Guppy

Thanks for posting about the engine rebuild, I found it really interesting. My Dad used to be an engine reconditioner, and used to tell me about the sort of stuff he did and how all the machines worked etc. He died earlier this year, but seeing your posts reminded me of some of the things he used to tell me and brought back some nice memories. I really wish I'd asked him about it more.

Check out this awesome work: https://www.instagram.com/3d_magic_mike/

Good thinking batman! I shall investigate and see what I can find

Yeah I'm going to see if I can find some of those small self adhesive see through rubber dot things to put on the 6 raised bits of the base

Haha you're welcome! They are quite hard to come by for a reasonable price in NZ, I suspect the only reason mine was as cheap as it was is because it was listed under the 'antiques and collectibles' section - had it been in the actual kitchen appliances section (where the $700+ kitchenaid mixers are) it probably would have gone for a much higher price. Keep an eye out here - you might be in luck: http://www.trademe.co.nz/antiques-collectables/appliances/v-gallery Similar sort of thing like this may be worth a shot: http://www.trademe.co.nz/antiques-collectables/appliances/auction-930843375.htm but it's a gamble seeing as it isn't working...plus it's far, far away...

Thanks, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Yeah there are a few small differences, but to be honest you'd hardly know without a close look. I think one of the main differences is how the bowl connects to the base, which is something I need to investigate further - if they are the same I might get a new bowl too, as some of the newer attachments seem to be slightly too wide for this one. I actually really like how the new ones are almost indistinguishable from the old ones - nearly every other product in existence gets revamped every few years, and designed not to have interchangeable parts etc, so it makes a nice change. I read somewhere that the newer ones have plastic gears, which sounds like a bad thing, but apparently it is so that if the mixer jams it acts as a 'fuse' and breaks a $10 gear instead of a $200 motor.

OK, final post is here! Had some issues with uploading photos to Imgur for some reason, so I've linked to some facebook images. ^ Parts painted and almost ready for reassembly ^ This is the old trim band...I liked the style of it, but the black was wearing off, exposing the brass underneath, so.... ^I bought a new one - the text is a bit different, but it looks much better being in good condition ^ Old gasket on the left, new one on the right ^I used blutack to mask the various small holes, worked really well! Oh and there must have been a gap in the masking, hence why the knob has got paint on it...came off easily with a little paint stripper on a rag though. ^Flatmates cat helping/getting in the way ^Planetary gear/mixer head thing reassambled ^ New grease in the gearbox. Put loads more in the top too...just about used the whole cartridge ^ Top on ^ Oooohhhhhhhh Yeeeeeaaaaaaaahhhh ^Done! Except for putting some feet on it, hence the cardboard ^ Done All done - hope you enjoyed my wee project! Now I just need to do some baking...

Haha thanks! Yeah I guess the red isn't for everyone, but I'm quite happy with it. Second option was going to be a pastel blue, green or yellow, but red won in the end. I'll put it together on the weekend and show you how it turns out

Alrighty so I've got a wee bit of an update. So these shiny new parts arrived in the mail from the US of A. Clockwise from top left: gasket, dough hook, trim band, motor brushes, flat beater. Forgot to take a photo of them out of the packaging... Also got some food safe grease: End cap with the dent filled with poly filler and sanded down: Top sanded, masked and ready for priming: Base prepped for paint: Base primed: And painted. I went for a high gloss, bright red, which I think will suit it. Top painted. This was shortly before I ruined it...I left it 24 hours to dry, and went to pull the masking off to see what it looked like without it, and it noticed that the paint had bunched up a bit where I lifted it. I think the outside paint was dry, but the layer underneath was still a bit soft. This resulted in much swearing and meant the whole thing had to be sanded/paint stripped back down, then repainted. Worth it though to try and get a decent finish. End cap painted. I think for a rattle can job the paint finish turned out quite well: While I'm here, for anyone planning on doing some rattle can spray painting, do yourself a huge favour and get one of these. For those like me that hadn't seen one before, its a plastic gun grip that attaches to the top of a standard paint can. It cost $7.50 from Mitre 10 and it's one of the best tools I own...it makes it so much easier to control - no more tired trigger finger on larger jobs and better control of direction too. That's all for now. I finished painting the last bits tonight, so I'll give them a few days to cure and hopefully they will be good for assembly on the weekend.

