It's been a while so update time...

OK, so I havent been the most dilligent in the updates for a little while, but I've had a lot on so tough.  More donations = more updates people.

So what's happened I hear you cry? 

Well, most importantly and most recently, we know what leg 1 of the run consists of.  We are not leaving via Harwich or Newcastle which is a brilliant piece of news for us on a couple of counts.  Firstly if we left from Newcastle, that would have added an extra 700 or so miles onto the trip and at least a days travel to and from departure / finish.  If we left from Harwich, slightly better, but either of these 2 ports would have meant a ferry to exposed cold places with the only real route heading North to even colder and more exposed places.

It's not that Gruff and I are afraid of the cold normally, but as previously mentioned, the car has a heater with the similar heating power of an old man sucking a fishermans friend (Probably trademarked and opening myself to legal action) and blowing at you.  Also the car has a canvas roof, with no heat retaining powers at all, so that is a down side of a Spring rally through snow.

However, we are not going through the wilds of Scandanavia, we are departing from that much loved southern port of Dover.  Yup, thats right, we're off to Calais for leg 1 of the journey.  Thats all the route information that we are going to receive until Day 1 of the actual rally.  My best guess would be through France, towards Germany, quick play on the Nurburgring, on down towards Italy and back.  But that is pure speculation on my part so I could be very very wrong.

I received the email with contact details for P&O and an account number to confirm our booking so I did the obvious thing and used the phone number provided, got through to P&O, gave the lady the account number and said I would like to give her some money.  I would like to say right now that although a call center monkey, this female had a remarkably pleasant voice, you know, slightly posh with a hint of educated.  The sort of person you expect to have representing a large company that can handle complex corporate and individual queries.  No.  Posh but Thicky McThick.  Having given her a summary of travel times, booking reservation details, and an account number she ummed and advised no such arrangements were in place and she would transfer me to a colleague. 

After listening very pleasantly to hold music (on the premium rate phone line, using a mobile) for a few minutes, her supervisor came on the phone trying to help ME book a journey for over 100 cars.  OK, so I've patiently explained what the rally is, that it's being run by Scumrun Limited, all booked and arranged by Mr White, and I just want to pay for 1 car and 2 people.  This is a bit confusing to operator 2 (theoretically higher up the P&O food chain than operator 1), who has again very politely told me that no such arrangements are in place and if I was organising such a large group without an account I would need to pay for the entire entrants.  I have patience.  I have an understanding that people without hope, dreams aspirations or imagination work in call centers and adhere strictly to their script and any deviation sends them off work for several weeks with a case of stress.  I also have a mobile phone on a premium rate line trying to convince dumb & dumber that they can take my payment if they look in the right bit of the computer.  Then, with a flash of genius, number 2 has a fantastic idea...  Why don't I speak to Lisa in the department that arranges this sort of thing?

Brilliant.  Why dont they transfer me to the person who actually might know something, in the department that specialises in exactly what I'm trying to do?  Why has it taken this long for the cloud of stupidity to pass and give a bit of clarity?  Grrrrrrr.  On hold, listening to a bit of Swing Jazz, pleasant piece involving the word "sea" quite often, then a voice...  Erm, she's not available. 

They took my number and said someone would call back.  Normally I'm quite happy that number taken, query made, I'm going to get a call back.  This time, pretty sure Hamster brains over there would have eaten my number, looked at the sky and forgotten she was in a call center and I would hear no more so I mailed Ed @ Scumrun with a concise, polite summary.  He mailed straight back (copying in the P&O organiser) said should all be ok.  Within 2 minutes, Lisa phoned me back, apologised on behalf of the DENSA candidates that answered and took my booking advising cheerfully that there was no debit card booking fee.  If I had paid by credit card, I would have been charged £4.  If the halfwits had been able to take my booking then I wouldnt be looking at £12 worth of phone bill!!!!

Anyway, booked.  Dover - Calais at stupid O'Clock on the morning of the new royal wedding.  Groovy.

That's the most recent bit covered and I'm now trying to recall anything else of note over the last couple of weeks. 

We now have all 4 wheels the same colour (would have been 5 but I ran out of paint).  After quite a large amount of time trying, I managed to get the fourth wheel off.  This mystery shaped additional locking wheel nut was nothing of the sort.  Having smacked it, whacked it tried to wrench it, desperation sank in and I tried pitifully to reach in with some long nosed pliers in the last ditch hope of desperation that these pliers had a touch of Harry Potteresque magic charged inside of them.  Guess what.  It worked.  I have spent countless hours trying to get this strange sized fitment to release and it came off with a little "pop".  Turns out it was just a silver cap on there to make it look pretty.  Grumpy about it, but it's off, painted, inflated and ready to go back on. 

Other news, got an email from HSP and they're playing with the first run of graphics now, with full sponsor livery going on end December / start Jan.  This leads me neatly to my next subject, to those who have paid for advertising, I have contacted you all seperately advising receipts going out some days ago, I promise that these will be with you by the end of the week.

Think thats pretty much it for now, but if you need to get in touch with us about anything, please do so by:

emailing:  floppythrottle@live.co.uk

donate:  www.justgiving.com/floppythrottle

This updates blog hero:

No-one. 

Throw £2 or more in the just giving fund and you (or your company) might get the Blog Hero for next time round.  Or go for £20 and get your name on the car.  This blog is now getting between 600-700 hits per update so thats quite a bit of advertising simply by being mentioned guys and gals.

Catch you later.

Savage.

This is now properly international...

This is a completely out of the blue update, I was just scrolling through the stats of this blog, and I am honestly amazed.

The blog is being read on a regular basis in the following countries:

United Kingdom

United States

Netherlands

Russia

Canada

Ukraine

Luxembourg

France

Singapore

Germany.

Just thought I would share that & thanks for reading guys.

Once again, worth mentioning, if this is your first time reading the blog, then start at the August tab on the right and work your way forward or a lot won't make sense.  A summary is 1 very cheap, high mileage 16 year old car, transformed to a road rallying beast covering 3,000 miles over 4 days across Europe setting off in April 2011.  Raising money for charity through donations and sponsorship of the vehicle.  2 Drivers, Savage & Gruff, neither of whom have any experience at this kind of thing,and a satnav that will only converse in symbols and isn't sure of which way to go.  The event is usually televised by Sky TV and we have Fast Car as an official event sponsor so expect a magazine feature on the ScumRun in the next few months.

