drew

The rims are in a pretty average state.... .... so while I was in town today I stopped in to see the good buggers at Sandilands Wheels and Tyres and got the rooted rubber removed. On the way home I stopped in at the sandblasters just round the corner and held up my two wee rims (dont be rude!) and asked "how much?"... ... and the bloke blinked a couple of times and said "$20 bucks for the pair blasted and primed.. ok?" Needless to say they got the job. Will see what they come back like next week. Also picked up some more goodies while I was in town.... So with a bit of luck I will find some time this weekend to put the new bearings in and the hubs back. Drew edit: forgot to show the cool as moonies.... should scrub up ok.

With our hearts in our mouths, ten tons of camping shit packed into the surf (plus wife and kids) we set sail for a local camping ground a mere 10 minutes drive away. The theory was that should something fail enroute (drawbar, tyre, wheelbearings, my undies) we would only be "just round the corner" and could abandond the COB on the side of the road and head for home. But the lightweight towed like a dream and before long we had the COB setup and ready for habitation.. (note my loverly wife paddling her waka...) Turns out the bed just isnt quite long enough for me to fully strectch out unless I lie across it corner to corner, so we let the kids have it and me and the mrs shacked up on the airbed in the awning. ( a shot of the inside of the roof showing the many storage holes that could quite easily hold a playstation or head unit...) We had a primo night camping out in the COB - went off without a hitch and celebrated with burnt bacon and runny eggs in the morning. The COB has a stove, and facilities to hold an LPG cylinder on the front, but the lpg hose is missing between the two, and I am far too paranoid to use the cooker inside anyway, so we bought our little camping one, which worked fine as long as there was no wind... Fueled by the success of the mission I started tossing round ideas to improve our chances of repeating our venture into the great outdoors, and drew up a task list: Replace tyres Replace wheel bearings Repair 240v wiring Fix busted zipz With the above completed, we should be able to tow the COB much further afeild without stressing that something is going to crap out.... That in mind I have pushed the COB into the shed, propped it up on blocks ghetto style and removed the wheels, hubs and bearings....

One of the advantages of living in a small town is that you know everyone, or everyone knows you.... I have a good friend who untill two weeks ago was the head mechanic at the local Toyota dealership - a bloody good bugger who always helped my out keeping my surf and the cuzbus on the road.. Anyways, after an afternoon at home mucking around and making sure I had covered all bases, I wheeled the poptop into the workshop for a warrant test... fail. Turns out there was a problem with the taillight wiring and everytime I stood on the brake peddle the horn would go and the rear passenger door would open - or something like that. "oh it'll just be an earth fault somewhere" He then told me off for the dodgy tyres, said they would need replacing, and the repack the wheel bearings... (splits much?) turns out sitting in one spot in the sun for three years causes some cracks... no shit! The other issue was that two of the outrigger arm things that came out from the main chassis under the floor had cracks and needed welding... So I took it round to another mate (yay for small towns) this time an engineer who happened to be the son of one of the old boys at work and I got him to wled up the cracks for me. While he was there he fixed up a couple of other minor defects too! So I take the old chook home and blew half a day opening up all the tail and marker lights, cleaning the contacts, replacing bulbs, soldering wires and chasing the faulty earth, only to find that the lug that holds the earth wire to the chassis had snapped off. pffft A new lug and some solder and bingo, Roberts your Fathers Brother - lights fixed. Another blat round the block, and a promise to get new tyres and the Caravan of Bitches was legal to be on the road! Woot!

The canvas is in surprisinlgy fine condition and pleasently free or rips, tears or stretches. A couple of the zips need attention, and a few of the ties to secure the walls of the awning to the poles are missing or broken, but meh - minor details and I will get them repaired in the fullness of time... We took it camping late in the summer just been, but I wont get time to write that one up untill tonight maybe...

