Double Trouble

[Bushbasher]

Well, after flying to Melbourne and driving it back here to SA, it's been a bit of a drama one way and another but finally the Sportsman is home and tucked up with the Sportsman....huh??, Yup, there's 2 of them now...







I haven't had a chance to wash them yet and although outwardly they appear identical, and even though they were only built less than a month apart, there is one significant difference that only emerged after my mechanic swapped the gas systems from one car to the other. Apparently the wiring loom was changed slightly and the fuel injector feed and the trans feed wires were changed so car 2 has slightly different wiring/colour combinations to car 1. As a consequence, my mechanic, who took pics and video of everything he did as he removed the gas system from car 1 so he could just transpose it to car 2, managed to wire it back in wrong and put the trans into limp home mode. He spent most of today pulling the offending wiring out and tracing every wire in the loom just to see where it went to so he could make sure he got it right this time. He's not a happy camper right now and vows to never again do a swap job unless he puts all new wiring in himself, and who can blame him.

Apart from that, it's all good and after a trans. service and a few other little jobs to swap stuff from one car to the other I'm very happy with the car. The reasons for the second car are two fold, firstly, my original Sportsman needs a complete suspension rebuild and paint the whole top of the car before I'd be happy with it again so this was the cheaper option considering that as of this moment it's only cost me about $5500 to park it in my driveway and I expect to get $1000 of that back with the LPG rebate. And secondly, well,,,,, the Sportsman is just a lovely car to drive and the pick of the bunch, with the comfiest seats, excellent factory sound, plenty enough power to get the job done, cheap as chips to run on LPG, simple to service and repair, and with the best colour combination - Silver over Meteorite, why would I want to drive anything else.
... and now I have a complete car for spares, and panels I can bolt straight on should I ever need them and not need a paint job, except for the bonnet and boot of coarse. As far as I'm concerned it's a win win.

A huge thanks has to go out to Kristo for firstly going out and checking out the car for me and secondly, haggling the guy for me and doing the deal then taking the car home and holding it for me; and thirdly, for going out of his way to take the afternoon off work to go out to Tullamarine and pick me up from the plane. Mate, you are a legend, and meeting your dad I can see where you got your love of Fairlanes from, it was great just having a coffee and talking cars for a while with someone else who has the passion, cheers.


I'll put up a pic of them clean when I get a chance, till then.....

Cheers
Bushbasher