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.