Spotless Washing?

It’s known that I’m a bit of car cleaning weekend warrior. Not just my Mustang at car shows, but my daily drivers too. There is a problem with wet washing which drives me mad, hard water. In my area of the country the water is notoriously bad. I will explain this in a bit more detail as I have been looking into various water filtration options, so this post and an article all in one. Hope its not to long.

What Exactly Is ‘Hard Water’?

In simple terms, hard water is the stuff that comes out of your mains water supply with a high mineral content. While rain water is naturally soft, as it percolates through the ground into our reservoirs and aquifers, it picks up bits of calcium, magnesium, and sometimes even chalk or limestone. By the time it travels through the pipes, get treated at water plants and add chlorine to that as well, it then travels down miles of pipes and reaches your household taps and your garden hose, it’s a mineral cocktail.

While some minerals might be fine for you, they are the absolute nemesis for a clean car. When you spray that tap water onto your paintwork and let it dry, the H₂O (water) evaporates back into the air, but the minerals stay left behind. They can bond to the surface, creating those stubborn unsightly “water spots” or “limescale” marks that we all dread as car detailers, or even the weekend warriors who just want a shiny car. This is a reason why car detailers carry their own water around to make their life easier and avoid those water marks. Sometimes these marks looks like a small octopus has climbed over your car, the rings look exactly like that, but whitish. Most people think water spots are just an aesthetic nuisance, a bit of white dust that can be wiped away. The real danger lies in what happens when those minerals from the mains water are left to bake in the sun. Calcium and magnesium (also bird mess) are alkaline. When they sit on your clear coat (or your single-stage paint if you’re still running an original classic paint), they begin a process called etching. It’s like a tiny, slow-motion chemical burn taking place. The minerals actually eat into the surface of the paint. If you run your finger over a bad water spot, you might feel a slight indentation. That’s not dirt sitting on the paint; that’s the paint itself being damaged. Once it reaches that stage, no amount of washing or polishing will fix it.

Damage Control: Removing Water Spots Without Killing Your Wax

If you’ve found your pride and joy covered in these white rings, you need to be careful before diving into removal. Most people reach for household remedies, but if you’ve spent all Saturday applying a high-quality carnauba wax or a high-tech sealant, the wrong “fix” will strip that protection off in seconds.

1. The Chemical Route – The Professional Way

Before you start rubbing the paint, try a dedicated Water Spot Remover. Products like CarPro Spotless, Gtechniq W9, Chemical Guys Heavy Duty Water Spot Remover Gyeon Q2M water spot remover etc. are all specifically formulated with mild acids that break down the bond between the mineral and the paint while being as gentle as possible on the underlying surface.

2. The Vinegar Dilemma

A 50/50 mix of white vinegar and distilled water is the classic “old school” fix. The acetic acid in the vinegar is great at dissolving calcium.

The Catch: Vinegar is an acid. While it’s great for the spots, it is brutal on car wax. If you use vinegar to clean your spots, you are effectively stripping away your wax protection. It leaves the paint naked as such and vulnerable to the next lot of hard water or UV rays. If you do use this method, you really should re-wax the area immediately.

The “No-Go” List: Chemicals That Destroy the protection of your wax and sealants while fighting hard water, avoid these like the plague:

All-Purpose Cleaners (APC) & Degreasers: Many people use these to “boost” their wash. Don’t. High-alkaline cleaners are designed to break down oils and waxes. They will leave your sealant patchy and ineffective.

Dish Soap (e.g., Fairy Liquid or Dawn Ultra etc.): These are an ultimate sin, yes they clean, but often have elements of salt as a stabilizer. We know what salt can do cars – rust! Dish soap is designed to strip grease from pans, it will strip every bit of wax off your car, leaving the paint dry and prone to more severe water etching. Addition of salt that could be left behind, you are making things worse.

Bleach-Based Cleaners: Never let anything containing bleach near your car. It will dry out your rubber trim and chemically attack the clear coat.

Aggressive Household Limescale Removers: Products meant for your bathroom tiles are far too acidic. They won’t just remove the water spots; they can stain the paint and permanently dull the finish.

Alcohol-Heavy Sprays: While Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) is great for prep, using it as a “quick fix” for water spots, it will also instantly dissolve any wax or polymer sealant you have on the car. Good for starting from scratch if you want to rewax your car to remove old tired layers of wax or sealants.

Abrasive Pads: Dish scouring pads or bathroom cleaning pads, you know the sort with the sponge and a layer of plastic nylon to get seriously aggressive with stubborn cleaning jobs. They will destroy your paint and can even lead to having a respray, DON’T do it. Polishing pads used by professionals are virtually always foam, sometimes lambs wool for deep cutting or heavy paint correction. I don’t need to mention steel wool pads either do I? That is obviously, down to bare metal stuff.

All of this now leads into what I’ve just bought to save me time and effort to remove water spots; ‘Prevention is better than correction’. I have been looking into the ‘Spotless’ washing systems. This is treatment of the water that you put on your cars which will stop the water spots appearing in the first place. My purchased was a Spotless water system by ‘SpotBye’ and I’ve used it to create a review. I have created that page here, or click the link below for the complete setup guide, and a review of the results. Spoiler alert, it’s a game changer!

https://onemanandhismustang.com/spotbye-water-deioniser-system/

If like me you’re stuck with hard water from the tap, you have to change your strategy. You can’t really just drench the whole car and then dry it at the end, well you could, but it won’t be a great finish. This is especially true on my black cars that shows the world and his mate for any marks what so ever. Try working smarter, not harder with a couple of tips from me:

The Sectional Wash: Work on one panel at a time. Wash the roof, rinse it with the hose, and dry it immediately. This prevents the tap water from sitting long enough to evaporate and leave minerals behind. Move onto the hood, then the fenders and doors etc. Work your way down the car, the dirtiest part of the car is always lower down.

