Lower control arms sorted... Pity about the gauges!!

It's been an interesting couple of days at Booger Mobile headquarters (aka Damian's shed). Regular reader's may recall the gauge saga... Well, Damian took a visit to the shop where the gauge was ordered from (and paid for), only to be told that the gauge doesn't even seem to have been ordered yet... *sigh* Hopefully it will arrive sometime before the esCarpade...

Next on the agenda was a visit by Malcolm from ACTUM Consulting (one of Team Booger Mobile's silver sponsors), who wanted to check out Booger Mobile in the flesh (well, the steel) while he was in Brisbane visiting his family for christmas...

After that, it was time to resolve the lower control arm ball joints - the ones where a couple of the holes didn't line up... Well, turns out that Damian's brother (Jason from Jason Sheather Plumbing - Team Booger Mobile's latest gold sponsor - watch for the official blurb in the near future) had just purchased a brand new set of you-beaut metal-drilling bits for his drill... So it was off to visit Jason with the control arms and ball joints in tow!!

First - attach the ball joint and line up the hole that was correct, ready to drill the hole out...


Action shot of the drilling process!!



Due to the nature of the hole to be drilled (basically it was halfway on the existing hole, making it very difficult to drill), as much as could be done with the drill was done, and Damian completed the holes by hand using a file (triangular... would have been better if it was round)!!

Damian laid out the bits to be installed, and got to work...

Here's the driver's side - upper and lower control arms and radius rod all installed!!

Next cab off the rank was the passenger side...

And through the magic of the interwebs, here it is all completed!! Note the creative use of the spanner on the left hand side of the upper control arm to hold it in place for the photo!!

Here's the passenger side again, as seen from the perspective of road kill!! Note the pretty red bushes (and ignore the beautiful dent in the sump - it just adds character Damian says)!!

Damian couldn't install the sway bar, as the bushes that are now available (of course) aren't quite the same size as the ones that used to be made, so he needs to adjust the size of the brackets - using an ANGLE GRINDER!!

Having cracked his head four times already while installing the lower control arms and radius rods, Damian figured that using power tools was out of the question until after he had a sleep!!

As you can see in the image below, Damian only needs to take a couple of millimetres off each side of the bracket... what could possibly go wrong????

As 2009 winds to a close, it's timely to reflect back on how far Booger Mobile has come over the past (almost) 11 months, and to commence panicking about how close the 2010 esCarpade is, and how the next 9 months are going to fly by!!

Damian and Scottie would like to thank everyone for their support throughout 2009, especially their sponsors (listed at right) and the many people who have donated money to Camp Quality to help the boys on their way to their $4500 minimum (over 1/3 of the way there now!!).

Lastly, a special thank you to the blog followers, and particularly those who add their comments (Kaye, the boys are looking at you!), as these really give the boys a great deal of encouragement - especially when the going gets a little tough...

Enjoy your new year's eve everyone - let's make 2010 the year of Booger Mobile!!