Messages

Glad your back. Miss the model pictures, they always were cool.

I have only built two models since all my stuff went into storage.  And I have one on the table that's taking me forever to get done because other stuff keeps getting in the way.

retirement was supposed to create at least two finished models a week.  Even then I'd probably run out of breath before I run out of unbuilt kits.

If I can figure out how to do pictures without paying Photobucket, I'll start posting them again.  Been doing a bit of transporting since i've been about out unsupervised.

Congrats on the new grandchild Joe, yet another generation of hot rodders is born.  

Good to hear from you.  I was thinking about you last week and wondering how things were going.
Doug

Nothing good I hope.
I'd hate to have my reputation ruined.        

Good on ya Carps. Maybe we'll meet at Louisville next year.

Let's call it a plan.

[Frank wrote]

This is more like what I did yesterday and the day before, but since Enjenjo was kind enough to ask it's only right that I respond.

Frank wrote:
Hi Carps,
How you doing old buddy?  How has retirement been treating you?  How's your
health? I don't do Facebook, not time for that. I'm still wasting my life
building hot rods, and tinkering in the shop. I had a health scare a couple
years ago, massive blood clot in my right leg, but it was treated
successfully. I have been building custom T5 transmissions, making
adapters, and one off disc brake conversions. Right now I am installing a
Xj6 front suspension into a 54 Chevy 3100.

Frank


Hi Frank, good to hear from you, I figure some of the round table gang might like to read my response, so here goes.

Retirement started off slowly as I had to rebuild my life and my home after it was demolished when the huge tree at the top of my driveway fell on it.  That was while Ann was hospitalised so I was living close to the hospital and didn't become aware of it for a week or two and by then it was too late as ongoing bad weather had really made a mess of things.  My insurance company wiped me because they determined the tree was riddled with white ants and there's no cover for damage caused by termites.  Check your policy.

After three major surgeries in less than the same number of months, Ann deteriorated rapidly and passed away on Feb 10th 2015.

While the house was under construction the furniture etc. was in storage and the cars were moved out of the garage to safer digs.  Of course I visited the property most days to check on progress, which was slow and expensive due to regulations and ridiculous requirements, like building a retaining wall to hold back a solid granite natural wall (AKA Mountain) that hasn't moved in 500,000,000 years.  The required excavation and wall construction took 12 months and cost me over a hundred grand.  It's a long story, but I had to fight the local council (City Hall) all the way with permits and litigation as a result of my removing other termite-infested trees without their permission.

Over the 2016 New Year holiday weekend my garage was broken into.  Well broken apart actually because I'd bolted doors closed from the inside and the mongrels couldn't get access, so when they couldn't even rip the access door from the side of the building they ripped a wall out.  All they took was some cordless power tools but not after they ripped every carton of household stuff open and pulled the contents out and spread it over the floor.  By the time they got to the tubs holding my built model cars, they were clearly frustrated and just dropped them on the floor and walked over the built models some, which had hundreds of hours work in them.

Worried that I'd kill myself, as my * ticker tried to do when I packed and moved most of  the furniture, books etc. unassisted into the storage unit, my friends Col, Kris, Dale and Kylie came to my rescue and did all of the heavy lifting.

A week later nothing was left in the garage other than a few odd tubs of car parts and what was on the walls, including about 250 license plates, 1 from every car I owned, others from my friend's cars including Mike Keehn's green Chevy S/D, Jay Carnine's Plymouth, Jim River's personalise plate, The HAMB plate from Bob Klessig's Chevy and a bunch more from places I'd visited (at least one from every US state).  When I got to the property on the Saturday after the first break in the front door was off the mounts.  The cops said the first mongrels must have told somebody else what was left in there and they'd come to get it.  They must have been in there all night because they unscrewed ever plate from the wall.

The car plant was closed late in 2017 (the entire Australian Auto manufacturing business was killed off as a result of a political p*ssing contest) and I continued working until December 29th.  Life at home was pretty lonely but I was getting along OK and managed to publish another three books.  Although I did become a bit of a hermit and some of my friends tried to set me up with dates, I really I wasn't interested and scalded them badly when they did that.

Health wise I'm doing pretty well now.  Missed the NSRA 50th because I was in hospital after picking up a bug that tried to kill me.  Long story but by the time I got to hospital my kidneys had already quit, the liver and a few other vita organs had packed their bags and were headed out the door and my left leg was four times it's normal size and glowing red as a result of my poisoned blood boiling.  I wasn't expected to last the night and had it not been for a recent life-changing event, I probably would have given up.  After a couple of weeks in an isolation ICU unit I was sent back to a special care ward and finally allowed home under supervision a few weeks later.  The kidneys are back at around 85% and most other organs are working properly except the Adrenal gland isn't making potassium so with my heart med's and the new stuff I take so many pills that I really do rattle.  To the NSRA's credit they sent me my entry pack, mug and two different T shirts along with some other cool stuff.

