Flipping car for a good cause
Three blokes are working to rebuild and sell a Mazda MX-5 for the Movember charity, writes Nile Bijoux.
‘‘To get it ready for sale we are planning on rebuilding the engine and then giving it a full detail to make it look its best for sale. The rebuild and sale process will all be documented on our FixBuildRace YouTube channel.’’ Jack Jury
If you can’t grow a moustache for Movember, there are plenty of other ways to help out. It doesn’t even have to be during November. But this might be the first time we’ve seen someone selling a car for the cause.
Aaron Duncan, Jack Jury and Sam Ford are three guys from Auckland, running the FixBuildRace YouTube channel alongside their regular day jobs.
Since, in their own words, Duncan and Jury can’t grow a moustache ‘‘even if we wanted to. . . Unlike Sam with his beautiful mo on the go,’’ they decided to hunt down an injured Mazda MX-5 to fix up and sell for Movember.
It wasn’t an idea that came overnight, as Jury told Stuff that they had the idea a while back but didn’t pull the trigger until now.
‘‘We chose Movember because we listen to George FM and heard about Brook Gibson’s efforts to raise money and awareness for Movember, which inspired us to do something too. We realised it was the perfect time to try to do a charity flip to raise money and awareness for a great cause.’’
The car took a bit of time to find, with Jack putting a call out on Facebook for anyone with a lead. One of Duncan and Jury’s football team-mates ended up coming back with the MX-5 – perfect timing for summer.
It wasn’t in perfect condition, with a suspected spun bearing in the engine requiring a bit of mechanical work.
‘‘To get it ready for sale we are planning on rebuilding the engine and then giving it a full detail to make it look its best for sale. The rebuild and sale process will all be documented on our FixBuildRace YouTube channel.’’
All three have been working on cars for years, so the repair will, with any luck, just be a matter of getting hands dirty.
Jury has a bachelor’s degree in automotive engineering, which led to a job at a local dyno tuning workshop.
Ford pulled apart his first engine at 14 years old, starting a journey that would lead to a certificate in general engineering and a job as a fabricator.
Duncan was born on the day of Bathurst – ‘‘Mum and Dad were watching the Great Race the day I was born’’ – and has held a steady interest in cars from a young age.
Ford said: ‘‘A lot of what I know is selftaught and learnt from YouTube, which is why I love doing what we do on FixBuildRace, showing other people that even your average person can build sick cars! You just have to be willing to give it a go!’’
They are hoping to have the car finished and polished by Christmas, though that depends on ‘‘parts and people availability’’.
The car itself will be sold on Trade Me when it’s ready to go, with all proceeds going towards the Movember charity.