Feel free to throw a couple of pounds into the kitty at www.justgiving.com/floppythrottle - The donations go to Dreams come True, a charity that makes the lives of terminally ill children a little brighter.  If you don't want to donate, and just want to read, then thats tickety boo with us, but please share the blog with friends, family, co-workers, facebook buddies (via a status update?) so that they can enjoy and possibly sponsor also.

On the other hand, if you're still umming and ahhing about sponsoring the car, then this is the size market that your advertising will reach - where else for £20 will you get that sort of coverage?

Any questions, please mail us at floppythrottle@live.co.uk

Once again, many thanks for taking the time to read and support us.  If you know of any other teams competing in the ScumRun, tell them they smell of weewee :) 

Savage

This updates Blog Heroes: YOU

The estate is filled with the sound of...

The estate is filled with the sound of boomboomboomtchtchtch lakkalakka boomboomboom.  Yes, thats right my happy little reading peeps.  The car went to say hello to Sextons Portsmouth.  I will come back to this, but need to explain why I felt a bit of a tit on the way to get the sounds sorted.

You may recall from the last blog that I had 1 gorgeous shiny white alloy looking like new and one similar with a few nicks and chips out of it that I dropped whilst the lacquer was still wet.  You'd think that would be the end of the bad luck for the wheels aspect.  You'd be wrong.  Yet another dog eared fate dealt card came to my hand.  The third wheel (rear passenger side) was a dream to rub down, paint and lacquer (I learnt to leave it til dry) and went back on like a shiny shiny white disc of satisfaction.  If you're keeping up, you'll have realised I now have 3, yes three, white wheels and 1 silver one at this point of the tale.  I use the phrase at this point, what this extends to: is I have 1 odd sodding wheel that won't come off.

The problem with locking wheel nuts is you need a specific attachment to your tyre iron to get them off.  This, I have.  For the other 3.  For some obscure reason which I cannot fathom, I have 1 wheel which has a completely different head on the locking nut than the other 3.  Effectively, if you look at the car from the drivers side, the car is looking good.  If you look at it from the passenger side, it looks absolute toss.  Short of taking it to a garage and having them drill it through (expensive and damaging), or hoping for a miracle, theres really only one way forward with this and that is to get a socket which would fit snuggly over said nut, and hammer it into the nut destroying both but leaving me with hopefully enough depth to simply prise the nut off.  This is the technique I'm planning to use.  When I get the time.

I was hoping to have the wheels all sorted before driving down to Sextons this morning, but it didn't happen so I looked like a small child with odd socks on when I turned up with the scumrunner and it's wheels.  However, before I arrived at the boombangabang shop, I had to drive 7 miles to get there.  No biggy.  It is a biggy if it is hammering down with rain and your roof doesnt close properly.  I'm not sure yet where the seal is gone, but I was soaked by the time I arrived.  Proper damp as if I had sat with my right leg under the cold tap for 15 minutes.  This less than enjoyable drive was given the extra edge of driving with near on zero visibility.  Not just because of the extent of the rain, but because I haven't driven the car since I used a machine rotating polisher on the bonnet.  This rotating polisher has polish on it and spins very quick.  When something with liquid on spins, there is a spray effect.  This spray effect had hit windscreen and with the aid of rain, run down the glass and settled on my wipers.  As soon as I turned the wipers on, translucent goo was spread across the windscreen.  Bugger.

The car was booked in for 10:00 am with an hour slot.  The plan was get them to run power to the amp, ground it, and if they had time, hook the CB up as well.  The hours labour was going to be £40.  The wifey ran me back down there at 11 and we drove past the fitting bay to see it with various cables and wires hanging out.  So we figured we'd leave them to it.  Half hour passed by, so we drove past again to see (albeit different coloured) wires hanging out.  By 12:00 I was starting to get a little worried as this is an hour over the anticipated timings.  Wifey dropped me at the shop and went home. 

Anyway, a rambling story short, at about quarter past it was ready.  Apparantly there was more work needed than first anticipated as presumably "some complete tool" had installed the stereo and not followed the colour coding of the wires.  I used my best shrug and wasn't me face.  The amp is running as it should be and powering the sub nicely and the CB is also installed but I havent had a play with it yet.  I assume it works.  Anyway, after over 2 hours with 2 guys doing it, I was a little curious about what the bill was going to end up as.  The original quote was £40, one man, one hour.  Over 2 hours, with 2 guys I figured would be a tad on the painful side.  Nope.  Sextons, you are todays Blog hero's (might make that a regular thing, BH's).  £40 total inclusive of all additional cabling and labour.  Very happy with that.

I have spoken to a chap at HSP who reckons that our grovel graphics should be ready real soon.  I'm hoping so as the boot and bonnet are looking a tad naked.  As soon as they're ready, thats a small thing off my mind.

I'm looking at my notes on the phone (woohoo - got my iCrap back) and think the only bit left to say is the Ferry is booked by Scumrun Ltd, just waiting for the confirmation details.  All I can tell you is that we're not going from either Newcastle or Harwich so thats a bit of relief.

Thats about it for the last few days, but as and when stuff happens, will keep you posted.

This is how it's looking at the moment, still work needed, but looking ok.

Arty shot of Juliette looking good

Sextons Portsmouth - This update's "BLOG HEROES"

Been a while but not a lot done.

How to start a short and uninteresting blog entry?  Well, this seems to be started so that's one thing less to consider.

Owing to the broken hand bone a little while back, not a great deal has succesfully been achieved on the actual manual doing things front.  Having said that, I have been down to Sextons to book the car in for a little musical assistance and they're as good as their word and sorting out the amp for me on Tuesday.  I still haven't had a response back from Dragon car audio so I'm assuming he is either incredibly busy, a lottery winner no longer in need of work or advertising, or dead.  I like to think of his demise as that would explain the complete lack of communication and common courtesy if he simply changed his mind about doing the work.

