Helmingham Hall Car Show 2017 (Part 3)

With such a big show at Helmingham Hall I managed to take over three hundred photos, half of which I have posted on these last few posts. This is the last of those whittled down selection of photos. I enjoyed the show and spoke to some great people, and saw some great cars too. So to finish up, and in no particular order, more cars.

Then of course there is the original bad ass Dodge Viper V10.

Another all time favourite car of mine is this beautiful Aston Martin V8 Vantage, another poster that was on my bedroom wall as a kid.

It’s not very often that you see real nice Lamborghini Countach at a show, then I spotted another at the show, this is a rare beast in a right hand drive. I was spoilt for cars at this show, some great Fords both UK & USA; Mustangs, Thunderbird, Escorts, Sierra Cosworth, Capri, Trucks etc.

I just had to finish with more close up of my car, I think it’s only fair though.

During the day I walked past the limited number of stalls that were there, nothing official from the brand names though. For once I didn’t buy anything, I had made my purchases at Waxstock a couple of weeks ago, but I now have a review of my new favourite quick detailer from Chemical Guys, click here or go to the Car Detailing Reviews menu at the top to see other reviews. From the pic above you can see why I am pleased with the results.

I haven’t forgotten about the semi pro pics of my car by the way. I will make a separate post of those pics on another small post soon, once I get them ready that is.

Share my Content

Helmingham Hall Car Show 2017 (Part 2)

The Helmingham car show is a large popular event every year and is always well represented from all manner of cars being represented. I spotted a Falcon, but not the sort with wheels! This year there was some birds of prey doing some training and display work which was amazing to watch. Unfortunately my photography skills are lacking when it comes to trying to capture these beautiful creatures in flight.

The birds were kept well away from little hands trying to touch them. Such beautiful creatures and i never realised how big the golden eagle was!

So on to the cars, again there is no real logic for the photos, just they are in batches as I was walking around.

A car I knew very little about this ‘Imperial – Le Baron’, quite what a huge presidential car is doing in the UK I’m not so sure, but I loved it! Anybody else know and could let me know.

I just loved this Chevy in turquoise blue, such a nice looking car.

After I wandered back from the first couple fields with cars in I took a couple of more pics of my little lady.

The final installment will be in another couple of days. I’m hoping to get some Semi Pro photography of my car to post, the only trouble is that is was so busy you couldn’t get a clean uncluttered shot! But, looking at the samples they look pretty good.

Share my Content

What Do I Carry?

A little while ago I was going to make a post about what I carry in my car’s trunk after I was asked at a previous car show. This got me thinking that I should do my own post and help other future classic car owners. I started to prepare for it but didn’t post until now.

It seems as though great minds think alike as I was beaten to the post by a fellow blogger and friend of mine Dennis from https://customsclassics.wordpress.com/ who had already asked the question from his readers, it’s well worth a look at his diverse and interesting Blog.

I was also very interested in what other people carry with them for emergencies or in their “skeleton” tool kit as I tend to refer to mine as. But, I am very much under the impression that if you need heavy-duty tools then it’s not going to be a quick fix by the side of the road anyway, don’t even try, just get it transported back home and do it properly.

So just what do I carry?

Tools:

Spanners; this is a Snap-On set of seven imperial spanners in a tool roll. The tool roll also has a standard pair of pliers and a Stanley Knife. The zip section holds a couple of heavy weave cloth rags and some latex gloves.

Small socket & screwdriver set with 1/4″ drive; this is a metric and imperial set of sockets with a ratchet screw driver style handle. These sockets go up to 13mm and 1/2″ respectively. Obviously these small sockets are not for any real load bearing fasteners. The handle also has a set of bits for the screwdriver all housed in a neat case.

Socket set; this is a larger set of metric with a pretty average ratchet handle for 3/8ths drive. The set also has a set of long-nosed pliers, an adjustable spanner, a pair of mole grips, a pair of wire cutters and a small set of small metric Allen keys. This is not Snap-On quality set like the stuff I have at home, but this is more like the weekend mechanic set that will last some grief, to get you out the tight spot in order to get you home, all held in a nice blow moulded case. Within this case I have added a 14mm spark plug socket, ideally I need a thin-walled version with a universal joint at the top for those awkward 3,4,6 and 7 cylinders. A length of coiled wire could always be useful if you have a break in a wire and some electrical tape.

There is a Snap-On on magnetic torch with multi LEDs or a spot beam, a quick access knife from Craftsman.

As my car has now been upgraded with regards to the wire look I carry a selection of modern blade fuses with a couple of extras for the more loaded fuses.

All these items are held secure in a Mustang tote bag that sits on the left side drop off point in the trunk. Thanks to Adam at Mustang Maniac who gifted that and some other goodies for a rather big birthday milestone! Let’s just leave that one there shall we?

As the car is an automatic you can’t bump start the car, so you need power to start it. So I carry this portable charger that not only starts the car but also charges other devices such as mobiles etc. I reviewed the kit previously, click here for the link. It has to be one of my favorite gadgets to be honest.

