Yesterday, Mel and I took all the junk to the tip and returned the garage keys to the council – they were kind and let us off a week’s rent!

This morning, Shaun and I did some more on Big Car. Whilst he carried on with the electrics, I got the driver’s and passenger’s doors reattached, as well as the transmission tunnel. Shaun and I also played around with the dash and are beginning to understand how it all goes back together.

Here’s a picture of Big Car as she looks now…

She’s looking nearly finished – if only it were true!

Take care all, Bob.

The hangover I was left with after Mel’s party last night wasn’t too bad so I headed down to the garages. I emptied the second garage of all the remaining junk and filled the back of my car with it. Here’s a picture of both empty garages…

I opened the garage that we had emptied the other day especially for that photo and, sod’s law, broke the door. It’s a bugger to close now and I couldn’t work out how to fix it. I’ll give the keys to both garages back to the council tomorrow and let them worry about it. I’ll also take all the junk to the tip.

On Wednesday, Shaun, Al and I are going to spend the day working on Big Car. We’ll get the driver and passenger doors on and carry on tinkering with the electrics. Check back here later in the week to find out how we get on.

Take care all, Bob.

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!)