Saturday 28 August 2010

Thermostat housing leak and car washing!

With Scottie away still trying to sort out his busted Hilux, it all came down to Damian to keep the wheels turning on progress with Booger Mobile. First task was to stick on the rego sticker, and what do you know - even the rego sticker is green!!



Next cab off the rank was to investigate why the thermostat housing had a slight leak. Off with the thermostat housing...




That's where it bolts on, onto the front of the nicely reconditioned head...


Of course, this was being done with Booger Mobile slightly out of the shed so that the radiator hoses could be removed without flooding Damian's shed!!


And the thermostat housing and thermostat have been all nicely cleaned up, and are ready to reinstall. Now, how to hold the pesty thermostat in place...


Aha!! Using a self-adhesive thermostat housing gasket!!

The thermostat housing was reinstalled, and everything connected... only to find that it still leaked like a sieve!! Damian carefully removed it again, and used gasket goo (the gasket said that it wasn't required, so the first installation didn't use it), and it leaked like a sieve again!!


While waiting for the gasket goo to dry, Damian took a photo of the temporary repair to the accelerator cable that was undertaken the previous week - not quite as dodgy as it looks, the vice grips are simply providing a backing for the adjustment nut to tighten against...


Damian installed the new accelerator cable, and sadly forgot to take a picture!!

However, upon realising that the thermostat housing was still leaking, Damian took another drive to the auto store, where he showed the housing to one of the staff members, who placed it on a desktop and rocked it back and forth - it was badly warped!! The warping is so bad, that you can actually see it in the photo below - it was NEVER going to seal properly!!


Thankfully, and to Damian's utter amazement, they had a replacement thermostat housing in stock... Damian bought it, and a new gasket and some special thermostat housing gasket goo, and reinstalled it.



Firing it into life, Damian noticed that it was leaking from the top radiator hose... a slight readjustment of the hose position and tightening of the hose clamp fixed that!! The water then started to leak through the alan-bolt (seen above) - boy Damian just couldn't take a trick!! A quick call to the auto store later, Damian found that he could simply remove that, put some thread tape on it and tighten it back down again - this did the trick - the leak was FINALLY fixed!!

It was then time to take Booger Mobile for a test drive - it went well - and park it in Damian's side driveway ready for washing...



Believe it or not, these are the before pics!!



Damian got to work washing Booger Mobile...



He had his two trusty helpers there giving him a hand, and his beautiful wife Tricia taking photos for the blog!!



What teamwork!!


Washing, washing, washing...



In case you are wondering, yes, Damian is very tall... he's 6'5!!



Damian's boys doing a great job...


Although they seem to be playing more than washing at this stage!!


Finally it was finished!!


Time to grab the chamois!


After a chamois dry, it was time for more photos - this time with LED lights!!


They are looking the goods now!!

The green ones on the side are far brighter than these photos would make them seem!!


And side on...


From the rear - the rear facing white lights are an esCarpade safety requirement.


Passenger side...


And one from up high, just to try for a different angle!!



Time for Booger Mobile to head back to the shed. Once there, Damian stuck on a nice new Camp Quality sticker on the rear windscreen...



He also adjusted the accelerator cable, vaccuumed the inside and packed Booger Mobile ready for the Nambour PCYC Motoring Jamboree on Sunday.

Finally, some more photos!!


It's all starting to come together nicely now, which is a bonus since the esCarpade is now only 6.5 weeks away!!



Booger Mobile... looking the goods!!



Finally, a bit of full motion video to give a sponsor run down and show how shiny Booger Mobile is!! Damian actually took this video while Booger Mobile was out on the side driveway, but the battery went dead just as he finished, and before the video was saved, so he had to redo it!!



Enjoy!! And the boys will be at Nambour in the morning, so if you get along, remember to stop by and say hi!!

2 comments:

  1. what a beautiful fairtale.
    You have all secured the legendary status mentioned months ago.
    Love you Boger Mobile
    (and fairytales end with they all lived happily ever after!!)
    XXX

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  2. What a fantastic job Damian and his boys did to get BOOGER MOBILE spick and span for the Nambour PCYC Motoring Jamboree.
    Booger Mobile is looking like it has just come off the show room floor in 1964,what a classic car.But only because of all the time and hard work put in by Damian and Scottie.
    Was great also for Damian to have some quality family time with his two great sons and beautiful wife Tricia,working on the Booger Mobile all together

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