Rear suspension fitted, Booger Mobile back on it's wheels!!

Sunday rolled around all too quickly, bringing with it a couple of things... Of course, there was the usual weekly visit to Team Booger Mobile HQ (aka Damian's house) by Scottie, then there was the exciting prospect of Kaye and her husband John coming to visit (all the way from WA) to check out Booger Mobile... regular blog readers may recognise Kaye as "Special K from WA"!!

More about that later... first of all, Scottie had a birthday present to brag about - a flash new toolkit...



After the usual shenanigans, Scottie began attempting to finish the fitting of the brake lines... He was a bit unhappy about the abundance of wires that were in his way, so he set about removing as many as he could to get a clear work area...



Meanwhile, Damian was preparing brackets etc for mounting the rear springs and shocks...

What Damian didn't realise was that Scottie's idea of "moving the wires out of his way" involved ripping them back through the firewall, undoing some of Damian's hard work...

Damian looked under the back of Booger Mobile and realised that there was a section that still required black-jacking... it was left because the diff was in the way, so he figured he had best get it done before the diff was reinstalled and back in the way again!!

It's a dirty, DIRTY job, but someone has to do it!!

This was Damian coming up for air, before heading under for the other side... Shortly afterwards, Damian bathed in thinners, then petrol before finally having a shower to clean it all off, then getting back into it again!!

Meanwhile, Scottie finished the routing of the brake lines, and began putting the wires etc back where they came from...

The completed black-jacking!!

Damian then began to get the rear leaf springs ready for installation, these are the front bushes... Expensive little buggers they are - those four bushes you can see cost $71...

Lunch time arrived, and the boys stopped for a bite to eat... they'd no sooner finished, then who should arrive??? Kaye and her husband John! This is Kaye posing with Booger Mobile while Scottie pretends to work...

Kaye had a special surprise for the boys... one of her friends Denis (from http://www.conidale.com.au/) makes embroidered hats (among other things), and made up some Team Booger Mobile hats for the boys!! Damian loves his bucket hat...

Kaye and John stayed long enough to hear the Booger Mobile's engine started (pretty exciting stuff!!), but then had to head off to enjoy the rest of their Queensland holiday.

After several more hours of working, the boys had Booger Mobile back on it's four wheels!!

Damian applied the Lovells Springs stickers, first to the driver's side...

While Scottie attached the rear shock absorbers...

Where do the top ones attach to? Oh look, there's a little trap-door in the rear of the car!!

Damian also applied a Lovells Springs sticker to the passenger side...

And here's Scottie, heading home, loving his Team Booger Mobile cap!! Thanks Kaye!!

All in all it was a pretty good day... Damian and Scottie both annoyed the crap out of each other all day, but good progress was made on Booger Mobile. It was great to finally have Booger Mobile down off the jack stands and onto it's own wheels again!!

The boys thought it was terrific that Kaye and John were able to come and see Booger Mobile, and remind all friends (and sponsors) that they are more than welcome to come and visit to check out Booger Mobile!

Tyres on rims, front suspension fitted!!

It's been a busy couple of days for Damian... not only has he been running around finding parts and attempting to get some work done between times, but he also went and got the six Kumho R700 tyres fitted to the rims!!

The man at the tyre place even complimented Damian on the paintwork on the rims... Damian was stoked, as he had painted them!!!



Sadly, as is so often the way in Team Booger Mobile, there was a rim debacle... two of the rims were so badly out of shape that they were unusable!! If you look closely at this picture, you can see the way the rim bends inwards - it acutally moves around 1-2cm when the wheel rotates... It would seem that the vehicle these rims came off probably slid sideways into a gutter or something similar, as both were bent in the same fashion...

Of course, this means that Damian will have to locate (and paint) another two rims, then take the rims back to the tyre place and have the tyres swapped over... Still, Damian has a growing collection of painted rims - maybe they'll become hose reels!!

