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00:30This time on Rides Down Under Workshop Wars, the boys from Sioux Performance are working
00:36on the 1941 Cadillac, as Hayden fabricates the rear guards.
00:43Bespoke Coachworks have a new project in the workshop, this time an Alfa Romeo Tipo 33
00:49Stradale.
00:51We check out the Lamborghini Esparta build at Styling Automotive.
00:55Shane and Ermi hit the road in a 1969 VF Valiant Safari wagon.
01:02And Ron Goodman is busy working on another Porsche 356 restoration at Exclusive Body Works.
01:08First up, we check out the VZ Monaro and Alex Tirana build here at Dynamotive.
01:15So that VZ Monaro, beautiful one owner car before it came to us.
01:37Hardly a scratch on it.
01:39We had a little bit of haze on it, but it was in really good condition.
01:42Almost ashamed to pull it apart and do what we've done, but anyway.
01:457.5 seconds spec roll cage, full six-link rear end, really trick rear end.
01:52Bolted in.
01:53No cutting, no welding.
01:54Bolted in, pulled the independent thing out.
01:57Put that in there.
01:58It's lovely.
01:59Solid trans brake, 427 LS Next build with some big LS 7 cylinder heads and two big turbochargers
02:08on it.
02:09We're not quite ready for the dyno with that one yet.
02:11We've had a lot of fabrication.
02:14The gentleman who owns it insisted on the aircon working, traction control working, ABS
02:18working, all the electrics working as they did factory.
02:22So it's provided some interesting, challenging fabrication type deal to make all that fit
02:28and work and still have the real estate there for dump pipes and turbos and all that stuff.
02:35So far, stripped the car, fabricated a nine-inch and four-bar for it, coil-over shocks, anti-roll
02:49bar and a three-and-a-half-inch twin stoneless.
02:55I think the motor's been making 1,500 horsepower.
02:58So the four-link is held on its own cradle, which is mounted back to the independent points
03:03on the car.
03:04So the factory points.
03:06I had to draw up all the brackets, which Rod turned into CAD drawings, to suit the floor
03:12pan on this vehicle.
03:14So there was some challenges.
03:19We needed to put the turbos, they needed to be high mounted for room and then it's got
03:24a big air to water into cooler with a tank in the boot, plumbing for all of that and pumps
03:30and all of that sort of stuff.
03:33Moved the radiator a little bit forward and we needed a bit more radiator capacity to deal
03:38with the increase in power.
03:41And then we've got oil coolers and we've got stuff everywhere on it.
03:44Underneath there's all these beautiful stainless steel pipe works, so not soft lines or hard
03:48lines for the dry sump and for the water backwards and forwards and all that sort of stuff.
03:54So we've got two separate fuel systems with the FuelTech.
03:58So we've got one fuel system, E85, big pumps, big fuel system, big injectors for bigger power.
04:04So we've got the VZ fuel tank up right behind the back seat as they were, with a slightly
04:09bigger in-tank pump, slightly bigger injectors, all set up so it's effectively dual fuel, 98
04:16on the factory set up, 7 psi boost and then flip it over to E85 and 30 psi boost.
04:24Two complete systems within the FuelTech, so we'll just have a go fast, not so fast.
04:30So the E85 injectors are a big set down the bottom, so it's got 16 injectors in total and
04:37then the smaller injectors just running the 98 fuel.
04:41We have actually done that a couple of times before.
04:43We haven't done it before with FuelTech, but we have done that type of system before.
04:48FuelTech is like L-Tech and Mo-Tech and all those things.
04:52It's another style of computer system.
04:54It's pretty popular for some drag race-y guys.
04:56We don't see it very often, but there's a lot of people that specialise in FuelTech.
05:01The reason we're keeping everything functional, like aircon and electrics and 98 octane fuel
05:06and all that, so it is not a daily driver, but close to a daily driver.
05:12And then it's got the angry mode as well.
05:25Yeah, so nice little LX hatchback.
05:28I'm not sure of the heritage of the car, but anyway.
05:31It came to us 632-inch, big block, turbo 400, 9-inch, all that.
05:37But none of the car, no aspect of the car was finished off properly.
05:40I think it was just rushed together.
05:42The guy wanted to get a number, run it down to the previous owner I'm talking about.
05:49Good customer of ours bought it and just said, fix it, make it right, make it work.
05:55We did a preliminary inspection and a run on the dyno and poor little thing didn't even
06:00make 300 horsepower.
06:01So it was obviously wounded, pulled the engine out, four broken pistons, couple of camshaft
06:06lobes missing.
