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Another Aussie backyard shed...

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kai1980

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Adelaide, Australia
haha, yeah, listened all day today and it was all England... you could have done with a day like that in the first couple of tests...
i see you're in Manchester, i lived around the corner in Chester for about 6 or so years.
 
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kai1980

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Adelaide, Australia
Had a bit of a change of pace today.
The weather was much cooler so I took the opportunity to take a trailer load to the dump and do some much needed gardening!
I did pop into the shed for a few hours this arvo, decided to do a bit of sanding and apply an undercoat to some walls.
Even just with a bit of undercoat it's looking quite good, next thing will be deciding on a colour for this wall and the walls in the room...
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kai1980

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Adelaide, Australia
Well, another 14 hour day in the shed, rarely have I been so filthy and so nackered...haha

Spent the day working on the room, finished sanding, fitted the cornice (quite badly, oh well, first attempt and all..) and then threw an undercoat on the whole thing...
Somewhere in that I probably spent an hour or two cleaning up old mess so I could make new mess too!
Not very exciting pics, but it's genuine progress!
Gotta decide a paint colour and get it done, it's so close to being a habitable space now...
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kai1980

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The room is finally painted!!!
I still need to sort out some kind of skirting boards.
And today I picked up some carpet tiles, I wasn't planning to use carpet but these popped up on Gumtree, they were less than a kilometre from home and cost me a grand total of $40... So, carpet it is!! Haha
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kai1980

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Decided it was time to put up my first bit of 'decoration'.
Starting to look more and more like the toy room I have been picturing all this time...
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kai1980

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It's been a productive but also fun day!
Last thing I did was my kombi feature wall... Because, why not!
Very happy with how it's turned out.
Just need to track down a big rusty old VW badge for it...
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Also chucked a few carpet tiles on the floor to see how they'll look, I think they'll be fine.
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kai1980

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Today the shop supervisor lent a helping hand...
Skirting boards cut and painted, I'll get them on later this evening hopefully.
Then I'll clean up and lay some carpet tiles down...
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kai1980

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Adelaide, Australia
Thanks mate, it was worth the extra hundred bucks in paint...

The boss helped me finish the skirting boards today.
Then we laid out some carpet tiles and cleaned the glass up a bit.
I've still got to cut a few carpet tiles along the side and back of the room, but otherwise it's done! Only took a year...
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kai1980

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Adelaide, Australia
Today was my last day off before going back to work.
My main aim was to finish building my fabrication table...

So... I got distracted by toys... Spent some time playing with them instead! Haha
I set up a couple of little display cabinets and had fun going through boxes of toys, some of which I haven't seen in about 8 years.

Sorry there's no progress on the table, I will get back to that asap!
Until then, some pics of toys...
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kai1980

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Adelaide, Australia
I scored a couple of steel lintels from a building site last week... I've been on the lookout for a while with a plan in mind to make a table to mount my project bug on so I can cut and shut the thing into a crazy volksrod.
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I love working off a couple of buckets, barely off the ground, my back feels great now! Haha
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This is as far as I got today, put the bug back on its pallet so I can wheel it out of the way, the problem I have is that the table I've built needs to be flipped over, but it weighs heaps!
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I got the whole thing within about 1mm of level and square. Hoping that will provide me with a good flat surface for what I have planned for the bug.
In my mind I'm trying to do a poverty spec version of what the project binky team have created... I'll add to it over time and hopefully it'll be as useful as theirs seems to be!
for anybody not familiar with project binky, here's their youtube... be warned you could lose many hours of your life, but you will enjoy it!
 
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kai1980

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Adelaide, Australia
I apparently struggle to stay focused on just one thing...
So, while working on the big car table (not sure what I'm gonna call it) I've also been slightly sidetracked with a couple of other things...

