A Car Story

I know I have said it before, but I feel like I have to keep saying it just for my own peace of mind.  The thing I worry about most with the “Ultimate Restoration”, is that people will get the idea that a restoration can be done in a very short period of time.  I guess it can, but it would cost a lot of money.  That isn’t what we want to do here at the shop.  We want customers to have an affordable restoration, and give them a quality product at a fair price.  What concerns me is that there will be some who want the quality product, the fair price, and have it done in a week.  Oh well, I guess we’ll deal with that as we go along.

For now, I thought I would show some before and after shots of a few things so that you could get some idea of what takes up the most of the time when we do a restoration.  The cleaning, repairing, polishing and painting of all of the parts to be re-used on the project takes, what seems like, forever to get done.  Here are some pictures of the light assemblies I have just gone through-

It took just over three hours to complete these assemblies.

These took about an hour and a half.  The end results make it worth the time.

Enjoy the ride!

As promised, here’s the story on the “Queen’s Rally”.  This is a fun event we have designed for anybody to do.  You do not have to have any experience in rallying, you do not have to have any special equipment, you don’t even have to have a navigator.  Your car must have seat belts and a roll bar is suggested.

What happens is that there are seven locations that are picked out as “destination locations”.  You start out at the shop, everybody starts together, and you are given an envelope that has a map and directions inside that tells you what your first destination is.  You will proceed at posted speeds to that location where you will receive another envelope with a map and directions to your next destination.  You will go to five total destinations, the last of which is British Auto Works.  The rally is based on time.  This first car to arrive back at the shop wins.  There is one special point.  We have calculated the expected time to complete each combination of destinations.  If you arrive too quickly, it is deemed that you drove too fast and that you broke the basic speed rule, and you will be disqualified.

To add some additional interest to the rally, at each location you will have the chance to draw a playing card from a deck of playing cards.  Each destination has a full deck of playing cards to start with.  The five cards you bring back will constitute a poker hand, with Queen’s being wild.  The best poker hand, according to Hoyle, wins a prize.  The other prizes that are awarded are for first place, second place, and third place.

The purpose of the rally is to have fun, and be safe driving your car.  The destination routes are handicapped for cars capabilities, and in some cases drivers capabilities.  Drivers need to mind the posted speeds, and the safety of the participants is of primary concern.  Each driver must sign a notice that acknowleges they have read and understand the above information.

You are free to travel these routes before hand, and you can even use your own GPS system to help you through the course.  Keep in mind, our calculations are based on the “Yahoo Maps” information.  This could come into play if you should finish too early.

The locations are-

British Auto Works   10580 NW 289th Place, North Plains 97133

North Plains Library   31360 NW Commercial St, North Plains 97133

Old Scotch Church   30685 NW Scotch Church Road Hillsboro  97124

Visitation Church at Verbort   4285 NW Visitation Road  Forest Grove  97116

Roy Church   39135 NW Harrington Road  Banks  97106

Pumpkin Ridge Golf Course   12930 Old Pumpkin Ridge Road  North Plains  97133

West Union School   23870 NW West Union Road  Hillsboro  97124

We hope as many of you can come out and enjoy the festivities of our “Open House”, and it would be great if you could join in the “Queen’s Rally”.  We look forward to seeing you on Saturday May 8th.  The doors open at 9:00am and if you want to be in the rally, you need to be there by 9:30am.  The rally will start at 10:00am , prizes will be awarded after the last participant has completed the course.