06:07Cylinder heads were in pretty bad shape.
06:09You know, the whole thing was pretty trash, it basically fell apart, you know.
06:14So tidy up the engine, somewhere, somehow, someone had decided that 13.5-to-1 compression
06:19on pump 98 on a 630-inch big block was a good combination, but not really.
06:26So we've knocked a bit of comp out of it.
06:28We've softened it all off a little bit, you know, give it some street manners.
06:32And then we'll put it in the car, we've redone the torque converter and transmission and a
06:39proper four-link rear end and one of our beefy 9-inch housings and a new diff centre and billet
06:46brakes and yada yada, just make the car work.
06:49It didn't have a handbrake, the steering was terrible, there was so many things wrong with
06:52that car.
06:53It did look cool from a distance, but anyway, it's going to be a good thing.
06:58It's going to be a really, really good package when it's finished.
07:12Coming up, we head to exclusive body work, where Ron Goodman has another 356 to restore.
07:21So Pacemaker is traditionally known as Pacemaker Headers.
07:30And as a company, we are an exhaust manufacturer.
07:33It has its origins in the 1970s.
07:35As a company, we're bordering on the 50-year category now, and we've got our origins in
07:39our product range that we still make today.
07:42Our exhaust systems are all made from 409 grade stainless steel.
07:46It's a 1.5mm wall thick, all fabricated and built here in Australia.
07:51Pacemaker have developed advanced technologies in our mufflers and our cats.
07:55We have a very special high-flow cat setup, and Pacemaker also use long-strand fibreglass
07:59in our mufflers and double-skinned walls as well.
08:02There's a gain in both performance and economy.
08:05Economy is picked up because the engine is not having to work as hard as what it once
08:08was before to remove the exhaust gases from the engine.
08:11Obviously, by doing so, that frees up the engine and allows the performance to improve.
08:15Each vehicle's different, but across the board, a set of headers can generally pick
08:18you up around a 10% gain, and it can vary depending on what you do from there.
08:23All reputable exhaust shops and mechanical workshops and performance shops stock Pacemaker products,
08:29and you can get yours there.
08:30in Amsterdam, between the test and step 2 to 1.5mm wall.
08:35One, two, three.
08:44I'm uncomfortable put by and Czyli.
08:51We've got here today an early 356.
09:05It's been owned by the same owner for the last 38 years and he decided to restore it.
09:10So the first thing that we've done, we sent it down and got it sandblasted.
09:14The car come back from sandblasting and it's got all its usual little bits and pieces on
09:19it where it's had repairs over the years and unfortunately with these cars, when they
09:23were cheap back in the old days, they'd just get fixed up quickly and sent back out the
09:28door again.
09:29And as you can see, this one's had some pretty bad repairs on the front where it must have
09:33had a fairly decent impact on the right front at some stage.
09:37This poor little car, the owner was under the impression that it had never been hit in the
09:42front.
09:43He knew about the little repair in the back that we had to do, but unfortunately when
09:45he'd come down and we'd had it sandblasted, we showed him the front and he was devastated.
09:50We told him it would be perfect.
09:57We sent this little machine down to the sandblasters.
10:00Sydney Sandblaster's done a great job, they'd come back in bare metal.
10:03So then we put an epoxy primer on it.
10:05So while it's getting worked on, we put our hands on it and everything else, we're not
10:08putting any contaminants onto the metal.
10:10They can use a pretty coarse sand on these because the metal is thick.
10:14Not like today's cars where it's like aluminium, the metal is even that thin.
10:18These old girls are made of real metal, which allows us to file finish them back to original
10:24as well.
10:26What I do before I send it down to the blasters, we lay two inch duct tape all the way around
10:30here.
10:31That way there the blasting doesn't get inside and go over everything.
10:34We can sand that back, as you can see on the back where we sand it back to the original
10:37part when we start filing it.
10:41These cars were built by craftsmen back in the day.
10:45It's all oxy welded, lead wiped.
10:49The cars are brilliant when they're finished.
10:51All the gaps are perfect, everything's been made perfect on these cars.
10:54Compared to today's cars, they're perfect, but everything's regimented, boom, boom, boom.
10:59Because these were handmade, the headlight on this car didn't necessarily fit the headlight
11:02in the other car.
11:04So we've got to replicate that when we pre-build the cars.
11:08You can see here it's had a weld done through here where I've marked.
11:14The gap from the bonnet to the guard on this side is two mil, on that side is like six mil.
11:19This whole front end has been cut and then it's been welded back on in the wrong position.
11:24So the chassis underneath is across.
