So I haven't posted for a while, since my holiday actually! Not much has happened recently, until now!

I went with some of the club members to the Go Japan! show at Brands Hatch which was excellent and will definitely be going next year. Here are a couple of photos of the car that day, more photos can be found on the thread in the forum...

After some discussions it was decided that I would go to the Classic Car show at the NEC this year to help out with the stand and to show my car, however this left me with a problem.... my bonnet and wings. For those that never saw it, the front of the cars paint work was quite badly damaged from a car cover flapping against the car for about 3 years during its 5 year storage. The bonnet, both front wings and the front bumper had everything from black marks from the straps to the paint being worn down to the bare metal. I needed to fix this quickly, as it wouldn't look very good lined up next to some of the best cars in the club and country... ?

Enter my friend Glynn:

The photos don't do it justice, but walking into his shop for the first time and seeing the car was awesome.... You remember when you were playing Gran Turismo and you looked at the car in the showroom with the black background, the car rotating and gleaming.... This was like that. It looked brilliant. He even did the rear bumper for me because he found a small scratch and touched in some marks on the sills, then gave it a mop and polish. He prioritised the job because he knew it was going to the NEC! Thanks Glynn!

So there I was, car ready, bags packed (a little early I admit but you get the jist), jumped into my wife's TT on Sunday to go to work and her wipers stopped working half way down my road....in the middle of the road... in the middle of god emptying his bath water over Eastbourne... I crawled home and jumped in the zed to get to work on time.

That evening at work, we had winds so strong the Newhaven ferry got cancelled, buses were crawling along the coast road with hazard lights on and one poor driver I have known for years was just getting out of a work ferry van when...

Bugger....

That's the offside rear wheel arch.. the transit door was fine by the way!

As the damage was done by a company vehicle, the company is footing the bill and after explaining the situation about the NEC, the car has been booked in to be repaired tomorrow. Luckily the company has its own claims department that deals with everything involving the buses, so they have a long list of repair shops, body shops, etc and they picked the best one they had on record. I've checked the reviews online and it seems promising. I wont name them yet, I want to see how the car turns out, but i've had a few people assure me that they are great.

The car is still going to the show albeit with a war wound that will either be expertly cured by a trained medical team or fixed by a field medic...

As Alanis once said: "Its a re-spray on your zed, 2 days too late"