Gruff...

I've just read this blog back before I post it online (as I usually do) and it seems just a tad anti-Gruff.  I want to set this clear at the outset, Gruff is my mate and as such, every now and then we have our little sulks and arguements, but after a bit we settle back to how it should be.  As I have written this as it happened ish, then some of my comments were reflective of how I felt at the time, not necessarily how I feel now...

Well, the last blog seemed to work quite well doing it on a daily update sort of thing, so lets see how this one runs.  I'll update it every now and then and post again next week.

Well, it's Tuesday and everything is right with the world.  I have seats in and a few fresh vinyl's turned up. 

We now have our Memphis Juliette adorning the sides, and some "Genuine scrap yard parts" logo's on as well.

The weather wasn't horrendous today so I got round to fitting the passenger door card so there is a matching set there.

As usual, I mail Gruff the blog when I update as he is usually off in Luxembourg, Belgium or France and he gets the email on his phone which works out cheaper than him using an internet service.  He text me this morning moaning about the mirrors not being left white.  At times I forget he is a purest of all things RedBull and I have offended him by displaying the Relentless image on the car. 

Well, he has got a point that they aren't sponsoring us, but i've now written to them as I really want them to chuck something in the kitty for the 4 inch ad space I have freely given them.  However, I am in a little bit of a temper tantrum about this as it's bloody me doing all the work, whist he fannies about dropping cabbages to Johny Foreigner.  So if you are reading this Relentless folk, please chuck a couple of quid in our fund so I can tell him to sod off with great indignity.

So Gruff, I have taken on board your feedback, and if you find an advertiser off your own back that wants to pay for the privelledge of using our wing mirrors, then I will agree to bump them.  Unless they reply to my letter first.

Other news, I have managed to source an "interesting made to order" front Ford badge as ours looks a little dated.  As soon as it turns up I will give an honest review of it and show the images.  This could be interesting on several fronts as I've secured a discount for any orders that I place which isn't available to the general public as I'm giving the manufacturer a bit of help on another project.  Either way, the guys can make you a bespoke, one off badge for not a lot of money, and if you want one, let me know and I'll see what can be arranged.

As I haven't properly stretched Juliettes legs for a while, I decided to have a swift drive over to see my Dad.  It is a 48 mile round trip filled with A & B roads, so I filled up to the brim with fuel before I left so when I next top up, I can work out mpg when I'm kicking the nuts out of it.  The car behaved as expected with no real issues except one - the cloth tape that I'm using to seal the leak doesnt hold very well at, say, 69.99mph and has started to flap a little.  I'll figure something out.

That reminds me, I think I have now found what I hope to be the last leaky bit.  The rubber boot seal appears slightly perished and I am now trying to source a new one on the cheap.  If I can get a new seal, hopefully all will stay dry and I can get cracking with refitting carpet.

Well, pretty sure that's about it for now, but will update as we go.

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Thursday - I'm afraid nothing really interesting going on.  The new Juliette to grace the car has arrived, as has the name tag to sit just behind the headlights on either wing.  Got Vinyl4U to craft the lovely heart type Juliette just for me, mentioned charity and the blog and Kate, bless her, doubled up the order and gave us 4 for the price of 2.  Thats kind.

We have a new tax disc sticker - I'm pretty sure Gruff will have the hump over it, but regardless, I think it's cool.

We now have 4 Escort Cabriolet club badges on the car, 2 beneath the rear lights and 1 either side beneath the wing indicator.

As today was nice I popped to B&Q and grabbed a handful of brackets.  This I figured would be the ideal time to start making the chest / sound cage frame.  I know, I keep putting it off and blaming the weather, but today I was intending to do it.  After I had a cuppa.  And a check of my emails.  And facebook.  Then I remembered that it would be silly to put the cabinet in without getting the carpet in.  Theres no point in putting any carpet in whilst it leaks, and that means fixing wherever is letting water into the boot.  I got a quote of £25 for the rubber seal for the boot, but decided to check the existing one thoroughly before ploughing yet more funds into the car.

It's not the rubber seal.  It seems to be the base of the roof letting water in, thats running through the "parcel shelf" carpet, which in turn is running into the boot, seeping through the boot carpet and trickling into where the rear seats go.  Hopefully, with a little magic and thought, I can patch this up cleanly and easily.

So now I've taken all fabric out of the boot in the hope that it will dry, and removed the insulation / carpeting from the "parcel shelf".  So now there is no carpet anywhere in the car.  Feels a little naked, but all good.  Whilst I was at it, I took the sub and amp from the boot and put them where the rear seats used to be.  The amp seems quite snug against the back of the seat and I'm hoping that it won't set fire to anything as the fins seem to direct the heat to the sides and away.

So this leaves me with no carpet or underlay in the car, an optimistic easy fix, but still with no sound / storage chest.  So today was yet another day of simply ripping stuff out and adding stickers.  Speaking of which, hopefully in next week or so, we will have the fulll  on race stickers gracing the car.  Still space for your adverts though - gimme a shout.  Also, any other teams reading this, feel free to ask your sponsors if they want to add their logo's to our cars as well, we are very reasonable with our pricing.

Still awaiting a couple of bits in the post;  FEOC stickers and new uber-cool Ford front badge.

I've just tried adding some pictures from the iCrap and although the laptop makes a boop-boop noise when I plug it into the phone, it doesn't actually let me see that it's connected.  Oh joy, back to the o2 shop for another piece of tat loan phone is looming on the horizon.

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Friday - Figured I would take the car for a blat over to Winchester today and had great fun doing it.  However, when I got up this morning I was greeted by puddles outside so cautiously I had a look at the interior of the car.  Now that there are no bits of carpet anywhere the leaks are much easier to find.  It seems that quite a lot of the rear window seal is no longer waterproof as I can now trace the moisture from the boot to the shelf, to the window.  Good point - I can see where the water is getting in... Bad point - I have no idea but I think it may be an expensive fix.

Or not...  I just found a waterproof cover for the Escort at the grand total of £7 so that's now on order.

Back to today, the car has handled beautifully through the range today, it has burbled along main A roads quite happily, but also been equally compliant when stuck behind slow moving traffic on B roads with a bot of torque through the range for overtaking where needed.  It still has a lovely sound when driven hard but if I stick to sensible (under 2,000) revs, it seems to pass as a normal ish audio.  Perfect.  I have been sensible today and pottered along and I have also kicked the tits right out of it, and the car truly doesn't fail to impress whichever style of driving I use. 

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Well, it's Sunday morning and as usual I have had a look at my laptop for any emails etc and I have just glanced at my downloads.  Foolishly I left the laptop on whilst Gruff was here yesterday and now the lappy seems to be infected with nasty nasty music.

