I try and update this on a Tuesday when I finish college (evening classes) but it doesn't always happen as I'm normally knackered but I seem to still be up at 2.00am hunting for parts so figured I would update you on the scummer and the poorly Julian.
As I know you all love to hear my long suffering love affair with the cabbies in my life, lets start with wifeys dodgem first. The last update I think ended with an optimistic note of hope and serenity. We had the colour code, all we had to do was get it mixed. Sound simple? Almost too simple? Having had an absolute nightmare with the plate on the car declaring itself to be green, we trawled through genuinely dozens of sites and asked everybody we know who has anything to do with cars we finally had our answer. Even Ford don't know that Spring violet is G/XSC2568 in the mixing world, but we do. Don't we?
No.
With the colour code in hand, Halfords set to work and crafted G/XSC2568 and it looked pretty close. But not close enough. They then tried another 4 mixes of similar codes but had no luck there either. By the time I left them, I was deciding whether or not to get the roller out and just Matt Black the whole thing. On Sunday however, one of Wifeys friends popped round with her other half Lee. Being that he has extensive knowledge in "altering appearances of cars" (think thats a diplomatic way of saying it) we asked him for his advice. He had a look and popped the bonnet to find another seemingly obscure code, but alas it wasn't the one. Whilst we had him there however, Mrs Savage did the eyelashes thing and he ended up changing her wing mirror over for us so saved me a job there. Then he had an idea which was pretty damn smart. Jump on Autotrader and every car sale site in the UK, find one of these, phone the owner, hopefully at some point they've crashed and solved the problem we were facing.
After a few minutes, we found one unlucky sod who did indeed stack their car and needed to source the paint. After a few minutes he gave us a colour code, together with the name of the person he sourced the paint off. When it was explained to him that we didnt actually want to buy his car he seemed strangely upset. Almost as if we had disturbed a stranger on a Sunday afternoon and made them rumage through papers and check car paint tags in the rain. hehehehe.
After all the research I've done, it turns out that if you want a colour other than matt black, Halfords aren't the best people to try. I took the car down to Accident Repair Center Havant who took a look at the car and after an eternity of playing with colour swatches found that their recommendation met with our new found paint code. Unfortunately Ford only chose to use that colour for 2 years and it's a mica paint. Apparantly mica paint contains miniscule plastic hexagons so quite rare. But, they said they could get it. Ordered specially for me. With a minimum 1 litre at £100 plus VAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thats £120 for a bit of paint! In terms of weight to cost, I'm pretty sure uncut cocaine is pretty close and I refuse to pay that. I enquired as to where they got their paint and a place called Express Paints in Portsmouth was the answer.
I have a lead. I know what the paint is called. I know where to get it from. I have a contact number and a contact name. We're getting somewhere and we're getting there fast. I phoned. They answered. I gave them the code. The guy said no problem. I drove down. They mixed paint. They sprayed a piece of metal and held it next to the car. Precise mixture, perfect colouration, remarkable service. Ladies, gentlemen, boys and girls, we have paint. The right paint, in an aerosol, for £12. The saga and nightmare seem to have ended. I just need to filler and blend in, but I think we have found the holy grail. Although the paint mixer upper guy is quite old, the wife told him she loved him and I think if she wasn't currently bearing the fruit of my left nut, then she would have offered to carry his children in return for solving this headache. Express Paints, we salute you.
That mini blip is now at an end for the time being, so onto the reason you may be reading this. Juliette, our scum runner, is going to have a few cosmetic and breathing fixes. First off, we stumbled upon a minor hiccup when we did the Portsdown hill run. The Hood cover (the bit that sits on the folded roof when it's down) seems to have shrunk and will not fit any more, so we needed (well didn't need to)(I say we, I didn't consult with Gruff but I'm sure he would have said yes) a replacement. Standard black is a bit, well, black. We could have tried to find an exact replacement which is the same colour as the interior, but that would be eurghh, so whats the next obvious choice? Thats right, we have a white hood cover on order. It'll look classy. Not conventionally classy, but if you put Amy Winehouse against a drunken scouse teen laying in a pool of their own vomit and faecel matter, she would look classy. Please remember we are up against some real beasts in this rally so picture us as Amy Winehouse and you get the idea.
***To the other Scumrun teams that may be reading this, I am not really likening you to bevvied up incontinent Northern 14 year olds, just drawing a comparison to conjur a mental projection of an imaginary visual focal point whereby the ego self can envisage the supremacy of this daggenham charriot to your imported metals from around the globe. If you didn't follow that then maybe I am. You'll never know :)***
To top this new look off, we have some new ears for her. Yup, I've managed to source (purely by coincidence from the same guy as the cover) a set of pure white cosworth leccy mirrors to complete the cover, alloys, text and mirrors in white set. They should turn up in the next few days then I can start getting them on.
Whilst on the subject of getting things on, we have an exhaust. It's a beaut, it's loud and brash and it's going to mean that a little bit of rear bumper needs to go. I've managed to wangle a 4" pipe set and it'll give the backing note to what should be an entertaining few thousand miles. What would improve it even further is if I could get a little more response from the front end. Obviously this is where I started thinking some months ago. I have fired out a handful of emails and awaiting replies about this very subject. Without giving too much away to those that don't know much about cars, I'm hoping pretty soon that the car will sound like a superbike. ooooooooooooooooooooooooh yes, lets see if the Savage can swing this... :)
I got outbid on yet another set of seats but now I have a different tactic that doesn't involve eBay and I hope that by the end of the week, I will be sorted for arse comfort on a budget.
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Savage.
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