Coming Up...

 

Fisrt up is the GTi SpringFest at Santa Pod on Sunday 3rd April for all you watercooled junkies out there. All the usual stuff: Show & Shine, RWYB, Traders, AutoJumble, AutoTest, etc etc

Tickets are £15 on the gate.

Bus Types is  15/16/17th of April and is held at the Oswestry Showground right near Wales. Don't worry, you won't need a passport and there is protection from the hordes of Welsh raiders. All the usual stuff: Trade & Autojumble Stalls, VW’s For Sale Area, Daily Driver Display, Special Bus Displays, Club Displays, Early Evening Cruise, Family Disco & Live Band, "TRACKSUIT PARTY", Show & Shine (Over 25 Trophies up for grabs), Over 150 Trade & Autojumble Stands, VW Bus Car Park.

Tickets are adults £20, kids £5 - discounts for advance booking

The Rodding Season's opener is on, as ever, Good Friday at the usual place with all the usual stuff - be there!

ShelterBox disaster relief

ShelterBox is a Cornwall based charity that provides essential shelter and survival supplies to victims of diasaster. They have helped survivors of the 2001 Indian earthquake, the 2004 Tsunami, 2005 Hurricane Katrina, Haiti in 2010 as well as countless other natural disasters and war zones.

Each ShelterBox contains a 10-man Vango tent, thermal blankets/ground sheets, water purification equipment, a basic tool kit, wood-burning or multifuel stove, cooking/storage pans/containers and tools. The kit contents are tailored to the destination.

A typical ShelterBox kit

ShelterBox are providing assistance in Japan, the Japanese government have called for international aid in the wake of the 8.9 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The latest reports coming out of Japan state that more than 215,000 people have been made homeless by the two-pronged disaster with the need for emergency shelter being the top priority.
 
ShelterBox were on the ground in Japan within less than 24 hours after the earthquake struck. The hugely-experience ShelterBox Response Team (SRT), consisting of Mark Pearson (UK), Lasse Petersen (AU), John Diksa (FR) and David Eby (US), are now working with authorities to assess the areas of most need.  Speaking from Tokyo, Mark Pearson said: ‘We’re facing a unique set of circumstances dealing with the effects of an earthquake, a tsunami and now a nuclear incident. Our efforts will initially be focussed on Japan’s north where the worst affected areas are. We have aid ready to move as soon as we establish where the greatest need is.’

Tom Henderson, ShelterBox Founder and CEO, added: ‘In light of how many people are now displaced from their homes our primary concern is making sure that our aid is available to those who need it most. Our team responded immediately to the disaster and will now be working with our Rotary partners and supporters to manage the call for aid as it evolves.’

ShelterBox maintain a pre-positioned stock of boxes at key locations around the world enabling the organisation to respond quickly to any requests for aid. As well as the response to Japan, ShelterBox also has SRT members working in Madagascar, Bolivia and Peru, delivering emergency shelter and lifesaving supplies to families who have lost everything in disasters.

Each ShelterBox costs £490 - this includes the box, contents, packing, storage, transport and distribution. You can donate here or by phoning 0300 0300 500

Dubfreeze 2011

Very early on Sunday Howard, ginga, Keren, Ryan and Flo the Dumb-Ass dog trundled their way oop t'North to Dubfreeze, the season opener. Famed for being miles away, cold, having over-priced food and the bizarrest Show & Shine of the year it has settled down in recent years. The Show & Shine makes a lot more sense and there are several food vans outside if £5 for a bacon butty and coffee from the upstairs canteen sounds too much. And if you're really stupid committed you can now camp on the Saturday night.

Lo 'E' Nuf in da field

Gettin' it down

Gettin' it up

In the hall

A Beetle of 2 halves

Looks like he raided Cris' paint cupboard

ex-Wheeler Dealers Beetle, up for £7k

ginga managed a couple of bargains, a bonnet and badgeless grill for his T4, along with a couple of parts for the race car. Howard had a nice day out and Keren had a day free of bloody CBeebies. Having been caught out by the onsite catering in previous years we went prepared and enjoyed coffee and bacon butties in the car park, probably the best option after seeing the queues at the food vans. Eventually it was time to head back Darn Sarth where we had the last surprise of the day: fuel is a lot cheaper in the Grim North!

Coming Up...

March 6th sees the NSRA Swapmeet at Arena Essex, Thurrock. "Our rodding events calendar opens with our huge outdoor swapmeet - from a window winder to a complete car, this is the place to buy and sell new, used and vintage auto parts and accessories."

March 18-20th sees Dub Aid, a new show being held at Castle Combe race circuit in support of Help for Heroes.

There Goes The Neighbourhood

Greg turned up on Saturday with his latest purchase to replace Jackie's most beloved liability. This one not only benefits from being structually sound but the walls are attached to the floor and ceiling providing some protection from the Great Outdoors. Compact and bijou (as Fry and Laurie might put it) the interior is well laid out but would benefit from a good clean and a carpet. At least Pot Stoodle and gReece won't have to put up Greg's tent this season.

Not for his ma.

Dags not included.

Greg will be living it up at Santa Pod this summer!

Changing Roofs with Sim Llewelyn Bowen

Sim and his T25 were introduced to the Lo 'E' Nuf blog back in October. Even then the job at the top of the To Do list was the rotten pop-top, despite it being the sought after Autohomes conversion. The original plan was to re-create it from scratch but recently a better plan became possible. ASM in Thame had a T25 camper on its racks, complete with Autohomes conversion. Sim tried to do the proper Lo 'E' Nuf thing by buying it. Afterall, what's better than 1 camper needing work? 2 campers needing work of course! Unfortunately this wasn't possible but he did get everything off it before it went for crushing, including the complete roof/conversion from the pillars up.

Last Saturday was roof day at the workshop. With assistance from gReece, Howard and Greg(!) the old conversion was removed, the roof cleaned up and the new roof fitted. Sounds easy when you say it quickly!

Elevating roof off, roof cap next

Elevating roof off showing original van roof.

The roof top was in quite a state and held together with a layer of

boj tape, a blue plastic sheet followed by another layer of boj tape.

Roof cap off - last chance for a Rag Top .

Next job was to clean up roof and gutters and make
sure any bare metal areas had a nice coat of POR15.

New roof on with test erection

(oooer, snigger snigger, etc)

One thing that Cris really hates is sanding bodywork.

Which is why he jumps at it at every opportunity!

Caution - Sim at work

Looking good

Plenty of jobs still to be done. Sim needs to make an interior out of the 2 he's got plus the sliding door needs a bit of work but it's all coming along nicely and should be in use at shows this season.

Sim's build blog

Dub Aid Update

Dub Aid have refreshed their website and started to fill in the blanks. The entertainment line up has filled out but beware, this includes Karaoke on the Friday evening!

Visit Scotland

In the bitter cold of January thoughts turn to summer holidays, here's a promo for Scotland.

N.B. contains examples of Scotland's colourful local language

Be careful out there!

The snow may have gone but the mornings can still be icy.

Dubfreeze

 

Dubfreeze is on Sunday February 20th at Bingley Hall at the Stafford Showground. All the usual stuff going on: Show & Shine, traders, autojumble, tat for sale, over-priced food and charity auction.

Tickets are £10! (accompanied kids go free)

According to Google Maps it's just under 2 hours from Bicester or just over 2 hours from St Albans.

Saturday night camping is £5 per vehicle with showers and toilets on site. No pre-booking needed unless you want reserve a club camping plot.