11:26So what we'll do is we'll lift this off, pull the chassis back over, then either reuse this
11:32part or we'll make a new section for it.
11:34We can purchase, we have them stock, the guards made by Stoddards over in America, but sometimes
11:40it's easier for us just to roll our own guard.
11:42Especially with a car like this where it's had a few questionable repairs over the years,
11:47so we've got to make everything fit to get the caps in that right.
11:50What we originally do first is get the bonnet squared up to the back.
11:53As you can see, we've got a large gap here and a small gap there.
11:56So the bonnet has been twisted that way to try and compensate for the way that the front's
12:00been welded on.
12:01So we'll make the gap here right and then we make everything else fit around it.
12:06We've already completed the roof and we're halfway through doing the back.
12:09The roof was pretty bad.
12:10It looked like someone had jumped on it at some stage.
12:12So we file finished all that without using any of the fillers neither.
12:15There's nothing wrong using a little bit of filler in a body as long as only a small amount
12:20and it's put in properly.
12:25We've done a lot of these cars over the years and seriously, you can't take one part of
12:30door of one and put it onto another one.
12:31They're all handmade.
12:32So back in the day, if the guy was having a bad day, the car would come out a bad way.
12:37What we're doing on the back section at the moment is that we're using old school tools,
12:53the ones back from the era, which allow us to push the dents up from underneath.
12:58We do the repair, get it as smooth as we can by our hand and then we file finish it.
13:02By running that file over it, it takes every single little imperfection out of the metal
13:06and it allows us to know whether it's straight or not.
13:13Up next, there's another project at Bespoke Coachworks.
13:17An Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale.
13:28Jansis Equipment is a distributor for global leading brands such as Benpac, Sturtle Coney,
13:33Fiesbath.
13:34So we spy hoist lifting equipment, specialised testing equipment throughout Australia in all
13:40segments.
13:41It's a car dealership right the way through to a car enthusiast, or a truck dealership
13:45right the way through to truck enthusiast.
13:47The difference we see with the Benpac hoist is not just with the ergonomical technology
13:52that we use when we're operating the hoist and lifting the hoist, it's all about safety
13:56and longevity.
13:57We can put anyone under the hoist and we know they're safe.
14:00With the Benpac hoist, there's no complicated buttons to use.
14:04When we want the hoist to go up, we press the button.
14:06In return then, when we want to lower the hoist down, it's just a matter of lifting the handle
14:10and that releases the safety locks.
14:12We just press the button and it steadily brings that car down.
14:18In our Benpac range, we have the two-post hoist, which is very, very popular.
14:21But we do the four-post hoist, and that's anything from a car to a truck in the four-post range.
14:26So the versatility for whatever you use in any type of application in a workshop,
14:31we've got the hoist there to accommodate that.
14:36So we've had a new project come into the shop.
14:50It's an Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale.
14:53It's a replica car, but it's all in aluminium, and it's made to try and be as true as possible
14:59to an original car.
15:00They're a funny build.
15:01They were very low numbers, all coach-built.
15:03So every single car that you saw was different.
15:06So it's interesting to try and find details and trying to see what error of the car that we're going to try and stick with.
15:13So the chassis on this one is a bit of a unique one.
15:19It's a H-patterned aluminium tube with cast aluminium members up front and through to the rear.
15:26And that will hold the engine in the rear, and then an aluminium cast member that holds the sway bar,
15:32some of the suspension points, steering rack, things like that up front.
15:35This project has come to us through ways of the client through another shot,
15:43and we were lucky enough to get a good start to the project,
15:46and to be able to continue on what's going to be a super cool car.
15:49This is a pretty interesting car.
15:52The Tipo 33 was a race car, and the Stradale is basically the road-going version of the late 60s race car.
15:59So it has a lot of that race car, like Ferrari, Alfa Romeo vibes that they had back then.
16:05A lot of that Italian curves in the body.
16:07So, yeah, quite an interesting-looking car, but also a very beautiful car.
16:11So the majority of our work on this car will just be the finishing of the aluminium body.
16:18So we've still got to make door frames, door skins,
16:21mount all the rear structure to finish off the rear structure.
16:25We've almost finished the front with, you know, gaps and all those sort of things,
16:28bonnet vents, things like that being welded in.
16:30There's a couple of little tidy-up pieces that we've got to finish off on the front,
16:33but we'll be very soon moving on to the rear.
16:41So next steps to this build, once we finish off the last couple of pieces on the front end,
16:45we'll move on to the rear.
16:46The client has got a mock-up, essentially, of the rear cradle,
16:50which will hold the engine, et cetera,
16:52and that will give us a place to start mounting the rear end to.
