At Last

The first car show of 2020 (for me anyway), which took place last Sunday 16^th 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.

Tim Greening let me borrow his video from his YouTube channel; https://www.youtube.com/c/AutoAddictuk/ Thanks Tim 🙂

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.

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Most Revealing….

For a number of years since I started my blog I have keept my identity off the web. A little background as to why. My blog was intended to be a diary of the build progress of my Mustang and nothing much more. Somewhere to store my thoughts and photos if you like, my build diary. The posts back then had a little write up so I could read it through a number of years later. That little diary has evolved into something much more now, almost a website with lots to look at, obviously something I’m very pleased about. I now do reviews of car detailing, books, tools, memorabilia, collectables and articles. After a few early posts on the blog I started to get emails from people to say they enjoyed what I was doing. Thinking about what was happening I stepped up my game pretty quickly and started to create more how to guides, processes and instructions on what I had done or I was doing at the time. This of course was a view from a man on the street who had never done anything like restoring a classic car before. I made mistakes and they were corrected with the help of Mustang Maniac and all was well again. All of that hard work comes to a giddy height when I go to a car show. Late November 2019 I was invited to attend the “Lancaster insurance Pride of Ownership” at the Birmingham NEC. There was ten of us (finalists) there and I did a comprehensive write up of the show over the three days which it ran. The only downside was that it was marred by cheating of the winner which I proved and fully documented. All that aside there was some massive plus points about that show too; I meet some wonderful people, shared many laughs, got foot ache, back ache, lost my voice, I got a severe case of larringitus thrown in too, all in the name of a great time at a car show. And where is all this going you may ask?

Well, during the time at that show I was asked so many questions by many people. A few people recorded a conversation via mobiles etc. One notable instance was a nice guy who wanted to take a photo of me with the car and recorded what I was saying. I wasn’t sure what I was thinking at the time, but I agreed and so the photos were taken and his questions were answered. I thought no more of it. That was until a couple of weeks ago, when out of the blue I was contact by a weekly journal called “Classic Car Weekly” here in the UK. A link to their website is here. There was a couple of phone calls and emails to confirm a couple of points. I was asked if I had any photos of the original state, just a few maybe around 4,500 or so at last count. I had to pick a few out to send them of the car during that long build process over the four and a half years it took to complete.

The result is that I featured in this week’s edition of the paper released on the 8th April 2020. If you are quick you might even be able to get a copy. I even made the front cover;

The article is a full page interview and pictures.

The main heading refers to a reveal; where there it is, a picture of me.

To mark the occasion I bought a copy or four, one to read, one to keep prestine and the others just in case.

Now that you know what I look like, please come and say hello if you see me at a car show. That’s of course providing that Corona virus doesn’t keep us locked down and we can actually get to a show this year. I need to drive my car, it’s been five months now – FIVE MONTHS, just sayin’!

Until that next car show, keep safe and stay at home.

UPDATE: 13/4/2020

I have been asked by Richard if I can make a readable version of the article.

As requested here is a high res scan of the article converted to a PDF to download.

ccw-8-4-2020 Download

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Sweet & Sour (part 1)

Over the weekend of 8th to the 10th of November 2019 I was asked to join the other twenty finalists for the Pride Of Ownership awards in the centre of hall three. I was thrilled to be a part of the show. This show certainly hit the sweet spot for me – Part 1.

During my time there I had a great time and spoke to many fantastic people and lost my voice as a result. Some might say that is good thing though! I even let a could of people sit in my car.

The show attracted over 3000 cars, some on show & some for sale, all of which made for a spectacular show. I took around 400 photos way to many to put on my little ol’ blog so I decided to split the weekend event into two sections. As the title suggests a fantastic time was had by all and i totally enjoyed my time there and a wonderful experience I doubt could be bettered. However – it was badly tainted with a nasty twist and sting in the tail, I will explain all of that in part two in greater detail.

I will start with the events up to the opening. All entrants for the show needed to arrive on Thursday 7th from 10am onwards up until 8pm when the building was secured for the night. I set off from home just after 7am in the rain. Yep I got the car out and it rained. I didn’t stop raining ALL the way to Birmingham all be it in various intensities I should say. I eventually arrived at ten past ten a little over three hours later. There was a couple of us early birds, promptly followed by a few more a short while later. The organisers directed us to the parking positions on the stand, well a bit of carpet actually. This is view of the hall before it started to take shape, a few behind the scenes as it were. There was a long que to get us into the correct area locations.

