Let's get straight to it.
The gutter sealant seems to be working it's magic as so far we have no further moisture entering the car. This makes me happy as little creature comforts like carpet can be put back in. Once the carpet goes in, then the bit that used to house the back seats can be turned into speaker housing and the boot can go back to being a boot.
I have now got the waterproof bags turned up so thats something to be chuffed about as important things wont go soggy if it rains whilst we are topless, and I had a surprise this morning from the postie.
I approached a few different energy drink sponsors by email and post and figured it would be another set of knock backs. But no. In amongst marketing junk about internet banking and other pointless stuff, came a package. This package contained some artwork. And some freebies. Woohoo. I'm just in the process of trying to persuade them that they want to part with hard cash for charity as well. Lets keep our fingers crossed.
In terms of sponsorship graphics, Ed has come up trumps and mailed me this evening (Friday) to say he is 90% done. A couple of issues which hopefully can be solved easily and with a bit of luck, by the time you read this, there will be some more graphics on the car including some official scumrun ones.
Today I have removed some of the old ones that were "place holders" in readiness and the boot is looking pretty naked and the generic name stack running down from the door mirrors have gone. They're not going to be naked for long though as their places have already been taken. We are running low on space available, so NOW is the time if you want a logo or name on the car. Mail me the details and we can fit you in hopefully.
The Relentless logo's have gone from the wing mirrors. I have mixed feelings about that. I know it is a faceless company and it has a cool logo and advertises loads, but I figured they might want to help out. We're not a huge event and I know they will have a dedicated budget for sponsorship / advertising.
However, I also know that they sponsored a local guy to ride his BMX and give him various freebies and incentives and that irks me a little. They pay someone to ride a pushbike, but they won't help out on a charity rally with 100% of the donations going to terminally ill kids. I'm afraid I'm going to have a soapbox moment here and if you don't like it then tough.
The Relentless beverage is manufactured and marketed by the Coca-cola brand of companies. The Coca-cola group is, as you will be aware, a multi-national, multi-billion pound company. I do realise that they must get thousands of sponsorship requests and charitable giving requests weekly and I know we are not that special in their eyes and that they can't respond positively to all applicants.
But, we are offering something that pushbike dude doesnt. We are non-profit so everything will go to the charity. We are also offering brand placement in a rally that spans many countries, is followed on Sky TV, has numerous magazine articles and features based on it, a subsequent mass DVD release on sale at outlets such as HMV, and to be honest, we rock. Would it have been so hard for them to throw a case of fizzy wizzy at us, a couple of T-shirts maybe or even just throw £10 in the kitty? No.
And for that, I have the hump. What gives me the hump the most is the gloating I am gettting from Gruff. Bugger the charity aspect, sod the advertising bumpf, what I really wanted them to sponsor us for is because it would irritate the hell out of Gruff having to drive a car branded by them. In summary, any other company turning us down I could live with happily, and the amount I have spent on their stuff in the last few months more than covers any donation they may have given. Sorry guys, I'm switching brands. Lets see if I can get a deal going with these new potentials, they may end up with me in their camp.
Right, that's moan over with about the cock-a-cola group. For now.
Removing the vinyl graphics proved to be easier than I was dreading, as just needed a hair dryer and thumb nails. Not a scratch on the paint and they came off a doddle. I'm really rather looking forward to the new ad set going on. We are trying to keep the layout as close to the 1994 Lakes Rally car as possible, just with updated sponsors. Only a few days (hopefully Monday, but more likely Tuesday) until we start looking battle ready.
I haven't had a chance yet to look at the window but should be a quick job. Means that the door card has to come off. Without referring to anything, I can tell you... 2 screws in door jam, 2 screws where door meets bodywork otherside, 3 screws at the base, pop door pull and there's 3 screws in there, 1 in the door pocket, then undo the retaining screw in the actual handle, slide cover over and off and lift the door card up. I have had those door cards off so many times now it is unbelieveable. I am however very grateful that it is electric windows as retaining clips on a manual winder are a git.
I've had a couple of people ask about Ian and the Jag and as far as I aware, he's taken a day off to crowbar and hammer it back into roughly the right shape, then get the tracks sorted and see how it goes. I'll update here but otherwise, can I suggest opting for an Escort Cabbie mate? loads going cheap this time of year but leave it much longer and the prices start to soar.
What else have I got to share and delight you with? Well, the stickers that FEOC-UK sent look pretty snazzy. I've placed one under the tax disc / cabby club on the windscreen, one center at the bottom of the rear window, and one either side of the cabby club gel badges beneath the rear light clusters. Looking nice I reckon.
Oh, and the new "Ford" badge turned up. I say Ford badge, I mean FloppyThrottle badge in a Ford font the same size as our original front Ford badge was. I took the original one off and applied this one and something unusual happened. Nothing sinister or freaky like the car turned into a dragon and started to hump my leg, but close. Generally I either like something or I don't. Simples. I neither love this or loathe it. I can't say it's not what I was expecting because it is precisely as it was designed (by me). I can't moan at the quality as it is just right. The texture and dome feel right and the size is perfect. But strangely I feel it isn't quite.... I don't know. It looks as I imagined it to, and it's not wrong, I'm just not sure if I like it or not...
I mailed the image to Gruff and asked for his thoughts and he is pretty much the same as me - unsure. I think it will grow on me. Anyway, if you like it, and want one for your car, let me know. Background colour can be changed, images added, Font altered, text colour and wording changed (maybe you want a FEOC-UK?), pretty much anything is possible.