My recent downloads apparantly include the best of A-HA (at least it must be a small file), Garth Brooks (!) and Rod Stewart.  It appears all we need is a Lionel Richie album and we can settle down for a gay love-in.  On the upside, the ones I wanted have finished so we have something to challenge the set up.  Ease in with the greatest 100 dance tracks of the 1990's, followed by Clubland Xtreme, and just to get the euphoria screaming, a batch from Ratpack and Hixxxy from back in the day.

So far, suggestions for the launch seem to be very heavy laced, rift crunching guitar pain, with solid back tracks ranging all the way through to Chesney Hawks.  I have obtained copies of everything suggested so far, but c'mon people, lets find an anthem.  Something that screams Floppy Throttle is in "da house" innit.  I just thought of Bombtrack  - Rage against the Machine (as I believe the tune could blend well with our costumes), but judging by Gruff's selection, maybe Love Shack by the B52's.  We could always tempt fate with Underwater love for when we get to the ferry. 

Regardless, please keep mailing / commenting on possible road trip tracks and I promise we will try to find them and endure whatever you want to suggest.  With a bit of luck we can fill up 4 days worth of MP3 playlist and not have to listen to "The sun always shines on TV" at all.  For anyone that is feeling evil, here's an offer - throw in £40 sponsorship in one hit and we will listen to "Gummi Bear" or "Crazy Frog" for an hour solidly at volume through towns and record the entire drama and post it on youtube for your amusement.  I haven't told Gruff this bit yet, but I know he loathes both songs and it might be enough to push him over the edge.

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I've now emailed myself my pictures from my phone so added them into the blog as I've come across them.

On a seperate note, we are now only 8 weeks or so from launching, so please donate and help us to get close to our target of fundraising.  www.justgiving.com/floppythrottle

Finally for this blog I would like to end by using someone elses photo and explain why:

This is a picture of a Jag.  And a man named Ian.  Ian has only just sorted the tax and MOT on this Jag and filled it with fuel.  What's not obvious at first glance is that he isn't simply standing proudly by his neatly parked car, he is actually just realising that this Jag may be no more.  You see, Ian is from team MidLife Krysis, another scumrunner, and having just got his car on the road, took it for a test run, misjudged a corner and from the description I have,  hit some trees before parking sideways in a hedge which stopped him from rolling it.  I just want to say glad all involved got out safely and good luck finding a replacement in time.  I reckon theres probably a few micra's kicking about on eBay in budget.

Not a lot done this week in summary, but as and when things start to happen again, I'll let you know.  Looking to update this again next Tuesday, but let's see what happens.

I'll try and get some humour in next week, I've been a right grumpy arse this week I'm afraid, but getting ready for the impending addition to the family has me drained.

If you want a chuckle, then take a glance at an eBay ad I stumbled across.  Even the questions are worth a read at the bottom of it:
 http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330532957656&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Laters

Savage.

Blog number 35...

Welcome to blog 35.  I cant think of a suitable title, so Blog 35 it is.  It's the 35th blog by the way.  What joys have I got for you this time round?  Well, for a change I have written it on a daily basis so none of the emotion is lost by looking back several days in retrospect. 

So this updates headlines - Today is an important word, Orphan Annie and Wednesday Addams make an appearance, Splinters & Sphincters (not a punk tribute band), FEOC, Memphis Belle, iPhone satnav and yet again - the door cards come off (hopefully for the last time).

Without further ado, welcome to my last 7 days of scumrun hell...

I am writing this last Tuesday.  This makes perfect sense to me as by the time you get round to reading this, I will have written it about a week ago so today is last Tuesday.  Except it's not because today is today.  And you are reading this today, not last Tuesday.  The word today is very prominent in my mind at the moment as today should mean, to me anyway, within the 24 hours contained in the day of the week you are on.  That doesn't mean that today is Tuesday and next Tuesday will still be today as thats also a Tuesday, although if you are indeed reading this on a Tuesday then Tuesday is today so you have indeed got me on a technicality.

Where is this going?  To be honest and frank with you, I have no idea.  I am writing this little bit the day after I published the last entry but will be finishing it off the day I publish this entry.  Right, so right about now you're not sure if I have finally snapped the last cog in my mind aren't you?  Well I haven't.  I am writing this whilst a teensy weensy bit irritated by someones understanding of today. 

The saga with delivery of these seats seems to be coming to an end.  I finally managed to get the sender of my new seats to reply to me and let me know the name of the courier he was using.  He also said he would get a definate delivery date for me today.  That was a summary of emails sent and received this morning.  I have now waited in for 4 seperate promised deliveries.  Those delivery dates were all confirmed as "today" on the day in question.

I have left Darren alone for a bit (the sender) and gone straight to the courier company.  They have been "actively trying to contact me" for the last 3 days to arrange a date.  So "today" was never a delivery option was it.  They weren't trying too bloody hard mind.  But in the end, after going through their head office in Essex, diverting to Carlisle and ending up in Southampton on the phone, I have spoken to someone who has given me a new delivery day... Tomorrow. 

This fills me with a little joy as I have had 4 confirmed "today" delivery dates, but tomorrow, thats a new option.  At no point have they meant today when dealing with Darren, they have just been fobbing him off and he, in turn, has passed the fob to me.  In the end, it has taken some entertaining abuse from my end to get to a grown up at their end.  But I assure you that tomorrow is the new today.  After all, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow, is only, a day, a, way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So now we know that the couriers do not comprehend the true meaning of today, lets keep our peckers up and see if tomorrow is indeed the new today.  Or last Wednesday if you're reading this next week.  Although you can't be reading this next week, you're reading it now.  And now is today, which means my seats won't be here by the power of logic until the day after you read this.  Bugger. 

Now seems a suitable time to end this section of confusion, as the wife has just returned and I'll keep you updated.  The omens aren't looking good however, Mrs Savage has just driven up with a spot of Elvis banging out of her car... The hit song "Return to Sender"!!!!

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(Wednesday Addams - In case the link isn't obvious)

It's now tomorrow.  Well, today, erm last Wednesday to you unless you're reading this in a couple of weeks time and then today is a fortnight ago but I really don't want to go through all that again.

It is 10:43 Wednesday 16 February at the time of this sentance.  Right, now that's clear lets run through this morning.

I am having to stay in yet again waiting for delivery of the seats, a handful of other stuff, and carpet fitters.  Not for the car, but the front room.  As we have no carpet in the front room for my clone to run about and fall over on, just bare concrete right now, we have sent Mini Savage the 2nd (not his actual name but it would be a cool name if it was) to his Nanny Maxines for the day.  It is rare that I don't have him all day every day and I miss the little dude.  I'm starting to go to a tangent so lets stop that.  But for Nanny Max, I forgot you in the facebook thanks the other day, so I would like to single out my Mother in Law right here, right now as being my bestest ever Mother in Law named Max.  She dedicated a Facebook status to this blog and as such I feel she needs a big whoop whoop.  WHOOP WHOOP.  Hope that makes you happy.  :)

I know that today I have due to visit:  DHL, Royal Mail/Parcelfarce (I had another missed you card from Royal Mail yesterday but I'll update that later),  Canute and Carpet fitters.  The game I'm playing with myself (please don't snigger at that) is who will turn up first?  My theory was Royal Mail/Parcelforce, carpet fitters, DHL and no Canute.  I have just checked my phone for reference and I was called at 10:07am his morning.  By a delivery driver.  Along the lines of "Hello Mr Savage, I was just at your address but no one answered". 

