At 63 years of age, you would think one has learnt enough about life not to make stupid mistakes. Well, I have not. I had got used to the idea of working barefoot on the GT40 while clambering under the dash installing a new air conditioner evaporator and new fuse box and wiring. It was much more comfortable not to have shoes on while dangling the feet out of the overhead door aperture. Please don’t try and imagine this situation as I do still have some dignity. Anyway, what I did not do was to put shoes on once I started doing some metal work. The upshot of it all was that I managed to drop a steel plate ( 400 x 100 x 8 mm) right on the end of my second (middle) toe of my right foot, taking the skin off right to the bone and breaking the end bone in two places. I cannot put down in words, or exclamations, what the shock and subsequent pain was like. No language (not even MSWord) has words to describe the situation. Maybe Afrikaans comes close.

The moral of the story is this: Do take all the precautions when working in your workshop. Eye protection against grinding, cutting and welding, ear protection against noise, gloves and overalls to protect when cutting, grinding and welding. AND, remember to wear shoes!!!

Talking about workshop blues reminds me of some frustrations one can experience while working on your jalopy. We all know that bolts, nuts and washers, when dropped, will always roll under the car and come to a halt just out of reach. How a hex head bolt and nut can roll that far is anyone’s guess.  While overseas, I came across a natty little tool that was going to solve at least part of this problem. It came in the form of a telescoping pen like gadget with a very strong magnet at the end of it. To retrieve the dropped item, all you need to do is pull this gadget out of your pocket, extend it, and use its magnetic attraction to grab hold of the item. This particular one has such a strong magnet that it can retrieve a heavy ring spanner. It worked fine until my ever helpful buddies convinced me to change all my bolts to very good looking stainless steel cap head ones. Now I am back to square one, stainless is non-magnetic!!! Has anyone got ideas on solving my dilemma? I thought of constructing a skirt to hang around the vehicle to stop the blighters rolling under the car. Maybe I can patent it.

The year is well on its way and we have had some good runs and other activities.

I will not go into much detail on reporting back as I have about the same to say for all of them. The breakfast at uShaka Theme Park, Braai at Midmar Dam, SPCA Motor Display and the dinner at Le Troquet restaurant, were all attended by the usual crowd with the addition of Larry Wiggil who has found new interest in running with the cars. Trouble is, he is not quite sure which of his sports cars to use to impress his latest interest. The activities were all enjoyable, but we wish more of our members will take the opportunity to join in the fun. After all, that is what our club was established for.

The turnout for the ‘constructors’ at Howard Whitehead’s home was fairly well attended but unfortunately quite a few of the guys had to leave early and missed out on the spread that Margie Whitehead had prepared. We thank Howard and Margie for the opportunity to see the Cobra’s build process and to experience their hospitality. Did some of the members hive off to watch the wedding of Charles and Camilla?

A very interesting activity came our way which was not mentioned in our news letter at the time. We, together with some other clubs and personalities, were invited to a tour of the TR-Tech Cobra factory. All our members were informed by SMS and e-mail and we gathered at a filling station in Prospecton before the tour on Saturday 2 April. The facility turned out to be very well laid out with plenty of space. The Cobras that were in production were all of a high quality and the company has now enough spares to begin to sell to local builders. The management have promised to produce a price list of parts that are available. We were treated to refreshments including Big Mac burgers, conducted through the facility and were able to chat to members of the work force at their work stations. All in all, a great day. Keep your e-mail scanned and watch out for SMS messages, we may just be paying this facility a visit once more in the near future.

We thank the management of TR-Tech Cobra factory for their hospitality.

It is interesting to note that Edward Mitchell, who could be anywhere in the world like Russia or the Far East, as well as Ian Bosch (new member) who could be in Afganistan at the time, are the two members who respond the quickest to e-mail messages. Makes you think!!

