j.e.d.

Like getting a tattoo and at the time saying “never again”, then a few years later you start forgetting that pain and wanting to go through it again, I decided I wanted to buy back my old bike. Bought the Don Morrison frame back in 2004, took 8 years and a shit ton of money to finally get it certified and on the road, then sold it 3 years later in January of 2015 for fuck all and having only done about 1200 miles as the oil pump decided to shit itself and I got pissy with it. Fast forward to November 2017 and the guy I bought it off asked if I wanted to buy it back as his Mrs was having a kid and Harley life wasn’t on the cards for the foreseeable future so he was gonna sell it.. he’d spent a bit getting the oil pump rebuilt and oil tank cleaned and sealed (shit in the tank got into the pump).. I nearly bought it but pulled out due to finances and memories still fresh. Fast forward another 2 years to November 2019.. carbon copy conversation of 2017, he still hadn’t gotten round to selling and gave me first option to buy before he tries to sell.. I chickened out again, deciding the money was better spent on a trip to the States with the family instead.. Fast forward 2 more years again, November 2021.. (there’s a theme here and I don’t know why).. my circumstances have changed, I’m single, I have money, and I’m up for making stupid rash purchases, so I rang the guy up and sure enough, he still had it and he wanted less than last time so I bit the bullet and picked it up the next day before changing my mind. Mix of emotions when saw the bike.. happy to get her back but sad to see the state she was in.. only 1640 miles on the clock assuming it’s still working, but she looks like shit. Kinda like a “Barn find” but maybe not the good kind, A lot of the chromed alloy finishes have deteriorated, and a fair bit of rust pitting to nuts and bolts here and there. Gonna probably change the look of the bike out of necessity to my minimal budget, and look at blacking it out.. stay tuned if you like, it’ll probably take as long as anything I do on the Galaxie tbh

would be great to see an update mate

Long time no update! Not a lot has happened car-wise.. lots of personal stuff going on, but I’m happy I managed to find some time to spend on the old girl today. The leaking was getting worse and worse under the car so back in August I decided to investigate.. initially I thought it was the power steering ram, but after cleaning up the built up crud around the control valve I found out that was the culprit.. it was getting that bad, that I might as well have been pouring the power steering fluid straight into the drip tray under the car. So, took the control valve and the ram out and decided to drop both off to PG Hydraulics as I had a rebuild kit for both, and they could determine what was the best thing to do. Two days later lockdown happened, so nothing happened. For weeks. Finally when we hit level 3 I got a call a week after with the bad news that the control valve housing was on its last legs, so gave the go ahead for a new housing to be made, so they rebuilt that and the ram just to be on the safe side. A week later and it’s all done! Well that was back at the beginning of October.. life got in the way again til today when I decided to put it all back in.. Not too much drama putting it all in.. had to grind a mm off the rubber mount where the ram attaches to the body bracket as I couldn’t compress it enough to start the nut, then dramas getting the hydraulic lines screwed in.. Time between removal and reassembly is never a good thing I tell ya.. got there in the end though and she all works perfectly.. lock to lock feels so much smoother. Took her for a drive to the gas station and had a heart attack at the current price per litre, then drove up and down the motorway feeling damn happy with myself.. now on to the next thing to fix!

Very cool

Awesome car.. well done! what's this I read about a dodge truck.. is that thread worthy as well?

Fantastic work right there man.. paint job looks shiny & that's all that matters right?

And a little gal waits….

Very very nice

Agreed.. we’re struggling at work too.. prenails booked out to January next year because of the timber shortage. 150x25 valley board is good for fencing too, R/S H3 treated 6m lengths (probably same stuff tbh)

Good read this: https://i.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/garden/123971912/grooves-up-or-down-nzs-fierce-decking-debate-finally-settled

Looking good, but one small observation.. decking grooves down is best practice in my humble opinion.. each to their own though (now let the debate start)

Ah yes! That’s the exactly what I saw drive past.. I should steal your photo and put it on old school spotted haha

I'm sure I saw this on the back of a trailer just the other day being towed by a newer van.. East Tamaki perhaps? can't remember as I've been around a bit the last few days. Funny thing is I noticed it, thought that's an odd colour, then thought of you & wondered if it was one of your vans cos you're the only one I know who collects them haha

yea I run mine only on 98 from BP and that seems to make her happy I see there's a NPD in Manukau now so might try that as it's on my way to work & back

Well done! Looks damn tidy as well

Not much has happened since Kumeu.. took the Mrs down to Christchurch the following weekend to have some time out, and wouldn’t ya know it, that was the same weekend as MCM.. honestly totally unaware I was when planning the trip but managed to convince the Mrs that we should go check it out... first time there for me and it was pretty cool.. well worth the visit and would definitely go again (with the Galaxie preferably). Galaxie pics for Galaxie thread: So I finally decided to drop my car round to my mechanic the other week as I was struggling to find the time to get those things done for the WOF before the 28 days ran out (still didn’t make it on time dammit).. did a rockauto order last month and got in new bearings, tie rod ends and 3 different sets of axle seals as I wasn’t sure which one fit (and they were so cheap). In the end all the tie rod needed was to be re-greased thru the grease nipple as it had water in it which was creating the play, replaced the leaking axle seal, and the reason for the play in the front bearing was because the bearing race was a fraction smaller than the housing so it was moving a little bit.. got a fitter turner guy to tack weld it in neatly and she was all good!.. I’ve been slowly accumulating the bits needed for a full front end rebuild as she’s a bit floaty, so that will or will not happen over winter, but in the meantime I’m just enjoying old car ownership and taking her on the odd trip into work. Mexican blanket pic for thread..

