Some good progress this week on Toby’s Project with the front end coming together quite nicely. John spent most of last weekend polishing the grills and we all agree they have come up nice.

The idea was to try and get the car on all four wheels but that didn’t happen as John had yet more problems with the RRS gear.

Speaking of RRS I’m still waiting for my rear package I orderded almost six months ago! yes SIX months waiting. Very frustrating!

I should also have a very exciting update on my Xenon HID project for Eleanor in the next few days so stay tuned for that.

Lots more photos coming soon as Toby’s comes together. It’s been slow times for my project but I do promise things will pick up as Toby’s comes to close which as you can see is not very far away!

As some of you may know my car and Toby’s car are both being restored in a neighbouring state, over 10 hours by car away in the country. So as you would expect it’s not too often that I get to go down and visit John and see what kind of things he has on the boil. But last week I took advantage of a public holiday long weekend in Australia to go down and pay a visit and see what cars John had in his stable.

Discovering that Victoria, Australia was leading the way for cases of confirmed Swine Flu didn’t deter me and a friend and so we boarded a flight down to Melbourne. Now, just so you know we didn’t go down just to see the cars. We met up with some old friends and hit the town over the weekend. But for our journey home we decided to hire a car and go and visit John.

Arriving quite late in the evening I was thankful John was happy to open up shop for us and show us around. Unfortunately my old girl was off with the body guys so I was unable to see it. but he did have the Bullitt Mustang replica there which was just about finished! The car was impeccable and glad I finally saw it up close.

At this stage I was happy but John said the paint guys were around the corner waiting for us with Toby’s car fresh from the booth! So in the car we went around to have a look at his car.

First let me just say by this time I was quite delirious having only had a few hours sleep over the weekend, so my idea to take heaps of photos and videos went out the window and, as you can see, the lighting in the night was poor in the shops so the photos came out not the best but you get the idea.

The guys told me Toby’s car was having some last bits of touch up after some bubbles came up. But I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Overall it was a great weekend and fantastic to get down there again. Stay tuned as Toby’s car should be out of the paint shop and back with John for final fitting soon.

Great progress this week for Toby’s car with the some nice confirmation pictures that show the paint laid down along with the main stripes and side stripes.

Last we heard was the car was prepped and ready for paint. But a few weeks have passed and she’s just about out of the paint booth and ready for the final fit up.

I will be taking a little road trip next weekend to meetup with John about my car. Hopefully Toby’s car will be there. As for other cars. I’m told the Bullitt replica will be there receiving it’s final fitout. I don’t think my old girl will be there, she’s getting finishing touches on the body work before paint.

Stay tuned in the next week or so for some photos and videos. If all goes well I’ll take quite a few as I’ll be there in person for once.

Sorry it’s been a while between updates, I’ve been working on some site updates which have included an upgrade to the backend and a great new look for the site which you will see in the next few days!

Anyway Toby has just returned from the states where he met up with Jason from Classic Recreations, a big thanks to Tobys for the Classic Recreation gifts! I’ll be hoping to get some photos and vids up from the their factory soon.

So Toby’s Eleanor continues to move along, having had the engine bay and various other bits painted which I posted about a few weeks back. Now the panels are going back on in preparation for the final paint which showed be happening this week or next.

After that it’s back into mine! wow I can’t remember when I posted fresh pictures of my car. Anyway enjoy these new pictures of Toby’s.

Well the last I mentioned about Toby’s car was that it was just about ready for the paint booth. Now after a brief Christmas and New Years break Toby’s 1968 Eleanor is even closer to completion.

The car is now in the paint booth having had the engine bay sprayed and all the doors and extra bits and pieces sprayed up. I’m told the pepper grey and stripes will be going on this week! exciting times it must be for Toby.

And as for my car? Well the last i posted on her was way back in November last year. I’m sorry to say no work has been done on my old girl, but for good reason. The guys have been concentrating all their time on Toby’s car.