The life-changing event is a long story.  So I'll save the detail for later, but early this year I found a new lady, or perhaps she found me, neither of us was looking for a relationship, it just kinda happened.  Her name is Jeanette and she's given me a whole new lease on life.  She has two sons, one of which is a mad crazy hot rod fanatic.  Jeanette owns a 1948 Ford coupe that's been a hot rod since the sixties and Corey now has a '30 Model A coupe that we've been having some great adventures with.  Jeanette lost her husband only five weeks before I lost Ann and we kinda helped each other out a few times then one day we realised we'd become more than just friends and the rest is history.  My daughter and Mother In Law are delighted and ma in law gives me a hard time if I turn up at her place without Jeanette.

I still can't do heavy work on my cars and even considered selling the Ford but Corey talked me out of it.  He's now become my arms and legs.  A bit like my apprentice, I teach him and he does the work.  He's a bloody good fabricator and welder which is unusual for an 18-year-old kid these days, he's kind of like my apprentice, but sometimes the master coz he's up to speed with modern stuff.

I do spend a little time doing Facebook, usually post a few photos once a week and the rest of it is with the hot rod clubs and Early Ford V8 Club, for which I am both social director and Newsletter Editor.  Both jobs keep me busy and the rest of the time I just waste doing whatever looks like it might be enjoyable.  There's also my column in Australian Street Rodding Magazine.

Good to see you got through your health scare and continue to enjoy life doing what makes you feel good.  The XJ 6 suspension swap is popular here but I think a little underrated in the US, where I haven't seen so many of them.  They work great under early and fifties era F100s so it'll be good under the Chevy.

I trust Fatcat and his family are also well and everybody here at the Roundtable too. It's strange coming back to where internet hot rodding started after being MIA for so long.  I might just hang around a bit.  However, I cant post photos because I told photo bucket to take their money grabbing ideas and shove them where the sun doesn't shine.  I was already paying good money for the space I used and they wanted more to allow me to continue sharing my images.

I might be able to find a junkyard car that the bags didn't deploy. Those should be safe to use..

Yup.  That's a good place to start.

If you are the bank why do you need to call me to find out my account number?

I figure it's linked to my name and this phone number that you've used to call me.

Any idea how badly the coupe was wounded yet?

The block is broke, so too many of the reciprocating parts, although it seems the camshaft will live to play another day, just not next year.  Maybe 2019.

Ah yes, UAAI and model sharing, I've tried to put that episode out of my memory.

The GM product doubled our warranty claim rate, our customers/owners expected more from a Toyota and the whole exercise was a total debacle.  I still have nightmares.

The shame is that the incumbent US President, love him or hate him has a much better plan than Senator Button, "If you want to sell it in America then you'll make it in America". has a much better ring to it.

Thanks so much for the pics and narrative guys. It's a special place.

Thanks for the link George, I spoke to a few members of the video team as they were there shooting this year.
Great bunch of people who have a real feel for what they are doing, confirmed by that video clip.

Cant wait to see the finished product now.

Thanks for the pix and story Carps. Are you in any of the pix?

Waaaay off in the background almost a direct line from that guy, and you're wearing a blue and teal/green checked shirt with button down collar?

Or slightly to my right wearing a safety vest with the entrant badge on the front of your floppy hat?

[nobody]

The Australian government did not "make" the plants close, but they did nothing to stop it.

Back in the '80s a labour (the worker's political party) senator drafted a paper that became known as the Button Car Industry Plan.  The primary objective was to reduce the number of motor vehicle manufacturers in Australia.  First, Renault, Volvo then the volume players, Volkswagen, Nissan and Chrysler/Mitsubishi.  These closures were forced by the government and as a result for the big three it was always just a matter of time.  Unless the plan changed.  And nobody in Canberra had the intelligence or balls to do that.

Once it started neither side of Government could stop it.

