Wot I Dun On My 'Ols

[trigger]

Nice spots Eddie, especially the Charmant, that Cresta is a homemade conversation and I believed it's owned by Graham who owns the Mitsubishi Sapporo that I want to buy.

[dollywobbler]

I think the VdP Aggro is ex-Danny Hopkins, and was at the PC resto show.

[EssDeeWon]

Good spots the orange festa is straight out of 1993.

[hairnet]

mmmm daf

[eddyramrod]

Daf?  DAF??????????  How far behind are you????  Catch up man, that was last year!

 

DW and Trig, I suspect you may both be correct in your assumptions.

[DVee8]

Were have all the Bedford CF's gone? We need more CF action.

[eddyramrod]

I picked up (pun, I know, sorry) Classic Van & Pickup today, and there are at least two mk1 CFs in it this month.  I'm so looking forward to reading it over breakfast...

 

And yes, we do need more, preferably from me, I love them.

[eddyramrod]

We've just been away again.  More holidays than Thomas Cook, did someone say?  Two weeks in sunny Cyprus this time, or at least thundery Cyprus.  So, stand by for the usual crop of roadside spots and trips to my friend's garage...

And let's begin with the hilltop B&B, run by a friend... that's my rental car in front.

Ok, to the roadside now...

Now these were outside a garage that's opened up in town, apparently dealing in classics.... there was a Porsche 356 roadster thing inside, and a proper Fiat 500...

Now, remember this, that I found at the roadside about 3 years ago?

This was outside the showroom...

I'm glad it got restored, but the white, and loss of canopy, are disappointing.  Never mind, let's see what Andreas has in, shall we?

Now really alert readers will remember this shell that Andreas painted a long time ago (2010 IIRC)

This is what it looks like now!

There was a bit of action one morning, having a couple of cars inspected so they could be registered as classics (30 year threshold)...

Two years till we go back....

 

[hairnet]

yugo want

 

red plate on the hire car !1111!!!!1one11111!!!!!!!!!!

[eddyramrod]

The red plates are a standard thing in Cyprus, to mark out hire cars.  Until recently they also had a Z prefix, so KLB 168 (the Fiat shown) would have been ZKLB 168.  And when taken out of service, it would have been given white/yellow plates without the Z.

[eddyramrod]

Had another Sun holiday in April, and took hardly any photos at all, but here's what I did get...

This was in a station car park, Saltcoats I think.

And on the way home, in Carlisle...

 

Next trip, America.

[eddyramrod]

Oh dear, has it really been that long?

Next trip, America, I promised you, and we've been back for months.  With that in mind... let's start with our rental RV.

We used Boston Logan as our entry/exit airport, and picked this up at a rental office out of town.

Yes, it's so big there's an actual bedroom at the back!  Lovely.

Wherever we parked for more than one night, I had a rental car so we could get out and about without having to hump the RV around.  First up was this Chevy Tahoe, which I loved.

Our RV was one of the smaller units on the site, but a couple of pitches away was this little thing you could pull with a Cortina!  Nobody showed up to it while we were there...

Firebird was for sale in a front garden near the site...

I think these Jeep projects belong to the site manager.

Predictable?  Moi?

If you read Classic Car Buyer you'll remember me telling this story.  I'm not going to post the other pics here, it's too distressing.  Poor innocent Chevy...

However... you do see some nice kit at the roadside!

So, we moved along to Cape Cod, via a disagreement with a bridge...

That wasn't the most successful part of the trip, as there was a fuckup with the rental car too, which eventually resulted in the first non-American rental car I've had while in America.  Oh the shame!

It's a Kia Forte, which seems to be roughly equivalent to a Mondeo.  2.0 auto.  Almost anywhere else in the world I would have been delighted with it, but I expect better Over There.

Cue Bobthebeard...

...and some more roadside shite.

MrsR's birthday happened during the trip, in fact during the Cape Cod leg...

You know those lovely big Dodge Ram vans they have?  Well in a consistent policy of devaluation, those things were replaced by designs imported during "mergers:" first the Mercedes Sprinter (calamity!) and now, disaster upon disaster, this!

Yes really.

A Fiat Ducato calling itself Dodge Ram.

Words fail me.  Oh and they have Transits too.

This Suburban was the last of my rentals, and around Boston it felt slightly too big.  I never thought I'd say that!  Another Tahoe would have been fine.  They're just a little smaller; just enough.

