Salisbury motor show with the team at Automotion and friends.

27 June 2023 10:19

Blondie's Blog Three...

Still never ceases to amaze me that anyone wants to read my drivel but, we're now up to 2.5 percent of the total website traffic so either my mum can't sleep and keeps refreshing the page or she's told the Liverpool branch of the family (which is a huge number of people, catholic values and all that!) either way, I am still going.

I'm not the fastest at all this as life is beyond hectic 70 percent of the time and, the other 30 percent, I fall asleep standing up so I'm a little behind telling you about the Salisbury motor show which we were really lucky to be invited to attend and display (along with some wonderful supercars in the posh car corner) by the splediferous chaps behind the British Motor show at Automation.

We really do feel very blessed recently.

Andy Entwistle the CEO has been beyond kind to us, letting us tag along at various pop ups and shows this summer and, has given us some very exciting and unexpected news about our place in the Main British Show that I can tell you more about on the next scribble session...

So, we turned up to the Salisbury show smack bang in the centre of one of my favourite small cities down south here in sunny England.

The show was situated right in the market square near the imposing and beautiful cathedral and right opposite the historic guild hall (and thankfully, a Wetherspoons as we were starving!)

I am not afraid to admit that I felt a little humbled having arrived to warm reception from his brilliant smiley team and being given such a wonderful space, amongst all the supercars. It meant a lot that people in the industry we've only recently met were so genuinely pleased to see us and so accommodating to our little cars.

Best of all we didn't see a touch, not even a light stroke of public negativity that can so often be associated with static car shows in regard to the quality of the "built not bought "cars that weve seen all too often in the past. we are incredibly lucky to have fallen into such a lovely crowd.

The lovely Sam Hard was on full form as always and despite it being fathers day worked so hard to keep everyone else entertained.

Tim Shaw (car sos) was sadly missing after a recent unexpected op but we are told he is doing just fine.

Paul Cowland of Salvage Hunters classic cars fame and Sam gelled together so well as hosts and kept the pleasantly large crowds happy and entertained all day.

I did however, unsurprisingly make a little bit of a bell of myself...

A Very enviously tall chap turns up in a cracking monster engined beauty of an Audi with a distinctive number plate whilst we were waiting for our friends and customers (Dan of Tech Auto's, Jonathan for whom we built a stunning grey Isabella car and Jason whom has a very cool Nardo grey MX250 kit car)

Dan Walsh of Tech auto’s and his awesome little sidekick. dan is factory five’s only uk agent. this is his daytona and an amazing example of his talent with their kits.

Jason and his mazda based mx250. jason is a customer who has become a friend. decent bloke who loves motorbikes as much as cars. his nardo grey car looks awsomely aged to me but, hes keen to have it repainted. perhaps a project for the winter. note the tribute tshirt! that’ll keep the lads at the factory happy :@)

This lovely smiley chap is Jonathan proudly showing off his prized isabella. we built izzy for jonathan a couple of years back and its fair to say she really is his pride and joy! another customer that has become a friend. jonathan’s izzy will be at the british motor show on our new exciting kit car area in august! 17-20th, dont forget to buy your tickets!!

Now, you have to understand that sport isn't my thing (I cant run with my dodgy ticker and lungs plus, the muscles that play up more days than not) so, watching someone run? akin to torture as I loved to do it as a young person and was pretty fast (although I used to then pass out) so, I had no idea who this tall chap that was commanding attention despite quietly popping in was..

So here's old Blondie the numpty here moving cars about in the space we had been given trying to make things look nice for pics and this beast of a thing roars up next to us.. I bravely asked him to move it (despite having more tattoos than me) I have to say he was a lovely chap, complete gent and very gentle, said he wasn't invited and only came to help his friend Sam hard today.

all cars placed and tickety boo, off to breakfast....

as we strolled back the area was crowded with public eyeing up his apparently famous super beast of an Audi... turns out it was Iwan thomas MBE the famous welsh sprinter...I felt a bit of a twat but he was a gent.

Wouldn't be a proper day out if I didn't make a sausage of myself, it's a bit like injury of the week at the workshop and the Wxnker of the week award, which is in fact the inner of an old tube of silicon which is on occasion thrown at the stupidest person. Good job we are a family business, no one to sue us for bullying .ahem, I mean banter!

the day went beautifully.

We met so many lovely members of the public, ate some incredible food ( a particular treat was the jerk chicken and rice bowl which weighed not far off one kilo from a brilliant independent stall) and most importantly of all, the organisation was perfect as always with Andy's guys at Automation.

Everyone was smiling , friendly and having a great day. It's been a lovely few weeks tagging along with such a fun, dedicated, hard working bunch!

The long days of shows are tiring, I will admit, not lest for my daughter Emily who tags along and has to manage without her wheelchair all day as they don't fit in the cars.

To put this in context, she has a Collagen disorder, which it appears I gave her yet didnt know I had, yet she copes really well (then sleeps for 2 days!!)

Emily works really hard at Uni plus has a small business from the age of 11 selling incredibly realistic reborn dolls ( google it, some are cool, some creepy!) and, vintage toys, teddies and all manner of interesting things. She's back at uni doing her masters from September so were making the most of the extra help!

