Yesterday was the big day. I put the car through it's MOT, I knew it would fail, but we wanted to know how much work was going to be needed.
There were a few surprises, and not necessarily bad ones either.
I thought the headlamps would fail, but they didn't, they didn't even need adjusting. So immediately I saved £200 on replacement units. Here's a list of the failures:
Exhaust not secured properly
No indicators
No windscreen washer
Brakes not efficient enough
Handbrake not connected
Fuel line not secured properly
No horn
Rear coil springs not correctly located
Hazard warning light switch faulty
Excessive corrosion to rear chassis offside and nearside
Basically, all pretty minor stuff except for the welding, which I anticipate will cost around £400. There is other welding work that isn't an MOT failure but I'll probably get dome at the same time. I honestly thought there would be far more serious problems, and as far as I'm concerned it's the next best thing to a pass. I'm over the moon about it.
Here's a quick picture taken of it on my drive. It's still really mind blowing to think that three months ago this car was in Michigan, and I was considering this whole project. Now it's here, has crossed an ocean and it looks more possible than ever that it really will make it to the Sierra Nevada Desert.
Updates on the MOT in the new year, but it's all pretty straight forward from here on in I hope.
Well, after a much longer wait than anticipated the car has arrived in the UK. It ended up taking about 5 weeks for it to cross, which was a real let down since we were originally told that it would take 2 weeks.
As many of you will know we've had some 'severe weather' conditions in the UK, this of course happened right at the time the car arrived on the cargo ship - and to add to the delayed crossing containers weren't able to be unloaded as there were no lorries able to make it to East Kent to put them onto. So the car remained entombed in it's container for a further week.
When it finally made it's way off the ship and into the storage warehouse I called the company who are keeping it for me to check weather it was OK to arrange for a vehicle transporter to collect it. They told me that the handbrake was stuck on and the two front tyres were flat. This meant I needed to drive 120 miles to sort out the problem before the delivery company would even consider picking it up. Normally this would have disappointed me, but actually I couldn't get down there fast enough, it was my excuse to see the car for the first time in the flesh.
Armed with tools and so forth I went down to see the car on Friday morning. After arriving at the docks and making our way to the warehouse in question we were told to wait at the entrance to be escorted to the vehicle. 5 minutes seemed like 5 hours as my brother and I waited patiently, the torture made worse due to the fact that I could see the tail end of the car poking out from behind a stack of crates. And then we finally saw it, it was an amazing feeling - I knew it was going to be big but it was even bigger than I imagined, it's 5.2 meters long, bumper to bumper. Here's a walk around video my brother managed to get.
I've purchased a number plate to go on the car when it finally gets registered, WGU 18E, as close to the original of WGU 18G as is possible to get which I'm pleased about. We also need: front and rear indicators, a passenger side mirror, replacement headlamps, windscreen washers and the handbrake reconnecting.
It would have been truer to say that the car had half flat tyres and the handbrake wasn't stuck, as I fired up the car and moved it back and forth a few feet with ease. I really had no problem with going down there though, as I said it was just the excuse I needed to go and take a look at the car. The engine sounds awesome, and led me to thinking that the car samples you can hear throughout the White Room and Chill Out may actually have been recorded by Jimmy from the original Ford Timelord.
Next step: car arrives at my house in a few days, and then it's off to get it MOT'd - nerve racking stuff as any UK car owner will confess, depending on how much (or little) there is to do will depend on how much I'm going to need to fork out on repairs to get it road legal.
Then it's all cosmetics, and once they're sorted out we're off to Spain.
All of a sudden the whole project seems to be more real. The car has arrived.
I learned on Tuesday that the car left New Jersey, bound for the UK and sailing into Thamesport.
I was also informed of the name of the vessel the car is on: Cosco Panama. A quick google yielded a couple of images, and even a youtube video of it's launch some years ago. Here's an image of it anyway (click to enlarge):
Approximate journey time is 14 to 18 days. This means that the car, at the time of writing, will be about 500 miles off the east coast of the USA, in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean.
