As some of you may know, this year the Gathering fell on my daughters 17th birthday ;D
She likes to think that Hotwire chose the day because she asked nicely and fluttered her eyelashes while at last years summer slam ;D ;D
Well, 17 on the day of a fuggin ace car show!! somthing just has to be done
Soooo under great secrecy I decided to buy a car, sort it and deliver it to her at the gathering.
First car was a Chevette
but with personal issues I never got round to the welding it needed so with the year passing by thing were looking down
Then one day on the way home from work there was a traffic jam so I decided to go home via a lane I know. I drove passed a Nova with a for sale sign in the window, it looked clean so a quick turn round I stopped for a better look around. Lovely chap and a stunning car, I put up a thread about it but as it was too dear I didn't really give it much thought.
The Chevette was looking doubtfull so cogs were turning and the Nova came to mind again. I called back and got the price down a little but it was still out of my useual range. A chat with parents and a lot of thought I decided to go with it, went back but he had agreed the sale
But...
It was to a car dealer and he was not happy about and besides that he had said if someone came up with pennies he would call me which he didn't do so I managed to persuade him to try and cancel the sale. He did, I don't know what was said but I was happy, skint but happy
I now owned this lovely little red Nova
Very clean and only 8k on the clock!
It wasn't running and had no TnT so work started immediatly.
So over the next few weeks I set about it, fuel system first, new lines and a new fuel pump, an hour or two in the carb poking jets and it ran
Changed brake fluid, patched a hole in the exhaust and booked an MOT, a bit of cleaning, greasing, take apart and reassemble sort of stuff and drove it to the tester.
It passed first time and caused quite a stir at the station due to its cleaness
I then had to plan the gathering
Brian Damaged was straight in to volunteer to drive the Nova down, we decided to just park it somwhere on site as she could see it but would just think it was another car so I enlisted the help of newly married Grizz and mrs Grizz, who claimed it as their own for a day
We then had to get rid of her when it arrived so she would not see Brian in it, Yeovil is a great place to spend a few hours
Back from Yeovil to meet Brian and we got her in the Dutton and let her loose
Next was how to get rid of her on Sunday morning while we wrapped the car up. So I rang a local driving instructor, Easy drive, and a lovelly lady called Phillipa agreed to pick her up of the site at 9 on sunday morning ;D
I contacted the Museum as I thought they might like a little publicity, Mike Penn was the chap I spoke to and he very kindly agreed to the car being parked in the main area in front of the museum, Matt Piper was the manager on the day and he sorted a spot and got us in.
With some help we wrapped the car in a fetching pink paper and placed the cake on the bonnet and waited her arrival.
When she returned it was opening time, somewhat shellshocked she ripped paper, a lot of paper!!
It was then a drive into the show, her first show in her own car and with her own ticket ;D
A wonderful cheer greeted us as we drove in which was really nice ;D
Parked up in front of the stand and cut some cake
She was well and truly shocked, she knew nothing ;D ;D
It has caused me a shed load of stress keeping quiet but it was worth it
We had been in touch with the Western Daily press as a bit of publicity never hurts
there is gaps in this as it is late and I am sat here 1/2 asleep I know more pics were taken so they may fill some of it
It has been an awesome weekend as usual but I seem to have missed big chunk of the "normal" stuff, roll on 2011 ;D ;D
I would like to thank everyone for keeping quiet, Brian for being a star, Gung-ho rally team for bringing Brian, the wrappers, Johnny, Morgs etc, the museum for allowing us in, Hotwire and crew for the right dates, as well as my own family and freinds, wife, son, mother etc ;D ;D
She likes to think that Hotwire chose the day because she asked nicely and fluttered her eyelashes while at last years summer slam ;D ;D
Well, 17 on the day of a fuggin ace car show!! somthing just has to be done
Soooo under great secrecy I decided to buy a car, sort it and deliver it to her at the gathering.
First car was a Chevette
but with personal issues I never got round to the welding it needed so with the year passing by thing were looking down
Then one day on the way home from work there was a traffic jam so I decided to go home via a lane I know. I drove passed a Nova with a for sale sign in the window, it looked clean so a quick turn round I stopped for a better look around. Lovely chap and a stunning car, I put up a thread about it but as it was too dear I didn't really give it much thought.
The Chevette was looking doubtfull so cogs were turning and the Nova came to mind again. I called back and got the price down a little but it was still out of my useual range. A chat with parents and a lot of thought I decided to go with it, went back but he had agreed the sale
But...
It was to a car dealer and he was not happy about and besides that he had said if someone came up with pennies he would call me which he didn't do so I managed to persuade him to try and cancel the sale. He did, I don't know what was said but I was happy, skint but happy
I now owned this lovely little red Nova
Very clean and only 8k on the clock!
It wasn't running and had no TnT so work started immediatly.
So over the next few weeks I set about it, fuel system first, new lines and a new fuel pump, an hour or two in the carb poking jets and it ran
Changed brake fluid, patched a hole in the exhaust and booked an MOT, a bit of cleaning, greasing, take apart and reassemble sort of stuff and drove it to the tester.
It passed first time and caused quite a stir at the station due to its cleaness
I then had to plan the gathering
Brian Damaged was straight in to volunteer to drive the Nova down, we decided to just park it somwhere on site as she could see it but would just think it was another car so I enlisted the help of newly married Grizz and mrs Grizz, who claimed it as their own for a day
We then had to get rid of her when it arrived so she would not see Brian in it, Yeovil is a great place to spend a few hours
Back from Yeovil to meet Brian and we got her in the Dutton and let her loose
Next was how to get rid of her on Sunday morning while we wrapped the car up. So I rang a local driving instructor, Easy drive, and a lovelly lady called Phillipa agreed to pick her up of the site at 9 on sunday morning ;D
I contacted the Museum as I thought they might like a little publicity, Mike Penn was the chap I spoke to and he very kindly agreed to the car being parked in the main area in front of the museum, Matt Piper was the manager on the day and he sorted a spot and got us in.
With some help we wrapped the car in a fetching pink paper and placed the cake on the bonnet and waited her arrival.
When she returned it was opening time, somewhat shellshocked she ripped paper, a lot of paper!!
It was then a drive into the show, her first show in her own car and with her own ticket ;D
A wonderful cheer greeted us as we drove in which was really nice ;D
Parked up in front of the stand and cut some cake
She was well and truly shocked, she knew nothing ;D ;D
It has caused me a shed load of stress keeping quiet but it was worth it
We had been in touch with the Western Daily press as a bit of publicity never hurts
there is gaps in this as it is late and I am sat here 1/2 asleep I know more pics were taken so they may fill some of it
It has been an awesome weekend as usual but I seem to have missed big chunk of the "normal" stuff, roll on 2011 ;D ;D
I would like to thank everyone for keeping quiet, Brian for being a star, Gung-ho rally team for bringing Brian, the wrappers, Johnny, Morgs etc, the museum for allowing us in, Hotwire and crew for the right dates, as well as my own family and freinds, wife, son, mother etc ;D ;D