[Jeroen]

I have had two glorious days of fiddling with cars! On Friday spanner mate Peter visited the Practical Classic Car & Restoraton show. On Saturday I took the Spider out for it’s first drive to a Technical meeting of the Alfa Romeo Spider Register and I spend some time sorting out some stuff in my garage.

Friday first: This was the third time Peter and I visited this event:

http://www.necrestorationshow.com

It is in the NEC in Birmingham. So we usually order our tickets 4-5 months in advance. Which mean you end up paying about € 75 for a return ticket. Entry tickets to the show are UKP 20.

We prefer going to shows on Friday, rather than the weekend. Tends to be less busy. It does mean taking a day off. It also means both Peter and I need to get up well before 05.00 o’clock to make our 08.00 o’clock flight from Amsterdam.

This time, we could have slept an extra hour as the flight was delayed for almost an hour due to fog



Very short hop to Birmingham, about an hour of flight time. Before going to the NEC to see the show we always enjoy a hearty breakfast at Birmingham airport.



The NEC is literally adjacent to the airport. You walk from the airport arrival hall via station straight into the NEC and into the exhibition. Very convenient.

This exhibition is unique. This is an exhibition about classic cars AND about restoration. That means everywhere people are working on their cars, overhauling engines, setting up suspension, replacing bits, welding panels etc. etc. This also means the type of cars, merchants and clubs tend to be different from most classic car shows. The last couple of years, classic car shows tend to show more and more hugely expensive cars. That is interesting too, but this show caters more for the average classic car owner.

Just some piccies for an impression:





Some unique cars on the show. The TR register had found the oldest surviving TR6! Waiting to be restored. Look at that rusty cut across the bonnet. Read the sign and weep!



These guys think nothing of ripping out the engine. We watched them do it in under 30 minutes!



Endless stalls with merchants. Any tool, part imaginable can be found here. Providing it is British make. These classic cars shows in the UK tend to be a bit nationalistic.



When I get to do an engine overhaul and restoration I want it to look as smart as this one:



They have several stages where all sort of continuous live shows are going on. From interviews to actual restorations.

We watched two interviews. First one with Mike Brewer of Wheeler Dealers. I am not a huge fan of the guy. But I will say this for him, he is a proper petrol head. God, that guy is busy with so many different things, all car related, it will make your head spin.



Also on stage Vicky Butler-Henderson and her new side kickAlex Riley. A new cars show, about classic cars, will start early April this year. every episode, they pick two cars that were introduced in a particular year and compare them which one is best. Tiff Needell will be one of the judges. Sounded interesting



Supercharger anybody?



All in all, one of the most enjoyable classic cars shows in Europe. At 1600 hours we started making our way to the terminal. Only to find our return flight was delayed. They kept delaying it. In the end almost three hours delay, due to fog again at Amsterdam Airport. Got home around midnight.

The next day, Saturday, I needed to be up early. Technical meeting of the Alfa Romeo Spider Register. If you have followed this thread you will have come across several of these. Every year we organise two of these. The Technical committee finds an interesting workshop to visit and makes the arrangements. We all rock up in our Spiders, talk about Spiders, hand out and listen to several topics being explained / demo-ed.

I had already prepared my Spider on Thursday night. A quick light polish, adjust the air pressure in the tyres. Check oil, cooling water, brake/clutch hydraulic fluid the usual.

On Saturday morning all ready to roll!



The place we were visiting was about 40 minutes drive by motorway. I took the more rural roads and it took me about 90 minutes. Much more pleasant.

This time we visited the 105 Workshop. 105 refers to a whole series of Alfa Romeo that all share the same basic chassis (and engines mostly). I had never heard of these guys. During lunch I sat next to the owner. He explained his company had begin as just a hobby. During 2009 he started doing it professionally, but still on a limited scale. That is the year we left the Netherlands, so no wonder I had not known about them. By now it has become one of the more trusted Alfa 105 series garages in the south of the Netherlands. They do regular maintenance, but also tuning, race prepping and restoration.

