You know you got solid Mates when they not only facilitate you getting new wheels, but they fix the dent on it before they give it to you. good job guys!
Yea, I was coming to say similar! Of all the internet, we've found two of the legitimate good ones. Love these guys. Wade and James 🫡 _edit: ok... I typed that after watching 15min, but seeing _*_how much_*_ they did... 😮 LEGENDS!!_
If a mate gave me a car when I was in need I'd be thinking hard of figuring out how to repay him. That's not just "being nice", it's really going the extra mile.
High fuel economy? 6 liters for a 650ml 2 cylinder engine is terrible. If only it made some power, but no, 24 hp _when new_ His Maluch probably makes closer to 18 hp, something's horribly wrong with that engine. Normal Maluch hits 140-150 down a hill, 120 on its own. He can't even hit 100. It shouldn't have that much of an issue going up a hill.
every time james does something, he’s just so casual about it, while doing a stellar job. he’s honestly incredible. everyone needs a james in their life
My girlfriend "accidently" bought an auction car i was looking at (for more than i was going to pay) when it arrived, it was absolutely busted. Somehow, my dad (a panel beater of 20 years, 20 years ago) took pity on me and did such an incredible job in such a short time. Really impressive how much they can fix
Imagine Wade's mate watches this video after receiving the car. Just 20 mins of Wade just screaming "THIS IS WHY IT'S EXPENSIVE" lmao. It reminds me of a dad who begrudgingly spoils his kids, but is secretly happy to.
@@dagda1180 long story short in this case yes it should shatter making metal harder hard enough to cut other metal makes it brittle Brittle enough shatter when approximately the same amount of force that would cause low carbon steel to bend or yeild
About 10 years ago I restored and resprayed a HQ ute from my parents farm. I was intent on doing everything myself, sanded it all back, disassembly etc. I got a local guy to start teaching me panel beating, after an hour of banging on a panel with a hammer, it ended up worse than I started, he walked over with a heat gun and many years of experience and fixed it in 5 minutes. He offered to do the rest of the panel beating for 5k and I instantly said yes. Bloody hard work. Much respect to the panel beaters out there.
Even at the depth of bodywork misadventure, the cheerful brass band music creates a buoyant mood. Amazed an LPG barra pulls less revs on the hill than Jeff.
Well it pulled 100 more revs. Really close considering the 4L on LPG is quite a bit less powerful than the older petrol V8, and it's like 200 kilos heavier. I guess having a 6 speed gearbox instead of 4 might mean it has more efficient gearing.
Seeing the use of sikaflex to hold that bumper on hurts me so much having previously worked in a panelshop. That stuff makes it so painful for the next poor bastard that has to work on the car lol
Love the detail of using filler as skimmer and skimmer as filler. Also stepping on an old file would probably snap it too since they're made of hardened steel so they'll file stuff.
That saying "jack of all trades master of none" doesn't apply to James for him it's "jack of all trades master of most" he will take his hand to anything even if he's not done it before he will do it the "wtf method" but the end result is always fantastic. Amazing man and entertaining while also doing brilliant work. Claps for james
I find it comedic that the channel that essentially started because of a polish nugget, and polish stuff keeps finding itself into the garage for some reason
Oh so James is a panel beater now? On top of being a mechanic, electronics expert, museum curator, GC, and presenter? Of course he is, there's nothing that man can't do
A mate turned up at my house some 25 years ago with the gift of his old car. Even though he'd been giving me lifts everywhere for years, he had never twigged I couldn't drive (nor afford to). XD Lovely thought, utterly misplaced gift! :D
The LPG business reminds me of GNV back when I lived in Brazil with my parents. It was everywhere for the longest time and then it just disappeared. Dad loved it, converted every car he had because they ran twice the miles for half the fuel. The gov also cut your taxes for having it.
They used to burn LP gas 24/7 for years at the refinery (not far from the hill Wade uses).. it was a by product... You cd see Pt Stanvac for miles around cos of this big flaming pipe!
@@ferretyluv in Brazil is E100 and we want a good deal. At the time GNV was a good deal. But the kit costs got high and the yearly inspection was a pain.
@@baabaabaa-yp2jh E100 means pure ethanol, 100%. In reality there are stabilisers added so that it doesn’t absorb water as quickly. It’s around 110 octane.