I have emailed another couple of sponsors to try and get them on board, I reckon one of them should be a go-er.

PM Electrical systems has substantially boosted the funding with a donation of £100 which has secured very prominent placement for him and his company on the car once the graphics get finalised.

We're still waiting on the main grovel graphics (the ones with "sponsor this car from £20", "Raising money for dreams come true" etc...) but there was a little set back a few days ago when I received an email from Ed at scumrun.  In the email, he has broken down where the event sponsors would like to be placed and what we need to leave empty for the general scumrun stuff.  It appears that the doors need to be left alone so thats a tiny inconvenience, but the biggy is that the top of the windscreen will have http://www.scumrun.com/ on it.  for those of you who have been following this blog, you'll note that at present there is a gorgeous Team Floppy Throttle emblazoned there.  Bugger.

Also in the email, we've been advised that the initial ferry route will be disclosed this week.  This could be any port in the UK and if we're leaving from the south coast, thats good for us.  Means that the convertible will be pointing at southern Europe on a 3,000 mile sun tour.  If we're going from Harwich or Newcastle however, then the car with no roof lining and a heater that occasionally sucks a mint and blows at you, will be pointing proper North to start the journey.  I mean snowy / Icy north.  Please let us be leaving from Dover or Portsmouth.  I will update as soon as we know. 

The problem with this rally is we dont know where we are going to end each day until the start of that day.  So we cant even work out routes in advance and the sat nav is a North American one, which has been reprogrammed to cover some of Europe and we got it from a guy in China but instructions are all in funny symbols and it speaks only Cantonese.  The sensible option would be to use a different one, but I think that using the TongTong will just add to the enjoyment.

Another mini issue we had is that Gruff has left the employment of Alan Knight Transport.  This unfortunately means we have probably lost a large sponsor.  On the up-side, it means there is more space for YOU to advertise on the car.

I've still not got my phone back from O2 having taken it in for repair, but they have courteously lent me one at a deposit cost of £25.  This deposit is presumably to go towards either the cost of replacement should I damage it or as a security measure to ensure I return it rather than keep it and leave them with my iPhone.  I'd like to take a moment right now for you to consider this.  Either the loan phone is worth a £25 excess towards the insurance claim of repairing said item, or, it's market value must be equal to or greater than a 3 month old iPhone + £25.  You're wondering why I'm going this much into detail aren't you?  Because I'm not a happy chappy.  I was expecting maybe another iPhone, maybe the Dell Streak, or I would have settled for an HTC as I'm still paying full whack for my contract.

What I actually have as a replacement for my phone was created in 2002.  Retro Chic I believe would be the politically correct term to described this piece of shite:

Gorgeous isn't it?

Anyway, what this means is all my notes etc for the rally, pics etc have gone.  never to return.  I have had to use a thing called a "Cam - eeee - rah" whatever one of them is.  very old school.  doesnt send texts or surf the net or anything apart from pictures.  Bizarre.

Obviously I have been a little slack on doing stuff but I have managed to get 2 of the alloys rubbed down, primed, glossed and lacuered so the drivers side is now looking pretty good:

That's a picture of the firrst alloy, dried and perfect and ready to be de-masked and re-inflated ready to go on the car.  It's perfect.  Unfortunately, the 2nd one didnt quite manage to stay perfect.  Got it prepped, glossed lacquered etc, but my impatience to leave it to dry in the house back fired.  I decided that I would put it in the boot of the other car ready to go to the garage to be inflated once dry (saving valuable seconds I know).  The problem is that as I lifted the boot up, the wheel fell from where it was balancing and landed shiny side down in the filth and gravel I had parked on.  Effectively chipping the bulk of the wheel and now it doesn't look quite as pretty.   Hoping I can fix it easily.

I dont think theres much else left to mention, but once we get a departure route, I'll update.

Laters.

Back to the sorting office - different staff, same intellect

First off, I've knackered my hand and it's not overly movable for at least 10-14 days so not a lot is going to be happening in this coming period.

It's been about a week since the last update, so lets do a time line type thingy.

At the end of the last blog I mentioned that I had been in touch with Sextons and Dragon car audio.  Dragon were going to "come to an arrangement" about costing for the amp and sextons came in dirt cheap.  I, being tight, opted for the former and he was going to get in touch with me "early next  (this) week".  It's now Friday night and over a week since any contact so I've come to the conclusion that the guy who runs Dragon isn't a man of his word so maybe I shouldn't be trusting him with the car.  I'm going to be getting hold of Sextons at the start of the week to book it in. 

It's usually at this point I start looking at my phone to see the pics to remind me whats happened and update about it, but right now all my phone is doing is telling me to connet to iTunes and restore to factory settings.  I've plugged it into the laptop and after ignoring "upgrade software" messages many times, I decided to do it tonight.  Unfortunately, it appears Apple are tossbags and this "upgrade" is designed to wipe everything on the phone since it was last backed up.  I'm not happy. 

I know that I started the scumrunner up on Sunday afternoon and the dripping black goo from the exhaust is back.  Last time a decent thrash round the coutryside did the trick and again, this seems to have solved the issue.  Always worrying when you get that trickle of oil.

For no obvious reason, I feel now is a perfectly acceptable time to mention I've designed and ordered T-Shirts for the Flopppy Throttlers, so if you want to order one, let me know.

I ordered a cone filter induction kit (like K&N 57i) but cheaper and shinier and guaranteed to fit all fords.  This should have set alarm bells ringing as K&N themselves have about 30 different Ford kits, but I went with my gut and it turns out you CAN go wrong for a tenner.  It doesn't fit as once you've removed the cover to the air box, that reveals an additional skinny filter with a hose leading to the engine housing.  If you fit this cone then the skinny one is unprotected as the box lid will not fit.  Theres no real work around and despite the guy on eBay offering me a refund, by the time I've paid postage back to him thats pretty much knackered any cash.  Think I'll keep it and if I ever buy another Ford (maybe next years scummer) put it to use.

Onto the important bit, the sticky stickies turned up.  We now have the 1994 Lakes Rally graphics.  This involved another post office trip so bear with me...

