81 BJ42 - I have to bring it home and pass inspection (1 Viewer)

[Awl_TEQ]

Well there's your problem! Bad ground!

 

[cody c]

Might be a case of "the grass is greener on the other side of the fence" but I have always thought New Zealand seemed like one of the best places to emigrate to. The landscape is just like Western Canada according to the travel shows on TV.

But no, I was just showing Tom that shops like the one I work at are everywhere. Any populace of decent size will have a sheet metal shop. Usually HVAC (which is not what we do) for construction of new buildings but also the CNC custom and production manufacturing shops. Not all manufacturing goes to Taiwan and China as is popularly thought. Many products are too low in production volume to warrant the shipping and go through the trouble of sourcing offshore. For the smaller niche market products there can be a lot of pitfalls with having parts made 12000Km away. We have one customer who had us make a prototype cover for their enclosure. "too expensive" they said. So they went to China and ordered hundreds of injection molded plastic covers. Waited months for the ship to come in. Pushed back the release of the product. Made up all the brochures and hit the trade show circuit. Had trouble with customs and importation laws. Finally received the parts and they were completely different from the "perfect" sample the Chinese company sent them. Not to mention they spent more in the end then we quoted them. They ended up bringing them to us to try and alter them but there was nothing we could do. Last I heard the principals of that company were seeking capital to keep it afloat.

There are a lot of shops like ours in Ontario, though many were wiped out with the recession. We are lucky because we are a "custom" shop. Rather than making several parts for just a handful of big customers in just a couple markets we have a couple hundred customers in every market and have over 12000 parts in our system that we can make on short notice. Diversity, its good. When the oilfield is down we still have electronics, food service, architectural, lighting etc, etc. Our tooling and processes are geared toward variability rather than one tool to stamp out one part.

Suffice it to say I like where I work. It's modern, different every day and cool. But if there was a shop in NZ willing to pay really well......

Me and Jen lived in Christchurch (east side of the south island for those that dont know) for about 7 months because we were seriously thinking of moving there for good.

Every thing about New Zealand was great, fishing, hunting, surfing, diving, beautiful beautiful country and it was never far to get off the beaten path.

But... We never had much money to put fuel in our vehicle and go explore for a long weekend, and that was on an electrican (working at about 3rd year apprentice rate) and a nurse, both working full time.

Eventually we realized that although we were there on a working holiday visa to extend our visit, we weren't getting out to explore as much as we wanted.

In hindsight, we would have been better to visit the country for a couple months not working and just exploring/fishing/surfing. You can buy a used vehicle for cheap ($1500-3000) and sell it at small if any loss before you leave, which we did actually.

Australia on the other hand... Also beautiful country, and I think everyone we met were really great people (except for one landlord) and we made more money on the wifes income there than the both of us in new zealand together. I kinda wish I had never left oz, beautiful country and some really great people! I miss it

If you like the terrain of New Zealand, check out Tasmania if you go to australia, very similar but a little warmer on average, and the wages might be a pinch higher.

 

[tim753]

We have some of the best landcruisers in Aus too, and plenty of rough country to drive em. Mate this build is amazing I've been watching from the beginning, keep up the good work

 

[crushers]

cost of living comparison?

check out Tasmania if you go to australia, very similar but a little warmer on average, and the wages might be a pinch higher.

 

[cody c]

cost of living comparison?

We never rented in tasmania, but for the east coast of OZ they werent far off of each other for housing/rent considering the dollar, but income in OZ was almost twice what it was in OZ.

Mind you we were in smaller communities in OZ, comparing housing costs in sydney to townsville or Hervey bay would be like comparing vancouver or toronto to small town in manitoba or ontario.

If I recall food was definately cheaper in Australia, and it was cheap and easy to pick up fresh fruit when we lived in smaller towns near the ocean (Hervey bay, Townsville, Cairns). Plus we got to eat kangaroo steaks every once in a while!

I think overall cost of living was better in OZ, mind you there was a difference in the value of the dollar, and we had more to spend in Australia.

Food was a bit more in Tasmaina as it was a bit more for transporting goods there and a little bit more remote, like the NWT or Northern B.C.

In australia it seemed like there was alot of exploring that could be done, and if you were a rockhound or into goldpanning or metal detecting there was more of that than you'd think if you were adventurous.

I mean no disrespect towards NZ, it is a beautiful place, but I get used to the hotter climates after about 2 months and would move back to a small town or city near the ocean in Australia first. In terms of wheeling, New Zealand has a lot of steep hills and mountains with really thick bush that grows on the side of vertical mountains, a better place for hiking and hunting amongst other things, I could go on and on but its best experienced in person.

JMO.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Real time shots for you junkies.

I got both inner wheel well verticals in on the weekend with some help from IGGY. There was a fair bit of trimming and finishing of the cutouts as well as some painting/ coating of parts that won't see sunshine again.

Not as much progress as I had hoped but I was playing Mr Mom for the weekend too. Turns out children require food and entertainment at regular intervals. Who knew?

Right now I am trimming and fitting up the curved corner bits in order to take them to work to add a little flange they need where they meet the doors.

Locating the sill is a challenge when you've cut it all away. I left the left door on to gauge the fit.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Next was the corner trim pieces. But first I had to finish out the floor to sill connection which requires the sill to be located and that means a lot of measuring. I have a floor section I made that will supply the patch sections.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Welding in

 

[crushers]

hummm, i am thinking it might have been easier and faster for you to build a new body and install ...

 

[Awl_TEQ]

So I welded in the new corners of the floor and a couple strips to the sill and epoxy primed and sealed it all. Then I did the corner pieces. They aren't done yet, there are a few little details to them that I'll weld on as I fab them. Once they are done I can do the quarter corners and then the top of the wheel wells. Then the floor patches further forward. Then the floors at the front. Then a few mechanical fixes. Then inspection.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

hummm, i am thinking it might have been easier and faster for you to build a new body and install ...

No, I would have been months doing that. This is nearly done even if it doesn't look it.

 

[Radd Cruisers]

Totally awsome and inspiring....

Rob

 

[45Kevin]

Um yea...

We missed you at the bridge on Saturday. It's finished now.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Yeah, I wanted to go but I gotta get this truck done and I had to go watch my BIL race for Canada in the world paddling comp at the reservoir. New Zealand dominated the competition but we did ok. There were teams from Rapa Nui, Australia, UK, Italy, Fiji, Tahiti, and a big showing from Hawaii. There were more but I can't recall them all. The Italian women's team had the best uniform . A tight fitting stretchy short dress. Glad I had my dark shades on

 

[crushers]

pics of the outfits or you weren't there ...
<grin>

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Difficult with the wife there LOL

Working on the inside corner pieces. Then the quarter panel patches.

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Quarter corners and wheel well rear corners ready to fab

 

[arnott1t]

As usual, fantastic work. Can't wait to see this unit come together. Home you make it out for sept long at ruby!

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Last nights progress

Got the quarter patches on. Just gotta finish out the welding and clean them up

 

[Awl_TEQ]

Here it is all cleaned up