As title really,

Ive reached a big turning point in my life and its now time to hang up the spanners.

Just thought id do a little montage to show anythings possible really, if you have the passion.

Apart from my first beetle below, all the rest is over a 6 year period. So ive had more than my fill to rust, cuts and bruises. Ive actually supprised my self looking back over this lot, as to just how much ive done

Well my toys, Where do I start, at the beginning I suppose
My first bug at bought at 13, this is after restoration (sorry no befores)
1971 1200, man I miss this car

various cars in various states of resto

My next major resto was this, a 1985 series one RS Turbo








I then took on a 1968 mk1 escort mexico replica



And probably my favorite car, my 1949 Beetle standard (not deluxe)


fully restored cable brake chassis, crash gearbox, and cross plys!!!






Next was the 1971 Aston Martin DBS

Building the engine




mad rush to get it all done for our big day

Another dream car was my 1993 Escort Cosworth, body wise she was pretty mint, Engine needed a rebuild and did a lot of detailing to get the paint to show standard

launched sooo hard





MY MK2 GTI 16v, converted to VR6, g60 brakes, coilovers, bbs, electric gti recaros, magnex, k&n 57i induction. Sounded sooooo nice






MY second orange bug this time a 1970 1300














After writing off my mrs 306 pug, we got this. Diesel power



Then natural progression to this



This year I got her a little toy......




This is my first "customer restoration" nice 1986 3door cosworth, full underside resto and endine build.











More of the 67


I bought this in feb 09, did a full restoration and heres the finished car




Then this happened






Then the second restoration began








1967 1500 bug resto. on genuine porsche fuchs 2 ltrs.






Ummmmmm POWDER COATING.............................





One of my helpers





The 1949 chassis - Cable brakes and no syncro



the 49 body after sandblasting












The chassis done











The mk1






Painting my mates bay for him in kawazaki green...






More of the series one after resto








dont know why but really miss this one. gt tdis are so much fun


Some more on the aston




1958 rag top with subaru impreza engine



1992 VR6






My favorite, saving the best to last.....my transit which is scared of the snow and even wet grass


Once the TT, VR6 and 58 scooby are sold then, thats it, im done with it.

Ive loved being part of the forum over the years.

Thanks for everyones help and it was a pleasure to have met some of you as well.

Goodbye peeps .

NOW GET IN THAT GARARGE AND DO SOME WORK!!!

 

crikey mate you've been handy with the spanner's!!

some seriuos talent there.

loved the wright up in the mag about the rs16i.

 

Allways enjoyed reading your threads. Your House and land allways look's mint in the background of the pic's, take it your house is done to the same standard as your cars. Any chance of any pics

 

ahhhh nooooo mate dont hang the tools up i love your resto threads ,i used to show the wife them and tell her ....look its normal to spend so much time in the garage ,i am not the only one this guy lee is worse than me lol,
what ever the reason good luck .if its like me my son takes up a lot of my time so working on cars has taken a back seat now but on the plus side my hands are the cleanest they have ever been .

 

some cracking cars you've built there,

house looks stunning too

 

be a shame to see you hang up your spanners as your threads normally such a good read and such a high standard of work you achieve

 

Been a pleasure reading a few of your resto threads,what you going to do with your spare time now?

 

some top work there mate.

 

why giving up????

lost interest in cars totally?

got little shits (aka kids) to look after?

You still going to be driving decent cars just paying someone else to do the work or going to standard cars???

 

such a shame your seriously talented wish i could do all my own work on my cars ect good luck with watever you do next!!

 

Top quality stuff there fella. You really do seem to have a talent and gift for this. Shame to see you call it a day. Hope you will be back soon, when a project just happens to catch your eye and you can't resist....

 

have read everything u have ever posted fella christ this is a sad day have said it before u are a legend your rs 1600 i double rebuild is a classic

 

Fair play mate. You've definately been dedicated

 

That's a nice portfolio you have there. Best of luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

ahhhhhhhh man

 

Stunning, thats some serious restos you have done !

You will do another, one day !

 

Jesus, some cool cool cars there mate! why are you packing it in? just had enough? and wtf do you do for a living to afford to restore so many cars?

Rob,

 

WOT a lot of work you have done over the years mate well done but sorry to here your stopping doing it but when its in you blood its in your blood you will be back one day see you soon mate

 

been a pleasure reading your indepth threads, good luck to what ever you plan todo next, bet you cant keep your mitts of them v-dubs tho

 

best of luck in all you move onto, lee

you resto thread help spur me along with my own, for which i'm grateful

 

always loved reading up about your cars, credit to you

 

take my hat off to you mate

 

Thanks guys, really appreciate the kind words.