I received an email on Tuesday morning saying my grahics had been sent via royal mail next day delivery (be there by lunch service).  Happy happy I was at that point.  Sticky stickies on their way.  Had to pop out Tuesday afternoon, got back to find a "sorry we missed you" card which annoyed me slightly but such things happen.  I have a few things on order at any given time.  As the sort office closes as soon as it opens on a Tuesday, I was going to have to wait til Weds to collect.  This means that as soon as my graphics turned up, I could go and colllect the other bit.

Lunchtime came and went and I was getting a little irked that postman Pat hadnt rocked up as promised so as soon as wifey got in from work I went to the sorting office (they now open late on a wednesday)to unleash my disgust at their service promises and collect my other parcel.

I handed my missed you card to the lady (yep - not chuckles this time) who asked if I had any ID on me.  Handed her my bank card which didnt satisfy her at all.  Here we go, pay attention as maybe you can pick up the little details that maybe passed Miss Marple by.

I had used my Paypal account in the name of Thompson Savage (company name) for a few purchases.  This is who the parcel was addressed to.  My bank card doesnt show me as having Thompson as a first name (because it isn't) but I had my company bank card with me.  Unfortunately, their signature scanning checking thing wouldnt accept it as it's looking a bit old and used now.  This left her with a dillema, does she give the parcel to me as I am NOT Thompson Savage, but Mr Savage.  How hard is it to figure out that I'm holding the missed you card, I have 50% of the name, i've got a bank card in 100% of the name and I'm getting the arse on that I can't have my parcel.  Maybe, just maybe, I want it and it's for me.  Rules are rules so she's asked if I have any ID with that address on (obviously apart from the card they pushed through the door).  I have a driving licence but thats all I have and now I've moved, the licence is in the wrong address.  Long story short, she gave in to logic and decided the parcel was indeed for me.

Really annoyingly, the parcel was my graphics.  They had turned up the day that they had been collected fromn the supplier.  They had excelled themselves in service time and that would normally be great.   If I hadnt spent all day wednesday waiting for the bloody things to turn up.  If I'd known thats what my missed parcel was, I could have got it first thing and gone about my day in peace and tranquillity instead of a snarling coffee fueled anger beast.

Just a brief interlude now, my phone has now died.  It is no more.  iTunes insists that my phone is in recovery mode and needs a full reset.  I have accepted this as a sad fact.  Whats really bugged me is now I've reverted to factory settings, it's telling me the boot menu is incorrect and wont even turn on properly.  If fury is a feeling that can be condensed into a simple category of 2 characters, then O2.  Grrrrrrrrrr, they're going to get one of my infamous emails in a minute.

Anyhow, I digress there just a tad.  I have received the sticky stickies and now quite happy about that.  The workmanship is superb and Mark at Vinyl creations has been great.  Theres lots of little bits and a few big bits to go on.  I've started with the little ones, placing them where I want them, peeling off backing, spraying the area with soapy water to enable them to slide perfectly into position, and the ones I have got on look superb.  I'd love to show you a pic but at this time it's not possible as my tossing wanky phone is broken due to the upgrade.  Unfortunately this job has been interupted by a trip to a&e because my hand turned a funky colour and started to swell a bit more than I'd like.  I've broken it several times in the past and unfortunately this has weakened a cluster of bones which tend to snap with the gentlest of nudges.  I now have an "old lady bingo bandage" type thing on - you know the ones, beige with metal supports.  Swelling not completed but in progress so a full cast would be pointless, so get to see how this one holds out for a few days then return for another x-ray.

Finally, we have a beauty to leave you with.  Once the cabinet where the rear seats should be is completed and all audio is running through and correct, it's going to look a little bit poo.  purple car, racing graphics, polished up white alloys, and some wooden crap in the back where seats used to be.  Not so.  Maxine (my mother in law) has come up trumps.  We now have a huge amount of purple colour matched fleece to cover the cabinet and make it blend (ish) with the exterior once built.

Well, I have to finish here as I want to email those snivelling little oiks at o2's customer service center whilst I still have venom and hatred with just a hint of sarcasm coursing through me.

Laters

Savage.

A fairly busy day...

It's been a cracker.  So much has been done in such a short space of time.

Firstly, lets have a picture update as I know there's one reader I spoke to today who only looks at the pictures as they're at college and meant to be working(!) but still find time to mess about on Facebook and skim through this.  Lauren - do some work, learn something or at least pretend to pay attention.

The vinyl rear names have turned up and as they weren't supplied by 5 star, they are correct first time. They look absolutely mint and for the money I'm chuffed.  The only issue that I had was during the application, the "i" in Davies didnt have the top dot as I hadn't pressed hard enough against the backing sheet at the time.  It really is hard work trying to line up a dot against an i when you have a sheet of paper covering both bits.  It is possible though as you can see.

The chaps that supplied it also do internal wall graphics so if you fancy a decal for the kids bedroom wall have a look at:  http://stores.ebay.co.uk/helkatgraphics They also trade under the name stickersandthings09 and you will see from the Just Giving page they threw in free postage so decent folk.

As with the last sunstrip, this one seems to have the bubble pox so I have had to resort to popping some in order for the vinyl to sit flush to the screen.  I hunted everywhere but it appears that neither I, not the wife, own a single pin or needle.  Would you believe it?  Even stranger is you cannot actually buy a single pin anywhere near me.  I had to waste a whole pound plus some shrapnell on a set of 4 (included a free thimble mind - bargain) which I will probably have lost in the next day or so anyway.  I've been popping and scraping for ages but it now looks pretty.  All of the pin holes are tucked into the corners of letters so they're not visible, but meant a lot of effort was needed to drag the air into the release spots.

We've ordered the first wave of our temp graphics for the car which having measured up will fit in amongst the '94 rally livery perfectly.  The temp graphics are there to attract sponsors and hopefully will be gone shortly once we have enough donors to fill the spaces.  So if you happen to spot the car when it's out and about, it will be unmistakeably us.  Give us a toot to say hi.  Or to say "You cut me up but I appreciate your dedication to learning how to drive in Europe, I forgive you".  That's what I will interpret seemingly angry horn blares as anyway.

