The last official car of the ‘Season’ if you can call it, for me was back at Stonham Barns. This was to be the American Car Show on the 27th September 2020. I woke up to a grey sky completely devoid of any colour at all, but no rain was forecast all day, well not on any apps anyway. The wife did tell me that it would rain, woman’s intuition I believe it’s called. I was having none of that and set off with high hopes.
I got there just after nine and there wasn’t a lot there, maybe fifty cars or so. I got told to park up with a two meter distance between the cars. No argument from me there.
There was a few ‘stalls’ setting up, but nothing great to be honest. When I walked around one guy told me that he had booked a pitch months ago, he wasn’t going to come on the day but thought why not? He wasn’t expecting to sell much due to the Covid restrictions and the weather.
Ah yes, the weather; it was now starting to spit that very fine mist almost rain. You know the stuff, it gets you damp and it made me miserable. Yet again this show was cursed with bad weather for the umpteenth year on the trot.
I watched a few more cars turn up and get parked up. If you were part of the ‘Knuckle Busters’ club you got to park in the main central ring area.
The rest were lined up outside.
The car that really took my eye was this little AMC, a little rough in some places, but well loved.
A few big toys were on show too.
Perhaps the car with most interesting history was this Jeep. Apparently it was documented that this was the first vehicle to arrive on the scene of the Rendlesham Forest ‘UFO’ sighting in 1980. For more details on the incident click here.
After just one and a half hours I was cold and damp so I left early to go home. So the last show of the year had less than eighty cars there when I left. When I got home I had to clean and dry the car in the garage. Shortly after I had a snooze on the sofa, which sort of summed the day up really.
Continuing on from yesterday’s post, I will continue with the rest of the photo’s I took.
I want to start with this car which perhaps was my favourite of the day:
Again in no particular order more from the Glemham Hall Car Show;
There were a few Super cars there:
There was also some stalls there but nothing worth looking except this one, ‘Are you not entertained?’
There was a commercial vehicle section;
Military vehicles;
There was even some rather nice motorcycles too;
It was a good show but marred by the queue to get out as well, this time not as bad but still filtering out through a single path for the want of a better word took about fifteen minutes and I even left an hour before the close.
I bet you thought I had forgotten to mention the weather? Well I can’t believe that I have been to three shows and it hasn’t rained on me. So that has to be a hat trick of good luck.
As I type this post, the rumour of the last show I was intending to attend is under threat due to the Covid issue. Will I get to the all American show at the end of the month? Or was the three shows I visited this year it? I just don’t know, yet.
The third show of the year was Sunday 6th September at Glemham Hall. This was a new show for me and located the other side of the Suffolk county for me, not far away just a thirty five minute drive with as many miles. We all had to be there before 10am so I left a little after eight fifteen as I had to get some fuel. I eventually got there at just before nine. Then it happened, I hit a traffic jam. I sat in traffic for forty minutes trying to get to a single track lane to get to the fields. I was watching my fuel go down and the temperature go up. Not the best start to the day I must say. To compound matters we had to cross to the other side of the road, that means the cars coming from the other side of the road just kept pilling in before we got a break by some kind soul to let us in. I later found out that the queues were five miles long later in the day. The local constabulary weren’t to impressed apparently.
Not only that when we got inside they then had side by side queues, they were let in a few at a time into the field. Which helped a bit, but there should have been a public access and exhibitors entrances. I hope the organisers are reading this as well.
Anyway this was a huge show and I will have to split it over two posts. I took loads of photos and I have filtered them out to my favourites. Panoramic 360 view is new one for me but here it is.
I parked up just anywhere so it seemed, as there was lots and lots of space.
As always in no particular order a selection of cars that caught my eye as I wandered around.
I will post part 2 tomorrow.
Teddy – Part 2
On the 30th of August 2020 I was at a car show at Lavenham where my little Mustang mate Teddy had a pic with my car. A very polite and respectful little guy. This was the photo I took at the time.
I mentioned that I didn’t manage to get one of him sitting in my car. His dad Graham emailed me the missing picture.
Thank you Graham for your permissions and for sending me the photo.
