Yeah JC,

It did give me the sh!ts - and now the engineer has to come out and inspect.

And I havent done a thing on any of the cars since the 16th.

Not too much damage badass, but the assessor was really nice and helpful. I hope nothing of yours was damaged.

Cheers,
Tricky

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

we where lucky only thing broken was the TV antenna

dan.

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Cheers Dan

FIRST COMES THE MONEY, THEN COMES THE POWER, THEN COMES THE WOMEN.!!

Tricky, I have noticed there hasn't been much action in this thread of late. How's the insurance claim going / any progress on the cat?

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

Hey Nick,

Merry Xmas to you and your family.

Not much progress in the last month, due to all the other things that have been going on around the edges.

The engineer still hasnt come to look at the slab yet, which is a bit disappointing but I guess their workload at the moment is masive, so I'll simply wait my turn.

I am in the middle of doing all the charge pipes at the moment, and their are quite a bit of fab work with all the joins etc. A fabricator I used just raised his prices so I thought "Why dont I ust do all the alloy fab myself" so I decided that would be a good idea and just bought myself a good TIG.




So, thats about it for the mo, not much I know but I'm hoping to get cranking again

Cheers,
Tricky

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

Ooooh, AC tig - that's the Chrissy present I wanted but couldn't afford

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Too many cars, and too little time.

yeah Moke,

Cant wait to get some filler rods and Argon and try her out!

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

wow Santa must really like El Gato , so many dials and switches

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Respect mine and I'll respect yours.

Ah very nice Tricky

For some reason everyone wants everything done before xmas Ah well, I hope they turn up soon for you.

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"In two years time your car will be like a lady's clothes, out of date, my car will still be in fashion when I am dead" - Sir Alec speaking to Pininfarina

Thanks Nick, yes lets hope so.

Anyway, tomorrow is spring cleaning day in the workshop, so at leats that's some progress right there!

Ken - yeah, its a really good machine, best TIG I could afford.

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

sucks to hear about the damages tricky, (i cant believe its been this long since i sifted throught the El Gato thread )

hope you had a good new year mate and things are starting to pick up to get back to normal with the repairs of things.
i take it your having fun with the new TIG

afterall... im sure im not the only one on here wanting another 'El Gato' Fix

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00' Forester GT

How are you enjoying that TIG? I've really been enjoying mine lately. It's so satisfying to lay down a sexy bead.

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email - [email protected]
http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/TurboOrangie/

67 Traveller - Needs restoration
www.victoria-chiropractors.ca

Happy New Year Lach and Nigel,

Yes, having a bit of fun with the TIG - and believe me its not easy if you have never used one before!!!

However, I just cant foot the costs for getting work outsourced now. In two jobs it has cost me the price of the TIG, so I bit the bullet.

I have a heap of jobs to do with the TIG, mostly aluminium, such as the El Gato airbox, intercooler water spray reservoir, charge pipes, intake pipe etc. I am going to be busy for a while just welding.

I wont post any one my welds yet, as I am still getting it right and as Nigel says, 'sexy' is the go!!!

I have now got my eye on a plasma cutter too, so this will be the last cutting/welding machine I will ever need.

I will be back into The Cat in a very short while, I just need to go and buy some sheet aluminium to fab up the airbox and the water tank.

Look for a substantial update soon.

Cheers,
Tricky

P.S. Nigel, you do put down a nice weld!!

_________________
"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

I've got a plasma cutter in my garage too. Sure nice for making odd shaped things, saves a lot of time. I mostly free hand things and then clean them up with a grinder or file. But if you really want to take some time making a template to run the plasma gun against it sure makes some nice parts just using the plasma cutter.

Make sure that aluminum is clean right before you TIG it. It's so much more important than with mild steel. Also I learned it is quite important to have the correct aluminum rod. I was welding up a custom aluminum bell housing for a friend and I did not have the correct wire. Everything welded up nice, but once it cooled it would crack. Same thing happened on a custom intake manifold I was building. Then I had to grind out the improper alloy and then use the correct aluminum rod and everything turned out well with no cracks. I guess it's all just part of the learning process, but it sure is fun. Have you tried welding aluminum or stainless yet? I found them a little easier to get nice welds right away compared to mild steel.

It's nice to be able to do your own TIG'ing not only because you save money but because it's handy to do it right when you want it done. I hate having to wait for others to get around to it. And you will end up TIG'ing more things just because you can.

I look forward to seeing some of your welds and see how much enjoyment you get out of it.

_________________
email - [email protected]
http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c207/TurboOrangie/

67 Traveller - Needs restoration
www.victoria-chiropractors.ca

Yep Nigel, the plasma cutter is definitely on the shopping list!!!!

I will just be doing std aluminium Nigel - 6061 so I got the general purpose rods that suit the 6XXX series aluminiun.

I havent tried welding stainless or aluminium yet, but I think I will give it a go this weekend.

What other toys have you got?

Cheers,
Tricky

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"Not Speeding Officer..........Qualifying"

Hey Tricky,

Thought I'd say G'day. Have been off-line for a while and just spent some time catching up on ElGato. Sorry to hear about your woes, hope all is on the way to being fixed now.

Must say I like what you've achieved in my absence. Tis looking good.

Cheers,

Dicko.