16:55So after we're done getting the rear section all completed,
16:58the owner will be able to then get the cast members put into place,
17:01which will be the final pieces.
17:03Having the mock-up will give us something to swing the rear end off and get all that working.
17:11The Alfa Omea has come in to have the body finished off
17:16and get the front and rear areas swinging and hinged off the main chassis.
17:21The Alfa is a pretty unique vehicle.
17:24Being such a low-production car originally,
17:27we're building for the customer a replica or a tribute car
17:31to match an earlier model, so an earlier 67 Series 1 style 33.
17:41There was less than 20 chassis built,
17:43there was even less that got bodies,
17:45and there's only five remaining originals left.
17:48Alfa Omea do have one of their own vehicles,
17:51sitting in their factory or museum,
17:53and it's worth approximately about 20 million euro.
17:57The biggest challenge with this car is finding original photographs
18:00or designed blueprints.
18:02Without those, there's a little bit of guesswork involved.
18:06We have found one blueprint schematic of the side shot of the car,
18:10which we're able to scale out and sort of work off.
18:13The Alfa does present a unique challenge,
18:15which makes it quite interesting.
18:16It's very GT40 Ferrari style.
18:19I think the most interesting part of this car
18:21is probably the quadrilateral hinging doors.
18:24So instead of swinging sideways or vertically,
18:27they actually swing diagonally,
18:28especially because it doesn't have a side glass.
18:30It has a single piece Perspex side window,
18:33which actually becomes part of the structure of the door.
18:40This one's a little bit different in terms of
18:42it's not a custom piece, it's a replica,
18:44but we want to try and make it as true to an original as possible.
18:48So a lot of the things we're doing is researching
18:51and what did they do in the time period through brands
18:53like Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Ferrari,
18:55because a lot of the coach builders were all the same for those brands.
18:58So we're sort of looking at things of the era,
19:00what might they have done
19:02and trying to do it as close to as possible.
19:05So it's a little bit different one.
19:06It's kind of like a restoration,
19:08but then also a little bit of design work involved as well.
19:12Next up, we check out the Lamborghini Asparta build at Styling Automotive.
19:28Hi, I'm Colin.
19:34If you're looking for tyres, mechanical service or just general advice,
19:38come on down to Mooney Ponds Tyres.
19:40We offer a full range of servicing from tyres to brakes
19:43to all sorts of general mechanical repairs.
19:45Every vehicle will get an inspection to make sure the vehicle is safe.
19:48In terms of tyres, we do a large range of tyres from the smallest lawnmower tyre
19:52right the way up to the largest earthmover tyre.
19:55We do wheel allowance, we do batteries.
19:57Any time you need any tyres, just come and see us.
20:01Invisible Carbras are a paint protection film.
20:08It's 0.2mm thick polyurethane with an adhesive on the back.
20:14We computer cut it to suit each vehicle and then apply it.
20:17I'd just finished repainting my 1968 Corvette.
20:20I'd spent a lot of money on it and cried when I got a first chip in it,
20:23so I decided I need some sort of protection.
20:26We have patents for most modern cars.
20:29Anything we don't have a patent for, we can create a set like we did for the VG.
20:33Resprays can cost somewhere between $10,000 and $100,000.
20:37Putting paint protection film on the paint to stop any chips
20:40is a very cost-effective way of protecting the car.
20:43You can find Invisible Carbras on the web, invisiblecarbras.com.au
20:48or give us a call on 0382 881041.
20:59So this is a Lamborghini Esparta 1974 Series 3.
21:14So the car is a good car.
21:15It's a matching numbered delivered vehicle.
21:17The only thing that is slightly contrast is the interior,
21:20which had a cream interior put into it instead of its sort of tobacco colour
21:25that it should have been.
21:26But again, this is just something that Matt and I will probably work on in the future.
21:30It's just a really good car.
21:32We're happy that we have worked with Matt and be able to do what we can do
21:35with Stirling Automotive and him as a partnership.
21:37I got a phone call one day from a customer who was just up at the local service station
21:44about 800 metres up the road, and he had just pulled into the servo to fill it up.
21:50And to this day, I don't know who it was, but somebody had noticed the car
21:53and he walked up and said, mate, you know, awesome car.
21:55You don't see these things on the road that much.
21:57And then took a closer look at it and realised that the paint work was really poor
22:02and there was a lot of bubbles and the thing was just, you know, holding on for dear life.
22:05This person said, Dave's just around the corner.
22:08You should go and see him.