Yesterday was Second car show of the year for me and the weather held out. It was overcast and the rain was in the air as few spots landed on the car at one point. It was chilly, but more than acceptable compared to the rain. The sun even made an appearance once or twice. Only a short thirty minute drive from my home to the sleepy and old village of Lavenham in Suffolk. The village has some beautiful very old beamed houses and shops, ‘The Swan’ hotel (Inn) held our wedding reception a good few years ago which was an old coach house a couple of centuries ago.
I set off at eight thirty with a view to have a real gentle drive through the countryside, a great little drive that I always enjoy. Arriving just after nine I was pointed to USA reserved area which was on very slight elevation to overlook the rest of the ground. the numbers were strictly limited compared to last year due to the Covid crisis. I managed to find this area drone footage from 2019 of the layout of the show, the picture was taken before all the cars arrived on the day to fill it to capacity. The unusual thing about this event it that it’s arrange in circles. My car is on here, bottom left corner of the tennis courts just in front of the small gazebo.
Lavenham 2019
After a quick wipe down to remove the damp road debris from the car pretty much all the car that were going to arrive were in place so it was time for a wander round.
I will round off this webpage with a special dedication, after all I did promise Teddy that I would. Here’s to my new Mustang mate!
Anyway back to the pics for now and in no particular order taken just as I wandered around:
An AC which was the predecessor to the now legendary AC Cobra which a certain Mr. Carroll Shelby stamped into the history books.
In the centre was plenty of space for the three super cars. The Lamborghini Diablo was only the second time I had seen one in the flesh, this car was one of the many car posters on my wall as a teenager. It was, and still is a dream car for me, a lottery win would have one of these in my extensive garage next to a AC Cobra, Eleanor GT500, Aston Martin DB5, well you get the idea!
Then the modern day supercar offering from Mclaren. An old model now but still a beautiful car.
Back to the future movies had the after effect of ruining many of these DeLorean cars, by the people who want them to look like the movie car with light ropes, plastic lights stuck all over it, fake computers etc. In my mind this is a pretty enough car to stand on it’s own, as such I have seen more movie replicas than I have untouched examples of these cars.
Did you know that the DeLorean was first powered by a Ford Cologne V6, then that was swapped for a ‘more reliable’ Citroen CX2000 running gear. The engine was deemed to be underpowered and when Citroen found out that the DeLorean wanted to bolt a turbo to it Citroen told them to look for another engine option. That final unit turned out to be the V6 PRV engine (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo). Only 9000 cars were made between 1981 & 1982.
Ferrari made an appearance too, not what I would call a ‘Classic Car’ as you can still get these with relative ease. The owner was a nice enough, but could be clearly heard talking up his car saying all sorts of rubbish comparing it to F1 style performance.
Parked up next to the Ferrari 355 (above left) was the oldest car there, a pictorial oxymoron if I may be so bold to say.
A rare right hand drive high wing Lotus Esprit turned up late in the day, one of only twenty three remaining.
The Japanese market was there with a few cars that again aren’t on my classic list, just yet, but I many eyes the GTR is already there on performance alone!
Plenty of British there:
The other classic car I was thinking of buying at the time I bought the Mustang was the Triumph Stag, v8 powered and sounds great. The Mustang opportunity came along and I went for a Yank tank as that is where my heart truly is. I’m still glad I did, but it was a close run thing. I still love these Stags of course, thinking about it – another car for the lottery win garage!
By no means least the rest I liked the look of:
Yesterday’s highlight?
While sitting at the back of my car a dad and his son approached to have a look around it. They were very respectful, didn’t touch and seemed to enjoy looking around it. I got out my chair and asked the little guy if he wanted to sit in it. I missed that photo opportunity to see him sitting in the car with an awesome smile you just can’t buy. I asked his dad if it was OK with him to see if this very polite and courteous little guy wanted a picture of himself next to my car to go on my blogsite? Ladies and gentlemen meet the guy who made my day – ‘Teddy’.
If Teddy is the future generation, then there is still a glimmer of hope! Thanks to his dad for letting me take the picture and posting it up for him.
