Pick up, first drive, new home, first problem!

Sunday was a bit of a comedy of errors to start with, at one point we weren't going to be able to pick the car up after all as the money HADN'T gone through and the car wasn't yet mine after all, won't go into detail but worth the memory! The kids were really miserable and disappointed. If truth be told so was I, but I tried to be all mature and grown up about it.

Anyway cut a long story short all was resolved in time (banks work Sundays!!) and we drove down to pick it up that afternoon.

We hoofed the engine, gearbox and other bit's into our car first and then the owner (previous owner by then I guess?..) suggested I reverse the car out of the garage as my "first try" before then going to do the paper work.

A lesson in how to drive the car then ensued, how many car sales involve free tuition on how to drive?!!! Again .. big thanks to the previous owner. Column shift, pull starter, manual choke, indicator switch located around the horn. Overwhelmed a bit I think. But managed to reverse it out successfully and pointed it down the driveway towards the open road.

We did the paperwork, had a cup of tea in the sun - lovely day. We watched the vintage planes fly over from the local airshow that happened to be on that day (http://www.wingsandwheels.net/) It was a marvelous day for nostalgia, not just because I was buying a 60 year old car! Set the tone nicely (for me anyway!) the most impressive view was actually the old Vulcan bomber that flew right overhead!

Then we were off. My son came with me, my wife drove home in our car with my daughter. Again that mix of anticipation and dread was there. No tools, no one really arranged to come and save us if anything went wrong, we set off on the first journey in the Somerset which was 35 miles to get home, through the middle of Guildford!!!!

Stalled three times, reversed at someone once, but all in all the journey was highly pleasurable first trip, I will always remember, my son said to me on the way "Dad, I didn't think you'd actually do it. I thought you were just talking and looking and that you'd never actually do it. This IS cool."

At this stage, I must point out that if it wasn't for my parents (and my grandfather, god rest his soul) then I WOULDN'T have done it. My Grandfather, HC, died last year, well into his 90's and let's just say that a little bit of financial help was made possible through that sad event. With only the money I had available myself, it would have been exactly as my son had described, I wouldn't have got this car. I could have only afforded a restoration project and would not have been able to follow through. So thanks mum, dad and also grandad C. He would certainly have appreciated this car!

Anyway - first photos at her new home below (did she have a name, do I give her a name?..):

The first problem mentioned in the title was that, because it was such a lovely day, I had driven home with the window wound fully down. When I went to close the car up, the window winder went round but nothing happened!! No problem, memory kicked into gear and the door panel was off, window was re-located into the mechanism and everything right as rain within a few minutes! Happy days!