Saturday morning rolled around, and Damian had some more errands to run (such as going to his brother's house to borrow the flaring tool so that Scottie can finish the brakes on Sunday), and attempt to find some rear wheel cylinders. No luck with the wheel cylinders, but the flaring tool was located and borrowed!!

Returning home, Damian's son Aidan decided to help paint some things black...

Then Damian set about installing the front suspension - first using the spring compressor to squash the new heavy-duty Lovells spring...

Is it there yet?

No, keep compressing...

Once the spring was compressed far enough to muscle it into position, Damian removed the strut tower (to drop the strut through the top)... This is the view looking down...

And from below, this is what the spring looks like in place, but still compressed...

Damian installed the strut and the spring, removing the compressors in what is a very time consuming and difficult task...

And the strut tower was replaced also!

The passenger side was also completed...

And here is the completed job, with magnificent colours and that Kumho tyre!!

Scottie is due down on Sunday, and with any luck, Booger Mobile will be down off the jack stands!!

Gold Sponsor - Lovells Springs

The boys are proud to announce their newest Gold Sponsor, Lovells Springs!

Lovells Springs have provided a new set of heavy duty front coil and rear leaf springs for Booger Mobile.

If you are in the market for some new springs or suspension, why not check out Lovells Springs at http://www.lovells.com.au/

Fundraising Update - $4500 passed!!

Thanks to the massive success of the Soundwave Festival fundraising, the boys have now passed their first fundraising milestone - they have raised the required $4500 minimum!!!

Onward and upward towards their target of $20000!!

Big day... lots of parts and other items arrive!!

Well, Damian had a big day of running around today... First, he headed into town to bank the money from fundraising at the Soundwave Festival... stay tuned for a fundraising update...

On the way through, Damian stopped off at the Camp Quality head office to collect some raffle prizes donated by one of Camp Quality's fabulous volunteers Keyra...

After that, it was off to Autobarn to collect the steering wheel and boss kit that had been ordered, then an email arrived to let Damian know that the Lovells Springs were ready for collection!

Damian collected the Lovells Springs... they are pretty and blue!! Heavy duty, standard height front coil springs...

And heavy duty, standard height rear leaf springs.

Here they are compared to the XD spring (on the left), the original XM spring (on the right), with the new Lovells Springs at the front. They look markedly shorter, but a check of the part number shows that they are indeed heavy duty, standard height. Note how much thicker the coil steel is!!

And here are the rear leaf springs - the old ones warn out and tired... the new ones with more leaves and painted blue!!



The boys can't wait for the weekend to get the springs installed - once this is done, Booger Mobile will be back on it's wheels!!

Soundwave Fundraising SUCCESS!!

Scottie was down early as per usual, and he and Damian hopped on the train to head into the Soundwave Festival at the Brisbane RNA Showgrounds. They had to be there by 9am to have induction etc and be shown where to go, what to do etc etc...

Just getting to the RNA was quite an adventure!! After getting off the train at Bowen Hills station (in their Camp Quality giggle shirts), Scottie and Damian were walking towards the RNA showgrounds when a black unmarked police car with three plain clothes police inside drove slowly past. Damian pointed them out to Scottie - mentioning that no doubt they were part of a large police presence for Soundwave.

After walking about 500m further up the road, the black unmarked car came back around (having done a lap of the block and turned towards Scottie and Damian - Damian mentioned to Scottie that no doubt they were going to stop and talk to us, and they put their indicator on and started turning into a driveway - as they did this, Damian turned and pretended to run away, before resuming walking in the direction they were already travelling... After nearly being run over by the black car (don't they realise that pedestrians have right of way when they are turning from a roadway into a driveway???), the boys kept walking before being called back by the constabulary.

The conversation that ensued went from the sublime to the ridiculous... in short, it was something like this:

Police: Show badge, intro... blah blah this is who we are... what are you up to today?

Damian: Points to camp quality shirt - heading to Soundwave to do some fundraising for Camp Quality.

Police: Got some ID?

Boys hand over ID.

Police: You haven't got a pound of weed in your bag do you?