We spend some time pouring over the typical 105 gear box.





A few nerdy, gear box, impressions. Have you ever noticed when you reverse fast, the gear box will start to produce a high pitch whining noise. Check our the gears. The reverse gears have straight teeth, that is what causes that noise.

Does your shifter sometimes jumps out of gear?
Do you drive with your hand on the gear stick?

Don’t. You will wear out the shift fork and it will jump out of gear!.

Spiders often will jump out of reverse gear. That is because their owners keep their hand of the shift stick whilst cruising in fifth gear.

Here you see me holding the extra gear for the reverse.



Here is the shift fork. This one moves the 5th and reverse gear. You can see how it has been work down on the sides.





Because it is worn down, when engaging reverse, it can not fully push the reverse gear in place and then it pops out again!

Last year we went to France with some of our Spider friends, see earlier posts. Early on in the trip, whilst still in the Netherlands, close to the Belgium border, my friend Bianca’s Spider had already developed a problem. She could not get the car into 4th or 5th gear. The gearbox had just been overhauled. Since we learned that there had been a batch of poorly manufactured synchromess rings.

Since, workshops like these are aware and know what to look for.



I picked up some more signs this week from several webshops and of course in Birmingham.



So when I came home after the technical meeting, I spend a couple of hours hanging them. Our come some tools



Also took the opportunity to properly clean my garage floor. Even though I clean up after every job, it makes good sense to know and then run over the floor with a mop and degreaser.





My to do list and parts to get is unusual small. No doubt some more things will make it to the list in the weeks to come.



I am typing this up at 0700am on a Sunday morning. It looks like it is going to be a very nice, sunny day. My wife and I will visit a brocante / antique market today. It is held in a nice old palace. So will be using our Mercedes W123 for an enjoyable drive there and some more touring and sight seeing afterwards.

Jeroen

[V.Narayan]

^^^^^
Your red Spider deserves to be hijacked. Beware. :-). Compliments to you on having maintained three gorgeous cars with such love and care. It shows.

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Does your shifter sometimes jumps out of gear? Do you drive with your hand on the gear stick? Don’t. You will wear out the shift fork and it will jump out of gear!.

That's excellent advice for MT car owners. Once the car is at cruising speed other than keeping my foot away from the clutch pedal I keep my hands off the gear knob as well.

Your cars are beautifully maintained but the Spider is gorgeous and IMO the Queen of your garage.

[JoshMachine]

Gosh, Jeroen! Among all the wonderful things that you share with us often (this time I liked the 105's gearbox!), I also love the way those "signs" collection adorn your garage

It's a treat to just follow your posts and enjoy, learn.

[Jeroen]

Yesterday morning, ready to roll. For the W123 this will be the second trip this year, but the first with my wife onboard.
We had another very nice day, still early in the year, so it is cold, but sunny.

We had a nice outing to a Brocante market. Drove back via endless little rural roads, stopped on the way for a nice lunch. Always a joy to drive this car. This is an excellent car for these sort of day trips. Very relaxing, comfortable driving. Everybody smiles at you when they see an old W123. When we cross on a ferry (and we do so, just about every 15 km where we live) people will come over and have chat, wanting to know how old it is. They will tell stories about their old cars. Very enjoyable. Very relaxing.



although the Spider drove really well on Saturday, I did notice it pulled a bit to the right when braking hard. Brakes were fine last year, so I do not think it is air in the system. More likely sticky brake due to 3 months of sitting idle. So I will have to check that out.

Also, during our technical meeting we were warned again, check your fuel lines. The new E10 fuel (high ethanol) is really attacking old fuel lines. Apparently, the number of Classic cars catching fire, due to leaking and or bust fuel lines has risen sharply.

I know I have replaced fuel lines on the Spider and the W123 quite some years ago. Better check again, which means crawling under the cars!

Jeroen

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

^^^^^
Your red Spider deserves to be hijacked. Beware. :-). Compliments to you on having maintained three gorgeous cars with such love and care. It shows.

