July/ August Minor Matters Has Arrived!

When the post came through the letterbox this morning I was very excited to see that the July/ August edition of the Morris Minor Owners Club Bimonthly magasine has been issued!

I am especially excited for this issue for 2 reasons. Firstly the National Rally at Cornbury Park took place the other weekend and the magasine was packed full of stories and reviews from that, which were really great to read and relive the moment.

Also, as happens every year, a group of Morris Minor owners hop on a ferry across the channel and drive round France for a week. This is something which always catches my attention and is something that I would really like to do next year, so I was looking forward to reading all about it this year, to get excited for next and try and gain some sneaky peaks at where they might be staying next year.

This is something that has become a well established tradition within the owners club and is something that is really a social highlight of the Owners Club calender. This, to ordinary folk, really will epitomise their distaste for classic car owners: Boring, old and sad. True, ture and true.

But I am proud to call myself one, not least because it is a sense of belonging that owning a classic car brings. There are not many times these days when another motorist will stop and help you if you are broken down, but Morris Minor Owners always do that. It is a recognised thing from one owner to another to pip the horn and wave like a mad-man, or maybe in a slightly more toned down way if there is a girfriend present in the car, and it is something which we call all relate to other people with.

It may seem all weird and creepy and like an old man's club, but really, it is just the same as any football club or social event that happens down the pub. And it is for that reason that I love owning a Morris Minor. Not only can I take pride in what I drive, but I can be part of something that I enjoy. And that is the fun of the Minor.

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

My Advancing DIY Skills

With all this free time and all these things that I want to get done on my car, over the past 6 months I have been trying to make myself a more manly man. Being able to fix things is the forefront of this really. This I have tried to apply throughout my entire life, at home, on my car, at work, at school, being a more mature and a more practical kinda guy.

I suppose it is all part of the search that every 18 year old goes through on their road to university and the real world, to develop and mature and become an independent person in their own right, with their own skills, talents, personality and qualities. In a wishy-washy sense that I dislike so much, it is finding yourself.

I digress, as per normal, from the main point I was talking about. Being practical. It started with the car really, realising that classic cars don't look after themselves and having to learn about it to really understand when things go wrong. I have tried in the past to be a bit more practical, and to be honest, I did do quite a good job. My first ever woodwork/ DIY task was to build a run for the chikens in the garden. I did everything, from designing the frames to choosing the screws to laying the block paving base. I have to say for myself, that even the door of the chicken run fits better than the gate Dad made!

I proved to myself that I had the capacity to be able to do stuff, albeit with guidance from my "Bodgit And Scarper" grandad (as all grandads have to be) and it is from this that I have found inspiration to start revarnishing the woodwork on my car.

I also spent an entire week, getting up early and starting with a cup of tea in hand to redecorate a 2 bedroom cottage in North Yorkshire from top to bottom: wallpapering walls, painting ceilings, repairing window frames, weeding and decluttering outside. It was a great achievement at the end of the week for all of us who got stuck in, and I think this satisfaction is something that young people often overlook when doing things in their free time, but it really is worth it in the end.

And I suppose that is what maturity is to me: realising that short-term loss is very much long-term gain, and putting a lot of hard work will give you much more staisfaction in the end, as apposed to gaming and things like that, that provide instant gratification, but you never really achieve anything by it. The next step on from this of course is being able to apply this, and that is what I am currently working on. I tend to get bored of things very easily, but this time I am not going to get distracted or anything like that.

All the woodwork on my car is almost all revarnished and looking as beautiful as ever, and Alrewas Radio looms. This is something that I am definitely going to throw myself at and really see it through to the bitter end, even if it kills me, which it very much might do...

Thanks for reading.

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

9/7/13: Moggy Update

Despite my slightly off-putting start yesturday morning, I have soldiered on today, sanding and varnishing the back and the other side of my car to yesturday, meaning that I only have 1 more bit, and load of coats of varnish, to finish the job.

This is a prospect that excvites me greatly as I am not ery good at finishing a job, so the idea of actually getting there is great! I have also had a lot of fun doing it today. There is something quite theraputic about it, and I now feel a lot closer to the car, I feel like I should be taking a bit more care when driving and looking after it. This is all good stuff.

I have also been thinking a lot about what Ishould be doing as the next steps with the car too. I know I need to do the wheels, and I would really like to build a caravan or a trailer of some sort, but it is what and how that is puzzling me. I quite like the idea of a teardrop trailer, yet I also like the idea of it looking a little bit like a chicken run, seeing as the car has been a farm runaround for a large part of its life. 

However thinking into the long term, I thought about the wood and the bodywork. The trouble is, to replace all the wood and respray the bodywork, it seems to me like you take away all the character of the car. That little bit of a scratch adn a dent here and there tells a story of the cars working past, and the discolouration in the wood adds to the authenticity of the car. In fact, I think I will preserve the little scratches and lumps and bumps, it is a part of the cars heritage and that is something I should be proud to be driving round in.

So really the work on my part is going to be in making the car look as wacky as I can: roof racks; suitcases and picnic hampers; floral galands and dreamcatchers; things like number plates, wheel trims and seat covers; and finally trailers and other addons.

I defintely feel the need for another post about the trailer. Imagine how cool it would be to drive around towing a little chicken run, which is actually a fully operating caravanette, with bed, cooker, storage and even some little gadgets and stuff!

Thanks for reading!