Boys - errr no....

Police: Camp Quality eh? So you have a blue card then?

Damian - of course I do... (Wondering what the point is!)

Anyway, to make a long story short, eventually the boys were allowed on their way... Now the boys understand that the police have a job to do and all, but doesn't the Camp Quality shirt kind of give it away a bit??????

After arriving at the designated gate and some initial confusion, the boys eventually found who they were meant to meet there, and waited for a fair while, with Damian playing "spot the copper" as a large contingent filed in through the gates in plain clothes - including the three that had stopped the boys earlier that morning... Hey, they had to do something to pass the time!

Eventually, the boys were taken to the signing tent, and the job of stamping and marking bands on tickets begun. There were only 100 signing tickets available for each band that was taking part in the signing (none of the headline acts were, as there would be a riot!!), and many hands made light work!!


Scottie and Damian all set up, with Jo from the Soundwave Festival jumping in on the act!! Note how nicely the books were lined up (in alphabetical order)... This lasted all of 30 seconds once the tickets went onsale!!




The outside of the signing tent where Scottie and Damian spent their day out Soundwave! This was taken after the initial ticket rush, which saw a number of bands sell out, and three hours disappear in the blink of an eye!!



And this is the view from the signing tent door - stages 1 and 2 with the large screen for those at the back!

The first band to arrive at the signing tent was Creep Show...

As more and more bands arrived at their allocated time, the crowds swelled!

Outside, the crowd began to swell to capacity!!

Anvil in the signing tent - the crowd roared when they appeared, and Jo was mega-excited also!! Apparently they are one of her favourite bands ever!!

The Aquabats turned their hand to tattooing with the sharpies!

And not to be outdone, one of the Reel Big Fish put an extra amount of concentration into this signature!! (The giggle face has a great view from there also!!)

More bands, more happy patrons, and more money raised for Camp Quality!!

Damian managed to get a bunch of posters signed by bands, but then forgot to pick them up when the boys left... D'oh!!

At the end of the day, nine bands sold out their allocation of tickets, with a fairly even spread across the remaining ten bands. Out of 1900 tickets available, the boys had sold 1413 at $2 each, raising an incredible $2826 for Camp Quality!!

Stay tuned for a fundraising total update after Damian banks the money!

Oh, and one last thing... Getting home from the Soundwave Festival also was quite an adventure! Having sold out of tickets for the remaining bands to do their signing, the boys were able to scoot out early to miss the rush.

Hopping back on the train at Bowen Hills, the boys were relaxing after a long day (with ringing ears), when at Toombul a bloke hopped on the train drinking a can of Jack Daniels and cola. Damian could tell by the look of him that he was potentially trouble... After finishing his can and disposing of it under the seat, he continued to sit there, staring at the boys...

A short time later, some train security guards walked past, telling a nearby passenger to get her feet off the seats. After they had left the carriage, Damian said to Scottie "What are those little security guards going to do? Laugh us off the train?" Scottie agreed, and Damian laughed, pointing at Scottie and saying "You, off the train" and laughing...

At this point, the previously identified "potential trouble" decided to chime in, staring at Damian and threateningly hissing "Are you having a go at me"... Talk about paranoid delusions!! Damian told him that no, he wasn't talking to him, he was speaking to Scottie and that it was nothing to do with him... Clearly the agitated, somewhat paranoid troublemaker was itching for a fight, as shortly after he accosted another young traveller who happened to be walking past...

The troublemaker moved to the edge of his seat nearest the aisle, so Damian adjusted posture and adjusted the position of his bag so that he could stand quickly if required... After sitting glaring at the boys for another 1/2 dozen stations, thankfully the troublemaker got off at Carseldine without any further incident. Kids... that's why you should SAY NO TO DRUGS!!

Damian commented to Scottie "See, I told you it was the Camp Quality shirt!!"

(For obvious reasons there are no photos of these two incidents.)