The “Sheet” rinse: Take the nozzle off the hose. Let a steady, gentle stream of tap water flow over the panels. This “sheeting” effect leaves much less water on the car than a high-pressure spray which will leave droplets on the surface of the paint.

Drying Aids: (A useful process I often use). While the car is wet, spray a product like Chemical Guys After Wash, Gyeon Q2M WetCoat, Meguiar’s Hybrid Ceramic Wax, Dat Wax Hydrophobic Protective Sealant or a quick detailer etc. These products lubricate the surface and help neutralise the minerals, making them much easier to wipe away before they can bond or dry out on your paint.

Use a good quality microfibre cloth: A plush “twisted loop” drying towel is essential like Chemical Guys Woolly Mammoth or Slim’s Drying Towel. These towels are designed to pull the moisture and the minerals from the surface of the paint in a single pass rather than dragging them across the surface.

My new setup:

There are multiple ways to soften the water, that will save you time and effort in the long run. There are canister style, an inline tube, wall mounted, dual filters all the way up to the professional pumped options.

Before I show you the setup and use, this is NOT a sponsored post, the product was purchased with my own hard earned money. I have been trying to talk myself into this for a couple of years now. As I now have two black daily driver cars, this turned out to be a quick discussion and I didn’t put up much of an argument with myself after struggling to keep the cars presentable. I did my research and I bought ‘SpotBye’ canister system. Depending on your needs this may not be for you, but from what I have seen, its a great purchase.

These next few steps shows a quick setup guide for the equipment. The FULL setup details and downloadable manuals are in the link here or the link above.

SpotBye is a basically De-ionising Resin vessel. It’s a cylinder that connects inline with your hose. They remove 100% of the minerals.

The setup was quite simple, although the instructions are dire to be honest. After unpacking you need to add a resin into the canister carefully so the resin doesn’t get into the centre tube. The centre tube which passes the treated water out the canister is removable. Open the vacuum packet resin packet (5ltr) and carefully fill the canister, this is the media that filters the water. SpotBye does supply a rubber cap to prevent the resin going into the tube.

Screw the cap on and attach the standard size fittings for your hose.

The supplied water testing tool shows just how bad our water is. The classification level for hard water is anything over 120 ppm (parts per million). From my tap drinking water tap it was 309ppm!!

Attach the garden hose (yellow) to the ‘In’ and another shorter hose to the ‘Out’ fitting (green) for the water spray attachment you want to use. Allow the water to run a couple of minutes to flush the hoses through and get the resin working. The reading after a couple of minutes was astounding, 20ppm in this picture, but even went down to 18ppm. However, it’s noted that the filtration should be 0ppm according to SpotBye. But, an improvement of 96% was good enough for me. The green hose was all I have left which is sometimes use for syphoning a water feature. A new one is on order as I write this up.

I deliberately left my car to get dirty (such is the sacrifice I make for these reviews)! It was bad as there has been some ‘Sahara’ sand which was mixed in with the UK’s famous rain which leaves this nasty mess which looks even worse on my black cars.

Close-up view of a black car hood with visible dust and dirt, reflecting the sky.

A close-up view of a dirty, wet surface reflecting the sky, with droplets of water and specks of dirt.

Washing the car was a breeze, even on a warm day in direct sunlight and on a hot car, all of which are big no-no’s by the way for cleaning a car. There was copious amounts of suds from the car shampoo which lasted a long time on the car, something I haven’t had before, to this degree anyway.

With the car cleaned it was rinsed of and again deliberately not dried to see what happens if the dreaded water spots showed up. There was some light sheeting marks which dried of wit h a drying towel without any effort.

The pic below left of the door mirror shows what I mean, the rinsing ran of the car instead of sitting on the panel on the right pic.

The image here is dotted to show where I half dried the door in the sun.

Close-up of a black car door showing water droplets and a reflection, with a red dashed line marked along the surface.

Once dried there was no water marks even in this extreme scenario of hot weather, hot panels and in direct sunlight. From the image below in the shadow on the left there is no water marks. The white bits you can see is in fact the paint pearl effect glinting in the sun, you can also see the pink, green, blue, red and yellows of the pearl paint. The phone was having trouble to trying to focus but settled on the reflection of the fence.

Close-up view of a shiny car door reflecting sunlight and the surrounding environment, with some dirt and smudges visible on the surface.

With the car dried the car was literally ‘spotless’ as this type of washing technique is referred to. I was also interested to see what it would be like after a quick detailing. Why? Just because I could. The results were even better than when I picked the car up from the showroom.

Close-up view of a black SUV parked on a gravel driveway, showcasing its shiny exterior and black rims.

Here are some close ups of the paint with no water marks, the bottom right is the reflection of the house taken on the hood looking forwards, which is why it looks upside down!

To get a great finish the paint needs to be smooth to give a uniform reflection of light. Having no contaminates on the surface goes a long way to help with the desired reflective gloss. All of this comes at a cost though, to keep the water pure as it can be the resin which decontaminates the water needs to be replaced, around £35 for 5ltr which is what my canister holds. The harder the water the quicker the resin will need to be replaced. The recommended output is 520gallons at 200ppm. The fact that the car wash literally took half the time and was so much easier that cost is worth it to me.

At the end of the day we spend a lot of money on fancy shampoos and waxes to keep our cars looking their best. It seems a bit mad to ruin all that hard work by drenching the car in liquid limestone from the garden hose.

I hope that gives a little insight to the finer points of detailing. Yes its over kill for some, but saving time back for myself and saving physical effort in order to get that good result is worth the small amount of money per car wash. I even save on not having to by products to correct a problem. Buying a few bottles of products to overcome these problems would outweigh the cost of the system I just bought.

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Merry Christmas

I would like to wish all my readers, followers and casual browsers a very Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. I look forward to bringing you more reviews, memorabilia, walkthroughs and of course lots of car show photos in the coming year.