So far as sponsors go, well, we have a new one I believe.  You may remember from the last update that I mailed 2 different companies to see if something could be done about the amp wiring as it's been driving me nuts, well both companies mailed back. 

The first mail was received from Sextons Portsmouth and they were very generous with their offer but it still involved me parting with funding (not a lot mind, it was a very good quote and they have a lot of overheads), and I was incredibly tempted to book it as soon as I had their mail. 

I decided to hang on though and glad I did as several hours later this company mailed me back:

Unless I'm misreading their message, I think we are going to come to an "arrangement" ref stereo install Vs Advertising.  The guy is going to phone me next week so we can go through the finer points.  This does however mean that I need to get the framework in place for the rear enclosure and get cracking on the actual build.

On a fundraising note, I gave the wifey's stepdad, Mick, a copy of this blog printed out with some sponsorship forms for him to leave in his works tea room with a covering note along the lines of donate even if you're a tight git.  After just a day, the tally is up to £26 so to the staff at Tesco Petersfield, thank you, it is appreciated and every extra pound really does make a massive difference.

Earlier today I was searching eBay, gumtree, freeads etc for some cheap white alloys to replace the tatty ones we have on there now and I think if we have the purple car with white race graphics, and purple text on a white sunstrip, then silver wheels just don't cut it.  I've been told about the idea of priming, spraying and lacquering  them and despite it taking time and effort, it seems the cheapest option.  I've just mailed the makers of this stuff and asked where I can get it from.  Found a few reviews but even on the manufacturers website it doesn't show where you can actually buy it!  Located a complete set on eBay but the price seems a little high by the time you add in postage.

Finally, I have gotten round to organising T-shirts for the Floppy Throttles.  As I'm tight, I refused to pay for rapid posting, so I'm on the slow dispatch and anticipate they will be here by the end of October.  Once they're here, I will get them snapped and uploaded so if any of you want one (might use them as bribes for corporate sponsors), let me know and we can come to "an arrangement" :)

A busy day has been had, so I'm off to get some kip on the new mattress (another eBay bargain... 10 inch thick memory foam, anti allergy, Aloe Vera and all sorts.  Not overly fussed about the bells and whistles but Jeez it's comfy).

Sleep tight people.

Savage.

It's back....................................!

Yup, you guessed it, sunstrip has returned. This is mark 2 of the sunstrip created by a company on eBay at half the price of the original guy and made by simply looking at a picture of the last one to create the perfect colour and font match.

Good work to the guys at JandDgraphics, if you need a sunstrip tell them what you're thinking and they can do it.  The ones they list as examples are for the mass markets such as Vauxhall or Playboy (I believe that there must be some law stating if you have a playboy sticker on your car, you must be a minger - the ones I've seen that applies to).  They do custom ones as well at no extra price and they are good quality and fast delivery.  Tell them you saw them on here.

That arrived this morning so got put on straight away.  I don't like the idea of Juliette missing bits (although right now theres a lot of her not actually attached, just filling up the inside of the car).

I'm going to work through the next set of bits in the order they happened for a change and rather than relying on memory, I made the sensible decision to photo most things as they happened so here goes:

The fire extinguisher has been mounted to the passenger seat as it seemed the best place for it to go - easily reached should the need arise.  As is usual with the car and plans, it didnt go entirely as intended in that the screws supplied with the mounting bracket weren't actually supplied but I have a spare few in the shed so easily fixed.  The one downside that I can put with the placement is that the screws that I decided to opt for are a little longer than ideal and the side bolster of the seat isnt that thick.  What this translates to is whoever happens to be in the passenger seat will be stabbed by a screw every time we hit a bump in the road.  On the up-side, I think I'm doing most of the driving so that leaves Gruff maimed more than me.

CB radio was another one of the headaches we were facing as it's too big to go on the dash but needs to be easily reached.  My first thought was to mount it to the gloveboxwith a couple of bolts but when we come to get rid of her, the Escort will look shite with bloody great holes through it.  Happily, in my shed of various left over bits from previous DIY, I had loads of cable ties.  Linked a few together, removed the glovebox, lashed the CB frame to it, and replaced it and it seems to be holding up ok at the moment.  Havent got round to wiring it up yet, but seems stable.

Five star print... Remember them?  yup.  Well the day after they received my email regarding their abilities to print a simple sticker they went a bit overkill.  We now have 8 of the buggers (albeit correct).  Nice of them to correct the cock up, but would have been even nicer if they hadn't made an arse out of their original attempt.

Whats missing from this picture?   Thats right - the seat base.  After a lot of swearing and a little blood loss, the seat finally came out.  This now frees up some much needed space and seems simple enough to replace when we come to sadly part with Juliette if the next owners want seats.

The gear knob was buggered when we got the car and we decided that it needed replacing at some point.  During one of my eBay moments I stumbled across the guy who supplied this one.  The retro "8" ball look was tempting but this chap will do any pool ball for any car (theres different size threads, depths  & mounts - not just put a hole in it you know).  The purple 4 spot billiard ball was the obvious candidate.  I paid, emailed him my choice and mentioned this blog in case he wanted to see where his creation would end up.  The man is unbelievable.  He mailed me back a day later to say he had refunded my paypal payment.  Not because he couldnt supply it but because he had read the blog he wanted us to have it free.  He did advise me that my charity blagging skills were a bit shit but nonetheless, he even paid postage and listing fees so it cost him to be this kind. 

If you want an interesting present look at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Epsilon-Alpha-Gifts.  The guy is pretty cool, follow the links through his eBay profile and it'll take you to his website.  Take a look, tell him I sent ya.

As we were going to pay for the gear knob we put the money straight onto the just giving page so effectively he's put £8 into the kitty.

Everything seemed to be going so well that something had to give.  well I wandered out the back to have a smoke and stumbled upon that sight.  Puddles forming under the car.  Never a wonderful thing to view.  Water stretched under the decking so no telling how bad this was going to be.  After a few minutes of abject panic and looking under the bonnet to see where this leak was coming from I decided to change tactic and see how far it was spreading to.  If I could figure out how much water had come out, then I may be able to figure out where the source was.