I carry a kneeling pad just in case the ground is stony and/or to protect any decent clothing I could be wearing. Can anybody guess what year I purchased this pad?

To give you a clue, I was at that amazing F1 circuit before it all changed, where Nigel Mansell won the race, the legendary Ayrton Senna was second, and the future seven time world champion Michael Schumacher was third. What an amazing race and a perfect podium line up for me. All my heroes on one awesome podium.

I also carry a car seat cover in case I get dirty, that will protect the seats until I get home or changed into something clean again. The cover which rolls up quite small, is a rather nice Limited Edition in blue with white stripes, that was given to me by my friendly Snap-On rep. I had a little bit of spending spree with him after a great haul of Snap-On credit vouchers I had been given for gifts over the year. I also sold a kidney, left arm and left leg for the other stuff I wanted, after all I still need the right leg for the gas, and the right arm for the gear shift so I couldn’t sell those! Only joking – it was both kidneys and my liver! But hey, it was worth it.

The spare wheel has modern scissor jack underneath it and a wheel brace with an extendable handle.

Fluids:

The fluids are very important in old cars and need to be checked regularly, so I carry a litre of Kendal 20 – 50W oil, some lead replacement additive for the fuel and a two litres of plain water for the radiator or the water washers. I make sure that I always check my levels before every single trip I make.

Fuel. If I am going on a long(ish) journey I will take a spare one gallon can of fuel. I didn’t post a pic of it as everybody knows what a plastic fuel can looks like. Mine is a nice new silver one. Although it has fuel in it I won’t leave it in there for a long time, I use it up after a few months then replace it just to make sure the fuel doesn’t go off!

Cleaning:

When travelling to car shows I always take a small selection of essential cleaning products. That is a case with the top up cleaners.

If I turn up and the car is dirty I can waterless wash the car very carefully with the Meguiar’s Wash & Wax Anywhere, (review to come). But before I do that I will dust the car down with a genuine California Duster to get all the dust and debris of the car. If the car is clean I will just do a quick mop over with the Meguiar’s Ultimate Detailer, review to come.

Under the hood is the Meguiar’s Engine Dressing (review to come), and the tyres are also catered for with the Meguiar’s Endurance Tire Gel (review to come).

Glass is looked after by the pretty awesome DoDo Juice Clearly Menthal (review here), and I carry a little pot of DoDo Juice Future Armour (review to come) for that extra sealer if required.

The essential part I will never travel without is the Gibbs Brand Lubricant. (Review here). The only thing to remain is the handful of latex gloves to keep clean, not that i use them for detailing the car.

In case it rains I carry a Chemical Guys Wooly Mammoth drying towel (review to come), and a selection of micro fibre cloths for those wipe on and buff off products. At a push they can also be used for cleaning. Last but not least is a roll of blue paper towel.

I’m not sure what could happen, but I try to cater for most eventualities. The micro fibre cloths are for cleaning but could be used for cleaning if I had to of course.

The last non essential thing is my show board. I am in the process of making my own stand for it.

What do you carry, or recommend for me to have in my little skeleton kit, did I miss anything?

Share my Content

Security Measures

This time of year is amazing for a few reasons, the first is the start of the warmer weather here in the UK, hopefully followed by a nice summer. The second is the Car Show season is underway as I mentioned before. The third reason is can’t wait for the Hay Fever to kick in and make me feel rubbish, joke! Still, I can’t think of anything nicer (car related), than driving to a classic car to show, parking her up and have people appreciate all your hard work. A sense of pride comes over every owner of their much-loved and cherished cars, that’s regardless of the car’s make, age or condition. But, there is one thing that worries me now and that’s security.

I have been talking to a couple of owners of some UK Ford owners at shows and the buzz word is “GPS”. No, I don’t mean the fact people use their SatNavs to get the shows, but more so what happens during and after the show. The very worrying story going around is that a particular car is target by organised gangs who are on the look out for quick sale car, or for some specific cars to be sold on as parts. Some of these car’s parts are worth more as “breaking” than the whole car to sell it complete, with the added risk of selling on an obviously stolen classic car. These top quality original parts are sold on to unsuspecting owners, not knowing that the parts they have bought have been stolen from such other classic cars.

How do they do it?

The answer is just to simple. These gangs are using small GPS tags and hiding them on your car during the show. Somebody could be talking to you while the other places the tag on the car without you knowing. When you leave the show they will track the GPS tag to the place where the car is kept. They then make plans on how to steal it at a later date.

There are some gadgets on the market that detect these sort of things by detecting transmissions of frequencies. They vary in price considerably and I bought one of the cheaper ones. Believe it or not it works! I was going to do a review of it, but not sure if it’s worth while as it’s so simple.

