A
Ash
I actually think it may have been here a bit sooner, I don't know, my exporter hadn't contacted me to tell me it had arrived. That's fine, I don't get down his way that often and just rang today to ask as I was going down there, he's about 100km's from me. But he had cars and goods everywhere, he said he can't get a break from how much stuff everyone is buying at the moment with our strong Aussie dollar. It's all good, I've used him quite a few times already and will do so again in the future. I understand how things get when it gets busy.
I still have a lot of work to do before I get to give the epoxy a go. But I have it now so even more reason now to dive right in, really looking forward to it. And I know I'll have some more questions before I do. I sit and read so much on this forum and I get lost, so much to take in!
You're welcome any time Barry. Tell Andy I'm struggling and need some guidance and can only learn with someone showing me in person. Haha! There will be some cold beers waiting too! I'll even take you for a ride on my kangaroo. Hahaha, just kidding. A koala ate my kangaroo. Ha, more jokes!
Thanks again Barry, it was exciting to pick these up as it's kind of a stepping stone for things to move on. Appreciate your help!!
I still have a lot of work to do before I get to give the epoxy a go. But I have it now so even more reason now to dive right in, really looking forward to it. And I know I'll have some more questions before I do. I sit and read so much on this forum and I get lost, so much to take in!
You're welcome any time Barry. Tell Andy I'm struggling and need some guidance and can only learn with someone showing me in person. Haha! There will be some cold beers waiting too! I'll even take you for a ride on my kangaroo. Hahaha, just kidding. A koala ate my kangaroo. Ha, more jokes!
Thanks again Barry, it was exciting to pick these up as it's kind of a stepping stone for things to move on. Appreciate your help!!
G
Grubbworm
Ash;20428 said:
I'm practicing (teaching myself) my body work on my '85 F150 too. What year is your F150? I am also going to paint mine black, since that was the original color.
Grubbworm;20431 said:
Grubbworm, hey be happy to help you on the phone, can't come in person as you are too close. LOL
With Ash, I was concerned about the phone connection and it would be the right thing to do, is go in person and drink his Australian beer and maybe some shark fishing while we wait for paint to dry.
A
Ash
A couple of weeks ago I picked up this, it's a 1990 4X4 XLT 351W with EFI.
And to confuse you on the other side of the world
I know every second person in the US owns a truck but here they are not that common. They are around but we are use to smaller vehicles.
The paint on this is getting a bit thin and there is a couple of minor rust spots. Nothing bad the worst on the L/H drip rail about 3 inches in size. But it is all a good excuse to practice practice before I take on my Cobra Jet.
That phone connection isn't great Barry. Plus I have to stay up late to be in the right time zone for you and I can't be making noises out in the shed at that time of the night while I have you on the phone telling me how to do it. Be much better in person.
I'd be keen for some shark fishing too. Let's see how you go with the redbacks and brown snakes on your way to my house after you get off the plane first. Just about everything living thing here kills you in under 3 minutes.
And to confuse you on the other side of the world
I know every second person in the US owns a truck but here they are not that common. They are around but we are use to smaller vehicles.
The paint on this is getting a bit thin and there is a couple of minor rust spots. Nothing bad the worst on the L/H drip rail about 3 inches in size. But it is all a good excuse to practice practice before I take on my Cobra Jet.
That phone connection isn't great Barry. Plus I have to stay up late to be in the right time zone for you and I can't be making noises out in the shed at that time of the night while I have you on the phone telling me how to do it. Be much better in person.
I'd be keen for some shark fishing too. Let's see how you go with the redbacks and brown snakes on your way to my house after you get off the plane first. Just about everything living thing here kills you in under 3 minutes.
G
Grubbworm
Barryk;20432 said:
Barry, thanks for the offer, I may have to take you up on it. This forum is great, full of excellent information and very knowledgeable people. I will need some more product within the next couple of months. I was thinking of stopping by your warehouse one day on my way to do some trout fishing, just to see it. I'm about to weld some patch panels in my floorboard in the next week or two (first time welding in 30+ years). I'm loving using your stuff.
I can't really blame you for wanting to go to Australia to drink some beer and do some shark fishing. Why not just close the shop, take the whole crew and call it a work seminar.
Ash, here's a few pictures of mine.
This was pretty much the before.
And how it sits now.
As you can see, all of my work is being done outside and under a tarp. Here's a link to my build thread; http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/978342-my-85-f150-4x2-project-build-log.html
Good luck with yours.
A
Ash
Nice, I like a good build thread. I'll be sure to have a read!
Here's one with some more info on mine. I joined up on the same forum as it's kind of hard to find any info on our Aussie trucks. There's some helpful people there!
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1156512-aussie-newb.html
How long till you put colour down, is it just a matter of when Barry releases the new stuff or do you have more work to do before hand?
I'm going to construct a bit of a home booth to do mine in. I'm almost finished building a rotisserie for the Mustang, still lots to do there. When I can see in sight a few weeks where the truck can sit still while I paint it, that's when I'll dive on into it.
