Australian Belly Tank

[Reverend Hedgash]

It's been a while since the last update. Not that we have been slack just the opposite. So here is a list of what's been done:

Seat belted into shape
Body bits attached
water tank built
exhaust and headers made
front roll cage plated in to stop penetration to cabin in accident
petrol tank added
megasquirt purchased
rear framing completed
floor plates welded in
pedals put in
gear linkage working

woohoo.

But! I am away at the moment but back at christmas for a big build holiday. Shall try and update more often!

Reverend Hedgash
Reporting from the Middle East.

[Lynchy]

Looking good guys - what's the fuel tank out of or is it built to suit - it looks quite unusual

[Reverend Hedgash]

Hey Lynchy,

It is a fuel tank from a motorbike which has the fuel tank under the seat as its real fuel tank is a helmet store.

Colonel Grump, our engine man, found it in his cupboard. So many items for this car have been given to us by providence.

This is how we perceive hot rodding should be, the clever re-assembly of parts from other cars and things combined with some home made fabrication.

Anyone can go to the So-Cal catalog and order a Lego hot rod but what is that? And expensive uncreative kit car.

We are proud to say the only new items in our car are basically to do with safety; the Landspeeds, the seatbelts, the clothing, the brakes cylinders and the fire suppression system. The rest we have made, scrounged or bought second hand. (Bless ebay!)

Good to see the Shaguar on the build site. Some good advice already rolling in from those in the know.

We will have to race each other to finish.

Speak soon,

Rev.H+

[Lynchy]

Rev

Yes - Big Gaz is determined to get the car down down to the salt next year despite the battering his credit card will take.... It is becoming his new religion - since you are a Reverend maybe you could give him the blessing of the gods of speed? Maybe you could also intro your crew, I was aware of the good Dr and his new girlfriend Nurse Ratchet and there were also photo's of the Lady Hedgash in some previous postings, hadn't heard of Colonel Grump before though. Our team currently comprises of Big Gaz and myself (from afar). It's been funny over the last few years, I would have expected all of our mates to want to come down to the lake for the horsepower party but I guess life catches up and the wheels fall off.

I agree with what you say regarding hot rodding and will willingly accept a fire system from anyone that wants to give us one or high presure fuel pumps or injectors or computer .......

Yes - good feedback from Sumner - I've been reading up on Hooleys Stude and there are a lot of similarities that we can take on board. The NASCAR roof flap was an idea that we had considered upon seeing Chris' NASCAR Thunderbird down at Gairdner this year... the bellypan is something we've discussed and will implement when time allows so Sumner will be pounded by email for sure.

Can't wait till March!!

[Reverend Hedgash]

Lynchy,

I shall say a race prayer for both of our teams.

I am going to be in Bahrain on Friday and Saturday watching the AussieV8 supercars. Should be pretty cool. It looks a fantastic racetrack on TV.

There is a drag strip in Um al Qwaiin too I might check out too.

It's only just over an hours flight from where I'm working so why wouldnya?

That's fine by your mates not coming. We only want the die hards. The riff raff can go to Summernats in Canberra with the rest of the bogans and their chicks, keep the salt pure....

Amen

Reverend Hedgash
Speed Deacon

[Reverend Hedgash]

Started building the Megasquirt engine management system.

The hardest thing is wading through the sea of information to figure out what is appropriate for us. Assembly is remarkably easy thus far with good instructions from the site.

(For those who want to know: We have decided to go the MS1 chip with the v3.0 board running MSnE for our Commodore V6 VN.)

The photo is the Megastim component which acts as a proxy engine so you can test the Megasquirt has been assembled correctly and then practice with the tuning software. It has 5 LED's which represent various functions:

    * Injector #1 - lights when the first injector bank is grounded [injectors firing].

    * Injector #2 - lights when the second injector bank is grounded [injectors firing].

    * Fuel Pump - lights when the fuel pump relay is grounded.

    * FIdle - lights when the Fast Idle solenoid is activated.

    * Ignition - lights when the ignition circuit of MS2 fires

Step by step we are getting there. Dr Goggoles informs me last weekend he completed the canopy hinge and it works pretty well.

Rev. H+

[Sumner]

Neat, you are going to have to bring me up to speed on it later .  You doing this work "out of country" in your hotel room??