That week (the week before Kumeu) I decided to get my mechanic mate to run it through for a WOF.. he managed to score the least sympathetic old car guy at the workshop, but that was all good as it meant the car got a good going over (sorta). He failed it on a worn LF steering ball joint, LF wheel bearing play, and LR axle seal leak. Bit bummed to say the least but my mechanic mate said “she’ll be right” so I took the car to Kumeu and had a blast! This was the first time I was able to take an old car to the show and drive through all the crowds and park up on the field, and went with my best mate as well.. it’s the little things that make me happy. No pics on the Saturday as I was enjoying myself too much, but had a bit of an adventure on the way there with the LF wheel nearly falling off. Was coming up to Lincoln Rd and started hearing a weird noise from the left front.. turned off at the next off ramp as it was getting worse and worse.. pulled over and noticed all the wheel nuts had nearly worked themselves off. Wonderful. Limped to the Repco at Westgate, bought a trolley Jack, axle stands and a wheel brace (none of that stuff in the car to start with so good to have the boot stocked up now with useable roadside assistance tools), jacked her up and tightened them all up again along with some of the other wheel nuts and we were off again. No more noises.. yay. Took the Mrs to the show on the Sunday (any excuse to drive my car), and she got all dressed up for the occasion. Bought the obligatory Mexican blanket for the front seat which capped off a pretty cool weekend.

I got a bit excited when you said Turbos as I have a set but just checked and yours is 4 stud.. I have a set of 13” 5 stud from a Torana, bugger...

Back track to Day 2 & 3 of Galaxie ownership.. getting her running.. My best mate is a Ford know it all (knows more than me anyway) so he helped me out a lot with getting her running.. we went through all the basics.. Pertonics was fitted but I read that they can get stuffed if you bugger around with them so I erred on the side of caution and took it out and went back to points.. bought all the stuff for a full service including new points, plugs, oil, and all the stop leak options I could find cos she leaks a little here and there. I discovered the earth cable from the back of the engine to the firewall was quite loose so re-crimped that, replaced the points, got a newer battery, replaced the plugs, put in the new solenoid and she was all go! Took a couple of hours all up but was really enjoyable to get to know the car.. so much more fun to work on than the Commodore. Didn’t take many pics and I was having way to much fun, but here’s a pic of a new solenoid While she was outside I took a couple of pics of the interior.. front seat is pretty worn but the back is tidy Some pics of her on the ground and free of the trailer

yea absolutely man, tbh I never knew it was like that til he mentioned it so as much as he's not complaining I'll be applying some gap filler at the same time as the garage gets rearranged

Haha yea.. perhaps not ideal but oh well! In the near future I’m gonna centralise her more in the garage so I can walk down both sides, and I’ll look at rebating the wall a little bit.. the other side of the wall is a sleepout where my son stays and he’s mentioned the sweet smell of exhaust fumes whenever I start her up.. he’s not complaining though haha

Back track to day 1 of official Galaxie ownership.. Mike got her going for a trip around the block the day before, but unfortunately on the morning of picking up she decided not to play ball.. thankfully my trailer has an electric winch, and with I bit of finesse we managed to squeeze her onto the trailer.. damn this thing is big! Here is where she stayed for a day or two while I cleared the garage out enough for her to (hopefully) fit.. decided to give her a wash at the same time and she came up nice.. a buff of the paint I reckon would make a huge difference but I’ve never done that before so that’ll have to wait for some other things to be done first. So I was worried (not worried) about how long my garage was and whether the Galaxie would fit. The garage measured 5315mm long, and google told me prior to picking the car up that the Galaxie was 5330mm long. Hmmm. I fully expected to have to cut in a “shelf” for the bumper to sit in (still might do this), but thankfully real world Galaxie length was about 5290mm so she juuust squeezed in. I touch park her against the back wall, apply the handbrake and it clears the garage door by about 5mm as it comes down and the bracket stops above the front bumper. Perfect fit!

Thanks man.. pretty happy it’s all worked out and to keep it in the family

Well, here is my new old car.. so stoked!! I've had my eye on Mikes car for a couple of years now when he started to look at selling it, but never been in a position to pick it up off him.. until now! When he chucked up another post trying to sell it last year I knew I needed to make something happen.. so after a few back & forth conversations, I flicked off the Commodore and it all fell into place. To say I’m happy with it is an understatement.. it ticks all the boxes I had for what I wanted a car: US LHD, 50’s-60’s, bench seats, big block, 2 door... now this is more my kind of car. Here is a link to Mikes old thread, but I’ve decided to start my own to document my Galaxie journey..

Yo.. got a link to that $26 stereo mate? cheers