Australian Belly Tank

[Reverend Hedgash]

Ok Ok I'll keep it in the amusing anecdote bucket and toss out the politics, wouldn't want to have a red and blue division down the build diary! People can pm or email me if they want that strand.

On the language front I am learning Chinese which is tricky on the tonal front with many words with the same consonants but different tones changing their meaning (high pitch, rising pitch, dropping pitch, dipping pitch and neutral). I have an assistant who is bilingual (just) otherwise the office here is just me (and wife and daughter). As there are very few ex pats in the town it is an "outpost" I guess.

How long are we staying?  Wellllllll that kind of depends on how successful we are in getting new projects, the GFC, and other opportunities that may raise their curious heads. The minimum would be to see the completion of the current projects under construction (in particular the lotus building) and the maximum would be about ten years as my daughter would be ready to go to senior scool and I think Australia would be the right place for that (and for me to start considering retirement!)

But that is a long way off, who knows what the silk road will bring? We wanted an adventure as a family and we are getting one.

Now, back to cars and fart jokes.

d

[Dr Goggles]

Speaking of jokes here's the crap-tastic Sprite of Sunshine......i'ts a dirty commie rat( rod)...mate, DON'T say that here

I pulled the motor out and took of every piece of metal that wasn't decaying except the rack and the steering wheel.it has moved from the outdoor operating table and will soon swap places in the drive with the tow-truck so it can be taken to Sydney where it will be a curio in the middle of Simon's upcoming photo exhibition....I made a hand-brake with a long removable handle so it can be managed on and off of whatever they pick it up with and I also have a four wheel dolly because to be honest it's an inch or so lower than I intended......yeah , I know the pics are fuzzy, I'm a bit fuzzy....

[kiwi belly tank]

A "bit" fuzzy, whoda thunk.
 
Many years ago I also visited a strange far away land that had a different dialect, now I live there.
  Sid.

[Stainless1]

A bit low  I know we don't have any streets that you could drive it on around here....  Does it touch when you add ballast (driver) 
Glad to see we finally got back on subject, this thread was starting to ravel a little. 
See what happens when you plan to take a year off of racing.  You know that this will be the best year on the Aussie Salt of the last 10 if you don't go....
 

[Milwaukee Midget]

......i'ts a dirty commie rat( rod)...mate, DON'T say that here

That would make it a comrod? 

The stance is perfect, the attitude sizzles.  I've been ribbing you on it since you brought the steaming pile of brit-bits home to build it, but I must confess, it looks righteous.

I would not be ashamed to park it in my front yard, although Kate might not permit such things.

[Dr Goggles]

See what happens when you plan to take a year off of racing.  You know that this will be the best year on the Aussie Salt of the last 10 if you don't go....
 

I wish you'd heard what I said when I read that Bob, it went on for a bit..., I wish everyone who is going to Gairdner the best, and I will be there next year is all I will say

A bit low   I know we don't have any streets that you could drive it on around here....  Does it touch when you add ballast (driver)  

It's the regulation Sunshine bellytank workshop and Possum park ride height...that means I'm going to have to lift it if it is going to the dirt drags.

Glad to see we finally got back on subject, this thread was starting to ravel a little.

 Genius , I love the unused negatives...like "whelmed"... ravelled, that's now my new word for constipated..

The stance is perfect, the attitude sizzles.  I've been ribbing you on it since you brought the steaming pile of brit-bits home to build it, but I must confess, it looks righteous.
I would not be ashamed to park it in my front yard, although Kate might not permit such things.

Hey it's still out the back and I got "how long's that going to be there?"

One thing that caught me by surprise, when I was performing a fifty point turn in the back yard I was pushing it and noticed the front left was locked up, the steering was on full lock right....hmmm, good old cable brakes, they pull tighter as the steering increases.......

I wish I could see it when they put it on whatever it will be travelling to Sydney on...."Merc, Audi , Toyota, Honda ....WTF?...what's that thing"?

bye.

[Freud]

Put that P O S car in the post and you revert back to your racers attitude.

We needed that.

LOVELY

FREUD

[Dr Goggles]

Thanks Pa, you know me. Yes I have been hangin my hiney out the window for a while, it has offended the right people and kept me occupied but best of all cost me nuthin.

I had to tag it with my race number...



The real gig starts again in a few months and I'm gonna have to be organised and inspired but the groundwork is there with the new motor and the re-geared rear-end.The break, trust me, will do me good.

I have to admit that I have spent a fair bit of time sitting next to the phone waiting for Marlo to call, he's seen my work, what more do I need to to do? Can you give him a heads up on my falla I mean availability.

I had a dream last night. I was at Lake Gairdner, what with the wedding and all I'd had to annoy a few people , one in particular,just to get there.....I was sitting in a car, there was mud everywhere and it was pissing rain, the meet was off and I couldn't get out.....

