Today we shifted all the bits and pieces of Big Car from the other garage to Shaun’s new house. This included the roof and walls, which we have reattached to Big Car, along with her back door. Here’s a picture…

Hangover permitting, I’m going to head to the garage tomorrow and take all the remaining junk in there to the tip. Looks like we’ll be able to give the keys to both garages back to the council on Tuesday – our saving will be £17.06 per week!

Shaun carried on working on Big Car’s electrics today and noticed that her glow plugs aren’t coming on – that explains the trouble we have getting her to start. Once this is fixed we’ll stop getting through so much Easy Start.

Take care all, Bob.

We’ve moved Big Car out of her garage and over to Shaun’s new house! Here’s a picture of the empty garage…

I’ll return the garage key to the council on Tuesday once the office has opened again – that’ll save us £8.53 a week!

I’ve edited a video together that shows how the the events of Big Car’s move unfolded, but I’ve not had chance to stick it on YouTube yet – I’ll post the video once that’s done. (Edit: These videos are now available in this post)

Take care all, Bob.

We’re planning to move Big Car from her garages to Shaun’s new house tomorrow. Watch this space to find out how it goes – we hope to get video and photos of this momentous event!

I realise that this is a little optimistic at this stage but it cat hurt to dream. As we all heard over many a pint in the drum, Si’s ultimate goal once Big Car was up and running was to take her on a trip to Russia. Ambitious maybe, but it sounds like a good challenge to me. Realistically, dear old Helga will probably never be the most reliable car on the road, (a lesson i learnt with Betty the Camper Van) so i have looked into a route that involves as little driving as possible.

So here’s how to get a Big Car to Russia in a few easy steps.
1. Drive up to Newcastle, approximately 330 miles, possibly with a detour to Bamburgh
2. Ferry Newcastle to Gothenburg, Sweden, journey time: 24 hours, ferry runs twice a week (currently Mon and Thurs Out, Sun and Wed Back)
3. Drive Gothenburg to Stockholm, approx 275 miles
4. Ferry Stockholm to Tallinn, Estonia, overnight, daily
5. Drive Tallinn to St Petersburg, RUSSIA! approx 290 miles

Crazy, yes. Possible, who knows.

Obviously its not a mission even the A-Team would undertake lightly. A lot more research is required on stuff likes visas, brakedown cover etc. But i wanted to show it wasn’t as unfeasible as first thought. No doubt it will be a topic of conversation over may more pints in the drum….

Alice x

In between a pub lunch, a visit to the Drum and singing Christmas carols at St Deny Church, Tidy, Bex, Katie, Kevin, Al, Natalie and I made some progress on Big Car yesterday. We’ve reattached Big Car’s bonnet and bumper – she looks like a Land Rover from the front now! We took some excellent photos of us all reveling in our achievement – I’ll stick a goodun on this post and the rest on Flickr as soon as Tidy and Bex email them to me. With a bit of luck, we’ll be able to move Big Car to Shaun’s new house this week – once that’s happened it’ll be heaps easier to make more substantial progress. Take care all, Bob.
Edit: The photos can now be seen in this post.

Okay, so I chatted with Shaun today and he expects that we’ll be go to go with Big Car’s big move during next week – yay! If all goes to plan, some or all of Tidy, Katie, Al, Shaun and I are going to head down to Big Car’s garages on Sunday to begin preparations. We’ve got a bonnet and bumper to reattach for starters. We can also attach the walls to the roof so that less effort is required on the day of the move. Fingers crossed, we’ll have an update for you on Sunday. Take care all, Bob.

Actually it’s fairly miniscule in the grand scheme of things. I was just pleasantly surprised to find that if you happened to pop in Big Car to Google, that you’ll find your beloved Big Car Website around about number 7. And if you restrict it to just the .co.uk version and the results are even more orgasmic.

Quite why people might be using the search terms “Big Car”, I’m not entirely sure. I guess when we get #1 for “land rover” will be the time to get really excited.

(If at all. Sorry, I’m a geek. But I think it’s something that Simon would have got a big kick out of!)

Hey everyone, Just to let you all know that things are a little quiet at the moment because of Shaun (our resident mechanic) moving house and being rather poorly with some horrible flu-ey virus-ey thing. Hopefully soon he’ll be all sorted and we can get back on it.

Rest assured that progress, albeit slow, is still being made in amongst the yuletime madness.

BGA

Christmas is rapidly approaching and whilst we’re all frantically making some eggnog and hanging up mistletoe, we musn’t forget about our Big Car, lying cold and alone in her garage. We all like to receive a few gifts at Christmas, and Big Car should be no exception.

Therefore, we’re considering a visit to the next tender, the same place that Big Car was originally purchased from to see if we can scavenge a few bits and bobs for Big Car. We definitely need some new seats, but we might be able to pick up can of green paint or perhaps some sort of gun turret.