Long time lurker, first time poster. So I dont have an oldschool ride to pimp'n'share just yet, This puppy has my name stamped all over it, currently stored on a mates farm down south, but in the mean time I do have a crusty old caravan full of bitches project that I have this burning desire to share with ya'll. Its a Sprite Hardtop built under licence by CI Murno's very skilleds tradesmen in 1981 at their Otorohonga plant. Aquired from the neighbor over the back fence for the princley sum of $500.00, it had sat tucked up in a corner of their section unused for the last 3 years before I stumbled apon it and made some offhanded remark about what a cool wee caravan it was... Beers and fists full of dollars later I was the proud owner of a slime covered musty old poptop caravan. I shot round home with it and immediatly got to work washing off the years of mould and green slime. I then rang the missus (who was down south at her mothers) and floated the idea past her about the possibility of buying said neighbors caravan.... She replied: "you have already bought it havent you" (that woman doesnt miss a damn thing! lol) After a good scrub it became apparent the old girl was not in bad shape for her age, but the drawbar was in need a bit of a tart up... ... so I used up a couple of those black potscrub looking sanding disc thingys and resprayed the drawbar with a grey enamal engine paint... (behold the bling) .... and immediatly she look a million bucks better. So the tribe returned from the South Island and I unveiled this two wheeled wonder of summer love to the wife, and she actually agreed it was a good buy! (whew!) With that I wheeled the caravan out onto the back lawn and we spent the afternoon setting it up and erecting the awning that came with it. We were actually quite stoked to find that the caravan came with the awning, spare wheel, power cord, adaptor and the cupboards stoked with camping goodies like plastic cups, plates, utensils so on etc etc.... The decor elegantly finished in poo brown and white formica... .. the sink unit slides inboard when the roof comes down, and gets slid back into position when in use! (righteous clevage shot...) The kids thought it was shit hot too!! and the wall can be rolled up to improve indoor-outdoor flow.. The old girl didnt have a warrant or an electrical certificate so I took it down to the testing station.... but I will fill in the blanks on that in the next installment.

excuse me? i know i dont comment much but i have a VB sedan same body but different grill indicators etc awesome bo good to see another old commy being done up. if i were you id change the motor i had nothing but troubles with the 202 so been in the process of getting rid of it, its almost done and back on the road. I see your from welly, should go for a roll when its done? I also have a mate building a VH fully stripped and repainted beautifully putting in a 308 etc. wouldnt be surprised if it winds up a show car. was jealous naturally, but i wanted mine for thrashing and bashing so cant have it too pretty or ill be too scared to drive it haha A lot of 202 issues boil down to poor vacuum lines, shitty timing and contsipation - 202's LOVE to breath... air in = power out. IMHO a black injected 202 from a VK is the primo start point for a good retro rebuild. Believe it I have had three old 202 commys over the years and very simple mods can yeild some good power and torque from ye olde 202. There is a mint info dump on the black 202 here: http://holdenpaedia.oldholden.com/EFI_VK_3.3 Also I have scanned the articles from Street Machine many moons ago called "Grunt Hunt" where they rebuild a blue 202 to "as new" better than factory tolerances and bolt on - unbolt simple shit to build a stout 202 with 200bhp using the VK fuel injection systems and a Haltech computer.... I am a huge fan of the VB, VC and VK commys and have been scratching around looking for another one. (ya know the score.. never shoulda sold the last one, moment of weakness needed the cash yadda yadda yadda) This wagon I think is in for a helluva makeova but I would rather "something different" be a wild 202 or perhaps a nissan or lexus v8 package to buck the trend... Cheers Drew

Chuck a big smelly Nissan Diesel LD28 in it with a couple of fat arse Garrets each side, some tall gears up her bum and watch her go!!

Oh yea!! That uzzie is sounding MINT!! Love the way the camera hard out shakes as soon as you fire up. ZEN

thanks guys. Drew

I have some cheapo bog here at home that is pretty average... wondering whats a good quality fine bog or putty you guys use that will come up mint when rubbed down? I want to fill in small badge and moulding holes on the doors and boot, plus a couple of very subtle indents on the roof and flanks.... Thanks Drew

That ride is fat! I love it. Always thought BOSO was a bit OTT but that is cool. Love the angular tyres!