Went To Work

It took me an hour and a half to get there the long way round but finally made it to help clean up. What we found was bad enough but i couldn't imagine the ass ache people must be having with there own houses flooded.
This is a freshly finished mini tanker turned upside down and resting on the forklift. The stands are facing upwards and you can see at the bottom the jib we use to pick the tanks up with that is built so strong and heavy it would take more than 10 men to lift.
Catch of the day.

This container is in the creek behind the workshop and would have floated more than 200 metres.

You can see how high the flood got, i didn't measure it but by eye it would be around 5 metres. There is a waste oil tank at the back turned over and plenty of sludge.

These reeds belong in the creek behind the workshop and somehow floated over the fence. They are massive.

It wouldn't be so bad except for the sludge, it gets everywhere. All our welders, hand tools, plasma cutters, band saw, press, drop saw........everything went under.

More cleaning tomorrow.

Flooded

Just a regular day in Goodna paradise. Went down for a look this morning.
10 minutes after i took this photo the water was over the roof gutters! If you know this area you would know how much water there actually is.......crazy.

The Ipswich motorway was completely flooded over. Makes me think how bad things must be at work, won't know till friday or next week i guess.

Thankfully ny house is out of the firing line, i just hope everyone out there in W.C.Zero land are as lucky as me.

Exciter

If this rain keeps up i think I'm seriously going to need one of these!
This boat was built in Williamstown Victoria by a gentleman named Tommy Watts.
Story goes he signed a deal with Mobil in 1964 to buy fuel at 8cents a gallon for the next 10 years and when the fuel price went up to 27cents a gallon in the early 70's Tommy went laughing all the way to the bank and set about building this hydroplane.

Deora 2

How crazy is this thing!! How could you not love it. A forgotten Aussie custom.
Full story here http://kustomkultureaustralia.com/

Tales Of A Cursed Valiant

What happens when you snap a seized bleed nipple off in a caliper? You go and snap an easy out trying to remove it.
The other end of the easy out is stuck in the caliper. Its now become my favourite machine shops problem. They love me.

Old Scrap

My old man took photos of these not long ago somewhere out bush. He told me but i forgot, i just remember him saying it would be a 6 hour drive to get there. He printed them out and i scanned them. If theres anything you want just contact me and I'll get the details for you.......everything was for sale.
I'm guessing it's a Dodge Phoenix below? The Ford truck in the background looks half decent.Not sure what this is, Chev? The white 39' Ford truck looks good beside it, and i wouldn't mind having the grille you can just see in the bottom picture, but he didn't think I'd be interested in the trucks.

Model A cowl looks well and truly gone. Maybe they have good chassis?

This is the last of them. The roof looks to be cut in half cross ways?? EK Ute in the background.

I Never Said I Wasn't A Fuck Head?

Remember when i spouted off that there was nothing old school about automatic welding helmets and if they didn't use them back in the day why should we??
Yeah well i was right, but i was still being a pompas wanker.
Automatic welding helmets are really good if your starting out, its just one less thing to worry about, especially if your learning to TIG weld with a scratch start not pilot arc equipped welder. Even starting a MIG welder is easier. But after a while with practice this no longer becomes problem.
The only annoying thing with the old welding helmets is the small viewing window. It's fine most of the time but sometimes when welding in some positions the helmet moves and suddenly your having trouble seeing the job.
For ages i tryed to find a helmet with a bigger viewing lense, like the cool ones you see in the old war photos of the people building the bomber planes, but the only one i could find was shaped like a fucking skull. Everything now is automatic lense.......its what the people want.
So with the Aussie dollar so good i bought this automatic helmet with a tall lense. It would be close to double the size in lense to my old helmet. If your going to buy one don't buy a cheap one if you want to weld alot. For the odd welding job they'd be ok, i'm not sure I've never used one, but an apprentice at work bought a cheap one and was getting welding flash.
These Miller ones retail at $440 but you'll save $100 or more if you buy from the states. They have all fruity ones with clowns, jokers and ten different flame designs and even an Orange County Chopper one!!!! Cooooooll.
If i find a cool old tall lense helmet circa 1944 i'll retire this one though.

Pay Your Union Fees

From everyone here at W.C.Z headquarters we wish everyone a happy and productive new year. Don't over do it and stay safe. See you in the new year!!

Says It All Really

Twilight

I hope everyones getting ready for this one. And when i say getting ready, i mean finding the correct outfit and moustache for there mannequin display.
I think Mexican ponchos and sombreros are back!!

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone had a relatively painless Christmas.

Random Pictures

I don't own any of these pictures, but for one reason or another I've saved them for ideas, inspiration or just simply because i liked them, and thought people out there in working class zero land might to. So here goes....

Some Valiant from New Zealand. At one time i was going to weld my Valiant doors shut and only get in and out through the windows. Fuck it i still should.

Cool car, cool photo.
Good photoshop, you'd swear it was real.

Channeled Dry lakes racer 1940's

One of my favourite model A's of all time.

What the fuck?

I pity both these fools. Prague 2006.

I have a thing for landspeed racing.

I had two, one got stolen.

Good idea for a security door.

Von Dutch shit is gay.

Who wouldn't want this?

This guy was a true original. Longest free fall from the earths upper atmosphere, breaking the speed of sound in free fall. Later went on to serve in Vietnam and had his jet fighter shot down and became a prisoner of war. He's still alive, in his 80's. I think his last name was Klitinger. Just google it. Amazing photo.

Beauty follows function.

I had this poster many years ago. It still blows my mind. Jason Jessee. Just so you know.

The truth about Evel.

Forget Back To The Future. I'd give your left nut for a real one of these.

Winston Churchill had a fuck you attitude.

I want to build a small aeroplane hanger in my backyard. I'm dead serious.

I saw this skate spot in Paris France and thought how rad it would be to skate. Here's proof.

A Russian landspeed racer.

This is very gay actually.

I like the shortened doors. I hate these models though.

Wwweeeee.

Amazing man.

Big ollie.

Cool Pic Though

Riverside raceway 1962.I jinxed myself again. Fucking starter motor on the Valiant shit its self when i backed the car out of the garage to wash the paint after buffing.
I got a starter motor that's supposed to work off eBay, but with Christmas i don't expect to get it any time before then, and with no guarantee it will work. I'll probably send it to get tested.
All this means i can't sort out the misfire and properly find out why the brakes are so shit.
I really just don't want to work on it anymore. I'm over it, i wanna move on and start other shit.
End rant.

Best Shirt Ever

Remember the movie Flash Dance?
Without a doubt the best blue collar movie to come out of the 80's. It definitely inspired me as a youngster and has left a strong impression on me even to this very day. If you haven't seen it i can't recommend it highly enough.
Now i now a lot of guys will judge a movie by its cover and be turned off by what looks to be a girls movie full of bad acting and shit dancing but you couldn't be more wrong.
Not to spoil the movie, but it's about a pretty young girl who dreams about becoming a fully qualified welder, but is forced to dance at night.
Even though she hates dancing and wants to throw it in to concentrate on welding, she has to dance at night to make extra money to get her through her apprenticeship.
I think from memory at the end she's does a perfect overhead weld and one hell of a vertical up and tells her boss at the dance studio to get fucked. A truly inspiring movie.
Good sound track too "I'm a maniac, maniac on the floor, and i'm welding like i've never welded before!"