Ford Blitz Restoration/Rebuild

[Howard]

Tony, check your PM's
HH

[Private_collector]

Just completed a 'birthday' order for MacsAuto parts, including the battery hold down thingy. Mostly brake stuff. Those bits will be going onto the chassis ASAP, that is once I get it back and paint it.

I love the current exchange rate!

It is looking quite possible that I may do the blasting myself, in the engineering co. booth. I can do that on a Saturday when they don't normally use the blasting booth.

Won't be this weekend. It's the Gympie swap meet. That must come first!!!!

[Private_collector]

Today I went to 2 motorcycle shops and 1 bicycle shop, in search for suitable dust boot for front of vac booster. The bicycle shop were helpful but had nothing suitable, despite looking through a number of storage locations for me. Strike #1

One of the motorcycle shops was staffed by some unkempt, tattooed, greasy haired, gap toothed old crone who was not interested in being any help at all once she ascertained I wasn't there to buy one of their crappy imported quadbikes (Chinese built, of course). Strike #2

The other motorcycle shop had a guy that was too lazy to check what was available and insisted the boots would only come as a set with the applicable cable, no matter which brand of manufacture. Not at all helpful, and couldn't seem to grasp the concept that it was for something other than a cycle. He strangely had a face quite red in color. Not sure if he had tremendously high blood pressure, embarrased about his apathy, or got horribly sunburnt somehow. Whatever the cause, it was redder than a smacked arse! Anyhoo, no joy there with the part request. Strike #3

Then it occured to me, just wait until the Gympie swap meet, this Saturday!!
If I don't get something suitable there, i'll be very surprised. Must wear a hat! Learnt my lesson from the motorbike shop guy

[Jacques Reed]

Hi Tony,

Liked your tale of chasing rubber boots at motorcycle shops. I sometimes thought I was the only one who had to deal with indifferent, lazy, or aggressive counter people.

I think my benchmark of poor service was trying to hire a chain saw a few years ago. The counter man was rather belligerent to anyone except his tradie mates it seemed. He asked me "what was I going to use the chain saw for?" "To cut down a few trees" was my obvious reply. He then went into a tirade about using it for that purpose because there are a lot of ants in this area that carry sand up into the hollowed trunks and it dulls the chain. I noticed a sign above him that said "All chain saws will incur a $20 sharpening fee when returned" and said "so I pay the $20 when I bring it back, what's the problem? He got quite nasty and outright refused to hire me one. Needless to say I never went there again and told everyone I knew about their crappy attitude towards customers.
A few years later the business folded. I wonder why?

Brgds,

[Bob McNeill]

Tony, I must be lucky, as I work for a company where the boss recons " if man made it, man can fix it. ". The boss will spend time making bits or repairing a part that saves the customer having to replace the whole unit, EG turn up a piston for a hydraulic ram, rather than spend $3,000 on a complete ram. recut a keyway, or make an unobtainable bush. Don is an old school Toolmaker.

[Private_collector]

Jacques, that kind of service is disgusting but typical. It SHOULD stand out as the extreme exception, but is fast becoming the norm. I do what I can to reverse that, by warning everyone I know. I also make a point of telling the 'server' exactly what I think of their shitty attitude, & wish them great success in their NEXT venture.

Bob,

Originally Posted by Bob McNeill

Tony, I must be lucky, as I work for a company where the boss recons " if man made it, man can fix it. ". Don is an old school Toolmaker.

Oh how I wish I could work for someone like that! Not only becuase it must be a dying art to manufacture that way, but I wish I could do that stuff for myself.

Several weeks ago the steering rack in my wifes car became very noisy and was diagnosed with a leaky seal on one end of the rack. That seal created problems that made repair a must ASAP. But, as would be expected today, you cannot buy the one seal. We had to buy a whole new steering rack and have it installed. The job was originally quoted at over $1700, but the service department staff got it down to ONLY $1400ish. All for a $20 oil seal. It's just crackers really.

[Private_collector]

Swapmeet buys 1.jpg Swapmeet buys 2.jpg Swapmeet buys 3.jpg
Early start for town this morning. The yearly swapmeet has rolled around again. Not a great deal of military stuff, but a few little gems to be found here & there. I bought two Flathead 'Divers Bell' distributors and two sets of plug lead conduits for $40.
Swapmeet buys cleanup 1.jpg
Started disassembly this afternoon, and the cleanup has started tonight. Tomorrow I get a few small things painted and pull some step parts off the other truck. I hadn't realised one of the step brackets is side specific until I realised it was curved to match the chassis profile. The penny dropped at that point!

The fuel filter 'dummy' will be finished tomorrow too.