22:09You know, he'll paint this for you.
22:11He drove the car down and he wanted me then to carry out the restoration on the car.
22:17And when they brought the car in, it was in its original colour, which is Lucci Del Bosco.
22:22However, throughout the course of him owning it, he changed it into a red car.
22:27But it was a 90s paint job and back then there was a few products that weren't as good as what they are of today.
22:33And so they tend to break down and fail, which is where all the bumps and bubbling
22:36and all that kind of stuff were coming from.
22:38I spent a couple of weeks walking around the car before we invoiced the first stages of the job out,
22:44to which I got a phone call from Greg.
22:46He said, mate, I'm going to have to get you to stop.
22:48Mate, I've just been delivered some pretty poor prognosis.
22:51I've got pancreatic cancer.
22:53He came and seen me one afternoon and he said to me, look, I want to take it for a drive.
22:57He said, I'll only be 15 minutes and I'm just going to go around the block.
23:0045 minutes to an hour later, I was phoning his son.
23:03Matt, where's dad? He's not coming back. Where is he?
23:06And Matty just said, look, just let him be. Let him drive his car.
23:09He just wants one last little proper drive in it.
23:12Sooner or later, we hear the grumble of this thing coming down the driveway.
23:16And unfortunately, that was the last day I saw Greggy.
23:18It was two days later he passed away.
23:20So this job means a lot to us.
23:22Yeah, we're pretty proud of it.
23:26Matt was introduced to me when Greg was sick.
23:28And we worked together to get the car to a really high standard
23:32that his dad would have been proud of.
23:34And that also Matt can keep this car in memory of his father.
23:38So we're pretty happy with it and so is he.
23:43When Greg did have the car, he had in his mind that he wanted to paint this car.
23:47the Mazda sole red or the really pearlescent red that's on those Mazdas.
23:53And I said to him, Greggy, this is not the car to do it to.
23:56So we had a bit of backwards and forwards to try and come to arrangement with this.
24:00But unfortunately, Greg never got to see the end product, obviously.
24:04And Matthew and I were both in the understanding that, you know,
24:08a matching numbers vehicle has to go back to its factory settings.
24:12And the factory setting was the Lucci Del Bosco,
24:14which is the colour that we've got on it today.
24:16When I look at this car when it's finished and I sit in it,
24:21I always feel like Greg's sitting in the passenger seat with me.
24:24I think that Greg would be really happy with what he's got.
24:27And I think it's just a good bit of history for Greg and Matt's family.
24:32And also the connection and the history that we've got with Styling Automotive
24:35to produce such a good product.
24:47So the Chevy is a 3100 Chevy truck.
24:50We've got an air ride chassis coming out of the United States.
24:53Full air bag, power steer, brake upgrade, fuel cells.
24:57It's a real work of art.
24:59The body shell has had some major custom work around it
25:02to really sort of bring on all the shapes, close off all the gaps,
25:06incumbent some different things.
25:08Can't wait to sort of share that one a bit more as we move around it.
25:12At this stage, body work is near complete.
25:15We're just waiting for the chassis to turn up
25:17before we can start the next stage on it.
25:24The RX3 is in its final stages of body, line work and finesse.
25:29And it's taken a long time to get through this job.
25:31It had a really poor life.
25:33However, we're at the tail end of it now.
25:35All the engine bay's been painted.
25:37Inside the boot, it's been painted in the shell.
25:39So now we're just cleaning up the final stages of the lines
25:42and it'll have a really slick silver colour put over it.
25:45Can't wait to show you that one.
25:49At Styling Automotive, we really enjoy working with the customers
25:52to bring the old cars back to life.
25:54The customers really enjoy the journey.
25:56Some don't like them.
25:57I think they get told death by a thousand paper cuts.
26:00But anyway, that's the way the invoicing works.
26:03At the end of the day, the cars are in poor condition
26:06and they have to be done properly in order for you to fully enjoy them.
26:10It is a journey that we must take together
26:12and a relationship that we do build over the years.
26:15But at the end of it, you get a fantastic product
26:17and we generally get a lot of friendships
26:19out of the cars that we build for people.
26:22Again, we really enjoy the customers.
26:24We enjoy that they see that we have the passion for the cars,
26:28that we're not just a smash repair to get them in, get them out.
26:31We generally want to make sure that the customers
26:34have everything ticked off the list.
26:36They're passionate just as much as I am and the team
26:38are to deliver a good product that everybody's happy with,
26:41that we get to sleep well at night and they get to drive the cars
26:44and tell people about it, which is all part of this game.
