well heres the crazy story..
main objective of trip.. buy strezes vans (air brushed one and wreck) wreck the second throw the parts in the back, transport it back home 3,300km, pick up naths van drive it from brisbane to canberra 1200km, have a bit of a holiday, bit of excitement. get to see east side of aus a bit. get home before work for jackson on thursday..
so.. friday morning 4 of us had our alarms set for 3:30am and randomly no ones alarm went off?? but jack woke at 4.30 so we ran around to get to the airport.
got the airport parking 10 mins lAate. but we missed the 5am shuttle. but didnt have to be at the airport till 5.40 anyway the shuttle went missing?? and when it came we only had 5 mins to get to the airport.
made it to the airport 5 mins late. and it cost us 10hrs sitting at the airport trying to amuse ourselves..
i tried to get a 1 day job at lots of the shops at the airport. but no luck there.
after a long day we got on the plane at 4.30.
pulled into cairns at 8. strez picked us up from the airport, man it was thick air!!
started wrecking the second van at 8.30. got lots of good stuff off it.. axel, grill, transmission, steering rack, stub axels, brake booster, seats
here is the wreck. gotta love cairns for bringing out the rust in everything!!
ready to smack out the axel. could only get 1 out. tried hard to get the other one out but no luck..
2am we left strezs dads house with a van with 4 seats in it (2 from the wreck van) on petrol:(
we made it 3 or 4 mins down the road and ran out of petrol:(
pushed it for about 2km to nearest servo.
filled her up and on the road wahoo!
another 5mins down the road blew a rear wheel cylinder:( bummer. oh well didnt need rear brakes anyway:(
drove through the night. sleeping and driving. 4 of us so we could all interchange driving..
also had a bed behind nelle where we slept to..
townsville 8 am
cleaning up a bit.. had half a shower in maccas toilet basin.
then went on the hunt for a gas conversion.. man not 1 in 30 wreckers!!!!! got to be joking. these people sell gas at their pumps but no one has gas??? crazy!!!!!
caught up with clance in mackay! was sweet.. still looking for a gas conversion. petrol is way expensive!
drove through the night again.
made it to brisbane 12 midday sunday.. caught up with few friends. caught up with shane J checked out his van, threw the diff on the roof:)
drove down south brisbane.
picked up the second van we were transporting for nath. man it needed work
things we had to fix before we went anywhere..
fit electronic dizzy.. the motor looked like it was tearing itsself appart cause of the points.
bleed the brakes.. no fluid in the brake reservoir, and pedal went to the floor.
left upper wishbone sliding around all over the place.. pin stuck in crossmember..
anyway we fixed it enough to drive it safely.
slept in the vans in a car park where we though was a good spot. i slept outside under the stars until it started raining. and i cuddled up in my sleeping back until i realized i couldnt get away from the rain and had to get in one of the vans. the spot we had choosen ended up not being a good spot. browns plains is apparently not a good area for crime. we had the cops rock up and interigate us. i couldnt think straight cause they woke me up and it made interesting talking for our conversation. the cops tried to find drugs or something i n the baclk of the vans. i laughed at them.. opps..
anyway they said not to do it again..?? we went back to sleep..
got up in the morning drove to georges house.. blew a coil on one of the vans. replaced it with a spare. caught up with george
i sent the boys to wreckers to get a gas conversion while me and nelle did more work on naths van.. (wishbone)
drove to the wreckers. jackson got his iphone and wallet stolen cause he left them on the roof of a car?
stupid
we converted strezs van to gas outside the wreckers.. yay cheap!!
then we headed off once again at 5pm..
we got lost at one point. and ended up on gravel. it had nothing to do with me cause i was asleep.
after wasting a fair amount of time we got back on the hwy..
we stopped in a truck stop and sleept for 2 or 3 hours..
first thing we split the vans cause we had to go to singleton to pick up a jag diff. and i scored a borg wagner centre out of it as well which was handy:)
on our way back to meet up with the others we had a phone call to say the other van had caught on fire. at that stage we feared the worst. jack said all the engine was burnt and it sounded serious.
then i had a chat on the phone to a towy that was at the servo and he said it was nothing major which was a relief.
but nelle got sick from the smoke and had to go to hospital.. man she was acting like such a girl.. oh well.
me and jackson got to van. i stayed there and got it running again while jackson went to hospital to make sure everything was alright..
fire started from air intake.. cloth tape wrapped around it by previous owner
the fire only burn a few hoses which i patched up with other hose. and i cut the intake air hose on carby out drove without it.. also the accelerator cable got seized. so i had to use my left big toe on the throttle arm instead. that was fun.. 200kms until i had amazing cramps then i discovered i should take the spring off.. that made it more like cruize control!! much better!!!!
3.30am got to and slept at naths house in canberra for 4 hours, then had to go again lol.. had too much weight on boad had to get rid of some mud flaps cause they were rubbing on the tyres..
left the gps in naths van so it took us hours to find our way out of canberra!! that was annoying..
photo of the van at the big submarine at that place cant remember..
made it to albury wadonga and caught up with antony and he fixed my thong for me:) very importand
could not get the diff filler open to check the oil in the diff and was paradoide the whole trip could do bearings or the diff.. so when we started heRing noise that sounded like bearing noise we were pretty scared. only had 1 spare axel..
thank goodness it ended up being tailshaft bolts coming loose..
made it back to melbourne wednesday night.. so it was 5 days!!!!!!!!!!
dont think the docko will sell. not much footage.. but heaps of fun. the guys recon it was a full on epic adventure and the most fun they have had for a long time..
and i think ill be starting a business bens bedford bush mechanics:)
he he
thanks heaps to george for letting us use his tools also.. we really do have a great community of people on buga.
cheers
ben
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