As ive always said I hope Ive inspired some to get out there and do it.

Yeh were making some big changes.

Cars will always be in my blood, and I will with out doubt do more. But for now were onto bigger and better things.

Im concentrating on my business more now and im actually looking foward to spending more time with my wife and family commitments and just chilling for a bit.

I feel ive really done cars to death at the mo, its not like ive missed out.

Will be nice to have clean hands also

Pics of the house!

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-...?premiumA=true

 

How long till your back doing it ?

 

some great work over the yearss, every credit

 

Lee,

Fantastic talent you have. What do you do for a living?

 

some nice work there.

 

fair feckin play to you mate

 

all your restos are a absolute credit to you lee and im sure you have inspired a lot of us that with hard work dedication and a eye for detail great results can be achieved .
ive only got back into cars a couple of years after a ten year break and im sure at some stage you will be back with the sprayer and spanners .
best of luck with your new plans

 

Always looked forward to reading your threads,all of them were quality.Each one of them an in depth guide and you obviously love working on your projects.Good luck with your business venture.

ps wonder how long before you pick up the spanners again

 

thats some excellent work you have done, well done.

 

shame your going mate but like one of the other guys said how come your hanging your tools up ? is it the wife ha ha

you've had all sorts too some really cool stuff !

 

an inspiration to us all we will all look forward to seeing your restos in the near future good luck with your business and your family

 

Good work there mate

 

nah you`ll be back mate... its in your blood, one day when you least expect it, you`ll be half way through another resto, and then go shit!!! what am i doing?

hehe

better than wheeler dealers you are

 

Fair play thats quite a CV you have.

 

You know how I feel about your work Lee.......AMAZING !!!! Glad to see you are chilling out a bit more though mate as I've never known anyone work as much as you before !!! Hope you and the family are keeping well and enjoy whatever you are planning next. I have to say that that Moonstone Blue 3 door looks the bollocks !!!!!!!

Regards Stebbo

PS Can you e-mail me the photos we spoke about recently and that paint colour/code ??

 

you missed out your pizza cooking place

everything youve put you hands to is fantastic credit to you

where did you learn these skills?

 

Considering the evidence, you are truly an idiot if you really do decide to give up the spanners. You have talent and patience that not many share, don't waste it. You will soon miss it!

 

Thanks everyone.

Hi mate yeh sorry about the delay, ive been trying to get them all on a cd for you. Theres litterally 100's of pics all dotted about in my other project folders as I had 4 restos on the go at the time.

They are nearly sorted.

As for the paint totally forgot. Ive got 1 1/2 liters out side, its yours if your want it

I dont have any skills, its much simpler than that..........I just go and do it. Its what ive said all along to people, just go for it, it either works or it doesnt. its just trial and error, common sence and patience.

Oh forgot the pizza oven I sure am gonna miss this bad boy, more than the cars!!!

Well as you all know I have a strange relationship with fire.

(see link if you dont know what im on about)
https://passionford.com/forum/general-discussion/302026-rs1600i-caught-fire-today.html

Today ive been doing some more work on our pizza hut, as ive run out of parts to re-rebuild the rs1600i.

Here is what we started with a few weeks back

The original location of the pond soon to be pizza hut






The new pond








Note chicken wire to stop our chickens riping up the grass seed





The pizza oven


Trees removed and burned






Wall and patio in


Concrete base in and oak beams in




The oven



Former/mould for oven (paper mache like been at school again)


Mould for brick arch


Oak Roof on

Covered in Cedar shingles



Fire her up



Today i ran out of parts to carry on with the RSi so tiled the floor this afternoon.








I just love oak, check out the detail in the octagon roof

And the cedar shingles


Now just need to build the bench seats and a table. Thinking marble table with a hot plate in the middle to cook steaks or keep stuff warm?

Going to put roller shutters made of canvas on the open top parts so we can sit in there in the winter and stay warm from the fire..............
Just make sure the Rsi is not parked near (those of you who know of me will understand)

Hope you liked it, i cant wait to make my first pizza!

Barrel of beer will be stored under the oven, will make a £1 pot. so every pint I put a pound in.= constant flow of beer!

Right this mornings efforts.