26:47Coming up, Shane and Ermi hit the road in the 1969 Valiant Safari Wagon.
26:57ADEX Detailing is your one-stop shop for everything detail and custom work for your vehicle.
27:14Across our multiple shops, we take in every kind of vehicle.
27:18So we take in a lot of exotic cars, a lot of four-wheel drives,
27:21normal, everyday cars and we even do caravans.
27:26So we have two main locations for ADEX Detailing.
27:29One, our HQ is in Tullamarine and we have another shop in Cheltenham.
27:33And then, next door at the HQ, we have ADEX Vanguard, which is caravan's own.
27:40As soon as a car comes through our doors, we get in and give it a full, deep clean inside and out.
27:46Then we get it out into the wash bay, we do a paint decontamination,
27:49then we start the paint correction process.
27:51So we polish all exterior panels, including the glass,
27:54and we get out every single swirl, watermark, scratch and all the hazing.
27:58We get it brand new.
27:59And then we apply three coats of ceramic coating to all the paintwork,
28:02the windows and even your wheels.
28:05So the best way to contact us is via social media.
28:08We have a lot of content that goes out every single week or our website.
28:11You can jump on there, enquire now, just put in all your details
28:14and then we'll give you a call and we can book your car in.
28:17This is a 1969 safari wagon.
28:18This car originally came out with a slant six and the customer
28:22likes his column shift manual.
28:36This is a 1969 safari wagon.
28:43This car originally came out with a slant 6 and the customer likes his column shift manual,
28:49so what we've done is we've built him a 318 that he's supplied us and he's supplied us
28:55majority of the parts to build this, so we built him a nice little tidy warm 318, nothing
29:02super powerful, it'll just be a nice little cruiser for him, drive nice, but at least
29:08that way he gets to retain his column shift manual and keep his bench seat.
29:15Yes the slant 6 is a great engine, they go quite well, but this customer just wanted the
29:20sound of a V8 really, that's all he really wanted, but he wanted it to look nice as well,
29:24hence the reason why we've got aluminium heads and all of the stuff on it, but as for power
29:29it's just a little bit overstocked, it's nothing really powerful.
29:33It has an Edelbrock carby on it, which is technically a carter, they're a good carby, there's nothing
29:38wrong with carter carburetors, I prefer quadrigits myself when it comes to carburation, but as
29:43for a good all round economical carby, these are great.
29:49This car originally had a slant, so what we've got is we've got hemi performance engine mounts
29:55to convert the slant 6K frame to V8.
29:59Now the V8 sits in exactly the same spot as it would on a V8K frame.
30:05The only little things that we've had to do obviously is modification for the extractors
30:09to clear past, also too we've got a little clutch reservoir on the side here for the
30:14hydraulic clutch.
30:15Now a lot of people go, well why did you go hydraulic clutch?
30:18Well the bell housing that the customer supplied is a left hand bell housing in a right hand drive
30:24car, and a left hand bell housing has a fork coming out from the left hand side, which
30:28makes it a little bit difficult.
30:31We could have put a fork out the left hand side and put a little slave cylinder and run
30:34a hydraulic mast cylinder under the dash as well, the same as what we've got here.
30:39But in actual fact it's just way easier just to do a hydraulic throw out bearing.
30:46Also too, the radiator's a CM radiator, but it's a CM six cylinder radiator.
30:53So what we've had to do is we've had to change the water neck on the top as well as change
30:57the water neck at the bottom because it was originally a CM radiator in a car with a slant
31:01six.
31:02So a few little modifications here and there.
31:05The lower neck's been changed, the top water neck's been changed, it has thermo fans, basically
31:10all we've got to do now is put some water in it and fire it up, run the cam in and make
31:14a lot of smoke.
31:16So that always happens when you run a cam in.
31:18The extractors have got ceramic coating on them and you'll have little fingerprints and
31:23stuff like that and that stuff will burn off, it'll make a little bit of smoke, so be prepared.
31:27We've got pacemaker extractors on this car.
31:30So these are the big pacemakers as well, so they're with the three inch collectors.
31:34Bigger is always better, I think anyway.
31:36I always think the engine's an air pump and if the engine can pump the air in and out as
31:40efficiently as humanly possible, well it'll be economical and make good power.
31:47Going from six cylinder V8, it's just going to make this package a lot better.
31:52It's just going to sound great, it's surprisingly going to be economical.
31:56So after we run the cam in, then we've got to build an exhaust system for it.
32:01At this stage we're probably going to go a stainless steel mandrel bent system into a
32:05set of mufflers and then out the back.