That's all for now, the next update will come when we go to pick up the car from Thamesport, at which point I will be taking a lot more pictures, and probably some video of the new arrival. In the meantime please pray for good weather, it's not unheard of for containers to fall off the side of these cargo ships in rough seas!
Since I last posted, I'd hoped to have an update for the blog a lot sooner. As it happens the company I had arranged that was responsible for collecting the car had dragged their feet a bit, and ended up taking nearly three weeks to collect. Initial indications were around a week, and I was told it was rare for the collection to take as long as two weeks.
I'm happy to say that now that car has been collected, and as you read this it will probably be sat in New Jersey docks, awaiting a container. It's likely to be another few weeks again before it's put on a ship, and another few weeks again for it to arrive and then clear customs in the UK. I imagine another 6 weeks would be a realistic guess as to when I'll actually see the car and be helping to load it onto a flatbed in the UK for the final leg of it's journey before work begins on it.
Todd, the seller, was kind enough to take some photos to document the start of the car's journey from Hudsonville, Michigan on Thursday night:
This is the first time I have seen the rear end of the car, it's all a bit of a novelty for me at this stage as I purchased the car 'blind'. I was fortunate enough to deal with a genuine guy who didn't seem to mind me calling him throughout the whole process to ask various questions and check on the progress of his contact with the shipping company. It seems Todd is just as interested as some of the KLF fans in the UK as to what happens with his car. He says it'll be missed, however knows he'll be able to check the blog for updates.
So, that's about it for now. I've not purchased any more bits and pieces for the car yet, and now the hunt begins for those elusive lights on the top. What I can say is that they are not proper police lights, they are agricultural lights. They are vintage tractor, or possibly more likely plough lights. I did see some and missed out on a pair on Ebay recently that went for £92, and have trawled the internet only to find nothing even remotely similar yet. You can see the ones that I missed here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NOS-BUTLERS-VINTAGE-TRACTOR-LIGHTS-FORD-DAVID-BROWN-/170542428121?pt=UK_BOI_FarmingEquipment_RL&hash=item27b51eefd9
If ANYONE has any ideas on how to get hold of something like these I'd be very interested in talking to you, so please message me.
That's all for now folks. Thanks for reading and fingers crossed for a safe crossing for the car!
Hi, and thanks for taking the time to read the first entry of my 'blog'.
The purpose of this blog is to document a project I've been dreaming of for some 20 years or so. As time has gone by the overall project has morphed into something far more adventurous than initially conceived.
At the time of writing the project aims are:
To obtain a 1968 Ford Galaxie from the USA.
Import it into the UK.
Carry out a refurbishment to achieve a look that is as close as financially possible to the car used by Bill and Jimmy as the KLF/JAMs/Timelords.
Transport the car to the Sierra Nevada and Tabernas Desert to possibly retread some of the steps taken in the Original Motion Picture: The White Room.
As I write this, I've purchased the car, and have instructed the shippers to collect and ship the car to the UK, I hope it will be here and have cleared customs in about 2 months, but at this time I'm going to have to sit and wait. Here's an image of the car I am importing:
The car needs various work, including a white roof, black rear door, all the logos, a suitable blue light, and in my opinion the most striking feature of the original Ford Timelord: the roof mounted lamps. The seller has put back in the standard headlamps prior to shipping. Other touches to get the car looking as similar to the original will be an ongoing process. Already substantial sums of money have been spent before the car has even been registered and insured in the UK.
There are a hundred things that could go wrong which may prevent me from reaching the goal. It's a massive risk I'm taking. But if I make it to the Sierra Nevada in that car I'll have achieved a life long ambition. I'm not doing this for recognition, but if people would like to follow the progress of the project I'd be delighted to share as many of the trials and tribulations with you all as I can.
I'll update this blog as often as I have something of interest to tell you. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I hope to enjoy the project.