Canute have turned up, tickled the door really really softly so as not to disturb anyone and left.  Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..  Oh anger and venom, bile and blood and all seeping to uncontrollable levels in my body.  I have been up since 7.30 fully dressed and as alert as a meerkat on cocaine waiting for these guys!  My response wasn't a pleasant one and I think it took the driver a moment to regain his hearing and translate my instant abuse into a sentance with spaces in.  A lot of verbs (thats "doing words" to you lot) and nouns (names) were used along with a couple of useful suggestions involving pallets, splinters and sphincters (google that one yourself).

Almost immediatly the blanket of red mist cleared from my brain and a sense of shame descended.  He was still parked outside, as if I could get back in the next 15 minutes he would wait.  I had the front door open within seconds!  He was a really nice bloke and not only "just doing his job" but happy to wait for me as he knew there had been a delay.  How many apologies clear your guilt.  I feel really bad for the guy now.  If I could retract my splinters from his sphincter I would.  Never-the-less, I have my seats now, complete with runners and frames, door cards front and back, rear seats the lot.  Happy happy, but still a sense of sadness that I probably ruined that guys day.  That'll pass.  Time for more coffee.

Once postie/Parcelforce turn up with my roof repairing cloth tape, and the carpet fitters have finished, I can waterproof the car again, check for leaks then fit the carpet.  Is it just me that thinks it's a tad weird to have to wait for carpet fitters to leave before I can fit a carpet?  Oh well.  Once I'm happy there's no real nasty leaks, I can get the flooring in and then mount my firm yet squishy, loving new seats.  And then I CAN DRIVE IT!  Subject to no further nightmare problems arising.

I have been thinking a lot about silly little details recently and I'm hoping there is something you readers can help me with.  It's quite a big thing in the world of little things in my opinion but I'm looking for suggestions of music to start the trip on.  I want that key first song to really hit the button.  The song that is to be played as we climb into the car on the Thursday morning and head off on our charity drive.  I'm looking for strong suggestions.  First thought was "Eye of the Tiger" (Rocky theme tune), but "Black Betty" has a real dominating set of lyrics, although "The Race" by Yellow has an appeal.

Relevant or not, key words that might be useful in your inspiration:  1994, floppy, throttle, purple, underdog, convertible, topless, scum.  I use the word underdog for a few reasons, but although we are currently running an 16v XR2i engine in the car, we are up against some 5.0 litre beasts and people with an awful lot more experience than us.  Please please help us with this by either using the comments box below (you don't need a google account, just leave the comment as anonymous or put your name in the message) or email me at floppythrottle@live.co.uk   to let us have some top audio suggestions.  I want that tune loud and proud as we hit the road destined for the launch at...

BRANDS HATCH.  Oh yes.  Mr Ed @ scumrun HQ has outdone himself.  We are doing the Hatch.  It may not be a full 30 lap touring race, but the humble Escort convertible out there which was designed to transport hairdressers to and from work, will be gracing the Brands Hatch track. I've been there a few times and probably done thousands of laps in playstation land, but now is our very real chance to put a 16 year old car backwards into a gravel trap at one of the worlds best known race tracks.  May need to budget for a couple of extra tyres though.  We got the email confirmation of Brands with various information about other stuff, but in fairness, I read:  Brands Hatch, 2 pm, track.  I felt the need to reply in a grown up fashion to confirm attendance.  My email was:  "Ed, ref Brands, Love you, Floppy x" 

Yet again, I'm going to leave this blog and come back to it later, postie just turned up with sticky roof tape and some junk mail from Viking office supplies offering me budget loo roll.  Hah, you fools Viking, you just sent me some and I can flick through it before using it.  Reading material and paper.  30 ply no less and hasn't cost me a penny :)

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It is now 20:13 on the same Wednesday.  I have taped up where the split is in the hood and although it isn't looking at all pretty, hopefully, it will solve the main leak issue.  I intend to soak the car thoroughly tomorrow morning, check for leaks in the afternoon, and have the underlay and carpet in by teatime.  Thats my plan.

The obvious thing to do is wait until carpet is in, then put the front seats in, and away we go.  But I'm impatient and wanted to sit in the new seats in the car.  I have put our new seats through the window placed the drivers one lovingly and gently upon the hole for the rear bolt and tightened it by hand.  I have leant across to the 2nd bolt hole at the back to place that in, but something is very very wrong right now.  I have the bolt hole in the seat, I have the bolt.  What I don't have is a bolt hole anywhere near coming from the car.  For the eagle eyed and sharp minded, you can see where this is going.  For the rest of you - The seats dont bloody fit which means I can't sit in them and I most definately cannot drive the bloody car.

The seats are from a Mark5 escort RS2000, I have a mk5b escort convertible and in theory the mounts should be the same for both 5a & 5b.  I know if I had gone for the recaros from a MK6 RS then I would have needed a seperate frame to mount them with (a fiesta 3.5 subframe for those weird people that like trivia) and thats why I have been hunting for the Mk5's.  Going to put a plea for help on the Escort Cabriolet Forum in a few minutes when I have calmed down a little. 

All this aggrevation of being outbid on seats, finding seats, arranging delivery of seats, chasing sellers of seats, dealing with the couriers throughout the land to arrange a date to recieve the seats and shouting down the phone at the man kind enough to wait so that I finally have the seats, has been a complete and utter waste of time, money, effort and patience.  The sodding things do not fit.  If I had known I needed a sodding subframe then I would have tried to get one at the same time.  Now I have to find out which ones I need, locate them, order them, arrange delivery, wait in, hope they turn up, fit the seats onto them, fit that combined set into the car, and then, providing there are no further nightmare problems arising, I can drive the car.

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It's now Friday, I treated myself to not stressing over the scumrunner at all yesterday.  I did however join FEOC-UK.com - the link is to the right.  Thats the Ford Enthusiast & Owners Club UK to you and me but FEOC is much easier to type.  I've pasted the link to the blog on there and mentioned what we're up to and received a good response from all of the guys there.  A chap with the name "Poser" is one of the admin guys and straight away he has placed £20+ gift aid out of his own pocket.  I salute you sir. 