So I bought myself an old Kitchenaid stand food mixer from Trademe, and thought I may as well share on here. Winning bid was $84.50, which is pretty good value considering you can buy them new in Harvey Norman for $1000-$1100ish. It's an older model (a bit of researching says this model was made between 1944 & 1962) but fortunately many of the parts are interchangeable with the new ones, and they are pretty good quality and last well. It's covered in the residue of many a past cake, and the paint has worn thin in a few spots, there is a ding on the rear cover etc, but nothing that a basic refurbishment can't handle. The plan is to pull it apart, clean and repaint the outside, restore/replace some parts, repack with grease, then realise I forgot how to put it back together. Here's some photos of it so far: ^As it was when I bought it ^ The underside - the feet have squashed right down over time, as it's quite heavy ^ It's a bit gross and could do with a decent clean. Also the grease has separated/oozed out (which can be caused by sitting still too long). ^Planetary gear inside the mixer head. The grease is a bit old and hard. ^Grease inside the gearbox ^And after a clean up ^Case full of old grease before ^and after emptying out. More photos to come once I've done some more on it.

Awesome! Love fiat 500s, wanted to buy one when I was looking for my car, but couldn't find one that was decent enough/not too expensive. Good find on the parts too. How much was the soda you used for blasting? I want to make a similar sort of blasting cabinet. So it all works alright?

Ahh OK, no problems - I think I'll just go ahead with my work, and if the car is available I'd be happy to help

Any updates on if this is still going ahead? I'm hoping to do some cylinder head work on my car is all, so may need to factor that in if it's required..

Sounds like my car ticks some boxes there...it's a 1959 Austin A35. I should point out that it's not concourse condition, but I would say it's in pretty good shape. If it sounds like what you are after let me know Here's a couple of photos: \\

What an awesome day! Thanks for all involved and to BDA780 for organising everything...well worth the trip down!

Haha yeah it's a slow car. If anything I'd probably be holding the cyclists up too

I'd just like to apologise in advance to anyone that gets stuck behind me on the hills

This would be my preference as well if possible (but understand that it has to suit everyone & I'm not organising it ) Also keen to roll out of the chosen starting point Le Mans style, haha

Keen, and registered!

Thanks guys! Knowing how much it costs to get glass made to order, I just bought an old coffee table off trademe and used the glass from that....so effectively the piece of glass (which has a nice bevelled edge and is quite thick) cost me $25 - far cheaper than buying a new piece! Haha, yip - guilty! Somewhat of a cheat move, but it's not massively obvious, and it was going to be hard to make something up to support it on the rim/tyre that didn't look ugly or ruin what is possibly my last warrantable cross ply tyre (say by gluing something to the tyre). I'm thinking I could possibly get some of those stainless steel disc things that they mount glass on without drilling through the glass (sort of like this without the screw thread on the bottom: ...I'll keep an eye out, otherwise I'm happy with it as is.

Decided to make myself a coffee table out of one of the original wheels from the Austin. A little bit cliche perhaps but still a fun wee project. Started with the wheel, a bit greasy and grimey from years of road use: Then I got a bar stool, cut down the legs, chopped the back off, painted the top black (so it didn't show up through the wheel) and put in two bolts to hold the wheel down: Hub cap before... ...and after polishing: The paint I used was colour matched from Car Colours in Albany: Sanded down and masked ready for painting: Primed: After final top coats: I put some shoe polish on the tyre to make it darker, and put on a glass top I got from another coffee table I bought from trademe and sacrificed: Finished!

^ That's mine! Overhead valve I'm afraid...and I'm not sure if 34hp classifies it as grumpy?

Motorised canoe/kayak would be awesome, I was looking at buying an old one a while ago and making a jet unit to go into it...would be awesome fun!

Wow, that's pretty good timing! I threw out the crusty old radio electronics this weekend just gone, but I pulled the valves out and have put them to one side with the intention of putting them on trademe. I'm happy for you to have them, but I can't guarantee if they work or not...one or two are a bit brown, but I'm guessing that's just because of the heat they produce. Flick me a PM and we can arrange to get them to you. Do you have any particular plans for them?

Thanks! I have thought about it, and it is certainly worth looking into. To make anything worthwhile it would need to be something that's in pretty good shape in the first place - this one had quite a bit of rot and needed heaps of work done to it, so if I was to sell it, it would probably only work out to a matter of cents per hour. I'll keep an eye out for something that perhaps just needs sanding/oiling and some speakers put into it and see how things go from there. Personally I love the idea of taking something that's a bit past its use by date and turning it into something a bit more modern...plus the styling of this old time stuff can be way cooler than all the plastic stuff you see in shops now