My little ol’ blog has been evolving into a ‘blogsite’ over the last couple of years with my stats telling me that I’m approaching a truly amazing 1,550,000 views, which I never believed would be possible. I fund this blogsite all by myself with a small contribution from the WordPress adds (sorry) now and then which contributes to the hosting fees, registration and everything else (but doesn’t cover it all) that goes with an online presence. I can only say a huge and sincere “Thank You” to everyone for keeping me encouraged to continue and making this all worth while.

A classic blue Mustang parked in a snowy landscape with Christmas lights in the background, featuring the text 'Merry Christmas & Happy New Year' in a festive font.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, see you all in 2026.

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TomTom GO 600 Battery Replacement

After some twelve plus years I now have an issue with my most trusted TomTom Go 600, the battery has died. You may be asking why am I bothered as Google Maps is available phones, updated regularly and works, some consider it better than many dedicated SatNavs, TomTom or Garmin to name just a couple. Even my daily driver has an up-to-date SatNav which I use, a lot. This TomTom Go 600 is used in my Mustang and sits on the centre console in a weighted mount setup. I need guidance to virtually any location where I can’t see my own house. I honestly get lost anywhere, even somewhere that I’ve been before, often a standing joke with friends and family. I prefer to use the TomTom instead of the phone with google maps and the smart watch on my wrist for turn by turn notifications which is great, but the phones battery gets drained before I even get to the location. At car shows most of the phones battery is used up with the camera usage and then a little bit of reading while sitting in my chair. I often take a backup charger with me just in case I need to charge the phone, but it’s a pain. It’s often easier to plonk the SatNav on the console, plug it in so there is no battery worry on the phone. Besides, the screen is bigger on the TomTom and the sound is louder for directions.

On this device the battery lasts about one hour when not plugged in, or I can’t be bothered to plug into the cigarette lighter for the shorter trips. The battery no longer holds a charge of any sort, often to the point that even with power from the cigarette lighter, it can’t hold the power so the unit has shut off on me a few of times. Without external power, the device hardly has enough power to show the empty battery symbol and just dies, not even a proper shut down.

After a quick bit of research I found video on YouTube as a tutorial on how to change the battery, it was worth a go. Why go to the bother, just get an up-to-date model? I certainly could upgrade, however this model has free map updates for life! After twelve years, every few months I get a map update. This device owes me nothing, so a replacement battery and some cheap tools from Amazon £20 all in, would be worth a go. The battery arrived the next day along with the tools needed to take these sort of devices apart. I also needed a pen knife, a blunt one which is sometimes used to open packages etc.

Disclaimer: If you attempt this repair, it’s of your own choice and I won’t be held responsible for any damage or loss.

My experience of the practical wasn’t so easy as the video suggested, so I thought I would document what I did to fix it. I don’t know if the models are designed differently after a while, but my internals were a little different to the YouTube video even though it was the same model designation.

The first step was to separate the two halves of the device, this is where the plastic tools came in, well to start with anyway.

Close-up of a person's hand holding a TomTom Go 600 device with a plastic opening tool inserted, revealing the ports and button layout on the back.

The two parts we so well together I had to get the penknife to get between the two halves and lever them apart. As I worked my way round I used triangular picks in various place to stop the device snapping back together again. There are no screws that hold the two halves together. As the device separated I heard a couple of little snaps where the plastic catches has snapped below right. I was not brutal in fact rather careful, perhaps the plastic is getting brittle with age. The face has a little piece of tape which holds the screen ribbon in place just before the connector itself to the main motherboard.

With the screen out of the way the plastic flat ribbon needs to be eased out of the connector by moving the white clamp towards the ribbon which will release the pressure on the clamp and allow the cable to be pulled out.

The two halves are now fully separated, put the screen to one side out of harms way. The below image shows one of the additional sprung connections at the tip of the screw driver. These are delicate and transfer the touch inputs of the screen to the main board. Hence the flat metal plate that is on the back of the screen.

A close-up of a screwdriver being used on the internal circuit board of a TomTom Go 600 GPS device.

Next we need to disconnect the speaker and the battery connections, using the plastic tools separate the two plugs.

Get yourself a nice set of screw drivers to remove the five flat cross head screws holding the circuit board to the back case.

With the screws removed lift the top of the board, the opposite to the connections at the bottom. With the board elevated you can then slide the bottom half of the board out of the case. With the board also put out of harms way the battery is exposed at the bottom. The battery will need to be prized away from the case as it’s stuck in place with double sided tape. As with all Li-ion batteries be very very careful.

A close-up view of a new battery for a TomTom Go 600 GPS device, showing its black casing and attached wires against a wooden surface.

The old battery and the new one side by side. The new battery on the left has a slightly higher capacity which should retain a little longer life. the original battery is on the right.

Image showing two replacement batteries for the TomTom Go 600, one labeled 'CELLONIC' and the other labeled 'TOMTOM', side by side on a wooden surface.

In the box supplied with my battery was fresh double sided tape, which needs to stuck on the back to hold the battery in place. The new battery is slightly smaller but still sits neatly in the area. Make sure that the wires are near the speaker and not the opposite end or they wont be long enough to connect.

Interior view of a TomTom Go 600 device showing the battery and speaker components.

Take the circuit board and align the bottom of the board to openings. Gently lay the fish the two sets of wires through the hole in the circuit board and then lower the board down into place. Align the screw holes and lightly screw into place. This will allow you to pick the device up and make sure the connections are fully located correctly. Once you are happy with the alignment fully tighten the five screws, do not over tighten. Next re-insert the battery and the speaker cables to the back of the board.

Close-up of the internal circuit board of a TomTom Go 600 GPS device, showing components like connectors, a speaker, and metal shielding.

