TeamRado are hitting the road again, Friday the 14th of September will see us leaving from Calais to Rimini in 4 days via Basel, Lake Como & Cortina. This years route will entail many more mountain roads this year including the Stelvio Pass. Our steed for this year is another Audi 100 Quattro, but we have managed to find a Turbo this time, we loved last years car so much, we just had to have another. This year we will be driving back.

We have not been as organised as last year I'm afraid, so have only just set up our fundraising page. We are raising money for a very worthy charity this year, its the NACC (National Association for Colitis and Crohn's Disease) http://www.nacc.org.uk/ also known as "Inflammatory Bowel Disease". It's a disease that is amazing common but most people keep quiet about it. Little is known about its cause and there is no know cure at this time. Please help us in raising funds to research a cure to this disease. If you would like to donate please visit the Just Giving website link in the righthand menu or visit www.justgiving.com/teamrado07

Thanks TeamRado

Pics..............

http://www.flickr.com/photos/teamrado/collections/72157601701363214/ for all our pics from this year. We are trying to finish the diary, as soon as its done it will be here.

Lots done still lots to do!

Some Random pics from last weekends activities!!

Pile of parts from Tims VW.
The Tuuuuuuuuuuuuurbo!
The shine after a good buffing....
Ghost like figures working deep into the night!
Making a good alternator out of one that fits and one that works!
Winkle doing removing 3 years of mould from the seats......

Pull it you beeeatch, check out the flat paint before the buff.
The crew assembled for a long weekend.....
Winkle cleaning the the inside.....
More burning the mid night candle.....
Sonic and Chris, (we bought last years car off, now lives just round the corner and has become a good friend) trying to get the front seats back in.....

Sonic hoovering the carpets we stole from the parts car, the original has 2 inches of water sitting on them....yuk!
Winkle cleaning mould from the dash, it was right mank before, bloody amazing after winkle had done his thing.....
Pete Mate buffing something, he likes buffing....
Chris nicking the towbar for his new 100Q CS which is near identical to the car he sold us last year.

More to do this weekend, more pics to follow.......................

Tim's VW Parts to the rescue!!!

We needed some parts to get the old girl into real fighting health for the long road trip ahead. I got in contact with a man I have known for too many years. That man is Tim Bernard of www.timsvwparts.co.uk Tim has kindly donated a full kit of service parts to the cause. Huge thanks to the 2 Tim's, top men.

Graphics are a go go

Tony Stanley at www.stewartsigns.co.uk has kindly donated some vinyl for us to cut into the various shapes we need for the graphics for this years theme. Tony sorted us some amazing graphics last year, but we have decided to go DIY this year!! More in keeping with the Scally look!!

Thanks for your help again Tony.

The old girl has passed

With huge thanks to Ricky and David and all the mechanics at Independent VW Servicing www.independentvwservicing.co.uk

PeteMate (in the waitrose shirt!) and Ricky

Popped the new relay in and it has killed the ABS light, hooraa. Also fixed the fog light by cleaning up the contacts. Just needs a new set of wiper blades. That must be the easiest fix list I have every had to complete for an MOT fail!

Had a quick go at polishing the bonnet, think the body work should clean up quite nicely. Next weekend is the big prep weekend, lots of servicing, cleaning, wiring all the extars in and doing the theme......

Pete's vid following the Q

Lets face it he did well to keep up! This was coming back from the MOT station.

She has failed.......

IT'S FAILED, not supprisingly, but no where near as bad as expected. Here is the list.... Rear Fog light not working. Needs new windscreen wipers. ABS light is on. Can't believe that is all that is wrong with it. The garage are spending 1/2 an hour having a look at the ABS for us. Hopefully its just one of the wheel sensors.

Big big thanks to Independent VW Group specialists for carrying out the MOT for us for free. Thank you Ricky and David and the crew.

http://www.independentvwservicing.co.uk/

Scary Drive to the MOT station!