What I have also discovered is my new neighbour who moved in a few weeks back, is also a member of FEOC and whilst chatting to him I had a sneaky look at his Escort Saloon.  No, I didn't realise they made them either.  Basically an Orion with tweaks.  At first glance it looks quite shiny and fresh, but when you get up close to it and start talking to him, you realise what a stunning beast his car is.  Running a 2.0 mondeo engine, various donor parts from ST's and RS's with an interior that drips with pride, this chap is truly a Ford lover.  Whether he likes it or not, I'm gonna become his friend, as he will be my guru for anything complex I feel.  :)

You may remember several months back the escort cabriolet club had offered to send some window stickers to grace the chariot, and despite them emailing me a few times to say they would, and on their to do list, never got round to it.  I am a little disappointed that I am a full member of the cabbie club and a free member of FEOC, but the FEOC seem to be taking more of an interest after just 1 day.  Oh well, wait and see if the FEOC stickers turn up I suppose. 

What else have I got to tell you about?  well, not a lot to be truthful.  I have absolutely nothing on order at the moment, so no new bits to arrive.  Waiting for a reasonable day to fit the carpet back into the car, but the enthusiasm just isn't there today.  I'm still a little upset about those seats not fitting.  I need to get rid of those, figure out which ones are right (it has to be the mark6 escort, surely?), source a set of them, and start again.  I'm going up to the loft to check how easy those frames may convert to the new seats, but I am not holding out much hope.  Alternatively, if there is anyone in the Portsmouth area with a cheap set of mk6 recaros, please give me a shout if you might want to either lend them or sell them to me.

Again, if there is anyone in the Portsmouth ish area that wants a full set of RS2000 MK5 interior, give me a shout.  Alternatively, if there is anyone that can bodge skinny seats into fatty holes, let me know also.

Hopefully by the time this is published, I will have it figured out, but you'll know by the end of this update if I still need them or not.

Time is against us in this rally and I really need to find some more sponsors, both private and corporate, so if you havent already done so, mention to your bosses / friends / colleagues etc about what we are up to and see if you can get them to help out.  Normally I have a worry free approach to everything thats going on with a "it'll work out in the end" attitude.  We are leaving in 9 weeks.  There isn't a great deal of time left to get the sponsors printed, seats sorted, all little bits fixed.  In amongst that time, the wife is due to give birth to our 2nd (my 3rd) child, and I really would like to spend some time with newborn before we go.

Hopefully Matt Ball will be getting his van back from repair at some point soon and that will benefit me enormously as inside his van, which is inside a repair center, is all the wood I need to make this rear storage / sound chest.  Yet another job on my growing to do list.

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It's Friday night and I'm grinning.  Not because I've been on the sauce, but because I have been for a little drive in Juliette 3 hours ago.  I gave in.  I refuse to have it sat there with no chance of driving it.  I haven't got the seats to fit, although I do have a plan to rectify that now, I went up to the loft and dragged the heavy drivers seat back down.  we now have the old seat back where it started. 

I intended just to start it up, pop to ASDA for some shopping, and come home.  Once I turned the key and backed it out of the drive the little demon on my shoulder woke up.  Probably something to do with the loud gutteral growl that the exhaust now makes.  Anyway, that 1 mile trip ended up being about 6 miles, which was just enough to whet my appetite.  Once we got back from the shop (we took 2 cars as mine is temporarily a single seater), we had an errand to run  (pick my nan-in-law up from bingo) so again we used 2 cars. 

Since having the service done at Triangle, and the exhaust put on, with the bulk of the interior out, the car seems an awful lot swifter.  Up to 2,000 revs it is simply pleasant.  2,500 it starts to pick up with a howling exhaust note, but once you get to 4,000 revs the thing punches you in the face, forces your foot to the floor, and opens up a type of warp speed that it really shouldn't know and keeps going happily to that red line, when you change gear and start all over again.

The run up the A3 to Petersfield was entertaining sticking strictly to 69 mph may I mention (I am now aware of a Scumrunner who I'm pretty sure reads this, who is an officer of the law).  Once I hit the town center and swung past the congregation of hoodies and baseball caps outside the Wetherspoons I got a large amount of looks.  These were either admiring the car or the could hear my Mary J CD blaring loud & proud and it wasnt their cup of tea.

Stopped off for fuel on the way back (I managed over 90 miles on a full tank this time), then kicked the arse right out of it.  I'm still grinning.  I love this car so much I will be devastated when the rally is over and it's time to sell it.

I have spent the last hour laying out the final graphics for the car, and I will be looking for them to be on shortly.  Obviously we will be able to make room for small ones right up until we set off, but having worked through those sponsors that we have, I reckon at a push we have room for maybe 3 sponsors remaining.  Providing one of the three has a really small logo.  Realistically 2.  If you want your logo on the car then please let us know.  You don't have to pay for it just yet, but tell us that you're interested so you don't miss out.

We are only £86 away from our minimum sponsorship of £500 but we want to smash that level so please throw £2 in the kitty.  I've even added little buttons at the top and bottom of the blog to make it easier for you to do.

Also, I was bored during the week and added a seperate site to the blog.  http://www.floppythrottle2.blogspot.com/ is exactly the same as this one, however the top of the blog is the first entry and the bottom is the most recent.  Sort of like reading a book where everything runs in order.

Well, I'm off to bed but hopefully will be updating this at least once more before it goes live on Tuesday.  Unless I publish it early.

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Saturday morning:  It rained quite heavily last night so this morning was the ideal chance to give the car a once over.  The main swimming pool that forms in the passenger footwell after a light shower is the one that I was optimistically hoping would be fixed by some black sticky tape and divine intervention.  Well, surprisingly, it was.  There is no water leaking in through that bit of repair.  I am quite chuffed by this as it means the underlay can go in.  If the underlay can go in, then the carpet can go in. 

If the carpet can go in, then we are nearly there in terms of interior.  Just that sound chest to craft and I'm done on the insides.  Plus comfy seats but over night a couple of options to get those recaros to fit have been doing laps of my mind.  You know those half asleep / half awake thoughts that you ponder?  Well, maybe one of them is the answer.  I can only try.

We still have a smallish leak coming into the boot from somewhere, but hope-fully that will be an easy fix when I find the source.

On a different note, do you remember the film "Memphis Belle"?  the WWII bomber with the picture of the belle on the nose of the plane?  I think that would be a nice look to go for and I think I have stumbled across the perfect "Juliette" to adorn the front wings of the car.  It's a tasteful one, and quite small.  Well as tastefull as possible bearing in mind we have Gruff on the sticker picking committee.  I like him to have the occasional input.  This is our very own "Memphis Juliette":

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Sunday:

There's far too much effort going into getting comfy seats for my liking.  I'm not an immensensely dense person, but so far soft funishings are defeating me.  Getting the original runners onto the new recaros seems an impossible task.  Fitting them as they are is an impossible task.  But I refuse to do the run in the standard seats.

