Upper Middle Petrol Head:

  My iPad made me a video.  Or possibly the photo app on my iPad did.  All I know is three years ago, I took some photographs at the Baskerville Historics and now, all this time later, they’ve been put to music and sequenced into some sort of slideshow.   You might enjoy it. If so, please let me know.  I’ll tell my iPad and / or the photo app what a kung fu job it’s / they’ve done.  Cheers, U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)

The main benefit of following the Elephant Eating School of Car Restoration should be obvious:  not biting off more than you can chew!  As an amateur with only basic skills, a modest tool kit and no workshop of any consequence, I do try to keep my tasks down to manageable chunks so that I can celebrate my occasional wins, not get too hissed-off when I c*ck things up and I don't find myself having too many WTF moments! I admire the intrepid bare-metal, nut and bolt restorers and resto-modders - especially the D-I-Yers - I really, really do, but am faint of heart by comparison.   And kinda lazy, too.  Weekend jobs are more my thing; half-dayers if I think I can achieve something worthwhile in such a short timeframe.      Staying true to the elephant-eating philosophy can, however, be easier in theory that it is in the real world.  Example:  new seat belts were required for P3P.  Their removal meant that the rear trim had to be ta...

Don't get me wrong;  P3P is, in restoration terms, a mere doddle.  It's very almost complete and what few parts I've needed - the front seatbelts, for example - haven't been too hard to source, thanks to the efforts of my mechanic, Steve.  Even the nice-to-haves - the Alfa "wineglass" wheels, spring-loaded bonnet prop and replacement front bumper - have almost fallen into my lap as either mates' rates bargains or other reasonably-priced local purchases.    Even so, it does occur to me now, several months into a resto that only requires professional assistance for the mechanical and metalwork side of things, that bringing an old car back to life is a bit like eating an elephant.  How am I approaching this mammoth task?  One bite at a time! The front seatbelts certainly weren’t the first chomp of the resto, as regular readers will realise, but they were badly sun-damaged, with faded webbing and stitching that was coming apart, as well as some light ...

Too sexy?  Too sexy by far?  Taking a little turn on the Upper Middle Petrol Head catwalk today is this absolutely stunning Datsun 240Z, resplendent in hyper-green duco and what look like 15" Wattanabes. It isn't possible to say how modded the car is but I do believe that I spy a set of Willwood calipers up-front and it looks to have been nicely stanced.  The fattish tail pipe suggests that the donk may have been upgraded, while the front spoiler looks - and very likely is - entirely purposeful!   Stock or worked, it simply doesn't matter!  The seminal 240Z is rightfully considered to be one of the very most beautiful cars ever built and has a timelessness that's just seen its latest reincarnation - the Z (no numerical identifier required!) - taking more styling cues from the original than almost any iteration of the line since the S130 280ZX of 1982/3. U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) Photos by the Canberra Correspondent.  

A quick bit of Wiki-action pretty much confirms that this venerable beast is an early 1960s Fairlane 500, quite likely an FB model.  If so, it's probably running a 221 cu Windsor V8 - assuming it's not had an upgrade - and not the 289 I thought it'd be fitted with.  FB Fairlanes were built at Ford Australia's Homebush plant in Sydney, New South Wales.   It might not be in absolutely perfect nick but, given that it's going to celebrate its 60th birthday about the same time I will, it's actually pretty damned amazing.  They sure don't make 'em like that anymore! U M P H (uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.) All iPhone images.

My two Fiats:  Rosso the 128 3P project car (left) and Arancio the soon to be completed ex-UK Serie Speciale X1/9. Old cable (top left), newbie (right) and rear of instrument cluster showing the speedo drive (protuberance on the left) and three multi-pin wiring blocks. Rumour had it that replacing an X1/9's speedo cable is a bugger of a job, second only to brake and clutch master cylinder removal and reinstallation for its pain in the botty rating.  The fact that my trusty Haynes manual doesn't even mention the procedure didn't inspire confidence, either! It was, however, a job that I couldn't put off any longer, having bought a replacement from Vick Autosports, Texas, USA, nearly twenty months' ago (US$60, delivered).  Time to stop being a mechanical girlie man! To be honest, I really don't know what the fuss was about!  It's actually very simple, as I'll explain: First of all, I removed the instrument cluster (five Allen screws), disconnected the three...