As I promised you Teddy – you’re an Internet star now. 😀
The first car show of 2020 (for me anyway), which took place last Sunday 16th 2020 at Stonham Barns in Suffolk. It took me about twenty five minutes to get there at a gentle pace. I arrived at about nine fifteen and the sky was grey. Forecast was forty six percent chance of rain, I figured it was worth the gamble, I had to go. I parked up with the Bury Retro Car Club whom had a club stand on the tarmac and not grass which is always nice. As I always do when I park up, I wiped the little ol’ lady down with some quick detailer, paying particular attention to the windscreen with glass cleaner. I think the glass had collected more than its fair share of insects for the short trip.
I decided to go and get some photos before the promised rain was due to arrive just after lunch time. With no particular order some cars that took my interest as I wondered around. the sun even showed it’s face for a few minutes now and then.
A while ago I did a little article on the Ford Capri being the UK Mustang here, these photos show the comparison next to each other which was rather nice.
There seems to be a growing trend in the UK for half cars to be the trailer:
More Mustangs including this red ’69 done to concours standards.
VW were out in force and the patina on the beetles was a little extreme, when it’s flaking off.
The rest of the cars I liked:
There was a number of stalls there too, nothing to fancy just the usual auto jumble, which was on the grass just behind the club stand.
Bury Retro Car Club stand:
I thought mu car was quite a long car, when compared next to a stretched Caddy – It’s tiny. The front of the cars lined up more or less level.
You can just about catch a glimpse of me chillin out and chatting cars just behind my car.
I took a few pics while sitting in my chair of the new wax I have been using. I did notice the clarity of the shine while sitting there.
I thought I would play around with the colours a bit on this one, black & white with a little hind of car colour.
I left at three in the afternoon an hour before it was due to shut, the wife had text me to say there was thunderstorms at home. I wanted to get home before the car got soaked.
The clouds were blackening up as I did a very quick wipe over before I covered the car up in the garage. As I got out the car in the garage the heavens opened and it chucked it down. That’s what I call perfect timing, literally thirty seconds from rain.
For once I went to a car show and it didn’t rain, I was well chuffed. What could be better than than? I know – a pic of me in the review view mirror of the Jag XJ6 next to mine! I didn’t move the chair to take this pic I just happened to look up and there I was.
I needed that car show. I just had to get out and catch up with friends again, grab some fresh air and look at cars, lots of cars. I had two offers to buy my car during the day, one which was some bloke takin the p!$$ or trying to wind me up I’m not sure which, the other guy gave me his card just in case I wanted to sell, after asking me some good questions about the history of the car.
There are two more scheduled car shows this year that I have booked in to attend. Will the rain hold off for me so I can get to them? I hope so, with all the rain I got caught in last year, it’s the least mother nature could do for us considering the pandemic we have endured so far.
As virtually all the car shows have cancelled or postponed this year due to the Covid-19 running riot there is a slight chance that two are still going ahead. Pre-booking has been essential and due to obvious reasons they have been over subscribed with people wanting to show their cars, or just get out for the day to look at cars. With this in mind I decided to give my little lady a check over as I always, tyres, levels, leaks etc. When I opened the hood there was a strange and a rather ‘funky’ smell. After each car show season has finished I take out my water washer bag, or colostomy bag as they are often referred to and empty it out and put it back to stop the water going bad. The reason being this is a breeding ground for bacteria, the engine bay gets hot, then cold, then hot again. The end of last year I forgot to empty it out and clean it. So, when I opened the lid on the bag it wasn’t good news.
I disconnected the bottom pipe from the bag, quickly put my finger over the drain hole and took out the bag to the drain where it was emptied out. There was some black algae in there, which needed lots of rinsing, some citrus cleaner and more rinsing in order to clean it out properly. It took a while, but in the end it ran clean and smelt a whole lot better.
The back of the bag also showed some signs of being dirty. I started to clean it and thought I would share it with you, so this is sort of a third of the way through it. I started then general wipe down with some Meguiar’s multi purpose cleaner. Spray on let it dwell, then with a brush work it into the bag. Rinse and repeat a few times.
After a few applications it came back to white again after being dried out.
The bag is now empty and waiting for a refill before the next show. I do add screen wash to the bag which stabilises the water a bit. If I have to use the screen jets I don’t want any of the mixture running onto the paint and leaving a stain which I would have to buff back out again. After all the screenwash has a mixture of chemicals in the product to cut through the dirt and grime. Also in order to help avoid water spots or marking I only use de-ionised water, it’s cheap enough and the de-ionised water is also much better for your car’s cooling as well. I always keep a litre of de-ionised water in the trunk, just in case.