The frustration is mounting and my patience is wearing thin, so I've decided on a new tactic.  Back to my first love.  eBay.  I have found some comfy semi-buckets that have been fitted to a cabriolet escort and should fit a dream.  I mailed the chap selling them (plus the rest of a full interior) and asked him to measure up for me.  I wanted to know the gaps between mounting holes and he replied within a couple of minutes.  I've measured my gaps (yet again) and the sizes are spot on.  After a couple of mail exchanges, a price has been agreed and I'm off to collect them.  From that lovely seaside resort, Poole.

Getting there was a doddle, and took roughly an hour.  I was using the iPhone map system where you simply follow a dot along a purple bit of road and turned where needed.  This got us there with no drama.  However, using it to get back didn't prove quite so easy.  It's almost as if it decided that we wanted a tour of Poole and took us to many many roundabouts.  Each one signposted to a small village somewhere nearby, but further destinations were omitted.  After an hour and 20 minutes of this farce, we pulled into a McDonalds for refreshments.  The McD's was still in Poole.  Out of curiosity, I checked the mapping, keyed in the postcode of where we had left over an hour ago, and it showed smugly that we were only 2 miles from our destination.  Grrr.

It took us 2 1/2 hours to return.  But we did return and we returned quite a few quid poorer, but with a full interior for an escort cabriolet and a loathing of the iCrap map.  As it is dark now, I can't try and fit it in, so instead it is sat in my dining room.  Once I'm certain that these new seats will fit, I will be putting the other mint recaro's on eBay.  The front seats are worth £100 on their own, and throw in the rears and the door cards, I should expect them to hit £120.  That brings the cost of these new ones right down and we will be selling those off at the end as well, so all told, I dont think that this seat issue will actually cost us anything in the long run, and may make a profit even, but it's been a nightmare few weeks.

So right at this moment, my dining room is a bit full.  I have cluttering it up:  One Peugeot 205 GTI seat that I use as an office chair, 2 Recaro bucket seats, 2 Semi-Bucket seats, 1 standard passenger seat from Juliette, I have 4 front door cards, 4 rear quarter cards, 3 bench seat bases, 1 full back seat for an RS Escort, 2 split rear seats from escort cabriolets, 2 purple wing mirrors, couple of car speakers , some clear rear light clusters and god knows what behind all that lot.  I have promised wifelet that I will get everything into the loft in the next day or so as our new baby is due any day and we are trying to de-clutter.

I will update this once more before I make it live, but hopefully, that will include an image of the interior actually inside the car :)

In the mean time, I have ordered some essential graphics that detail where about 90% of our parts come from, and these will be placed prominantly in appreciation of all the escorts that have passed.  Their memories (and donor parts) live on:

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Job jobbed.  We finally have a set of seats that fit.  I'm quite chuffed with this as a result although it has taken far too much time and effort to get something to carress mine and Gruffs sweaty arse cheeks.  The triplets:

The door cards didn't match the seats, so yet again:

That's a much more grown up, sedate interior.

Finally for this blog, I thought I would get a logo somewhere on the car that represents what has got me through all of these nightmares that I have been facing.  Pretty cool logo and a lovely caffeine fuel:

RedBull gave me a flat out "NO" to sponsorship, whereas Relentless had enough consideration for my feelings to not bother replying to my emails.  I like to think they're hanging on til the last minute before confirming their multi-million pound sponsorship of Juliette.

So thats pretty much been my week.  Hopefully, the next 7 days will produce joy and happiness, but I think it's going downhill again. 

I did speak to Gruff a couple of days ago and his preparation is going fine.  All he needs to do is set his alarm the day we leave and turn up.  Bless him. 

Please guys and gals, and imaginary unicorn riding were-monkeys, give me some feedback.  Either through the comments bit below, email me at floppythrottle@blogspot.com or with a small (or large) donation at www.justgiving.com/floppythrottle Suggestions for music would be good right about now, and if you are intending to cough £20 or more to get your logo on the car, even if you're not paying it straight away, let me know so we can keep a little space just for you.

Savage.

1 week, 1 mile

I've made some notes, but I relied on memory to make those notes so I may remember other bits as I turn those notes to text, and those notes may become jumbled and the time line may not be a line, more a squiggly little hair that interweaves through the ether.  Right, got that?  Good.  Now replace it with:  Think I remember most of this week, but may not be in the right order.

Tickety boo, time to start the roundabout of misfortune that has been my last week. 

Straight to the point with the opener.  In the last week since I updated and got the car back from Triangle cars (link to the right), I have travelled less than a mile in it.  I have heard that beautiful exhaust note for about 3 minutes.  I was so looking forward to going for a thrash and the excitement was nearly visible when I collected the car, but I'll go into those depths in a bit.  Let's have a swift round-up of what the last few days have brought to the Floppy Throttle saga;

Triangle have done a cracking job, security seems slack but really a Mr Mayagi trainee with boobies, Halfords let us down (again), eBay comes up trumps (again), Wifey kills her car (again), Petersfield Motor Factors let us down, New sexy rear lights (don't fit), Door panels off (again), Pretty ears, Soggy carpet, Chairs through windows, Torn tops and sticky tape, Cheesey Dick (yep) and Track fun.

 

I got the phone call from Triangle cars to say Juliette was ready to collect at about half 5, quarter to 6 on Tuesday evening.  Unfortunately, I was on the way to college so didn't have the time to spare to go home, grab keys, get the wife to run me down there, pay, collect car, get home, swap over cars again and still be at college for 6PM.  Just wasn't going to happen.    What actually happened is that I got the call, drove round to the garage, paid the bill, and said I'd collect it in the morning before wifelet went to work. 

I'm truly not a morning person and the idea of walking any further than the few meters to my car without being stocked up with at least 2 pints of coffee makes me quiver.  The concept of a brisk 10 minute walk before 7am makes me positively scared.  Why on earth do people get up that early?  There is no joy to be had in seeing nature wake up.  I like nature to wake up, have a shower, get something to eat, apply it's beauty regime then gently lull me to the waking world. 

 

With my eyes seemingly glued shut and my gravitational balance being lower than normal I followed my legs and ended my horrendous, coffee lacking jaunt, at Triangle.  I say Triangle, my walk originally ended about 20 foot from my car.  I saw the portakabin with the notice all visitors should report to security office so I did just that.  I don't want some steroid hungry, Chuck Norris-a-like kicking my arse for collecting my own car, so figured saying hi and showing them the key with my name on and the Escort Cabriolet Club fob on it, may be a smart move.