My other daughter Poppy is more of an artist who can take on any given creative task and turn out wonderful results and, James, who is my eldest at 25, is Music mad and a very talented self taught guitar player and singer. Though he can sing normally very well he loves thrash metal which sometimes sounds like he is gargling a throatful of premenstrual females after ten double j'd and cokes..... though it is rather impressive if i'm honest despite me not being a thrash fan ( iron maiden i like, Korn is a little too much!)

I do feel very blessed that they've turned out as they have, even if only one puts up with the car obsession I've been inflicted with enough to come along!!

so, in other completely car unrelated news .. a few weeks go we found a budgie at the workshop.

Yep... I sheet you not a baby budgie on the grass with no sign of an owner and so tired it was listing worryingly to the side!

After Ben and Ian fashioned a cage from a box and some kit car grille material, fed him what bird seed we had and crumbled biscuits he sat out on a car bonnet and watched me fibre glass whilst enjoying the sun and chirping away. He is such a funny little chap. super friendly and weirdly tame. I tried to find out where he came from on social media but it remains a mystery..

Turns out he was just a baby, six months max.

Fast forward a couple of days after borrowing a cage from out amazing local rescue lady Jane and we sadly realised that our cats are sneaky Bird-erers of the most cunning kind and with no owner coming forward it was time to find Colin a forever home.

Colin now lives in a wonderful property on the beach at Stubbington, with Emily's Uni Friend Rosie and their menagerie of bird breeds.

He's a right little cheeky dude. chats like crazy. super tame and very cuddly. Was hard to part with him but, we will be visiting.

We find or are given lots of animals (baby hedgehog with missing toes this week and terrible infection, a 4 week old one soon followed and another tiny is coming tonight ) never a dull moment in the workshop or house.

speaking of the workshop... I probably should be talking about that.

awesome progress this week despite a few days out.

Simon's range rover grey cobra style rep we built last year is in for a full interior with our custom hand made 3 piece dash, quality hand made dials and a mix of leather and carpet inside to give it a road and race look.

He lives over in Switzerland and brought it back for the above and 3 inch diameter beefy dummy side pipes as well as aa beefed up custom exhaust that will rumble and pop like car rice kripsies ( other cereals are available) as the gears drop.

The little Z3 based Kobra rebodies are stunning in this colour which is probably why we keep getting asked to repeat it after the original (Gareth's car) was featured in Complete kit car magazine as a huge several page spread by Adam Wilkins and his brilliant team last year. It remains one of our proudest builds and Gaz is a proper dude who is always helping us out with shows and publicity! We are very blessed that customers become friends.

We also have a STUNNING Z3 based Le Mans (built privtely back when the previous /original 250 kits were available, it's builds only now and called the Le Mans) that's in all the ay from northern Ireland for a full dashboard, interior and leather etc.

Really lovely car and it helps that the owner is so nice. We're pretty fussy whom we deal with as we need to love what we do.. we made the mistake of building cars for grumpy people and people we were unsure of a couple of times and it saddens the project. After all, that big smile when they drive away and every time they get in their custom build is what it is all about!!

Also this last couple of weeks (as well as continuing on normal customer builds and two very special cars we're building for ourselves to sell) we have been having a catch upon dashes so theyre ready when the next 3 scheduled cars come in.

I've been slowly working on the new mould for our Cobra hardtop roof, waxing it a gajillion times before I attempt laying up the first roof and subsequent wrestling match with a convoluted but awesome shape mould....

So a busy couple weeks as always.. hedgehogs (reminds me of not the nine o clock news, showing my age) Budgies, beef trucking in our old tatty but nimble and reliable transit tow truck down to the factory to get more dashes, sills etc (nice excuse for an hour on beach at weymouth too) dashes, interiors, shows, and.. very little sleep...but, its awesome. Pinch myself some days. Told I wouldn't make 40.... The worlds not getting rid of me that easily. This hard work has changed everything. Its Life blood to me. Even if I do have to collapse every time I get home, fall asleep when I sit down, during conversations and whilst typing! Worth every tough moment.

next week we are popping up at the end destination of the Ellis Journey at Datchet as the lovely people from Automation have recently taken over this event too. Sunday early afternoon will see some very amazing very early vehicles rolling to Datchet Green with cars displayed in Horton road car park. It's an incredibly historic event and more details can be found on the British motor shows Facebook pages. It looks fun!

Also, more glass fibre antics and I need to change the front pads on Rita the rover ( shes not broken this week despite Ian constantly teasing Discovery's are called "offroad" for good reason) before I upset the callipers and, loosen the stuck turbo actuator as shes currently as slow as snail chasing a jumbo jet with unburnt fuel emitting on harsh acceleration,. Easy job but finding the time is a challenge!!

So, as usual I've rambled on too long, thankyou for reading and I'm now going to eat a huge bag of sweets now to keep me awake long enough to start planning our INCREDIBLE new opportunity of the new "kit car area" at the upcoming British Motor Show in August. To say I'm excited is as understated as my most evil cat saying she kind of enjoys catching rats.. It's going to be incredible....more news to come!

Have an awesome week. Smile, laugh, cry and above all, make memories every day.

Belle, waif and stray animal and vehicle collector