I started cleaning from 10:15am until 7:45pm when the place was being shut down and us stragglers who were there got turfed out for the night – I was still cleaning at that point.

The car was the dirtiest it has ever been. Chrome looked like faded aluminium and the paint a shade of grey dirtier.

Some other cars arriving as I was cleaning, these guys took it super serious with ramps and all sorts with mirrors under the car, some even trailered in with plastic wraps on the wheels.

I decided to waterless wash the car twice very carefully, then i wanted to strip the old wax off and start again. That was done by 70/30% mix of isopropyl alcohol and water. With that done I could then start to add a couple of layers of clean wax to build it up again. I took my pre packed case that I thought I would need- I needed it all.

With the car pretty much where I wanted it to be I could cover it for the night and start early in the morning for the interior and finish the wheels.

Early on in the morning there was out info sheet that was to be put into the stand next to the cars, this was mine.

Here was the stand ready for the press and some public at 9am on the Friday morning. The Ferrari wasn’t completed as it turned up, but a few guys worked wonders on it ready for the show. then carried on with the work after the show, each day the parts boxes getting less and less.

At 7.45 we were not allowed in even a few minutes early as exhibitors, mainly down to ‘jobs worth’ security guards. So a few of us sat here looking at this for quarter of an hour.

Early and late evening I could wander around and take a few pictures without people in the way. So in no particular order because I can’t remember here are a number of pics.

So real nice old timers.

Something different, not everyday you get run over by a tank!

Once the day got busy I hardly left the stand. The other exhibitors were great looking after each others cars (except for a couple of owners).

The car got plenty of attention throught the day and weekend and was non stop.

So what got me so fired up? Read the next post and find out, it’s not pretty reading!

Part two will be at 2pm tomorrow!

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Not The Last Car Show After All!

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I had attended the last car show of the season, with a possibility of another if didn’t rain. Well, that was indeed the last car show for me as the next intended show did in fact rain so I didn’t go as my car has gotten wet enough this year already. However, earlier in the year I had applied to the Lancaster Insurance Classic Car Show to be considered for the “Pride Of Ownership” section of the show. The expectation was not to hear anything due to the standards of cars out there. Then I got an email to say that I had been selected as a finalist at this years show. That means I will be going to another show, hosted inside the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, UK.

The Birmingham NEC hosts and boasts the largest classic car show in the country with over 71,000 visitors across 7 show halls over a very busy weekend. This year the sights have been set even higher for even more visitors. The show is a full on Petrol Head event with over 3000 cars, many, many trade stands, autojumble, talks, live demonstrations and they are trying to build an E-Type Jag in a weekend!

There will be a total of 20 cars in the Pride of Ownership final, the winners will be decided by the visitors voting on the show days at the stand. The Lancaster Classic Car Show and the Birmingham NEC have been posting regularly now on social media and email shots. My car has been shown on a number of posts with this one taken at the Mustang Maniac yard;

This is the first press release on their website to show the first 10 cars selected for the category.

If you click this picture it will take you to the home page of the LCCS so you can see what is going on if you want to make a day or two of it.

My car was last at this show just after the restoration was completed in 2015 on the Mustang Owners Club of Great Britain. That was a manic three days where I started to loose my voice at the end of the weekend talking so much.

I’m so excited this year about being there again as an exhibitor and hope to see lots of people all weekend. Please come over and say “Hello” to me and mention my blog so I can meet some of my readers with little luck. Of course if you then think I’m a proud enough owner of my car more so than the other car owners, then maybe drop in a vote for me.

There is going to be some amazing cars there on this stand as my competition, actually that’s a little unfair, they are all fellow enthusiasts just like me. Win or loose it’s a privilege to be selected to appear at this event regardless. In fact I already consider myself to have won, just because I’m taking part. Sounds corny right? Maybe, but its true. My car is for me to enjoy driving it about and is not some trailer queen just for show. If I don’t win then I can at least enjoy my trip back home again. As you probably know I also use and show the car for some good causes too.

The journey will take me a little over two hours according to my mate Tom (Tom Tom Sat Nav), so I can add another half hour to that as I wont be thrashing the ol’ girl up the motorway to do the 120 miles fast as possible. I will not doubt be travelling in the wind & rain to get there and spend a total day getting her cleaned up again after I get there. ‘Cause lets face it with my luck this year it will rain, won’t it?

