Tilt-Shift?

Found this thing. Shot in Boondall, a couple of weeks ago. Very cool.


Metal Heart from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

Springs ... of MUDD!

No words, just pictures...

Welder upgrade

So, I was getting rather frustrated at the duty cycle of my Ryobi Parva 140E welder (cutting out after a couple of 3.2mm rods, thermal), so I went to JayCar and bought a 120mm, 105cfm 240V fan. Fitted inside the enclosure to cycle a bit of air thru. Previously, there was nothing, relying solely on the vents and any air that might accidentally flow thru.

Went in easily, wired it in to the switch, so that when the welder is on, so is the fan. Opened the vents up a bit more while i was there.

Seems to work alright. Makes a bit of a racket, and I still managed to trip it out this arve, but ... dunno, can't hurt, and it makes me feel better, to know that I've done Something...




Bf0r3:



Fan:


And fitted:


(so is all that funny, Stu? I'll let you know how i go with the cage rear gate, too, don't worry...)

Trooks

You like?




Ver naarce...

Trailer Finished

Got 'er done.

Hung it up with the wheels off to make it easy to paint the underside.












All sor'ed. Registrated and all. Numberplate is CM...., so I tell Carmen it's her responsibility now. For everything short of selling it, that is...

Wierd stuff- again

I tell you, people do some crazy stuff. And most of that is in Japan. Check it out.
Let's start out gently...



And then progressively get stranger...












For more, see an autosalon site.

Video linkup

I did a bit of a play around with my video stuff, and made a short clip from when we went to CityView 4x4 Park back in June...

Now YouTube says i can paste some text or some such, for embedded or something... Here goes:



Checkout the lifted wheel!! eleven!1

Direct link here.

Mountain Climbing

Went driving around Mt Mee this weekend. VERY dry, and the storms and showers this week are much appreciated. Good fun driving. Tried a long, steep, dusty, shale-y hill, but didn't get as far as Geoff's Prado. Didn't really expect to, but you've gotta try, sometimes.

Also didn't manage to follow him thru a tight, twisty and well-holed climb. I have decided that the extra leaf in the rear, although it has increased the ride height and load-carrying capacity, has decreased the amount of rear axle articulation with normal loading. That is, with a bunch more kilos in the boot, the axle would have twisted as much as a standard-sprung Charlie, allowing the wheels to stay on the ground in deeper holes. This was what pulled me up short on the weekend. I wasn't touching the ground with anything but tyres, but too few tyres… A front diff-lock would have helped, as would a (working) rear LSD. Ah well. There's always Christmas…

Photos rarely show a good perspective of climbs, but the vid I took of Geoff's climb should look good, when I get my camera back from Pat.

Couple of the dudes with us were a bit cowboyish. Full throttle, arms and legs akimbo, kids standing on seats etc… I can't figure out how people can let their kids ride in the car with no seat belts. Weird. Maybe they don't like them?

Happy eKKa Day!

Day off yesterday, mid week. Feels like a while since that has happened. We went for a fundraising walk along the river, from Southbank out to Kangaroo point, over the Storey Bridge and back to Southbank via the Botanical Gardens and the Goodwill Bridge. Nicely.

I saw a truck and car crash; or rather heard the squeal and turned around and there was a truck, pushing along the car. 'Course I had to take photos then, 'cos that's what you do these days...









Then today I got the bike serviced for the first time in a loooong time... Yeah, it hurt. And gotta go back. Sounds just like a dentist. The "loaner" bike i got was a ZRX1200. First time I've ridden one of them. Pretty cool, plenty o'torque. Bit windy tho.

I think there was something else I was going to say too.... Oh well.

Trailerable offense

Picked up the new set of wheels tonight. SOOO stoked. Stand by for photos...

Oh, and I re-read that last post of mine, and the story about the drafting bloke. I called him a dud, when I meant dude. Turns out the typo was funny, so I'm gonna leave it there....

Hunting for Gremlins

Saturday afternoon, after the nap: got a 12V power point in the front of the car (commonly called cigarette lighter) that doesn't work so much. I figure, let's check it out. No worries, remove the dash - wait, gotta take out the centre console, to move the gear-lever surround, to remove the dash lower. K, got the centre console bin out, hey look, 3 of Carmen's bobbi pins. (Dunno why I spelt it that way, I just did, ok?) Clean out some of the rubbish. Oh, hey, the Handbrake light switch is down here somewhere, let's fix that too. Ah, there it is, ok, works like that. Ah, that paddle-pop™ stick musta been blocking the switch. Sor'd. Right, move the gearstick surround, dash out. Hmm, gotta get the stereo out by the look of it. Mucka-bout, mucka-bout, ah, there it goes. Here we go… right, gotit. Oh, didn't need to get the stereo out after all. Oh well, no harm done.

K, so there are the light socket leads. Oh, they all look fine. Wiggle, wiggle. All firm. Nothing obvious wrong. Drat. Empty mission there, then. Oh well, at least the handbrake warning light won't stay on any more. All back together. Nurries. Oh, hey, here's the replacement lock barrel for the passenger door. (When I bought the car, it was all munted.) Righto, let's see what this involves …

Door lining off, unplug light and windows, peel back plastic lining, muck-about, pull it out, new one in, done. Plastic back, switches back, lining back, sor'd. Hmm. Doesn't seem to work, in that it doesn't actually unlock the door. Key turns it, no worries, door still unlocks with the central/alarm button, but … no unlocking with key. Oh well. Next time.

Pack up, tools back into the garage, drive car into gar- wait, what?? The hand-brake light stays on? … Huh.

oooh, Flexxy

If I was to say "Flexcentric" to you, what would that mean? You'd probably say "He's making up words again."

And if I was to follow that up with "Patent, built under licence, not at liberty to disclose", you'd say "Ahh, very hush-hush. Say. No. More."

Well, I work here, and I work on these. Cool, hey. Indirectly actuated vibratory, 3-D modelled in AutoDesk Inventor. Good stuff.



So let's say I got an evaluation copy of Inventor, and installed it at home. What would I do? Would I do work at home? No, not really possible, since we use SAP, and I can't be bothered getting the necessary setup done. Would I ... Convert to 3D the model of the bike i drew in AutoCAD LT a couple of years ago? Yep, done that. So now what?



Now, is a new, better CV joint. The bane of all IFS 4wd'ers. I saw a snippet on the news the other day about a dude who has invented something that might be this, but i didn't catch the whole article. D'oh. Better get in quick then, hey?



My thoughts are ... Yeah, right. Give away my thoughts here. Tell you what: i'll sell them to you. Contact me via this blog....



Right.



Pajero IFS, with shock (blue), torsion Bar (black, near the bottom, coming in from left), steering arm (brownish, horizontal), new CV boots (the shiny black rubber things), Ventilated disc (ooh, shiny), and manual-locking hub.

K?