Automotive detailing and automotive body work are the two most time-consuming and most finesse requiring extra services for a car there is. The cheaper you pay the cheaper the work you get
The nail polish thing is no joke. When my mom was getting rid of some old red nail polish, I grabbed it and now I use it as touch up paint for my toolbox. It's a perfect match too.
***Steps on a file and gets mad when it breaks*** THATS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!!! Files are heat treated high-carbon steel. When you heat treat metal, the grains of the metal form a smaller/finer bond causing the metal to become more hard, less malleable, and more brittle. That’s why knife steel can keep an edge whereas a knife made from any old scrap metal will dull the moment it touches anything. Think of metal as glass. Glass is an incredibly strong material, super solid. You can’t bend glass, you can’t compress it, can’t shape it (cold), and it’s one of the sharpest materials (shards). It’s incredibly strong but it’s brittle and will shatter if stressed. Same as metal.
The body filler and hardener mixing and application reminds me of the mid-90s back when my parents' box-type Corolla underwent an at-home paint job for days or weeks and seeing and smelling the entire process. Good times. That gold-colored Corolla was a treasure to have.
You guys are amazing. Like honestly I would not have bothered with the door dent on my own car, much less on something I was fixing up for someone else. Just clean it off and give it a bit of paint so it don't rust.
@17:18 guys, take a direct beam light (phone flashlight, LED headlamp,) hold it on a perpendicular angle to the panel. It will highlight all the bubbles. If you learn about drywall work, it's basically the same thing, but with less different compounds you gotta use!!! I know you're all now addicted to perfecting bodywork after this XD so learn those little tricks!
Plastic repairs are particularly fucked as well Edit: often bumper bars and other plastic panels appear to be poorly matched from factory, mainly because plastic fucks with the color a bit. Also because those bits are often painted at other factories. You can look yourself, most cars will have slightly different coloured bumpers.
That's why I'm glad fullsize trucks still use Chrome Bumpers because you don't get that problem with chrome, I mean I guess you can get the chrome not matching but that's across the car
Kind of funny how things work out. When your car crapped out, your mate gave you the keys to Bruce the lpg falcon ute (Rest in peace). And now a mate of yours needs a car and you're handing them a falcon sedan lpg. The cycle continues.
Metallic silver is one of the most difficult colors to match All the professional car painters ive talked to before say that if they paint a silver metallic car, they paint the whole car, so they can use the paint of just a single batch
We have Dolphin Glaze here in the US also, first time I used it I did the same thing with the hardener. Their stuff is deceiving because it doesn't change colors when you mix it in like nearly every other filler. However when you get it right, it's the best for skim coats and finishing work.
fun fact in Dominican Republic they have a lot of lpg pumps but they also fit lpg tanks to gasoline cars but for some of those cars they are not used to starting up with just lpg meaning you'll get a special button where you can go from Gasoline to lpg hell even while diving you can switch on what you want your car to run on and you wont even know when it happens. but this does mean you'll need to fill both lpg and gas.
In Australia we used to have a lot of gas conversions. Ford and Holden always made them at the factory, but a lot of people had their Gas systems installed afterwards so those usually worked just the same as you're describing. There's still a few odd gas cars around but I don't think anyone's making new ones.
James is just so good at everything he dose ....It honestly makes me not even wanna try to human anymore.... I'll never be a James....he's just too good.
He previously got given a car from (i assume a different) friend, actually similar to this one, just the big ute variant, when he was struggling financially
This is propably my favorite Aussie car, for a very simple reason. Forza Motorsport 4 was the first brand new game I ever bought with my own money and it had lots of supercars from thst Era. They were the first Aussie cars I was exposed to and I absolutely loved their design. And drove the Gis #9 SPTools car hundreds of times. I really want one... But the import prices would propably kill me. Lmao
So the reason that dolphin glaze is so runny is because it’s supposed to be the 2nd to last coat of body filler you put on. It’s really good at not at getting pinholes. It’s actually a really good glaze, I used to use it all the time when I was a bondo bozo and I still use it on 3d prints to hide layer lines. I did a whole 3d printed daft punk helmet using it.
