To continue, after having a good look around the Firebird (it looked to be as described,
and pretty solid! The plan was simple, head home as quickly as possible,
call RJJ Freight Limited, (who handle the containerised cars
apparently) and pay them the £671.21 import duties, and quite hefty
storage fee so that they would release the car to me!
Then phone around see who has a car transporter I can hire in the next couple of days. Call my friend Paul, and ask
beg him to clear a space in his workshop. Then once all this is done...
Back to RJJ Freight Limited as soon as possible (so as not to incur any more storage
fees!) and pick it up!
Abacus
in Ferndown were the cheapest, and nearest who had a car transporter I
could hire, on the day I wanted it, and that worked well for me as my
friends workshop is in Holton Heath. So, pick up Mrs Clint, drive
to Ferndown and pick up car transporter for £140 + fuel (£20), Back to
Southampton docks, load up the Firebird, Drive to my friends workshop in
Holton Heath, unload Firebird, drop off car transporter, back to
Winchester for a pint, and wait for this all to blow over! Well, that
was my plan, more or less.
Got
the transporter bit sorted, I'd never driven one of these car
transporters before, but I wasn't too worried about it, because in a previous life I
was a white van man, er, except mine was a Transit pick up, and it was
blue, but you get the idea! But before I go on I would just ike to say what
an easy, and pleasant van to drive the Peugeot van was (nothing at all
like my old and very playworn Transit!) It was absolutely effortless,
and the staff at Abacus were extremely helpful, and showed me how
everything worked. I would definately hire one again!
It
has to be said that there was some pretty cool stuff waiting to be
collected from the docks. Oh incase you're wondering what my car shared
it's container with? It was a Lamborghini Diablo. I hope the Diablo
owner didn't see the two of them in the container, it would've been
awful for him if he had. Staring into the container, only to find that
he didn't have the coolest car in there! Poor bugger!
Load it up... Yes those pipes did scrape the ground while I was putting it on there, but never mind, let's roll...
First fill shot (of the Abacus truck!)
First fill shot of the Firebird (I'm not really gonna count that one as it's not technically on the road!)
Safely delivered to Coltech Classics Although loading up the Firebird the tail pipes did scrape just a
little, for some reason when we unloaded it, they really scraped... They
really needed to go!
Before I had packed away the ratchet ties that held the thing onto the
transporter, Paul had got stuck right into getting the Firebird ready
for MOT. I can only imagine that whoever put those pipes on like that
was either (A) High as a kite fuelled by a drink and drugs binge, or (B)
Mental! The poor thing looked like the back end of a wheelbarrow, and I
can imagine one of those huge fellas from the 'Worlds Strongest Man'
competition walking up behind it, getting hold of the pipes, and walking
away down the road with it like they were in their garden with a
wheelbarrow! Madness I tell ya, madness! Although to be fair they are right for the car, they're just not in the right place...
If
you look at the photo of my original Firebird you can see the pipes
protruding from beneath the rear wings (fenders for you guys in
Americaland!) But I think my latest Firebird has an aftermarket exhaust
system fitted, and by the looks of things the exhausts should've just
pointed straight out of the back without the trims on the very end! Well, that's what I thought anyway, and that's what was done. No turn downs, just straight out the back like every other car!
Before
too long the Firebird was burbbling away quite happily, as Paul had
replaced the leaky fuel line that caused my cars delay, and need to be containerized. What was the problem with the fuel line you may ask? Well, to
put it simply the fuel line was actually just a length of green garden hose loosely
hose clipped together! Strewth! Who does that? But once some proper
fuel line was fitted it started up pretty much straight away, and ran
good! My plan was that after leaving Pauls place, Mrs Clint and I
would go out to lunch at her favourite resturaunt in Westbourne.
