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Hi Ben, I finally caught up on this thread. A lot has happened since I last read your blog. Congratulations on the birth of your son. By the sounds of it the move back to Melbourne was a good idea. Nothing worse than working a job you hate. How's the build coming along? Any more progress...

haha, its a small world, great minds think alike! It looked good on the advert, I guess you never know until you check them out. How's the job going? Any better options coming up yet? I think you'd be surprised how effective starting your own home maintenance business can be. Maybe even building...

http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/1089385373 Close to you as well!

Hi Ben, I'm also a commercial market gardener and have grown thousands of tomatoes over the years. When I grow them in a glasshouse and run them up a trellis I pinch out every second growing shoot, not the fruiting shoot (you want the fruit!) and wrap them around the string weekly. They grow to...

I just saw this on Facebook

Hi Ben, if you ever need to get your tools test and tagged to work on site you'll have to do away with the white plug tops and use clear. It's the law now for all replacements to be see through. It's silly but as a test and tagger I'd have to fail it.

Hi Ben, Be very cautious with a rear rack. They're good on long range enduro setups, but bloody dangerous on a motorcross bike. If the bikes comes out from under you, you will catch both legs on the rack and do a backflip with the bike. They're designed to be slim so you can "abandon ship" if...

Hi Ben, I've been a WR450 rider for a long time. They're great bikes. As far as bark busters go, I'm not a fan of the full wrap around style with the metal inside them. Although they're very strong, they're also nicknamed "wrist snappers"... If you go over the handle bars and your hands are...

I think the tray back comes down to practicality. Lets presume 80+ % of Landcruisers are bought by farmers in Australia, now the mines aren't buying them in big numbers. When a farmer wants to shift a big load, he doesn't want a tub getting in the way, he wants to lower the sides and come under...

Hi Ben, I have been kayaking for many years. I started of with the sit-in style, they're fast, but no good for water sports where you want to get in and out of the yak, ie swimming, snorkelling etc. I moved on to a sit-on like the first picture you put up. They're ok, but without a rudder...

Time for an update mate! You don't normally leave it this long between posts. Must be busy with the move?

https://youtu.be/ggYvZMBpvnY This link is a video I took yesterday at work! It'll give you an idea of what it's like on a daily basis...! I'm not sure if it'll work as a link or if you'll need to copy and paste it? I'm writing this on my phone and its not as user friendly as my laptop.

haha, we live with spiders and snakes every day. I have a massive wolf spider that lives on the dashboard of my car, it catches all the fly's and never bothers me. We have eastern brown snakes (second most deadly snake in the world) that cruise through the backyard and shed, they catch the mice...

Good stuff mate, Syncro would have been so much easier. Another student was doing syncro while I was using the RoadRanger, we were comparing our days during our breaks, the hardest part for him was the size of the truck. For me I didn't get a chance to think about that, I was to busy double...

The air boat is looking tough mate, great work on the engine mounts. It's a shame you won't be there to complete it. Hopefully your boss can post a link to it working on youtube? You really fit a lot into your weeks don't you! Just casually paint the car after work...! I didn't get a chance to...

The tree house is looking great, well done. Did you do the HR truck licence? I've just booked in to do the course myself. What did you have to do theory and practically wise? They told me its just 15 hours over two days. I thought it would have been more in depth than that?

Congratulations guys, well done. I had a hail storm come through when I was going to propose to my wife! sometimes the disaster makes for a good story later. The good old Gold Coast, the Vegas of Australia. Get ready to fix lots of rusty cars, the humidity up there gets into all the panels and...

That's going to be an awesome tree house. Is the tree still alive? Just wondering what sort of movement he'll expect to get from it in the coming years? It might keep getting higher and higher! It's funny you know, I've read your blog from start to finish, and check in at least once a week to...

Good job with the TIG test Ben, well done. A while ago I remember you saying that nothing will get in the way of your long term plan and that you will get to the mines no matter what. I read this and had a bit of a laugh. I thought to myself "Ben hasn't fallen in love yet, his plans will change...

