Its finally in etch prime! Woohoo

**Robbo** · 07-01-2015, 11:31 PM

Great progress, understandably excited too. Well done on all this work.

**Vombil** · 08-01-2015, 01:44 AM

cripes... that is the definition of easy having her on the spit! inner rockers and floor pans would be a breeze! looking great

**damienengland** · 08-01-2015, 10:48 AM

Originally Posted by Vombil

cripes... that is the definition of easy having her on the spit! inner rockers and floor pans would be a breeze! looking great

Thanks Vombil. Yes it certainly has made the underneath a breeze and the good thing is, i can see there will be no nasty surprises at the end of the day. Cheers

**damienengland** · 09-01-2015, 09:00 PM

Ok, i'm gonna go for the Ta-Da! moment tonight, even though its not really that much to see. I picked up the boot tub today and got a couple of pics of the completed TIG welding.

The van floor is even getting tidied up around the custom chop

**Big Rob** · 10-01-2015, 12:29 AM

Geez! some owner way off in the future is going to tell everyone that he has a genuine factory experimental Sandman with a boot!

It really does look like it came that way mate. Damn good job by all involved!

**damienengland** · 10-01-2015, 10:35 AM

Originally Posted by Big Rob

Geez! some owner way off in the future is going to tell everyone that he has a genuine factory experimental Sandman with a boot!

It really does look like it came that way mate. Damn good job by all involved!

Haha, thanks Big Rob, I guess its become a bit bigger than ben hur but its nearly done now. To be honest, my biggest goal is to fill it full of ice and see how much piss I can fit into it. I reckon about 6 cartons on ice would fit really well. Now i need to start turning my attention to the fuel fill point mounted behind the RHS tail light. Hmm that should be easy......

**RAEME** · 11-01-2015, 08:21 AM

Looks fantastic. Your body worker is doing a real professional job. Good to see a skilled tradesman. With the Ice and beer idea are you going to coat the inside of the " boot" in a spray on insulation type product? I was just thinking of the heat from the road, exhaust etc. Cheers
Also did you fit a drain bung to allow you to wash it out and drain the melted ice out and such?

**damienengland** · 11-01-2015, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by RAEME

Looks fantastic. Your body worker is doing a real professional job. Good to see a skilled tradesman. With the Ice and beer idea are you going to coat the inside of the " boot" in a spray on insulation type product? I was just thinking of the heat from the road, exhaust etc. Cheers
Also did you fit a drain bung to allow you to wash it out and drain the melted ice out and such?

Hi RAEME, thanks and you have some good ideas, I suspect you are a professional piss head to have that much respect for protecting the beer!

I will be popping a bung into it as you suggested, but it would probably only be used to hold ice and drinks for a show....to show off. On the subject of exhaust, if the pipes came out the back, they would track right next to the tub but i want to drop them out behind the rear wheels so i shouldn't have too much heat issues.

With regards to the professional at work, his name is Dennis and he is a career panel beater, now i his 60's. He travels around in his truck, fully tooled up to do custom or difficult repairs and worked at Holden from the mid 60's to the mid 70's. He was telling me a story about being asked to cut a corner mounted tail light into the HQ sedan body, so the Holden engineers could look at it as a design option. This became the HJ sedan tail light, which i reckon is a cool story.

Cheers

**we wreck xx7s only** · 11-04-2015, 11:44 PM

Originally Posted by damienengland

With regards to the professional at work, his name is Dennis and he is a career panel beater, now i his 60's. He travels around in his truck, fully tooled up to do custom or difficult repairs and worked at Holden from the mid 60's to the mid 70's. He was telling me a story about being asked to cut a corner mounted tail light into the HQ sedan body, so the Holden engineers could look at it as a design option. This became the HJ sedan tail light, which i reckon is a cool story.

Cheers

ole dennis ($20bux a tap)Robertson..very good tradesman, his alloy work was mighty fine in the pro street "alloy interior days" of the 80's etc. I'm tippin your car is at roadster panels??

**damienengland** · 12-04-2015, 10:40 AM

Originally Posted by Vombil

looks like its green, green or green. barbados or lettuce alone like Rob said would get my vote too

Barbados looks awesome with blackouts and is not overwhelming (like white or red etc) given the large volume of surface area on a van

Yes, green is the choice, its now just a matter of which one. My most favourite panel van, was Jamaican Lime and i have always remembered it fondly, but as this unit isn't a Sandman, I'm tempted to go a bit radical on the paint. The missus reckons the metal fleck sample I got, looks like priscilla queen of the desert!

Originally Posted by we wreck xx7s only

ole dennis ($20bux a tap)Robertson..very good tradesman, his alloy work was mighty fine in the pro street "alloy interior days" of the 80's etc. I'm tippin your car is at roadster panels??

Yep correct on all fronts, that's good detective work XX7. Panel shop suggested Dennis for the custom bit when i told them how i wanted all the profiles and ribs to look factory. I wish i had known him when he scored the rep of $20 bux a tap....it would have been way cheaper

Just kidding, his work is excellent and i can't complain about his hourly rate. In hindsight, to stay cost effective I would do more of the design and prep work before i got Dennis in.