While I was waiting for the cleaners to dwell on the washer bag, I decided that my valve caps were also dirty. I didn’t realise just how bad they were. Only one of the caps here has been cleaned and waxed. Yes, I do indeed wax my valve caps too.
With the hood up I thought that the underside looked a little dull, so I waxed that as well, just because I can. I also think it’s quite a cool picture too.
What turned out to be an hour or so quick check up turned into a few hours of cleaning. Not that I mind really, just a bit disappointed with myself that I forgot to do it. It must be my age 🙁
Will I get to a car show this year? Will mother nature be cruel and rain on the day that one of the only car shows is due to take place next Sunday? Watch this space and find out!
After last week’s post I had some great messages left for me and couple of nice emails too, so thank you. It was pointed out that I hadn’t actually posted a pic of the Krooklok in the car. Yep, I missed out one of the main points of what it looked like in the car. So to make amends here they are;
I don’t think it looks out of place either. Those with eagle eyes will spot that the pedal end of the lock is not shiny. Correct and this is something I eluded to in the last post. The metal end will damage paintwork on the pedal so i wrapped a little wire loom tape around it. This is a cloth tape and will cushion the metal on metal. On modern cars where the pedals are pretty much out of sight I wouldn’t need to do that. But as the Mustang pedals are clearly visible from outside the car chips in the black paint would look rather nasty. Also the cloth tape blends well to the pedals too.
While I was in the garage I had a little clean up under the hood, nothing special just a quick detailer wipe over to get some dust off. While I was at it I decided to change something that has been annoying me for quite a while now. This was the Negative battery cable terminal.
OK, so it doesn’t look wrong considering this isn’t the original wire, but a replacement cable for some reason or another. But, it looks sort of period correct so I left it, until now. I sourced a much more stock looking terminal and set about swapping them over.
The old terminal was a simple two screw squash the cable idea, simple enough to remove and will allow for corrosion for the exposed ends of the cable.
The cable separated easy enough and I cleaned it up with a wire brush to get it clean as possible. With the cable cleaned up I got my gas powered soldering iron out to prep the wire ends with some solder. As I was dealing with solder I put the heat resistant pad on the battery to stop any hot drips marking the plastic. The “Tinning” (a pre applied application of solder to aid in the final solder), had to be build up until a nice coating was all the way round the wire. I even cut back the sheath of the cable to expose some fresh wires. I slid a heat shrink tube over the cable which I would use later to give the finish a much cleaner look.
The next step I had to skip a little as I had one pair of hands to take the pics and do the work. I inserted the cable into the new terminal and clamped it in place with the two nuts on the top. Some stray long strands of wire were snipped of flush to the end of the terminal. With the cable in place I used some long nosed mole grips to hold the terminal up so I could fill the gap in the terminal with more solder.
This would give that neat finish I was after and make a great connection to the battery. My Dremel mini sanding discs were used flatten down the end as solder is a soft metal. With the end nice and flat the heat shrink was moved up to the terminal to cover any any gaps from the terminal and wire. Now the cable looks much nicer and neater and more importantly, the original stock look I was after.
I was able to refit the tightening bolt to the terminal and reconnect back to the battery.
The only remaining part now is to put the battery tag back on. I really am looking for things to do on the car now that don’t really need doing – just so I can do it. It only took about two hours from start to finish with the whole thing being cleaned and polished up. Well worth it as the wife was writing lots of lesson plans for her school. I was best out of the way! I think I may tidy up the other cable as well now. Also clean up the mats as they are pretty dirty too.
One of the simple little jobs was to swap out the interior bulbs for the LED equivalent. These included the footwell courtesy lights, and the rear centre console lights. They had the standard tungsten filament bulbs which gave out a warm glow. Not that I disliked it by any means, in fact that was the stock lock, I just wanted the more modern subtle look of a bright crisp white illumination.
The interior LED’s give out about three times as much light and shows of the internal colour scheme a bit better too. The pick above right was taken inside my garage and not outside in the sun.
What’s the next little job? I will think of something. 😉
