If your disposable income has slowed to a trickle (and your favourite hobby is having to take a back seat) now’s certainly not the time to panic, I reckon.
For those lucky enough to own a garage attached to their property I suspect these days even less man-hours are being spent within those four walls. You, like me have most likely had to postpone getting that classic car tappet cover or motorcycle headlight rim re-chromed because bread and milk are seemingly more important right now.
Take heart! Rule number one: Don’t ever be tempted to sell your pride and joy — your asking price probably wouldn’t be reached, anyhow. No, if I can give you some learned advice: rather bite the bullet, sit tight and do some lateral thinking in your quest to complete that perfect rebuild or refurbishment project.
It’s all about striking the perfect medium. I’m assuming you are a family man so a recent report I recently discovered from the UK would certainly have relevance: the headline recorded: “Museum Numbers are Soaring as Families Look for Free Day Out.”
Right now most museums over there are attracting anything up to a 40% increase in visitors over last year (well, it is getting near summer and museums grant free admittance!). The survey looked at 300 museums up and down the country, including the Victoria and Albert, Tate galleries and my all-time favourite, the Science Museum in Kensington, London.
I’m not suggesting for one moment that you and your family jump on a plane and do the foreign museum thing next week, but have you been to your local museum lately, for instance? It’s well worth a look — tit’s also an excellent way of entertaining the family when on a shoestring.
Which brings me nicely around to taking the occasional stroll through fleamarkets in this neck of the woods — albeit in a slightly hedonistic way — or searching out those oft-advertised autojumbles. You would be equipped naturally, with an exhaustive parts list, just in case the elusive piece you are looking for just happens to be staring you in the face.
Right now I don’t have a motorcycle or car to work down here in the Mother City — more’s the pity — because I’m discovering some amazing items at fleamarkets and occasional garage sales that are advertised in the local press. I’ve managed to find car books and yet another obscure tool to add to my collection that will adjust the fuffle valve on a 1920 Crockmobile that I’m sure to find one day. I’ve also got safely hoarded away early VW Beetle clocks that I never knew I needed and some eclectic motorcar manuals — most at bargain prices (sometimes even less).
I’m fairly certain that if I did have some sort of list to work with the rarer items would surely have been ticked off by now. I’ve seen boxed sets of brand new Hepolite pistons for a Mini Cooper, a reconditioned Chrysler brake booster for a Letter Series car, a wood-rimmed, riveted MG steering wheel, a classic set of Jaguar knock-on hubs and an extremely rare Lucas Altette hooter suitable for just about any pre-war British car. One stallholder tells me he has a pre-war Bentley “Flying B” motif going cheap.
The buzzword at autojumbles over in the UK right now is the term “trunk traders” — no doubt originating from over the Atlantic. In times gone by I’ve visited a few of these autojumbles looking for elusive Velocette clutch plates and BSA valve guides, etc, and being completely knocked out at the amount of new old stock (NOS) parts that are available — most at reasonable prices.
I well remember one old-timer turning to me at the entry gate and remarking: “By heck, lad, you could decide here and now on a certain bike to build up from scratch before you start huffin’ around the fields . . . by the time nightfall comes you’d have collected most components, anyhow!”
Now’s the time to mark time and find out exactly what you have spirited away in your garage and what’s missing — there’s an awful lot of like-minded folks doing the autojumble thing up and down our beautiful country.
Why not try a bit of boot-sale trading? You get to meet the nicest people.
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