Guppy

Spotted a few (not all OS...) while I was travelling around Europe

 

 

Hey cool you did a topdeck trip? Who were your crew?

I reckon a body made in a similar way to this could be the go:   http://imgur.com/gallery/hRGqO

hope its got a grumpy sidevalve in it

 

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

My boss has one for sale if you're looking for one...

 

Geddit??

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?

This thread is awesome.

 

My Grandad was really into Rover 3500s (much to my Dads dismay) and he had a brown one that he drove for years and years...he even kept driving it when the brake booster stopped working, so had to use two feet on the brake pedal!

Pretty much ctrl + c, ctrl + v for the Norton Nissans...

2014 V8Supercar paint colours:

 

HRT:

 

Volvo Polestar:

 

Erebus:

 

DJR:

 

FPR:

 

888:

http://youtu.be/z9OYmVw2QjA

^ Very similar to this photo by popeye pics...there's some more photos of sundays meet on their facebook page

You could also try Hylton Parker Fasteners, they are on Constellation Drive: http://www.hpfast.co.nz/

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

Surely the Small Block Chev should have an honourable mention. Over 90,000,000 million units made.

 

 

So they made 90 quadrillion small block chevs?   

 

 

Fiat Bambina motor: 500cc (ish) of grunt and I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that both pistons move up and down at the same time? 

This is an awesome thread!!
 
I present to you the Zvezda M503.
 
from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zvezda_M503

"The Zvezda M503 was a maritime 7 bank, 42 cylinder diesel radial engine built in the 1970s by the Soviet Union. Its primary use was in Soviet missile boats that used three of these engines.
This engine may have had other applications, but due to its extreme weight (5,400 kg (11,900 lb)), it would have been limited to ground or naval applications.
A German tractor pulling team designed a vehicle around a methanol-fueled version of this engine; this modified engine is said to weigh 3,200 kg (7,100 lb) including the gearbox, for use in the 5.4 ton tractor pulling class, making 8,000 hp (6,000 kW) at 2,500 rpm."

 
 
Looks like this in the Dragon Fire Tractor Puller:

 

[media][/media]

Wow that's cool - I love the old retro style! Looks like it's in really good shape too. Yeah going with a wireless system sounds pretty cool...depending on what you want to do you can buy an entire wireless ipod dock type thing from Harvey Norman - I saw one there today for like $100, but you'd be able to get them cheaper elsewhere I'm sure. I'd be interested to see what you do - make sure you keep us updated!

 

I've made a bit more progress - my one is drying at the moment, as I glued some veneer on tonight....man that stuff can be tricky to work with. Now all that's left to do is one more layer of veneer on the top (I had some dramas with the original top piece getting an air bubble that popped up and down with changing humidity/temperature...) then oil it and reassemble everything.....nearly there - looking forward to getting it done!

Thanks guys!

 

It's been a bit of a learning curve...electronics aren't my forte, but fortunately this is relatively basic stuff. I had to learn about transistors at university. and it completely had me stumped...hence why I went with civil!

 

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking about getting some of the plastic that they put over the lights in office buildings, but I'd only need some about 10cm square...didn't really think it was worth it, and the foam stuff seems to do the trick fine.

I think the type of plastic is pretty good for backlighting - when you look at the photos below you can see what it looks like with just the foam (better, but not perfect) and with the face in place.

 

 

Got quite a lot more done today, but it was lots of little things, and not much that is photo worthy.

 

 

 

LEDs behind my foam diffuser

 

 

 

 

 

This is how it looks when it's in place - nice and even and you can't see the individual lights, I think it's worked out well.

 

 

 

 

 

Speakers in place

 

 

 

 

I also put my hybrid switch in, installed the volume control and aligned it properly, painted the inside of the chrome surround, test fitted the clock mechanism and switches, and lots of other little bits and pieces. Getting there slowly but surely!!

A bit more progress!

 

 

 

Gluing the speaker grill fabric on

 

 

 

 

 

I wanted a chrome knob, but couldn't find anything decent with a grub screw fitting that would work on the potentiometer shaft...so I bought a black aluminium one and sanded the paint off...