Hold the screen near the main circuit board that will allow the flat cable to fall above the ribbon connection. I couldn’t take pictures at this point as I needed both hands. While holding the screen still gently guide the flat ribbon into the opening evenly. Do not force the ribbon or it will kink, the ribbon should just slot into place. Once the ribbon is fully inserted in place, slide the white clamp away from the ribbon to clamp the ribbon in place. Both the screen and the ribbon should now be connected. Very lightly pull the screen to make sure the ribbon does not pull out.

Lay the screen onto the case to align the two halves again. Make sure that the sprung connectors are not damaged be fully lowering the screen down. Starting at the bottom snap into place and work up the sides to the top. As you snap the case together make sure the connections at the bottom are stay correctly aligned. The broken clips were at opposite ends of the device so it didn’t prevent re-assembly of the unit.

Close-up view of the bottom side of a TomTom Go 600 GPS device, highlighting the various ports, buttons, and connectors. A hand is holding the device against a wooden surface with tools visible in the background.

Now turn the device on.

Now check that the screen is still touch responsive once the unit has fully started.

A close-up view of a TomTom Go 600 GPS device displaying its main menu with navigation options, held in a person's hand.

Once everything was working I was able to give everything a clean and full charge. The difficult part was separating the two halves without damage. The YouTube video showed it almost falling apart which wasn’t the case. The plastic tools weren’t quite man enough to separate the halves, hence the use of the pen knife for a little more robust leverage. Once apart it was pretty simple to remove the board, replace the battery and re-assemble.

Total time taken: 40 mins

Difficulty Level: 4 out 10

Conclusion: the only real difficulty was taking apart without damage and re-aligning the motherboard ports to the bottom of the case.

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Classics At Glemham 2025 (part 2)

Continuing on from my last post this is the rest of the Classics at Glemham Car Show. The show had food and drink but like most of the shows now days the costs were expensive. I doubt this is greed of the vendor, from what I have heard the organisers of the events charge silly amounts for the pitch. The vendors are forced to cover their costs. The organisers are now starting to charge significant amounts of money for the owners of these cars to attend the shows. It’s getting to the point where I’m starting to choose quite carefully what shows I attend. However the money goes to a charity then I don’t have a problem. But, just to make money from the car owners and let the public in for free is not on. Perhaps we need to vote with our wheels and not attend the rip off events. Let me know your thoughts if this all round the country (UK) or other countries too.

Back to the cars, after the rows of cars arranged by years of manufacture, there were super cars and general club stands.

A vintage car with a British flag parked next to a Chevrolet van at a car show on a sunny day.

A close-up of a 1969 red Ford Mustang at a car show, showcasing its shiny front grille and sleek design, with people in the background enjoying the event.

This Lincoln was amazing and a huge car.

We eventually got back to the car for a well earned rest and quick bite to eat where we watched the world go by.

Mart’s Car Of The Show: is this wonderful Plymouth, the fins still get me every time!

A couple of the other cars started to move out early afternoon so we decided to follow suit. As we rode over the uneven fields to the dirt track for the exit we stopped of for a quick photo opportunity. I took many photos as did Craig and these are just some from the session. Many are similar but they are all different. I think we started a trend, I have seen a few Instagram posts of similar photo’s being posted similar to ours.

Craig’s photos first.

A classic blue Ford Mustang parked on a grassy field with trees in the background.

Close-up view of a blue classic Ford Mustang showcasing its front design and chrome details.

Then there are these which I took.

A bright blue classic Ford Mustang parked on a grassy area, showcasing its sleek design and chrome wheels under a clear sky.

A blue 1966 Ford Mustang parked on a grassy field with trees in the background.

A classic blue 1966 Ford Mustang parked on a grassy field with trees in the background, captured in bright sunlight.

That completes all of my cars shows for 2025 sadly. I will find things to post about; reviews, books, memorabilia and maybe some upgrades on my little ol’ pride and joy. Thanks for staying with me during some of these recent large posts of the car shows.

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Classics At Glemham 2025 (part 1)

Last Sunday was the final car show of the year for me that had booked into. The show was around one hour away at Glemham Hall in Suffolk. I had arranged for my fellow petrol head Craig to join me for the final show, we were ready to set of at eight thirty after packing the car. We had a choice to travel the main roads with a fair few extra miles, or go across country scenic route. We decided on the scenic route where Craig was in charge of the navigation.

We rolled up to the event and showed the printed ticket and was directed to the ’60s section. We parked up and took a couple of quick pictures before the general public and the rest of the cars pulled in. Due to the size of the show and the number of photos I have taken I have split the show into two parts.

A blue vintage Ford Mustang parked next to a light green Volkswagen Type 2, with a car show setting in the background.

I have mentioned in a few posts now I use Craig’s pics, they are so much better than mine and you can just tell which are his due to their superior quality, here’s the first couple. This is one of the few occasions where I wound all the windows down.

A classic blue Ford Mustang parked in a grassy area with its trunk open, surrounded by other vintage cars and event tents in the background.

A vintage blue Ford Mustang parked on grass at a car show, with spectators and other vehicles in the background.

This is a busy show so we decided to take a wander around the show before the public were allowed in. We were parked up around two thirds of the way down the field so we started at the end and worked our way towards the main entrance. There was some regular attendees which I skipped over to avoid duplication of other posts.

Firs up is the general view of the show.

A nostalgic scene featuring a vintage green car with its hood open, showcasing the engine. A smiling elderly man stands next to the car, wearing a straw hat and holding a cane, while a second vintage car is visible in the background under a clear blue sky.

Mart’s Car of the show will be revealed in the next post, but this Saab was my runner up.

When we left the show we stopped in a field to take a few pictures. Here is a quick taster for the end of the next post.

A classic blue Ford Mustang parked on a grassy field, showcasing its sleek design and chrome accents.

More in the next post of the amazing cars and the little ad hoc photo shoot as we left the venue.

