0026 Wandering during the virus

 0026 Wandering during the Virus

 27th September 2020

Now I don't have to work on the VW ........

 

With most of the work on Clementine now finished, I am trying to drive her as much as possible in order to get some miles on her.  1000 kms will be enough, and then I will take it back down to Steve at CCC and we will do a full "first" service, and check all the suspension and steering for tightness.  We also have a few other items to fix, like the reversing lights etc.  Until then, I am using her almost every day, and checking out things as necessary as I go. 

Painting Troopie's roo bar

With the current Corona Virus situation, we are only allowed to travel within our own state, so we decided to go away camping for a few days in Troopie.  Before doing so, I had a few things I needed to do to her because for the last few months she has been totally neglected - And of course, before that, she had not only been down to Tasmania, but last year went round Australia with my French friends Joel and Brigitte, and I have barely touched her since then.  There are a couple of scrapes on her which I need to sort out and repaint, and I also wanted to repaint the front bumper / roo bar which was getting very discoloured and even rusty in places.  The 6 bolts holding the side rails onto the front section were totally rusted and just broke off when I tried to undo them, so 6 new bolts needed to replace them.  Additionally, when I removed the

Troopie's "new" roo bar

indicator units before painting the bumper, they turned out to be totally rusty inside - I am suprised they were even still working.  Luckily I was able to find them on the internet fairly easily, so ordered them.

Rubbing the whole bar down was a day's work, and then I had to mask off the whole front of the car before spraying.  I just used a satin finish anti rust paint, and after 2 or 3 coats, it came up really well.  With the new bolts fitted, and the new indicator units wired up and fitted, it looked really smart.  I also decided to get a new windscreen fitted - The present

New windscreen 

one has been round the world with me and twice round Australia, so it has many stone chips plus one large (and growing) crack up the RH side.  This was all done in half an hour at Instant Windscreens, and while the windscreen was out, we checked the frame for rust - The was virtually none, but we still applied a quick coat of preventative to the frame before fitting the new windscreen.    I then tidied up a few things inside, replaced some plastic clips that had got broken, and, once we had packed the car with clothes, food, and beer and wine, we were ready to go.

We decided to go and explore the Glass House Mountains that are just a couple of hours north of Brisbane - We had driven past them many times before, but never really explored them.  We took the country roads up from the Gold Coast, avoiding the tolled freeway that could have got us there much

Bush campsite at Neurum

more quickly, but in a less interesting route.  Out through Boonah, then north through Ipswich to Lakes Wivenhoe and Somerset, which are part of the water supply system for SE Queensland.  We drove round the edges of the lakes, stopping on the banks of Wivenhoe for a quick bite of lunch - Pork pie and a scotch egg !!  We then continued up past Kilcoy yo a Bush Camping Resort I had found on the internet, in a place called Neurum.  This was delightful, set in the middle of the bush, with very few people there, and we set up camp, went for a wonder round the area, and after some Fox refreshment and dinner, played some cards before turning in.  Great to be back on the road.

Mt Coonowrin

Next morning we had a leisurely pack up, and then set off into the Glass House Mountains National Park. These mountains are so called because James Cook, travelling the area in the 1770's, thought they looked the same conical shape as the old northern English foundries where glass used to be made.  We headed first to the main Lookout, which provides a fine view out over the countryside where you can see all the mounts, and also has details of their history well documented.  These are basically magma plugs formed some 27 million years ago from the molten lava inside volcanos.  They are much harder than the urrounding rock, and after the volcanos became inactive, the surrounding mountains and countryside has eroded away, leaving just the original volcanic plus sticking up several hundred feet into the sky.  An amazing sight.    We did a short walk around the area before heading down to a café where we shared some scones and jam, and a cup of coffee, overlooking Mt Coonowrin from our table.  Very pleasant.

 

After that, it went slightly "downhill" for a while - I decided to follow a forest trail as it looked like a

View of 2 of the peaks

good short cut on the map - After all, thats why one has a big 4WD, isn't it.  It was a bit rough, and eventually I gave up when we came to a big sandy gully that could potentially case us serious problems, but not before my "co-driver" and stated her dissatisfaction with the "situtation" in no mean terms.  Ho hum ! 

Once back on the main road, we sauntered into Maleny and had a pleasant lunch overlooking the valley below.  We ended up camping in Maleny Showgrounds that night.

 

Mt Tibrogargan

In the afternoon, we ended up at the base of Mt Tibrogargan, and decided to follow the trail around the mount.  It is about 3.5 kms of delightful and well marked trails through the bush, and was a great way to see the mount from all sides.   Just the exercise we needed before we tootled on down to the coast at Mooloolaba where we had booked a campsite close to the beach for the next couple of nights.