 

 

 

 

 

...mounted it in my lathe/drill, and set about polishing it up:

 

 

 

 

 

Nice and shiny, pretty please with how it turned out:

 

 

 

 

 

I had a bit of a change of plans. The stereo had an intermittent problem that meant it sometimes wasn't working, so I got some external power source PC speakers from the markets in Browns Bay for $20:

 

 

 

 

 

Problem now is that the chrome switches I had already bought were the wrong type. They are momentary switches (so power is only on while the switch is being pressed - like a keyboard button) and I needed a latching switch (like for a light)...and Jaycar only had ugly plastic ones. So my solution is was to drill out the insides of one of the switches, and the ugly black plastic switch fits nicely inside it! I just put a screw into the remaining plastic of the chrome switch so that I can adjust it to work just right. The other switch will just fill the other holes that is already there, and won't actually do anything.

 

 

 

 

 

I want to have the original frequency dial backlit when the power is on, and I bought a clock mechanism to put into it. Here I'm making a template of where my new LEDs are going to go:

 

 

 

 

 

Most of the LEDs in place (just waiting on 2 more which are in the post):

 

 

 

 

 

Trial run of the backlit face. The patchy effect was expected - this isn't the final look, just a mock up. I bought the mechanism with the longest shaft so that I could set it back as far as possible, to reduce the uneven light as much as possible:

 

 

 

 

 

This is foam packaging that I'm going to use to diffuse the light and make it more even:

 

 

 

 

 

The original frequency dial mount thingy, this will come in handy for holding the foam in place:

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now...more photos when I make some more progress

I recently polished up an aluminium knob for my valve radio...it had black paint on it at first so getting that off took longer than expected, but once it was bare metal I just sanded it with 240 grit sandpaper, then put it in a drill. I used Autosol, you can buy it at places like Mitre 10 (I think a tube the size of a toothpaste tube cost about $12?) and paper towels. Took about 10 minutes to polish that, but bear in mind that it was a small piece I was working on, I was able to put it in a drill, and I was working with soft metal - I'd imagine chrome and other metals would take longer.

 

Turned out really good though, I was happy with it..I can see it getting a little bit addictive actually - soon anything at home that is made of aluminium will be nice and shiny 

 

. I'd imagine that with large objects it would be easy to get swirl marks if you rush it or skip some steps.

Hey mate, where abouts are you located?

 

My aunt has this Old radio/record player thing. It's all Oak.

Unfortunately borer has gotten into it in places, not too bad.

 

The radio part is removable and I had a look in the back and it's all valves and shit like these.

 

You are welcome to it, it's in wellington. I can take photos of it if you are?

 

 

Cheers man, thanks for the offer! I'm in Auckland though, so that won't work out I'm afraid. You should have a go at it though! It's not as exciting as a project I'll admit, but it's always fun to have something to tinker with...and you don't need much space or fancy expensive tools etc either

Bit more progress this weekend...

 

 

 

 

After fine sanding the front face:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Measuring up the Rimu veneer for the top:

 

 

 

 

 

I'm going to book match the veneer on the top:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taped together to make sure the pattern matches correctly:

 

 

 

 

 

To glue the veneer to the top I filled some plastic bags with rocks and filled the inside. Put it on some carpet too, to try and provide even pressure across the veneer....we shall see how it goes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mocked up the workings of the stereo to make sure my re-wiring has worked.....good news is that it has. Was to be expected though as it wasn't really that much of a change.

Made a little more progress. The outside of the box is now completely rough sanded (well, all except for a couple of small nooks and crannies that take ages to get at) to get rid of the old varnish and paint.

 

 

 

Here you can see part of the top after being rough sanded - not the borer holes everywhere! They will soon be hidden though. and I'll probably glue up the holes to hopefully stop them doing any more damage - I read on the internet that the borer eggs can survive inside for something like 4-7 years...hopefully some glue will bury them in there and they won't eat through the nice veneer i want to put on top!

This photo shows the base tray of the stereo in relation to the valve radio box - sort of hard to tell but it's too wide to fit in.

 

 

 

The way I intend on fixing it is to relocate the transformer (the green thing) as shown below:

 

 

 

Instead of cutting the base tray to fit, I partly cut it and then folded the rest of it up as you can see below. This makes it look a little more intentional (not that it really matters) and more importantly it lines up perfectly with the holes on the front of the valve radio case, which means I can use the upturned part to mount the controls to. Pretty impressed with how clever I am

 

 

 

 

Rejigged base tray:

 

 

 

 

Valve radio case is now completely rough sanded:

 

 

 

 

Basic electonic stuff mocked up inside valve radio case. Lots more yet to go in though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Started modifying some of the electronics to be able to fit them where I want. Volume dial before:

 

 

 

And after, havign desoldered the dial and soldered in some wire so I can mount it remotely from the board it was originally part of:

 

More updates will come when I make some more progress