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Private Showing

Last weekend was a car show with a difference all courtesy of “Grace & Gears” on Instagram. The show was in fact a private car show aimed at content creators to be able to take photos of a few cars at a really nice venue. It wasn’t quite a secret as it was made out to be, secret enough to avoid general public. Matthew and Henry vetted who would attend the event for both the content creators and who would be invited to bring their cars along to provide a varied selection, classic pre war Bentley to modern day supercars. All but a couple of the cars turned up as expected so there was about twenty cars (a couple arrived and went) parked in strategic positions within the grounds to enable some really nice photos. The venue itself was Haughly Park in Suffolk, a mere fifteen minutes away from me. The venue is primarily aimed at weddings and public events so the grounds are immaculate and very picturesque. The content creators were set to arrive between nine thirty to ten, the cars were to turn up ten to ten thirty. I rolled up about ten fifteen and was one of the last cars to be positioned. I followed in a newer Mustang Mach1 and we were directed around a gravel track to be parked outside the front of the main house.

The event advertising post.

Promotional poster for the Grace & Gears automotive media content event, detailing its exclusive nature and purpose for photographers and videographers.

There are so many people I need to acknowledge it would miss some, so I have borrowed Grace & Gears posts where credits are given. Left are the content creators, on the right are the car owners.

I have missed anybody, please let me know and I will add you to the credits. When I see posts of the event and it shows my car I will downloaded them for my own blog.

This first batch of photos are from the venue itself showing the grounds. As we were sorting ourselves out there was a departing wedding party so a couple of cars had to be temporarily moved to allow them to depart. I think a few of them had a look at the cars before they left too.

A large, historic brick mansion with intricate architectural details, surrounded by well-maintained gardens and a gravel path. A vintage car is partially visible on the left side of the photo.

For the cars sequence of photos, I have uploaded the high resolution photos of my car, they may look the same, but they are very slightly different. For the other cars only a slightly lower resolution. Each car has its own little sequence of photos. As most of these photo’s are high resolution each one can be up to thirty megs in size, so give please give them time to load, especially if you have a slow connection.

I tried to get photos of the cars without lots of photographers in the way, then at the end some with them all buzzing around the cars, a behind the scenes if you like. As I parked up I took a few of mine before the content creators were let lose.

A blue 1966 Ford Mustang parked on gravel, featuring chrome details and a lush green backdrop with trees and hedges.

The other three cars out the front of the house:

Combined house photos of the four cars

A classic and modern car show featuring a vintage Jaguar E-Type, a blue Ford Mustang, and a McLaren sports car, set in a well-manicured garden with hedges and a decorative sculpture.

There was a main driveway which had a some supercars parked on it.

Off to the sides near the catering caravan there was a couple of parking spaces.

Along the main drive towards the house were a number of cars parked up in a line.

Some combined shots of the driveway

A custom made Harley Davidson joined us later on in the show.

Walking back to my car I wanted to take some more artistic shots where i could just about see my car through the gap between the hedges on the main drive.

Arriving back to the car for a quick drink there wasn’t many photographers around so I played a little more.

Front view of a blue 1966 Ford Mustang parked on a gravel driveway, showcasing its classic design and shiny chrome details.

A classic blue car parked on gravel, partially framed by green foliage and hedges, in a well-kept garden setting.

A classic blue Mustang parked on a gravel driveway, framed by lush greenery and hedges.

A classic blue Ford Mustang parked elegantly on a gravel driveway, framed by green hedges in a picturesque garden setting.

A classic blue 1966 Ford Mustang parked on a gravel driveway surrounded by lush greenery.

I had a little play around with some black and white versions of the photos.

A classic red Ford Mustang parked in front of a grand historic mansion, captured in black and white.

A classic blue 1966 Ford Mustang parked near bushes, with a vintage car partially visible in the background.

Let me know what you think of the Black & White photos, or should I just leave the colour ones alone?

Behind the scenes photos of the meet.

It was a great day out for a little over fours hours at the meeting and less than fifteen minutes to get home. there were people taking photos as we left the area and I’m yet to see any of those pictures. Once I find them I will share them with you. I’m really pleased with the photos that I have taken, I would love to see what the professionals came up with.

As I was leaving Matthew gave me and all the other drivers a polaroid taken a little earlier, a memento of the day.

A blue classic Mustang parked on a gravel driveway in front of a large historic building, with the caption 'GRACE & GEARS 2025' at the bottom of the photo.

A big thanks to Grace & Gears for the day out and invite. Click here to visit their pages or cut and paste the link: Grace & Gears (@grace_and_gears) • Instagram photos and videos. The guys are looking for more events to host in the future too. Events like these are rare so I’m grateful to have been a part of their first fully organised show. Well done to Grace and Gears; Matthew and Henry.

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Stonham Classic Car Show 2025

I finally have gotten round to writing up the car show I attended a couple of weeks ago. This is perhaps my most local of show venues but does host a variety of shows, not just car shows. The weather promised to be overcast but no rain. The car needed fuel so I would stop of at my local Shell petrol station for a fill up of V-Power. It’s an expensive premium mix compared to the other options, but my car likes it, any other fuel my car runs erratically and just doesn’t run well. I may do a post on different types of fuel mixtures if there is interest for a post, let me know if you think it would be worthwhile post. As I was filling up I had a guy comer up to me wanting to know about the car and I showed him around it. A nice chat and we were lucky as there wasn’t anybody else wanting to get a fill up.

About a mile outside the event I hit the traffic jam, it took me a total of thirty five minutes to get to the gate. The problem is that the there is a car boot sale every Sunday at the venue. The entrance directs the public who are only interested in the car boot sale and parking for that side of the field. The classic cars also have to use the same entrance, in reality for such duel events they should open another entrance to avoid the queues. Let’s face it, most of these old cars don’t like sitting in heavy traffic, mine included. Once I got into the event I was directed to the Bury Retro Car Club allocated spaces which was right in the corner of the field, the furthest point from anywhere.