Street art?  Garage sale?   Or just bringing down the neighbourhood?  Who knows?  It never moved while we were there, and we passed it nearly every day.

And finally!  I don't think this will ever move under its own power again...

 

 

 

[danthecapriman]

The US trip looked a good un Eddy. I'd love to go over there and do something myself. Fly out to LA or somewhere, buy a big old car and just spend a month or so drifting around the country then bring it home with me from New York to finish the trip.

 

Some great spots there though, I bet you had a job not buying something to bring home!

 

What happened about the damage to the RV?

[eddyramrod]

You'd need a bucket of money, Dan!  I think you'd also need to be researching ebay US to see what old cars were available in your chosen start point.  Classics are getting dearer now, it ain't that easy to grab a bargain any more.  Also, it would be worth researching insurance.

 

Don't think I wouldn't do just the same though, if you've been following my columns in CCB you know I'm very easy to tempt!

 

The damage to the motorhome was covered by my deposit, so I just didn't get much of that back.  When I returned it and showed them, they weren't upset about it.  It's not like I'd wiped out the top half on a low bridge.  Compared to some of the things that happen, mine was slight.  They probably even let it out on rental as-is.

[danthecapriman]

Fair enough I suppose. I just had a vision of you returning it only to be chased down the street by the shotgun wielding owner!

[hauserplenty]

Top spotting there Eddy! Pontiac LeMans FTW!

[eddyramrod]

He'd have had to catch me, because I'd have been in that primer Mustang..... No, it was all very civilised.  They even arranged a taxi to get me and MrsR back to the campsite where we'd left the Suburban, with our luggage in.

[oldcars]

Good spots. Did you have to pay much for the small bump to the RV.

[eddyramrod]

I think it came to about 600 dollars in the end... could have been a whole lot worse.

[Bucketeer]

Excellent update (as always). Your spotting diligence is muchly appreciated Mr R

It's just a guess but I'm thinking the US trip wasn't a £9.50 Sun special.

[eddyramrod]

Whatever gave you that idea?  No, indeed it wasn't, that was the Scottish trip seen above.  This one was assembled by my own fair hand using the wonders of the internet, with a little help from BA, who have unwittingly provided me with a member of cabin crew in the shape of my daughter-in-law.  It was expensive enough, if we'd had to pay full retail for the flights too that would have hurt.

[eddyramrod]

Another season, another Sun 9.50 deal.  We've just come back from Filey (well, we did on Friday...).  It's nice to have a break away for MrsR's birthday, even if we aren't going very far.

So, let's begin with the caravan...

We upgraded as high as we could go, so it was very acceptable, and, for once, cosy.  They're usually so bloody cold...

Daytrips included Eden Camp, which is well worth a visit...

Bondville (or is it Pondville?) model village in Bridlington...

...and the National Railway Museum at York.  Catering is pretentious and way overpriced, avoid.  But the Museum is lovely!

I love those Art Deco streamliners, they're pure Poirot.

Oh and while in Brid, I spotted this, which has cropped up on (I think) the ebay thread, although I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong...

It does look gorgeous, but 595 is top retail now, even with only 28,000 on the clock.  The front of the bonnet is bubbling badly.  That said, the rest of the car is as good as Alec Baldwin's Dramatic Delivery, and it's even the same colour as MrsR's beloved N-reg that we had nearly four years.  Willow Green, since you ask.

Finally, this was near the model village...

[danthecapriman]

Looked a good break Eddy. Love the Honomag APC and the 2.5 ton truck!

The National Railway museum is a great place to go, I've not been for years though.

[Ghosty]

There's nowhere like North Yorkshire. Lovely place.

 

Good few years since I've been to Eden Camp - great place and well worth a visit.

[eddyramrod]

Well, now that we've been back a while, let's see what went on in Sunny Skeggy in the spring, shall we?

This year's 9.50 Sun Special took us to the east coast again, this time in Bomber County, which was significant at the recent ShiteFest.  The air museums have been covered, better than by me, so let's just see my spottings, beginning with the 70s.

I imagine the local Shiters treat this as a landmark, but a dealership with Proton and Perodua signage???? I just had to!

Just down the road from the Bubble Car Museum (closed while we were there in March) is this place...

And on the way back, so it still counts... near Burnley in fact: a delicious old Bentley, John Steed style