Earlier this week John contacted me saying; “Anyways, the body work will be started again on your old girl in about a week or 2.

Anyway, I will talk soon and let you know what’s happening, lots going on at this time.”

So i’m still hanging in there and hopefully 2009 we’ll get some dramatic advances forward. I’m hoping to have her painted up this year, finances willing.

In the mean time here are some photos of Toby’s car from this past week. I hope to have some of the Pepper grey on her in the next week or two, so stay tuned.

As I previously reported Toby’s car was going in for paint and my car was just about to head to the converters. Well I’ve just received a small update from John, my builder, as to what’s happening. Details after the jump.

John says “Toby’s is in the prep stage of the paint. My painters do a lot of Hot Rod bodys and a lot of these are Fibre glass. There is a few stages to the prep of the body as a lot of it is Fibre glass. The panels need to be prepped using a special under coat that will let the paint stick to the fibre glass. Once this is cured, the fibre glass panels need to be sprayed with a epoxy filler. This is done as the fibre glass panels are never flat, they have lots of little waves in them. The spray filler is then faced back to remove these waves and any pin holes that are in the glass. Once the guys are happy with this, the primer/surfacer is applied, faced back and then the colour build is applied. This colour build is then faced back twice to make sure everything is flat. Once this is all done, the panels are fitted back on the car and the stripes are painted. Car comes apart and the Pepper grey is applies and then the clear coat. Still got a few weeks of prep work to do but it is getting there.”

So it seems Toby’s car is coming along nicely, but what about mine? Well John says “As for your old girl, we are going to start finishing the kit fitting and lining things out. As you can see from the photos of Toby’s the gaps are looking pretty tight. We have to revisit your car now to make sure it’s the same.

I have not talked to the conversion guys for about 2 weeks but last time I did they said that your dash should be finished soon. I have a 66 Fastback there atm, that I am hoping will be finished in a few weeks and then yours is next. Hooray!!!!! The other projects are slowly starting to thin out, so soon I should only have about 5 or 6 to finish.”

So that’s good news! Things are starting to come together and we should hopefully have some major updates to post on here because as most of you know I still have that little bit of cash waiting to go, so once that is sent over to John it should get things moving nicely.

As I don’t have any new photos of my car here are some recent ones of Toby’s before heading off to paint.

Apologies for the lack of updates, It’s been very quiet over here in Australia with a very cold winter work has slowed down. Unfortunately last week we had an accident in the shop. While working on my friend Toby’s Eleanor project one of the body guys almost severed his hand. I’m not too sure how it happened as I can’t get to the shop but work was halted for a while. Now while he recovers we are one man down.

It seems Toby’s car has caused a fair few headaches for the guys, so much so that they have dubbed the car, The Cursed Car.

As we stand now Toby’s car is the priority. We only have one group of guys and I think something around 4 or 5 cars in various stages of restoration. Toby’s car should, fingers crossed, be off to paint in the next couple of weeks which will bring my old girl out from the corner to have her right hand drive conversion started.

The RHD conversion could take some time though. Speaking with Toby this week I was almost crushed to hear that his conversion took almost 6 months. But I guess we can’t rush these things, although I would love to.

On the financial front I’ve put in for my loan and have just to send the contract in and we can be on our way, however I was offered the same loan from a family member at an extremely lower percentage rate, only catch, I have to wait until October. I think i might wait as the money saved on interest can be put back into the car, so a little bit of waiting here could mean a closer finish to the project.

Will keep you posted. John, my builder is due to give me an update shortly, though I don’t think there will have been any progress to my car, though if there is I will be sure to let you know.

The car is currently with the conversion guys (where mine is headed after the body is fitted) There was a lot of work to do with his conversion as it appeared it was done very shabbily originally. The car is set to go to the body guys soon where they will work on it along with mine.

I don’t have Toby’s car particulars with me but I will get them and post them up. But for now here are some progress pics to keep you busy.