Events

April 14 2012 - April 21 2012

ShitBox Rally found raiser, Sunday, February 19th, 2012... Be there to support us...

LuckyCoq New charity challenge...

Next found raiser Sunday 19th february 2012
ShitBox Rally,
Lucky Coq is proud to announce his support and sponsorship to council cancer through Shit Box rally.
It started a coulpe of month ago when Ryan Mischkulnig came to Lucky coq wandering if we could sponsor this car he was racing all the way up to cairns!!
A race! to Cairns !! To raise money for cancer...
We were in! What a great idea and what a game guy!!!
what a great opportunity to give back to the community.
Ryan was and still is very passionate about this charity event, his girl friend along his side, this two people are so motivated that we had to be part of it...
If you want some more details about shitbox rally just click here.

And just to put throw you right into it down below is the first blog.
But first pf all,
We want you to know that we will be helding a launch party on the Sunday November 27th, with a "gold coin donation" barbecue (all donation goes torward charity),
live Dj and of course the car will be here too so make sure you drop by for a quick drink or a bite to eat and don't forget to be generous it's all for charity...

Shitbox Rally Blog Post 1.
 
 
Adventure, a craving for a holiday with a difference, a memorable experience, and an opportunity to raise money for a great cause; this is what the Shitbox Rally is all about, and Ryan and I couldn’t wait to get involved.
 
The Rally will take us approx 3,500km across Australia in a week. The route is Melbourne to Cairns via Cameron’s Corner (where SA, NSW and QLD meet). Its going to be dusty, bumpy, long days spent in a car worth less that $1000 (so no air-con), and its going to be heaps of fun.
 
Our team, the Dessert Sailors, are joining 149 other teams of nutters in this crazy adventure to raise money for the Cancer Council.
 
After being accepted to be part of this unique experience, out first task was to find our very own ‘shitbox’, our trusty car that would take us on this epic journey. The rules were simple; the car had to be worth less than $1000 including registration and roadworthy. We wanted our trusty carrier to stand out from the crowd; we wanted it to be as unique as possible. With Ryan being a huge fan of obscure retro we were set on getting something from the 1950’s to 1970’s, and nothing Holden or Ford. We made a list of criteria: classic (pre 1980’s), manual, rear wheel drive, preferably a wagon so we could sleep in it, and something that will get us to Cairns. The hunt began.
 
Knowing nothing about cars, my main criteria were looks, and something that was sure to get us to Cairns. I had no intention of having to walk! There were many that I fell in love with (mostly based on cuteness factor), but they all had something wrong (mostly too expensive), until we hit the jackpot with our very obscure British car, a 1960’s Vauxhall Victor Super, with bench seats and a column shift. For those of who think I’ve just spoken a foreign language, there are pictures.
 
Getting the car to our backyard was no mean feat. We bit the bullet and towed a massive trailer on a 500km round trip to see our potential car. We had no idea what we were letting ourselves in for, as we only had the owner’s description to go from, and no pictures. So you can image our surprise when we showed up after a 2.5hr mini road trip, to find the car in pieces. It was old, and the bonnet, front guards and bumpers were laying around the car. I was a little taken aback. But Ryan assured me after a thorough check that it was mechanically sound, and that once all the bits were back on, it would need much to get it to rally condition. So we bought it, and towed it home.
 
The other major part to this rally is raising funds for the Cancer Council. Through a combination in sponsorship and donations, each team has a $4000 minimum target. We are very excited to have The Lucky Coq on board as one of our major sponsors. If any fans of Lucky Coq feel like supporting us too please click here ( http://everydayhero.com.au/desertsailors ) for our online donations page and look out for possible collaborative events between the Desert Sailors (our rally team) and the Lucky Coq as the rally draws near.
 
I look forward to keeping you all up to date in the coming months as we build towards having a rally ready car as well as giving you a behind the experience look at the event itself.

Second Entry 18/11/11
 
 
Once upon a time there lived a dear little old lady who owned a Vauxhall Victor from new. Now there was one curious thing about this little old lady, she had a tendency to forget things, things that might be seen as important to anyone that knows how to drive a car. She would forget, when parked on a slope, to use the handbrake, so the car would roll into anything that was near. This resulted in many trips to the mechanic. The Victor put up a brave fight against the little old lady’s forgetfulness, but even after a certain amount of time, not even the mechanic could help. So the Victor was left in a state with a squished bumper.
 
And this is how we bought it, with a squished bumper and a few other little bits and pieces that needed fixing. Once we had brought the Victor back from our road trip it sat in the drive while we gathered the courage to tackle the issues. We needed to straighten out the front guards where the dear little old lady had done most of the damage and repair the bottom of the front guards where there was a bit of rust. We needed to rehang the doors, attach the interior trims, take stock of missing parts, and install the glove box. We also needed to attach all the exterior chrome and paint the car. I say we, although in reality it was going to be Ryan doing most of the work. My job was to help and not hinder where possible. It was time to roll up our sleaves. I’ll admit that I was a little uncertain about how to go about doing up the car, but Ryan reassured me that I would be fine. With tools in hand, we set to work.
 
The first job we tackled was hanging the doors. This meant that we had to get them lined up perfectly with the frame and latch. After a little bit of trail and error, all four doors were looking very good with the trimmings also in place. And the best part was that the windows wound down! As our car is from the 1960’s, there is no air-con installed, so we’ll be driving through Central Australia with our window down. Actually the car doesn’t come with heating either, must have been an optional extra as we have the control for it, but no actual heating. I’m not too worried as it’s going to be hot enough on the drive, it’s the needing to cool down that’s got me a little concerned.
 
I can now say I’ve done panel beating, or at least a version of. The front guards had plenty of bumps that needed smoothing out; or in my case, just less bumpy than it was before. I took comfort in the fact that this car was meant to be a ‘Shitbox’ so if it wasn’t perfect it didn’t matter. Ryan took care of welding broken bits, and started on the paintwork.
 
Besides the manual work needed on the car, we also needed to get some adventurous sponsors on board to raise $4000. Ryan and I got in touch with some contacts and the Lucky Coq was kind enough to join us early and had some great ideas to raise extra funds. Other sponsors soon followed, but we still need help to reach our $4000 .

Ryan

3rd entry 17/02/2012 

Let the painting begin. After a quick trip the hardware store for bolts, we came home with unintended purchases. Paint. Not the expensive special car paint for easy application, but discounted regular paint, which apparently wasn’t very easy to apply. Luckily Ryan had some car painting experience, and we thought that this would be fun. We hadn’t actually decided to paint our Victor, but seeing the paint on special it inspired up to give it a go. We choose two blue-ish colours and, like what often happens with paint, the colour described on the tin wasn’t what was in the tin, not even close. This we discovered after labouriously sanding, masking and applying the paint to the car. It was good to keep reminding ourselves the intended use for our car - A ‘Shitbox’ rally, The Victor was meant to be a shitbox, so it was only fitting that it looked like one too. The colour was sure stand out among the other teams.

On the road to roadworthiness…

After many weeks of tinkering, and some generous support from our Vauxhall loving friends in the UK and her in Australia, the Victor was on the road! But we needed to get it roadworthy, and registered before it was on the road legally.

We tested the car as much as possible before applying for the roadworthy, and after a false start and a lot of patience and crossed fingers we found ourself with a piece of green paper in our hands. Once our roadworthy cert was approved, the rest fell into place very nicely. We got a really good deal on Club registration, and insurance, and in the space of one morning had everything to make our lovely shitbox street legal.