You turn it on and adjust the sensitivity and then wave it over your car. Yes you may look a little strange doing it. What I tend to do now is drive off and find a quiet place then pull over and check. This gadget is the size of a pack of ten cigarettes and has a long aerial to pull out for detection. The unit has a rechargeable battery inside that lasts for ages, wave it near your mobile phone and it has a melt down. There is another feature on the device to detect pin hole cameras by reflection using the red filter to look through. I’m not bothered with that to be honest. So now I carry one of these with me in the car now and check when I leave the show. Over kill? I suspect so, but to safe is better than sorry!

I’m waiting for the next car show and I had a little brain wave while in my garage. I was cleaning my toolbox while looking for things to do in the garage. When I decided to protect the paint! This toolbox was bought for me as Birthday present and Christmas together as they are pretty close together just after the wife bought the project car for me. The tool box was a second-hand purchase, in near mint condition. It was more than we wanted to pay, but it was worth it for the relatively small bargain amount. The guy wanted a very quick sale as he was moving and needed the money, I was just lucky to be looking on eBay at the right time when I saw it and “Buy it now” button was pressed. So just like my car this toolbox is very sentimental to me, almost as much as my car. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for and nobody can deny the Snap-On quality.

The tops of the draws are the areas I was thinking of, although I clean my tools before I put them away carefully, there may be times where I could chip the paint, as the marks show here from the previous owner when I got the box home. I knew they were there, they are tiny yes, but enough to worry me for accidental damage.

So what was the solution? Vinyl wrap. I looked around for some ideas and came up with Carbon Fibre. I worked out roughly how much I needed and ordered some quality wrap and not the cheap stuff. If I didn’t like it, I could remove it and it was going to be back to where it was. The ideal size was going to be five centimeters to allow the cover to the front, over the top of the draw and secure at the back. An old hardwood shelf made an ideal cutting top with a scalpel and a spirit level for a straight edge to cut the strips.

Degrease the draws with cleaners and allow to dry. Peel of the backing from the wrap and carefully to stick to the front of the draws on top of the chrome trim. Using a hairdryer heat up the wrap until it’s soft to allow you to bend the wrap smoothly over the angles and to make the glue more tacky. From the very front edge press the wrap down evenly to remove any wrinkles or air bubbles. Trim the ends up as you need to.

Then with the firmly down on top heat the back edge and repeat.

I am really pleased with the results and it doesn’t detract away from the Snap-On look.

So the before and after? Good job or pimped it up to much. I could have used clear or a plain coloured wrap of course. But this was a little different.

So back to securityagain. I have lots of it, including the very simple and brutal chaining of this tool box to the wall, brutal and simple. The other serious measures I have taken will give the game away, but the my car, garage and house are very well protected from low life scum bags who want to steal other people’s property and hard work. It’s not so much the money as it’s all well insured. It’s the fact that nobody can ever replace the sentimental value, or even come close to repaying my physical man hours to restore that car.

Am I just plain ol’ parnoid, or does anybody else have good tips to share with other classic car owners and readers? Are these stories I have been hearing scare tactics or the real deal? Please let me and everybody else know.

Share my Content

A Freshen Up

My first proper post of the new year comes at the end of the first month, yes I know that is pretty bad, but there isn’t anything to really say when there are no car shows, (lame excuse time). Is it too late to wish you all a Happy New Year? Anyway, towards the end of December last year I had an email to say that the old blog theme was a bit too dark and sometimes difficult to read on a cell phone. That got me thinking about a very valid point. I hadn’t changed the look in years, so I thought I would update the theme to a lighter and much fresher look. The title for this post was going to be a “A Quick Freshen Up”, unfortunatly it wasn’t anything like as fast as it could have been, so I dropped the “quick”. The process started off with me sifting through lots of themes to see what they looked like, can I have the menu where I wanted it, pictures, widgets etc. I found one that I liked and had created the new header pic. Alas all was not good when I checked the look on other browsers and page sizes. The header image was resized with the page style, that just caused havoc with the title I edited onto a photo itself, what that actually means is that the top part of the header picture couldn’t be seen on wide-screen versions, then only half of the title on the mobile screens. After looking at other various themes I have settled on this one along with another revised new header pic. The old header was based on the car being built with the lights on and the grill. As my car has been completed for a year now (which is still being enjoyed by yours truly), I thought why not have a nice pic of the car, so there it is. I have kept a nod to the old blog pages with the background “pony” image just being an inverted version, with a slight tint added now. I hope people don’t turn away thinking it’s the wrong blog. 🙁

So it was out with the old, and in with the new!

The blog may have a new look and yet I tried to make it still feel the same, so what’s the best bit of the blog now? It’s still the same ol’ me writing about anything however tenuously related to Mustangs. 🙂 Please let me know what you think of the revised blog, did you prefer the old style or like the new lighter version?

Towards the end of last year was interviewed Dennis Fletcher and he posted it on his blog. The last couple of posts from me were reblogs from his site: Customs N Classics, I hope you liked the reads as much as I enjoyed doing it.

The car got a treat over the Holidays, as I asked for donations to the “help keep the Mustang warm” fund. I had been saving up for a while and these came up as a real cheap deal so I ordered them and laid them in the freezing cold. These were 7mm solid PVC, coin top, click together style tiles at half a meter each tile. I ignored the fitting guide (as men do), and made sure that the car’s tyres would run down the middle of the tiles and not across the joins.

