Andy with his head deep in our fuel pump problem the day before our ship off day.
Lee is lining up the numerals '26" door decal
A liitle cramped for camping??
Lee busy trying out a borrowed tent that will be our home for many nights durng the Rally.
Mar 25th---Bentley ready to ship
Car arrives at shipping agent loaded to the gills with gear .
We have finally finished packing and re-packing the trunk and rear seats with all our assorted stuff. Hard to know what to take and what to leave behind. Want to take a spare of everything, just in case. We will need to carry our own tents and sleeping gear for the Mongolian outback . This, in addition to spare parts, saftey gear, clothing, tools, tires and assorted odds and ends pretty much filled the cars various empty spaces. We had to repack and cull our selection of gear until we had what we considered essential and could also fit in the space available. The concern is always about weight. Over burdened suspensions break, engines labor and overheat and cars sagging under the weight of loaded gear tend to drag along the bumpy roads and rough terrian. Hence, we made every effort to keep the loads to a minimum. Nevertheless, I remain concerned over how much we have packed with us. Perhaps a little dieting before we get to Beijing might help?
Lee and I have spent the last 4 weeks in a flat out sprint trying to finish preparations on the car. Much of this time was spent with Andy at his shop "Specialty Engineering". We were able to finish the last of the under-car shielding and deal with electrical hook ups of our onboard GPS and rally computer and a myriad of interior and exterior details.
The car was briefly back to the shop on the day before shipping to diagnose a case of 'fluttering' fuel pumps. Maybe the car was nervous about the sea voyage ;-)
Could find nothing to explain the misbehaving fuel pumps (there are 3 pumps, yes, I said 3 ! ). This means that we are into troubled waters right off the start and I am sure it will occupy my mind for the next 45 days before the race.
We had the car to the shipping agents loading dock by the morning of Mar 25th. We are sharing a 40' container with Marilyn Mah's Model A Ford. It had not arrived as yet and we knew from emails and text between us that she had her hands full getting the car prepped and ready to go.
