Private car show...

John and Annette Brook-Smith dropped in with their lovely van. We met up with an Austin Health bug-eye in a local reserve.  A nice collection, related and all from 1958-59.

2 j vans

Nick Fuller and I have just met up at Patterson lakes primary school fete...

Retired or re-tyred...?

Well, of course she is not being retired... she has her new diff in and smaller tyres so she doesn't scrape the shed door any more.  Great to be back on the road.

New Differential

To make the van more comfortable to drive at speed I am getting a custom diff made, with a ratio of 4.1 rather than the 5+ that is in there.  I have chosen 'Dandy Diffs' in Dandenong (outer Melbourne industrial suburb) to make it for me.  They had a beautiful lathe from the 1940's there, still in use.  The owner picked it up for $1000 a couple of years ago.  What a bargain!  I guess this stuff isn't valued because the skills to use them are disappearing as fast as manufacturing in this great country.

That's my rant for the day.

Working at the cafe

The Van has a job at the local cafe here in Carrum.  I get free coffee all week and $25 if I park the van outside the shop.

Spiders

Everyone wants a ride in the jb van...

Collecting Christmas trees

A fine day for a drive to collect some festive gear.  The christmas tree seller ran to my van and, like a gorilla, leapt onto the rear bumper while holding the protruding door hinge yelled:
'I spent me child'ood loike dis!'
He went on to recount the bakery vans up in Cheltenham (Melbourne suburb) and how the fleet of 30 JB's were sold of one by one for 50 dollars.
I really must take a voice recorder with me so I can collect these stories, the vans do seem to elicit a lot of emotion in people.
Simian, mainly.

nowhere in particular