Front view of a blue classic Ford Mustang parked among other vintage cars at a car show.

The club stand.

WE parked up and had a chat then decided that I should take a walk round the field in a clockwise direction which was becoming a very busy field that was pretty much near to capacity.

This car caught my eye and almost got ‘Mart’s Car of the show’, 1930 Nash Ambassador 8.

There was a trio singing various classic songs to a backing track which was quite nice.

There was some auto jumble for sale but nothing especially brilliant.

The group of other Mustangs at the show:

Mart’s Car Of The Show.

The classic 1974/76 Ford Torino, I was besotted with Starsky & Hutch as a kid and loved the car.

A vintage red and white car with a roof light parked on grass, surrounded by classic cars at a car show.

I found online from a few places a little history of the legendary car.

Starsky and Hutch, the fictional undercover cops portrayed in the 1970s TV series of the same name, catapulted the lead actors Paul Michael Glaser and David Soul into the limelight. But it was their on screen ride a bright red Ford Gran Torino with a distinctive white stripe that stole the show, the high-speed, tire-screeching car chases that punctuated every storyline made the car as famous as the show and the actors themselves. This eye-catching two-door hardtop, with its five-slot mags and pumped-up rear suspension, quickly became a pop culture icon, with vehicles from the show highly sought after today.

The success of the show, which ran for 93 episodes from 1975 to 1979, inspired a string of similarly themed buddy-cop TV shows. “ChiPs” motorcycle officers Baker and Ponch, and “Miami Vice” detectives Crockett and Tubbs, quickly followed in its tire tracks along. Perhaps the other car with such notoriety was with the those Duke boys Bo and Luke jumping, cop evading “The Dukes of Hazzard” in their iconic 1969 Dodge Challenger, the “General Lee”.

When the first series of “Starsky and Hutch” hit the airwaves on America’s ABC, the phone lines of Beverly Hills producers Spelling-Goldberg ran hot, with viewers eager to know where they could purchase such a car. Sensing an opportunity to make money, the clever marketing gurus at Ford rushed to release a limited edition run of just over 1300 lookalikes for the 1976 model year. The existence of these factory replicas along with a fleet of home-built tribute cars that makes it difficult to authenticate any Gran Torino purportedly used in the series.

A red ‘Starsky and Hutch’ style Ford Torino on display at a show.

Ford supplied half a dozen or so 1974-76 Torinos for the TV series, but only three are known to have survived. Stunt cars got V8s of either 400 or 460 ci, and for better acceleration in the signature chase scenes, a few of these were modified with lower ratio gears which had a “Do Not Exceed 50 mph” label on the dash to prevent extreme redline and damaging the engines..

During documentary in 2003 called: “Starsky and Hutch: Making Of Behind The Badge,” the TV series creator William Blinn revealed he originally envisioned the duo driving a green Chevy Camaro convertible, but the producers already had a deal with Ford to supply cars. “My heart broke,” Blinn recalls, “until the guy showed up in the red and white Torino.” The transportation crew had dressed it up like the hottest thing on wheels, he says, when it could hardly get up a steep hill. “Why that car became such a trademark for the show, I truly don’t know,” Blinn muses.

Paul Michael Glaser, who plays the brooding detective Starsky in the series, disliked the car on sight, disparagingly dubbing it “the Striped Tomato.” “I vowed to destroy that car,” Glaser said in the documentary. “Whenever there was an opportunity to hit something, I’d try to hit it.” Despite his heroic efforts to wreck the car, Glaser never managed to do so with the string of replacements ready. Paul continued his disdain for the ‘Striped Tomato’ which failed to diminish its enduring desirability, with one of the show’s on set Torinos fetching a respectable $40,000 at auction in 2014.

Known on the set as Torino #1 and Torino #2, the “Starsky and Hutch” daily drivers had 351 Windsor blocks and auto transmissions. Sadly the gorgeous sounds of the sporty engine and manual gear shifts were added into the show post production. The two cars are distinguishable by their front seats, with car #2 receiving the upgrade from bench to buckets. These “hero cars” were given a hard time during the extensive filming schedules by being jumped on, raced, driven hard, burning through endless amounts of tyres and Paul Glaser driving into trash cans and anything else he could find at the time of shooting. After filming had finished the show’s Torinos were auctioned off by Ford.

Those Torinos have passed through the hands of fans and collectors alike, with each eventually being lovingly restored to its prime-time condition. Some twenty-five years later, the continued success of the 70’s TV series inspired a big screen remake, with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson in the lead roles Starsky and Hutch. At the British premiere, Torino #2 rolled out on the red carpet alongside original actors Paul Michael Glaser, David Soul, and Antonio Fargas — who played their streetwise confidante, Huggy Bear.

Actors David Soul (Hutch), Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky), and Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear) from the TV series ‘Starsky & Hutch’ pose on the bonnet of a Ford Torino at the premiere of the 2004 movie remake.

Torino #1 was displayed at The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles as recently as 2023, with parts of the car autographed by stars and crew from the series. Another car from the 1970s TV series can be seen at The Auto Collections in Las Vegas. Not many cars have made me ‘star struck’, but this car did from the age of nine when I was allowed top stay up and watch the program it if I was good, which always worked. Even today this car still has a menacing road presence and still looks amazing.

The entrance to the show ground was now to be come the exit, with a single lane dirt track out. The car boot show had all but wrapped up so there wouldn’t be the delays getting out. With that all taken into consideration I still left an hour early to make sure I missed any leaving antics. The trip home was relaxed, but the clouds were starting to look very dark and grey, I needn’t have worried as it didn’t come to anything.

A good selection of cars again, but they really do need to sort out the entrance to these events.

