted hand brake and went over everything under there .

Just snuck her out on the highway tonight after all the after work traffic stopped , the highway past home is dead of a night after about 7.30 .

This is the first time I have had her on the road , I ran it down to the next driveway about half a k away ,the gearbox is changing sweet and smooth , she steers straight and rides nice .

Motor missed and farted on the way down , pretty much as expected , poor old girl has just been idling around for a couple of years now , but she cleared herself out and run sweet on the way back .

So Iam happy as a pig in it , hopefully next time she hits the highway she will be on the way for rego inspection .


On to the interior

[wot179]

Doing big skids.

[Rusty EK]

Lol, no big skids , was very well behaved

[Rusty EK]

Been on the interior all this week , had to change tack a little bit , couldn't get my mates borrowed sewing machine to feed the vinyl through , spent a whole day on it last weekend with no joy , so now I have a no sew interior .

Cut all new door cards etc from some 2.7 mm ply ,and glued foam and vinyl on , looks tidy , will send all the seats out to get done professionally at a later stage .

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A few little bits and pieces to finish off during the week , and she is booked in for rego inspection this Friday .

[Trev]

Looks good rusty, good luck with rego.

[Rusty EK]

Thanks Trev

[John]

Good luck mate!
I really would like to check it out one day. I'm in Hobart 2 days every bloody week

[Rusty EK]

Thanks John , we will have to catch up , do you bring your old girl down ? We could go for a cruise .

What days you down in Hobart ?

[Rusty EK]

Well the old girl is sporting a new set of "SI" rego plates today , and she has got 140 kilometres on the speedo now .

She runs well , rides and steers nice and those four wheel discs pull her up very swiftly , couple little problems to sort though.

The commodore radiator is a smidge on the small side , and the damn gearbox is still giving problems , changes gears nice but when you give her a bit of the go pedal it slips , will pull it back out before summer and get the damn thing rebuilt so I know it is right .

But she is registered and drivable , so am happy