As I approached the door, it opened and standing in front of me was a (albeit lovely) security officer with a book in her little hand.  I don't want this to come across as patronising, truly I don't, but I'm not the biggest built of chaps and if someone bites a pringle loudly I collapse to the floor screaming "gunshot", but this ickle guard didn't fill me with dread.  I felt at ease with her.  I advised in my best silly o'clock voice I was picking up my car, wandered over to it and simply drove off.  Didn't think much of this event until I was chatting to one of the guys at Triangle (I picked up a flat and needed a new tyre for the Mondeo).  Apparantly, the "ickle girly girl" is harder than a love child born of Mr Miyagi and a Gypsy Bride, and could destroy me in seconds if she chose to.  Oops. 

 

Anyway, I got the car home and parked it up.  The only thing I need to do to get the car running on the road is to pick up a heat shield so the exhaust doesn't melt the plastic bumper.  Having persuaded Halfords to spend hours mixing a paint they didn't have the code for, I figured I would give them first crack at my wallet.  I went in, told them I need an exhaust heat shield or protective tape and could they do it for me.   No.  They couldnt be arsed to even look.  I tried the local motor factors and found none there either.  Then I decided it may as well be an eBay moment.  Saw a stunning carbon fibre jobbie and set my heart on it but no stock at this time which is annoying as I WANT TO DRIVE THE CAR! 

So settled instead on heat proof aluminium / weird stuff on a sticky sticky sheet.  Ordered that and a couple of days later it turned up.  Cracking.  So with scissors on hand I have set about crafting a heat shield and it doesnt look too bad.  several layers are built up and if the blurb is to be believed then this portion of bumper will now reflect heat at up to 500 degrees.  Thats hotter than I intend to take it to, but reassuring to know.

 

So we now have 1 car, MOT'd, Taxed, Insured, big exhausted up and with the appropriate fire safety precautions in place.  Time for a thrash?  No.  Unfortunately, the wife has left either her stereo or lights or similar on having parked behind it and killed the battery again.  It is time for a new battery and we've noticed it is a bit pants for some time so not really a shock.  I have other pressing things to do so Gruff took Mrs Savage to the car parts and accesories place in Petersfield (the one by the train station car park).  Shes asked for a battery, told them the car and they have advised her to spend a bargain £26 quid on their "saver" option.  So she did.  IT'S ONLY A SAVER OPTION IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO DRIVE BACK TO BLOODY PETERSFIELD TO CHANGE IT FOR THE RIGHT ONE!!!  They supplied completely the wrong battery for the car.  Their guess (!) was that the battery should have little turrets where the cables hoop over the top, but the Cabbies we have are little squares with bolts holding the cables.  She returned it, they charged an extra £20 or so for the right one and sent her on her way.

I've put the new battery in and it starts fine but by this time it is Thursday evening and I have to go to college again.  So no driving the Scumrunner.

At any point I have various bits on order for the cars, for my work, or simply for me and at times I get so bloody confused I havent got a clue what I'm waiting for.  This was apparent when Royal mail knocked (yes, they figured it out this time) on my door with a strange parcel.  It wasn't big enough to be a complete set of seats so I was quite excited.  When I opened it up, there was a lovely set of clear rear light clusters.  Bargain £10.  Including bulbs.

I strolled out to the scummer and removed the drivers side rear light cluster, plugged the new connector in, pushed and whacked and tapped and (honestly I did) asked it really nicely to fit.  Looks the same shape, but the bugger will not go.  Then once connected, the lights didn't work anyway.  Bugger.  Not happy about that but they'll either fit on the wifeys (a slightly newer model) or go back on eBay. 

 

Whilst I'm feeling in a hands on mood, I figured now would be the time to get Juliettes ears changed over.  The white cosworth leccy mirrors in the place where previously aged purples once sat.  Quite some time back when the sound system was being abused by me, the door panels came on and off on a really regular basis so I'm quite adept at it now.  For the new mirrors to fit I need to thread various wires and a control unit through panels and thats a pain in the arse.   Swift version - job jobbed, pain in the arse and various cable ties used in places where they probably shouldn't be any.

I figured I would have a look at how easy it is to change over the seats and it is a doddle.  Atrue piece of proverbial cake.  5 bolts and done.  simples. No.  Where I have parked up to do this job I am really restricted.  I am just so grateful that the doors do not have pillars.  To unbolt the seats is easy enough, but trying to remove them through a window is bloody hard work.  Next time you sit in a car look at the window, look at the seat, imagine the seat weighing the same as a 32 year old Scumrunner (it's really not too far off) and then try to picture yourself pushing that seat through the window on your own.  It's a bloody mission and a half I can tell you.

Having got the passenger seat out and safely in my loft, I looked at the dark patch of carpet it had been hiding.  As you remember, there was a moisture issue, but this has got beyond the realms of "moist".  This is now wetter than a Nun at the Erotica show.  This is welled up like the eyes of a child when you tell him  you just ran over his grandmother (I would imagine).  I have taken it upon myself to lift the carpet slightly to see what nightmare it hides.  Not only is the carpet completely soaked, the underlay is rotten also. 

I know I was unsure as to the correct point of action last time when I was considering this, now, I know the carpet is of no use to anyone.  It has to go.  I was going to use it as a template for my Indian Restaurant  carpet but unfortunately it was so sodden that it tore when lifted.  To get the carpet out swiftly involves removing seats so took the drivers out also.  I know that the Recaros are due any day so fine, I can live another couple of days before driving this damned infatuation of a car.  All carpets out, all seats out, it is quite a spacious car :) 

 

Time to pop onto eBay to find a new carpet.  I found someone breaking an RS so mailed him.  Local guy, 30 quid for the carpet and underlay, come get it whenever you want.  Awesome.  It's only after we had exchanged mails a couple of times that I noticed the poor guys name.  I am now the proud owner of a carpet sold by Mr Dick McCheese!  How comedy is that name?  Love it.

I've dried the car out, mopped up the puddle that had formed and settled for a cup of coffee.  It's at this point that the Gods looked down and said to themselves, "he's had an easy run so far, lets piss him off."  It rained.  Not hard, and not long.  After an hour or so I looked inside the car and there's a new puddle.  Quite a big new puddle.  With lots of wires in the bottom of the puddle.  Lots of electric wires in the bottom of the newly formed pond to be exact. 

After quite a bit of swearing I traced this leak to the rear hood.  The water is coming in there, running down the electics that control the rear windows (which may explain why they don't work), and following the leads to their lowest ebb which is just behind where the passenger seat would be if we still had one.

 

That needs fixing before the new carpet and underlay go down.  The new carpet and underlay need to go down before the new seats go in and the seats need to be in for me to use them TO DRIVE THE SODDING CAR as the old seats are in the loft and thats where the heavy buggers are gonna stay until we sell the car.  I am still waiting for my new seats to turn up at the point of writing this and I am quietly contemplating new Saw film inventions to experiment on the delivery drivers of Canute Distribution Ltd.  I wouldnt trust them to deliver a puchline let alone a full interior.  Scum.  I will update a seperate rant focusing on the misery I wish to see placed upon whoever is buggering about my arse comfort but for now, I will settle for a really unhappy face in smiley format :(

To fix the roof I have ordered some waterproof cloth tape.  The idea is to build up a couple of fabric layers before sealing it with a final covering.  Hopefully, that'll stop water getting in, and then I can put the insides of the car back.