I tracked the pools under the decking to the wall of my house where I may have released a couple of happy words.  Thank f*ck for that - it's the house thats got a plumbing problem, not the car! :)  We had a blocked drain which was causing the dishwasher waste to back up, run under the deck and under the car.  Seems a bit odd really but I'm chuffed it's a major problem with my home than a hose from a cheap car.

We've ordered the full size rally tags for the rear windows, and the guy we got them from (eBay again) coughed for the postage, so thats another 2 quid on the JG site.  eBay item: 290476691491 seller stickersandthings09

Whilst I'm on the subject of saying thanks to folk that have excelled for us, I'd like to take a moment here to thank http://www.lovethosephotos.com/ - Jon Hayden is a wedding photographer but undertakes many different commisions.  He has dipped into his pocket without having to be asked just because he's a good bloke.

Another piece ordered today is the air induction kit.  The theory behind this is 2 fold - 1) to increase the airflow into the engine which aside from a slight performance increase, will lower the fuel bills and 2) to make it sound a little meatier than the 1.6 implies.  I couldnt get a cheap K&N, and the Green / pipercross were a bit lavish with the budget so I've gone for a generic ford jobby that hopefully does a similar job.  For a tenner you can't go wrong eh?

Yomay be thinking "what no stereo references"? and you'd be right.  I'd completely forgotten to mention them til now.  I have spent hours trying to find a way  get the power cable into the cabin.  I even had the car jacked up , wheel off, plastic trim away and trying to thread the thing through the existing cabling but to no avail.  I have given up.  Honestly, I have given up.  Earlier today I emailed two companies to see what they'd charge to install 1 power cable from bonnet to dash.  Both companies are local to me and Im intrigued to see what prices they come back with.  One is a franchise from a massive company and I think the other one is a single based company so see how they fare against each other.  I've included the blog address in my email so with a bit of luck they'll read this and quote accordingly :)

Finally, I think, I ordered a machine polisher to see if I can get rid of the sun damaging at the rear of the car.  It's an RAC one thats quite cheap and after a few runs over, the car is starting to regain it's lost colour.  I will give it a few more runs in the next couple of days to try and get this blended.

Not much humour in this update Im afraid but had so much to cram in, hope you dont mind.  I'll be back to childish next time so normal service can be resumed. 

I found a new button linked into this blog system that I use, it tracks where people are who view this.  If YOU are the 1 person in the Ukraine reading this, who are you?  what did you type in to your search engine to find floppy throttle and what were you hoping to see?

Just checked my eBay and as I'm writing I got a mail from the chap supplying the main rally graphics to let me know with a bit of luck, dispatch tommorow... woohoo.  Happy happy.  I am so looking forward to these as once on, we can start laying the sponsors out and getting it spotted a bit.  And once it's received thats another £20 we are putting into the www.Justgiving.com/floppythrottle kitty.

Not only are they creating the vinyl with a huge discount for the charity edge, they are doing it custom made for us with the white instead of the blue.  So Mark, at Creations in Vinyl, thank you for working ridiculously late hours and mailing me - I can go to bed with a grin (the wife's going to be thinking i've been at porn all this time).

Night all.

Savage

Just giving details:

Good stuff going on...

Right guys, gals and anyone who reads this, the JustGiving site is up and running at a current rate of £62 whole British pounds.  Thanks to those select few who have donated, but for the rest of you who have read and smirked at this blog, how about you donate a pound.  A quid.  Go on, it's not for us, it's for children in the UK who are unlikely to become adults due to life shortening illnesses. www.justgiving.com/floppythrottle

Right, thats the begging bit done with, so on to the reason this blog is here, to raise awareness of how hard it is to get a cheap car rally ready with a budget smaller than my attention span.

Probably not going to do in a particular order but in the last few days...

We have found a guy willing to reprint the 1994 Ford Rally team graphics in vinyl for our cabbie for very few shillings indeedy.  There's a few snags in that the original car was white with blue graphics and ours being purple, the blue wouldn't be as striking, but the chap is going to knock it out reversed with the blue graphics being white.  So in theory our car should look like a negative of the rally one ('cept with less power, no roof or bloody great whale tail).

Sort of like that bad boy but in reverse. 

We were looking at placing a large image of a manga girl bursting out of the side of the car in a chrome explosion whilst being restrained by chains and firing weapons (it looked absolutely awesome), but the supplier/printer turned out to be an arse.  It's the guy who supplied the original sunstrip.  We got back in touch with him, explained what we're up to, that the last one failed the MOT, advertising opportunity for him, looking to buy another sunstrip plus girl graphic (total was going to be thick end of £100 plus the original strip) and tight fucker wouldnt even offer free postage.  I asked if he could supply an internal sunstrip with the floppy throttle printed on it to save it destroying the wipers and he pretty much told me to make my own, but he'd supply the materials required (for obscene amounts).  If you fancy dealing with a complete tossbag who values £3 delivery charges over repeat business, take a look at http://www.vipergrafix.com/, but the customer service skills are shite, so be wary.

The door alarm bits have finally turned up, and are sat in the footwell waiting for me to get the enthusiasm to relist them on eBay. 

Another couple of eBay items found their way into my posession this week, a sensible set of Tornado 6x9's for the rear and a set of Torx sockets.  For those of you unaware, the Torx system is those silly bloody star shaped screws that companies use to deter you from taking stuff off.  Well, I've got a set now but no matter how hard I try, I cant get those screws holding the back seat out.

Still trying to improve the rear sounds, I gave up with the recommendation of removing panels to access speakers and gently (honestly, you should have seen my tender caress) removed the grills from the outside.  Once they're off it doesnt matter if you destroy the pods cosmetically as no-one gonna see them.  So grills off, speakers popped out, Power Blasters in, and grills back on.  Up yours Haynes manual, you know nothing about rear speaker replacement :)

I had a moment of rare excitement earlier as the postman plopped an envelope from 5 star printing through the door.  Oh yes, the rear windows naming tags had arrived.  Picture them, a St Georges cross (england flag) with the name Savage next to it, another just below it, with the Welsh flag including their dragon, with the name Davies next to it.  The identities of these 2 great countries thrown as a duo, Wales and England, seperate but united in this chariot for a common cause.  Forsaking the Northern Irish and the sweaty socks (Jocks) for truly this is the time where we shine as the more significant 50% of the United Kingdom.  Can you picture it, two different national flags, two names?  Yes?  well 5 star bloody couldnt.  Tossbags:

A lot of pictures going into this update I know, but it helps make you realise the issues we're stumbling against.

