You meet them all in restoring...

Colin Smith - a Good Man

My B Series engine is coming home next week, fully restored by my local Austin Morris guru - good man! Rang him this morning, and despite having stored the engine for nearly three years, since finishing work on it, he was adamant that he wouldn't accept a penny more.

You meet some great people in restoring; but you meet the rogues too. A few years ago an old chap asked if I would let him have a rare roofrack for his prized restoration and Truman and I generously donated it to this "fellow restorer", only for the rarity to end up on ebay with a starting price of £50 . Remember? When challenged he denied vehemently that this was the same one but eventually said he'd rather cut it up than give it back. Sour grapes at being caught out.

Well, as it turned out, that roofrack ended up being thrown in to a deal when this rogue later sold his van to Truman, who is letting me have it back.

The roofrack which Trumans and I took off a van which I had found on the basis of a pub tip-off.
Read about "The Goat-Lady's van" here (sorry about the formating, which won't behave)