More recently, the Government created a fund to assist the industry to make more environmentally friendly vehicles, it was called the green car fund.  It was but a poofteenth of what they had already lost in reduced import tariffs, but nobody seemed to notice that because there were more car brands available and each had to discount heavily just to sustain some volume.  Life was good for the car buying public.  Once money started to flow from the Green car Fund to the last three car makers, Ford, GM and Toyota, the news media/press initiated a beat up campaign that convinced the voting public that politicians were wasting money subsidising the motor and automotive components manufacturing industry.  As all that snowballed and since a politician cares more about the next vote that will help keep their greedy noses in the trough, than they do about keeping ordinary people gainfully employed with food on the family table, they all turned on the industry.  When the GFC hit, it simply got worse.  At the same time driving tastes were changing and the American companies were both having problems at home, so were not really focussed on the issues down here.  Ford were first to announce that they would close their shop, the government did nothing to encourage them to stay.  The GM off the back of the US bankruptcy, lobbied the Government to help them and the industry survive.  In a very public display of stupidity and arrogance one of our most powerful politicians told GM there'd be no support and if they couldn't get by on their own then they could just bug-er off and so GM announced the closure of their operation.  With no infrastructure despite having just invested more than half a billion in a hybrid engine plant, Toyota had no choice, the situation here was now untenable.

Volume to support the components industry wasn't the real issue, Toyota was Australia's largest exporter of finished goods.  Volume wasn't an issue as the plant was running at more than 150% of capacity and it could adapt and build any of Toyota's global models, which is what it was already doing.  The local components industry suffered off the back of GM and Ford's need to reduce costs because of their volume and lack of any parental or government support, as happens in every other country in the world especially the US, where industry is subsidies in order to create jobs where they are needed.

Both the American companies felt they had no choice but to source parts offshore and because our politicians seem to favour China as a manufacturing base, they were encouraged to shop there, which they did.

The problem was Australia needed Ford, GM and Toyota to create enough volume for all the other support industries to survive. Once Ford decided to stop building cars in Australia, there was not enough demand to keep the seat manufacturers, the brake manufacturers, the steel manufacturers, the electronics manufacturers, and many others viable enough to build parts a a price that was livable for the remaining car companies. So rather than import the parts at a higher price, the car makers  are importing finished cars at a lower price. The fact that some of the free trade policies of the government allowed the cars to be imported without duties made it more appealing.

The reason for lower priced imports was that the government removed protective tariffs, to 'level the playing field', so all of a sudden we had cars selling here cheaper than they are sold in their home markets and before we knew it Australia had more car brands in the market than any other country on earth (every car brand on earth is sold here).  But not one can sustain enough volume here to be profitable.  however, the small volumes add enough to their global numbers that it's worth their while to compete here.  It's a great place to do your market testing and dump excess or slow selling product.

As Ford Falcon volumes slipped they designed a very successful SUV that was built off the same platform.  Cost effective and it met  the changing market head on with great results.  But then the emissions rules changed and Ford's engine was at the limit of development so Falcon/Territory were no longer viable.  But they did have an ace up their sleeve.  They local team had designed a pick up truck that could compete head to head with Toyota's Hilux in the strongest market segment.  I don't know all the details but the lack of support from Canberra made it a better proposition to build that vehicle in Thailand than Australia, so now the second best selling vehicle in the land was another import, but at least it was designed and engineered here.

GMHA worked hard to earn export business with their Commodore, it even sold in the US, first as a Pontiac, then later as a Chevrolet, but GM's US problems created the need for common platforms, it meant their Aussie Arm was left out in the cold and our uniquely Aussie GM Holden was destined to become obsolete.

The fact remains, our government could have stopped this happening, but instead they told the industry it wasn't wanted.  The subsidy that might have changed things is chicken poop compared to the income they earned from local manufacturing.  And now everybody will suffer.  As the largest single users of power/energy are leaving the country, one of our biggest power stations is being closed.  Blamed on old age, but reality is it's no longer needed.  And to cover the billions of dollars lost?  The power companies are hiking the cost of domestic power and so the snowball effect will see more job losses and higher costs for almost everything.  but hey, we'll have shiploads of cheap cars, or will we?  The prices of imports have already started to increase and there's no high quality well priced locally made product to keep this prices down.


FOOTNOTE:  Toyota was granted around $36 million from the Green Car Fund, at the plant closure ceremony it was announced by our President that the company had started an endowment fund to help support underprivileged people to gain a better education and therefore better employment prospects.  The program is fully funded with a start up balance of $36 million.

Here's a link to a news article about my colleague Matt Bowtell and his work, this guy is one of a kind and has been an inspiration to all of his workmates.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4384588/Australian-dad-makes-3D-printed-limbs-kids-need.html

Is the Government doing this to ALL manufacturing in the Country, or just the auto industry  :?:

They seem to hold the view that manufacturing is dirty, but digging millions of tons of coal and selling it to China and India to power their industries is OK.

Actually they figure digging everything out of our backyard and selling it to other countries to they can sell it back to us as finished goods, is great business.