Oh, just for the record I’m not on commission for the event, I just wanted to shout about it as I’m mega excited and just can’t wait to be there. There is even a countdown timer I added to the show opening.

I honestly hope to see you there. 🙂

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End Of Season Show?

It’s almost the end of the car show season and I have potentially attended the last car show of the season for me. There are two more shows in my diary that I intend to go to, one of which is at the end of this month and the other in the middle of October. Past experience tells me that these are going to be rained on due to the UK winter being under way. So I won’t be getting the car out for those, even if there is the slightest chance of rain.

Last weekend was the Fornham Classic & Sports Cars by the lake show, a lovely setting that is more like cars by the large pond rather than lake to be honest.

This is a popular show and you have to be booked in, to get in. There is a huge selection of different cars on display without it being to big a show that you rush around to see it all. The weather forecast was for a sunny day and it did last all day I’m pleased to say. The car show is only located twenty odd minutes away from me, so I even had a little snooze before I needed to get up and be there by nine thirty. I arrived at the farm’s turn off and we were ushered in without hardly any delay, they had opened both ends of a field to filter the cars in. A great job by the marshals all day in fact. I was parked up and a huge Plymouth Road Runner pulled up next to me, now I thought my car was long! So less words and on with the pics. These were taken as I worked up and down the lines of cars.

There were some amazing super cars there which I have grouped together here;

Perhaps the best looking Fiat to be accepted as a Ferrari, the achingly beautiful Dino!

Then ultra modern Lambo, the first I have seen in the wild as it were.

A nice selection of Mustangs, both old and new;

Some super old pre war category cars;

By around lunchtime the show was packed and full to the brim.

Then I found this Triumph at the end of a line, for me this was my car of the show.

Yes, that really is two child seats that pull up in the trunk area almost hanging out the back of the car. Seat belts? Nahh, not in those days.

Some more of the cars that caught my eye;

When I got back to my car I decided to get the hood up and compare the Plymouth next to mine. It must have been a good half meter longer than mine.

My final arty pic of my car, please with the shine on this one.

I hope I have a more shows to finish the year of nicely. But, I’m not gonna get to excited just yet though, knowing my luck the clouds are already gathering for me. This is a popular show and seems to be getting bigger by the year, but with the other hugely popular show in the area ‘Nowton Park’, being cancelled this year because it got to big for the small car club organisers to handle believe it or not. This show looks like it would need to restricted the numbers, or at least make it only for cars that are over twenty years old. There was a lot of cars that were pretty much brand new in show, like I have said before, I can go to any super market car park to see those. And yes, that goes for the new Mustangs as well.

If this is the last show of the year for me, it was a great way to end the season.

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Am I Cursed Or Jinxed?

This car show is how it should be, cars that are at least twenty years old with nothing before 2000 was allowed in. I hate to say it, but a few still sneaked in! Some recent car shows I have been to there are three or four year old cars on show. If I wanted to see cars like that I would just walk around a superstore car park on a Sunday! Anyway, rant over; this car show was held at Stonham Barns which is about twenty minutes drive from where I live. The weather forecast was promising with only thirty percent chance of rain. The sky looked good, so I decided to go for it. The show was packed and there was lots of variation of cars still arriving at the cut of point of ten o’clock. I parked up and decided to go for a look around before the general public was allowed in.

There was some nice auto jumble stalls which I spent a little while looking around. It’s funny, that when I was looking for stuff like this – I could never find it!

So as is the norm now, in no particular order except that I started at the furthest end of the field and worked back towards my car.

There was a nice club that was showing some nice UK Fords,

Plenty of Americana represented as well,

Some old school beauties,

On the way back to the car there it was, a spot of rain. I walked quicker and it seemed the faster I walked the more it rained. I bumped into a friend of mine David who was walking towards me on his way back to his car, he said “I’m not coming to any more car shows where you go, it always f…..g rains where you turn up.” Said in the best of humour and we laughed as we passed. As I got back to the car it was pouring quite hard and I spotted this;

I checked my app and it said it would rain, it wasn’t wrong. I hung around for about half an hour with no signs of it stopping. With that decided that I had had enough of looking at my car getting wet.

The only good thing is that my Chemical Guys P40 Quick Detailer was beading brilliantly. I have reviewed it here, if you are interested.