My hand me down FG from my dad is going in for all the body work next week. Super looking forward to seeing it fixed up. About the driving position, its a couch you drive, you can tell the main thought for most of the car was "someone is going to sit in this for HOURS at a time let's make it as comfy and relaxed on the inside as possible" It wants you to sit so far back your shoulders are at the b pillar. Then use a engine that only pulls ~1500rpm at 110kph. Only thing I would tell you to check is driveshaft bearing and diff bushings.
The file snapping after James stepped on it actually makes sense. Files are hardened tool steel: hard as nails, meant for cutting any other steel. But the hardness comes at the price of brittleness. Those files always snap easily - it’s a sign that they were probably good.
I never knew that bodywork and fixing up an oldschool model-kit to be -presentable- had so much in common... James' spraycan control is PREMIUM, love seein' a master in action.
Regarding the headlight cleaner, wonder if Repco just uses decent OEMs for their in-house products. Their tools are apparently made by Sidchrome, a well-regarded local brand.
Well they're Stanley Black & Decker tools, parent company Stanley closed down Sidchrome (and Stanley) production in Australia back in the early 90's sadly. The Australian-made stuff was excellent IMO! It was a shame to hear about the misadventure Stanley had trying to restart American production of Craftsman tools (built a factory, had huge quality problems with the new automated production processes, liquidated the stock and closed it down), but at least the Taiwanese-made Craftsman and Sidchrome (+ Repco) tools are reasonably decent. Some of the more expensive Sidchrome and Craftsman V tools are sourced from Stanley's French tool brand Facom. There are some cheaper Craftsman and Sidchrome tools made in China which are a bit rubbish though...
Also you can get metallic flake VERY CLOSE if you do 2 or more thin coats, and then one thick coat on the tacky last sprayed coat. I've done it for my truck's lund visor and small repairs
The lack of economies of scale of Ford and General Motors by having totally different cars in Europe, Australia and North America is horrific! For a time, the Holden Commodore used somewhat of a widened Vauxhall Carlton and Omega body, but the engines & mechanicals of the car were totally different. (AFAIK there was zero relationship between the Holden straight-six and the Opel straight-six for example, then Holden moved to the Nissan straight-six and then Buick V6 engine, totally ignoring the Opel straight-six engine family.) The Falcon never shared much with the Granada or Scorpio, and after the first two Falcon models which were similar, the Mavericks and Fairmont & Mustang Fox bodies in the USA branced off into a completely unrelated car to the Australian Falcon (and it's straight six that gained crossflow, SOHC and DOHC) too. No wonder the likes of Toyota cleaned up! Front wheel drive Camry/Avalon/Aurion are very similar all over the world, which is efficient. Rear wheel drive Crown/GS300 is very similar all over the world, which is efficient.
@TassieLorenzo Absolutely, think it's just one of the problems with those big car conglomerates I don't know how it can possibly work out financially for them. Seems like they take once great brands and start making them produce utter rubbish. Wish the UK was able to keep hold of some of its classic brands rather than losing them all to the highest bidder, it hurts everytime I see one of those new godawful MGs driving about and I wasn't even around for the heyday of MG.
The panel beating was impressive (minus the fact that you should always sand away the paint on the exposed side before you do it from the other side), but Wade, I gotta level with you - not only is silver the hardest colour to paint match, but the end result is actually somehow worse than when you started. I commend the effort though, 110%!
Wade, you gotta' see the silliness we're doing for new car engines in the USA. Putting a 1.2L 3 cylinder turbo in compact SUVs, and they roar like a Mustang going uphill. It's pure madness, a true 2024 nugget. 😂
@@ferretyluv Yeah, I can lift the back end of my 2024 Trailblazer by hand, and I'm NOT a particularly strong person (I did bend the rear bumper doing so though, oops). The whole car weighs nothing compared to how it looks, and the engine bay is twice the depth it needs to be for the dinky little engine, so it ships by default with this enormous intercooler that barely gets warm, and everything but the fuel filter is super accessible right up front, just because what else are they going to fill the space with?
You've gotta love the old Falcon transmissions ( replaced it about every 100,000 kms on the XF), bumpers and door handles. When I saw the mileage I thought it might have been an ex cab. I remember the XF Falcon I drove as a cab. It was at nearly 1,000,000 kms and it was due to come of the road due to age. The boss put a new motor in it claimed it on his tax and keep it as his private vehicle. He then replaced it with an EL wagon with the taxi pack.