The tiles have made a big difference to the temperature in the garage, now it’s not as dusty, non-slip and so much easier to clean up. Not that I spilt anything on the new tiles when they were less than twenty-four hours old! 🙁

Share my Content

A Year On The Road

A year after being on the road and attending car shows it comes to that time of year that every classic car owner dreads. The UK requires by law a car that is the years old and any car up to 1960 must pass a road worthy test, or M.O.T (Ministry Of Transport) test. It can fail for a gas cap not fitting correctly, a bulb not working, rust or “drivers view of the road” what ever that means etc. December last year my car passed her first test since the restoration. As it was due again I had a word with Adam to see when he could book me in for the M.O.T. Saturday. I drove down to the Mustang Maniac yard to catch up with the guys to fill in time before my appointment. Time flew by and was given a map on how to get there along with verbal directions. The guys know I’m seriously diabolical when it comes to directions. I set off and had the map on the seat next to me, simple enough. I turned off too soon and turned around to get back on the correct road again. Yep, I got lost even with a hand drawn map. The best of it was that Lance from Mustang Maniac had spotted me, what are the chances of that? With my luck it’s every chance. Needless to say that my WhatsApp group for Mustang Maniac went mental and I knew exactly what was waiting for me. I eventually found the place after thirty mins that should have taken fifteen. I pulled up to the testing station and took a pic of the car in the reflection which matched the garage paint job. I was right, my WhatsApp had a torrent of grief waiting for me, showing no sympathy what so ever for little detour.

The guys at the test center took my keys and I watched my car disappear into the workshop. A short while later according to the clock, but seemed like hours in waiting time passed by when the guys came back to the desk. They smiled and gave me my keys back with, “she’s passed with flying colours.” My heart rate now slowed, that was promptly replaced with a proud smile. I paid the bill, thanked the guys and left with my all important certificate. The test results are updated on the goverment system instantly, so the paper doesn’t mean anything except something for your records. The drive home was quicker and much more straight forward, I think. I arrived back at the yard to yet more grief asking me how I got lost. I blamed the map but they weren’t having any of it for some reason.

I had asked Adam if I could put my car up on ramps to put a spanner over all the important nuts and bolts ro make sure everything was where it should be when I come back from the M.OT. Adam kindly said yes and he had already moved a car of the ramp ready for me while I was out. He added “I will be there in a minute to check her over with you.”

The car was lifted up for me to get underneath and inspect. At this point Adam duly arrived back to see that everything was all OK. He grabbed another torch and went over everything looking for signs of movement that the MOT itself wouldn’t pick up. The thumbs up was given by Adam who told me to tighten the rear axle to shock plate clamps. They looked fine to me, but check them I did.

He was right, they needed a turn or so just to take up the stretch in the bolts. After that I got out some white cleaning cloths so I could clean all my suspension. There was a little messy water stain on the left side due to me over filling the radiator, the overflow did its job and dumped some water.

Gibbs Brand Lubricant was the choice of the day and everything got coated that needed to be coated. I polished the white prop shaft that still looked white after a year.

Cleaning my Mustang is therapeutic and enjoyable and in no way a chore. Yet cleaning the other daily driver cars is not quite the same somehow. Now that my car was cleaned to my standards underneath as it was much easier to clean while up in the air. I could see just how filthy the car was by the state of the two white cloths I had used.

OK, it wasn’t that dirty at all which made me happy. The trouble was I had to drive it home again, the weather wasn’t looking to good, so I said my thanks and goodbyes to the guys. The master plan was to get home before the rain. The drive home took a little over the hour and I managed to get the car home before the rain, which started about an hour or so after the car was safely in the garage.

The trouble is what do you buy your car for Christmas? I want to get some more cleaning products ready for the show season 2017. For the first time in years I haven’t asked for anything from my Snap On rep. I now have most of the tools that I need and bought them as I went along. If I need tools that I haven’t got then I suspect I will be in some sort of big mechanical trouble. I have got my eye on a few stainless steel clips for the rubber hoses. Lets see what Santa brings.

Wishing you and all my readers and followers a Happy Christmas and great New Year.

Share my Content

Still Here & Showing The Car

I have had an email to ask if I am still about on my blog. The answer is a big yes, of course I am. Last weekend I was with the Mustang Maniac guys at Santa Pod for a Classic Ford meet. Yogi took his ’69 Mach1 down the strip a few times and set some impressive times even though he had wheel spin all over the place off the line. We camped overnight on Saturday and that was a laugh as I hadn’t been camping for nearly 40 years! It was still as bad as I remember it, only made up for it with the steady supply of beer, only to help make us sleep of course. It was share a tent time and I left my shoes by the zip exit to the tent. Yogi got up in the night and tripped over my boots and feel out the door in a most undignified manner! I shouldn’t laugh, but I did. Sorry Yogi, but it was funny. There was some great cars there and I have borrow some of the pics from the Mustang Maniac Blog, click here for the full story and some videos of Yogi racing.

