Area 52's youngest visitor

So far at Area 52 we have had Lucie (Chris's little girl), Molly (Tim's little girl) and Edward (Phil's little boy) but during Playday 6 we were very lucky to be introduced to William - Si's little boy who was born less than a week earlier!

It's going to take a lot to beat that and I am pretty certain that William's visit will not be a one off? If Si has anything to do with it, the first words out of William's mouth will be "pass me the 10mm ratchet"

Without further ado, here is the little fella enjoying the cosiness of the snug

We're all looking forward to having you back again soon young man.

Playday 6: Sorry for the delay!

Well Playday 6 was a bit of a last minute affair that turned out to be an awesome weekend!

Lots done on the unit which has all gone to make it a much more usable space. Many thanks go to those who came along and mucked in. A great effort from everyone.

Mark & Sean fit the waste pipe for the sink in the snug. At last we can use the sink properly!

 

Ben cuts the feet of the 2 post lift to allow them to swing back properly

Adrian & Phil run the 3-phase electrics to the lift....awesome work chaps!

 

  

Ian, Steve and Dave work on drilling big holes in the wall

 

Morgs, Phil & Mark modify the doors to fit properly

All the time, Tim is outside keeping the troops fed from the Car-B-Q with burgurs and sausages

After all the work is done everyone kicks back for more of a social - chatting & drinking (essential A52 ingredients!)

 

As the evening wore on, lots of this kind of thing started happening

More to come in the next installements...including: Heat, Youngest, Furthest, Lifted, Food etc....

Then & Now

How times have changed!

Here is quick snapshot of how the unit looked within a week of signing the lease:

 

10 months later, it's a different story. SO much has changed and a lot of it is not obvious from this picture:

  

We now have full length, full height racking across the back wall,a two post lift (yet to be wired up), a large sand blasting cabinet, parts washer, full length workbench (20+ ft), large compressor, welder....plus the addition of BBQ and hot running water.

The unit is almost there and the next playday (PlayDay 6) will hopefully see the last few jobs finished to get the unit properly up & running. Fingers crossed.

Thanks must go to all the people that have come along and helped over the past months...and to those who have contributed things to the unit. Without you, this place would still be a plain shell with a few cars in it.

More space for Area 52

With the attendance at playdays growing with each successive one and more kit/equipment arriving all the time, space at Area 52 is getting increasingly tight.

Luckily we have a temporary solution with thanks to one of the other guys who rents a space in the unit.

Pete (a stonemason/sculptor) rents the space at the opposite side to my space. He uses it to produce stone sculptures - here he is making some large stone benches for a civic space up in Liverpool:

 

For the past few months he hasn't used the space and recently he announced that he will be working over in Prague for the next six months. I asked if it would be OK to use his space temporarily while he was away. He was fine with this as long as we cleared his stuff neatly into a corner and tried to pay something towards his rent.

Morgs, Ryan and Jimmy came along to lend a hand moving all his tools, clearing all his stone rubble into a corner and sweeping up all the mounds of stone dust that had built up

This shot was taken half way through after clearing all the tools and equipment into a corner - I should have taken a 'before' shot....it was a real mess!

Thirsty work shifting so much stone, rubble and dust....not to mention how dusty the air got with all the sweeping!

It took the four of us a good few hours to clear the space and get it cleaner (less dusty) but at last, we had some extra space

 

It didn't take long to start filling the space though! The recent aquisition of two Hustlers plus Morgs' MR2 meant we had half filled the space before the evening was through!

It did, however, leave a good amount of space down at the other end ready for the playday on the 30th where we would hopefully get the 2 post lift finally up & running.

The biggest problem to come is when I have to give the space back to Pete - I had better not get too used to having it.

Hot water....at last!!

Finally, the unit has hot water. HOORAH!!

It may seem such a stupid thing to make such a song & dance over, but anyone who has ever tried to wash dirty, oily hands in the Area 52 'washroom' during the winter months will no doubt remember the ice cold water which makes the simple job of cleaning such a torturous ordeal!

As we all know, hot water helps shift oil better, but it also makes it such a more pleasant experience after a long day playing on cars.

The new water heating half way through fitting:

Fitted and wired up

WORKING! Such a small step, such a massive benefit!

This also coincides with getting the sink in the 'snug' fitted & plumbed in with a water heater and proper drainage (thanks to Mark & Sean for running the waste pipe) so we now also have somewhere to wash all the tea cups etc...

Even more hot water!

These two modifications to the unit make spending any time down there so much more comfortable. Clean tea cups, clean hands.....BLISS!

'General' Stickers

Since designing the original Area 52 stickers, I have had many requests from people to sell them so that they could put one on their car. The original idea was that anyone visiting Area 52 got an 'Authorized Personel' sticker (one black, one white) as a token of being part of the whole A52 thing.

This will not change, the 'Authorized' stickers will remain a free item given to visitors to the unit.

To try and meet the requests of people who have not yet had the opportunity to visit the unit, but would like to have an Area 52 sticker, I have just designed a 'General' sticker that can now be bought. The aim for this is twofold: 1) So that people can have a sticker without having to have been to the unit (although anyone is always welcome) 2) To raise more money for the A52 fund.

Here is the new 'General' Area 52 sticker:

As with the mugs, 100% of the money raised from sticker sales will go towards the ongoing costs of the unit (electricity, BBQ gas, tea/coffee etc...) as well as building a fund to buy more kit & equipment.

The stickers are only available in matt black or matt white (just like the 'Authorized' versions) and are 155x55mm in size.

The cost of each sticker is £2.00 and postage is free on any order of two or more stickers (50p p&p for single sticker). There is no limit to the number of stickers ordered in either colour.

The outer border can be removed easily if you want to make your sticker look a little bit different, or want to make it a little bit smaller.

If you would like to order any stickers, please PM me details on Retro Rides and I will get back to you with payment details etc....

I have done these in time for people to be able to order along with any mugs they wish to buy.

Project car mock-up: 14" - whaddya think??

Down at the unit this evening with Morgs and Ryan, we decided to take a few minutes to itch a scratch I've had about how the Huslter 'group build' project carwould look on some 14 inch 70's style rims.

 

With a jack holding up the rear and some blocks of wood under the front (health & safety meh!) the wheels were offered up. Due to a PCD way off that of the Mini hubs, the wheels had some good poke going on where they were resting against the protruding studs....but the look certainly seemed to suit the little buggy...

7" wide but on the end of the already extended studs, this little car could easily pull off 8" wide at the front and 9" at the rear. Good times.

The biggest problem will be the clearance of the rear wheels against the subframe/trailing arm mounts. Nothing that can't be sorted though.

This project is going to be a very exciting one and the end result should be a very interesting and original vehicle. I can't wait until the weekend!!!!