Practically Classics Forum

bnicho wrote:

The Fiat will receive a loud paintjob this week or next week courtesy of our major sponors. I'm not a fan of pink, but that is the colour of their logo....

Driving a bright pink car is one way to become VERY sure of your sexuality!

Guy I know of (for a bet, the result of which was a large donation to St Dunstans -so fair play) painted his Landrover Lightweight Pink. A kind soul who had a sticker emporium knocked up some Barbie (as in the girls toy, not an Aussie cooking implement) stickers for it. Billing aquadrome was never quite the same again. The blonde wig was the finishing touch.
Result quite a few grand went their way on the weekend

Hey, its all good

It's a silly rally, we might as well have a silly-looking car to go with it.

On the way from dropping the car off to be painted I saw a Daewoo 1.5i (Nexia) with a graffiti paintjob and Shitbox Rally logos. Obviously another participant putting some testing miles on their steed.

You should take it on a tour of all the local scrappies

can we have a pic?

I'll put some pics up when we get it back from the painters.

One month to go to the Rally and we are very excited about the rally. The car should be returned to us in it's new livery early next week.

The team has also secured a new sponsor. Welcome Max Action Vehicles.

http://www.maxactionvehicles.com.au/

Max Action Vehicles provide vehicles for Films, TV and Commercial shoots in Australia. They pay you very well for it too!

I've listed all my cars with them. Two of my cars appeared in a popular Australian telemovie (Underbelly - The Man who Got Away) and it was great fun being on set for the day.

We are also very grateful to my friends from the Toyota Car Club Australia Victoria (Inc) who last night donated $250 to our Rally team. Thanks again guys, and the pink Fiat will wear those stickers with pride.

Cheers,
Brett.

bnicho wrote:.......the pink Fiat will wear those stickers AT Pride....

There, that's translated for you.

By popular (okay, some) demand...



Yes, it's loud.

In the 44km journey from my house to our sposor yesterday I counted eight people taking photos and had two conversations about the Rally at traffic lights. While it was parked outside our sponsor's I counted a further 15 people photographing it. It also bought customers into the resteraunt who then donated to the Rally. So I guess you could say, our mission of attracting attention has been accomplished.

We are scratching around for some cheap roofracks now, and I have some spot lights to fit. Otherwise we are ready.

A small story that will warm the hearts of all the hoarders out there.

The Fiat's choke was sticking on fast idle. The butterfly was opening okay, it was just the idle part that was staying on. I read a few forums and discovered the 32ADFA carburettor has a known problem where this happens, due to a little tag breaking off on the choke linkage. It sounded just like the problem we had.

This afternoon I went out and removed the air filter and the choke element. Sure enough, the tag was broken off. But where to get another one. Then I remembered...

In 1993 I pulled an indentical Weber off a Fiat and applied it to my Holden Gemini in an attempt to make it go faster. Which it didn't. The ADFA was quickly replaced with a more appropriate DGV Weber and the ADFA was ratted for bits. I knew I had thrown the carb body away years ago, but I wondered if I still had any of the choke bits? Could it be possible?

I opened my box of random Weber bits and there it was. The very part I needed. Fifteen minutes later it was fitted.

So next time someone tells you hoard too much, remember some times those little odd things do come in handy!

Cheers,
Brett.

Five more sleeps until we leave on the Shitbox Rally. Yeah!!!

The Fiat is just about ready. I've fitted a pair of old-school Cibie Oscar driving lights donated by a mate and the paint on the roof rack I made this morning is almost dry.

Fundraising sitting at $4674AU with $250 still in the pipeline from the Toyota Club. So the minimum of $4K is smashed, thanks largely to the efforts of Bimbo Deluxe.

It looks like we will be a piddling $76 short of our $5K target. It's still not too late to donate...

http://www.everydayhero.com.au/i_think_we_can

Cheers,

I am chuffed to announce that we made it to Cairns and our final tally is $7,377.60 raised for Cancer research.

We had a fantastic adventure on the journey and saw country we never dreamed of. We saw fantastic comeraderie. We got used to the taste of dust and the smell of road-kill. We witnessed the joys of cars ressurected from the dead and shared the low points with mates who had cars that did not make it.

The little Fiat everyone though we were mad to take turned out to be a good choice.
Damage report:
- Carburettor and fuel tank pickup choked up with dust from dirty fuel. (You haven't lived until you have dismanted a Weber in the desert on a 40 degree C day 250km from the nearest town!)
- The RH handbrake cable came off and was cable-tied to the suspension arm.
- An exhaust hanger broke and was replaced with coathanger wire.
- The LH steering arm was damaged.
- The rear universal joint became noisy.
- The brakes were completely worn out at the end.
- A small dent in the sump.

The Fiat had astonishingly good handling on dirt and was very comfortable in the rough stuff.

Unfortunately the cost of repatriating the Fiat a few thousand km to Melbourne and repairing the problems far exceeded it's value. We bought it back from the Auction for $60, used it for transport for a couple of days and then dropped it off at a wreckers. The numberplates and some of the badges were kept as souvenirs.

Rest in peace noble little Fiat.

I will do the rally again next year. Not sure who with and what vehicle yet though.