Some members, who we have not seen or heard of for a long time, and who have not submitted their fees, have forfeited their memberships. This is a great pity as we do not like loosing members, but we are not able to carry membership fees any longer. Printing and postage keeps increasing and we feel that our membership fee of R130 per annum is not expensive at all. If a member has a problem, all they need to do is to consult our chairman.

When you get this, the mystery brunch would have run its course and we look forward to future activities.

You will be receiving a notice to meet somewhere South of Durban for a quick visit to Powerkote. Johan Smith has invited us to visit his facilities to see what he can offer in the form of High Tech Ceramic Coating of exhaust systems and/or engine parts. At this stage the time is set for a 08h30 visit on Saturday 7 May.

One of the more popular events is the annual Cars in the Park car show in Pietermaritzburg. Doug Wishart has managed to secure our old spot along the tar road where we have shade in the afternoon but no dust. The spot which was allocated to our club last year was out of the way and far too dusty. By lunch time all our cars were the same colour. Doug has also booked a braai barrel and we will be taking up some skottels to do the egg roll breakfast. Remember, we have to be there early, so we meet at sparrows (07h00) on Sunday 15 May at the filling station, Polo Pony. Don’t be late as we will move off almost immediately for PMB. Don’t forget your BYO braai stuff as well. As usual, this should prove a great day.

Brian Tarbotton will be away in Cape Town and has had to postpone his constructors from Saturday 21 to 28 May. I think Brian is a little behind with his build as he has sold his original GT40 chassis and has started with a brand new one incorporating all that he has learned over the last few months. Meet Brian at R&M Auto Electrical at 14h00 for his constructors and a BYO braai. Call Brian on 468 2435 if you need more information. See how a GT40 comes together.

Butch Bauer has offered to put a rally together for the club. We are requesting this to take place on a Sunday afternoon so that we can follow it up with the excellent buffet dinner at the Golden Horse restaurant in Pietermaritzburg. Once again you need to keep a look out for e-mail and SMS messages for details of times and dates. At this stage in the planning, keep 5 or 12 June free.

On Sunday 26 June we meet at the Northbound Petroport N2 at 08h30. From there we take a lazy drive up towards Gateway where we will parade our cars around the streets there for a while landing up at the car park in front of the East Coast Mug and Bean for a delicious breakfast. This is not a long run but an interesting one and we hope to be supported by all our members.

We do not have details of the Historic Wheels Car Show held annually, but hope to get times and dates soon. This usually takes place early July.

On 24 July, our ladies have been asked to organize a run to the Midlands (shopping run I call it). Meet at the Polo Pony filling station at 09h00.

We propose a weekend run to Clarence for 13 – 14 August. We are also hoping that our East London friends will meet us there. Clarence is a hive of artistic talent and artifacts. Lots of B&B facilities offer reasonable accommodation. Please contact Doug Wishart if you are interested in joining the run. It will be cold but refreshing and very, very interesting.

Surprise seems to be the in thing at the moment. Bearing that in mind, we have yet another Mystery Dinner on Saturday 27 August. Maybe Allen will have completed all his household chores by then and grace us with his presence. Details of the dinner will forthcoming  by e-mail and SMS messages closer to the time.

Those members who have business interests they would like to advertise, contact me on 082 871 4370. We offer a half page at R50 per issue and a full page at R120 per issue. You need to supply black and white prepared material. If you would like to advertise in colour, you need to supply 40 printed pages to be inserted per issue.

I came across some interesting headlines:

“Crack found on minister’s daughter”
“Experts say something went wrong in jet crash”
“Iraqi head seeks arms”
“Miners refuse to work after death”
“War dims hope for peace”
“Cold front linked to temperatures”
“Red tape holds up new bridge”

Going back to thoughts in the workshop reminds me of this story.

A lunatic escaped from the local asylum, came across a lady busy doing laundry and raped her. The story reached the newspaper just before going to press and because there was hardly any space, the editor just inserted these words:
“Nut bolts and screws washer.”

Drive safely

Cheers my chinas,
Vic Wait  22 April 2005