On this ( long ) page you'll find some pictures of cars that I've owned and built over the years. It is by far not complete, just a couple of pictures I could find going through my albums and deskdrawers.
My first car was this '69 Triumph Spitfire.
I bought it as a black, original car, but I soon started
working on it to make it my own. Me and my nephew Rob
stripped it and had it painted "British Racing
Green" .When it was back together I put in a wooden
dashboard from a GT6
( sportsmodel ), added racemirrors and a luggagerack, put
on wider tires, and polished the engine ( which I had to
redo again sooner than I wanted, due to the
enginecompartment catching fire ). I sold it to finance
my next car.
Which was this Ruska Sprinter Buggy with a dual port 1600 cc VW engine. I bought it, rode it around for a year and sold it like you see it here. It was great fun in the summer.
But I wanted something more personal, something not seen every day on the Dutch roads. Being a member of the "Dutch Buggy Club" brought me to an idea. There was only one Baja - bug in Holland owned by Arnold. I spoiled his fun by building # 2 from an old Beetle.
I took a hacksaw and a grinder and cut off the fenders and hood, so the engine was exposed, showing the special exhaust I had made up by a former member of the Buggyclub. On the back there were huge terraintires, 4 foglights on the front and a homemade overheadconsole inside with a CB and all the "idiotlights". I killed this car during a wild weekend on a motorcross terrain. To bent to be repaired. So I had to look out for another Beetle !
I happened to know a girl at work was selling hers, so I bought that one, knowing it was a good car as I used to maintain it myself. This was also a 1600 dual port engine that I tuned a little later on. Out came the grinder and the hacksaw, gone were the fenders and hood again. I made up bumpers of big steel tubes and put 2CV headlights under the frontfenders. Had a lot of fun with this one as well, just look at the pictures.
xxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
x
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
It always attrackted attention, even when I didn't want it to.
Well, it wàs legal, so I did not have to worry, but it's no fun being stopped all the time, especially when you're in a hurry.
This 1960 Ford Consul was my next car. I found it at a farm not far from home. It was standard, as if it had left the factory the day before. Beautiful, but I got sick and tired of people asking me whether I would drive them to church on their weddingday, so I changed it "a little".
First I had it painted the colors you see here, than I
put in a 2.3 liter V6 from a
Granada
( original was a line 4 1700 cc ), with an automatic gearbox. I removed the
frontbumper, filled the holes and "frenched"
the licenceplate. Then I removed the grille, made one
from coppertube and had that chromed. A few months later
I turned it into a dragstrip refugee by putting the rear
axle under the leafsprings and fitting bigger reartires.
This did not help roadhandling a lot but it looked good.
My last "special " car was the one in the next pictures. I bought this 1950 Ford Custom Coupe standard as well ( the only coupe in Holland ) complete with sunvisor and fenderskirts, but being a subscriber to the American "Streetrodder" magazine, there was only one thing to do with this car.
Spot the 13.000 guilders difference. I'll give you a couple of clues: topchop by 4", door and hood radiused, hood peaked, door slanted and ventwindows made to fit, front- ,rearlights and licenceplate frenched, electric windows, new sills, sidetrim removed, two - tone primer, etc, etc, etc.
This car had a Flathead
V8. Who says Harleys
make the most beautiful sound ??? The instruction booklet
advised to run the engine in high revs after starting
when it was cold,
800 revs !!!!!!!!!!!
It had an American licenseplate that read : "HAUNDAWG"
I sold this car ( and traded a motorcycleframe, engine, papers and all the things I needed to build the "Bitch", including free garagetime, storage and tooluse ) before it was finished some 9 years ago to a guy who still owns it the way it looks in the last picture. Yes, he didn't do a thing with it. It's still in his garage the way I left it there all that time ago !
I went back to riding and building motorcycles as you already found out. There are bikes on the "Picture page" as well as on the "Fun stuff" page.