SHAKEDOWN BLUES
WHILE you can rack up bulk kilometres driving around town, nothing tests a fresh build like a 1500km interstate road trip through the hottest part of an Aussie summer. Scotty and I hit the road in late January this year, along with Aaron Gregory and his fiancée Mia in Aaron’s ’51 Chev pick-up, to attend the 2020 Queenscliff Rod Run.
Leaving Sydney before dawn, we made great time through a cool morning, but less than 30 minutes after leaving Gundagai – and with the mercury already well into the 30s – Scotty’s truck started having fuel pressure issues. We soldiered on, but the problem got worse until just north of Holbrook, when one of the rear air struts let go in sympathy – thankfully just after Scotty had rolled out from under the truck.
We limped into Holbrook with the Chev on its bump stops as the temperature soared into the mid-40s, and Scotty took on the thankless job of changing the fuel pump in the dirt of a mechanic’s forecourt.
Still, we decided to push on and head for our night’s accommodation in Geelong, driving through nearly 50-degree heat with no rear suspension. We battled through the day, fighting disappearing fuel pressure and a transmission puking fluid and slipping badly due to the driveline angle from running on bump stops.
Around 3:30pm, during a quick lunch at Euroa, we made the decision to make for Air Ride Suspension Supplies in Bayswater, 380km away, despite exhaustion setting in and our calculators saying we’d get there after they’d close for the day.
We blasted to Bayswater the back way down a twisting, single-lane highway, trying to keep pace with Aaron while our transmission attempted to quit life by overheating, losing gears and spewing out fluid.
Thankfully, Dave Rulach and the legends at Air Ride stayed back past their closing time and gave us cold water and icy poles while they fixed the airbags in Scotty’s truck to get us back on the road.
Sixteen hours after leaving Sydney, we made it to Geelong and had one of the best car weekends ever, filled with epic street machines, good times and great people. Scotty came away with a list of things to fix on the Chev, which he has steadily been working through, and has now refined it to a point of brilliance.