SA Dealers News and opinions about topics in general

So with the Falcon sold and a big hole in my garage (where my bantam used to stand, sniff sniff) I now have space to work on my long term (as in more than 5 years) dream.

Isn’t she a beaut?! Pic from www.daxcars.com It’s a Dax Rush, based on the Lotus 7 designed by Colin Chapman many many years ago.

Am I going to buy one? Hell NO! I have bought a chassis and a few assorted bits a number of years back, but lack of space and moving twice meant that the car is still back in Barberton in my dads garage (it’s a BIG garage)

So the plan is now, to fit a tow hook to my Toyota Tazz (shame), clean up my grotty 3 bike trailer (very rusted), then travel down to Mpumalanga and fetch as much as I can fit on the trailer (which should be most of what I have.

Once I have it up here I can start on cleaning it up and getting to a rolling chassis (i.e. 4 wheels attached in the right places so I can push it around)

Due to my limited budget (errrm nothing? the bit of money that does not go to paying of my house or credit card?) this will not be the most way out or radical car ever.

I will be making use of the Ford Kent 1600 Crossflow motor that I got with the chassis, as well as the 4 speed gearbox. The idea is to make a track day car for weekend fun, so no interior, no lights nothing!

Here’s a few more pics again from daxcars.com click on the thumbnails for a bigger picture

Posted under Lucky 7

Ok so I managed to get the engine out, WHOHOO!! First I had to go and buy a block and tackle.

I was originally going to bother my neighbours block and tackle, but he is really busy making a shade netting carport thingy to cover a caravan that he is taking to rust de winter (think I spelt that right?). So he did not have the time to unpack it from wherever he had it stored.

There I was this morning browsing through a Midas pamphlet when I saw that they had bloock and tackles for sale, so I made a turn at the Midas in Kempton Park and bought a 2.5 ton block and tackle for under300 bucks.

To hook up the block and tackle I took a length of 50 X 100mm rectangular tubing I had and laid it across a number of trusses in my garages roof. Then I took a fairly sturdy chain and wrapped it around the tubing joining it with a quick chain link. The block and tackle was then hooked on the loop.

As I had loosened all the bolts previously all I really had to do was lift the motor and gearbox out! Which is easier said than done

Motor and gearbox out and at the back of the garage, by the cars bonnet. This is the space in front of where my wife parks her car, space is getting REAL tight in the garage. To get the motor here I borrowed a trolley from the same neighbour who I was going to bother for the block and tackle. This trolley is made of 6 mm aluminum plate, and with the motor being so big and heavy I was worried it might bend, guess aluminum is stronger than I thought!

Close up pic of the motor on the inlet side.

Still looks like a dog lifting its leg, only minus a great big engine! Having cut the front out previously meant I could actually slide the engine out the front of the car without lifting it too high. This meant I could take the 5 cylinder four litre motor out all by myself!

Another pick of the empty engine bay, white bucket was meant to catch any gearbox oil that ran out, looking at the huge pool of oil on the floor it obviously did not work!

Was only meant to be a backup though, I had tied a plastic bag around the end of the gearbox so that I would not have this kind of mess, but the bag caught somewhere and ripped a hole in, so all the oil it had caught started running out and onto the floor.

Hmmm should have rotated this image, that is my brake booster, I actually reversed the car into the garage, and while I was doing that I noticed the brakes were really hard, the crack in the booster explains that!

Close up of the crack, should have rotated this pick too, but I guess you get the point.

Not too sure why I took this pic but guessing it was to show what I have already cut out the front of the car.

Yet another pic of the empty engine bay, hey I am entitled to it okay! There is quite a bit of cleaning up to do, not my favourite job.

Other errands around the house means that this is all I have done for the day, but with the engine out I can now check exactly what panels I need, and can start making an effort to get the spares.