Finally, for this update Im going to mention the graphics again.  As you eagle eyed may have noticed, the rally replica shown doesn't have the trim halfway down the door that protects it from bumps and scrapes in a car park etc, so I have taken these from our own Juliette.  Looks quite nice:

There is no real fading where they were so a quick T-cut job and they looked like they were never there.  Surprisingly, they weren't attached by anything more than glue so just pulled off easily.  This got me thinking how annoyingly in the way the Ford, Escort & 16v badges are so feeling like a trim and badge ripper offererer, I removed these swiftly and easily also.  Bugger:

The 16v badge was just beneath the right hand light cluster and after 8 seperate T-Cut attacks, it now blends into the panel (although that panel is a slightly darker purple than the rest of the car now).  I'm really hoping that I can get the Escort and ford patches to do the same but otherwise, anyone want to sponsor the bits above the clusters?

Pretty sure thats about it for this sitting, I'll update again shortly.

Cheers

Savage

The estate is filled with the sound of.... Nothing.

Several days on from the last update now, and as I'm trying to recall back to whats happened, I don't think a lot has been achieved but I'll try and glam it up a bit to make it worth reading :)

Well, we had to put the wifes car in for an MOT and we used Leigh Park Services again as they seemed remarkably helpful last time round and because they are local.  I'm still waiting for my new alarm module and door lock system to turn up from eBay so I've got the hump over that, but I figured I'd ask the chief grease monkey at the garage about the alarm on the scum runner.  His response surprised me as I hadnt figured on fixing it being this simple.

Apparantly this is a hugely common issue with older Fords and the manuals simply state "take to a Ford approved garage" for repair as the alarm system needs atention.  What that translates to is pay £50 for them to do the following:

Under the bonnet is a button.  Press this 10 times within 8 seconds and the horn chirps to let you know the alarm is in a safe reset mode.  In the next 30 seconds, open and slam Drivers door, Boot, open passenger door, open close glovebox (as this is alarmed) close passenger door firmly and shut bonnet.

This resets the alarm to normal use and solves the problem. 

What this means is that when the pratt from eBay eventually sends me the bits I'm waiting for, I no longer need them.   It has however saved an enormous amount of mucking about replacing bits that are perfectly good.

Now that we have power without the alarms going off every time the car is opened / shut / just feels like being annoying, I figured time to play with the big boy speakers.

So I have now attached the amp to the back of the sub-box, and threaded the speaker cable through to the front footwells, then had a change of heart so taken the speaker wires back to the boot.  I've had the door panels off (yet again), removed the upgraded 2x300w speakers, and refitted in their place some reasonably priced 2x80w Tornado speakers.  These Tornado bad boys beat the crap out of the Powerblaster Extreme's in every aspect when fitted straight to the head unit.  The bass, mid and tweeters are so much better.  I'm hoping that when I place the amp through the PB's they have some magical uprising and sound ok.

I started to remove the rear quarter trims, and was looking pretty good to go having taken away every screw anywhere near the panel but it still wont shift.  Figured I'd rermove the bench seat now to facillitate it but the buggering sodding screws (funny start shaped things) do not wish to move, so after a lot of grunting, sulking and raw 12 stone of power trying to remove said fitting, I gave up and returned the area to how Ford wanted it in the first place.  As I'm filling in the rear area with a wooden enclosure for storage anyway, I'll just mount those speakers straight into the enclosure.

However, I thought I may as well get the amp and sub sorted so looked at how to select the right power cable for the amp (AWG),  This is a complex calculation involving various scientific factors including output, input, resistivity of the wire with a variable for amount of feet required multiplied by the conversion to meters over ohms with allowances for quality reduction by a percentage.  Or, pop to Halfords and give them the manual.  Guess which way I went?  yup, after 35 quid, I've got 5 meters of: Power, remote and RCA leads with another meter of the correct grounding wire. together with some thick speaker cabling (which I already have loads of from the surround sound).

Enthusiasm started to build, so I've attached the RCA and run them down the drivers side of the car, with the remote power cable running down the passenger side to avoid the power whine when in use.  The ground is attached to the amp and ready to wind into an earth in the booot and that leaves the power cable.  The power cable has a bulky fuse assembly which should be near the battery and that means I need to thread about 4.5 meters through the firewall into the interior which is proving to be a pain as I cant find an unused hole big enough for it, so I've given up for a couple of days.

Other than that, I've given my measurements to MRB Carpentry (or Uncle Matt as he's also known) for him to grab me a sensible quantity of MDF as he can grab it with his trade discount.  Once we have that, I will give the bench seat another attack and can start fitting the storage / sound unit.

In terms of publicity for Team Floppy Throttle, I'm currently trying to condense this blog into a much much smaller article as this should then appear in a Ford Owners Club quarterly magazine.  So far we have PM Electrical Systems Ltd, Alan Knight Transport, HSP, as larger sponsors and we will try to get them their monies worth in plugging wherever possible.  If you are tempted to sponsor, but not yet sure, FastCar magazine are doing a feature on the run and I'm thinking a bright purple cabiolet with full racing sponsors/livery may attract a little bit of attention?  Got to be worth a few quid eh?

Also, I had an interesting email exchange with a company offering me a voucher in return for advertising them.  As yet, they havent returned the last mail, but a summary is that everyone who sponsors this trip will be entered into a draw and someone will win £25 to spend on their website.  As soon as this is confirmed, I'll mention it again, but in the meantime that leads nicely to:

www.justgiving.com/floppythrottle

We have a just giving site up and running and all sponsorship is greatfully received.  We have a requirement to raise £500, but we're aiming for the £1000 marker.  In reply to one tight git who at the moment I will keep annonymous, both myself and Gareth have already donated £230 each for the entry, bought a car for the event, will be paying the fuel (estimate at roughly £300), insurances, ferry crossings, fines, tolls and all the other expenditure and once we're done on the rally, the car is up for grabs with profits going to charity as well.  OK, we get a weekend away, but you get to live it via the blog and if it gives you even a little amusement to see us suffer, donate a pound. 

