bhamham

Really enjoying your thread. You're going at moving to France with gusto, good for you! I'm a yank (naturalized Brit), grew up with studebakers and mustangs as a kid in the '50s & 60s. I had a good friend who had a '66 convertible mustang just like yours - he had a 45rpm record player mounted between the bucket seats.

You're right about working folks affording to buy new cars back then. A lot of my friends who finished high school and got jobs in factories, etc; their first purchase was a new car, like a chevy nova with a 427 or a GTO, all the muscle cars appealed then. Even British sport cars were widely available. I went that way after Bond 007 and bought what I could afford after uni, a used '67 MGB with knock-off wire wheels - loved that car! Really wanted a AH3000 but it was a little too pricey.

Anyway, I applaud your efforts on a more self-sustaning existence in France - wish that more folks had your mind-set.

Dordogne Roofer

Thanks for the nice comment bhamham

It must have been great growing up around old (new then) American cars, so much style.

Most of our old sports cars seemed to get exported to the US, you guys loved them. I'd love a Healey myself but they were always expensive. MGB's are great, most of our old cars were good. The Yanky idea of a sports car was definitely different to the English! The first Vette was based on a Jag XK120 that the designer had, shares the same wheelbase.

In fact my Dad had a '69 427 Vette in '76, it was sold because I was born. Just a humble decorator! That's my brother in the car, he's 50 now.

But we now have another '69 Vette that we've been restoring, will be finished at the end of this week, can't wait!

bhamham

Wow! That vette you're restoring is incredible, what a beauty.

Dordogne Roofer

Thanks

I should reiterate that A - i'm not rich, far from it. Were actually moving to France because it's so expensive here (and lots of other reasons).

B - I'm not flash, if I wanted to show off I could do it way easier than this, spending 2000 odd hours under a car and stripping paint is not fun.
Buying an M3 or a Range Rover with a my name on the number plate would be much simpler but that's not how I roll.

My last day at work is tomorrow!Packing more stuff up at the flat today.

Dordogne Roofer

We went to 'Park It In The Market' last night at Greenwich Market. It's a nice little classic car show for anyone who hasn't been before. There's a live band, food and two pubs.

We took the Studebaker as it's the last show we'll be going to in a while. I need to find out about classic car clubs and shows in France, i'm sure they're a bit few and far between in the Dordogne?

No popping to Santa Pod or Shakespeare County Raceway for us either for a while...

I took the Corvette to Le Mans in 2010, Cat and I will go next year, we'll camp somewhere near and go to the bars, we won't have the money to actually go in I doubt? It's not cheap.

Here's my beautiful assistant posing with The Stude. The guy with the Beetle next door has owned it for 51 years!!



This thread is not just going to be about cars, it will very shorty be about house building!

Chatter Static

Associations et clubs du département de la Dordogne

Dordogne Roofer

Thanks Chatter Static.

Seems there's a few things going on around there. Just gotta bone up on my French to understand it all.

Finished my last job yesterday and got paid in Euros as the guys girlfriend is a Madonna impersonator and works mainly in Germany. My first wedge of Monopoly money!
We met him at the White Hart in Crystal Palace. They serve Sierra Nevada ale Mmmm. There was a good funk band playing too.
Starting to appreciate London in our last week here. We do have doubts that Carlux is a bit quiet for us but i'm sure we'll be fine. We'll just do things differently. We thought in the summer we could drive to different towns and camp, then have a wander into town, it'll be a good way of getting to know different places. It's not like here, you can jump on a bus to get anywhere.

Today is more sorting out, posting a few bits sold on eBay etc

bhamham

We did that for three summers - camping in our VW camervan in France before moving here permanently. Went from Croatia to Sweden, but mostly toured France. Even shipped our camper to America and did three months summer 2016 touring the rocky mtns and NW Canada then down Pacific coast - 8000mi. Ended up selling it over there before moving to Paris.

Most French villages have a municipal campground near the city centre so great for wandering into town and stumbling back at night.



Here's my assitant taking a break though she'd kick me for calling her that!




In Carcassonne campground.




With Dutch friends




We're doing it again next summer but I'm thinking of getting a smallish estate and a very small Eriba caravan. Camping in the van was OK and we rode our bikes most places, but to go for day trips a little farther out it's a bit of a faff to break camp then set up again.

Dordogne Roofer

Wow that's a pretty epic tour!

Hats off to you for driving that far. The Rocky Mountains must have been exciting, I'd love to go there.

Cat and I spent two weeks camping around the Dordogne last year, in the Mini...with a spare wheel on the back seat too (didn't have run craps on the car), not much room but it worked out fine, it's nice to be able to unload a few bits then drive somewhere easily. Cat's parents have a motorhome and it's a trade off, yes it's way more comfy, but it's a drama popping out anywhere. But the Mini wouldn't work for any long period of camping.

Your vehicle looks like my mate's Dad's old VW Danbury, many happy memories at Brands Hatch watching rallycross.

We're getting cabin fever in our flat with no creature comforts.

Still haven't sold the Mini which is odd as it's a good price for a nice car. I think PCP has affected the values of cheaper used cars and people at that end of the market people don't have 2.5k knocking around to spend on a car, they'll go and get something on credit.
There seems to be more people with more money who would buy a more expensive used car, house price inflation has given people with assets a lot of free money if they free it up.

Rosemary

When putting photo´s on the forum could you all remember to only add them as thumbnails and not larger photo´s.

Rosemary

Pulaski

Why?

InVinoVeritas

+1 I hate thumbnails, they keep closing when I try to enlarge them. You still got your Mustang, Pulaski? How about some photos?

Rosemary

Sorry if there has been a misunderstanding. I said thumbnail meaning that it is preferable to have smaller images rather than large ones. So an attachment (paperclip) or hosted (Img) are both fine as long as they are not huge.

Rosemary

Pulaski

You may not realize it, but when they did a software upgrade of the forum, IIRC around June 2015, so around 2½ years ago, they changed the forum structure so that even the largest inserted picture doesn't cause the forum to stretch super-wide, as used to happen prior to that. In other words the old "large picture problem" no longer exists.

The way to see what the problem used to be, is to edit a post in a thread with pictures and in edit mode any inserted images will expand to their unadjusted size.

BTW a "thumb nail" is a tiny little picture that you have to click on to expand to a viewable size.

Pulaski

I have that problem too, with attached images closing.

Yes, I still have my Mustang. .... Why would I get rid of it?

It is currently in the garage and I am trying to get around to getting a minor scrape to the right hand side faux air duct repaired, where Mrs P scraped it along the garage door track a few years ago, and also where the front left fog light attachment lugs got snapped off when Mrs P hit a bucket that flew out of a pick-up truck.

As winter now beckons it may be spring before I get it out regularly, but I will post some pictures of it next spring, if I don't get the opportunity sooner.