I do the same thing when I can Bobbi -karma n all that. Help someone out who genuinely needs it & someday someone will return the favour.
A quick re-cap for those who don't read every single thread on the forum -I know a lot only read the sections that are relevant to them:
I was at the Billing rod show last weekend, wandering round on my own as Taz was working. In the middle of the show field was "Pinball Wizard", a 1954 Ford Pop. Meant absolutely nothing to Taz when I told her later, but if you're of a certain age & into customs, it was one of the top show cars of it's day. That day being the early 70s. I was a school boy just getting into the custom scene & I remember seeing it at the big indoor custom shows at Alexandra Palace, drag racing at Blackbushe airstrip & in Custom Car magazine. With it's sunburst yellow & orange paint & flip up body, it just blew me away. This is the car indellibly etched on my memory as one of my all time favourites.
It's been on the road for over 35 years now, passing through a series of owners, being re-vamped a couple of times with fresh paint & various engines, even drag racing at one point with a nitrous injected 440 big block motor. Through all that time though, it's retained it's original stance & most of the original fittings & is still instantly recognisable as the Wizard.
Got chatting to Pete Le Grice, the current owner, & a chance turn in the conversation led us to chat about Dodge Chargers. The Wizard presently runs a 440 Charger engine with a 30 thou re-bore taking it out to 446 cubic inches. The previous engine was a standard 383, (6 1/4 litre), the same as Taz's. I was stunned when Pete casually said You can have it if you want it. Just come up to Derbyshire & collect it.
After several phone calls -mainly to check he really was serious, we rented a small van & drove up there on Saturday. True to his word, Pete had the motor loaded on a pallet ready to put in the van. It needs a new distributor cap, HT leads & an alternator, but he threw in the carb, starter motor, torque converter, flex plate & even a brand new tin valley gasket, still in it's box. Pete's a retired builder/carpenter & certainly isn't short of a few bob -Pinball now lives in a purpose built centrally heated garage, bigger than my old flat, alongside Pete's nitrous injected turbo CBX1000 Honda. Knowing I'm a big fan of his car & that Taz is passionate about getting her Charger on the road to get out there & enjoy it, Mr Le Grice was happy the 383 had found a deserving home.
We've added him to our long list of people we have to visit with the Charger when it's done.
