SA Dealers News and opinions about topics in general

Hmmm.. nasty I know, the scoot in the background is a little Gomoto Buzz rocket (ok stop laughing) which I bought for my wife but ended up using to work and back for a while.

Behold! My ultra clean garage! Tralers rusty butt above.

Closes shot of how bad it had gotten, sigh.

Rusty bolts

Needed to get the lights off to get the rust sorted, but they had rusted too. Here is the one set, trailer is standing on it’s side btw.

More rusty bolts

The bolt closest is slightly less rusted because I attacked it with the wire brush in the hopes that the nut would come off more easily. Alas that failed so I had to remove the bolts by cutting them off.

Piccie taken so I don’t have to remember where the wires actually went

Same as above only for the other side

I decided that the reflective panel would look way better if it fitted inside the rear channel between the lights as opposed to being rivited on the outside. This meant it needed to be cut down slightly.

Cutting it fortunately allowed me to be rid of the ugliest part of the panel, as can be seen above. I cut it using a small angle grinder and a very thin cutting disk.

Amazing how quick it is to type, but how much time and effort went into getting the suface prepared for the black stuff you now see adorning my trailer. Liberal use of a large wire brush on my big angle grinder and a small hand wire brush for the small stuff meant the majority of the rust was removed.

I think it looks much better, especially with the reflective panel on the inside.

Side view cos I hade the time and an inclination to take useless photos, wheels I am hoping to remove this weekend, have the tires removed so that I can clean and de-rust the rims, so that next weekend I can put new tires on. (It REALLY needs new tires)

Herewith the RB10 metal primer I bought at the local Mica hardware store, apparently you can paint it over rusted surfaces so long as the rust is not flaking. Hope it works because there were a few spots I coud not reach! I guess time will tell.

All in all I hope to actually fetch the car (at least most of the pieces that will eventually make up the car) in April. Let’s hope I have made enpough progress by then!

Posted under Lucky 7

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

Dax Rush Lotus 7 Front Right

Dax Rush Lotus 7 Rear

Dax Rush Lotus 7 Front

Dax Rush Lotus 7 Front Left

Posted under Lucky 7

So while it may seem that no work has been going on with the Ford Falcon XR6, well ….. no work has been done!

My father (bless `is kind `art) has been doing a bit more work and has managed to track down a scrap yard that has a XR6 with rear end collision damage.

Going to go have a look this weekend (24 January 2009) at the car which is in Middelburg. Hopefully I can get all I need off of it, at a  fair price!

Otherwise the poor Ford will have to stand a while longer gathering dust.

If I can’t get the parts at a reasonable price I am considering using the car as a donor for a Lotus 7 replica see what I mean at www.locost.co.za. A 4 liter straight six ought to do pretty nicely in one of those!!

Seems that not that many XR6′s were sold, meaning that most scrapyards just don’t have anything for them, I placed an ad on a classifieds site for spares and the ONLY guy that answered told me that lights cost R 1 500 a piece, and there’s 4!!! Bloody hell.

Anyway need to get spares soon cos my neighbour is going to teach me how to weld with a MIG welder, because I upgraded his PC for him and did not charge him anything. If I do get the spares then he will also help out by fetching the spares with his bakkie and trailer (I just have to pay for petrol)

Of course nothing is ever easy so when I do get the spare I have to make a plan to finish the gate I started making. I am going to put it up next to my house where I have a precast wall running between the house and the perimeter wall. I am going to take out the people gate in that wall and one section of precast slats, then put the gate in there. This way I can park my wifes tazz in the ‘backyard’, which is where we keep our dogs. That should make it harder for anyone to steal another car from my house!

Until the gate is up though I will probably have to leave the spares outside, quite possibly in the rain.

Ho hum….

Posted under Project Falcon