Here are some sierra shots taken on the day.Quote:
Originally Posted by Swanny
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Here are some sierra shots taken on the day.Quote:
Originally Posted by Swanny
Attachment 8329Attachment 8330Attachment 8331
Awesome, Waz! Would have been a great day, for sure, I know you work with cars, but must have a passion for them too. I've got photos of these two Sierra's in action at Lakeside raceway, with a couple of under bonnet shots of #17.
In MB-1 news, we've had a few minor, but necessary parts arrive today to suit the active pickup wiring conversion:
Battery box
Stereo output jack
25k pots
Pickup screws - (smaller diameter than PBG supplied)
And for the revheads:
http://s231.photobucket.com/user/swa...brary/Lakeside
Nice shots Swanny.
We often have Ford only performance car days at Maroochydore around August each year where customers bring their cars to show off and I don't think we have had a road going Sierra turn up yet. Maybe we could count on you at the next one?
Missed that last post, Waz, that sounds like something to aim for!
Anyway, young blokes being young blokes, he decided he didn't like the look of the burst, so I started rubbing it back to the edges, how about like this... or this?
So now we've less of a burst, and more of a two tone job. This is what appeals to him now...
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psrwlwfcdr.jpg
It's not easy trying to get neat lines on the edges!
Hi Swanny, let it sit for a few more days or weeks just in case your Son changes his mind again haha.
I like the dark edging as it helps to accentuate the angular look of the body.
Good idea! I'm don't have a day off for another 10 days, that'll give him enough time to decide if he loves it or not.
Sounds like a plan.
Right, back from a weekend of camping and 4x4ing on Bribie Island with my two lads, so now for an update.
Good thing about a solid body, is you can sand it back and try again!
We sat back and looked at it for a couple of weeks, thinking it wasn't looking good, Alex bombarded me with pics of different guitars he thought looked cool, solid colours, and we nearly went purple!
I went back to what he originally wanted, and decided to have one more go. I changed the colour on the body to grey (added about 50ml of black paint to 200ml of white), and resprayed the body. Then I bought an airbrush from Supercheap, and re-did the edges. We're a bit happier with it now.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psxgbpqbpc.jpg
I got Alex to finalise his logo design, we printed it out onto clear sheeting to make a stencil, and airbrushed it onto the headstock.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psz4goeas6.jpg
I've been letting it sit for a few days, and I'll have to fit the neck and body to make sure the black matches up, see where it needs tidying up, and if he loves it - clear coat it!
Looking good and really like how the black edge acts like a shadow all around.
........ \M/ :p
It's been sand back, try again, sand back, try again...
Unfortunately it's been raining this morning, humidity is up around 80%. If it drops a bit, I can spray some clear coat over the top and leave it alone!
Here is how the body sits now...
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...pssrkh2zqh.jpg
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psttf1ns6i.jpg
Alex loves it, so we need to clearcoat it ASAP! It's what he imagined it to be, so I'm happy with that.
Looking good Swanny. Don't rush to get that clear coat on. Saturday/Sunday are forecast low humidity days, maybe wait until then. Would hate to see you sand back once again.
Good advice, Pablo, I'll be watching the barometer closely!
I've got a couple of weeks off, so I better find some less interesting jobs to do around the house instead :(
Quick check of the trusty Jaycar barometer shows the humidity is 59%! Much better than the 80+ readings from the last few days.
So it was out with the spray gun, and on with the clear. I find that a touch-up gun provides a nice size spray pattern for a job this size...
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psuw0ccb5i.jpg
The compressor I'm using is a belt drive McMillan, which was found in a kerb-side cleanup! I think it's about a 12CFM, or in layman's terms, a big mutha!
Now to let it cure for a while before rubbing it back with wet and dry.
looking great Swanny
Thanks Wokka! This one is easier to be patient with, I've found.
After a couple more "sand it off, start again" moments, we finally got some clear coat onto the body, and let it cure for a week or two. This paint job seems to be that if you make a mistake, you have to redo the whole thing.
Today I got Swanny Jr onto polishing duties, supervised by Jack...
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psqgnzv7n2.jpg
I also made sure the neck was straight, then got junior to mark all the frets with a Sharpie pen, then run some sandpaper over the top of them, using a 12" radius sanding block. Then I got him to file the top of the frets with a fret file that arrived yesterday.
