Manky Monkey Motors

Bit of a long title I know, but Archie & I did both yesterday.
Now my truck's more or less done, I'm looking for places to drive it to. There's been a regular monthly rod meet at the drive thru "Krispy Kreme" donut shop in New Malden, Surrey for several years now. The third Sunday of every month, starting around 10am & tailing off sometime after lunch. So not an all-day event, but a good excuse for a blat in the pick-up.
So young Archie & I met up at Loony's workshop around 8.30 on Sunday morning. I hadn't touched the Pop since last weekend, but the weather's been unseasonably hot for weeks now, so at least it wasn't coated in rust when we pulled the tarpaulin off. Turn on the ignition, listen for the buzz of the fuel pump to stop as the petrol reaches the carb, a couple of stabs on the throttle pedal, then turn the key ...braaarrpp. And away she goes. That's good.
10 minutes later we were pulling out of the local petrol station after topping up the tank. Maybe 55/60 miles from Basingstoke to New Malden, along the M3, across to the A31, then straight up the A3. Motorway & dual carriageway all the way. It's been unbearably hot here for weeks now. I hate it & seem to have been constantly drenched in perspiration. Not nice. So Sunday morning's overcast sky & light breeze came as a bit of a relief to me. If you've read my thread in the Motors section, you'll know the Pop cab gets very warm, especially at motorway speeds, so I enjoyed the coolness while it lasted. We even had a couple of spots of rain, but by the time we'd turned off the exit ramp at New Malden & round the corner to the donut shop, the sun was breaking through. Damn.
Several other shows going on in the area, including the V8 Mentalists' American & rod meet, the Old Ford rally etc, meant it wasn't as manic as usual at the Krispy Kreme, but still a good selection of motors to peruse -& KK's legendary donuts of course. If you've never tried one & think a donut's just a donut, you've got to buy some. Archie & I parked the truck up on the pavement, (the shop carpark fills by mid morning so cars just overflow into the street outside), & wandered in. There must've been 3 dozen different flavours to choose from. Suitably sustenated, we went for a wander about.
 

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Neat model A coupe's 50s sci-fi themed, with loads of little details tucked away, from the tinplate toy rocket dipstick handle, to the ray gun gearshift. The headlining's papered with 50s comic book pages.

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Couped Morris Minor was ...interesting. Vast amounts of body filler & mastic. Headlights appear to be BMW/Mini?

Ford Escort estate has similar build style & has been for sale for a very long time.

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Yup, classic Roller pulled in for a donut.

Forum member Kev390's little Pop pick-up.

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Loved this.

Ford Granada fastback.

Wonder if that's my old Ford Farnham estate.
I've still got the side trims for it.

Strap 'em to your trike & take 'em along next month Dave.

Ewe lookin' at me.
I have no idea what this was all about, but this guy had brought his sheep along -wearing a very fetching little green hat with feathers in it. As you do. It seemed quite unfazed, mooching about, licking the, looking at the cars
-I've got my best hat on & I'm lookin' gooood. Ohhh yeahhh.
The owner had a collecting tin. I put a few coins in & took his photo, but I've no idea what he was collecting for -maybe a donut for the sheep.
It was obviously a city sheep cos it was perfectly happy, crossing the road while some guy was doing a burnout outside the shop. So where had the owner walked from with it? Did he bring it in a car? To the drive ewe?
What really got me was no-one else batted an eyelid at it.

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Huge American pick-up bed. Acres of load space, (that's a trolley jack in the corner, to give you some idea of scale).
Small square hole cut right slap bang in the middle of it.
A single Earth wire poked through it & screwed to the bed floor.
...why?
Is it just me, or are Londoners just a teensy bit bonkers?

Cool or crazy. Which is which?

"The Growler".

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Welsh Dave's Buick. More of him later.

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I really hope these guys had never met before & arrived at the gate from different directions.

Or the second one's stalking the first one & follows him everywhere he goes.  :P

Maybe that's what's going on with these two.

I'll 'ave you know us Londoners are enormously bonkers and proud of it.

Some of you are definitely more bonkery than others.