Now here’s the thing, I had the right hump and got in my car and started the drive home. This is no word of a lie here, as I pulled into my own village the sun came out and started to pour heat rays all around. I pulled straight onto the drive and watched the sun cast shadows everywhere as I dried the car from the remaining few spots of rain. So I arrive at a show it rains, I leave a show and the sun starts to shine. So who ever has the rain cloud effigy of me, please can you give me a break (not literally obviously). I’m really starting to get a complex now.

Am I cursed or jinxed? I honestly think so! 🙁

The remaining part of the day wasn’t wasted as managed to do a bit of work on my car in the sun which I will go into on the next post.

The best part of the day, while I was there that is, was that I spotted my local Meguiar’s products retailer. I was speaking to them and they said that they had some samples. Great, so I had one of each of course, so what do you do with the samples?

You pour the samples into the products you already have. Most samples don’t give you enough for what you want to do with them to be honest, but this way you can make proper use of them.

You saw it hear first 😉

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Helmingham Hall Car Show 2019 (Part 2)

As promised this is part two of the Helmingham Hall Classic Car show where I moved to the private entries where pretty much anything goes. As the day wore on the weather was warmer and the visitors just kept coming in. I spoke to many people that day and even a guy who purchased a new ’65 and wanted some pointers. By the time he had finished talking to me and David, we think he was sorted if not a little worried about what was ahead of him!

So in no particular order – some more cars;

Some military vehicles.

More random cars.

Some pics of the location.

This massive car took my attention, I have no idea what it was, but it certainly makes a statement!

This little guy was on a photography stand, he was just loving all the attention he could get!

There was no rain, and leaving was a straight out breeze, maybe because I left half hour before the rest of the fields. A great day and the show still lives up to my expectations. Can’t wait for next year now as well.

Note to self: get there earlier!!

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Festival Of Wheels 2019

The weekend just gone was one of those weekends where everything clashes for car shows. There was the Festival of Wheels in Ipswich on both Saturday and Sunday. Then on the Sunday is perhaps my favourite car show Helmingham Hall. The decision was made a long time ago to split the shows over the two days. The weather was looking good, so I set off on the Saturday morning with plenty of time in hand to allow me at least one hour before the general public was allowed in at ten. I drove up to the gates and straight in, no fuss no hassle. I was directed to the reserved area for the Bury Retro Car Club, just like last year I was the first to arrive from the club.

About half an hour later, two other cars from the club parked in a different place leaving me on my own, no problems as that left plenty of space for me. This show is aimed at the family day out more so than a dedicated car show itself. Some of the cars were good and I took a selection of photos those that interested me.

This little picnic van was quite cool and towed by an old school lorry.

I found a supercar, but to be honest I was a little disappointed with the Mclaren’s interior. I’m sure it’s amazing to drive but even so, I would want a little bit more, or is it just me?

Choice of the Mclaren or something else? I would rather of had this old school Ferrari 328.

I’m not too sure what to make of this with the fake intake trumpets! Each to their own I guess.

There was an interior section where a few nice cars were on show including a couple of drag strip cars, one of which was a Bentley.

Right at the other end of the field area was a Land Rover assault course, which didn’t look that challenging for the vehicle’s prowess and monster truck with seats in the back for ten or so people for a ride.

Not a bad day out for the family, although the variation of cars wasn’t great. There was a section that was more like a Wal-Mart car park, which I didn’t bother taking photos of. The simple reason was that there were cars with speakers bigger than their wheels and revving up to the max to make their exhausts pop and bang as much as possible. Giving the genuine car show enthusiast a bad name, which a little soap box of mine.

However, I enjoyed the day and met up with a mate of mine I wasn’t aware of he was going. We had a wander around to look at the stalls which again were not that car related to be honest, things like sweets, hats, summer dresses and toys. Helmingham Hall was in another league. That post will be up very shortly. 😃

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Wings & Wheels

Weekend just gone I attended the Stowmarket Carnival which was held over two days with a classic car section on Sunday. The general public was let in from eleven onwards, but the cars had to be in before nine thirty, although they were still being let in at ten thirty. So, I decided to take my photos sooner than later without too many people around, and before more cars arrived. A nice mix of cars and some top quality restorations on show. It was one of the first days this year I could get my show board out without the wind and rain because the sun was out all day, I even had to apply sun cream, twice! There were stalls, a dog shows, live singing, and a fun fair too.