Originally Posted by R2D2

Your cars are beautifully maintained but the Spider is gorgeous and IMO the Queen of your garage.

Originally Posted by JoshMachine

It's a treat to just follow your posts and enjoy, learn.

Thanks for the kind words guys. Much appreciated.

But here is an interesting thought: The other day I was discussing cars with a guy at the Classic Car & Restoration show. Just a guy we happened to bump into and we struck up a conversation with him. As you do on these events. As you can imagine, it is mainly car type of guys (and some ladies) roaming these events.

He asked me about my cars, what cars did I have. So I, truthfully, told him,
a 1982 Mercedes W123 200, a 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider and a 2002 Jaguar XJR.

He sort of nodded and said: So you managed to built up a small collection of just about the least desirable model of these brands. That gave me some pause for thought, but I have to agree.

Of all the W123s, mine a simple 200 of the last year of production, is the least desirable. Mine has very few options, so a very simple one. Most people would prefer at least a bigger engine, or a diesel, but certainly not the 2.0 petrol. Mine had the simple four gear box too, really lacks 5 speed gear box.

On the Spider it is worse I’m afraid. The series 3 or Aerodynamica, is seen as the least desirable of the 105 series Spider. In some circles it is referred to as the rubber lip spider, due to its little spoiler on the back.

Mine is also a late American series 3, which means it has the Bosch L-tronic fuel injection instead of carburators. Worse still, mine is the so called QV version. Which meant it had side skirts and a ridiculous spoiler at the front. Admittedly, I had those removed from day 1, so it doesn’t show.

Obviously, if you want a 105 Series Spider you need to opt for the original the Duetto or boat tail. Failing that, go for a Coda Tronca. (series 2). If you can’t even afford a series 2 go straight for the Series 4, but do not buy a serie 3!

Similar story on the Jaguar I am afraid. Of all the Jaguars you can buy, second hand, this is probably the least desirable and they cost next to nothing!

Of course, in general that is the positive thing about buying stuff that nobody wants, it tends to be reflected in the price.

So there you have it; my taste in classic cars is either appalling, or I just lack the funds to buy a proper classic car.

But here is the thing: I get immense pleasure out of my cars. I absolutely enjoy fiddling with these cars. Driving them, maintaining them, fixing them, talking to others about them, finding parts, finding solutions to problems, trawling the internet to learn more, visiting exhibitions, taking part in rallies etc.

I really do not care what others think about my cars. I just hope their car gives them as much pleasure. So back to this guy and his clever observation. I asked him, what classic car do you have? None he said. He was still on the look out. He had a long list of all British thorough breads he was interested in. How long have you been on the look out was my next question. Well, since I got my drivers license was the answer. I did not ask him for his age, but he looked a hell of lot older than both Peter and me. We are both 60 and showing it.

So here is the morale of the story, which also happens to be my outlook on life. Make sure you live in the present, tomorrow might never come. Yes, by all means dream about the future, have ambitions, think what you are going to do when you retire. Just do not forget to try and achieve as much as you can every single day.

Yes, my list of cars I would like to own is long and I have had such a list probably even before I had my drivers license. Sometimes it just make sense to scale down your requirements. I would love a Ferrari Dino. Maybe I can afford it when I retire? But hey, for the last 20 years I owned and drove an Alfa Romeo Spider!! Admittedly, just a simple Serie 3, but it was still MY car!

Life is not easy and lots of choices and considerations come into it. But I know too many guys who would love to own a classic cars, could probably afford one. But still, they don’t buy one. Partly because what they aspire to, might be very expensive, but also because of endless “Practical considerations”. I don’t have a garage, I have just changed job, we have just moved. My wife is pregnant etc etc.

Thing is, every new day brings new challenges, new demands, so make sure you get the things you like, things you feel strongly about, things you really want to do, make sure you get them onto your agenda now, today! Everybody talks about tomorrow, but tomorrow might never come.