Finally, this week I received an email from Ed at scumrun HQ, The spaces are nearly filled.  If anybody else wants to enter the event, get in touch asap.  Feel free to buddy up with us, now is the time to buy a convertible escort as winter will be with us soon so they're cheap, then sell it in the spring when the run is done and you'll get your money back.  If you are tempted, then we can get you cvovered with the same sponsors as ourselves if you go for the same car - Sound fun? 

Any queries, questions, comments, we now have a team email address:  floppythrottle@live.co.uk

Laters

Savage

And so it goes on...

Blog update 22/10/2010

Last night after much connecting and disconnecting of the battery and swearing at it, one of the convertibles came back to life.  Now that’s remarkably handy as otherwise I would have had to get up at some ridiculous hour to drive the wife to work.  First thing this morning it started a dream and I went back to sleep happy knowing that whatever this mystery gremlin was, it had left the wifeys car for a bit. 

However, soon after she left, I got woken up by the phone ringing and an upset voice.  The stereo isn’t working.  No idea what I was dreaming of, but pretty sure it was more important than learning the wife couldn’t listen to a Gobshite Andre CD on her way to work.  So I mumbled something probably offensive in most civilised societies and rang off. 

A little while later I figured I should get out of bed and do something.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Jeremy Kyle candidate, I work for myself so the hours are pretty flexible, I study in the evenings  and I’m a stay at home Dad during the day too.  Most stuff is done somewhere between 11am and 2pm depending what time the little un gets put for a nap.

Anyway, I decided to spend a bit of time googling this damn alarm problem.  After a bit of time between drinking coffee and mailing sponsors, I figured that this is actually quite a common problem with Fords.  There are realistically 2 solutions to it;  a) take out the alarm control which is in a reasonably accessible place (but I’m not telling you where), or b) replace the module in the drivers door behind the door card.  The first option appealed as a reasonable temporary fix so I followed the advice that I had found, and the 2 wires I need to disconnect could be any of about 30 in that one spot and as I don’t know too much about this sort of thing, I figured we would go for a proper fix. So I put the panel back and peeled away the door card.  You may remember that door card as the one I’ve only just put back on. 

With the door card off, I’ve peeled away the sound insulation, followed the firm bar to where it meets with the module and stopped.  How the hell do I get that bad boy out? Gonna take a bit of figuring out, so time for another coffee.  I went indoors just as UPS arrived delivering me my new subwoofer with enclosure.  Woohoo.  Playtime.   Boooo, not playtime.  Baby woke up.

An hour or so later, wifey arrived home grumbling how horrible it was that she couldn’t sing along to Dolly Parton on her drive home and what had I done to her CD player as there wasn’t any sign of life at all.  Figuring it must be some sort of Panasonic anti-theft system as the battery had been off for some time, I proceeded to gut the office, kitchen and front room trying to find the stereo manual with the all important unlock codes.  Then it dawned on me that that was a complete waste of time as it’s a face off and they generally don’t have the security code system.  Time for another coffee. 

With a fresh approach in mind, I opened her car door, turned to ignition on, then tried the “POWER” button.  Magically it worked.  I had assumed that Mrs Me would have tried that first so I hadn’t bothered to try it.  Grrr.

By now, it was way past 4 o’clock so to get some parts sorted and fitted was looking slim but I figured I’d give it a go.  There’s a breakers not too far away called “Ring and Bring” and the guy that answered the phone said pop down, bring a couple screwdrivers, there’s a P-reg escort there.  So that’s going to be a permanent fix for one, just got to find another escort being broken down for the second.  I’m aiming to collect the module tomorrow and get it fitted within a few days.

Right – so wifeys car good to go, time to get the important bits done.  I know the amp was for the front speakers but it now looks so pretty bolted to the back of the sub enclosure so may need to get another amp.  The sub is linked in by a mono wiring setup and I’ve just got to pick up some RCA leads, a power wire, fused switch and a grounding cable.  Then it’s going in the scumrunner.

Another mini hurdle yesterday that I forgot about was that the bonnet stay fell off.  I have to balance it carefully each time I go under there now as it’s already closed from full height onto my hand once.

Unfortunately at the moment, my internet is off so I am typing this into word and hope to be able to cut and paste this.  I only mention it in case the fonts look a little wrong.

Hopefully tomorrow is going to yield a fix for the alarm system, some power cables for the sounds and a few more sponsors.  I’ve started preparing the initial graphics to go on with details of how to sponsor us but got to get it just right I feel.

Hmmmm, an early ish night is called for.  But I will have one last attempt at turning the modem on and off again.

************************************

It's now tomorrow...

I had a good go at feeding the speaker cabling from the amp in the boot through to the front footwell and have come across a bit of a problem in that how do I get the new speaker wire through the cluster of cables and the rubbery hose into the door pod.  May just wire it to the basic cabling behind the stereo and accept the lack of quality cable.  But that'd be the simple way of doing things.  Instead, I've just been on the bay again and purchased a slightly lesser set of speakers to grace the front, and I'll put the original replacements into the back.

Yet again, the door card is coming off.  Had a swift look on the forums to see how to replace the rear speakers and the back card has to come off and thats only accessible by removing the bench seat, so lets see how entertaining that is.  But the theory now is to have the amp power sent to the sub and rears and just upgrade the fronts and hope they can draw enough from the head unit to sound half sensible.

Well, I'm still having no joy in terms of the alarm system, so I've given up with the google way of life and hunted down a Haynes manual for a bargain £5 including delivery.  Gotta love eBay - Thanks again Keith if you're reading this.

Loads to do, so I'm off for a bit.  Updates coming in a while as I get to grips with the alarm / immobiliser.

Savage.