Made a cool little custom hotwheels, it's homer Simpson's car re-imagined as an oldschool gasser. Had fun making this one, and got a bit of a shock when someone local said they wanted to buy it! I just muck around with these for fun...
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In addition to that I've started work on a custom intake plenum for my mates old aircooled vw, this car already runs megasquirt fuel injection and will be turbocharged in the not too distant future.
In the first pic the original plenum is on the left, it'd already been butchered in the past so I decided to make something from scratch.
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kai1980

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Adelaide, Australia
Finally got a bit of time in the shed again!
As always, had about 10 jobs to try and do in just one day.
In the end I spent the whole time working on the inlet plenum for my friend's veedub.
This thing has proven quite complex, especially with my relatively limited experience, but it's getting there!
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kai1980

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Everyday life has an amazing ability to get in the way of progress in the shed!
I've got this week off work, so hoping to tick a few things off the list!

First up was the plenum I started a while ago, finished tacking it all together this morning, did one last day fit to make sure everything lined up where it should. Then welded it all up this arvo...
We still need to pressure test it at some stage, but basically finished...for now.
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More updates this week as I hopefully make progress with two or three other things.
 
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kai1980

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thanks guys. pretty pleased with the way it's turned out.
not sure yet whether it'll be polished or painted black, that can be decided later on...
 

metalhead140

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Plenum looks great!

Polish it. Do not hide that good work with paint.

I agree it would look great polished... But polished engine parts on a car that's to be driven are too much like hard work to me. I painted all my alloy engine bits on the Vette, so now engine bay detailing consists of a quick spray with degreaser and hitting it with a hose every now and then! Depends what kind of life the car will live I suppose.
 
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kai1980

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Adelaide, Australia
Finally some actual progress to show you!!
I've been doing lots if little bits and pieces, also got distracted for a day sorting out our third bedroom/home office... Boring non-shed related work.
Anyway, today I borrowed a friend's engine hoist and used it to flip my car fabrication table over.
Once it was the right way up I fitted the wheels and with help from the Mrs. Got the beetle body up onto it!
Now I've got a huge mess to tidy up before I roll it back into the shed.
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kai1980

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After a few hours of shuffling things around and cleaning up I was able to bring the beetle back into the shed.
I've got it in a position that allows me good access all the way around it and also leaves a good area of floor space for other things!
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While I was standing admiring my handiwork I decided to mark out what I've been thinking about for years on the side of the bug.
Basically, I'm going to remove the 'B' pillar completely, and section/shorten the body by about 150mm. Once that's done I can work out how much to remove from the 'A' pillars to get the slant chop look I'm hoping to achieve.
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Before all that I do need to pick up some steel and internally brace the body so it keeps its shape when I start chopping it up!
 
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kai1980

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Adelaide, Australia
Had a few minutes to play this evening, stripped the last few bolt on parts off the beetle shell.
Handy thing now that it's on the table is everything is at a very comfortable height and I can stand inside it!
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Spent a little bit of time just contemplating.
Now that I've tidied up and moved a few things around I'm finding it a very enjoyable place to be! Certainly worth the time and money to get to this stage!
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Grumblebum

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Wollongong Australia
Looking good, you got way more achieved than me over summer :bowdown:

Quick question. How many kms on the ute when you had the manifold play up ? Mine has 307 thou now so am wondering at what point I pull the manifold for a clean, EGR edit/catch can etc.

Cheers GB
 
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kai1980

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Adelaide, Australia
my ute only had about 170-180k!
pop the pipe off the top of the throttle body and have a look down there, you can't see a lot, but you'll get a good idea of how much crud has built up...
 

dchance

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OKC
Nice work on the plenum and I am looking forward to the chop. It looks interesting

Dwight
 
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kai1980

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thanks Dwight.
my mate is pretty pleased with how the plenum turned out which is the main thing.
i was showing one of the guys at work some pics today, he welds/fabricates aluminium all day every day, and he was very positive about it which made me happy!

as for the chop on the bug... i've seen them done so many different ways!
what i have visualized in my mind looks great, if i can make the car look they way i think i can it's going to be quite unique!
 

hewey

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Blue Mountains, Australia
Pillarless chop and slanted a-pillar sounds interesting, I like where it's heading. Will the pan be shortened to suite as well? How's that work for rego in SA? Keen to follow progress.
 
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kai1980

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the plan is to shorten the body, but keep the pan stock.
that should give a similar look on the front end to using a beam extender. hoping it'll be slightly more 'legal' this way as the chassis is technically un-changed!
 
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