1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

Oh look, it's that loser with the chopped up Princess

This is something that's been on my mind just lately, I've been keeping it to myself.  So permit me, if you will, a bit of a digression and some thoughts on the other side of a project like this.  I try, very hard, to be positive at all times with this project.  Sometimes I don't manage it, I've had my fair share of wobbles over the last couple of years, several house moves and funerals and other life uncertainties do that.  So I'm going to share some of the negative aspects because I realise I can be a little short with people when they express an opinion and may seem to be over reacting.

Now, on the internet, particularly on my build diaries, I have people assume I'm in my late teens or early twenties.  This is based seemingly on my apparent lack of skills and my enthusiasm for what I'm building.  I'm actually in my mid-thirties but my car mindset and enthusiasm has remained pretty much the same since I was too young to see over the steering wheel.  I adore kustoms, led sleds and some hot rods.  I'm inspired, to this day, by Ed Roth, Gene Winfield, numerous nameless van builders of the 70s, back street garage builders of the 80s and any number of anonymous enthusiasts who have built special bits of automobilia on any sort of budget.  The things I could build with a greater budget, or more time...

Thing is, the online and real world presence of these particular scenes have never been very welcoming to me.  Retro Rides is the only modified vehicle forum that has been at all welcoming to my somewhat eclectic and sometimes downright strange taste in vehicles and it's a big reason I stick around.  The Hot Rod and Kustom scene I so admire don't want me, or my opinions, or my cars, that's been made abundantly clear over the years so I steer away from them and their forums, I make friends with individuals that get it rather than those with deep pockets that don't.

So that's my first big disappointment.  The very group I want to be part of doesn't want me, because I'm too poor and weird.  That sucks.  I could have fitted in by buying a different car, say a Morris Minor perhaps, and doing it by numbers - satin black paint, red wheels, chrome tat, etc. - and then I'd be welcomed into their club.  I wouldn't be happy with that though, there's no point being part of a group if you have to pretend to be someone else, that's just daft.

The other thing is people in the real world.  You really would not believe how RUDE people are!  If I'm out in the Princess trundling around and it's working fine I get compliments from those that owned one, wide eye stares from kids that have no idea what it is and generally a good vibe.  The moment I open the bonnet it all changes.  I could just be opening the bonnet to fill up the screen wash and you can feel the derision coming.  The people that have to wander over and make snide remarks about your rubbish car.  While it's been in the unit and I've been working on it things have been worse, utter strangers will happily tell me how f*cked my car is.

Why are you bothering with that old heap?

They were curse word when they were new, nothing's changed!

What've you done that to it for?

You're wasting your time.


It's gets to you.  Normally I could put up with it, I own undesireable cars partly because it's what I like, mostly because it's what I can afford.  I look after them as best I'm able and they're the closest thing to children I expect I'll ever have.  It's just it gets tiring, the constant nagging and abuse and downright unpleasantness.  You begin to question everything you do.  I know this problem isn't restricted to owning a Princess, I know it happens with all cars, all projects, but for some reason with the Princess people are particularly nasty about it.  An opinion is one thing, some of the things people say are an entirely different thing, it's just abuse.

That's why sometimes I have wanted to pack it all in and call it quits.  I'm glad I haven't, I get excited every time I look at the car.  I've made this happen, it's my baby and I've built it.  I don't care, at my core, that other people are OFFENDED by it, part of me gets an adolescent glee out of that!  Which is why I try my best to focus on what I'm doing, to look ahead, to post on the forums for those gems of positivity that are offered.  Not to mention the advice, help and useful information that is so often provided!

The upshot of getting all this abuse is that I'm less inclined to give it out.  I'm more tolerant of what other people build, of the styles they choose to adopt and what they are saying to the world about themselves.  Often you get the criticism on here that we're not allowed to say bad things but from what I've been experiencing personally it can be a relief to post somewhere that people will express concerns but won't just pile insults on my work.  This diary (and the others I keep on other forums) helps keep me motivated, has kept me on track for the past couple of years even through my wobbles.

I hope this diary has another purpose too.  When I started out I wanted people to see that building a project car is hard but ultimately rewarding.  I wanted people to see the ups and downs, the good stuff and the bad.  Too often you see a thread where it's "here's my car, I spent some money, it's ace now" which totally glosses over how hard it was to save up the cash, how much research they did into the parts they wanted, what a chore the car might have been to source and all that.  There's more to modifying than bolting shorter springs and fancy wheels on.

So a big thank you to those that do support me in my endeavours.  A big apology to those I might have offended by being, well, me.  Finally, a big fat up yours to anyone that thinks that telling me my car is sh!t is going to ever achieve anything.