I think it's getting to me

[kiwi belly tank]

I think it's already "got" to you, ya ol fart.
I had a dream a couple of weeks ago that the liner just wouldn't go any faster & I was dam near to down town SLC.
Just shows how big it is in our lives.
  Sid.

[grumm441]

 one in particular, just to get there.....

Sorry, no room
G

[Dr Goggles]

Well if I was getting married to you that would be an/the issue but we aren't allowed to do that here yet.........

No room at the inn indeed.

[Freud]

Quoting...........

I have to admit that I have spent a fair bit of time sitting next to the phone waiting for Marlo to call, he's seen my work, what more do I need to to do?

I'll call Hume and check in with him.  He does the hiring for the shop. With an extra employee it would require a cook. Does she cook?

If you went into depression over not having a lakester we could just have them cut a hole in the top of the 'liner and you could poke your head out.

That should solve everything over here except for the mud at the lake bed.

Just wait a year or so and ours will be surrounded with mud.

I'll apply for a Green card for you but not let anyone that comes to Speed Weak know about it. They may cause you grief.

That 374 number fits well with Marlo's 678 lakester number. Keep control of that number.

FREUD

[Dr Goggles]

I'll call Hume and check in with him.  He does the hiring for the shop. With an extra employee it would require a cook. Does she cook?

I'll apply for a Green card for you but not let anyone that comes to Speed Weak know about it. They may cause you grief.

That 374 number fits well with Marlo's 678 lakester number. Keep control of that number.

FREUD

You should have guessed from the recipes a while back that I do most of the cooking here....

I always yearned for a green card, but might I be lynched if I came from O/S and took ONE job there?

it was just the other day I realised that 374 has some creepy numerology going on....

[Dr Goggles]

 

...and I also have a four wheel dolly because to be honest it's an inch or so lower than I intended......

Well that dolly idea didn't quite work ....so I figured I'd make one that the front wheels would sit in, that would give it plenty of clearance....the thing was I went to hook the mig up to zip up the dolly and the moment I touched the tap on the bottle I knew what had happened, I almost never do it, and I know what you're going to say..but I have a rule, turn the gas off beforeyou turn the power off, that way it doesn't happen, but..I'd left the gas on last time I was at it....it was low anyway.

You bewdy, no mig-gas and no time to get more. It was stick time........the last time I used it was 2005 when my old mig died and I had to make a gate ,so the rods weren't gonna be fresh...I learnt to weld when I was eleven when my dad bought this little 2 phase arc welder, these days you can buy a better one for three dollars that weighs less than a mobile phone but it does hold some sentimental value..I laid some decent beads, and some birdshit too...but I got I away with it ..............I think.

I have to say the moment it fired up and that smell hit my nose my mind was immediately back in my old man's shed and I was trying to weld bike frame tube to make a chopper.... I had one with the stupidest forks you ever saw and a chain wheel welded onto the rear cog, you could mono it up hill it was so low geared , I made a mono-shock rear with a coil-over off a Honda 90 that really worked...A friend rode it into an irrigation channel and nearly drowned when his hand got caught in the back wheel trying to retrieve it....Strangely, the other kid who was with us when this happened had nearly drowned too , in an irrigation channel the year before towing his brother behind a dirt bike on skis, yes, true. His brother did a sharp cut away from the bank which just whipped the bike straight in, Wayne got his arm caught in those weird hand protector things that some 70's bikes had on the bars and panicked , he was screaming, just able to keep his face above the water while his brother stood on the bank laughing......then the bike slipped and he went under, his brother fearing a hiding from their dad decided he should help.That was just ONE of the dangerous things I saw , or heard the Ibbott boys pull involving motorbikes. Breaking the forks off, resulting in a really nasty end over, falling off a bike doing a wheelie and barely missing their mother and sister( in pram), having a tennis racquet fall off a rack on the way to the school bus-stop  and ending up trapped under the bike with the unshielded exhaust on Wayne's leg.I remember Wayne showing me the burn at school, he couldn't tell his folks.."it was a new racket my dad will kill me", he should have been in hospital. I got mixed up in a test ride when Brad had re-geared a bike, I jumped on the back, he rode with demented abandon....slid the bike sideways ...I can remember him laughing, all he was thinking about was scaring me, I was looking at the six inch deep cut-drain I could see looming , the bike hit it both wheels at once ,got airborne in a sort of barrel roll and landed on Brad's arm, I was unmarked but he was pretty badly hurt. His mum screamed at me like she was possessed and rang my mum to come and get me....he'd tried to kill me, he was her fault.

[Dr Goggles]

I just got a text from The Colonel who it seems is at a pre-meet inspection.... it was headed E/GL. there hasn't been anyone other than us running E/GL for at least seven years....but it seems there is now. Greg Butler has finished building this lakester that runs a 250ci Ford straight six.