32:07Having a station wagon, you've got to be very careful on how you do your exhaust system
32:12because they can drone.
32:13So you try and make it so it's not noisy.
32:18When we first start the engine, we always start it with water and we don't have the radiator
32:22cap on.
32:23We don't pressurise the system.
32:24We run the cam in as long as possible without having to put the cap on.
32:29So that gives a chance for all the gaskets to swell because these are paper gaskets.
32:34These aren't like a modern car.
32:35The gaskets need to settle and seal up their own way.
32:38They were never designed to run coolant in them straight away.
32:42So we let them run with just water and then they're fine.
32:49So this is a bit different today.
33:01I'm chauffeuring you around.
33:02Yes.
33:03Why am I chauffeuring you around?
33:05Oh.
33:06To show you that you can drive a manual too.
33:09Oh, of course I can drive a manual.
33:13We're in Andrew's...
33:14VF.
33:15VF wagon, safari wagon.
33:17I do like a long roof.
33:20Now, we've done some changes to this.
33:22This was originally a Slant 6, wasn't it?
33:24Yes, this was a Slant 6 with a three-speed column shift manual.
33:28Yep.
33:29And what we've done is we've retained the column shift manual.
33:33We have, except we've lost the Slant 6.
33:36And now it's got a V8.
33:37Yes, it does.
33:38So we've got a 318 here.
33:40Nothing overly fancy.
33:42Yeah, it's just a 318 that's 30 up.
33:45Yep.
33:46It's got cast pistons, aluminium heads, aluminium intake manifold and a four-barrel carburetor.
33:52The car's not like a powerhouse or anything like that.
33:55It's just a good cruiser for him to cruise around in.
33:59So, we've retained the manual.
34:02And I know that there's a whole heap of people out there going,
34:05you guys are mad keeping such a small manual behind a V8.
34:11As long as I don't dump the clutch, I'm not going to blow up this manual.
34:16So, this clutch has had a few changes to make it easy to push and still be able to cruise in.
34:27What we've got is we've got a hydraulic throw-out bearing.
34:30So, by having a throw-out bearing, it makes it nice and easy to press the clutch.
34:35And considering that the clutch is quite a heavy clutch.
34:39Well, it's behind a V8.
34:40Yeah, it's a McLeod heavy-duty clutch.
34:43But with the aid of the hydraulic throw-out bearing, it's nice and soft to press.
34:48The clutch actually feels really, really good.
34:50I'm quite happy with it.
34:52So, this is a very mild engine, as I said.
34:54It's a very mild cam throughout.
34:56And he just wanted it to look like it goes fast but sounds good.
35:01And he wants to be able to do a lot of cruising in it.
35:03So, I said to him, I said, look, this will be a nice engine for you.
35:07So, he supplied all the parts.
35:09All I did is assembled it.
35:11So, this is like the flat pack of motors.
35:14We supplied all the bits.
35:16We supplied a few bits, changed a few bits over.
35:19But, yeah, it's actually, it drives really nice.
35:21It's very smooth.
35:22Yeah.
35:23It's going to be a great car for him.
35:24But, he's got a multi-fit bell housing.
35:26So, it has got the Tremec stub pattern on it.
35:28The bolt pattern, I should say.
35:30So, if in the future, his transmission fails on this, we'll put a five-speed Tremec in it.
35:38And we'll still retain the column ship.
35:50Next up, the guys from Sioux Performance are busy working on the 1941 Cadillac project.
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37:01It's a partnership.
37:04So we're back on the Cadillac job.
37:22It's a huge job.
37:23The car is really old, like 1940, 1941 I think the car is.
37:27It's got lots of rust in it.
37:29Surprisingly, the big shell parts are quite nice.
37:33It's everything down near the floors.
37:34Anything to do with the seals, the bottoms of the guards, the front bottoms of the guards.
37:39Everything low has got rust in it.
37:42So we're pretty much starting from the bottom, working our way up.
37:45At this stage, we just take most of the rust and then we can get onto the cool body change stuff.
37:49Also, being the age of the car, you can tell one bloke was on one side of the car and another dude was on the other side of the car.
37:55Because both guards are completely different to each other.
37:58You know, they might have the features but the shapes are physically different so we're having to manipulate it so that we can then duplicate the inner tubs that we're making.
38:06They're not completely different.
38:07So being that the car is 80 years old and not so desirable or not as easy to find, I suppose, compared to your 60s muscle cars, you really can't buy a lot of off-the-shelf items to the car.
38:17So we're having to find we're going to remake all of our guards, tubs, floor pans, all in-house, just make it from scratch.