Any news yet? How did the big test go?

That metal cutting blade looks nice. Have you ever plasma cut alloy? It cuts like a hot knife through butter and leaves a very clean edge too. It doesn't throw metal all over the workshop either! I got the head rests, seat belts, steering wheel installed and re wired up the thermo fan in my FJ...

Imagine if it was a cat playing piano on you tube, it would have 40 million views by now!!!

Looking great Ben, the extra fuel will be so handy. Any plans on the disk conversion? I've been doing a mass of work to my FJ but still a lot to do. I'm heading overseas in a couple of weeks and want to get a heap done before I go. I ended up going to ELS and got a bunch of parts. Its a great...

My wife bought me my cruiser, she wants to go on more camping trips in remote areas. Marriage isn't all bad!

Okay, cheers for the advice. I haven't called anyone yet as I've had a horrid cold and lost my voice for the last week! I noticed a guy not too far from me has a bunch of cruisers in his front yard, most look like 60 series but maybe some 70's in there too? I might pop in and ask him if he'll...

I'm keen to see how this tank turns out as I'm sure I'll need one with the V8 in my FJ70. your trolley looks great. I bought a commercial one and its crap! I need to make a trolley for my plasma cutter. is powder coating expensive?

Cheers Ben, I'll give him a call.

it's a bit tricky! the seats were reupholstered before I got it and they've covered over the holes for the head rests. Its a standard drivers seat and bench seat for the middle/passenger. I need to get a roadworthy inspection for the new engine so I think they'll be going over the whole car?

Hi all, I need a pair of headrests for my FJ70, does anyone know if any other headrests will fit? I live in south Australia and FJ70 specific parts seem a bit hard to find...

I just bought a new master cylinder for my fj70 from ebay. It only cost $64. better off getting a new one than second hand.

hahaha that's classic! I live on a property on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula, South Australia. Just over the water from Kangaroo Island. I've got 80 acres of land that I run as a market garden. Its been the family business for 40 years. My wife and I bought the farm from my parents 5 years...

Pat, we have a pretty big coastline around Australia! I think its something like 98% of the population live on the coastline in Aus. We have massive rust issues here, unless you live in the middle near Alice Springs etc! Because there are so many beaches that go to the horizon, lots of 4x4's...

okay, will do. cheers mate.

I will install the tie rod end then go for a wheel alignment. There is a Bridgestone tyre centre about 50kms away that have a good alignment set up. The steering box is nice and tight, no slop at all really. I replaced one of the centre spring bushes last night after work, it was a bastard to...

This looks like what I need. I wonder how many degree I should fit? they come in 1, 2, and 3 degree offset. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/LEAF-SPRING-CASTOR-WEDGES-3-DEGREE-SUIT-ALL-TOYOTA-LANDCRUISERS-HILUX-MORE-/140953965026

Okay, thanks for the advice. Sounds like I need some leaf spring wedges to fix the caster angle. I started replacing the spring bushes last night as the new ones had arrived. The engine I'm running is a Holden 5 litre v8, fuel injected. I'm not sure what it weighs but its a solid lump of metal...

Hi all, I have recently bought an FJ 70 Landcruiser. I have been replacing some aging parts over the last two weeks getting it ready for a roadworthy inspection. I have never driven in a SWB cruiser before and was wondering what their handling is normally like? I understand they won't be in the...

Well after ringing multiple wreckers it became obvious that I wasn't going to find new brackets. I decided to do a simple modification to my old brackets after I realised what I needed. this is the bush/bracket that came with the new sway bar bracket after I cut one side off I made a...

Hi all, I'm after a pair of front sway bar retaining brackets for a swb FJ70. The ones the D shaped front bushes are held onto the axle with. I need the type that have the clip in tab at the top and the bolt hole at the bottom. They are only small so postage world wide is okay. I'm willing to...