Camp Quality Res Camp 2011

Damian spent the week of the 26-30 September 2011 at Camp Quality Res Camp (for kids aged 9-14 who have (or have had) cancer).  Here's a snapshot of the week... selectively edited as he's not allowed to upload photos with any campers in them!!

First day was at Paradise Country (the camp theme was Country and Western).

Damian attempted to take a photo of a turkey and was photo-bombed by a llama!!

Self portrait with a koala and a lady trying not to be in the photo!!

Day 2 involved bodyboarding...  Damian is such a Bad Boy!!

The night of day 2 had fire twirling and the Camp Quality Rodeo...

There was a mechanical bull that the kids had fun riding...

Wednesday night had a secret outing... it was to the Outback Spectacular!!  Damian saw some asian tourists lining up with photos with these lovely ladies, so he quickly threw himself in there for a self portrait, much to their amusement!!

Day 4 saw a reptile show roll through...  As you can see, Damian is outside of his comfort zone!!

The night of the disco, and Damian made a very, err... beautiful, if somewhat confused cowboy!!

The last day saw the crew head off to Time Zone on the Gold Coast for some games, dodgem cars and a game of laser tag!!

All in all, a fabulous week was had by all.  This is a brief snapshot of the fun that donations help to bring to kids living with cancer and their families!!

Silver Sponsor - DNL Bookkeeping

Team Booger Mobile are stoked to announce that DNL Bookkeeping have signed back on again in 2011, and have become a Silver Sponsor!!

For all your bookkeeping requirements, give Nicky a call on 0438 176 603!

Silver Sponsor - Complete Treatment Plant Services

Team Booger Mobile would like to thank Ray from Complete Treatment Plant Services for his continuing sponsorship!

He prefers to remain somewhat anonymous, so here's his sticker again!!

Head Shim Installation

Tonight's blog post is brought to you by the rear passenger door sponsors - Aqualogical, and Denise Gadsden, Catherine and Paul Price.  Oh, and Giggle is laughing in the window!!

It was time for the head shim to be installed...  Damian had arranged for his friend Damien to come around to help out, but before he arrived, thought he should get cracking on pulling bits off...  Here's the before photo just in case it's required!!

First step - drop the coolant...  Collect it in a nice clean bucket so it can be reused later!!

Damian removed the air cleaner etc, then it was off with the tappet cover, and the rocker shaft (with rockers attached).  Damien had arrived by this point.

The head was removed, revealing a pretty good looking head gasket.  Good news - there was no "blown head gasket", although the coolant was weeping from the edge... but where?

The head with carby still attached!!

Inspecting the head gasket, you can see that there were just slight weep marks near the 3rd and 4th pistons...

The picture of the block (before cleaning) shows what appears to be minor leaking - again, near the 3rd and 4th cylinder.

The head was cleaned up, then the shim was prepped with Hylomar gasket sealant, as recommended.

The new head gasket was also prepped with the Hylomar, to ensure a better seal (hopefully).

The bottom of the head was given a final wipedown before it was placed back onto the newly installed shim and head gasket combo.

Damian put his new torque wrench to good use, while Damien took over the photography!!

The head was all torqued down - time to install the rockers.

Once they were back together, it was time to refill the radiator...  Damian had a pouring fail, much to Damien's amusement!!

Damian hiding the evidence...

The radiator was topped up with spare fluid (much more successfully).

Booger Mobile was back in the shed, ready for a test start (to adjust the rockers).

Tricia took over camera duties at this point, as Damian and Damien checked it out.

Test run.

With the rockers all adjusted, the engine purred (once Damian realised he hadn't reconnected the PCV hose to the inlet manifold).

Job done!!  The new shim has wiped 40 psi from the pressure in each cylinder.  When cold, the cylinder pressures (before the shim) were 180, 195, 195, 190, 195, 195.  After the shim was installed, the pressure in the first two cylinders were 140 and 155.  This is an excellent result - the pressures will increase by around 20 psi as the engine warms up.

Please, please, PLEASE let this be the end of the engine dramas, begged Damian.