Some of the drag set up cars couldn’t match Yogi’s Mach1 times, and that is almost a fifty year old car. I was very impressed with that I must say. Running in the eleven and twelve second range for the standard quarter-mile.

The Week before that was the Enfield Pageant Of Motoring which is the Mustang Maniac show of choice. I was there this time with my completed car on Saturday & Sunday, stopping overnight in the big motor home Adam has for the hospitality. I was not disappointed and Adam can rustle up a good breakfast too. There was so much to see at the show, but I have noticed that there are more and more new stall traders creeping in rather than the old skool auto jumble. I arrived early in the morning at the Mustang Maniac yard and helped out where I could and followed the guys in convoy to the show, literally about twenty mins down the road. I parked up with some of the other cars already there, Ranchero, Yogi’s ’69, Ian’s fastback, and mine for now. What was great was that people from last year recognised the car where it was unfinished.

As the time grew closer to opening times more cars arrived to show on the stand. Paul turned up with his ’66 coupe to complete the line up of old cars. The new cars where out in force with a couple of GT’s and a Saleen. The stand looked brilliant and attracted the usual crowds to the old and newer cars.

Sunday saw Spence in his convertible take the place on the front row to provide a different display along with a new 2016 right hand drive black Mustang which was quite cool.

Monday was mix and match day with Lance bringing his ’65 coupe down to replace mine in the Classic section of the stand.

The weekend was a lucky weekend with the rain holding off most of the time with only a few spots of drizzle.

The Car:

I have been driving her around now and enjoying every second of it and put almost seven hundred miles on the clock driving to and from car shows. Adam now wants the car back to give the car and check over and make sure all the bolts are tightened up again and re-grease all the points that need them. There is a sweet spot of sixty miles an hour where the exhaust quietens down and is a pleasure to cruise. But if you stamp on the gas it soon makes a noise again.

Miles per gallon?

I am always being asked this and not really had a chance to work it out so far. Now after a few tank full and recording the mileage on my phone app, it works it all out for me now. If I drive it like an old lady and be very, very gentle with it down hill I get a max of 25mpg but if I drive it like I stole it I get 14mpg. If I am on a run I get about 20mpg. I can’t complain at that at all.

I just say: “It’s not miles per gallon, it’s SMILES per gallon”.

So it has been a very busy couple of weekends where I have just had the chance to catch up a bit and recover. Mostly I now appreciate just how comfortable my own bed is! There are more car shows coming up and hope I will be a little quicker getting the blog posted up.

Share my Content

Show Season Starts

Last weekend I went to a show at Stonham Barns in Suffolk for their “Spring Break” car show the first of the season for me. This was going also going to be my first show I had done on my own without the support of Mustang Maniac. The show was over three days, Friday, Saturday and the Sunday that I went too. I have no preconceived notion that I would win anything and I didn’t enter any groups before hand, although a little silverware never hurt anybody. I had been to many shows on my own as a visitor and not as an exhibitor in the past except for the Birmingham NEC during November last year and the Enfield Pageant where the car was very much a work in progress. The alarm went off at seven o’clock but the gates didn’t open until nine on the dot. I couldn’t sleep anyway and had lots to do; like checking the water, tyre pressures putting the cleaning materials in the trunk and most importantly checking the weather, the sky was almost as blue as my car. I had already made my mind up that I wouldn’t being if there was a good chance of rain. Weather forecast promised lots of sun with cloudy spells at times. Perfect, I got in the car and started her up and I was on my way. Google Maps on my phone directed me to the direction of the show nearly thirty miles away. As I got closer I could see other great looking cars heading in the same direction. Pulling into the gates there was another Mustang that pulled up behind me. I gave the thumbs up and got one back too. I smiled – a lot. Common sense was in full play as there were marshalls directing all us early birds into the fields half hour before they were due to open. The owner of the car behind me got out and introduced himself to me as speaking to me at the NEC show. The penny then dropped and placed the face as being one of the many people who I had spoken too. We parked up next to each other, followed by a Galaxy 500 and a cracking looking Burgundy Camaro SS.

There was cars arriving at a steady pace as we talked about our cars and the LED lights we both had with the variations in them. We eventually decided to go look at some more cars, that gave me a chance to take even more pics of my car. For a valid reason that I will get to later.

I decided that i was going to lift the hood again and let people have a look.

I wasn’t sure how to play it so secured the car and walked away and watched from a distance to see how things played out. I was pleasantly surprised to see the respect of the visitors looking holding their clothing away from the paint work. After half hour or so, I was confident to walk way and look at some other fantastic cars that was now pouring into the fields.

This blue and white Thunderbird had a spectacular paint job.

One of the prize winners here was a real nice Caddy with a Dodge Viper v10 wedged in it. This bike just seemed to go on and take over the whole car park, it was massive with Beetle flat four in the back of it.