However I may have got a bit carried away talking with my friend, and
pretty soon Mrs Clint was saying that it was time to wrap it up,
as we needed to be home in just under and hour to collect our two little monsters from school! Plus we were still the best part of 50 miles
from home, and we had to drop the transporter off and
pick our car back up! Paul said, leave it with me, I'll call you in a
couple of days when it's done and MOT'd!! We jumped into
the truck, pointed it back at Ferndown, some 12 miles away, and headed
off. By the time we got to drop the truck off, we really were pushing it
to get back to Winchester in time for the school pick up, but we jumped
in our car, and Mrs Clint just looked at me and said "Stand on
it!" "OK" I said... "Hold on! I'm about to make the jump to light
speed!" The next 35 miles went by in a blur... Literally! But, we did
get home in time to collect the monsters before school ended!
So with the Firebird left in the capeable hands of Paul I sat at home,
went to work, did all the stuff that we all do, but the whole time I'm
wondering what he will find wrong with it? Or more importantly, what
would the MOT inspector find? Two or three long days go by,
and I'm at work, thinking, wondering, shall I call Paul, should I? It's
been a couple of days, I'll just give him a ring, y'know, just to see
how it's going? But, I don't want to know, what if it's hangin', what if
it's twisted, what if, what if, what if... No, I've gotta know. I pull
the phone out of my pocket, and I start to write a text... Hey Pau... My
phone goes off, it's a text, who could this be? Oh, it's Paul, great,
oh carp... Whats wrong with it? I open the text, it reads:- "I've taken
your Firebird for MOT, it failed!" For second I read no further, in my
head Paul was standing in his workshop with a failiure sheet that looked
like a scroll, holding it in his hands as it rolled out down to the
floor, then across the floor of the workshop and out of the door!! Shit, shit, SHIT!! What have I bought, how bad is it, how bad can it be, hmm, I could always read his text to the end I thought. His text continued
"just a couple of small items, I'll get them fixed then I'll get it
re-MOTd tomorrow, and it'll be ready for you to pick up when you're
ready!" EXCELLENT!! In my excitement I forgot to reply, but later that
day, whilst walking around work looking like I'd been sleeping with a
coat hanger in my mouth, I replied, and said that I would not be able to
collect it for a couple of days, but I would be there probably by
Friday (it was Tuesday I think at the time!) He said this would be fine,
and how was I getting it home, was a going to drive it? Was I giong to
drive it? Hmm, YES... Yes I was. A quick call to my insurance company,
and it was insured on the VIN number, and I could drive it home!
A couple of slow days later and I was arriving outside Coltech Classics,
and my Firebird was sitting there, waiting. The first thing I noticed
was that those pipes... Had gone! Instantly the back end of the thing
was looking better. A quick chat with Paul, well, quick for us anyway,
and payment for his services, and MOT etc so as to keep me from the
"Wall Of Shame" and we we're off... I'm gonna be the Bandit! I put the key into the ignition, and with a quick twist the V8
engine burbled into life. A quick tug on the B&M shifter, and it was
into reverse, I was driving my Firebird for the first time. I backed
out of the space, looked at Paul who reminded me not to forget to get
petrol! A quick wave, and I was off. Of course, as ever I was quite
deluded and in my head, this was me pulling away from Pauls place:-
Yep, I was the Bandit! But as usual my delusions had the better of me as I am nothing like this, but
atleast I tried to be cool! Anyway, so here finally, was the proper first fill shot!
Pretty
soon I was burbling along the A31 towards home, and as Bournemouth is
West of BelongaClint I was quite literally eastbound and down...
Yes, I did have the Smokey and the Bandit soundtrack playing in the car!
Jerry Reid was singing his head off, and I was singing along with
him! Probably a good job that I was alone in the car!
I
took it steady on the way home, keeping it around the ole
double-nickel, and of course keeping an eye out for those smokies!
Although it was insured and legal I still found it quite nerve wracking
driving along in a car with American plates and all that! But the drive
home was uneventful, and pretty soon I was home again (after a couple of
laps of the town!), and still grinning from ear to ear like an idiot!
Now
all I needed to do was fill in the V55/5 form I got from the DVLA to
register the car here in the UK, post it off, and sit back and wait
until the DVLA assign me a registration number. Then, get a numberplate
(or two) made up, call up my insurers to inform them what my registration number is, and then I'm on the road! Hooraaaaah!! At that point in time, this was the only time I had driven the Firebird, but it has to be said, it is a very pretty cool ornament!
To be continued...
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