I see you have a lot of leaves around, have they been an issue while painting? We get a lot of dust when the weather is dry and a lot of moisture when its not. Plus I work with wood at home and am always fighting sawdust. I really need a bit of a sealed off area where I can set the atmosphere a bit.
Here's one with some more info on mine. I joined up on the same forum as it's kind of hard to find any info on our Aussie trucks. There's some helpful people there!
http://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1156512-aussie-newb.html
How long till you put colour down, is it just a matter of when Barry releases the new stuff or do you have more work to do before hand?
I'm going to construct a bit of a home booth to do mine in. I'm almost finished building a rotisserie for the Mustang, still lots to do there. When I can see in sight a few weeks where the truck can sit still while I paint it, that's when I'll dive on into it.
I see you have a lot of leaves around, have they been an issue while painting? We get a lot of dust when the weather is dry and a lot of moisture when its not. Plus I work with wood at home and am always fighting sawdust. I really need a bit of a sealed off area where I can set the atmosphere a bit.
G
Grubbworm
Ash;20435 said:
The leaves were from the fall last year. I had to stop doing any body work or spraying because of the temps. I am about to start back at it now, but I am supposed to catch up on the yard and outside house work first. I still have plenty of work to do to the cab and doors, the rest is pretty much complete. Once I have finished, I think I may just spray it with some black epoxy primer to seal it and leave it that way for some time, to see if anything will happen before I put down the color. I just order a new floor pan for the passenger side, so the interior will probably get done before the outside.
And, yes, that is one awesome Ford Truck forum. I kind of think it is a lot like this one, full of knowledgeable people willing to help, and not a bunch of jerky a**holes like some other forums that I won't mention.
S
stangnet33
Good to run into you on this site Ash ! Nice to see you received a good starter kit. I just finally put in my inquiry for up here after lurking around on here, to busy trying to soak up all the info. So you are going to be doing your truck first for some practice ?
A
Ash
Hey there stangnet! That's the plan, to practice and learn on the truck before I dive into the Mustang. I've had a few shocked looks from people I know when I've said I'm going to do it myself. But spending 30-40 thousand dollars on a restoration job in a shop just isn't even remotely in my budget. One guy even told me about a cheap resto off a mate who could do it for $7000, but my reply was I could stuff it up 3 times and get it right the 4th and still do it all for under that. I don't expect a 40k paint job, but from the results and with the support I've seen on this forum, I think I should be able to do a pretty good job. I have time, I just don't have the bottomless cheque book.
The truck is a work truck too, so I don't want a show job with it. The main purpose to doing it first is to bring the paint back to life, repair the small rust and to learn the SPI product and the new tools I've purchased or am still yet to get. Hopefully then I can take some of the guess work out by the time it's the Mustangs turn.
The truck is a work truck too, so I don't want a show job with it. The main purpose to doing it first is to bring the paint back to life, repair the small rust and to learn the SPI product and the new tools I've purchased or am still yet to get. Hopefully then I can take some of the guess work out by the time it's the Mustangs turn.
Ash, I do know how to catch a shark, that is the only fishing wife and I do, we go to South carolina and fish for the 100-lbers or less as we allways eat what we catch, this one I think was about 150-175, as you can tell way i look not sure who won the battle for 30 minutes.
A
Ash
That's a great shot Barry, you look buggered though. But what a blast!
Our spiders here are about that big. Just kidding, haha!!
Our spiders here are about that big. Just kidding, haha!!
Bob Heine
Oldtimer
The day after we moved into our rental in Manly, my wife killed a nasty looking spider (she's not fond of spiders but isn't crazy afraid of them). It was months later we learned it was probably a funnel web. I understand the little buggers are milked and anti-venom is available so no one has died from a bite since 1981.Ash;20524 said:
We were also pleased to learn the shy little blue ringed octopus living in Sydney Harbor only bites when provoked. Death within 3 minutes kept us from provoking them and we decided to confine our swimming to the ocean side in Manly. After all, most great white sharks only eat part of the people they bite.
I grew to love Australian humor. Who else would name a snake the "Common Death Adder?" Best advise we got from a Sydney-sider was "If you see a snake in Australia, it's probably poisonous."
Just getting to Australia is a survival adventure. The best connections get you from Atlanta to Sydney in 18 hours but crossing the dateline means it's at least a two-day trip. Before Boeing came out with the 747-400, the trip took quite a bit longer, with a 5-hour layover in Honolulu before making the final 9-hour flight to Sydney. Add the two or three hour pre-departure time for international flights and the customs clearance on arrival, you are probably going to be in-transit for more than 24 hours. Great preparation for the relaxing rush-hour drive (on the other side of the road) from the airport to your hotel. Driving in Sydney rush-hour traffic is much like competing in a road rallye. If you can read the license tag of the vehicle in front of you, you're lagging much too far behind and can expect two or three cars to fill the void.
A
Ash
Good thing your wife got that funnel web, they sure are sneaky little buggers. I found a good sized one one night about to crawl into my boot as I was about to put them on. The bottom side of my boot sure put an end to its intentions.