Under the hood of the cars were some strange sights a water bottle made out of a Jack Daniels bottle, some poor chap had a leaking radiator.

At one o’clock the judges were on their way round and made virtually no stops at the “standard” road cars. Their time was spent around the Hot Rod / Rat Rod sections. Some of those cars were absolutely amazing, I knew right at that point no prizes were going my way. Shortly after the judging there was a lot of cars leaving around two o’clock, so much so that the bloke on the mic announced that he hoped none of those cars leaving were trophy winners, he didn’t have to worry. I wanted to stay and see the result of judging, so I spent my time aimlessly wandering around looking at the time and effort owners had put into their cars. The stalls were mainly selling items and not really any old car parts as such, nothing that you wouldn’t see at a local car boot sale to be fair. At three o’clock the winners were announced, not a single standard car got an award of the ten trophies that were up for grabs, the hot rod guys and the latest trend of, huge camber angles on a VW Beetle, “slammed” trucks and cars sitting on the floor took the prizes. Never mind, better luck next time. I think I got how this show worked, the emphasis was a Hot Rod based entries for the show, their webpage advertising the event was showing a selection of the previous attending cars that were all hot rods. There was some fantastic cars there that day, but I thought other cars deserved the prizes so much more, like the Thunderbird, the Camaro SS, a beautiful Chevy Bel Air, Caddy Coupe de Ville etc. But, as I am not a judge it was irrelevant what I thought, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and of course some will say the cars that got the awards deserved them. Regardless of the results, I thoroughly enjoyed the show and meeting a few faces that I had previously seen at the NEC at the end of last year, speaking to total strangers who wanted to look at my car, along with other wonderful cars that were on show. Would I go again? Yep. Did I enjoy it? Yep. The weather was spot on all day, and yes I did get a bit of sunburn on my head! I enjoyed the trip home so much as the main road had a convoy of Classic Cars going back to their homes. I was now officially part of the Show Car scene driving there and back in my own car. Thumbs up to every body going past, or those that went past us. Horns were going, people waving to everybody, what a great day all round and perfect way to end the day. I was shattered when I got home. 🙂

This weekend, I had a good friend of mine Mike turned up to take a look at the car. Mike has a Mark two escort and just restored that to its original golden glory. Last time he had seen my car was about a year into the restoration where I had managed to start it up after the re-wiring it. I pulled the covers back and he was surprised to see the difference. I started her up in the garage to get the feel of the engine note, and breath in that unmistakable odour of fresh burning fuel. The roads were damp and the air was pretty damp. He was looking out to the sky as I had previously promised him a ride in it if the weather was OK. As it wasn’t raining I asked did he want to go out in it? At which he thought about it for zero seconds and said “Yes, if you’re sure”. I was, I shut the hood and started to back her out the garage and he got in. It was slightly amusing to see him looking for the shoulder belt, I told him that this was a proper car and only had lap belts. We set off down the road and I said that we would drive to the next village. As we got to the next village it started to spit with rain, I still had the window open. No, this can’t be happening, rain on my car! The car was now getting wet, so much so that I had to put the wipers on for the very first time. I was quite surprised at how well they actually worked. We done our circuit of about half an hour and headed back home. We pulled up to junction for a right turn and in my enthusiasm the rear wheels scrambled for grip untill I let of the gas. I gave this car respect in the rain and gave no sudden acceleration, obviously not enough respect was given to standing start in the rain. Me BAD! A mile or so from home the rain stopped and the wind had pretty much dried the beads of water from the car. The car was put straight into the garage, and Mike was met by my wife and made him a cup of tea. I of course was out there in the garage drying my little lady. I joined them a short while later satisfied that the car totally dry, not that there was much to dry by the time we got back. I didn’t cover her up at this point, as the warmth of the engine in the garage along with the boiler would dry it out thoroughly over night.

Reviews:

As I had to clean my car the previous week with a bubble bath as it had got dusty, I have now completed my first review for car detailing products; the Meguiar’s Ultimate Wax Paste, click here for the hyper link to go straight to it. Or, go to the top menu “Car Detailing Products” where the link can also be found. I intend to add more reviews soon for the likes of; Meguiar’s, Poorboys World, Chemical Guys, Autoglym etc. etc. Why did I take more pics of my car as I mentioned at the beginning? 1) Just because I could, and 2) The shine on the car was from the Meguiar’s Ultimate Wax Paste that I could now finish the review off with.

How did the rain react to the paint? It was blown immediately off the car with the wind rush from driving. There was hardly any water on the car at all. I had not seen that level of beading before to be honest, impressive.

Share my Content

Before & After

I have had some emails saying why don’t I do a before and after photo set of the restoration? Then I got to thinking as to why I hadn’t up till now. There was no reason, so this post may be cheating a little as there is nothing new here. But what is new is the fact they have never been compared side by side before. As I didn’t start my blog until a year after I bought the car, some of the earliest pictures don’t exist as such, during that time I had re-wired the car for the first time, managed to fire the car up, got the locks working (sort of), painted the trunk section and interior floor pans. Obviously if I had of known I would be doing a blog at that time, I would have documented it all much better than I have done. However my early work was re-done once the car had got to Mustang Maniac. Under their supervision and help it would be done “Properly” as Adam told me. So in effect you are indeed seeing the restoration from scratch, all be it not as bad as it was. I suspect that I would be playing catch up to keep on top of the car all the time to keep it looking good, especially with the original route I was going to take, ie; the amateur way.