Finally for this update, we now know where we are meeting up before heading to Dover.  The official launch party is going to be held at that world famous, oh yes indeedy, the one, the only....  I'll tell you next time. 

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Love and kisses

Savage.

It's a Biggie!

I did promise on my last update (the vote requesty one) that I would update this on Tuesday night / wednesday morning but the scumrunner is in for the exhaust / service today and I'm like a six year old on Christmas eve. 

I know the good stuff is coming and I am so impatient right now.  Hopefully this time tomorrow, we will have the fully serviced, new air filtered, noisy as an angry demon discovering his last red hot poker is missing and his next visitor is Adolf, beast home.  The new exhaust is here.  Well, I say here.  It's in the loving hands of Triangle Cars.

I get the feeling this is gonna be a long entry so get comfy if you intend to read it in one sitting...

Lets press on for the moment with some highlights since the last update.  This is how it works.  I tell you what I'm gonna tell you.  Then I tell you it.  Then I summarise by telling you what I told you I would tell you whilst I was telling you it.  So simple.

I've stumbled across mail order Vanilla instant coffe whilst trying to buy paint, wifeys car is finished (ish), found a cracking greasy spoon, found some not so cracking mould, exhaust turned up, found some seats, discovered why you should never use an iPhone on eBay, visit to the post office collection place, found some seats at last, rival teams donating, car left with Reg, dissapointment on bike front, ad space getting smaller and smaller, track action, outfits sorted, carpet soaked, Bugsplat amaze us and a new set of friends :)  Theres a lot to crack on with and I cant type very fast so bear with me.  You might be reading this faster than I am typing it so if you get in front of me I will try to catch up.

Alllllllllllllllllrighty then and most importantly, my name is Savage and I am a coffee-a-holic.  I adore my coffee, to the level that I'm the only one who drinks it in the household yet we have 2 machines for it and a variety of instants as well.  I hide my expensive stuff and those that pop round get the bog standard nescafe treatment.  It's not something I'm normally proud of but I feel we have come this far together, I think we can share stuff.  You're reading this and wondering how it can link into the story so far aren't you?  Even if you're not, I'm going to tell you anyway. 

As you may recall, wifelet dinked her car and sourcing paint codes was a nightmare.  As I originally bought her the car through eBay, I went back 18 months or so and found the seller.  I hoped (and sort of didnt) that it had been scraped before we got it and even more optimistically that having been scraped the paint to cover it was bought on eBay.  It wasn't but in the purchase history through feedback I spotted that the previous keeper had bought coffee online through eBay...  How weird is that? 

So I looked up the seller and found they do a huge array of flavoured instant coffe for roughly what you would pay for Carte Noir for example, so I ordered a set of 4 tasters.  Ooooh, I recommend them highly.  The chocolate one is a little sweet for me, but the Amaretto and Hazelnut ones are divine with the vanilla really kicking it nicely.  If you want the details, mail me and I'll send you the link.  I posted a reference on Facebook a day or so ago to the coffee and strangely as I'm typing this, a FB friend of mine with the same name as my wife just commented on it suggesting chilli or mint coffee.  May be worth a go.  Cheers for the idea Mrs Savage.

As Lady BumpHerCar has had Julian repaired (ish) by me, I figured I can now show how much damage can be caused by simply "backing into" a skip.  We have the impact shot, in progress shots, and finished ish shots.  I use ish as I'm not entirely happy with the result but all sanding, filling, priming, painting, lacquering, and drying had to be rushed to fit in between rain and wind.  I might finish it nicely in summer, but for now, here goes:

The dent can stay there for the time being but I will get round to pulling it out at some point and again, when the weather is better.  I have also grabbed yet another set of speakers from eBay but these are to adorn the front of Julian as at the moment one of the wires is loose and she can only hear half of what Gobshite Andre is singing about.  I think it's an improvement but apparantly not.  Hopefully, that will be the last reference to any repairs needed to my darling Princess' car between now and the run!!!
Another tangent I'm afraid but I do like to mention those people that make me happy.  Right now it is a cafe called Blinkers in Waterlooville.  Popped in there for a breakfast the other day and the food was flawless.  Proper fry up, £5, fully loaded and stunning.  Never happy, Wifelet moaned that our cups weren't from a matching set, but that was all she could come up with to moan about.  So well done guys:

We have our good friends Mould and Bacteria back to stay.  Over the last couple of weeks, wherever possible I've had the scumrunners door propped open for hours at a time trying to get rid of the moisture inside the car.  Unfortunately, it just seems to stay, circulate and breed 'orrible bluey green fur everywhere.  After extensive hunting, I've now found where the moisture is hiding and that's just behind the passenger seat.  Like a mini swimming pool of depressing expletives, no amount of sponging out seems to be clearing it. 

So that leaves a couple of options.  I have my sensible head on, the response is hire a wet and dry vac and clear all the moisture out in one go and preserve the original carpet as Ford intended it.  Well, thats out of the question.  My slightly effort filled option is take the front seats out (8 bolts) remove interior trim (center console - maybe 20 mins work) pull the carpet out, hang it over the line, leave to dry and refit. Not going to happen either really.  Leaves options C & D.  Option C is pretty similar but dont bother re-fitting it but then I like having carpet as it covers all the holes up that you can see the road through, so D, no matter how stupid must be the answer.  I think you can see A as labour intensive and may damage the carpet further?  B is a possible but wet carpet over the winter months will have rotted slightly and putting it back may get it torn anyway, C is a definate health and safety no-no so it has to be D.  Agreed?

Plan D seems to have amused Gruff but he's done the shaking of the head when he realised it was what I'm honestly planning on doing. We have a carpet shop just down the road and they have a carpet offcut roughly the right size that is so beyond vile and kitsch, that I think it's cool.  Picture an indian restaurant combined with an old peoples home and you're pretty much there.  Yup, removing the original carpet and I'm going to use that as a template for a fresh lease of life on Juliette.  The best thing about this is in a couple of days Gruff is back doing his Euro lorry driving thing and by the time he gets back, I'll have it done and it'll be too late for him to grumble :)

Surprisingly he grumbled very little when I managed to blag an exhaust system for very little money indeed.  In fact the only comment made when I sent him the following picture was a text back "It's f*cking HUGE"

It is a little on the large size I must admit:

Thats a 50p next to it! 
The car is currently snuggling up in the garage of Triangle cars and this is the last I saw of her: 

I know they will take good care of heras the manager is called Reg, and Reg is a real trustworthy name.  I can't think of any dodgy Reg's.  Apart from that Kray fella.  Oh crap. But I am chuffed that they are on a compound that has 24 hour security so I know that it's not gonna be nicked (tonight anyway).  How cool is their exhaust man thing I parked next to?

