Bluey is good to go for esCarpade - must be some kind of record!

Having Bluey's automatic transmission service completed on Thursday was the last bit of work requiring a mechanic to complete preparation for the 2025 Camp Quality esCarpade.

Before reinstalling the bash plates, Damian figured a snappy oil and oil filter change would be sensible.

New filter and oil...

Thumbs up from Damo and it was time to get on with the bash plates!

Front bash plate being balanced in place on the trolley jack...

Starting the rear bash plate, Damian wondered where the red grease all over the ratchet was coming from...  then he realised he had cut his thumb.  Must be something sharp under the car (and it clearly wasn't Damo)!

Holding the transmission bash plate in place...

All bolts done up and the bash plates looking the goods.

The mandatory fire extinguisher for esCarpade must be at most 5 years old.  Sadly this one is now 6 years old, so it's time for a new one.  Damian hoped it would simply be a case of removing the fire extinguisher from the bracket and popping the new one in there!

Nope!  The brackets are slightly different sizes...  Maybe the bolts will at least line up?

Nope!  Slightly different width between the mounting bolts...

Quick drill and reposition of one of the mounting bolts and hey presto, in-date fire extinguisher!

Quick tidy up of the Bluey wording on the rooftop pod...

Looks alright.

And a quick check of the safety lights determined that one of the amber strobes had given up the ghost...

The LED's themselves were fine, and there was power there, so something was a tad borked somewhere in the teeny, tiny circuitry... Better off replacing the whole thing.

Of course, Damian didn't have any spare amber strobes lying around... but he did have some green ones!  What did he do?  Check out the safety light walkaround for the answer!

For those who prefer their videos with a little more movement in the vehicle, here's DamosCarpade - aka driving home from the transmission service the other day.

Lucky last - fundraising update.  esCarpade 2025 is now less than 7 weeks away!!  There's still time to make a donation if you haven't already.  Currently, the boys donation tally stands at... <drumroll>

$12913

Thanks to the impressive humans and companies who have donated - all tax-deductible donations go directly to Camp Quality to give children living with cancer the chance to be kids again!