Body Work:

Rebuilt Back End:

left quarter

no lights and fuel tank out.

Underside:

This was the old underseal, dirt and what ever else was squirted on there. Welded, ground down, filled, sanded down, painted with red oxide and painted with proper underseal and satin black paint.

from inside the trunk

Doors, Roof and Sides:

new door

right quarter

rear glass removed

daunting start

Rebuilt Front End:

battery tray plate

new door

Interior:

Inside was originally treated with POR15 for rust protection. This was later removed and proper sealant applied at paint and then primer and top coats. The last step was the Dynamat sound proofing, before the carpet that is.

left different angle

Rear back

left side with prep sprayed

Engine:

The story here was that I wanted to go sort of modern with the silicone look. As I knew I wanted a blue look to the car I went for the blue silicone and the blue spark plug leads. I went of the idea and eventually swapped them for the revised black and chrome look. The spark plug leads were changed at the last month as was the valve covers. The cable routing went through a number of variations until I was happy with it at that point. Rewire of the car was the first job as I had to see if the engine started, which it did on the second turn of the key after twelve years of standing years. Pretty impressive.

Brake booster in location at the very back right hand corner

prep for intake removal

Transmission:

unable to even see the grease nipples.

box end

Steering and Suspension:

finger tight fittings

steering box end of column

old shock right side

right

Brakes:

Even the brakes look as good as the outside of the car. The front drum brakes were replaced with disc brake conversion for stopping power and safety. The brake servo was original from the factory but was upgraded to dual system, again for safety.

Drum before treatment

Black caliper

drive shaft removed with back plate in place

brake set and inner gasket on (awaiting additional sprng for the seperator bar under the cylinder

Booster surface rust

Electrical:

All electrics have been replaced and the bulbs converted to LED where I can.

Original burnt out wire loom

lens and bulb out

LEDs located on the housing

Glass and Bright Work Trim:

rubber seal cut away and left on mastic

frame in place

frame Insides cleaned

right inside before clean

right inside cleaned

Original state

Paint Process:

There are hundreds of photos I could add here but I have kept it to the more key stages of the process.

Transportation:

These were some interesting shots of the car coming and going to different places.

ramp up

Driving Her:

Special Thanks:

I have mentioned this before, but none of this would have been possible without the help and moral support from Mustang Maniac and their associates; Adam, Al (Yogi), Paul (Lob Monster), Chris (Careful), John, Paul (the paint), Lance (OCD from Marketing). I have learned so much from them all, above all I have gained some great friends who have all helped me realise a life’s ambition and dream come true.

Share my Content

Paperwork

I would like to think that my posts are positive to read, maybe informative, sometimes make you smile and above all they make you want you to come back for more. There is usually an exception to any rule, and I can say I need to have a rant just to get it out of my system so I can move on and just put it all down to one of life’s little trials, if this is all I have to moan about then i am a lucky guy really.

Because I have had such a nightmare with all this registration process, I have tried to provide a user guide for importing a used car from the USA, paying the import duties, taxes and first registration here in the UK. The are screen shots, live links and examples on how to fill in the forms. Both the links are below or can be found under the “Articles” Menu above.

Importing a car from the USA – Part 1 (Tax & Duties) or click here for the link

Importing a car from the USA – Part 2 (DVLA registration) or click here for the link

The full story:

When the wife gave me the money to purchase the car over four years ago I didn’t realise the most frustrating part of the whole restoration project was trying to get it on the road legally with all the correct paper work, which as it turned out I didn’t have. In my case the car was imported into the UK via a USAF service man while stationed over here at an Airbase. He bought over his car with him and used it for a number of years before he returned back to the USA leaving the car here which eventually ended up in the hands of the guy I bought it from. The car was on his Virginia plates when I purchased it which didn’t matter as the car was a bit of mess to put it mildly as I knew it had to be UK registered. To cut a potentially long story down the car was fully restored and an MOT issued for being road legal.

The next step is notify our Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), who in theory would issue me with UK registration plates. Part of this process involves filling in a form and supplying the insurance, MOT and ownership papers if you have them. I called them to request the appropriate paperwork and things went down hill from there. A call handler who couldn’t handle going to sleep without getting confused, said “I had to download the form from the website somewhere”. Thanks for that then, Not. I was trying not trouble Adam at Mustang Maniac and do it myself, but things were getting frustrating so I called Adam who explained I needed a few things and went on to explain it all to me. When a car is imported to the UK permanently you have to pay import duties and taxes to our government (who seem to rinse you of money no matter what you do). This confirmation of all duties paid is called a Notification Of Vehicle Arrival or NOVA. I was shown what they look like and sadly confirmed that I needed to get one. Sadly the car has never been officially imported which I was unaware of at the time, partly due to my ignorance I guess at the time of the sale.