It was originally booked in to have the work done tomorrow (Tuesday) but they finished off with the ABS problem I'm having with the Mondeo early today so I dropped it round to them today as they are servicing it, attaching the new big boy exhaust, swapping air filters etc over.  Hopefully I will get it back early morning then I can go for a decent run (to charge the battery, not to blat it up country lanes for fun).  On the downside, I had to jump start it again to take it down to them so it's still having battery issues.  May need to invest in a new one, but see if we can do the charity blag on that maybe?

Hmmm, I told you this was going to be a bit of a long entry didn't I?  Well, still going.

But at least there's been a few pictures.  We all like pictures.  I for one keep crayons in my bathroom so I can draw on the tiled walls whilst "growing a tail".  Maybe you do to?  Or not.  Probably best not to use that phrase if you're writing a lonely Hearts ad:  "My names Savage, I draw on walls with my own crayons".  Obviously you would use your own name, but I still think you'd struggle to pull in a single reply.  I saw a fantastic singles ad some time ago along the lines of "Multi-millionaire seeks stunning gullible female aged between 18-21".  That was genius.   Don't get me wrong, I'm married and as happily as married gets, but everynow and then I have a glance at the desperation ads.  Makes me appreciate what I have.  Too much time on my hands when the wife goes to bed.  Thats what. 

Where was I?  For the first time, I made a series of notes before starting this blog tonight, and to be fair I havent used them at all and I seem to be rambling forwards happily.

Back on track now I think.  As you recall from prior updates, I have been angling for a set of decent quality arsewear on the cheap, for a Mark 5 escort (the 4's and 6's wont fit without mucking about with runners and frames), preferably recaro's and even better from an RS2000 without the black / caribbean twist pattern but the simple grey affair.  That is a bit of a niche request, and even more so bearing in mind that a decent set of front seats will go for anywhere between £100 and £150.  Our budget is considerably smaller.  How abso-bloody-lutely delighted was I when I was offered a FULL SET front and back in good nick, complete with door cards for the princely sum of £40!  Yes £40, no, theres not a catch, just one of those sheer flukes that occasionally happen.  Hopefully they will arrive in the next couple of days.  Wooooohoooo.  RS Recaro's for less than half price.

However, as you know, with all my good luck comes bad.  But then again, this one falls into both camps so to clear confusion, lets start with a simple statement.  DO NOT BUY ANYTHING OFF eBAY USING JUST YOUR MOBILE.  I found a white hood cover suitable for the ScumRunner and the phrase "excellent condition" was used.  The 1 inch pixellated photo on my screen did indeed look ok, so bought it (along with the wing mirrors) there and then.  It arrived:

After nearly an hour of cleaning the beige / brown and in places black, it was indeed in excellent condition but would have been nice to be warned that it was in desperate need of most household cleaners before being white.  Pain in the neck scrubbing that.  However, Silver Cloud linings or some such phrase...  It wasnt a scabby cloth cover, this one is white leather.  Result!!!!

Unfortunately I missed delivery of the wing mirrors which resulted in my favourite greeting card being left:

As always, my heart sank at the prospect of attending the Royal Mail Sorting Office and their associated interbred pen wielding humourless monkey robot jobsworthies.  I went there today, enough ID to acquire a mortgage if asked, the card on me, and every expectation of having to brighten some smegheads day up.  I strolled in and saw not the first chuckles, not the second, but a new face.  Hmmm, could be a trainee (in which case this is probably going to be hard work) or an experienced advisor (in which case it will be harder).  For some reason, the fortunes of the gods have carressed this chap.  He has brains.  I showed him the card, he produced the parcel and that was it.  No drama, no fuss, just a straightforward here's your parcel.  Get in. 

He was however busy with a colleague laughing at one of the posties on the phone.  I have to share this with you as it is the funniest thing I have heard in ages, and this is absolutely 100% truthfull I promise:  One of the bicycle posties has had to deliver to an area he doesn't really trust so has done the sensible thing and parked his bike against a railing and padlocked it up.  When he returned to his bike, turns out, he has lost the key to the padlock and had to phone the depot to get someone out there to release his bike with bolt cutters!!!!
OK, we're getting closer to the end of this update, and I'm starting to get just a little tired now, so I will hurry things along just a little.

Team MidLife Krysis have thrown in £2 into our just giving fund.  That is a rival team intent on raising money for their own team have donated due to this blog alone.  If they can pop £2 in, then surely you guys can?  www.justgiving.com/floppythrottle or if you dont want to donate to us then fine, donate to Team MidLife Krysis at http://www.justgiving.com/ScumrunTeamMidLifeKrysis but be sure to mention FloppyThrottle blog on the donation so they know it's come from us really and if we blow up, we can try and blag a lift in their Jag due to your kindness.  We have kicked off their appeal with a £2 so we're evens at the moment.
Lets have a bit of a thanks moment here to those that I know have changed their facebook profile status to refer to us.  So far thats only 3 people...  Come on, lets up that number.  Kim, Tim & Zac, I thank you for making the effort.  If anyone else has then thank you but I haven't seen it so cant mention you.
Unfortunately, even with my sod it, lets have it attitude, we have veered away from the superbike idea.  The only place we can get to do the conversion of both throttle bodies and Carbs from Car to Superbike on a sensible cost is a) way too far North and B) still way too high on the budget.  As much fun as it would be to convert, it's just not happening.  Alittle disappointment there.
On the upside, the launch night party is due to be announced shortly and all we know is that it will involve track action before we even leave the UK, so may have to budget for a fresh set of rubbers all round as I intend to "kick the arse right out of it" around any track provided :)

On the downside we got mailed the other day to advise where the official sponsors would like their logo's.  We need to leave spaces:  bonnet, front and back windows, Front wings, doors, rear wings.  I'm not being picky here but that leaves our brand new white wing mirrors being the only place untouched.  The mail did say they would try and work round sponsors so thats handy.  Otherwise every panel on the bloody car would be taken up!!!
We have finally decided upon our outfits.  We are entering this rally with the intention of being incredibly serious and raising awareness of the charity Dreams Come True and all that they do.  The grown up way of doing things would be helmet, fire retardant race suit and that'd be it.  But no.  I'm not going to divulge what we are wearing until the JustGiving site hits £500, but needless to say, if we dont get pulled over by either the police or customs, they arent doing their job.  I will be disgusted if we get through passport control or any border without being asked to "pull the vehicle over and walk towards me slowly".

As usual, please dig deep and dig now, update your facebooks, tell your friends etc... 

We have been left in absolute awe of Team BugSplat (see link above right) and their new paint job.


Savage.

Told you I had crayons :)