While he was busy polishing the body, I sanded the fretboard, and rubbed some spirit based stain into it - a dark fretboard is what he wanted, so we went black.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...pslisbw5tb.jpg
We might make a start on the wiring tonight, if all goes well (and he doesn't choof off to see his girlfriend!)
looking awesome Swanny and Swanny Jr, looks nice and shiny. Is that the front of the Sierra Cosworth Swanny in the top shot ?
Good to see Jack is supervising
Yes solid paint there is much less room for error than staining, you learn that pretty quick when you got to sand the whole body back and start again !
Thanks Wokka, it's starting to look very shiny indeed! And solid paint is a pain!
That's the front of the Sierra in the background... it's not a Cosworth, though. It's an XR4Ti from the US.
Well, when your that age ....priorities right?Quote:
Originally Posted by Swanny
Funny thing, Andy, Alex stayed home, and watching the Cowboys flog the Rabbitohs became my priority!
Anyway, this morning we installed a few bits of hardware, remembering the bridge ground wire, of course!
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...pskab8jpdq.jpg
I decided we'd shield the cavity, even though it will have active pickups... just in case things change in the future.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps8gqxmxbo.jpg
Checked the bridge ground continuity, and it's all good - from the bridge post, to the shielding to the pot shafts. I haven't done any soldering yet!
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psftc7ip73.jpg
Next up was wiring the pickups. Since the EMG pickups have a three pin plug on the rear, I bought some three pin sockets to fit from Jaycar. EMG do sell a harness to suit their pickups, but Alex didn't have the spare funds.
Cable ready for soldering with the new socket...
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psptoemekj.jpg
Pins soldered to the wire...
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psppeou6bk.jpg
And the neck pickup ready to be plugged in and screwed down...
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...pshl5aylam.jpg
Now to make dinner to feed the hungry hordes!
Okay, dinner done, wiring for dessert!
All the wiring done, and working. Hooked up a 9V battery, and the pickups passed the screwdriver-tap test.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...ps8q3zaryd.jpg
It's all ready to have the neck fitted, after it gets a dose of polishing.
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/e...psmof4iyql.jpg
@Swannie/SwannieJR, are you using 81/85 EmGs?
That's them, Franken, Alex bought them off Gumtree back in January, I think.
So i decided to do a little video for you guys, showing what this thing is made of! (PS, These pickups are god tier)
https://youtu.be/ikdKnduNkXw
This guitar is awesome!
Now I know what all that noise was about!
We've almost finished... the truss rod cover isn't on yet, as I'd like to get it off him for a while to check the neck bow/relief. We had to shim the neck pocket to change the break angle slightly.
But, as you can tell, he loves it!
Looks and sounds amazing guys! Awesome job.
cheers,
Gav.
Thanks Gav, I'll try and get some finished photos up this week. Alex is still playing it now - I don't think he's touched his Epiphone LP!
MMMM they sound nice and chunky. Won't be installing mine for a while as we have some other priorities at the moment, but a nice little preview at any rate. Cheers
Epic Metal Monster.......plus junior has the licks to match.
Well done fellas.
Thanks Waz! He's got more licks than me, that's for sure!
This morning I got a chance to have a play with it, replace the strings with fence wire, or 53-12 gauge (recommended for his style of music) ... I think the neck might need another millimetre shimming, as the action is good at the tuner end, but a little high at the body end. It's weird trying to tune a guitar in drop B tuning, I can't play it! I'll let him play it for another week to settle it in, and then work on fine tuning the neck.
In the meantime, I've been busy building a new pushbike, which is costing a fortune! But I've got a buyer lined up for my 335 copy to fund my GR1-SF in the near future, so I can build a better looking guitar than the Angst-monster!
Drop B tuning????? Maybe he should have bought a 7 string as that could run normal tuning with 7th tuned down to B and mute the low E 6th for when he didn't want that one droning in the mix. No wonder there is a need for thicker guage strings.
To tune a 6 string, you have to tune it as: (low to high)
B-F#-B-E-G#-C#
He tells me it's learning new chords.... I'm not going there...
Different language from another planet.Quote:
Originally Posted by Swanny