Happy Days Up Norf
 

Well today I did a little round trip up Norf.

First stop was Vmax, who kindly supplied me with 2 bottles of argon and let me have a sneaky peak at his chassis :) and made a very nice cuppa. I have to apologise here to Mrs Vmax for the slightly awkward moment when she came down from the shower all dressed up in a towel not realising Dave had me and a couple of nippers in the dining room talking roadster :eek:

Dave, thanks for the patience in me getting up there, much appreciated. I hope you and Mrs Vmax had a good day at the gardens, I'm looking forward to seeing your build progress.

Talking cone cutters now I've had a set of three for 6/7 years and they're still as good as gold, I've always found the stepped ones much better than the tapered ones, here's the biggest of the 3:



Second stop was HandyAndy, well what can I say, Andy is an absolutely top bloke! we talked about a lot of things both personal and roadster. Andy took both my nippers for a spin round the block in his car which absolutely made their day, up until then they hadn't really understood what their 'mad dad' was planning on building but the excitement on their faces was clear to see. On the way home little Louie said 'thats the nicest man I've ever met'. Andy also very kindly offered me the chance to take his roadster for a spin myself, the trouble is I'm a bit of a short arse and couldn't reach his pedals :o

From talking to Andy one thing is blatantly obvious, he is very proud of the car he has built from scratch and that is fully justified! He also has some very nice plans for its future. I got the opportunity to look in all the nooks and crannies to see how Andy has built his car and came away with inspiration on many different levels from technical to emotional.

All in all me and the kids had a cracking day out, there really is no substitute to matching faces to names and seeing their progress in the flesh.

My only regret of the day was I would have also liked to have met Kev and see his build in the flesh, especially now he's in painting mode, unfortunately he's another half hour north and I had to be back south for 3.30pm (there again he may not have wanted to meet me lol!)

Anyway a big thanks to both Dave and Andy.

Bruce did you take a translator:rolleyes: :)

pm sent

Bob

Thanks bruce was good to meet you and the kids sorry I did not have more time to chat but a brilliant day was had at the gardens then we went to holy island for dinner

Robo no translator needed mrs vmax is a kentish southerner anyway

I used to work with a lot of northerners, and have shared a few very messy nights out in Newcastle so kind of feel a little at home :)

you would have been more than welcome Bruce....drop me a line if you are up here again in the future.;)

Cheers Kev, If I'm heading up again I definitely will give you a shout :)

+1 for that Bruce. HandyAndy kindly offered to view a car for me and then sorted out the issues and bolted on the new suspension etc. As i wasn't now building from scratch that made my MX5 donor surplus - and as Vmax was looking for an MX5 we joined up the dots and i trailed the Mx5 to Stockton, met Vmax and Andy and brought the MK Indy back in a round trip. Very nice to meet Vmax, Mrs Vmax and Andy, lots of tea drunk and the world put to rights.

Hi Bruce ( again soz for slow reply ).

Was a pleasure to meet you & the boys ( may I say...2 very well behaved & polite kids you have there :cool: ).

Glad to hear you enjoyed giving my car the once over & thanks for your kind comments of it :) .

I take my hat off to you Bruce, top man for being the "Dad of Seven"....i,m sure it can,t be easy at times but if the 2 lads that were with you that day are anything to go by you are doing a TOP JOB....great kids , glad they enjoyed the spin in the Roadster :)

Keep us all updated with the progress of your build .

cheers
andy