Run a business or have a career in addition to being a husband, wife, father, mother, grandfather or grandmother then try to get a 35 year old car ready for a cross country trip. What else could we have to do you ask? Well, deal with a hurricane of course!
We’re all alive and well. We’ll have a new roof on the house. The only question is who will be writing the check, us or the insurance company. We’re still on for the rally, much to the surprise of the hosts.
Dave has been working late nights to get the 6 ready. The departure time is here; she’s as ready as she’s going to be. We leave in 3 days. A few swipes with the wax rag, a bit of chrome cleaner, and we’ll be off. Anything else on the “to do” list will just have to be ok.
The rear bar was installed in the past few days. Look close at the pictures. If you see the skin from Dave’s right hand please let him know, he’d like to have it back.
Dave has also replaced the rear brake shoes, wheel cylinders, adjusters, wiper blades, door seals, radio, etc, etc. As we were getting ready for a test drive he was checking the systems under the hood and discovered a very small crack in the steering coupling. Breaking down the steering column and fitting a replacement wasn’t high on his list of things he was hoping he could do. Considering the repercussions of a catastrophic failure Dave started the tear-down process. Here is what the coupling looks like:
This part connects the steering wheel and upper steering column to the lower steering column and the steering rack. With a bit of sarcasm Dave said, “its pretty important that it works.” Here is what happened to the coupling once the bolts were removed.
Pretty scary if you consider that we were going to try to drive mountain roads! God is indeed on our side, Dave had a new coupling in his spare parts box. A couple of hours, a few layers of skin off the knuckles, and Dave instructing the coupling to do some things we’re not sure are anatomically possible and the new one is in place.
There has been a few interesting last minute entries in the rally. We now have drivers from as far away as Cologne Germany, Atlanta, and Sugar Land of course. The list of vintage British cars is very impressive and includes a 1936 Bentley, 1949 Bentley, 60’s & 70’s MG’s, a beautiful 1959 Austin Healey 3000 (see picture), and a couple of TR6’s. There is even going to be a one of the new Smart Cars from the local Mercedes dealer. Yes we know its not British but the dealer wrote a big sponsorship check which is what this is all about, so we’re going to make it drive at the back of the pack, and get this, we told them they HAD to install an MG name badge on it to make it legal and they did … too funny.
Right now the weather looks great. We’re expecting sunshine with daytime highs in the low 80’s with evenings in the low 60’s. Perfect weather for an old English sports car!
Here is our schedule this week:
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Thursday 9/25 – We’ll hit the road at some horribly early hour and plan on arriving in Birmingham late in the afternoon or early in the evening. We’ll stay at the Hampton Inn Colonnade in Birmingham, AL
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Friday 9/26 – The morning is reserved for the event for the kids at The Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. The car show, pictures, hospital visits, and various festivities take place starting at 9:30 and run through 11 or 12. Friday afternoon we’ll do one more walk around on the 6. Friday evening is the kick-off dinner. We’ll stay again at the same Hampton Inn in Birmingham.
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Saturday 9/27 – Rally Day #1 – Another early day. A drivers meeting during breakfast. Then its “Meet The Press” (isn’t that on Sunday? only smart people will get that joke) In addition to local television and press there will be national publications at the press conference. We have a start time just a bit after 8am if we remember correctly. Barring any unforseen disaster Saturday night will find us in Tupelo, MS at the Hampton Inn
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Sunday 9/28 – Rally Day #2 – We’ll get our start time at the drivers meeting on Saturday. The end point is back in Birmingham. The celebration dinner is Sunday evening which, knowing car guys, will include many drinks, much boasting, and quite a few tall tales, a venue which we all know is custom made for Dave. Sunday night we’ll be staying at the home of the President of the Birmingham British Car Club.
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Monday 9/29 – On the road and home late in the evening.
DON’T FORGET! Starting Thursday we’ll be updating this site on a regular basis (during the rally as often as every couple of hours) so you can track our progress and see pictures. Stick a note on your computer and log on often to see how its going.
Please take a moment and wish us the ability to make a difference in these kids lives.
Thank you so much for your support and your prayers.
Stay tuned here, we’ll “talk” to you from the road…..