So I am very happy with my undesirable cars! I recommend everybody to go out and buy an undesirable classic. It will be relatively cheap, but you can claim to own a classic car. Do classic car owner stuff. Surf the internet for parts, wear some silly tweed cap if your classic is British rag top, start your own thread about maintaining your classic.

There is a very real fundamental difference about owning a classic car, no matter how humble, simple, falling apart, requiring major TLC two bit car then not owning a classic car and only talking and reading about it.

Jeroen

[R2D2]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

He asked me about my cars, what cars did I have. So I, truthfully, told him, a 1982 Mercedes W123 200, a 1986 Alfa Romeo Spider and a 2002 Jaguar XJR. He sort of nodded and said: So you managed to built up a small collection of just about the least desirable model of these brands. That gave me some pause for thought, but I have to agree.

Well, I still believe you have a great collection of classics. Tell me, which M-B, or other luxury German car, built today would be running 3-4 decades from today? The answer is probably none.

Honestly calling any one of your cars less desirable compared to their stablemates/siblings is like calling the top 5 finalists at a beauty pageant less beautiful than the winner. Heck, they all look beautiful & desirable to me.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by R2D2

Tell me, which M-B, or other luxury German car, built today would be running 3-4 decades from today? The answer is probably none.

Thanks for that.

You would be surprised how many classic cars are still on the road today in Western Europe.

Let me give you some numbers/facts, just for the Netherlands:

The Dutch A-Ford club has more than 600 members. Most of their cars are fully functional and still running!

As per 1st of January 2018 there are more than 141.000 classic cars, 40 years or older, registered in the Netherlands. Mine don’t even belong in that group yet, as they are “younger”. The W123 is only 37 years old and the Spider really young at 33 years of age.

In 2014 that was only 115.000, so it is rising sharply!

If you look at the number of cars over 25 years, registered, the total is somewhere in the 350-400.000. That is in the Netherlands alone! We are one of the tiniest countries in Europe.

This is not totally up to date, but it will give you some idea of the order of magnitude of how many classic cars are sold every year, which brand.



So having a 30-50, or even 70 year old car, well maintained is not that special.
The oldest registered car in the Netherlands is a 1894 Benz Velo.

It is in fact a huge industry. I can visit a classic car show almost any weekend, year round in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany. Lots of cars, lots of merchants, lots of classic car stuff around.

Twenty years ago, in general people thought about classic cars as anything over 25 years. For various reasons, partly due to legislation this has now increased to 40 years. Still, overall the number of well maintained cars either 25 or 40 years and older is still on the rise. And just about every manufacturer/brand/model is available. It is just a matter of preference and funds what you buy.

Anyway, as I said, I am enjoying mine immensely.

Jeroen

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

There is a very real fundamental difference about owning a classic car, no matter how humble, simple, falling apart, requiring major TLC two bit car then not owning a classic car and only talking and reading about it.

Jeroen

I agree with you, it is one's own commitment and pleasure, unless you are in the business of flipping classic cars regularly. For people who enjoy their "wrong sort of car", there is the Festival of the Unexceptional Cars on July 20th.

See here for more details/

For folks like me, this would be a lot of nostalgia in remembering the cars of my childhood in the UK

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by ajmat

I For people who enjoy their "wrong sort of car", there is the Festival of the Unexceptional Cars on July 20th.

Thanks, that festival is actually a great event. For many it will be a trip down memory lane. You are likely to see the cars your parents owned. Very simple cars that the average family owned in those post war decades. Or if you are an old git like me, see the first cars that you yourself owned. (which in my case were all old cars to start with. (E.g. VW beetle, 2CV, Peugeot 404, Fiat 132, Mini, Simca etc. etc)

When I grew up, our dads had cars like Ford Escort, Cortina, Opel (Vauxhall) Kaptein, Commodore, Manta, VW 1600, VW beetle, Peugeot 404, 504, Renault 4 Fiat 500, 124, 850, 130 etc. etc. Of course in the UK, there is a long, long list of British ordinary cars as well.

