Fundraising - Soundwave Festival 2015 Brisbane - Day 1

Soundwave for 2015 is being held over two days in each city - day 1 in Brisbane was off to a good start with Damian scoring a car park at the Camp Quality head office!!

Volunteer gate... seems like the right place!!

Helping out on Saturday was Jack, who was one of Damian's campers on Grad Camp in 2014 - who turned 18 on Friday (the day before Soundwave)!!

Signing tent, or is it Igning Tent, signage all sorted out!!

Of course, next to the official Soundwave Merchandise tent, the signing tent looks kind of quaint!!

Kel (boss of the signing tent) standing in for Jo's annual selfie, as Jo couldn't make it to Brisbane this year!!

After the initial ticket rush, there was time for Damian to sneak out to have a look at the first band...

Apocalyptica!!  They were awesome - check out some of their work on youtube if you dare!! 

Cello's like you've never heard them before!!

Selfie... of course!!

Back at the signing tent, The Wonder Years were the first band to come through...

Damian and Kel having some fun...  Damian looks like he might be about to have a heart attack!!

Damo posing with the boys from Apocalyptica after their signing tent appearance!!

No posed photos says the sign!!

The line up for Tonight Alive, with the girl who is first in line super excited to pose with the picture of Booger Mobile on the wall!!

The line goes up and around and into the distance!!

Tonight Alive!!

Jack wanted a picture with the band - so he got one!!  Turns out Damo is the famous one though, as one of the members of Tonight Alive said to him that the guys in Melbourne had asked them to say g'day to him for them!!  Job done Sagona and Webby!!

Butcher Babies were quite popular also for some reason!!

Night fell on the signing tent, and the last couple of bands cycled through!!

After packing up, the girls made a star-selfie-something-or-other!!

So Damian joined in!!

Crazy face time!!

Always good to put your feet up at the end of a hard day in the signing tent!!

Once signing tent duties were completed, there was enough time for Damian to catch about half of Slash's set...

With Myles Kennedy on lead vocals...

The man in the hat!!

The set was awesome!!

Big crowd for the penultimate band for Saturday.

Pretty lights!!

Big finale, with confetti cannons!!

Slash playing the guitar behind his head amidst the confetti!!

Saturday was done and dusted - although there were only 14 bands through the signing tent, through ticket sales and donations a massive $2133.10 was raised... and it's only day one!!

Tune in on Sunday to find out what the grand total raised is for Soundwave Brisbane in 2015!!

Fiddly stuff and planning for bigger things...

Damian had a bit of time to kill, so he figured a trip to the shed was in order to speak to Booger Mobile...

An engine cross-brace is going to be included for 2015.  Damian worked out that going back to a standard air cleaner would give enough clearance over the top...

But how to attach the brace?  Regular blog readers would remember these new strut towers from a couple of years back... They were a bit of a debacle in their present form, but Damian could use the base plate from them (with the standard strut towers sitting on top) to make a mounting point for the brace.

Step one - remove the welded on strut tower.

Through the magic of the interwebs, that didn't take long at all!!

Would you look at that!!  Both of them are done, now!!

Unfortunately, one of the cutting discs decided to self destruct while Damian was using them... one part hit his left hand, the other part got him in the shin!!  Ouch!!

A bit of paint was slapped on to protect them until Angus can come around to weld them up... it would have been black paint, but Damian found he had no black paint left!!

Next annoying fiddly bit was the breaker switch for the amplifier/sub woofer...  It had self destructed!!

That's better, a nice, shiny new switch!!  Of course, it's bigger, and the mounting point snapped when Damian attempted to use it, so it's held on with some super-sticky double-sided tape!!

Damian decided that a test drive would be in order, and since Jordan needed picking up from school, it seemed a good way to kill two birds with one stone!!

Unfortunately, a Kangaroo Bus Lines driver decided that giving way was optional, and did his/her level best to take out Booger Mobile (who was in an 80 zone, doing 80)!!  For all the fuel issues Damian has had with Booger Mobile, it's good to know that the brakes still work fantastically well!!


Having made it safely back into his shed, this is what happy Damian looks like!!

So, on the plus side, Booger Mobile is up and running.  On the negative side, it still coughed, farted and carried on for the first few km, even though Damian had left it idling for about 15 mins to warm up before heading off.  On an even bigger plus side - the brakes are awesome!!

Still lots to get done before esCarpade 2015... One thing that isn't an issue, is the fundraising - Damian has already passed the $5000 minimum, and has Soundwave on Saturday and Sunday (28 February, 1 March) in Brisbane.

If you are going to Soundwave in Brisbane, swing by the signing tent and say g'day to Damian!!

Better get cracking for 2015...

The time has arrived for Damian to ex-digitate (pull his finger out) and get cracking on the stuff that needs doing to Booger Mobile to be ready for 2015... The first cab off the rank is to try to work out the cause of the intermittent fuel problems Damian and Angus experienced in 2014.

First, siphon the fuel...

It's going to be a slow process with this one!!

Peel back the carpet to reveal the fuel tank...

And by the magic of the interwebs, remove!!

Replace the fuel tank with something far more awesome!!  Sadly, Tricia isn't keen to push Booger Mobile all the way to Narrabri!!

Cleaning the tank...

Remove the remaining fuel...

More fuel...

Still being removed...

This is the grunge that came out of the tank - probably not enough to account for the fuel problems...

The sender unit/fuel pickup is looking a tad grungy...

Voila!!  Is clean!!  And the locking cap removed...

Sheesh... the sender/fuel pickup is basically brand new!!  Never has Damian been so disappointed to find a part in good condition - he was hoping the sender unit would be stuffed, and a simple replacement would fix all his problems...  Alas, that's not the case!!

Maybe the inside of the tank is horrid...  Err.. nope!!  Looks clean enough to eat off!!

This tank must have been brand new before Damian bought Booger Mobile...  it's ridiculously shiny in there!!

Replace the sender unit/fuel pickup...

Aidan swung by to help Damian get the fuel tank back in...

Voila!!  That interwebs installation is fast!!  Pity it's not that fast in real life!!

All back together again...  Damian must remember to put the fuel cap back on...

Damian getting comfy under Booger Mobile...

Hooking up the fuel line and sender (for the fuel gauge).

Fuel goes back in... a hell of a lot faster than it came out!!

Checking for leaks... none!!

Damian went to fire up Booger Mobile to draw the fuel through, only to find the battery was flat...  Off with Booger's head, instead!!

Laugh it up, funny face!!

Get the battery sorted with a you-beaut multi-stage charger...  Good plan!!

Roof racks off...  Looks a lot different!!

Sleek lines now!!

The broken mount, still to be removed...

Damage to the middle of the roof where the broken mount failed to keep the bolt from hitting up and down on the roof...  *sigh*

Roof rack looks lonely now... wonder what Damian should do for a roof ornament this year?

Update:  On Monday, Damian went and checked the fuel flow from the tank, to find that the fuel flow was pretty poor... Time to investigate whether the new pump (new in 2013) has failed - could all the drama from 2014 have been caused by a part replaced during the leaf saga of 2013???? 

Say it isn't so!!