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"!!!!

=====================================================

=====================================================

(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 :)

=====================================================

=====================================================

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.

=====================================================

=====================================================

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.

=====================================================

=====================================================

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.

=====================================================

=====================================================

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":

=====================================================

=====================================================

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:

=====================================================

=====================================================

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.