 

Mooloolaba is an interesting spot - Not yet as overgrown and crowded as Maroochydore, and with lots of good restaurants and cafés along the front, along with a big and active Surf Club.    The camp site is almost in the middle of town, and is pretty busy, but is very well organised, and very clean, so not too much of a hardship, although I wouldn't want to stay there too long.  We wandered the beach and through the streets before returning to the campsite for supper.  Next day we had some

Mooloolaba camp site

breakfast in town and explored a bit more, but there were big storms and lots of rain apparently headed our way.  In the afternoon Janet went for a walk along the path that ran right beside the camp sites, and by the time she got back, I decided it was stupid to sit here in the dry, waiting for rain to come this evening, which would mean we sat in the van trying to keep dry, then packed up wet in the rain in the morning before we drove just 3 hours home.  So we packed up immediately, in the dry, and drove home straight away, although we passed through some of the imminent rain on the way.  I feel we made the correct decision, especially since I didn't have to unpack all the gear on arrival and put it all out to dry !    But a pleasant few days away - Great to be on the road again., especially for me

New Fox Friday

In the meantime, Benn and Sarah down in Tasmania have taken over what used to be the West End Pump House on Murray Street in Hobart.  This was previously a bar/restaurant type thing, and is in a great location, so currently they are ripping the guts out of it and plan to set it up as their tap room, with food as well, because it is large enough to enable them to social distance during the current virus restrictions, and thus open to the public, which at the moment they cannot do because their tap room is too small.  In the meantime, they are still enjoying great sales of their Fox Friday beer on line, so are really busy since they are tryng to open the new place by the end of October.  We would like to be down there now, helping them by either working (painting ?) or jelping look after their girls, but with the borders currently shut down, we cannot travel to Tasmania.  Hopefully the borders will be reopened by the end of October, in which case we will be "heading south" !!

As an aside, they sent a selection of their beer over to (brother) Nick and  Tanja near Amsterdam, which

Beer arrived safely in Holland

arrived this week, taking only 12 days, which is pretty good.  So now they won't feel so left out !   Plus there were 4 of their Fox Friday kegs still up in Brisbane after their Tasmanian tap takeover at the beginning of this year.  Obviously they need to get these back at some stage, but at least we now have them safe and sound at our house.   Turning into a brewery agency up here !!

 

 

And orchids in pots

Orchids in trees

While I have been busy working on the VW for the past 8 months, Janet
has been busy in the garden, so between us we have not been bored at all during these Corona virus times.  As a result of her work, the garden is looking better than ever, and with spring now here, the flowers and plants are positively blooming.  Especially a varying range of orchids that we have, some acquired, some just growing.  Tree orchids, orchids in pots, and even hanging orchids that are on wooden bases, courtesy of our motorcycle-travelling friends Dean and Judy.  It is already starting to warm up here, so the plants are loving it - We just need some serious rain !

Juju purse back on the wall

With the VW at least running, I am taking a break from car things and have been able to do a few things round the house - like mending roof guttering,  and even mending a bronze Nigerian juju purse that we acquired when we lived there in 1980.  It normally hangs outside the front door, along with a couple of Nigerian wooden masks, but the leather hanging strap had become brittle and broken over the years, and it had ended up in a cupboard.  I found some leather strips in Spotlight, and restrung all the cowrie shell, and made a new hanging strap.  I also had an attempt to clean it up a bit - 40 years outside in the elements had left it looking pretty ugly, but bothing that Solvol Austosol car chrome polish and a small wire brush couldn't deal with !  It has ended up looking pretty good, and is now back on the wall for another 40 years !! 

Magnetic rain covers

I have a growing list of things I want to do to the VW, but none are desperately urgent - I want to keep driving her for a while.  I have fitted a new windscreen washer reservoir and pump - My previous effort of adapting the original unit just hadn't worked - The pump didn't seem strong enough to pump the water out.  So I purchased a complete flexible bag unit and have installed that in the meantime, and it works well.  When I have the time and inclination, I may yet try to make the original unit work properly.   I have also purchased some magnetic rubber for $5 and made up too pads to cover the air intake vents in the bonnet.  These vents are a known source of water into the inside of the car when it rains, and although I did do some renovation work on them and their drain hoses during the reno, I cannot be

Large door gap

sure how waterproof they are.  So in case I have to leave Clementine outside in rain any time, these can be quickly fitted over the vents if necessary, sealing them off.

Last, and perhaps biggest thing I need to do is to realign the front panels.  The doors should have been fitted first because their position and alignment is basically fixed by the hinges welded in place, and then the wings added afterwards and aligned to the doors.  However, with the delays I had with the doors due to the window mechanism replacement problems, the doors were actually the last things I fitted, and as a result the front LH wing is too far forwards.  This means there is a bigger vertical gap than there should be between

Uneven bonnet gap

the rear of the wing and the front edge of the door, and then in turn, the bonnet will not now line up properly.  This means I need to partially remove the carpet that I have glued in place so that I can then loosen all the bolts that hold the LH wing in position.  Once that is done, I can slide that wing backwards slightly, which will hopefully mean I can then get the bonnet on straight.  But as this means several days work with the car off the road, I will wait until I am "in the mood" before tackling this issue !   At the moment it is just unsightly (and thus annoying - to me if no one else !)  and not affecting the car at all.

 Last thing I did this week was to take the rusty old tow bar and have it sandblasted.  I took the bar off the car right at the start of the rebuild, and wasn't sure what to do with it.  But now I have got the idea of maybe using a small trailer as a tent carrier, I

Towbar all cleaned up

thought I would get the bar cleaned up and painted - If I do not use it, I can always sell it.  After the clean up down at Neumann Sandblasting, I put on two coats of rust proofing primer plus two top coats of satin rustproofing paint, and it has come up really well.  With the tow ball all cleaned up, it is ready to see if it will still fit on the car with the new stainless exhaust in place - I am not sure if there is enough room under there !

For now, that is where I am.  VW running well, Troopie slowly being shown a little TLC, and everyone just waiting for borders to open so we can move around again - Which for us means being able to travel to Tasmania, Perth, or Amsterdam to be able to see our children and grandchildren.   Hopefully the travel barriers will come down before too much longer.  

 Rest of the photos are here :- https://photos.app.goo.gl/weP579AeeEZaq1vd8