I follow on Instagram a group of ladies called ‘_modifiedgirls’ and they also have a website called ‘https://modifiedgirls.co.uk/’ I mentioned this because I see a FTO being lovingly cleaned by a couple of ladies. Without trying to appear anything other than a genuine car fan I got talking to Tara Ashton who confirmed that she was a member of the Modified Girls scene. We had a chat about cars and I have to say that these ladies do know their stuff. I also think it’s fantastic to see members of the fairer sex enjoying the car show scene along with the guys. Here is her FTO she rocked up in to the show. I said I would give her a shout out on my blog, consider it done.

This Mk1 Ford Escort GT was a preproduction model and was used by the media to review the car. A nice example with some serious provenance.

There was mixture of a few hot rods, kit cars, more modern cars and some restorations to wonderful standards. Did you know the Fiat 500 number was the engine size in CCs? That’s 500 cc’s or half a litre, for our US friends that’s 30.5Ci Abarth gave the engine a stage 1 modification up to 595cc (36.3Ci) which made 31bhp.

Triumph models were varied, Stag, TR6, Dolomite, Spitfire. I almost bought a Stag when I was looking for a classic car, but when I saw the Mustang, my mind was made up. But I still like the look of those stags. 🙂

Some of the other cars that took my attention, I didn’t bother with the Nissan Skylines, as for the Golf GTI’s, Jags, Vauxhall Corsa etc, I could have gone down the road to the Asda car park and seen as many as I wanted. Is that a harsh thing to say?

From the heading I mentioned wings as well as the wheels. The Saturday they had a fly by of a Spitfire (the classic WW2 plane – not the car being propelled through the air). On Sunday we were treated to a WW2 Lancaster Bomber. If I had of known I would have taken a proper camera not just a cell phone. But I tried my best to capture this incredible plane that did three low(ish) fly overs.

I turned this into a black and white picture, I think it works better than the colour pics. I took a video of he final fly over, the trouble is you just get to hear the fabulous noise.

I took this video of the last fly over, the trouble is that the video didn’t pick up the incredible sound the plane made. 🙁

To finish the post I must be going soft in the head or getting sentimental in my old age. I had a guy Andrew who loved my car and was looking all over it. He made a good presentation to me on why he should sit in my car. I let him sit in it after emptying his pockets of keys etc. so as to not to damage the upholstery, I even took a picture of him in my car, just because I said I would. Consider that done as well.

It was a hot day, but I’m not complaining about the weather for a change. 😀 I spoke to lots of people and had a great day. More of the same next time I hope.

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A New Venue

I know this post is a bit late from the day but I just haven’t had time to get round to it all. So apologies and I have reprimanded myself quite severely. Anyway, the new venue was a generously sized field at Barnham Common in the lovely area of Thetford Forest. The best of which is the drive through that beautiful forest area to get there. Considering the previous shows have been a wash out with rain, this was Father’s Day and the weather apps said only a few percent chance of rain. Awesome I was going. I arrived fairly early and was expecting the Bury Retro Car Club to be there so I could park up with the guys, considering I missed out at the previous show in Elveden. Pullin’ into the field there was not many people there, in fact some of the stall traders also turning up to get ready. I was directed to park pretty much where I liked near the other lines of cars. I found a nice Ford Orion and parked next to him and I was pleased to say that a Ford Granada parked the other side of me. A Ford sandwich with USA muscle for the filler.

Checked app – no rain forcast. I started a wander around before it got to busy.

About twenty minutes later the car club turned up and parked a line down form me.

A good mixture of cars on the day.

UK Fords

USA Muscle

Later on the sky clouded and thought felt it, surely not. A few drops to start with then it stopped, not enough to bead on the car. However, half hour later, nowhere to hide except to sit in the car – it happened.

It only lasted for a few minutes, but it was enough. once it stopped it had to dry the car, the first of a few times that day. then the sun came out as quickly the rain feel. that was the pattern for the day. A rain shower for a couple of minutes then sun. I still manged to get sunburn on my face, don’t know how. But I was pleased with the beading though from my new quick detailer from Chemical Guys which I reviewed here.

Around the field spirits were high still and nobody seemed upset about the rain. The entertainment for the kids was great with bird handling and few live shows even.

But an hour after the start of the show to the public this old lady came in. Next year this traction engine will be a century old. I think this was the favourite of the show for me.