Sunday, 26 August 2018

Qld Scrutineering and esCarpade Experience

Just about time for Damian and Angus to head to Qld Pre-Scrutineering and esCarpade Experience...


Damian was up early and loaded up the boot with some spares, tools etc... can't be too careful!!  It's full, but not esCarpade full!!


It had been raining most of the night, and was still a little damp...


Retro Rock-It in the carport, waiting for Angus...


Shiny, with PPE reflecting in the window!!


Heading towards Kilcoy for scrutineering...  It was a quiet trip, as somehow the cd player in the car had ceased working... Given it's just above the UHF radio, Damian assumed that while he was frantically mucking around with the radio, he must have bumped the power out, or something similar.


First stop, the Kilcoy Bakery!!


Then on to Kilcoy Tyrepower, who opened their doors (and hoist) for esCarpade scrutineering for the third time... thanks Bill!!

Retro Rock-It, first on the hoist!!


And passed with flying colours!!


Time for the esCarpade Experience...  Kilcoy to Palmwoods via the Bellthorpe State Forest.



Wasn't too long before it was onto dirt...




The rain continued...


And the fog set in, reducing visibility...


The tracks got a bit slippery from this point, so there aren't too many photos... Damian will be uploading some dashcam footage in the near future - keep an eye out for that!!









Past the historic site...


And the fog got worse!!





Back onto bitumen...
















Through downtown Maleny... or as the locals call it, MaRAINY!!





Down the Hunchy…





Angus wasn't snoozing... this time!!  He was checking the next route note!!




And into Palmwoods...


Parked at the Palmwoods pub...  Damian noticed that the bullbar was pushed up almost against the bonnet!!  He's guessing the hit on the track (see dashcam footage in the next post) was harder than he thought!!


A tired Damian, with Ben giving something like the peace sign, Cara actually giving the peace sign and Angus looking pretty pleased with himself...  New entrant Delores is so excited, she's biting her hand in anticipation!!


And the reason Angus looked so pleased... check out his lunch!!


The rest of the esCarpade gang who did the experience...


After lunch it was a snappy trip down the highway home...



This was one of the more bizarre ways of packing a trailer that the boys had ever seen!!  At least they had a witches hat on it... Safety first!!


And through the magic of the interwebs, back in the shed!!


The afternoon was still young, so Damian decided to put the bullbar back where it belongs!!


Hmmm... one of the bolts appears to be hiding!!


And that's better!!


When Angus left to go home, Damian and Angus did further testing on the UHF radio and discovered that it had a range of a couple of hundred metres...  After much swapping and testing of components, Damian discovered that it was a combination of both the UHF radio (the old one, now replaced) AND the aerial and/or coax cable that was the problem...

After replacing the entire aerial assembly with the high-end aerial that matched the UHF radio, voila!!  It was working far better...  Hopefully that's really the end of it!!


Next stop - put the dash back together again!  Oh yeah, and for those paying attention, Damian discovered that the "problem" with the cd player was that while mucking around with the UHF radio, the detachable face of the cd player had been unclipped, just enough to break the contacts, but not enough that it was visibly detached...  CLICK!  CD player working again!!  Damian facepalmed...


Damian will get some dashcam footage uploaded into the next blog post, so if you enjoyed the photos here, just wait until you see the dashcam footage!!

Saturday, 25 August 2018

Pre-Scrutineering Preparation

Pre-Scrutineering eve...  A day that should have been a snappy wash and quick once over...

 
After doing that, and fuelling up, Damian discovered that the UHF radio was receiving well, but not transmitting more than about 20m...  After testing with a different aerial and coax cable, it was discovered it was the actual UHF radio (or microphone).  Not having a compatible microphone, Damian decided the best option was to replace the entire unit...  Why wouldn't you, the day before scrutineering?
 


Of course, the UHF that Damian decided to use had been sitting in the shed on a shelf for around four and a half years, so although it worked fine, the rubber coating on the microphone cord was perishing badly, so Damian did some of the worst wire wrapping ever!!  But hey, it worked!!


Of course, the replacement radio not only didn't have the same mounts as the one that was removed - it didn't have any mounts at all!!  Super tape to the rescue!!


Voila!!  Installed!!


Stay tuned for pre-scrutineering on Sunday morning!!

Wednesday, 15 August 2018

Front Suspension Replacement

Ekka Wednesday - a public holiday in Brisbane city, therefore Damian had no work (as he's working in the city at the moment)… A good day to change the front suspension in Retro Rock-It!!


Already has a good set of King Springs heavy duty front springs...  it's just the struts that are being replaced...


Damian's son Aidan wasn't working until the evening, so he helped out, and even took a few photos of Damian working under the car!!


The whole strut comes out in one piece with the spring attached...


Eventually...


At some point...


Voila!!  Spring and strut...


The new strut looks marginally taller, but it could just be an optical illusion!


Safety first... spring clamps on before opening the top!!


And removed...  Damian thinks he's found the problem with the front suspension... This is meant to come back out again, isn't it???


Driver's side done... looks a little higher!


And onto the passenger side...  The passenger side was heaps easier to remove - this was in keeping with the theory that one side takes forever, and the other takes 20 mins!! 

Sadly, after Damian removed the strut and grabbed the new one out of the box, he realised that he had installed the wrong strut into the driver's side...  The only difference is the position of a little tab that holds the ABS sensor...

At this point, Damian turned the air blue, removed the driver's side front strut and replaced it with the correct new strut, removed the cap and spring and fixed a minor installation error he inadvertently made on the first side, and put it all back together again...


Amazingly, this whole process still took less time than the driver's side initially did!!  Sitting pretty level after a test drive...


A bit more clearance now... but more importantly, it's not nosediving into small bumps any more!!


Suspension changed front and rear - ride height looking better - ready for pre-scrutineering!!


Pre-scrutineering is a week and a half away - it will be a good opportunity to test out Retro Rock-It's new suspension to see if it's working as designed, or if it's still going to faceplant on a bump the size of a pancake!

Wednesday, 8 August 2018

Rear Suspension Replacement

Damian had spent the past week or so cleaning out his shed and moving Booger Mobile over to the other bay, leaving the middle bay for Retro Rock-It...

Good bye front of house carport...


Hello middle bay of the shed!!


Plenty of room - in frontwards because Damian will be replacing the rear suspension today...


New suspension - King Springs raised heavy duty springs, and Monroe GT Gas shocks.


First up, the top bolts are hidden behind plastic panels behind the rear seat...


Before photo - note the gap between the top of the tyre and the guard.


Up, up and away!!


Safety first!!


Driver's side... supposedly the removal of the rear springs involved no effort at all, and definitely didn't need spring compressors...  Turns out the driver's side did!


New King Spring on the right...  one less coil than the old springs, but slightly taller.


Just got to get it up in here...


Voila!!


And with the new shock absorber in...


Comparison between the new shock and the old one...  The old one was stuffed!!


The passenger side on the other hand, took about 15 mins, and didn't require the use of spring compressors!!  There was more room behind the spring to get it out...


And the height difference... this was after a test drive to attempt to settle the springs... Looking good!!


Reversed back in, ready for some loving of the front shocks... the coil springs are King Springs already (and pretty new looking), but the struts themselves look to be the original ones from the car, so that's a job for another time!


Retro Rock-It's new home in the shed with Booger Mobile...  Safe and sound!

Scrutineering is in just under three weeks - Retro Rock-It is looking pretty good for making it there!!