fbekholden.com

Loving this thread Wot. Keep posting the progress.

Nothing like using what you've got. Nice one

Tailgate fitted.


Sexy new hinges.


And some screws pilfered from some doorhinges off a Nash my buddy is putting together. He replaced his with new ones, and luckily for me had these floating about.


Bloody UNF screws....Everything Ive owned before this has used coarse thread everywhere, and Ive got buckets of old bolts and screws......Im constantly scratching for stray bolts putting this back together.
Im too cheap to buy new ones.

And Mick is dropping off some strikers for me in the morning to replace the ones you cant see in this pic.


Life is good.

And Im glad you blokes are enjoying the thread.

I don't get on the site very often but have just read your thread and I am bloody impressed with what you are doing . Have a soft spot for " rooted paint " and the what you see is what you get outcome . Bloody good shell , It must have been in some dry country for its days until now . Where did it come from ?
The sons special sedan originally came from inland nthn NSW and has an excellent body with original paint that buffed up extremely well .Half a century in the Aussie sun helps to cure the paint for a good buff .
Thanks for the pics and keep up the good work .
Leigh

I love this thread Wot
I am collecting bits at the moment for my ute shell and really appreciate what you are doing with the basic tools keep posting those pictures.
Regards
Neil H

Strikers fitted.



Thanks Mick.

no worries Craig the nick nack draw is getting pretty empty sorry forgot the eggs

kelleigh54 wrote: Bloody good shell , It must have been in some dry country for its days until now . Where did it come from ?

Leigh

i originally bought the ute and then just lost interest and sold it to Craig he's doing it exactly as i was, i got it from Leeton so i spose south western NSW but still dry country NSW i believe from what they told me it was from out that way alot of it's life if not all

I got both engine mounts tacked in place, but you cant really see them, so I'll post pics when I yank the donk to fully weld them.

I have been busy building the gearbox mount, first up I had to build something for it to bolt to.

The SHS is 40mm. Its worked out perfectly and I would recommend it to anyone.

I'll let the pics do the talking, feel free to bug me with questions.









These go here, one each side of the tunnel.

There was PLENTY of trial fitting and trimming getting in and out under the car to get these right.



I wanted some meat to drill and tap the mount into, so I cut some strips of 6mm plate with the 5 inch to weld inside the SHS.

They are about 6 inches long.



I needed to plug weld them inside, so some holes were needed.



I filed the burr off the inside so I could clamp them down nice and flat.



Plugged.



And sanded smooth.



I used a 5 inch sanding disc cos I prefer them to flappers. Cheaper and a better finish for stuff like this.



I tacked the two halves together, but forgot to take a pic.

I also needed to make the beginnings of the cross member


I started by chopping up another piece of RHS I had laying around because I had no angle iron.





After offering everything up under the car, I calculated (guessed by eye) the position of the angles (which theoretically should run on the centreline of the trans mount),

clamped them to the side mounts, then matchdrilled and tapped them.





This is why the plate was welded inside the SHS.



Then I jacked everything up tight against the floor, stitch welded it all in and knocked off the rough edges with, in this case,a flapper.

I wirewheeled the floor first to make welding easier. (Well, as easy as it can get laying cramped on your back welding upside down)









Then I bolted the angles back on. They needed a little trim to clear the welds.




Then I did some measuring of the position of the side mounts in relation to the transmount so I could get some angles worked out with a mud map.



Did some measuring, marking and cutting



Then welded and sanded it up.



The top notches were done last after welding and sanding.


After offering it up again I discovered I hadn't quite got the angle on the side mounts in the right spot, (I missed the centreline by THAAAT much..) so I had to tweak

the crossmember and kick the sides back a scratch.

I did this by just running the cutting wheel through three faces (top,front and bottom) of the crossmember, clamping it together to close the gap,and welding it back up.



^^^^that's the gap^^^^...I forgot the pic of it welded with that gap clamped shut.

I also wanted a bit of meat on the top of the crossmember so it would stay put, so I welded a bit of 6mm flatbar to it.





That was it for today...you can probably see where its gunna finish, but I had some other stuff to do so packed it in for the night.

awesome work there mate...

love seeing updates on this ute, one if my favourite builds going on at the moment

Cheers
Nathan

Just re-read this from the start - love it!

Might be a silly question, but can you please share your method on how you get your parts so clean before paint. What process do you use? The results look good!
I can get out in the shed and clean stuff while I wait for the bank account to build up again haha.

Keep the updates coming

All the brake parts I washed in my parts washer, which is just kerosene with a stiff brush.

Then it was a cup brush on a 5 inch grinder, which takes a while but works well.

I wipe it all down with gunwash (cheap recycled thinners) and lots of rags and that's it.

All bolts I soak in kerosene, hit them on the wirewheel on a bench grinder then chuck them in a tincan full of gunwash and give it a good rattle, take them out and let them dry.

The diff was just a cupbrush and gunwash. Took bloody ages.


Oh...and good old scotchbrite kitchen scourerers...I go through heaps of them..Dont bother with the cheap ones, just buy the Scotchbrite brand ones.

Great work on the gewarbox thingy
I too am enjoying this thread

So today was time to finish the crossmember.

First I gave it a tidy up with the sander.



Marked and drilled some holes for bolting it to the rubber mount.



Then I needed an access hole to put the bolts in.

I used the same hole centres, and ran a holesaw through a couple of times on the underside.



Joined them up with the cutting wheel.



Then filed it all up nice so there were no sharp edges.



Bolted it in place, and tacked it to the mounting angles.



Then dropped it back out and welded it up.



Its currently bolted back in place. Fits like a finger in a bum, so Im pretty happy.

Then it was time to figure out where the handbrake bracket would go.

Im going to use the original bracket, just welded to the new crossmember somehow.

It was pretty rugged to start with.



I drilled out the spotwelds and dollied it up.



Then a quick hit on the wire wheel.



Then It was time to pull the clevis assembly apart....should be easy, eh....

Oh well..after spending around an hour messing around with it, trying WD40, Wurth Rostoff and a few choice words, it still would not unscrew, so I tried a little heat.

And the filthy mullet broke in half....



Time to walk away swearing......

I need a new cable.

I will pull it all out and apart tomorrow, Im done with it today.

finger in a bum ...so it was a good fit ?mmmmmm Mirander kerrs bum.....