4WDing

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Update time again. Finally it's back together after fixing everything that mud and water wore out or seized up.

Swivel hub and spindle on.

New brake rotors and pads. The old ones were a bit on the thin side.

All back together. A few interior bits to fix and then paint it, all go for the comp this weekend.

Had a go at the roof lining, but the material I had wasn't compatible with contact adhesive so I found out after applying it, soaked through and basically melted the pattern on the other side. If I use that material, I think I'll go with a studded look instead of glued. Won't have time to do it before the weekend though. Really hoping to do a "test and tune" tomorrow night. Haven't driven it since about August last year.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Quick wash before a splash of paint.

Had to share this too. I used a piece of tractor tube to deflect the oil so it wouldn't run all over the extractors when I drained it, this is the resulting pattern on it.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Painted at last. I don't think it turned out too bad. Flares and lights to refit tonight.

The centre part of the bonnet is actually blacked out now as well, didn't get a photo of that.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

After a fun filled weekend we drove the car back onto the trailer at the end of it so for us, it was a success. Didn't place, won't know the full result for couple of days as to where we ended up on the score sheet. Here are a few pics from the weekend. Will post up some action shots when I get them off the SD card.

Loaded up and ready to go.

Saturday morning at 7am after a night of heavy rain. Rained for most of the morning too.

End of day one, ready for the night stage. 2 hot laps of a short course on infield of the speedway track. There were a few people talking about doing it in rear wheel drive so I thought what the hell and unlocked the front hubs with it in high range. Found out after that everyone had it in 4WD still, very hard to grab traction in rear wheel drive but had fun drifting it around the track. Sideways over the last jump and nearly took out the marshalls.

Lining up for the last track of the day on Sunday.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

A few more shots from the weekend.

My navi getting wet hooking up the strap.

Recovery in action.

And out.

Lining up before the mud run.

A shot of a few cars waiting to start one of the stages. We are just about to head to the start line between those two flags.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

We got the results in the other day, official line up was 38 cars at the end of day 2.

Out of the 14 in Modified, we placed a respectable 6th, only 93 points off the lead. 2 DNF's, out of which we only managed 52 points between them, but we also got 6 perfect 100 point runs. The 2 DNF's was all the difference between a place, maybe even the win and where we finished.

Equal 21st overall, which I'm quite happy with. 150 points off the overall winner.

No major dramas with the car, we did have an issue with the power windows, as we started the mudrun, my navi thought "****, the windows", so he was putting them up as we hit the mud. Water must have sprayed up into the door and shorted the motor as when we finished, the windows wouldn't go down. Quick trip back to the pits soon had it sorted as the fuse had blown. After fixing that, the car wouldn't restart. Worked out that when pulling the fuses to find the blown one, I bumped the fuel pump fuse making it lose contact. Fixed that and we were back out on the tracks.

It was a fun filled weekend with some very nice cars and skilled drivers. Can't wait for next years comp now that I know what to expect.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Some photos from the event photographer.

From the morning line up, nice and clean.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Yesterday at Meryla State Forest, which was just one giant mud pit.....

 

[Turd Ferguson]