Posted under Project Falcon

So heres the story, a few months (yes months!) ago I had a Wednesday off and decided to go to an auction at SMD. Now the auctions at SMD are for accident damaged cars (mostly), so i was hoping to see the prices of cars so that when I had the time and the money I could get myself a small project car. Note the word small …

What I ended up with is a car that would not fit into my garage until I had moved a large number of boxes that were neatly stacked. My wifes Tazz or my Banntam could fit in there no issues.

So what did I end up buying? A 1998 Ford Falcon XR6
Why did I buy it? Errmmm, by mistake actually. It’s really a funny story, and maybe one day I will laugh about it.

You see I have always liked these cars, they seem to be a cheap way to easy speed and power. So when I saw one standing amongst the 300 other cars I gave it a closer look. And when the time came for it to be auctioned off I stood closer as I had wanted to see how much it went for. The bidding stopped at R4 000 with the auctioneer calling R4 500 once..twice, at which point I looked at my wife and she said ‘buy it’, so I quickly pulled my registration card out my pocket and bid on the car.

Then no-one else did. So I had a car.

And all I had done was give the front of the car a quick once over, again I was not planning on buying a car, I only wanted to get an idea of the prices. Besides what better way is there to spend your day off watching other people buy fubar cars?? You can only get your car when the auction is done, so while we waited for the auction to end, my wife quizzed me on what was wrong with the car, was the back damaged, how was the interior, was anything missing? Sadly I could not answer her on anything so I began to get a little (VERY) despondent. Had I bought a dud that was destined for the scrapheap?

Thankfully when I got it home and sarted I could find no obvious reason for it to go straight to the heap, phew.

As I was busy preparing for exams I forced myself to stay out the garage so I could concentrate, so the car stood gathering dust. But only till the very day after writing my last exam.

Here she is! By the time I took the first picture I had changed the one wheel, which was so damaged I could not pump it up, and taken off the bonnet and the lefty hand side fender.
It looked better with them on but the bonne had been pushed back so I could not open it fully and the fender had also been pushed back, far enough that you could not open the passenger door.

Just a shot to show you how scrunched up the left hand side is, I am guessing the previos owner went off road and smacked a tree

Here you can see the damage to the front at the bottom of the radiator, naturally I did not see this on the auction day as I was not expecting to buy the car. Beginning to regret not taking a closer look before bidding now. Photo does not do the damage any justice though, it gets worse.

Closer view of the crumpled left hand side. Lots of work, lots and lots.

Pic may seem confusing but the engine is at the top left hand side of the pic, bottom right shows how deep in the damage goes, right up to the top of the shock absorber!

Here I made a cut (using a hacksaw) through the damaged front section where the light would be situated. I did this so that I could get the radiator out. It had been pushed way back and was up against the engine.

Still only one cut, but I bent the front section forward after taking the radiator out. I bent it to about where it should have been, starting to realise the damage is much worse than I had originally thought.

A view from the top, Sheesh, if you look at the engine you can see how close the front lower section is. Its almost touching the bash plate, while on the richt hand side I can easily fit my hand between the chassis and the engine

1 X radiator, stuffed. I wonder if this can be repaired? Going to have to make a trip to a radiator place and see. Also in the pic is the radiator for the aircon. It’s not that clear but that radiator is warped, I can probably bend it straight.

Stuffed cooling fans, If you look at the left you will see that there should be a rectangular section at the bottom left, what you cant see is that the housing for the fans is cracked all over, going to have to replace the whole thing I think.

Progress? I am not so sure, but here I have drilled all the spot welds and removed the whole front section. I am hoping to get better access to the engine as it’s going to come out. Without the front section there I dont need to lift the engine as high to clear the body, it can just come out the front!

Closer look showing how badly the the bottom section bent, if you look at the right hand side chassis rail (on the left in the pic) you can just see that it is bent. Oh dear, a fair bit of work will go into getting that right!

So am I mad? Should I sent it away, admit defeat? Naah. I prefer bumping my head again and again and again and ag…

Posted under Project Falcon