As the cars began to drift away -well, wheelspin away anyway, we turned our attention to the second meet of the day.
The Detonators car club were holding their annual barbeque at Oxleas Meadows, Shooters Hill from 2 till 6pm. Shooters Hill's the highest point in South London & was a 17 mile drive away, across the city, near Greenwich & Crystal Palace according to Archie's Google map print out.
I'd read on the Rods n Sods forum that Dave Williams was going to both events & I knew his car from his R & S forum avatar, but had no idea what he looked like. Luckily, as we were wondering how to make ourselves known to him, I bumped into my mate Toad -hotrod Toad, not bike Toad from this forum. He knew Dave & disappeared to find him for us & ask if we could tag along with him. He was soon back -Yeah, he says he knows you. You're that Minky Murky bloke. Yeah that's me.
Introductions were made & we fired up the truck again & rumbled out into the traffic, following the big blue Buick. Dave lives locally so knew all the back roads to avoid the worst of the queues. London really is a 24 hour, 7 day a week city & the roads were packed -keep your eye on that Buick Archie. Bugger, which way did he go?
Over the tram tracks at Wimbledon, through Lewisham & across towards Bexleyheath. We had no idea where we were. An endless maze of streets & junctions, a seething mass of motors & people, with the white roof of the Buick always one set of traffic lights ahead of us, disappearing into the distance, like Alice's white rabbit. Pop, don't fail me now.
The neighbourhoods got more & more ...Cosmopolitan. Lots of Afro Caribbean shops & fried chicken restaurants -where do they get all the chickens from? Maybe the same place that bloke got his sheep? We kept passing large coloured gentlemen, sitting on street corners. As we drove by they'd point at us & nod. What does that mean? Is that good? Should we nod back? Maybe that means As soon as those traffic lights turn red ah'm comin' over there to beat you with a baseball bat. Should we point back at them? Archie thought probably not -they might think we had a gun. They might fetch their brothers in the Noddie gang & the Pointer Sisters & all hell could break loose. We drove on, imagining inadvertently kicking off a major turf war & switching on the TV when we got home to find Lewisham ablaze & full of riot Police -that's weird, we passed through there half an hour before & didn't see a thing. 2 white boys in a hillbilly pick-up truck on the wrong side of the tram tracks.
We sat at a junction, opposite two guys in a big black BMW convertible. If they weren't drug dealers they'd missed a serious career opportunity. They grinned & shouted something that definitely wasn't the Queens English. You wanna swap? Why does everyone keep trying to trade for my truck?
-Yeah, I lost the Manky Boys in the traffic & when they reappeared they were driving a slammed Beemer, looking like a couple of cheap pimps.
That's weird, two coloured guys turned up here in a beat up pick-up & tried to sell us drugs.
Several very big, shaven headed coloured gents, looking like the guy with the hook in Live & Let Die, but wearing safari suits that appeared to be cut from 70s curtains -huge floral prints in vivid oranges & yellows. I guess you've gotta be seriously tough to wear kitsch soft furnishings in Lewisham.
-You laughin' at my suit bhoy? Yeah, well I'm wearing your Momma's curtains.
We seemed to drive for ever & were seriously starting to wonder how much fuel we had left. We hadn't passed a petrol station for miles. Dave's Buick's driven more than 10 miles -he must need a petrol station soon. And how the hell does he manage to find so many bloody speed bumps? The big Yank tank's wallowy suspension seemed to soak 'em up with no trouble at all, but we scraped & crunched our way over them, wincing at every one. Stoopid truck. The streets got narrower & we wondered if he'd forgotten we were behind him. Maybe we'd round a corner to find him parked on his driveway -why have you followed me home?
Finally we spotted a petrol station & pulled in. A couple of gallons of fuel & several gallons of cold water please. The Pop ran perfectly all the way across London, ticking over quite happily in the traffic, but the cab was somewhere between simmering & boiling temperature. It gets so ridiculously hot in there. Difficult to look cool when you're dissolving in a puddle of sweat. Archie checked for speed bump damage but couldn't see anything. Hopefully it sounded worse than it was. Refreshed & refuelled, we carried on & just a couple of miles further on, turned into a small side street, then down a narrow dirt track. This can't be the place can it? Then suddenly it opened out into a huge wooded park on top of a hill, with a wide meadow stretching off into the distance. Wow.
Lots of trad hotrods & classic Yanks parked up among the trees, with a really nice café perched on the brow of the hill. What a cool venue for a get-together. We were directed down into the grassy parking area & clambered out of the truck to stretch our legs & wring our shirts out. A long drive in sub tropical heat, but well worth it. 

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That's me in the blue shirt, not someone trying to pinch the Pop.

Archie was in charge of photografficking.

'ear are you posting this now.You have been putting yourself about a bit lately.Ideal weather for the Pop. you don't need those windows in this heat.

Am I posting it now? No, I posted it a week last Wednesday. You really are a bit bonkers aren't you.  :P

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Loved this. Beat up '64 Galaxie.

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A cool, laid back atmosphere & an afternoon for just sitting back & watching the World go by.

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Oh how facetious of you. All i ment was these days you don't seem to be on as late as you used to be.Sneak off to bed earlier.

 :D Some of us have busy days ahead of us at work tomorrow mate.

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do you realise just how lucky you lot in the south are ,,,,,
ther,s nowt like this up north ,,,

If you go down to the woods today, you're in for a big surprise
-today's the day the Detonators have their picnic.

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We really wanted to jump in the Pop & go charging off down the hill into the distance, but thought better of it. It's a bloody long way to push it back up.

Music for the afternoon was provided by local rockabilly band Big Bang Boogie, & very good they were too. Apparently they really enjoyed playing to a hotrod crowd. Between sets Mr Tappets the rock n roll DJ kept the atmosphere going. 
My piccies now.

The "Secret Café"s a regular music venue, hosting everything from solo violin performances to punk. This Saturday night Canary Wolf are playing there.

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seems to be more ,females, in manky,s photos than there used to be  ;) ;) ;)

There's more room in my life for females now Mike.

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you seem to have a good eye for both type,s         them with wheels,,,, and them with other features  :D :D

Always thinking of you guys.  ;)

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Gorgeous paint on this Buick Eight.

Not so much on this ol' nail.

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Much to Archie's amusement, the owner of this super clean coupe parked up, then marched straight over to the Pop & stuck his head in the window.

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Forum member Uncle Kev, (Kapri), & his buddy Chris arrived mid afternoon, having skirted around the bottom of London from the South Coast on the M25. They had a SatNav each but they didn't agree & they got completely lost, going through the Dartford Tunnel twice. What you need is a big Buick to follow mate.

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Donuts for breakfast, ice creams for lunch & cheese dogs for tea.
A ride through London with Welsh Dave & a cruise back home with Kev & Chris.
What a brilliant day out.

 ;D Some great photo's Andy, with that many rod's there and Lot's more just down the road a bit at the Punchbowl Inn, hard to know where they all come from ;D

And where do they all go afterwards? We always say, 2 miles down the road & there's not a single one in sight. I think they all disappear into some parallel universe until the next show.