Teething Problems

On Monday we left work early at 4 pm to catch a train from Wynyard to Yagoona, 20 stops west of the city, to pick up the Thunder Tank. After paying the car dealer the outstanding balance we jumped into the car, eased the automatic gear box into drive and pulled smoothly onto the freeway bound for the city. It was a balmy evening so after a few minutes I hit the air-conditioning button. I pushed the button in twice to test it and on the second release it popped off the dashboard in comical fashion. Using my phone display as a torch I searched under the seats for some small plastic part that might belong to it. After a few minutes of looking I found the missing “part” - a wad of sellotape that had be jammed inside the button to stick it to the dashboard. Although slightly difficult to operate the air-conditioning still worked, we just needed to poke a finger inside the hole in the dashboard and root around for the rest of the button - a little like those apes you see on the discovery channel who dig out termites with sticks. The signpost ahead read 20km to the city so we exited the freeway to refuel. Once back on the road we realised that the petrol gauge still read empty despite the fact that we’d pumped $50 of petrol into the tank. Feeling a little sourer about the deal we turned the car round at the next junction and headed back to the forecourt to get the mechanic to fix the problem. On the return drive Lee noticed that the odometer wasn’t rolling over also, so we now had no idea how many miles the car had actually done or how much petrol was really swishing around in the tank. When we got back to the forecourt the cabin lights were off and the gate was padlocked. So the next day we took the first two hours off work to take the car to the dealer for urgent repairs. The mechanic struck the dashboard hard with the palm of his hand, then sat motionless staring intently at the lifeless dials and gauges, letting out a low unintelligible remark that sounded like 'narp'. ‘Swiss Tony’ hovered close behind assuring us that this was a well-known problem with early Holden’s and it wouldn't be difficult to fix. So we left the Tank in the very incapable hands of the mechanic (still staring straight ahead into the dead display of the dash) and caught the train back into the city for work.

Saturday

We would not see the car again until Saturday morning when we took it for a test drive to Bondi beach. The weather was fantastic, a soaring blue sky overhead and a temperature of 27 degrees (and it’s still just the start of spring). I drove the Tank down through the small picturesque streets of Surrey Hills to Oxford Street - which would lead us to Bondi beach. Unfortunately most Sydeysiders had had the same idea and the roads were pretty busy. The previously troublesome gauges all seemed to be in good working order (the refreshed odometer readout had rolled over another 20,000km). But there was still one gauge that gave us cause for concern… the engine thermostat, and it was rising steadily. After 20 minutes of stopping and starting the needle had climbed into the red end of the gauge. To prevent the engine from frying we pulled an emergency manoeuvre that has gotten me out of many close calls when driving my previous car, Sex Panther - we wound down all the windows and slammed the heaters to full, sucking the hot air out of the engine and forcing it into the passenger cabin. Slowly the needle fell out of the red, though the hot air did start to burn our bare sandal-clad feet. So it was a relief when we finally arrived at Bondi and were able to dip our feet in the cool sea water. We ate a small lunch outside a restaurant that backed up to a line of palm trees, before taking a relaxing stroll along the white sands of the cove. The Tank may be getting a little too hot at the moment so we've booked her into the garage on Wednesday, hopefully the repairs won’t be too expensive as we're still looking forward to a road trip launch on the 27th of this month.