G'day from Down Under

aussiejohn

Member
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Messages
16
Location
Highett, Australia
Hello,
I'm a bit late to sign on here, but thought it would be rude not to tell you a little about me. I have been a long time member of the Corvette Forum, since just before I went over to the USA for the 50th Birthday in 2003. This year, I found Douglas Mariani's name on the Forum and contacted him and made arrangements to meet with up him in LA before I left Australia in August.

We arrived in LA on August 16 and drove straight to the Starbucks in Santa Ana where we met up with Doug and several of the SoCal Corvetters. They seemed a great bunch of people and soon convinced me to join this Forum. For the next five weeks my party of four; me, aussiejohn, my gf Rose and David and Gary, travelled around the USA, as well as joining the NorCal Caravan for the drive to Bowling Green.

We had such a marvellous time in your country that we were saddened to leave, but come September 17, it was time to go home. The four of us got straight to work to pay off the credit card bills and with all of that happening, I neglected to fill in this section.

I'm 61 and have owned a 1974 L82 coupe for almost 12 years and am a member of the Chevrolet Car Club of Victoria Inc. here in Australia. www.chevcarclubvic.org.au . We have almost 700 members, and about fifty of them own around one hundred Corvettes. We meet at our Clubrooms in Moorabbin on the last Monday of the month and plan social activities, etc.

Now that we're approaching the southern summer, there will be plenty of opportunities for some drives. We feel sorry for you guys in the northern states who have to lock their cars up for several months during your winter. It never gets that cold anywhere here.

Maybe some of you should discover it for yourselves and come down here either this or next (northern) winter.

My car was previously fitted with a 1975 Corvette engine, and I had to dig up a tach drive HEI for it. I also built a fibreglass fan shroud and a single 16" electric fan, discarding the standard arrangement. It seems to work OK. All of the cowl induction air cleaner parts had been removed prior to its purchase by me, as well as the chrome covers for the dissy and spark plug leads.

I have managed to find most of the ignition parts and I hope to fit them before long, but the air cleaner parts are still to come. Bubba had also got to the transmission cooler lines, and they appeared to have been cut with a gas axe :clobbered: and of course the hoses leaked at those points. I have cut the pipes properly and have fitted an aftermarket trans cooler along with proper compression fittings where the hoses join the pipes.

The paint job was atrocious, but it will be a while before I can find the funds to rectify that, but at least it starts and runs. It just doesn't look pretty. When I figure out how to post photos here, you can have a look at it.

That's about all for now.

Regards from Down Under:drink:

aussiejohn
 
Welcome to the motley crew of the Flying Dutchmen....

age 65 here, had my '72 vert for ~15 years....plenty of mods done...

:devil::drink:
 
Thanks!

G'day,
Thanks to all for the warm welcome. I hope to return to the US before too long, probably in about two years. This time I want to stay in CA and just go for day trips etc. Last month(s) we drove over 11,200 kilometres and the trip computer showed an "elapsed time" of 111 hours, in other words, we were AVERAGING over 100 kph!!!!!

That includes suburban driving, traffic jams, car parks, hotel parking as well as the freeways and interstates. No wonder I was buggered after five weeks of driving. Next time I want to go to the Pomona Swap Meet, La Brea pits, the NHRA Museum, and other places that we just did not have time to get to.

And also, to catch up with the many friends that we made who live in SoCal and in the Fremont and Lodi areas.

Keep well, and:

Regards from Down Under:drink:

aussiejohn
 
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