2015 at the Hot Rod Gazette

It's the end of 2015, the revellers will be out, the A&E, ambulances and police on standby, and there's a whole new year just over the horizon. Hooray... I'll be staying in, tonight, looking forward to comforting a petrified dog when everyone starts letting off fireworks at midnight. Honestly, nobody in this piss-ant little town has any money, yet every halloween, bonfire night, Christmas, new year, and any other day that ends in a Y, about £20,000 goes up in smoke with accompanying pops, bangs, whizzes etc. Bastards.

So how's 2015 been in retrospect? I think it's been a damn good year. Lots of people out enjoying their cars, lots of events, plenty of buzz in the NSCC, 15,000 views on this blog... not bad. NSCC was won overall by Douglas in his Skyline, which I think is the first time a Japanese car has won the NSCC overall - correct me if I'm wrong. It's strong, quick, consistent and reliable, and has been just about everywhere this year. And that's what it's all about (Oi!).

There were a few rain-offs over the course of the year, but very few events were totally ruined. What's of more concern is the flooding over the past couple of weeks, with Hot Rod & Hills organiser Craig, and the venue, Pooley Bridge, really copping for it. We can only hope that everyone gets back on their feet quickly.

Towards the end of the year, I went to the NEC for the Classic Car Show. I went on the Friday, and man, the place was rammed. This surprised me, as at £20-odd for a ticket and £12 just to park your damn car, I expected more people would have voted with their feet. Still, there was some good stuff to see, beautiful classics, rodder-fodder and everything in between. Two of the standout cars for me were actually Ford Capris, this clean early MkI making me think of the one owned by the current NSCC champ...

The other, meanwhile, was dressed up as a Seventies circuit racer in JPS colours and drew a right crowd.

All good fun. Since then, there's not been much occurring although, against all expectations, I have actually been making some progress in the workshop. The bare Fox Mustang shell has been media-blasted, etch-primed, rattle-canned, had rear suspension mount reinforcements fitted, a patch let into the floor pan around a cracked seat bolt, and the entire underside covered in a rather funky super-durable Eastwood chassis-black which went on as easily as possible. With that done, I decided to paint the inside of the car up to the waistline in regular chassis black. I did the first coat with 20% thinner, and the finish was .... well, it was bastard awful.

It was like glossy 120-grit wet'n'dry. For the next coat, I thinned it to 50% and that worked a lot better, although I'm still glad nobody will ever see it. So, with three coats on the underside and three coats on the inside, I do believe I've spent more of December trying to wash thick, black synthetic/enamel paint off my face and hands than doing any other single activity with the possible exception of sleeping. Each coat takes about half an hour to spray, followed by an hour to clean the damn gun. The next job is to have subframe connectors welded on. I'm going to tack them in place myself but a local hot rodder, Tony (who is an MoT tester by trade, and is about to open a new station about a mile and a half from my house - happy Christmas to me!) is going to do the actual welding. I don't trust my own welding for something so structural, especially as the subframe connectors and attaching brackets are made from really thick-wall tubing, and in some places they have to be welded to some really thin-wall chassis legs made out of Ford's finest...

Still, just before Christmas I got a present from the States. It's a nice big present - to put it in context, the bonnet it's sitting on belongs to a 1954 Chevrolet - and is full of DEI Boom Mat sound deadening and heat-shield material. This should be one comfortable road car...

So, as 2015 splutters to a halt and 2016 gets into gear, have a superb new year's eve, eat, drink, be merry and all that shite, and may the new year bring you health, wealth, and happiness. And if you can't be any or all of those things, be Timmy. Always be Timmy.

Happy New Year!

Eugene

PS - It's 7.50pm, and the bloody fireworks have started...