59 RHD South African Queen

[roy mawbey]

Drew,

Your workshop is wonderful, super job outside and inside. I like the flypress. As an apprentice toolmaker in the late 50's I had the chance to use one so often. They are so useful!!

Understand how you feel about cutting up a good body and making something else from it. Your efforts 'D' wise make a lot of sense and you Drew have the ability I think as well as the space to make it work.
My brother had Messerschmitt three wheeler for years, your son is lucky a good investment I reckon.

I will be watching your 'D' ideas with real interest!

Roy

[Drew.s]

Thanks Roy
The fly press is just starting to pay dividends, I just need to invest in more tooling.

I don't think I would have ever forgiven myself if I had cut up the 58 chassis and I am in talks with Ric @ (Rusty Tubs) to exchange for a whole stash of Con 'D' pieces to make my 'D' as good as new.

More work on the 'African Queen'.
In preparation for the new floor I had to get the RHD pedal cluster and associated linkages all lined up.
So some may find these picture interesting to see how complex the RHD set up was.





More soon, thanks for looking.
Drew

[roy mawbey]

Super looking RHD area Drew, it is quite complex on left side too with the hand throttle adjustment. Nice pics!

Roy

[Red911]

Hi Drew,

I am such an amateur based on what I see in Justin's board.

I did purchase a nice CD called Bodywork Restoration Tutorial by David Garniner who lives in Great Britain. His work inspired me to do about 25% of the excellent fab work that Justin and you do, along with the others here.

I will continue to learn from all of you and get better.

Tom

[JTR70]

Thanks for saying so Tom we are blessed to have so many talented guys sharing their work with us. As for me, that's way too much credit, I'm just a typical enthusiast like yourself doing the best that I can with what I've got. However I do agree that Drew does some really clean and well thought out work.
Thanks again!
Justin

[Drew.s]

More soon.
Drew

[Drew.s]

Here is the left side cleared out.





New heater tube fabricated and welded in.

[JTR70]

Really nice job fabricating all those intricate pieces from nothing Drew. Looks great!

Justin

[roy mawbey]

Well done Drew that looks really good. Frightening to look at before you started. That area has frightened many guys I reckon over the years. So pleased I caught mine just in time and it only needed a caps to the bottom.

Roy

[jjeffries]

What nice work you're doing. Great job. May I ask what brand of MiG you use? The welds look great. John

[Drew.s]

More soon
Drew

[JTR70]

I'm under no illusions about that Drew. My car did not breach through in that area so I left it alone but the longs of course rusted out. I know there is still thick old cancer lurking in the bowels of my chassis. But I've added drain holes to let any future moisture that might get in there some place to go. And also access to spray penetrating oil or perhaps wax as the years go by so it doesn't advance further. At this point To me its akin to prostate cancer at 85 if it can be kept in check and its not causing issues (structural integrity in this case) then I'm willing to just leave it be. IMHO
Keep up the great work!
Justin

[roy mawbey]

Drew,

I remember well the lowest flat area of that torsion bar area and the pinholes of rust. The sides were sound but I remember making the 2 off bottom cappings for each side out of much heavier gauge sheet. I thought if ever anyone lifts the car its got to hold it and not collapse.

And I was correct those who don't know the proper area's always used these flat area's. I did not though put in a drain plug !! Would have been a great idea Drew. But..it was 1976 or so then and I knew the best way forward over here was not to drive on wet roads!!

Roy

[John Pierce]

Drew, any updates on your car?

[Drew.s]

After taking many measurements and studying the angle/intersection of each tube I can now weld the various size tubes together to form accurate left or right side heater assemblies.



More updates soon
Thanks for stopping by.
Regards
Drew

[JTR70]

Really nice job on this long. rebuild Drew!