The first step was to get this NOVA certificate and I was told to email a particular government department who responded with a form to fill in. I needed to supply import codes and details of the car. This was unbelievable task on the website as there are codes for literally everything. Eventually finding what I thought were the codes, I replied to HMRC (Her Majesty Revenue & Customs). These guys were very efficient and within a few days forwarded me another form to confirm what I had sent them and asked some additional questions. I completed the form and sent it back and within a few more days they confirmed the codes and invoice for Import Duties and the VAT owing. I paid the invoice and they send me back the critical Nova certificate. The car was now in the country, officially. So far so good and things were going well.

Back to the dregs of the gene pool where I filled in another form as before. This time I called up to say that I wanted to keep the original USA ownership certificate, just to keep with the car for provenance if you like. Now on the paperwork it does say that all paperwork must be the originals. So I wanted to see just how rigid this rule was, I was told that “a photocopy would be OK”. Two weeks later the form was rejected as I “hadn’t supplied the original ownership certificate”. So again I called up the department who told me “I should have supplied the original and nobody would have told me that a photocopy would be acceptable”. They then said that “if I supplied the original and put a covering letter in to say that wanted the original cert back it would be returned with the new registration certificate”, great I thought. So another form was filled in exactly the same as before, because I had to resubmit the application. Getting wise to these idiots i had ordered the forms in bulk from the website just in case. I wrote them a letter and sent it all back to the DVLA to the now christened “Devious Vile Losers Association”. They eventually sent me back the new registration documents and confirmation of the License plate. Brilliant, so the car is now registered in the UK and officially all paid up.

Wait, what is this in the returned pack? The original MOT, insurance certificate, NOVA form and lousy PHOTOCOPY of the ownership certificate. Not happy now. I called them up and they said “nobody would ever have said that to me, it wouldn’t have come back to me as they are sent back to the USA”. So there you have it; I have been lied to twice, and when I argued with them, they called me the liar. This is the best bit; I also received a separate letter from them posted the day before to say “they had made a mistake and sent the documents to the wrong address”. WTF? So they want me to try to track down a letter they sent to the wrong address. Now somebody else has ALL my vehicle and personal details. What a bunch of incompetent, self righteous, sellf important idiots they are. They did however send me a pre printed envelope to return the incorrect certificate, I would still have to put a stamp on it though. that makes is all OK then – I don’t think so.

Sometimes you are just better of just letting it go, but it winds me up big time. If I had told the losers that I didn’t have the ownership certificate and wrote a letter to say I own the car, I could have kept the original ownership certificate from Virginia USA. That will teach me for being honest and upfront in future with these people. I should have lied like they did to me. However, I have scanned images of their rejected forms and letters to me, so if they (DVLA) want me to prove any of this, I can. They want a perfect application from me, but they can’t even get my address correct.

So, with the new UK registration V5 form in my hand I could order the registration plates, (see previous posts). Now my car is on the road officially and I own it officially. In total all the back and forth with the DVLA it took me almost two months. The DVLA has to be the worst government department I have had the displeasure to try to deal with.

So that’s the rant over and I hope you can see why i need to get it of my chest. I feel better now, I will reread this again to see if I still feel the same in the morning. I can now put all this behind me and just get on with enjoying my car.

Next day 27th February 2016:

Yep, I still hate the department after reading all that again, I’m sad to admit that though. 🙁

On another note my car was taken on a long run yesterday, of hundred and twenty miles to be exact. Where to? Mustang Maniac of course. The journey was for two reasons, one to settle the car down on a long run, two I could have her checked over when I get there. I met up with Paul AKA “Lob Monster” just before we turned of to go to the country lanes to MM. The weekend cycle club were riding in the middle of the road, being their usual selfish selves and riding two abreast on the narrow roads. We turned up at the yard in a cool convoy, all be it only two cars making enough noise for a dozen cars. I love Flowmaster exhausts! The neutral disconnect or inhibitor switch needed a little bit of adjusting as the car would only start in the “N” neutral position sometimes, realignment was made and all is well again. Paul then checked the rear brake pads and adjusted them up for me. Now a few miles had now been put on them and should now have bedded in a bit. My car at the MM yard before the journey home. Thanks Paul (Lob Monster) for your help. Thanks to Adam for letting me pinch a ramp and move a few cars around so it could be sorted out.

The journey there and back was great, people driving past giving the thumbs up to me, lots of passengers in cars looking and somebody even taking a photo on the way home. I just love this car a no other car has ever made me feel like I do in it. Now I have an excuse to clean and polish the car again, oh well. 😀

Forgive my little rant and a long read, but next week I will make up for it as I am working on a largish post where I have all the before and after comparison photo’s. I’m enjoying putting that post together although it has taken a while to sort out the date order and trying to find similar angles before and after.