Tell the Doc hi,

Sum

[Reverend Hedgash]

Yep.
I'm now in Bur Dubai on the Khor Dubai in the city of Dubai in the Emirate of the same name.

Great place, friendly people, but not that imaginative when naming things.

Just like the electrowhatsit.

Hope the retirement is treating you well.

rev.h+

[Drewfus]

Yep.
I'm now in Bur Dubai on the Khor Dubai in the city of Dubai in the Emirate of the same name.

Great place, friendly people, but not that imaginative when naming things.

Just like the electrowhatsit.

Is that like the whos-i-whats-a?

Trust all is well, been busy, email me with some updates dude,

Drewfus

[Dr Goggles]

. Dr Goggoles informs me last weekend he completed the canopy hinge and it works pretty well.

Rev. H+

Yeah , what he said ........Tiz true what he sayeth......... The flip front flips up...not much else at the moment but true to the Right Reverends design it works .Right now It's a quarter past Ten on a Sunday which means it's "Tank Day" however it is 37 degrees Celcius and our state Victoria is on fire in a pretty serious fashion , visibilty was down to a quarter mile in the city yesterday , 100 miles from the nearest fire.

This week I am off to pick up a "large component" for a late model passenger vehicle designed by one of the larger worldwide manufacturers .Through an astonishing alignment of good luck ,good fortune and table manners it was found to have our name on it and thus to be unusable for it's designated purpose ,we have an inkling that we might be able to squeeze it into a little project of ours.......have I said too much Rev'?

[Reverend Hedgash]

No, not too much but it implies that the large component was stolen which I would like to catagorically state that it was not.

I have completed sassembling the Megasquirt, took about 12 hours over various nights. Haven't started practicing tuning yet but looks good to go.

Also may have our canopy problem sussed. Have found two ex Macchi jet trainer canopies for sale (for charity no less!) at $100 each. Hope they fit! (Anyone know the best way to polish out scratches?)

Reverend Hedgash 
The farther faster Father

[JackD]

You guys mention 3 items of good luck served you.
Well I can't imagine anything more than the first 2.
Plastic polish is a requirement for anybody with their own plane and there is some really good stuff out there.

[roygoodwin]

"Also may have our canopy problem sussed. Have found two ex Macchi jet trainer canopies for sale (for charity no less!) at $100 each. Hope they fit! (Anyone know the best way to polish out scratches?)"

Are the canopies  acrylic (plexiglass is one brand name for the material ) or polycarbonate (lexan is one brand name for the material ) ?  You can use progressively finer sandpaper followed by buffing compound to remove the scratches.  You should get some scrap material & experiment with that first.  Some buffing compounds *might* react unfavorably with the plastic. 

You need to be careful if the scratch is fairly deep, like if you can catch a fingernail in it.  Because by the time you get the scratch out, you might have a bifocal canopy.  The deeper the scratch the larger area you'd need to san & buff to minimize the distortion.

Some aircraft windshields are multi-layer & have layers of glass, plastic, & sometimes tempered glass.  IF the canopies are like that, you're probably out of luck, especially if the outer (scratched ) layer is glass, & almost certainly if it's tempered glass.  The glass would take a LOT LONGER time to get a scratch out than plastic, and the tempered glass might just let go.  Tempered glass doesn't like to have much if any machining done to it after it's installed. 

FWIW I used to be in the glass & mirror business and have dealt with acrylic, polycarbonate, glass & tempered glass.

HTH

roy

[Greyboy]

My 2 cents .. Modelers, fabricators and restorers of all kinds have used a product called Novus with great success; it comes in three grades, #3 for heavy scratches, #2 or  light scratches. and #1 for the final polish. Works on plastics and polycarbonates.

[Dr Goggles]

Sandshoes Hairy Crutch Greyboy , that was just the info we needed.I went and got the canopies this morning....also there was a Mirage ( hey , I like those tanks!!!) a Vampire ( them's real cute tanks ya got there!!! ) and the remains of a P38( like a screwed up ball of Alfoil) dragged out of the jungle in New Guinea , I didn't get to see the Sea Fury in the hangar ( we've got one o' them anyway)...............Apparently they have some fabricating savant who Tigs paper thin Aluminium ( NB sp.)sheet in his sleep and is busy building everything they need , they reckon he has done some resto bits for some Lightning stateside replacing the "bladder tanks"(?) and building many parts straight of the draughts....

thanks again GB