Fate made me buy new tools...

It's 2013. Looks and feels pretty much like 2012, except you don't normally see this many people with hangovers on a Tuesday morning, even in this town.

It's clear that there are plenty of old rodders out there who remember the Gazette fondly. I can provide you with a HRG experience that'll take you right back to those glory days, if you'd like. Simply send me a stamped, self-addressed envelope. I'll cover the back of it with smudges of photocopier ink, bang some crooked thumb-stabbing staples through it and post it back to you. Ah, just like old times...

Had an interesting experience on Saturday. I was down at the workshop/storage unit - it should be a workshop, but it sees a lot more storage than work - late in the evening. It's on a farm, so it's pretty dark, and suddenly this young couple comes wandering in, saying, "Do you know anything about American cars?" Parked outside are three Mustangs and an El Camino, so I can't really deny all knowledge. Anyway, this young lass starts telling me about how she's just bought a third-gen Firebird and she's after some bits, can I recommend anywhere to try? I suggested www.rodsnsods.co.uk and a few other places, and I mentioned that I had a set of 17" wheels, brand-new, unused, with a Firebird/Camaro offset. The eyebrows went up like chapel hat-pegs - "Ooh, can we see?" I showed them one - they're a cross-spoke design that would really have only suited an Eighties or early Nineties F-body - and they asked if they were for sale. Sure, £200 the set. "We're going to the cashpoint, we'll be back in 5 minutes."

Sure enough, five minutes later, they're back with £200 in twenties. They had the wheels and off they went. What, no haggling, no sucking air through the teeth, no crap offers of payments in instalments?

It turns out that they were here to see one of the guys in the other little workshops around the corner. I'd seen their Subaru parked outside and thought nothing of it ... because it's a Subaru. He'd sent them round to me because I like American cars. And that's how we get a bit of new blood into the scene.

It's also odd that I'd been trying to sell these wheels for ages, had no luck at £150, not a sniff at the Northern Swap Meet, then two strangers wander in out of the dark and buy them for full asking price!

I took this as a clear sign from Fate. I had a card from the local Machine Mart offering a 20-percent discount on all Clarke products the following day, and clearly Fate wanted me to have some money burning a hole in my pocket so I'd go and spend it on shiny things. Far be it from me to piss Fate off, so I did just that. I now have new shiny things in the workshop. Hurrah! And some shelves, so that I can reclaim some floor space from the ever-spreading sea of sodding tat that has flooded the gaff since I started breaking a Fox Mustang for spares.

Clarke reckons this construction of 1.5mm steel and 9mm MDF can support 350kg per shelf. That's more than two of me, on each shelf. I think not... but I'm not going to put it to the test.

Eugene