As for manufacturing being dirty, the plant pictured has won more global and local environmental awards than just about any other.
Before the plant as built the land around it was considered wasteland and was heavily polluted.  The creek running through it stank worse than a sewer.  Now, thanks to Toyota there's thousands of trees and it's one of the best parkland areas in urban Melbourne.  The water in the creek is so clean it's drinkable.

A few weeks back the company planted more trees, 3,200, one for each member of the workforce at the car plant.

I understand that the plant was designed to build automobiles, but could it be easily reformatted to build something else   :?:

The plant was designed to build 100,000 units a year, it was building almost double that to the highest quality standard thanks to the skill and motivation of the workers.

It's being refitted for other purposes, but not manufacturing.  All the plant and equipment has been sold and will most likely be shipped out of Australia.  The unique plant that features Toyota IP, will be retained within the organisation, so some of it may even end up in the USofA for you guys to make Hybrid drivetrains or other components.

It seems a shame to waste a workforce with the skill,pride & dedication your co workers have ...

Yeah it does, but the politicians don't give a fat rat's backside.  All they've done for the last three years is blame each other for the demise of Australian manufacturing industry.  If they bothered to look back into their own history they'd see they are all complicit and each played a part in making it happen.

there any kind of retraining programs available to help the workers back into the workforce or are they just left to fend for themselves ??

The company has been running many programs to educate and help people find new careers.  One of our engineers has even become front page news as he has started a not for profit organisation using 3D printing technology for making fully functional artificial limbs for underprivileged people who might never be able to access such technology.  He funded it via a public campaign and donations from his workmates.  So far he's provided working hands and fingers etc. and his biggest project is almost done, providing a complete working arm for a young girl who was born without one and as such is not considered by our political system to be handicapped.  Had she lost it after birth she would qualify for government support.  Nope, I don't get it either.  But her first project will be learning to play the violin.

Others have qualified to be Teachers, Medical Practitioners, Nurses, Train Drivers and a whole bunch of other things with their qualifications and degrees all supported and funded by Toyota.  There are also counselling facilities/services programs to assist them with resume's and the job interview process and much more,  all put in place pretty much from the time Akio Toyoda took time out from his schedule to fly here and make the closure announcement in person.  he did this simply because he felt since it is his family name on the front wall it was his responsibility and also his responsibility to make sure everything was in place to help displaced 'Toyota Family Members' adapt to a new way of life and it will continue for a long time into the future.

Wherever possible people have been absorbed into the new company, moved to other roles in other parts of the Toyota world (some are even transferring to the US) and others will simply retire from the workforce to be come a burden on the government purse.

Does the Government provide any type of assistance for the workers until they can secure new employment ?

This would be the same government who is trying to weasel their way out of paying pensions and other social security measures?  About the only thing I can see is they've agreed to a tax concession so that the workers only lose maybe 1/4 of their redundancy payments to tax instead of half as would be the case if it were taxed at the normal rate.  On the other hand, until that money is all spent, they won't qualify for pensions or any other social security support and many can't access their retirement funds because they are not old enough.

Fact is the whole thing stinks all the way to Canberra (Our Washington DC) and back.  And it's only the beginning.

Did the Aussie government shut you down, or are you referring to Toyota of Japan management?

The Aussie Government has slowly shut down the entire car industry. Ford ceased production last year, then GM announced they would cease production following a very public stoush with the government.  Toyota had just invested half a billion dollars updating our engine plant in order to build Hybrid engines, but without any infrastructure, there's no way the company could continue as the sole manufacturer with everything we don't make ourselves having to be imported..

There was a time when we had Chrysler/Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault, GM, Ford, VW, all manufactured here and many others assembled from CKD packs, now we have no automobile manufacturing at all.  Kenworth Trucks are still put together here, but I'm not sure how long that will last.

I fear our politicians won't be happy until there are no cars on our roads and everything we use here is made in China, India or other parts of Asia and we become a third world nation.

The company just last week announced that Hybrid drivetrain production will now be undertaken in the USofA.  So I guess our loss is your gain.

Sorry to hear that, Carps. I hope they bring another industry into the plant, instead of demolishing it.

The company is reinventing itself as an import only operation and once all the machinery has been removed from the factory buildings they'll be renovated for other purposes as everything will be consolidated from the various sites the company occupies throughout the country.

Not today, but it's been a somewhat hectic and emotional few weeks starting on Wednesday September 27th.   This was a bittersweet day for Toyota Australia Manufacturing Team Members and a sad day for Australia.