Time will tell!!

Fundraising at Counter Revolution 2011

The Counter Revolution Festival in Brisbane is put on by the same people who run Soundwave, and since Jo loves Damian so much, she invited him back to man the signing tent... his beautiful wife Tricia came along for the morning rush!!

The Brisbane Riverstage - workmen putting the final touches on - that's the signing tent near the fence in the bottom right corner of the photo...

Damian gave the signing tent the Camp Quality touch, and Jo strikes a pose with other volunteers and Tricia looking on!

Damian and Jo with the obligatory self portrait!

Damian standing gaurd at the side entrance to the main stage.

The gates opened and the crowd started to trickle in.  The signing tent got really busy for the first couple of hours - the first band wasn't due to sign until 1pm, but experienced punters know that popular bands sell out within the first fifteen minutes or so!!

One of the early acts take the stage...

The first band through the signing tent - We are the ocean - they sold out!! (Profuse apologies if Damian has the band name wrong against this photo - please let him know if he has!!)

The signing line snaked across in front of the main stage!

Damian spotted a few of the Sun State Roller Girls wandering in the crowd...

And just for Carmen and Bek who are both avid readers of the blog, he rustled them up for a photo opportunity!!  Turns out they were team supporters rather than members, but near enough!!

Some bands that came through the signing tent really made themselves comfortable!!

The crowd continued to build throughout the day and into the evening...

Damian had a chance to duck upstairs to the catering area, which overlooked the main stage...

One of the bands that came through the signing tent misunderstood the meaning of the signing tent... they were meant to sign bits of paper for people, not the table!!

All Time Low took the stage later in the evening - they were the first band to sell out (in 15 mins).

On the train ride home, Damian was nodding off to sleep (but still managed a self portrait).

All in all it was a fabulous day fundraising.  Damian got to speak to a number of bands and their managers about Camp Quality, not to mention a heap of the punters at the festival.  Jo invited Damian back for the next festival - so Damian's pretty stoked about that!!

So, how much was raised?  Well, Damian hasn't had a chance to do a final tally yet, but there were around 900 tickets sold plus a few reasonable donations made, so the total is sure to be around $2000.  Woohoo!!

Fixing the trim and a head shim...

Tonight's blog post is brought to you by Jason Sheather Plumbing.  It's actually the combination of some work done on Monday and Wednesday night...

In order to make some clips to hold on the passenger side door trim, Damian needed to find someone who had a welder to come and help out...

But first, a bit of angle grinding to make the weld stick better!!

And Damo to the rescue!!  Damien lives near Damian, and owns a welder... handy!!

Here's the first one... pretty damn good!!

It goes in the track like this (only the other track needs to be in place also!!)

This is one of Damien's cars... a classic Valiant - it actually starts and drives reliably!!  Heaven!!

Fast forward to Wednesday night through the magic of the interwebs...  This is the head shim that was custom made by John Tripp of Gassol Gasket Solutions...  Visit them on the web at http://www.gasketsolutions.com.au

It's 3mm thick and designed to reduce the compression in the engine - this is the suggested root cause of the whole host of issues that the engine has been experiencing - blown head gasket, pinging, heat issues...  Time will tell!!

The shim goes between the block and the head, creating a larger gap, hence reducing the compression.

Damian used some wet and dry to give the shim a rub-down and smooth off the paint...

Next cab off the rank - attaching the passenger side door trim...

First, remove the inner door trim...

Place the attachment bolts in approximately the right place, pop on a bit of sikaflex around the base of each one...

And put it onto the door!!  Tighten the bolts and it's all done!!

While the door handles were off, Damian decided that they would look better if they were grey rather than the mismatched brown colour...

And back on the door...  Probably not quite the right colour, but it's a bit better than the brown!!

So the head shim has arrived, all that's needed is some time to work on it!!  Damian is onsite the rest of this week, then Saturday will be at the Counter Revolution music festival in Brisbane fundraising (stop by and say g'day if you are going), so maybe Sunday will be the day to get started... 

Stay tuned!!