Lord Gruntfuttock

Bit of progress, parts arriving and seam welding under way...

Awesome. Did the canty uni undie 500 several times. Vehicles included a 180b, a VC Valiant, a CA Bedford van and an International ambulance. Prob all worth moonbeams now. Well maybe not the Beddy...

Should have posted this. If you touch the screen it brings up values and you can drag to see at any point during the graph... Plus this is via Brewfather app. Pretty easy to link...

So good having live updates at work etc. Stepped green line is just battery voltage, red is SG and blue is temp... Plus it works inside a stainless fermenter inside a metal fridge. [Edit] was 58 english pounds including freight and gst...

There's a few around now, I bought an iSpindel. I bought it on eBay from a seller called gingerneil. Is legit, here's a snap from this morning. I'll add a summary of setting up etc later...

Mine arrived yesterday...

Oh yeah. Will chuck some pics on when I get a chance...

^ I shall probably womble along to that. The girls will hate it. Anyone want pics?

Apparently it's something to stop them hitting the seals under rally stresses? Standard they are ok on roads but I think they put a stop/flange/something on axles to stop them hitting seals and coming loose. I'm too mechanically derp to understand, was relayed to me as recommended to owner by diff specialist. Can find out if you're really interested...

So a long overdue update. Put car on a rotisserie for inspection, and not great news... Surprisingly for an EA coon there was some rust issues and the certed roll cage was, well, junk... Bends all had deformation/wrinkles, welding was sub par, and wall thickness was pretty thin... So this happened. ED? body shell bought locally for around 3 hundy. Bloke wanted to keep the engine so we yeeted that out for him, so easy with workshop crane... And front suspension was bent so new mounts etc need fabricated. Rally car block is in the engine shop but bloke there had a fucked Clevo block we used for a mock up. Apparently have exactly the same mounting dimensions as the windsor, which makes sense... So we lifted that in place to find the optimum position... And will make up mount modification blocks to suit... Body is actually in really good nick, and new roll cage is well under way... Proper steel, properly bent, properly mounted, and properly welded (not by me, obvs)... Owner looked at using a long crank/shorter pistons for rally torque, but got too hard with supply issues atm (even Summit couldn't find right parts) so he's ordered some pistons from Aus. Also new diff being built in Ch'ch after some bits were found to be missing... Think the axles are being modified too for rally use. So things are coming together, he's looking fwd to bolting the engine together and putting things back in the painted shell when that's done. Financially the initial purchase has not proved great, given all the gear being swapped, but he's philosophical bout that as it's given him an interest/something to work on. Old car life eh...

Yep, the Amarillo one in the middle (only uses Amarillo hops). There's a few Dr Smurto recipes but the latest one I found has 20% rye so I used that. Only just conditioned now, tried one last night, not bad...

Brilliant... Here's my first few brews/labels.

Whoa. Bluetooth battery monitor...? I'm in..

Yeah I don't mind it so much yet, quite therapeutic washing and rinsing botts, and it only takes an hr or so to bottle when you get into the rhythm. Plus I can take bottles somewhere/give them away. Getting good 500ml botts from the footy club helps, worst bit is getting labels off. Banged my bottle washer together on Saturday. Cost me $10, all of which was spent on a small chilly bin at the charity shop... Rigged up a cradle for Dad's old Black & Decker drill out of scrap shelving... That drops inside, thus... To make this enclosed unit. Just rivetted a s/s washer in place inside and out as a wear preventer/guide... And she spins... So should be able to plonk this on the bench and see how it goes. If goes ok might rewire with a switch on the bin. Also scored a FastRack drying rack/tray from a brew place on Saturday. Found it tucked away covered in dust, scored it for $17, so bought 2. If I wash bottles at lunchtime and leave to drain they're clean ready for bottling after a sanitising step, which is easy using the bottling tree and squirty plunger thing...

Done 4 brews now and waiting on things to ferment/condition. Done an APA, a Milk Stout, a NZ Pilsner and a Golden Ale. Not sure what to do next, but have some bottling to do before I decide. Tried the Pilsner last night (although too early) and should be ok when properly carbonated... Looking at making a bottle washing device to make that task easier, and have ordered a wifi tilt sensor to monitor fermentation process in real time. Brew I did last Friday was first one where everything went right/no fuckups so that's something...