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Hondamoon - Our Two Ball Rally 2017 Charity Car

elipton

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Location
Essex
Car
Ford Cougar V6
(Picture-heavy and throughout)

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So this is a diary of Hondamoon, our wagon that we're relying on getting us safely through 9 countries in 4 days to Nice for charity. It's a noble cause, supporting a local hospital. The timing is good too, since the NHS has yet more planned cuts from the government. If you'd like to donate even just £1, that would be beyond fantastic!

We first found the 2002 Honda Accord sat on a farm where the owner had left it entrusting the farm owner to sell it. When we discovered it, we were able to take it for a spin (which impressed us) and we negotiated £500 for her. There was plenty to fix, but her motor was strong and probably hadn't been put through her paces ever. Her body work was pretty scraped and marked - but it's to be expected.

Here's how she looked when we acquired her:

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So the repair work began straight away in the bitterly cold sleet rain and snow. Doors were fixed, windows were refitted and everything that would have been a pain in the *** was address, until she was back to being a relatively normal car.

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Once she was operating as she should, we could begin the 'ricing' process. We love the idea of getting cheap parts for a cheap car and making it a head turner. Hey, it's for charity - we can get away with it!

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Now, I have a small spoiler on my Ford Cougar, but this was mahoosive. The Type-R spoiler is so ridiculously over the top, but it works so well with the rear of the car. It totally transforms it!! It does need a good respray though.

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Shortly after, we appeared in the paper! They were more interested in the car than the charity, sadly - and they included some of my less thought out remarks (juices). I've also never run a marathon, but hey ho!

The following weekend, we were attending an NHS march, and it was a perfect chance to have the Hondamoon turn some noggin's. Out came the vinyls and our temporary decals were being fitted that morning.

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She was starting to take shape, but the biggest and most complicated upgrade was to come. Rally lights. Oh my, these are so nice on the Accord!

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And that's the progress so far!

Hopefully next week it'll be a new backbox and mudflaps, and then it's a case of thinking and planning a big paint job!

I hope you enjoy following our progress in subsequent posts. It will be an adventure for us! Any suggested and affordable mods would be appreciated. We love the idea of having a unique car on the rally!
 
Great stuff. Keep us updated.

Will you have a tracker or similar running so we can see your journey in realtime?
 
That's a good idea, though I can't think of any practical way of doing it. We will be regularly updating our Facebook and Instagrams. Both can be found at @thethreerocketeers :)
 
Cool.

You'd think there's be an app or website somewhere you could use to track a phone or something?

Just made a small donation. Hopefully you'll smash that target to bits.
 
Fantastic! Thanks so much!

I'll look into setting up an app to track our progress. I'm not too bad on the technical side of things, so there must be a way of displaying our GPS position on a website or something or other
 
I've pinned this thread so it will be at the top of the 6th gen section for everyone to see and follow your progress.

Please keep this updated as it's a great thing you're doing.
 
Yep, this is seriously cool. Seriously! How good do those old school rally lights look on an Accord! Love it!
 
How did I miss this, what a wonderful thread. Best of luck chaps
 
Thanks everyone!

I think we've grown too attached to it! We'll bring it back so that we can have it present for when we hand over the giant cheque to the charity. If we can get a photo of it in the hand-over, it'll be something I'll be framing ;)
 
One from this week. Must've blown a fuse as the tail lights and interior lights aren't working with the headlight switch anymore. That's something to solve this weekend. It won't be driven until it's remedied.

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Ok, it starts here! Everyone fit four old school rallying lights on the front of your Accords. Let's make this the new global car trend!!! So cool!
 
Thanks!

The mod probably cost about £80 in total. £20 for the bull bar, £40 for the ring lamps, £20 for wires, crimps and fuses. Pretty fun mod to do! Remains to be seen if our amateur wiring will stand the test of time and British weather
 
Whew. What a weekend! It was all about exhaust this weekend. We found a £50 back box on Ebay, it was E-marked, and it had to go on!