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Hedingham Castle Car Show

This car show is held at the oldest event that I attend. The castle itself is located in Essex and was built in the year 1140 by Aubrey II. There are many event types hosted here such as jousting, weddings, holidays, outdoor cinema, concerts etc. the one I’m most interested in is the annual car show. This year the sun was out and due to stay out all day. The event is held approx. thirty miles away from me and would take forty seven minutes to get there, mainly due to the minor roads and a town to navigate through. The gates open to the public at eleven, so all participants had to arrive by ten fifteen and be parked up by ten forty five. IT was a car show day and I was going to get a lay-in on a Sunday, win win for me! A really relaxing for two thirds of the drive until I got to Sudbury where a complete idiot, (which wasn’t what I called him), decided that he wanted to turn right after being in the left hand only lane. He chopped across the front of me so hard I had to brake hard and swerve out of the way. Obviously he knew I would back out the way as I wouldn’t want to damage my car. So if you are the driver of the red Mazda CX-5 who chopped in front of me with a car full of kids who might be reading this, may I suggest you take a couple of refresher driving lessons, or please come and find me at a car show where I might accept your apology and discuss your total disregard for other road users. I just seem to attract these morons for some reason. Anyway, the last part of the journey was around some winding country roads with some amazing views. I even had a classic Jaguar behind me, who left plenty of space between us and seemed to be enjoying his drive too.

I pulled into the venue and was told where my parking allocation would be at the ‘lake’ area.

A classic blue Ford Mustang parked at a car show with various other vintage cars in the background, surrounded by trees and event attendees.

The field was filling up and lots of cars were already in their lines. I gave the car the mandatory wipe over and started my walk up and down the field.

A blue 1966 Ford Mustang prominently displayed at a car show with various vintage cars and attendees in the background.

Some beautiful Corvettes were parked in the line I was in.

Where I was parked us were two Mustangs right behind me.

A real soft spot of mine is the beautiful Thunderbird, which was for sale.

I still crave these Audi Quattro, my modern day classic choice.

The Lotus stand was well represented.

I had now completed the field and started to walk up the slight hill towards the castle and the next display of cars.

A busy car show at Hedingham Castle with attendees walking among various classic cars and lush greenery.

At the top was the little bridge to get to the castle and the field. There was the usual food and drink stalls along with a three piece band to add a little light entertainment.

This field was mainly club stands with newish cars from MG which I didn’t take that many photo’s of. But the other privateers were worth the time to look around.

I walked back to the car for a well earned sit down in the chair and slap on some factor fifty sunscreen. My mate Craig had caught up with me and joined me for a sit down and chat. I was so hot sitting by the back of my car, we moved to the line of trees for some shade and discussed cars from the show.

A vibrant car show featuring various classic and vintage cars displayed on a grassy area with people mingling in the background.

My car of the show was this rather nice 1959 El Camino, I think its the rear fins that did it for me.

The show was due to close at four, about half an hour before that the cars started to leave. I decided that as it was hot I would join them for the journey home. The journey was amazing and there was hardly anybody on the roads near me which means I could just meander my way home unstressed.

A great day out again and a welcome return back to Hedingham Castle.

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Helmingham Hall Car Show 2025 (part 3)

This is the final instalment (part 3) of the Helmingham Hall car show for this year. I have covered some of the T110 area, the privateer cars and a relaxing (very British) tea and cake early in the afternoon. The last field to go which is on the right hand side as you walk out the Hall was reserved for the club stands. A little later I will reveal my car of the show and along with some action photos of my car that Craig took.

A lively car show scene at Helmingham Hall, featuring a variety of vintage and modern cars, with attendees socializing on the grass and club stands in the background.

We worked our way towards the far end of the field and would work our way back to the rest of the T110 cars where I had parked.

One of the Best looking Ferrari made, the 308. They look amazing in red, but this example in blue with tan interior totally rocks the combination. Crowd fund me (again) anybody?

The Subaru cars often have the nick-name Scoobies after the Scooby Do cartoon, I think somebody took it to the next level though.

Lotus stand had a nice mixture of cars

The Simply Mustang stand had the usual later models of cars with not a classic to be seen which was a shame. I mentioned about the Bullitt anniversary limited edition cars, on this stand there was another couple parked in a line, so that’s a total of three in one show.

Directly behind the the Mustangs was the Corvette club stand.

Taking up a large chunk of the field was the larger stands for Jaguar, BMW both of which looked very samey with mostly more modern cars that could be found in any carpark, so I didn’t take too many pictures of these stands.

The Jenson and Aston Martin stands were a different story though.

Honda NSX in yellow, works for me.

We were now back to the top of the field just in time to get to the main driveway where cars are driven up and down to show the crowds after being interviewed by the compare for the day about their cars.

We made our way back to the T110 area and look at the rest of the cars parked on the other side of the drive to me. Then it happened; it started to rain, it was a very light sprinkling not a proper down poor. The owners of the open top cars were diving around trying to make their cars waterproof and sitting in their cars. It was something like an old school Le Mans racing start people running to their cars.

It would be nice to see a Delorean car without the ‘Back to the Future’ movie car props bolted into it.

Back at the car we got our chairs out ready for a a couple of hours people watching before we were allowed to leave the show at four thirty. We sat in the very fine drizzle which cooled the air down and I only had some minor beading on the car which wasn’t enough to run of the car. The fine misty rain lasted for a around twenty minutes after which the sun made more short appearances. The light breeze soon helped to dry the car off, no need to book a therapy session because my car got wet.

Mart’s Car of the Show.

According to the registration plate this is a Dunsmore MKIII from 1967, with a 3.4ltr engine. This is actually a kit car based on the rather average at the time Hillman Imp donor vehicle of the era below.

A vintage white car parked on a paved surface, surrounded by greenery.

I don’t know why I choose this over the more obvious ‘bought not built’ cars. Perhaps it was the green leather stitched up the back of the car or the (suspected) Jaguar engine under the hood which I sadly didn’t get to see. But, I appreciated the huge amount of work that has gone into this car from what it was, to what it is now. It was just different and caught my eye.