Fundraising - Soundwave Festival in Brisbane

Come and see Team Booger Mobile at the Soundwave Festival in Brisbane tomorrow - 20 February 2010.

Damian and Scottie will be selling tickets at the signing booth (to get stuff signed by your favourite band), with all proceeds going to Camp Quality!!

If you haven't heard about Soundwave, you can check out their website here: http://www.soundwavefestival.com/page/soundwave-festival

Hope to see plenty of you there tomorrow!!

Rims, Brakes, Steering stuff...

What a big few days Boogerising around it has been for the boys!! Since Sunday is Scottie's birthday (and Damian's wedding anniversary), the boys decided that Saturday would be a more appropriate day for working on Booger Mobile.

Scottie arrived to find Damian completing the blog about his visit to the Kumho Tyres head office, and after a quick coffee, they were quickly into action!

Not having seen the Kumho R700 tyres yet, Scottie was particularly keen to get to the shed. By the time Damian arrived, Booger Mobile was sporting a nice new set of R700's on invisible rims!!



Scottie then got to work removing the tie rods from Booger Mobile, so that the tie rod ends could be replaced and the front hubs and disc brake assemblies could be installed.

While he was doing that, Damian began cutting some custom Kumho Tyres stickers for the front of Booger Mobile - the full size sticker wouldn't fit into the spot available, so he hand cut a new sticker from the old one!

And here's the finished product on the driver's side...

Meanwhile, Scottie was still loving the new Kumho R700 tyres... perhaps he's enjoying the tyres a little *too* much, giving them a friendly hug and all!!

Here are the freshly painted and partially reassembled tie rods, with shiny new tie rod ends!

And what better to do with a freshly painted part, than to use vice grips to hold it while you adjust the ends!!

Here's the passenger side Kumho Tyres custom sticker...

Damian's son Aidan decided to get in on the act, so Damian stood him in the middle of the stack of Kumho tyres...

Anyone can stand on their feet, so how about head first?????

This is the full-size Kumho Tyres sticker on the driver's side.

And what do you know, there's another on the passenger side!! Four tyres on the road, four stickers on the car!!

Since Sunday is Scottie's birthday, he decided that morning tea should be a time to celebrate it with his "other" family...

It was one of those really annoying tune-playing candles!!

Would you buy a used car from this man? Scottie gives the camera his best used car salesman/real estate agent look!!

Damian's wife Tricia decided that she too should have a turn in the Kumho R700's... She was unamused when Damian said he could now see her spare tyre!! Damian, on the other hand, was amused, and that's all that matters!!

Not wanting to miss out on the fun, Damian's younger son Jordan decided he also wanted a turn... first right way up...

Then, upside down! You'd think that they'd never seen a stack of six Kumho R700 rally tyres before!!

While the shenanigans were going on, Scottie was busy installing the front wheel hubs, and tie rod ends...

Look at those wonderful colours!! Something for the scrutineering team to enjoy!!

And there's one on the driver's side too!!

Damian and Aidan cleaned the new 15" rims ready for painting...

First up, chrome around the outside edge... Noone cares about the tyres - they are going to be pitched once the new Kumho tyres are put on! (After the painting is finished!)

Jason Sheather from Jason Sheather Plumbing popped around and stayed to lend a hand with some of the interesting brake line bending that was taking place...

And here's one completed rim, with the old tyre blackened for the photo!

And how does it look on the car I hear you ask? Fantastic!!

Meanwhile, the brake lines were starting to snake their way around the engine bay...

And the rims were magically transformed... or maybe Damian painted them...

And here's Booger Mobile, with a couple of painted rims in place for the photo... It's really starting to come together now!!

So that was how the boys spent their Saturday! Booger Mobile is now starting to reach the point where the end of the mechanical stage is within sight, and if they say it quickly, it doesn't seem like all that much!!

Of course, there's still the whole INSIDE to be done, and Booger's head, and...

Be sure to tune in for the next exciting episode... Same bat-time, same bat-channel, same batty people!! Happy Valentine's day for Sunday!!