My brother used to work at the the Australian Reptile park, near Gosford. You may have been, Bob? It was the place about 45mins out of Sydney with the big dinosaur as you drove up the F3. Anyway, they would milk the funnelwebs, other spiders and all snakes there to sell anit-venom. Was a cool thing to watch but stuff that, they can do that job and I'll stand well back. I wasn't really happy when the times my brother would bring home snakes. But it was cool when he brought home some Tassie Devils and dingoes. It was his job to hand raise them. He always had a kangaroo, a wombat, an eagle, an owl or something by his side oor under his shirt that he was raising. Would it quite interesting at a restaurant when we would go out for a family dinner.
Any day of the week here at my house I usually find a Redback spider. Huntsman spiders are always good at popping out of a car door, had one jump out of my sun visor once and fall on my lap. Brown and Redbelly snakes are everywhere around here. I ran over a good 6-7 foot brown in the Mustang a few weeks ago about 10m from my driveway. They are an angry snake! And that is without being runover, you really don't want to come to close to them.
Here's a few photos I found of some dingos and Tassie devils that my brother was raising. This is my brother here with one
And this is me with a devil. Funny thing with these guys is their natural instinct is to climb to their mothers back, except when you have them they scurry to the top of your head.
My brother used to work at the the Australian Reptile park, near Gosford. You may have been, Bob? It was the place about 45mins out of Sydney with the big dinosaur as you drove up the F3. Anyway, they would milk the funnelwebs, other spiders and all snakes there to sell anit-venom. Was a cool thing to watch but stuff that, they can do that job and I'll stand well back. I wasn't really happy when the times my brother would bring home snakes. But it was cool when he brought home some Tassie Devils and dingoes. It was his job to hand raise them. He always had a kangaroo, a wombat, an eagle, an owl or something by his side oor under his shirt that he was raising. Would it quite interesting at a restaurant when we would go out for a family dinner.
Any day of the week here at my house I usually find a Redback spider. Huntsman spiders are always good at popping out of a car door, had one jump out of my sun visor once and fall on my lap. Brown and Redbelly snakes are everywhere around here. I ran over a good 6-7 foot brown in the Mustang a few weeks ago about 10m from my driveway. They are an angry snake! And that is without being runover, you really don't want to come to close to them.
Here's a few photos I found of some dingos and Tassie devils that my brother was raising. This is my brother here with one
And this is me with a devil. Funny thing with these guys is their natural instinct is to climb to their mothers back, except when you have them they scurry to the top of your head.
Bob Heine
Oldtimer
Ash,
Worked out in Cumberland Forest and passed the Koala Park on Castle Hill Road every day but Taronga Zoo was our favorite place to see animals. Never encountered a Brown but I recall they were that rare snake that attacked without being provoked. Our encounter with Devils was on the island of Tasmania (the ferry ride across the Bass Straight was the roughest calm weather voyage I've ever taken). Our visitors in Manly were Lorikeets, Cockatoos, possums and fruit bats. The Lorikeets were lovely -- the Cockatoos were flying white rats. The possums and fruit bats were less frequent visitors and came at night. First time a fruit bat landed in that fig tree behind our house I thought it was a Pterodactyl. They left before I changed into fresh undies and got the camera.
Worked out in Cumberland Forest and passed the Koala Park on Castle Hill Road every day but Taronga Zoo was our favorite place to see animals. Never encountered a Brown but I recall they were that rare snake that attacked without being provoked. Our encounter with Devils was on the island of Tasmania (the ferry ride across the Bass Straight was the roughest calm weather voyage I've ever taken). Our visitors in Manly were Lorikeets, Cockatoos, possums and fruit bats. The Lorikeets were lovely -- the Cockatoos were flying white rats. The possums and fruit bats were less frequent visitors and came at night. First time a fruit bat landed in that fig tree behind our house I thought it was a Pterodactyl. They left before I changed into fresh undies and got the camera.
A
Ash
I agree, Bob. The Lorikeets are beautiful birds. We get them every so often in very large numbers. The Cockatoos are very much like white rats. We have about 50 or so fruit trees in our front yard and it's like the Cockys know when to turn up while we are out. Sneaky buggers!
The bats tend to scare the crap out of you when you take the bins out at night. Our trees are not that tall so the bats are all near head height when they take off.
The bats tend to scare the crap out of you when you take the bins out at night. Our trees are not that tall so the bats are all near head height when they take off.
A
Ash
JAMESA;18403 said:
Jumping back into an old post. Can any body tell me if John is still an SPI retailer? I googled but couldn't find anything. I'll stay up one night and make the call to the given number but thought I'd ask here first.
Seeing as it takes me 2-3 months to have items shipped to Australia, I'm trying to plan ahead with purchasing some more paints. I used my usual exporter last time I purchased SPI but Customs here in Aus have nailed me the last few times so am trying to look into different options.
Cheers guys!
A
Ash
Great! Thanks very much for the reply, Barry 