On Friday, Damian had Bluey booked in to his regular mechanic to check over the B's... belts, brakes, ball joints, bearings, bad stuff...
Turns out that Bluey is in "surprisingly good condition for a car of its age" according to the mechanic... replaced the serpentine belt, flushed the brake fluid and coolant, replaced the auto transmission fluid and diff oil and nipped up a couple of bearings...
There were a couple of minor issues that were discovered later in the day that Damian would need to deal with another time - there was not enough time left to deal with it on Friday, and Damian wanted Bluey over the weekend to keep making progress...
Two additional items were found by the mechanic.
- There was a mishap attempting to undo the brake bleeder nipple on the right rear calliper - apparently it was seized... and
- A minor leak was noticed in the water pump, but only when the car was cold.
After spending Saturday doing other stuff (including a drive in Booger Mobile), Damian decided that Sunday was the day.
First stop - just how bad is this brake bleeder nipple? Oh... they actually snapped it off when attempting to undo it!!
Damian's strategy of buying another car the same make and shape as Retro Rock-It (albeit newer and a different model) paid off... the right rear calliper was in good condition, and the bleeder nipple opened and closed as expected!
One replacement rear calliper...
And through the magic of the interwebs, here it is installed! Damian's lovely wife Tricia helped him with the bleeding of the brakes, and one of the two items have been checked off!
Not fancying a drive to the shops to buy a replacement water pump (Damian did contemplate just taking the one off Retro Rock-It, but when he realised how cheap a new one was he figured it was better just to grab a new one and be done with it!), Damian decided to start the theming of the rooftop pod.
First step - cutting out a template.
The rooftop pod was moved to the back verandah for ease of access and a nice working area...
Template on the other side...
A picture of concentration!
Mixing up some light blue paint... Damian didn't realise he pulled such funny faces when he was concentrating!
And Damian's career as a freehand signwriter takes shape...
That benign mole on the back of Damian's head can just about be seen from space!
Tadaa!! If you squint a bit and stand a long way back, it looks great!!
Second coat on one side...
Second coat on the other side...
While the paint was drying, Damian started making a new template - this one would be a little trickier!
Bluey will go here on the front of the rooftop pod...
After tracing the outline, Damian progressively cut more and more of the template to pieces as he traced around the the important bits of Bluey!
Basic outline completed...
Comparison with the original drawing to fill in the internal lines demarking the different colours.
And finished!! The painting of the Bluey picture on the front will be a time-consuming process with 6 or 7 different colours involved... That can wait for another day!
Lat job for today, Damian got a thick black pen and traced the outline of all the letters, tidying them up a bit and adding a glossy shadow.
So the theming has finally started, albeit slow going! Damian has also arranged some stickers for the panels, and has collected the first of several sponsor stickers to stick also - these can wait until after the Bluey stickers have arrived so that the placement can be handled.
Lastly, thanks to our spectacular sponsors, we have now cracked the $20K mark, making 2024 our best fundraising year ever! The current total stands at:
$20346
We have revised our goal upwards to $25K, given there are still about 9 weeks left until esCarpade!
No comments:
Post a Comment