So we went about using a farm workshop that was opened up to us kindly, and we sawed, grinded, welded and joined together a new exhaust section. The complication was getting our adapters to fit to the curved stock pipe, but we managed it. It sounds amazing, and runs great. No leaks that we can see, and using the V-Tec on our cars might get us arrested by the Austrians. Who cares! We love it!

For Joe, who was helping me, this was very new to him. It was new to me too, but I had the most experience with it, so I took point - as with most technical changes we're making to the car. If nothing else, this car is a fantastic learning curve to practise with. Remarkably, we still have a road worthy car.

Here're some pics from the weekend:

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Looks great mate, bet it sounds nice too. Any chance of a video?
 
Stevearcade said:
Looks great mate, bet it sounds nice too. Any chance of a video?
https://www.facebook.com/thethreerocketeers/videos/390006788034501/

Thanks Steve, the above link should work! We're totally happy with it. I want to get some better video online at some point - it's just that with so few roads locally that you can safely open up on while having someone positioned to film, it can be difficult for opportunity.
 
That's cool. I've posted the page in the TA Facebook page. When are you expecting to go on this road trip? If you're going to be in the UK during JapFest, you should come along, on the TA stand. It might help generate support for and also a nice chance to hang out and check hundreds of awesome cars.
 
Thanks Steve, I'll check out the TA page once I post this. That's 30th April right? Looks like there's Donnington and Silverstone on two separate dates. I, for one, would love to be involved in that! The tour isn't until mid-August, so we get most of the Summer to show off the car
 
Love it, mate! Contact the organisers, see if they can make a thing of it, put the charity in the programme or s get some pictures and links to the charity on their website etc.
 
Good evening all, I hope you're all doing well. I've finally managed to log in to address the rally car.

Before I continue with the update, I must apologise for not being able to attend the Japfest as planned. A culmination of things from having a car in no state to present to going through a few personal difficulties stop us from being able to make it. I felt rotten about it, to the point I couldn't stand to look at the car. I realise we let you down, but I hope the Type-Accord stand was as strong as ever.

The story goes a bit like this: We tried doing what all charity teams seem to be doing, and used outdoor metallic paint. Something went badly wrong. Weeks after applying it, it simply wasn't drying, and we're convinced there was some kind of reaction with the existing lacquer that kept it from curing. There was only one thing for it. We got out the 4000psi pressure washer and took to stripping it. It was heartbreaking. It left us with the horrific task of sanding her down on large parts of the car so that we can try it again. (continued below)

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We sanded and sanded, and after about 3 weeks of graft whereby we couldn't show off the car or use her, we were able to paint again. This time we used sprays, and it seemed to go far smoother. Within 2 weeks, the car was ready for decals. (continued)

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And so that brings us pretty much to today. There are certainly bits and pieces that need attention, but by and large, she's rally-ready!

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Looks great! Good work. Don't worry about JapFest. Hopefully you'll still have the car next year and you can bring it along then ;)
 
All packed and ready to go! Departure tomorrow morning to head to St Omer.

Images from the 2200 mile trip will be uploaded primarily to our facebook and instagram, both searchable by using @thethreerocketeers

Here's the latest images from our fundraising campaign where we've raised £2750 for charity!

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Here are a few snaps from our 2000+ mile trip across Europe and back!

We visited loads of amazing places, including:

- St Omer
- Vianden Castle
- Luxembourg City
- Konstanz
- Innsbruck
- Passo Dello Stelvio
- Bormeo
- Olgiasca
- Baia de Pare
- Monaco
- Nice

The car is virtually bulletproof. We had a spell off-roading, climbed a mountain, bottomed out about 7 times on the mountain, did 125mph on the autobahn, donuts in France. The car still runs without issue. They make Hondas well.

Here are a few photos I took. We took thousands, so I need to sift through and find the best ones.

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This is awesome! Been keeping an eye on this on Facebook. Looks like a lot of fun.
 
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