A is for Austin

Lookin good, at least you got them home now, plenty of fun to fill in the after work hours and spare time, keep up the good work!! and the 180 looks schmick!

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Hooroo
DD

What is it with old trucks having fencing wire dumped on them, 2 of 3 of my old trucks have had a load full of wire to remove before they come home.
I remember riding in one of these Austins as a kid back in the early 80's that a old farmer over the road had, no drivers door and no brakes but it just went and went and went until he had someone feeding stock with it while he was away and it dropped a valve.
That Valiant ute in the background looks in ok shape to

Must be because they make a good storage unit with the wire up off the ground The valiant ute had dissapeared yesterday. Also heaps of things had hession bags on them, so either the scrapies have just been or are about to come. Hard to tell if thats the to save stuff or to scrap >

Time for a bit of an update I guess. Not much has happened in the backyard, Busy working on the Big Trucks and modern coaches with weekends going towards keeping them logging jiggers turning. So chaos as any good hard working apprentice would find.

Well as things would have it, a bit over a month ago was contacted by a bloke down the road who had seen the other two besides the house and was wondering if I was interested in another. So off we went and had a look at it and a price was agreed upon (Much to Mum's delight haha)

With a bit of talking to my boss Mal, a date was decided upon to pick her up and bring this one to the workshop (Seeing as I'm now out of room at home and still haven't got that other one missing the rear diff home yet.....)

Pictures from the rescue effort come forth!

Here we see the 'Rocket' (Well known amongst Wangaratta Coachlines as our company car) hooked up for the initial stage of the move. Unfortuantly she wouldn't budge so the winch was dragged out and a suitable tree selected.


Having got #4 from the house and down to the road behind the Rocket, the tailshaft was dropped and the truck hooked up ready for the Tow. For those of us in the Wangaratta-Wodonga area would see our tow truck often in the papers/news rescuing many a bogged 'Big Rig' from the middle of the Hume.


Another picture


And finally at her new home in the corner of the yard. This is were I should probably thank a couple people. Firstly my boss, Mal Robinson of 'Robinsons Truck & Coach Maintenance' for donating his time to do the tow job and allow it to be restored at work and Steve Mavro for allowing the tow to happen.

In the past week I've been working away at it rather hard and as of 3.00 this arvo the tray has finally been lifted off the rails. Target is its maiden voyage on Haulin the Hume in April, Only 279 days to go I think haha.

Happy Restoring, Speedy

Great work Speedy. These projects never happen overnight, but they DO happen in the end!

Another fun afternoon has been had in the sun doing this n that..... Time for a week in review haha


Earlier in the week the cold frost of the North East of Victoria was in full swing. Here we see it having had all the fire fighting gear taken off the back.


The tray finally lifted up off the rails yesterday afternoon, with all other works during the week being spent on preparing for this moment and being able to drag the truck out from underneath.


How things were seen around lunchtime today. Wheels taken off to alow for room to work around. Quick inspection reveals excessive movement in the kingpins, tierod ends and shackles. Easy enough fixed further down the track.


Once again the Rocket appears to drag the Austin out from the tray and into the wash bay.


Major components so far...


Bit of a look at the business end


Off side

This truck has the Body Number of WA 3931, and is 1950 model reading by the rego sticker. A couple of blokes in the Warby Engine club know this trucks history and even rode in it to Melbourne when they were in their mid teens, and there now at retirement age. Makes for good fun and shall have to write them down.

Stephen

g'day Speedy...keep it all coming .. that old mid 'sixties DCF 400 and i go back a long way to about 1980 when it came to the paint shop where i worked, for a cut and polish of the yellow and black (then) paint scheme, and that towing business was not too long later purchased by steve mavro for his AAA operation...

good to see her still carving it out....cheers

Great to see the work you have been doing.

Snaws

This morning had Mal's Sister and her husband in at work. Anyways her husband has got an Austin truck on the go down in Hamilton and was comparing the two and had a quick chat.

Would appear that mine has a Rochester carbi that has been adapted to fit instead of the original. Also the dash in mine is apparently from an another Austin truck and been fitted up. Shall further investigate this and get some pictures up for others to compare.

Also me and young Benny Rob decided to work through lunch and finish early at 4. This gave me enough time to sort my spark issues out and get the firing order sorted. Bit of fuel down the carb, wound her over and momentarily she fired and ran.

Bit of butchering and adapting from Benny and BJ and a fuel 'tank' and lines were setup to the fuel pump, wound her over and got the fuel up to the carb, bit of choke and off she happily ran for a couple of minutes. Its got a miss in one of the pots but it runs and has well n truly upset the doomsayer at work

Now a very happy Speedy