Boxhead's most excelent adventure.

[boxhead]

Well it is 6.40am and I am just finishing my coffee before heading off.
Plan for today is to get as far as I can, so if I am at Glendambo by about 3pm (NT time) then I will continue on to Port Augusta, if not then I will stay the night at Glendambo, I could stay at Pimba but have never stopped there before so it is an unknown.

I will update tonight with pics if I have internet access, if not then update tomorrow at Macca's in Port Augusta.

See you all soon.

I will attempt to have plenty of pics and keep this upto date, as I travel from Alice to Adelaide, on to Melboune, up to Albury (Chryslers On The Murray) then back to Melbourne.
Then my trip takes me up to Wangaratta for some racing at Winton (Shelbyfest) then my wife and I will slowly be making our way home (Alice Springs) via Mildura. This is all in a 3 week period.
__________________

[PCC]

Pics of the car in transit would be good Dave.

I'm presuming you've got a soft top.

Let me know how she travels in the wet.

Mine is like ice skating without skates

[Modena]

Originally Posted by PCC

Pics of the car in transit would be good Dave.

I'm presuming you've got a soft top.

Let me know how she travels in the wet.

Mine is like ice skating without skates

pretty sure he is trailering the Cob.

[Mando]

Boxhead, do you intend stopping in Adelaide for a beer or two?

Regards.

[boxhead]

Hey there Mando, the plan was to give you a call today and pop around to say hello, but sadly my pc crashed and I have been at another mates house for the past 5 hours while he fixes it (my computer knowledge is minimal), Then my mate whos house I am staying at, we are going out for dinner tonight with his girlfriend.
Hope we can catch up at Shelbyfest, the weatehr has been nice outside today for driving the Cobra around Adelaide.

[boxhead]

Yes the Cobra is on a trailer in the end.

The trip so far, Ok the Valiant has run great all trip but it is not the most powerful thing on the planet.
It is a factory 3 speed colomn shift manual with 215 engine, it does have a diff from an auto trans vehicle and teh ratio is about 2.92:1, so it struggles to get moving, once going all is ok.
The first day was Alice Springs to Glendambo, the first 200 kls was smooth sailing till the first service station stop, the Valiant with 1850kg trailer/Cobra on the back, a Valiant Charger roof on the roof rack, a Gen III short motor in the back, and a heap of other parts. Managed to go through 40 litres of fuel for 200kls (5kls per litre)

Then continuing on south, the next fuel stop (now that I had an idea how far the car could go on a tank of fuel) was at Cadney Park homestead.
Cadney Park is 320kls down the track from Erldunda, I had a big head wind for a lot of the driving and at times was down to 70kph, the Valiant went through 64 litres, so returned 5kls per litre again.

My GPS then decided to play a trick on me, I left Cadney Park and checked teh GPS, it advised me that Glendambo was 380kls away (I thought from previous trips it was further than that), it showed Coober Pedy as 240kls, so I figured I would get to Glendambo (or I had 30 litres in jerry cans).
So I get to where teh GPS says Glendambo is, and low and behold it is another 125kls away.
Anyway I got to Glendambo about 10 minutes before dark, which it turns out was 15 minutes before the heavens opened up.

Stayed at Glendambo overnight and on the road nice and early again.
As I get closer to Port Augusta, once again the heavens open.
I stop at Maccas for coffee and breakfast and fuel up, off again I get in contact with a mate in Two Wells and we meet up for a coffee and a chin wag, then on the road again.

I eventually arrive in Adelaide, and true to form the rain starts again.
My mate and I have a beer and wait for the rain to stop.
Eventually it does and I unload the Cobra into the garage.
Played a round of golf at the grange yesterday and relaxed, tried to fire up the laptop this morning and she would not go.

Here I am starting to load it up.


Saturday morning, just about to leave.
(Ronda put some friends on teh dash so I had someone to talk to)


The view out the front.


The SA/NT border.
The Val is sitting down in the bum due to teh gear in the back of it, with just teh Cobra and trailer she sits level.


And here we are at Glendambo.


Sadly it was too wet to get any more pics at my stops.

[OZCOBRA]

Boxhead..so the charger wind deflector was a good idea your getting 5k's a ltr imagine if you didn't have it

[boxhead]

Forgot to mention, Somewhere along the way I lost the L/H sunvisor, I have tinted perspex ones, if anyone wants to sell a set at the right price (need mounts and all) or I will possably wait and get glass ones anyway.

[Rob. Smith]

LOVE the 'aminals' on the dash....a definite valiant requirement. !

[David Hodgson]

Hey Dave, most excellent. Did much water get in under the tonneau? Always wondered about the valley at the rear edge.

[Merv and Sharon]

The other thing with tonneaus is the middle section. MGBs always had a metal rod frame across the middle. Not sure if that can be done on the Cobra. Mine is waterproof but water could build up in the middle if left for some time.

[Gav]

Someone had to say it,
'It's sitting a bit low in the arse isn't it Dave?'

[LoBelly]

Looks like you're going to have a fairly serious go if you're bringing a spare engine block

Hope everything hangs together

LoBelly

[boxhead]

Spare block has been delivered to its new owner.
I had alot of extra weight in the back of the Goon, the trailer and Cobra dont drop it down too much on there own.
I have made it to Melbourne, and all went well.
But in a good way the Val died this morning in Mums driveway.
Did some testing and found the fuel pump to be shagged.
removed it and pulled apart, found the rubber one way valves had gone rock hard.
I was then scratching my head in Tony's (Mum's boyfriend) shed, and looking up I noticed a heap of old Holden fuel pumps.
Then I spotted one that looked very similat in the shape of the main body. I cut it down (It was wired to the roof) and pulled it apart, low and behold it had teh same one way valve setup, and the seals where like new.
A quick swap over and refit, and all is working as it should again.

[hogster]

Being an Alice Springs lad you'd fit in with the Bush Mechanics.

Hunting and gathering,

It might become a seasonal nomadic migration ??
My old man lives in Merbein, he's probably got 3 of those and 5 of the others in his shed.
Two blokes went in to look for one once and were never seen again. I love sheds. LOL

Great post Boxhead, all the best

[Aussie Mike]

Glad you made it down safe David. Thanks for dropping off the new boat anchor. Lily was most impressed to hear of your epic journey.

I bet the goon will be a bit more aerodynamic now without the extra roof mounted spoiler on there too.

I'm still in hot and sweaty Thailand but I head home tomorrow (If they don't close the airport with the red shirt yellow shirt protests/clashes again). Looking forward to catching up next week.

Cheers

[boxhead]

Hey there Mike, yeah I am looking forward to cathcing up and doing some work on teh Cobra.

I am safely in Albury now for the Valiant car show, have met alot of guys and gals I have spoken to over the net, sure is good too shake hands rather than tap keyboards.

Should have plenty of pics to upload when I get back o Mum's on Sunday night.

Then it is preperation for a fun weekend at ShelbyFest. Whooo Hoooo, gotta love a car holiday

[Gav]

Sounds like you are having a hoot Dave.
I am into town to change over tyres this morning and then I have just 200 small jobs to do so as to be ready for next weekend.
Have fun with Guido Hatsis and his charger in Albury!

[boxhead]

I know what your doing.

Plenty of Chargers here to see, just uploading some pics into photobucket now, will supply a link when they are in there.

[boxhead]

Here is a link.
http://s270.photobucket.com/albums/j...byFest%202010/

Loved this one.