Sunday, September 12, 2010

The King of Road...



Those of you that know me know that I love my Holden Kingswood. She's a beaten up old girl but driving her is an utter pleasure. She's not built for driving around town - this beast is made to escape on adventures. But she's in need of some TLC and the time has come to start tidying her up. 
The last owner installed air shocks in the beast. This meant she kept deflating and dragging on the ground. If the back seat was full on my fat mates this resulted in a shower of sparks and having to stop every half hour to re-inflate the shocks. Not great so out come the shocks and some new beauties go in. While I was there I decided I might as well put some new springs in too. In go-faster red no less. 
Nice. Now the other problem with the car have been the mag tyres... 



They're old classics but sadly the aluminum has become porous over the years. They had a slow leak and would go flat after a few days sitting up. So I’d be stopping to blow up the shocks and the tyres at regular intervals! In fact once of the back left one decided to blow on the Foxton bridge - the bridge is two very narrow lanes on state highway one. No pulling over. I had to keep driving and shred the bloody tyre. The end result wasn't pretty. 

So new mags. These proved pretty difficult to source. There’s not a big market for new mags on a car that’s 38 years old and not many around. But some rum chaps in Ozzie do make them. However I did have to sit around and wait until they had enough orders to press some new ones. They’re simple and not too fussy and they rejoice in the name “spitfires” Brent at Browning Motors was happy to buy the old mags off me so they’ve gone to a good home. It was a rainy day when I put these beauties on but there was sun shining in my heart I can tell you. 

Ooo aren't they sweet? It was a some hard work but I can report that she’s riding like a dream and I’m using a lot less “free air” If you fancy a spin when the sun comes out then give me a shout. We’ll roll down the windows, put on our wrap-arounds and blast some AccaDacca out the speakers. 

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations, it's four boys! You must be so proud. Identical mag quadruplets. Where do I send the card? Nice to share the joy with you.
    Are you working on it with your dad? Is this project taking precedence over the assorted objects you tantalised us with earlier? Does the NZFC know they bought mags and shocks? You have to put the car in a film so that it can get paid as an extra and pay its own way.

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  2. The NZFC doesn't pay all my bills Tanya. I do work hard for my money, so hard for it honey. PS: Are you internet stalking me?

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  3. no. if i was internet stalking you i would have noticed your comment earlier than today. :)

    if you want to be internet stalked, i recommend someone from a prison, they have the time required! :)

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  4. I guess I wish I was famous enough to warrant a stalker. :)

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  5. One day, Nick.... just keep making replica guns out of lego and freaking out the terrorist paranoid Americans who are probably monitoring your site as we write. They were thinking - shit, we're going to have to start calibrating the airport security machines to target Lego plastics now! Being stalked by CIA probably isn't as much fun as it looks on CHUCK, though.

    If you want an internet stalker, I recommend just asking for one or for a better guaranteed result, hire one. Makes you look cool.

    Weapons of miniscule destruction - crack up!! Loved that frame. very cool. Start selling those.

    And you have way too much spare time. And yes, I am jealous. Being able to give free rein to creative urges and pottering around shops filled with Neils of the oily and feathered varieties must be fun for you. Good on you. Are you taking Neil (the one in the tux) to SWANZ?

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