Sh*tbox Rally – Two PropertyChat members travelling 3800km to raise money to fight cancer

Discussion in 'Philanthropy' started by Corey Batt, 1st Apr, 2017.

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  1. Corey Batt

    Corey Batt Well-Known Member

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    Hi guys and gals, just thought we’d chuck a thread up about a rally another member (@Waldo ) and I are doing this year to raise money for the Cancer Council.

    So what exactly are we doing? We’ve joined a charity rally which sees us drive a car worth less than $1000 from Adelaide, up to the Northern Territory and then across to Queensland with an end destination of Cairns – totalling a little over 3800km over 7 days. Here’s a picture of the trip and a marker of each stop:

    [​IMG]

    For those who know a bit about the track we’re covering – we’re planning on blowing a few tyres along the way.

    [​IMG]

    We haven’t worked out what will be the hardest part of the trip so far:

    • Trying to get over the finish line in a car with questionable reliability
    • Driving 3,800km in one go
    • Dealing with being in a car with one another for 7 days
    Want to help chip in to work towards our target? We’ve got a donation page here which is easy to help us to our goal: Sh*tbox Donation Page (and yes that is a picture of us dressed up as wannabie cowboys).

    For any super generous businesses, we are taking sponsorships if you want to get your brand on the car – just PM for details.

    We will try to put a photo/video log of each day up – dependent on getting access to an internet connection by the evening.

    I’ll let Peter jump in and explain our journey so far with trying to find a car for under $1000 which will actual pass the finish line. Feel free to post any questions you have.
     
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  2. Waldo

    Waldo Well-Known Member

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    So I’m the other half of the ‘Team Precision’ ******* rally team.

    Onto the car that me and Corey will be taking across Australia. As you may be aware, the requirements are that its less than $1000 (obviously!) and that it can’t be 4wd.

    So we looked at a number of different cars, obviously we were keen to buy something interesting, not just a VT/VX commodore or corolla. While these cars tend to be reliable and super cheap, they seemed a little boring for us.

    Ignoring the cheeky comments from my friends (thanks Corey & Dave) that my own car is probably worth less than $1000, we started searching for a car.

    One of the first ones that caught out eye was a Subaru XT from 1989, advertised for $1500 in Ballarat. I know for me this was the first time I’d ever seen one of these cars & boy was it nothing like anything we’d seen before.

    [​IMG]

    Interior of the car just got even better:

    [​IMG]

    Unfortunately this ended up being a pipe dream, the location and being unsure if we could get it cheap enough (plus there was a chance it was an AWD version) meant we were slow off the rank and we didn’t manage to buy it.

    The next car we identified was a little bit less sporty….

    [​IMG]

    The 1970’s Suzuki carry that we almost bought boasted a maximum speed of around 80km/h & approximately 45kW of power. It was however super light.

    Unfortunately while it would have been an awesome car, the lack of proper seating meant that it wasn’t to be. The seat consisted of a foam cushion mounted to the floor and a cushion mounted on below the rear window, not exactly a pleasant thought for travelling 3800km mainly on gravel roads. With no bonnet to speak of hitting a kangaroo in this car would have been an exciting prospect. We didn’t buy this car in the end.


    So the next car to cross our radar was a beautiful example of a Nissan S-Cargo (or snail car).

    This was being sold by a co-worker so we took it for a test drive. While a little unsteady all was going well until we hit 80km/h…….



    [​IMG]
    Stuck in the middle of nowhere....

    [​IMG]

    Yeah that didn’t go so well. The first time I’ve ever had a car break down on a test drive. We never did find out what was wrong with the car, but I suspect it might have been a head gasket (ouch!).




    So a little disheartened, however we kept searching. And found this 2 door golf. Perhaps not the wackiest car we’ve looked at yet, but it will definitely be out of its comfort zone 1000km up a gravel road.

    [​IMG]


    So a bit of negotiating & a whole heap amount of time trying to figure out if 4th gear in the car worked (don’t ask….) we bought it with enough rego to cover us to the rally!
     
    Last edited: 1st Apr, 2017
  3. jim1964

    jim1964 1941

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    Once/if you get to Cairns, are you driving it back to Adelaide?
     
  4. Corey Batt

    Corey Batt Well-Known Member

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    Good question. We actually donate the vehicle at the end which is auctioned off in Cairns and the funds get donated to the Cancer Council. We've covered the costs of the car purchase, fuel etc and forgoing any refunds so the maximum amount of funds can be raised.
     
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  5. Westminster

    Westminster Tigress at Tiger Developments Business Member

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    I'm pretty sure it will be found dumped outside @Kinnon Bell 's house and they'll be flying home ✈️

    Well done guys.
     