Grouted



MintFRST heres the light


As you can see you just need to replace it with a GU10 holder



We have had a smoke issue so ill be making some doors today


As well as the center table with hot plate for steaks and stuff, may be even fried breakfasts

My sisters old barby


Canabilsm commences


One of thses barrels will become out bbq that sits in the oven


Anyone want some Rs1600i parts, used but never raced,rolled or rallied


Sexy new diamond disk






Vid




Weld it back together




Chop up the gas pipe


weld


Front


Et voila, this will be sunk in the middle of the table




Spare burners will go in oven so we can do a roast dinner


T and G, have put a router bevel in and painted it in POSH farrel and ball duck egg blue

Ill be back................
Cheers guys, it just started as a bit of fun. 9 out of 10 bbqs end up rain or stong wind as we are so exposed up here.

So i came up with the idea of building a gazebo style structure with heat. and canvas sides which we can rool down to have total weather protection, the idea being we can use it all year round, as there plenty of heat from the fire!

Well here what todays events lead to.

After my post this morning on the bbq reincorination into a hot plate, i went to get some more wood


This is the new BBQ, the idea being it can sit in the pizza oven, smoke goes up the chimney, everyones happy!

My best mate has one of thses and its honestly the best bbq ive ever cooked on............
Take one of these and drink the contents










simple but very effective!!!


Right doors.
template


copper sheet


steel


weld


paino hindge




Cut and shape copper






This is the front, to be lined with oak maybe tommrow?


and the back which takes the heat (note hindges for pizza flap )


fitted



Front (ugly as hell but will look the nuts when covered in oak )


The center table, its 3/4 marine grade (shutter) ply. The finished top will be marble, hope to have that made up in the week

Establishing height with an old table


the new pedastal




With hot plate


Will return, cant wait to get this baby fired up and cooking

Well getting there now.

Just got to order up the marble for the table, sort the oak facing on the oven doors, make some removable canvas curtains.

And these jobbies.

Spent hours trying to work out what to do.

2 half round built in benches were the original idea, hence the creme leather dining chair you may have seen floating around as this was the template shape.

But making a mock up theres just not enough room to get in and out.

Thought about a bench again but this time folding in 6 segments, but there were then issues of rain water running down peoples backs, even with the canvas curtains fitted. when we have a extreme hardcore winter bbqs and pizzas!

so plan c

Individual Stalls. This way they are easy to get in and out and have the option of putting on the patio, and also the optiion of having the hut as a cooking area if we have a party.

THere was a bit of oak left from the roof.

So heres what it looked like after running it through a few machines




The idea is the seat tops are removable, so they can be stored inside out of the weather! clever hey




Right time for an update

When the wind blows across the field we were having smoke issues, but this I mean coming out the front rather than the chimney




Copper doors are in the bin!!!!!!!!

I just got back from doing a job in south france/pyrenees where we went out for pizza one night, so managed to check out their oven in detail.

They had 2 chambers with the chimney in the middle, and it worked a treat.....so.......

mock up to see if it worked



It worked, so time to lay...Im not going to explain how ive done this as hopefully the pics explain it well enough?





You may remember marble tables were the plan, but after thinking about it, it seemed too risky, as the heat from the hot plate and a "weak" area created buy the hot plate hole in the marble, we decided it would probably crack



Also in the pyrennes we came across this idea...............

So got some steel and got my welder out (will let pics explain)




Miters


+ reinforced steel




= this







That was the easy one.....

It took about 2 hours to cut the steel for the octagon


Template













as you can see buy the sun angle it was a long day


Tempoary base made up



polythene



coco


concrete



not bad for a days work


oak base made up



concrete tiled and grouted






Now all thats left is

- put stools together and make seat covers
- make all weather side screens for the hut
- plumb in gas for hot plate



cant wait to get a pizza in there!
Arch made up for brick work template...........anyone else thinking Thomas the tank engine



Just hope we have enough bricks left, These soft reds are 80p each (cash) about £1 invoice!!!!


Oak trim with pegs round table


Hot plate for rump steaks and sunday morning fry ups all plumbed in and ready to go


Oak trim on floor to finish off panneling. 1/8" gap to allow water to escape


Oak door to help keep extra heat in if doing a roast dinner or stew pot
weighs a ton




The oak chairs are coming on, this is a mock up of the back rest made in rough marine ply to test for comfort and fitment


Tested oven out, did some cheese on toast...........its fucking hot!!!