This week we thought we better make an effort to get some Christmas decorations up. No sooner had we finished putting up the single piece of tinsel, (part of Adam’s Enos range,) that we had to put the tree up as well. Throughout the week we have had customers bringing us in gifts. There seems to be a theme here of spirits and (Jaffa) cakes. Those of you that spotted the tree lights will notice that Adam has really pushed the boat out on this one. These are LED stick on strip lights that they use on some of the LAR trucks for safety. Yes he has been sitting there with the remote driving people nuts with the various colour schemes and flashing sequencies. You gotta hand it to him – it works well and they don’t get hot.

Thanks to all of you that have brought us in all the goodies, we appreciate it.

Cars:

We have shown over a few posts the 1964 1/2 coupe that was involved in an accident. We have sorted the panel work out and the bodywork to a point where it can be sent of to Paul “The Paint” to work his magic. We have a large selection here to show you the process. The car arrived and the blocking work started to even out the small imperfections on the car’s metal work.

The paint prep work undertaken on the panels.

The final fitting up of the panels and masking up.

Then the undercoat and top coats are applied.

The engine bay was also sprayed the classic satin black.

Then the prep to put the car back to together again. (one of our favourite pictures of the bunch here).

A few days later arrival at our workshops where we can start to put her back together again.

Now in her temporary home while she awaits some TLC. (Tender Loving Care).

Ford Facts:

We have had some very interesting feedback from the “Ford stories” that we have been running on and of for a while and we intend to make a little “Ford Fact” article soon about it all. but for now here is a little more.

“Money Talks”

By 1912, Ford Motor Company was producing small, cheap cars that sold in their thousands. Henry Ford wanted to develop the UK market and arranged a trip to England with Clara to meet with the Perry family – a wealthy family with motor interests (the Perry Group still owns Ford dealerships to this day). On arrival by steamship, the Fords were met by the Perrys in a new Rolls Royce and were shown key sites in England. They arranged locations for new manufacturing plants (Manchester, Cork etc) and sites for a showroom in London. Once business was concluded, the Perrys arranged for the Fords to meet the Royal family and a number of the gentry around the UK. During a short stay at Warwick Castle as guests of the Earl of Warwick, Clara was impressed with a large and ancient Chinese punch bowl on a table in the great hall of Warwick Castle. Commenting to Henry that if they saw another bowl like that while they were in the UK, she would like to buy it. “Why not have that exact bowl?” asked Henry. “Because not everything is for sale…and that has been in this family’s history for generations….it is a long time heirloom of the Warwick family!” responded Clara. Henry had his agent contact the Earl and ask if the bowl was for sale…..predictably, ‘no’ was the response. Henry had his agent continue to suggest a prices that might be acceptable. The Earl refused a significant number of times until the price Henry eventually offered (many thousands of pounds) saw the bowl sold to Henry Ford. Henry remained convinced all his life that everything had a price. That bowl remained one of Clara Ford’s most treasured possessions. It seems that in some cases money does talk!

Last, but not least:

To finish we have had some diaries made up for us. These have our logo on the front and the handy note jotter on the inside with some nice weekly planning pages. Spend over £50 with us in the WebShop and we will add one to your order free of charge. They are going very quickly, real quick – like thirty over the weekend alone, stocks will run out very soon.

The WebShop will be open as much as we can over Christmas, we have been seriously busy so far and can’t always get to the phones. remember, you don’t need to call us to order your parts now.