As the time moved slowly towards leaving time the sky was getting darker and more menacing. We decided to leave sooner than later in case the drizzle came to a lot more than that. As we were packing up Craig had an idea; as we were allowed to drive down the full length of the drive he would run ahead get a good position to take a couple of action shots. I wouldn’t be to popular to hold people up so we could get some good photo’s, but so be it. As I was one of the first to leave it wasn’t to busy to be fair. The guy in the Aston Martin behind me realised what was going on, he thoughtfully sat back from me to allow it to happen. Here are those photos which look pretty cool.

A view of Helmingham Hall with classic cars parked outside. A pathway leads to the entrance, framed by trees and banners for 'Bridge Classic Cars'.

A classic blue Ford Mustang driving on a gravel path surrounded by greenery and event fencing.

A classic blue Ford Mustang driving along a tree-lined path at a car show.

A vintage blue Mustang driving down a tree-lined path at a car show.

A blue classic Mustang car driving past trees at the Helmingham Hall car show.

After these action photos I stopped the car and Craig jumped in to start our trek home. As a reward for his picture taking efforts, I found a quiet place to pull over, we swapped seats and Craig drove the last dozen or so miles home. We pulled onto the drive as a few spots of more sinister sized drops of rain intermittently started to land on the car. I ran around the car as quickly as possible to get the road film off knowing what was about to come down. Immediately the cleaning had finished, I jumped straight into the car as the rain started to literally fall out the sky as I moved the car forward, within seconds there were pools of water in the road and on the drive, everything was soaked, it was if somebody had turned a shower on. I got the car in the garage with only a few spots of rain on the top of the car. The drying towels came out to wipe the car over yet again, before covering the car over.

Close-up view of a blue car roof with water droplets, showing a garage interior in the background.

A delay by another minute or so and the car would have been drenched and the therapy session would have to have been booked! The rain wasn’t letting up, Craig took out his camera’s SD Card as we ran into the house. I downloaded his photo’s onto my PC ready to edit them a bit later for this series of posts. Once the rain eased up an hour or so later Craig left for home with my thanks.

It was a great day at my favourite show of the year, fantastic cars, lots of nice people that I spoke to and mate with me for the day, which was nice change from being on my own. Thanks to Craig for the photos and putting up with me dragging him around the fields, although the tea and cake helped I’m sure.

A blue classic car, likely a Ford Mustang, parked on a green lawn with trees in the background. The view is from the rear of the car, showcasing its round taillights and license plate, which reads '1966 OX' from Michigan. A gravel path is visible, leading to other vehicles and people in the distance.

I have only four more potential shows that I’m booked in for. Hopefully I will find some more where I can just turn up.

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Helmingham Hall Car Show 2025 (part 2)

Continuing on from part one of this car show series at Helmingham Hall, Craig and I still had many lines of cars which now seemed to have no logical alignment due to the number of cars as I mentioned previously. By no means a criticism, I just think they had more than they catered for, which means more lovely machinery for us to look at.

We worked our way up the decade assigned rows in ascending order, towards the two thousand’s line I didn’t take that many photos, as to be honest there wasn’t anything really special, well maybe the the odd one or two which did catch my eye.

The timeless beauty of the Aston Martin Vantage – I may start a go fund me page to buy one of these, anybody want to start me of with a donation?

Maybe a crowd funded Chevy Camaro SS, again beautiful.

Did I mention a crowd fund for a Dodge Charger R/T? Stunning.

I remember these Lotus cars quite clearly as it was all the rage to have the JPS – John Player Special (cigarette manufacturers) livery on the Lotus cars which was made famous by the legend of Ayrton Senna. Today it’s unthinkable to have such livery on a car, shame because it was such an iconic brand.

A classic black Formula 1 car with a distinctive gold 'John Player Special' livery, driven by Ayrton Senna on a racetrack.

We found Craig’s mate’s MX5, so I couldn’t resist a checky business card on his screen.

As I mentioned before this field is for the individual entries of which there was a few Mustangs dotted around. There was an anniversary Bullitt which is supposed to be quite rare, but more on that in part 3 when I get to the Mustang stand.

Back to the other modern cars in the lines.

At the far end of the field was a section dedicated for the army vehicles.

The time was now a quarter to one, so we made our way back to the Hall’s courtyard for the tea and cakes. On the way we passed John Grose of Ipswich who had a stand just to the side of the T110 section. On their stand was a Mustang Dark Horse which turns out a rather nice 500bhp from factory. The 0 to 60mph time is a mare 4.1 seconds! That’s right up there with many super cars and almost hyper car levels of performance.

A modern Ford Mustang parked on green grass at a car show, with people and tents in the background.

On the John Grose stand next to Dark Horse they had a more eco friendly Ford electric model and other makes of cars to fill the spaces.

All of this while being serenaded by the brass band playing Star Wars and other theme tunes.

A brass band performing under a tent in a park, surrounded by an audience. Musicians are playing various instruments, while some audience members watch from a distance.

A couple of minutes later we were at the main entrance, crossed over the little moat bridge into the courtyard. I turned around to look back out to the fields.

The courtyard was eerily quiet, no hustle and bustle of people. We had a choice of cakes which were hand made and rather scrumptious, I could easily have demolished a couple more slices. Craig chose his cup of tea to go with his chocolate cake, I had the raspberry ripple. I don’t drink tea or coffee for no other reason than I don’t like the taste of them, never have. I asked for a cold drink if they had any, my option was a cup of water that they used to boil and make the tea with or nothing. I took the kind offer of the cup of water.

We sat and ate our cakes and just relaxed for half an hour or so. The little tables were spread out around the court yard far enough apart that we didn’t have to listen to anybody else, in fact the silence was quite tranquil.

A quick pic of craig doing his thing before the crowds got going.