The Final Update before we leave!!!! 19th June 2010!

WE HAVE REACHED OUR £1000 TARGET, WE JUST NEED TO COLLECT IT ALL NOW!!!!

We are just 6 hours away from departure and after a very very late night of car mechanics in the rain..... The car is finished... Not!!!!

Friday started off as per usual with the antcipation of wheel arches that were meant to arrive by 11am, in plenty of time for Dev's Autos to put them on and sort any problems! WRONG! The arches turned up at 4pm, just an hour before Dev was going to close. But thankfully the Legend of Quirke street, stayed open for enough time to put the arches on! Woohoo!!! But a Problem ensued when the arches were just group 3 not group 5, meaning the arches couldnt be cut and also the 13"wheels could not go on!!! PANIC!!!

 

But after a little negociation with mummy dearest, we managed to swap her wheels for mine!!! Thank God for Mums!!!! So after a long and eventful evening of tinkering, undersealing, and ensuing the car was completely 'lubed up' (oil!) we were ready to go.... or so we thought. The suspension needed raising on the front of the car because of the new arches and wheels! Done... now with all the weight in the back from spare parts, sometime between after work and driving to scotland I need to raise the rear suspension!!! Will it ever end???

We will just ahve to wait and see. Updates available when we reach my sister Sally's house around 11pm tonight!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Big Shiny new update!!!! 15/6/2010!

And here we are in our final week before the big show! And its still not going to plan, quite....

The exhaust is almost fixed, the hole is gone, but the joins still need adjusting but atleast we can hear ourselves think in the car!!! The wheel arches have finally been... dispatched?!?!?! They should arrive tomorrow with any luck which in turn will mean tomorrow the car will be....

VINYLED

CLEANED

WHEEL ARCHED

ALIGNED

And on the 13"wheels!!

Took its time!!! But there we go, atleast thats the plan, we shall see! As for advertising, we are now front page news in the Miniworld Magazine Website and will hopefully be in there next month with a double page spread as a post rally report! Bargain!

More updates tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

12/06/2010 PANIC STATIONS!!!!

 

We have just one week to now prepare for this epic journey and well not everything is going according to plan.

We have new wheels, sills vinyls and everything to go on the car, but we are lacking one vital ingredient, wheel arches.

 

Without the wheel arches the wheels can't go on, the vinyls wont be accurate, and its just taking a little longer to get everything done!

But I digress, we have been getting sponsors from all corners of the west country which is fantastic, alot of support and sponsors and places in the local papers have all helped considerably. On a good note we did get our new t-shirts courtesy of Novel-T's in Minehead who did a fantastic job with our Cancer Research Shirts.

The car will be at the Wootton Courtenay Village Hobbies Day tomorrow at the village hall to gather more sponsors with any luck, but ofcourse I am working so am praying it all goes well!! The exhaust will then be welded together again and the ultimate engine steady will be put on to hopefully stop all rocking and rolling of the engine!!! but we shall have to wait and see!!!

 

 

New Update!!!

5th June 2010

 

Hello to all!!!! Yes it is now less than 3 weeks until the run and still there is a huge tonne of work yet to be done! The exhaust has been fixxed time and time again yet with no fully functional result, this is due to the crack in the exhaust manifold, but thanks to devs autos it still has not fallen off again (touch wood).

 

As for the list of things to do, it has now been significantly cut down!!!

Manifold welding repairs

Vinyls

Tubbing the wheel arches on the front

Spraying the wheels

Tidying up the interior

 

GETTING SPONSORSHIP!!!!!

 

Having been woking 50 hour weeks for the last 4 means free time is a rare luxury and most has been spent 'borrowing' parts from my other mini to make life easier! Though it does mean that the new shocks and suspension, the roof and music has all been sorted. Though ofcourse more problems have reared their ugly heads in the mean time!

Yesterday (friday) whilst driving to taunton, the car decided to break down. Not a big issue but the car was stopped for 2 hours on the side of the road. Being a friday, pick up was a bit of an issue. The AA said 45 minutes, but after 2 hours of waiting, the car purked up and started up and we were off again, stangely enough it was just as the recovery truck was just about to arrive! Whoopsy!

The issue was (as far as we could gather) that when the fuel tank is running a little low, when accelerating up an incline there is the effect of all the fuel being drawn to the back of the tank and air being pumped into the fuel line and carb! Not a good combination but there we go. NB for the future, when the fuwl tank is running below empty, you must fill it up!!!

 

Anyway new update as and when available!

 

 

 

 

 

Update!!!

We're trying to keep this as updated as possible but with work and suchlike its a near impossible task! But hey ho... Anyway!!!

The latest update.. WE HAVE OUR FIRST SPONSOR! 1% of the way there doesn't seem like much but once we get rolling things will soon pick up! Unlike the car which like all minis is being a bit difficult. The list of things to do now stands at...

Repair exhaust AGAIN

replace all gaskets

repair window

new seats

new wheels and suspension

A trip to bens body works for paint job.

A trip to Activ Signs for the Vinyls

Introduction of the lush sound system

New carpets

Dashboard

and new rubber seals for the whole car!!!

We might get there eventually but with just 8 weeks to go, it could be a very close call!!!

Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Alexander Neville-Payne as you may have heard last year myself and Jamie Short drove 2,500 miles across Europe to Raise Money for the local Childrens Charity C.L.O.W.N.S.

This year its a new car and a new Co-driver! Presenting the Summer Solstice Challenge with myself and Kerry Webber! We plan to drive from John O Groats (North East corner of Scotland) to Land's End (South West Cornwall) which is an epic 850 miles. Now it sounds a little small compared to last year, but we have made the challenge of doing this is just 1 day!!! Let alone that not just any old day....

Summer Solstice (June 21st) is the longest day of the year (Derrrr) and of course has the most amount of sunlight (really?). We plan on leaving Scotland at 4am as the sun rises driving through the entire length of the Country and arriving in Cornwall before the sun sets 17 hours later.

Now that sounds easy... But when you take into consideration the fact we have 8 weeks to prep and ready our car (a Classic Mini Clubman Estate) which has a few issues.... and the fact that the journey (keeping to national speed limits etc) takes 15 hours without stopping for traffic, fuel, traffic lights, toilets etc...), it becomes slightly more of a challenge!!!

So we ask you the lovely adoring public to please sponsor us raising money for Cancer Research UK!! The reason why we have chosen this particular Charity for this years event is because 18 months ago, I lost my Uncle to cancer of the lungs, almost a year to the day later, I lost my dad to cancer of the colon.

We appreciate all help to prep and sponsor and by all means get in contact with myself or Kerry for what will no doubt be a very emotional and exciting Rollercoaster ride!

See email address or contact us on facebook!!!

thebigyellowminiadventure@googlemail.com

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=110848698950343&v=info#!/group.php?gid=110848698950343&v=wall

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.