Pretty much every member of the Toyota Australia Manufacturing Team gathered like expectant parents at the final inspection station in the vehicle assembly shop.  After 58 years, the last Australian built Toyota rolled off the assembly line, just before 10:00am.





Despite knowing for the last 3 years that most of these people would be unemployed by the end of this week, nobody lost focus on the goal.



The final quality audit revealed they'd achieved their goal.  Australian workers had built the best Camrys ever built anywhere in the world.





Despite their ability to build almost flawless cars, our politicians hold the view that Australia workers cannot compete with car-makers in other countries?

Yet strangely, every-time those same workers have had a milestone or special achievement there they were, ready to take all the credit for it.  Despite being the result of blood sweat and tears shed by the people you see in these images.  They weren't invited this time and none would turn up the following week for the official closure of the plant

But now, it's over, the lights have gone out.



Empty assembly shop parts racks.



These assembly jigs have never been empty before today.





Normally, when the plant is closed down for weekends, holidays or whatever reason there are cars on the dollies and parts in the canbans, for when it's time to restart.  

Not today.















New vehicle exit here at the rate of one every 40 seconds, to storage and shipping area.



When these are gone, there will be no more to replace them.



Receiving stores are usually a hive of activity filled with trucks delivering parts only minutes before those same parts are whisked off to the right assembly stations and turned into cars..





Container storage area is usually filled with hundreds of 20 and 40 foot shipping containers.



This image would normally be filled with red hot sparks, not today as the body shop welding robots are now idle.



This afternoon the plant was eerily silent and without movement of any kind.  



I feel both proud and privileged to have been a part of this for the last 35 years and I have nothing but admiration of my colleagues, for their attitude and skills.  

Every goal they've ever set or had set for them, was always achieved.  They decided that the best way to give the people who closed them down the finger would be that that the last car they built would be the best ever built.  They achieved that years ago and kept it up right to the last car they built.



Nothing much more to say really.



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Exactly one week later and as predicted, not a glory seeking politician in sight.  The media weren't invited, it was a personal and private celebration (in fact it was a totally closed shop, no outsiders who didn't work here were welcome) but they were camped out the front like vultures from about 06:00 when folks started arriving for their last official day of employment.

Activities started with a cavalcade of Australian built Toyotas from the very first car ever assembled in this country (which was also the first Toyota assembled outside of Japan) all the way to the last cars which were entirety manufactured here, plus three future models that these people head earned the right to build but now won't.  All because the infrastructure to do it will soon be gone forever and so too, the jobs of everybody involved.









The Mirai Hydrogen fuel cell car, which without government support for infrastructure will never be able to even be sold here.  This car doesn't use electricity made from burning coal, oil or gas.   It makes it's own electricity from Hydrogen Gas (what we've been using is a bi product of medical and welding gas production that is currently sent into the atmosphere as waste) and the only emission is water vapour.



The next Camry which will now initially be imported from Japan ..... and later who knows where



The people who built the cars lined the roads throughout the facility.







They clapped and cheered each car as it passed them, the atmosphere was not what you'd expect of people who's lives have been disrupted and thrown out of work for doing no more than proving Australia can build the best quality cars in the world.



It was a bit strange driving into the factory through the door where cars are usually only driven out.



Once inside, the family came in for a closer look at their work.



Then they gathered together for the official closing down ceremony.



Soon the vast space of the main receiving store was completely filled with the thousands of people who as late as just last week made the best quality mass produced cars in Australia, if not the world.







They watched on as the history of their company played out on huge screens.  They saw how the first Standard Cars were assembled in the mid 1920s and how the Standard Car Company evolved into Australian Motor Industries and then Toyota Australia.  They watched the first Aussie Toyota on it's journey down the Port Melbourne assembly line.  They saw Corollas and Camry's in the Dandenong plant where they also became General Motors Holden Apollos and Novas.  And they saw the construction of the plant we were standing in where many of them have worked for over 30 years.  And then the very last car they built was driven through the assembly shop and onto the stage.  



That car along with the banner signed by each and every one of the people present, was then loaded into a container as the last of more than one and a half million Australian built Toyota's to be sent for export (making Toyota, Australia's biggest ever exporter of manufactured goods, something unlikely to ever be repeated by any manufacturers of anything that's still made here, or may be made here in the future).  Both the car and the banner will installed in a special permanent display at the Toyota Automobile Museum in Toyota City, Japan.



The second last car, will be displayed in Toyota Australia's new heritage centre at Altona and the last batch of cars that preceded this pair, were all sold, to the people who made them.

Then it was time to say goodbye.



It was sad day, but none of the participants was ready to give the bastards that caused it, the satisfaction of seeing them cry....



......this is the way we will all remember it.