Just look at the list of participating clubs on this year Practical Classics & Restoration show:

https://www.necrestorationshow.com/exhibitor-list-0

The list is almost endless. For most of these cars there is a club where you can meet with fellow enthusiast. They usually keep a lot of technical expertise together and are able to help out with spares even perhaps.

But none of the above, even in excellent condition would be a hugely expensive car to buy second hand. Some of them are becoming quite rare, but that does not necessarily drive up the prices, Most of the above can be bought for anywhere between Euro 5 - 12.000. To put that in context, we paid Euro 12.000 for my wife’s one year old Ford Fiesta fully loaded. So it is not cheap, but for many people who have a keen interest it is something they can get into.

Many will even aim to buy cheaper and restore these cars themselves. Truth be told, very often it is cheaper (and quicker) to buy a car in a reasonable condition to start with. Unless of course, you really enjoy doing a ground up restoration.

These are generally relatively simple cars, simple to work on. BUT, it will take a lot of time. Such projects often run into many years, an hour here and there will get you there in the end, but it will take time.


Jeroen

[Thad E Ginathom]

When I grew up, our dads had cars like Ford Escort, Cortina

Mine belonged to an earlier generation, with Consul, Zephyr, Zodiac etc. And before that I seem to remember an estate car called a Hillman Minx (?). I have very dim images of what my father might have driven in the early fifties, and no names.

I wonder if such vehicles would be seen at that show, or maybe they have entered the age of real classics now. Erm... Like me?

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Mine belonged to an earlier generation, with Consul, Zephyr, Zodiac etc. And before that I seem to remember an estate car called a Hillman Minx (?). I have very dim images of what my father might have driven in the early fifties, and no names.

I wonder if such vehicles would be seen at that show, or maybe they have entered the age of real classics now. Erm... Like me?

You will find all of those Brands/make/models on any British classic car show and or event.

Currently 8 Hillman Minx for sale:

https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/clas....y=11&S=Search

Jeroen

[bajica]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Thanks for the kind words guys. Much appreciated.


But here is the thing: I get immense pleasure out of my cars. I absolutely enjoy fiddling with these cars. Driving them, maintaining them, fixing them, talking to others about them, finding parts, finding solutions to problems, trawling the internet to learn more, visiting exhibitions, taking part in rallies etc.

So here is the morale of the story, which also happens to be my outlook on life. Make sure you live in the present, tomorrow might never come. Yes, by all means dream about the future, have ambitions, think what you are going to do when you retire. Just do not forget to try and achieve as much as you can every single day.

Jeroen

The above I feel, sums up the correct feeling we enthusiasts have about our vehicles. No matter how others feel about it.


Congrats Jereon on your collection and hope you can keep it up in your own distinct way...


I have visited all your threads and read each one of them and do envy your MAN-CAVE.

[Jeroen]

Yesterday when I got home, DHL had delivered the new exhaust for my son’s Golf. Remember, see a few earlier post, the last one had been damaged.

I was not very hopeful this time either, look at the state of the box!



And sure enough, the same dent in the pipe:



It is very odd, almost as if the dent is machine made. Maybe it won’t fit without a dent?

But there is definitely some more damage too:





I am really not to worried about these bit being somewhat distorted. We can fix this. But we have to get to the bottom of that first dent. Identical to the one they send earlier. I have been trying to find good image of this exhaust on the internet or on youtube. So far, no luck. Luc is going to call them Monday. Let’s see what they say.

Our daughter and husband came to stay for one night. They often do. This morning we went to see an exhibition. Ellen loves driving my cars, especially my classic ones. So I always let her. She is a very competent driver:



We have changed to summertime, so we have an hour extra light! I love it, more time to work in our garden, take my bike for a spin, or my Spider. Nice late afternoon drive, almost three hours.

Here I am on what we call a pontje (ferry) across the river Lek. I drove for about 90 km, four pontjes. That is how rural driving is in these parts of the Netherlands.



