Thelma

[Oversize]

Lookin good, did you catch up with my cousin?

Not yet. Am home 1 or 2 days a fortnight. Pilotin keeps me busy, but I will find her before I head west

[Stropp]

yes i suppose you are on the road quite a bit, how is the troll performing??

[Oversize]

yes i suppose you are on the road quite a bit, how is the troll performing??

Thelma is wonderful, can't fault her performance. Just the usual minor hiccups... put a new pinion seal in the rear axle (had a bit of a leak), rewelded the strut on the rear tortion bar and added a brace, seems to have held this time. Fuel economy is about 9.5L:100km and my bunk is cosy even in the frosty mornings. Life on the road is awesome.
I sat on the beach at Byron Bay waiting for the sun to rise thismorning. Bastard stayed behind the clouds didn't it! Came out about lunch time while I was on the beach at Cabarita. Stopped for a road side breakfast (bacon and eggs and cuppa) at one of the really nice new truck and caravan pull off points. They seem to have put alot of effort into the site and haven't been back to mow the grass... Portaloos were average. But you get that.

Hows life is the great out west?

[Stropp]

Yeh all good over here, bit cool at the moment but that is good fora business, I just fitted a set of rock sliders yesterday and a dual wheel carrier during the week, empty pockets is what I should call my wagon, next is to get under her with a wire brush and give it a good rub and a coat of hammerite paint supposed to be good for 5 years of keeping the rust away.

[Oversize]

Yeh all good over here, bit cool at the moment but that is good fora business, I just fitted a set of rock sliders yesterday and a dual wheel carrier during the week, empty pockets is what I should call my wagon, next is to get under her with a wire brush and give it a good rub and a coat of hammerite paint supposed to be good for 5 years of keeping the rust away.

Yep Yep, tell me more about this hammerite paint...

[Stropp]

Yankee made, can paint straight onto the rust and supposedly guaranteed for 5 yrs, mine has unfortunately seen a lot of beach work and has the start of a lot of rust so I am going to wire brush it and paint it with this hammerite. Will get some before and after pics.

[Oversize]

Sounds good, Thelma has seen a lot of coal dust. Cant wire brush in a lot of places that sh!t can get into, what would you recommend. Don't really want to seal the rust in either...

[Stropp]

About the only thing you can do is wire brush and paint with rust converter or hammerite and then spray lanolin everywhere you can't get to, that's what I am going to do anyway, not much else you can do except take the body off and get the chassis sandblasted and painted but that would cost a fortune if you had to pay for that.

[Oversize]

Yep. Been working my way around under her skirts with rust converter and mat black. I agree, she needs an oil rust suppressor to penetrate the impossible niches. She is working full time now and I don't have time for the sandblast job. Thanks for your help.

[Stropp]

No problem, good luck,