It's now Saturday night and I've been flicking through various forums. I do this occasionally to find out other peoples views on the world - it gets my warped mind wandering. But nothing warped to let you lot in on. What I have come across that may or may not be of interest are 2 seperate things. Firstly, Ian - he of the stacked Jag - has managed a feat that only Lazarus is purported to have achieved before. Yes, the Jag has risen from the dead. A few bits bent to roughly the right shape, couple of new tyres and the rear of the car is soon to be held together with gripfill. I swear 90% of the cars in this rally seem to be based on filler of some description.
Other thing I stumbled upon was a thread on FEOC-UK regarding car cleaning. Generally I have a hunt in a bag that I keep in the shed and find a bottle or two of gunky shampoo and slap that on the car, and after 5 minutes I admire my handiwork thinking it looks like it just left a dealership. Turns out, the slightly streaky semi clean look isn't actually clean. I have been stunned by "matman" and his ability to clean a car so I am on a mission.
For a full clean it seems that a lot more than 10 minutes total is needed, so here's the theory for a clean car:
You need to wash your car with shampoo as normal.
Then get a lump of special clay.
Spray the clay with clay spray.
Spray the paint with clay spray.
Rub clay on spray.
Rub clay on spray in the other direction.
Wipe off leftover spray.
Apply a pre-wax goo to remove imperfections and swirl marks
Wipe off excess goo
Now it needs a good polish.
Polish it.
Buff off excess polish.
Apply a decent wax and leave it for 20 minutes to allow withcraft and chemicals to do their thing.
Buff off excess wax
Nearly there.
Time for a ciggy and a coffee
After a minimum hour,
Apply a little wet look wax
Buff off wetlook wax
Admire car.
That's going to take me some serious hours as I intend to do the whole lot by hand as I don't want to be buggering the decals and logo's, but I do want the car to look as good as possible. Once I've done the scummer, I'll do Diego, then Julian.
Here are 2 images of what gets achieved after a few well spent hours courtesy of "matman" (6 hours of polishing)
Lets see if we can get some life back into the scumrunner.
As we have been having some semi-decent weather for a couple of days I have made a start on the sound build. Finally. I know I put it off like a fatty puts off a diet but the time has come to stop the sub from sliding around in the car every time I enjoy a corner. The thought of re-laying a carpet in the car isn't appealing right at this time for 2 reasons (well 3 if you count lack of enthusiasm); I'm enjoying the sparse look, and when I do lay it I want it to be able to flow nicely with the fleece I am intending to cover the enclosure in.
So I have drafted up how I intend it to look and made quite good headway for me.
After a swift measure up I figured that although the enclosure will be off center I have got the actual woofer central in the car. I've attached some sturdy timber to both the sub and the car using some fairly heavy duty corner brackets to build a base and having had a look through the shed I found an unused wardrobe door in there to use as the base of the storage area. I know there is an obvious question right there and I truly would love to share with you why I keep donor parts for furniture but too long and painful a tale. Maybe another time when there's less going on I will share that with you.
Anyway, the base is now sturdy, I just need to throw up some outer frame work then the master carpentry comes into play to finish off the fitment before the fleece gets stuck on. I am not a master carpenter by a long shot, indeed my efforts are generally tragic at the best of times but I like to use whats to hand. I have a rather fetching coffee table made out of leftover decking and ballustrade to prove this point.
Before I go any further, I would really like to take this moment to remind ALL of you that read this, we are doing everything here for charity. All parts, mods, improvements, (now) printing costs and time come from us as every pound you donate goes straight to the worthwhile Dreams Come True charity. I have fitted a donate now link to the top and bottom of this blog and if you are struggling to donate £2 due to not finding the button, there is a link right here: www.justgiving.com/floppythrottle For those of you that have donated, regardless of amount , I thank you. Gruff thanks you. A very large amount of terminally ill children thank you as whatever you did, just made their lives better.
If you have been following the blog from the start and haven't yet donated even after reading all my words and seeing all my tantrums and victories, and have no intention of donating (not through hardship, or personal reasons, you're just tight) then I think you're a tosser. Gruff thinks you're a tosser. And a very large amount of terminally ill kids wish they were healthy enough to see adulthood, bang on your door and call you a tosser themselves. But they can't. A small £2 donation via the just giving page will turn you into a provider of smiles for these kids. For less than the cost of 10 fags, they can have a little happiness shine on them. Where else can you achieve non-tosser status for the price of 2 lottery tickets? Please. We have so many people following the blog yet so few donations.
This is the serious bit and they don't come up that often so pay attention. If you had a relative or friend, maybe a neighbour that was terminally ill, wouldn't you give them a couple of quid to help the quality of their life? Well, thats just it. The charity is based in Midhurst which I know a lot of you are near, but help kids out nationwide. Do you know all of the residents in your area? It's not impossible that the donations we are raising may be helping a child near you. Please cough up.
Right, thats my serious moment out of the way for a few weeks I reckon, so time to get silly.
It's not often that I ask much of any of you, but I know a lot of you that read this are spread across the globe, and that got me thinking. Me thinking is never a wonderful idea and when I start on the global way of thinking it's probably going to go downhill. But here goes. I'm curious how many of you will humour me in this request. Not a lot is my guess, but let's find out. I want emails. I want you to email me at floppythrottle@live.co.uk the words "Floppy Throttle".
Not too much to ask is it? well, that's only half of it. The words Floppy Throttle can be written in the sand on a nice beach, etched into the back of someones head, tattoo'd on your being, on a piece of card held with a landmark in the background, made of parking tickets on your car, created from your ability with photoshop / corel / windows paint, however you want it to be. I just want some of you lot to contribute to the blog. Obviously if you stumble across a model with floppythrottle written on her body, that'd be groovy too. I'm really just interested in a) how many of you will actively do this and b) how weird you guys are.
I promise whole-heatedly that any sent to me will be shown on here (subject to potential legal comebacks), and whoever sends in the best three can have their names on the car so they can travel through Europe with us.
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