38:25Whereas the Mustang jobs, we just buy new quarter panels and away you go and tweak them where we need.
38:30I've had Hayden tackling the rear of the car, he's made new quarter panel sections, he's reworked all the rear guards.
38:37We're now making new inner tubs.
38:39It's a unique build, it's going to take a long time to get out of the sheet metal section.
38:43But I think with the new chassis, the new running gear and we're basically going to have a really nice cruiser, which is what the customers are after.
38:55I'm in the process of mini-tubbing it about two inches to get some big tyres underneath the back of it and make it a new boot floor and the whole rear end.
39:08But you've got to look at the big picture really, the end, otherwise you end up in a hole of, you know, feeling like you haven't achieved anything each day.
39:18Because there was no bolting point left, it was all rotten away, I had to mount the quarter panel to the fender with some strapping to then build off underneath that.
39:31When we're working on the guard, we're tacking it together slowly, piece by piece, so we don't get too much warpage and we can get it all together before its final weld.
39:41After we've finished the rear end and the rust repairs, I think, the customers talked about chopping the rear of the roof to take the hump out of it.
39:59So we'll cut that a few inches and just give it a nice slope, give it a nice clean line.
40:06So we went down to Sydney to Motor Retro and met up with the boys down there and Aidan and we did a little course on some metal shaping and seeing all the stuff he does.
40:18He does quite nice work down there. For a young bloke, he's pretty on top of metal shaping, it's a passion for him for sure.
40:25He's all over it. He wants to share his knowledge and get it out to everyone else so they can get into it as well.
40:35So I guess for the last 20 years I've been here, we've been doing sea containers every month.
40:40If not every six months, we have a brand new sea container full of various custom order parts, whether it's brand new Art Morrison chassis,
40:47independent front ends, rear ends from various manufacturers that we deal with, high end shop, billet spurges, intro wheels.
40:55That there allows us to take control, help the customer where they want to find hard parts.
41:01It makes the builds a lot simpler because we source all the components ourselves.
41:05You know, if we need something in a hurry, we've got the option to air freight stuff.
41:09But generally on the bigger items like a brand new Art Morrison chassis, we put three in a container,
41:14save a bit of dollars for the client and just do mass produced importing like that.
41:18And it really works well for the builds we do.
41:20So I guess the building of projects and cars is a bit of a new thing for Sue Performance.
41:25In saying that, it's still been 15 odd years, but the core of the business started in spare parts.
41:31We've still got a huge high performance retail store up the front of the workshop here,
41:37where we've been dealing with, you know, different brands for some 30 years that the business has been around.
41:42So we've got really good buying power with a lot of the high end brands and products,
41:46which really allows us to transform and make these unbelievable cars we see today.
41:52With the Dodge D100, the Tesla project, we've been working on it a long time now.
41:59Most of the custom fab work's done, the sheet metal, the rust work,
42:03we're really in the finite end before stripping the car down.
42:07So I've got Trent doing some tricky brackets for all the battery coolers,
42:11the electric motor coolers, the charging systems, how we're going to run our airlines,
42:16all our management of our wiring, we're making all these tricky little brackets
42:21that are going to hold quite a sum of technical information and hardware.
42:26And so we're just really dialling in on the finite little stuff.
42:29And from there, we'll pull the car apart, go into the paint and panel,
42:33make all our nice engine bay, all of our tub stuff, the interior look really pretty,
42:38get all of it painted, and then it'll head over to the EV guys
42:41that are going to plumb all the high-voltage together.
42:44And hopefully a couple of weeks later from that,
42:47we'll have a driving, running, full electric, four-wheeled burn-out machine.
43:05Next time on Rides Down Under, Workshop Wars.
43:08Aidan from Bespoke Coachworks gives us a real-world demonstration
43:12on the equipment from Air and Forbes Machinery House.
43:16We take a look back into the build of Ron Goodman's Outback 356.
43:22Valley Grunt Performance upgrade their workshop
43:25with some new Ben Pak hoists from Genesis Equipment.
43:29We meet up with the guys from Oz Wheels who talk us through the process
43:33of making the 164 scale model of Luke's evil LJ.
43:38All that and more on Rides Down Under, Workshop Wars.
43:42Rides Down Under, Workshop Wars is proudly supported by
43:45Hair and Forbes Machinery House, Hemi Performance,
43:49Pacemaker Headers and Genesis Equipment.
43:52Our crew stays at Quality Hotel Robertson Gardens
43:56and Hunt's Hotel in Liverpool.
44:03This program is brought to you by Fuzzy Media.
44:06Fuzzy Media.
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