Jeroen

[Jeroen]

At long last a weekend with a bit of fiddling!! About time. But before we get to that; at long long last I bough a pressure washer! First time I ever own one. To be honest, according to my wife it is not for the cars, but for the garden and the house. We have a big garden with lots of terraces. Which means lots of weeds and moss in between the various stones, cobbles etc. First thing every spring is to get rid of that. That’s where the pressure washer comes in.

My neighbour had one and I had a little chat with him, see how he liked it. He was very pleased with it. I did some internet research and decided to go to a DIY centre about 30 km from our home. They have a very large selection, but equally important, they have staff that can actually give you good advice.

Sure enough I found a nice young lad who talked to me for about 30 minutes, explaining the various different models, options etc. Apart from the obvious stuff such as pressure, length of hose, an important consideration is how long continuous use these things will take. Especially when using them on terraces you could be using them for hours at an end. Eventually I bought the same model as my neighbour. Karcher K4



I am very please with it. It took us two full days of cleaning the terraces. Which means brushing, pulling weeds/moss, then pressure washing, more cleaning and eventually refilling the cracks with special (sharp) sand. Hopefully this will get us through the summer.

Earlier I showed you a model Jaguar XJR I managed to find. I took it apart to repaint it in the same colour as my XJR. Not very successfully, as the car collapsed. I bought another one, a black one this time. Took it apart. Went very fast this time.







Couple of small parts left and then I can start the respray. Winter is almost over, I need at least 18-19oC for that.

Also, I have decided to expand my workbench. I am very happy with it as it is, but I need more space for some machinery!. So I am going to make an L-extension to it, in front of the window.



I’ll be using the same construction. My other neighbour has an electric welding kit and I can use it. So I made a little design and I’ll be ordering the steel and wood next week.



Although my garage is very nice, it is a bit cramped getting cars in and out of. I need to move our own cars out of the way. I can park them in our garden, but the birds will get them. So I put them on the dike.

Here the W123 just manoeuvred out of the garage.



Here it is up on the Dike. Our other two regular cars are out in front of the house on the Dike as well.



Ready and enough space for the Golf

Luc was coming with his Golf GTI to get his exhaust fixed, which means clearing the drive way and the garage so his Golf can be in the garage.

Ready for the Golf:



As I reported earlier, for the second time the exhaust Luc ordered was damaged. The company was very apologetic and offered to replace it again. But we were running out of time. The Golf needs it’s MOT soon and it needs an exhaust that doesn’t leak. So we decided to keep the exhaust and fix it a bit.

So I put it on my work bench, put the acetylene torch and a hammer to it, to bang it into shape.





Here we are, Golf backed into the garage. Jacked up and on Axle stands



Used my pneumatic tools to quickly undo the mounting plates that hold the exhaust mounting rubbers. Came out, real easy. Had my usual comparison old versus new. So far so good!



Next I dived back under the Gold to undo the pipe. Remember the actual pipe had broken off. Two bolts that came undone quite easy. 3-4 minutes heavy banging with a very large hammer and the broken pipe came out!





We could not get the rubbers to pop off the old exhaust, so we decided to cut of the metal pins keeping them in position.



Then with the pin still inside the rubber, into the vice, couple of whacks with a hammer and they all came apart!



Next, clean the pipe left underneath the car with my pneumatic tool and put special exhaust mounting/sealing paste on it.



It all looked pretty good, until we tried to mount the new exhaust. We could not get it in position. We had to drop the lower part of the bumper to get enough room to manoeuvre around with the exhaust



Next we trial fitted it, but we could not to get the new exhaust to fit over the old remaining pipe. So we took it off again and put it on the workbench. Cut of a piece of the pipe that had come of before and rammed it in! You will notice that when working with exhausts it requires quite the show of force!!



Did the trick!!

Back under the car to fasten everything back on



Looking good. With the rubbers and their mounting plates bolted back onto the car and the pipe securely fastened we tugged and pulled the exhaust system. You want to make sure it can swivel and move about sufficiently without hitting anything.



Took us just under two hours. I am never that keen on doing exhaust work. But we did ok. Ready for the MOT!

Jeroen