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Well long time no update. Not a lot has happened for a while I'm afraid, my paint guy is too busy so I'm going to have to paint it myself, and well getting married, work, getting Lauren's mk2 to work (damn thing) and generally being all kinds of busy has meant that it isn't done yet.

But there is movement in the right direction. The interior is stripped and just needs keying. The paint is here - so basically I just need to get some paint on it.

Plus we've had some very very good news - Lauren has been on the case and we got this back from Bruichladdich

"....This looks tremendous! We have absolutely no problem giving your our fonts and Pantone for such a brilliant restoration. Please take pictures and send them on as we would love to see the end result, in the meantime, my colleagues will send you everything you need. Please advise your address and we will send a bottle of The Classic Laddie as well – just to make sure the colours match… ...."

WIN! ;D

So one of these should turn up soon, along with all the logos -



I'll try be good and not open it till the car is looking right Anyone know a really good vinyl cutting place?

Where you based?

Hey guys, had a lovely morning watching some hill climbing yesterday, and thought I'd share a few photos - sorry about the phone quality of them!

First up a few shots of my work colleague's Alfa, which really is a thing of beauty. If you ever spot it really is worth taking a few minutes to have a look around. The build quality and attention to detail is amazing - and if Simon (the owner/driver) is about he's a great guys to have a chat with - I'll warn you he'll probably convince you that you want to go hill climbing though!











Like I said, amazing details. Easily my favorite car on track, but there was a thing of beauty of equal engineering quality in the car park.

I give you Delahaye Type 135. Not normally my sort of thing, 30's cars, but this was stunning. There are very few cars that I could happily loose hours just investigating it's details, but this had exquisite design and craftmanship qualities few mechanical things possess. Basically, I want one, badly.











Third set of shots is something I know a lot of people hear will like. It's a healy coupe and I think it just looks amazing in it's semi rebuilt state - the club had a great range cars from this right up to perfectly detailed restored cars, nice to see a more laid back classic car group.
















Finally, a few more shots of the a few of the more retro cars -





























Get the feeling I may have to get involved in all this myself - seems the Capri would be perfect for the historic saloon class if I changed the engine type. Hope you enjoy to photos

Looks a nice meet, and a beautiful road to ride down - the Aegean coast is amazing. Thanks for sharing

Think this is the one I'd take home - not my usual choice, but love that colour.

Basically you need to do a few phone calls and make sure what you're quoted for give you what you need. Also see if joining an owners club can save you money - 4 yrs ago I was insuring a 1996 Jag XJ6 for £200 a year as a second car as a member of the Jag owners club - it was £700 as a non club member!

Can certainly get only car as classic and with commuting, I used to run my Superminx as main car, and got cheap classic insurance - again through Lancaster.

Another thing to be aware of is some classic policies do build NCD, but they take a little finding. Herts insurance do a modified classic policy (something a simple as a set of alloys qualifies you as modified) from Highway insurance (LV sub brand I think), this builds NCD but is nearly as cheap as a standard classic policy and allows commuting and some trackday cover, plus agreed value. Lauren's Capri is up to 3yrs NCD now, with all it's mods (and there's a few, many which increase performance) it costs her about £300 a year I think on that type of policy.

Hi folks

Here we have the back end of Volvo Amazon. This was cut out of a very rotten donor car, just in case I ever got around to making a 2 seater sofa out of it.

I'd say it's the perfect size for it, and with some steel frame work, some plywood paneling, foam pads and a lot of filler/paint (plus some rear lenses) it'd look amazing. Sadly I've still too many projects and even more ideas.....

I'm opening at £50, but only because I know it'll be worth a lot more if done nice. To be honest turn up with cash and will happily do a deal as could do with it gone sooner rather than later.

Located in Southam, Warks., and can be lifted easily by two people - will go in the back of an estate. PM me if you want to have a look.

So photos - yes it really did some from a rotten car!

So one rebuilt head



a fancy multi layer head gasket



and a lot of rebuilding later....

ITS FIXED (hopefully for more than a few days this time too!)

Good job as well as Lauren want to use it to drive herself to our wedding in, which is less than 2 weeks away! Might even crack out the polish for that

Cheers guys - would be tempted to upgrade something - but it's only been on the road 2 weeks!

Will get it sorted, needs to be ready for Lauren to drive to our wedding!

Damn it, seems it's my fault it's bust...

Seems the crank pulley bolt is a stretch type, so I shouldn't have reused it. Basically it lost torque, the crank sprocket lost compression meaning all the load went through the small loctaion pin that then sheared off - result, 6 bent valves! Yay

Everything is repairable obviously, but question is do I buy another engine or replace the valves, skim the head and rebuild it all?

Might be better to rebuild, least I know it's all good then, but we'll see....

All for a £6 bolt, I'm such a muppet sometimes (!)