Master Cylinder, Roof Racks and Gauges!!

Scottie arrived bright and early, ready to get a whole list of stuff done to Booger Mobile... Today's list included getting the new Master Cylinder fitted, building a roof rack to hold Booger's Rack and Head, sorting out the gauges, and generally making some good progress...

First cab off the rank was the removal of the old Master Cylinder (shown below in green under the plugs near the big spring).

The rod you can see poking through the firewall is connected to the brake pedal. When you push the brake pedal, that rod is pushed, and the brakes go on.

Of course, the distance that the rod needs to protrude past the firewall is different for an aftermarket HQ Holden suitable dual circuit master cylinder, so Scottie needed to cut down a small cylinder of metal to increase the distance by around 6 or 7mm (about 1/4 inch in the old scale).

Naturally, there's only so much a grinder can take off, so the small bit of metal was hand filed by Scottie...

After a couple of rounds of fitting, then grinding, then filing, the insert was finally completed. To put it in perspective, it's shown sitting beside a 3/8" spanner.

Once that was completed, Damian finished fitting the master cylinder while Scottie adjusted the kickdown cable bracket he built during a previous visit... As you can see, Scottie is a bastion of safety when using the angle grinder in his safety boots!!

Here it is all welded up ready for painting and reinstalling!!

Meanwhile, in a fit of usefulness, Damian used the fake chrome in a can to paint the bolts that hold the Master Cylinder in.

Once the new master cylinder was fitted, the boys decided a shopping trip was in order. Firstly, the temperature gauge had FINALLY arrived at Autobarn, so they would stop there, then it was off to buy some metal to make a heavy duty roof rack out of.

On the way there, Damian suggested that if they could find a suitable "off the shelf" roof rack, that would save them a whole lot of time and energy... Scottie agreed.

Back from the shops with some goodies....


including a heavy duty "off the shelf" roof rack!!!!!!!

While Scottie continued working on stuff under the bonnet, Damian installed the roof racks!! Pretty snazzy aren't they?

Then, the rack for Booger's Head was placed in position, and the new roof racks only required about 1cm of adjustment - not a bad guess for placement from Damian!

Here are a couple of shots of the master cylinder nicely installed. Note the amount of room between the plugs and the master cylinder. A common issue with a Falcon of this model when fitting aftermarket master cylinder's is having the master cylinder hitting the underside of the plugs... no such issues with this master cylinder - what a great buy!!

Here it is from a different angle...

And once more for the home crowd!!

Damian continued to work on the roof rack etc, and took the opportunity to place Booger's Head on the rack (well, the front half anyway) to see how it would look...

Here's the roof racks as adjusted and completed etc.

Meanwhile, Scottie was building... wait for it... another bracket!! Complete surprise, isn't it? Here he is fitting it to the underside of the battery tray.

Damian decided that the side advertising boards needed a slight adjustment due to the roof rack mounting system being used... After notching out the bottom edge in two places, he placed it in position to find it fit perfectly!! Power tools and sharp implements (chisels) were used to complete this task, and again, no Ambulance required!!! Go Damian!!!!!

The new master cylinder at this point was getting a little jealous of the attention the roof racks were receiving, so insisted on featuring in another photo, this time showing clearance from the plugs!!

Scottie also took the opportunity to fit the air cleaner etc to the engine - the engine bay is starting to look complete!!

Damian began installation of the gauges, fitting the oil pressure gauge and the temperature gauge either side of the steering column.

After having such a success with the roof rack, the boys headed off to Bunnings to buy some plywood and steel plates to hold the roof rack to Booger's Rack (and vice versa).

Once they arrived back at Damian's shed, Scottie began to make the plywood fit the frame.

Just in case anyone didn't realise, he also marked it as property of Booger Mobile!

Black was the colour selected for the roof rack, as it tends to fade into the background a little, rather than taking the focus off the sponsor panels or Booger's head.

Once the plywood was black (1.5 tins of spray paint later), Scottie started on the rack itself.

A white hilux partially covered by an old sheet makes an excellent backdrop for black spray paint don't you think?

And here's the completed rack on the roof, ready for Booger's Head!

And here it is showing the position of Booger's Head and the sponsor panel on the driver's side.

And finally, side on, showing the angle of Booger's nose...

After finishing with the roof rack, Damian wired in the gauges (using a couple of temporary wires and a couple of permanent ones), and the engine was started.

Oil Pressure... CHECK!!

Temperature... CHECK!!

Tacho... CHECK!!

All gauges working perfectly, and Booger Mobile coming up to temperature nicely. Damian will complete the fitting of the gauges in the near future, but for now, the boys were excited to see them working and in position!!

Scottie and Damian made an excellent amout of progress today, and were both pleased with the efforts. With the esCarpade only 9 months away, it's great to finally start seeing some of the boy's vision coming to life...

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment!!