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  6. Kesse

    Kesse Well-Known Member

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    Ha, dammit. He knows where I live too. The neighbours will just love that after having gotten rid of the Camry!
     
  7. Peter_Tersteeg

    Peter_Tersteeg Mortgage Broker Business Member

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    So how much for the "Sage Lending Solutions" logo on the side of the car? :D

    Never mind, donation made. I'll double it if you provide a photo of the car burning outside Kinnon's house...
     
  8. Waldo

    Waldo Well-Known Member

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    I'm sure something can be arranged :cool:
     
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  9. D.T.

    D.T. Specialist Property Manager Business Member

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    My agency made a contribution, good luck guys !
     
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  10. DaveM

    DaveM Well-Known Member

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    My buyers agency will be donating 10% of client engagement fees generated in April to team Corey and Waldo. Good work guys
     
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  11. trinity168

    trinity168 Well-Known Member

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    Good stuff guys!


    :cool:
     
    Last edited: 1st Apr, 2017
  12. Kesse

    Kesse Well-Known Member

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    Don't tell Pete but I'm pretty handy with Photoshop ;)
     
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  13. Joshwaaaa

    Joshwaaaa Well-Known Member

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    Nice one, had a few mates do this in previous years. Sounds like an enjoyable trip
     
  14. Waldo

    Waldo Well-Known Member

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    Think it would be suspicious if we produce the evidence of the burnt car before we even leave for Cairns?
     
  15. DaveM

    DaveM Well-Known Member

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    Park it in Davoren Park overnight
     
  16. bob shovel

    bob shovel Well-Known Member

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    Great work guys! You'll have a blast! .... and loads of fun

    Funny that it's called a **** box rally, as you'll pass plenty of other similar travelers in worse cars, more commonly known as back packers!:eek: Best one i recall seeing was a holden nova with 4 people and it's ass dragging along north west WA area. You'll do fine!

    Are you going across the plenty hwy? Good short cut. I haven't done it but tried....the diff blew up at winton :cool: supposed to be reasonably good road. Just drop the tyre pressures and go slow
     
  17. Corey Batt

    Corey Batt Well-Known Member

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    Thanks for all your generous donations guys - it's great to see you help out. Make sure you keep your tax invoice for tax time. :)

    Part of the journey is across the Plenty Highway - I have a feeling that Peter, myself and every belonging we own on the trip will be covered in red dust by the end of this trip.

    I'll put another post this evening going through some of the fundraising done so far + decorating ideas for the VW.
     
  18. Colin Rice

    Colin Rice Mortgage Broker Business Member

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    So 1k purchase + 5k mods :)
     
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  19. Corey Batt

    Corey Batt Well-Known Member

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    Ha - total cost in isn't allowed to exceed 1k - though safety items and tyres don't count so at least we're not duct taping seatbelts.

    Fundraising

    What charity fundraising is complete without a sausage sizzle? A little while ago we ran a BBQ thanks to Woolworths community BBQ in Mt Barker that they provide - they were a real easy bunch to work with.

    [​IMG]
    *note quality signage

    It had to have been the mildest summers day ever - so we sold almost no drinks, however we managed to sell out on the honey crackle my wife made (which I was hoping didn't sell so I could eat them.... You can't win them all.)

    Making the Car Look Rallyish

    As a part of the rally we're aiming to tart up the car to make look at least semi interesting. In the rally there are cars which go from modest paintjob/stickering right up to wacky out there. We're still working out our exact strategy, but the general gist will definitely try to make it look like a respectable rally car to a degree.

    Now what's the first thing I think of when I think rally car? A rollcage.

    With our budget of literally tens of dollars we're obviously not going to make an actual roll cage, so we had to DIY it to give the aesthetic aim. I give you - the $30 PVC pipe rollcage:

    Utilising the efficient method of "don't bother measuring, cut 50 times, we cut up a PVC pipe guestimating how much pipe we would need to fit in the car

    [​IMG]

    PVC rollcage assembled in VW to check it fits:

    [​IMG]

    Spray painted in metallic silver to make it super legit:

    [​IMG]

    Final result in car:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    When buying the materials at Bunnings the checkout girl asked what we were doing with the materials - she initially thought we must be making a musical instrument or something. When we told her it was for a car rollcage she got concerned thinking we believed a PVC pipe would save us in a crash!

    Got any other ideas we can do to make this car look appear semi-legit as a rally car?
     
    Last edited: 6th Apr, 2017
  20. bob shovel

    bob shovel Well-Known Member

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