Well that was a scary drive!!!! From Verwood in Dorset to Chandlers Ford near Southampton, about 25 miles but I couldnt tell you for sure as the mileometer didnt work!! The rear suspension is making some crazy noises over cats eyes, but otherwise all seems pretty good for a car that hasnt really moved for 3 years. Waiting for the call now to see how badly it has failed!!

New rings of rubber and it start's, yeah baby!

Found a very nice man close to work that sold refurbished starter motors, £35 and a working starting motor was ours. Fitted tonight and started the beast for the first time in 2007, can't believe we picked it up back in Nov, where did that 8 months go!!! Video of the momentous occasion......




Also sorted out some rubber today, 2 tyres were rescued from what is left of Brookesy's Corrado and 2 new tyres, managed to get a bargain, £80 for two BF Goodrich and they swapped the tyres over on the other wheels for free.


195-50-15 instead of the original balloon 205-60-15's, mucho better!

It wont start!!

We havent tried to start the Quattro since unloading it from the trailer after picking it up. So a bit of investigation work was carried out by Brookesy tonight, the starter motor is fubared! So the search is on for a new one or someone to recondition the old one. It was a bitch to remove, but got there after much banging and bashing!

Also removed all the wheels to get some new tyres fitted as the old ones are either flat or lacking in tread.

Hopefully we can get the old girl started and off to an MOT some time next week.......I think we could have a fair old list of failures!!!

Its water proof at long last

Brookesy was up early saturday morning getting ready for AutoGlaze to come round and fit the new windsreen. They did us a great deal again, £126.90 for a new screen fitted, the same price as last year.

Before AutoGlaze arrived Brookesy had to remove all the old bonding gunk from the rear side window that we had salvaged from the parts car, and remove all the gunk from the window surround. Sorted just in time for his arrival.

Stripping the Parts Car

It's Wednesday evening, it's 5 weeks to the off, it's about time TeamRado got off its arse and did something!! It's time to do some serious stripping!!

We have salvaged the windows we needed, the bumpers, the headlamps, the carpets, the rear seat base and few other bits and bobs to make the Quattro fit and well.

Winkle gets his hands dirty!

Sonic did a great job stripping the interior.

Getting the rear side window out was a mare, nearly two hours and a few rollies!

Look at the speed of the hands!
Go winkle go!
Rip it up you bitches.
Who's that old gezzer in the A6 surrounded by 100 parts.
The scene of devastation
Mucho bits.
Conquered

Vid of the parts car moving with no rad or fan belt!

Parts Car Dragged Home

Winkle and I had a nice drive out in the country to pick up the parts car on saturday. We seem to be able to find amazing charaters to buy cars from. Tales of buying a fishing boat, filling the front with concrete and ramming oil tankers, all in the name of Green Peace! We think the guy lived in the caravan behind the huge mansion that you see in the pics, but he may have been the owner of the mansion with 5 arces in the middle of Ascot.....who knows.

We towed the Audi with Winkles huge truck on a solid pole, not stictly legal, but it worked well and got us back to PeteMate's place within a couple of hours.

The Car has all the parts we need to fix up the Quattro including Climate Control (even if the control panel looks like hifi from the 70's, very retro!

Parts Car purchased

So we need a few bits and bobs for the Quattro, basic things like windows and a rear seat! Tried various breakers but prices were to high for the spares we needed. Spied an Avant Auto going cheap on ebay so popped a last minute bid on ebay......got it for £52, just the ticket!



Pick it up next tuesday evening.

Hotel & Ferries Booked

Not been much Scally action going on for a while as work has been eating way to much time! But we have booked the ferries and the hotel in Calais.

www.norfolkline.com came up top trumps with a £51 return deal from Dover to Dunkerque.

Have booked the etap in Calais for the Thursday night, awaiting news on other hotels before we can book any.

Cool old Audi advert from 1986

4 days in a car with Mr Brookes...

These are a MUST...
Get them bought, B-Boy...