Chitchat

This page is for write ups that involve our club participants and their vehicles...mustangs or other American cars that they own, or events that are exciting enough to warrant a write up but are not a club organised run....such as weddings, other cars club members may be restoring etc.

Two groups left on the Friday morning, first one lead by Colin left at 9.30 stopping in Taupo for a break. Second group left Hamilton at 10 am lead by Ray, Mrs Rae drove her 66 down to Putaruru to Stu Browns to get repairs done, she wished she could drive it all the way. Picked Steve and Debbie up in Cambridge and Robyn and Stu at Karapiro then John, Mary and Susan plus Kevin Carney up at Tirua. Eleven cars pulled into Putaruru Panel Beaters, Rae dropping hers off. Weather had started of with light drizzle but fined up early in the cruise and was brilliant by the time we left Putaruru, a trouble free cruise down to Taupo with the slight exception of Kevin Carney loosing a power steering belt, but picked up a new one in Taupo.

Parked all the cars on the council grass boarding on the lake, with their permission of course, cars looked a picture with Lake Taupo and the snow covered mountains as a backdrop as you can see in the pictures.

Cruised on to Waiouru for a short stop, decided to carry on as time was going by. Out of Hunterville Andy & Debs decided to have a drag, well no, they were just passing a slower car, Holden I think, unfortunately the boys in blue were coming the other way and he had to toss a coin to see who would get the ticket, Deb lost much to Andy’s relief.

Arrived in Palmerston at about 5.30 and booked into the Kingsgate. Some washed cars and others had a beer, me thats is. Registration gave us the news we had all been waiting for, yes, Waikato off to an early start arriving at the venue 06.45

Arrived at the B&M centre and after tire checking for stones set our cars up for display, flying the Waikato Banners Proudly!! All 15 cars looked great, John Overend and Wayne Bates were having their cars judged but the Competition was very stiff indeed and that reflected in the final prizes, unfortunately not in their favour, but good on them for making the effort, the club as a group should be proud of themselves. Kevin Dyer and John Overend took part in the judging, many thanks for the effort guys. Manawatu presented both of them with a gift. Saturday night and a group of us ended up at the Fitz, the Students pub watching the Air N.Z. Cup final between Waikato and Wellington, it was a great night with plenty of bell ringing when we scored and lots of cheering when Wellington did, but we took it out in the end, and drank just a little to much amber liquid, still very enjoyable evening. Buy this time the rain came down, and down, but no Mustangs leaked???

Woke up to rain, it had been raining all night and didn’t look like it was going to stop. They had about 40 cars doing the mystery run not bad considering the weather, they all enjoyed the lunch and a little wet weather never stops us from having fun. Rae and I headed down the coast to have lunch with our son and his lovely wife. Arrived back in time to get our fancy dress gear on and enjoy Manawatu’s hospitality with a M Theme. The Costumes were magnificent as you can see from our group photo. We all enjoyed the dinner, drinks and dancing.

Breakfast supplied by Manawatu club, all felling a little hung over from the night before but nothing like a good feed of bacon and eggs to get you going. Lots of spot prizes given out which Waikato did okay. Presidents farewell speeches given along with a warm Waikato invite to our 2007 convention, Andrea already had a table set up with registration forms on it out in the entrance area. Talk about organisation!!! We all assembled at Sanson for a impressive convoy as far as Waiouru, where some of us decided to have a look through the Museum and others continued on there way home, after a long day we all finally arriving safely home.

Here is the Smith/Humphrey owned 72 Mach 1 under restoration. It hasn't had a lot of work done on it lately (not sure why!), but the paint job has been done. It is hard to determine the exact colour of the car as it changes according to the light in Grant's workshop. The official colour is Bright Blue Metallic (an original Ford colour that the Mustang came out with) and the strip is Argent.

The car has now had the motor put back in and is on it's way to LOOKING like a mustang again....new hood lining, doors back on, side windows. Still a long way to go, will post more info as we go.

Robyn's new baby......

Just arrived in New Zealand today.....my new '65 Mustang.....you will be seeing her on the road this summer,
needs a minor work for vinning, Grant is taking care of her for Robyn.

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Tony & Lorraine Palmers very cool 65 Restomod....all finished and on the road. Great to see it out and about Tony & Lorraine.

June 2006: Four more pics added to the restoration commentary of the car below

If you don’t know about the Beach Hop by now, you are either comatose or hibernating for winter AND summer. What an experience it is to be involved in such an awesome event, regardless of owning a classic car or just being a bystander, being there is just plain COOL!

Ok, this year, being there was not cool, it was cold. Cold and wet, but the cars were hot and the hospitality I was offered during the week was indeed warm and inviting. The weather never dampened any of the gangs spirit, not even the leaking cars or breakdowns could effect the fantastic fun time I shared with a very cool group of people.

This would be the first time that Stuart and I had taken off for the whole week of activities offered at the Beach Hop. We cruised over to Whangamata on a very wet, windy afternoon, Stuart in the Cadi and me in the Mach 1, the rest of the crew already at ‘The Clubhouse’. Upon arrival a call from the Dyers (making sure we were in one piece still!), letting us know that cruising was to take place soon and it was time to stock up on liquid refreshments. A welcome from our hosts with the mosts (Rae & Ray), a catch up with the Dyer Straights it was off cruising (via bottle stores and food outlets). The best cruising in our opinion (Stuart & I) is before the crowds start arriving about Friday. The cruising on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights were really good, nobody was doing anything silly and the crowds watching really appreciated the show of cars doing the laps. We never quite got our timing right for the official lap cruising except on the night that Andrea lapped in her cool convertible. I have never laughed soooo much in my life, we cracked up every lap (and showed the boys a thing or two, a whole new meaning to the Mexican Wave, I apologise to the lady in the campervan, we never did get our burger & fries!). Crusin’ the Loop was great fun, 150 plus cars took part, it must have looked like a clip from American Graffiti which, coincidently was the drive-in movie for this years Hop. Apparently 400 cars pulled in to the Drive-in for the movie, a new record for The Beach Hop.

Despite the weather, crowds seemed larger, vehicles more plentiful and lots of activities to do. During the weekend we caught up with fellow club members, John & Mary, Barry & Gail and an opportunity to meet and cruise with their wonderful American friends. Our nights were spent enjoying fabulous meals and drinks with Ray & Rae, Andrea & Kev & Boys and Steve & Debbie, Don & Diane, John & Mary & family. I have to write that the Karaoke evening was absolutely hilarious and I have the videos to prove it (Steve has hidden talent, which some there would agree should stay hidden) but lets just say that his talent leans more towards comedy rather than New Zealand Idol. I have to admit that I had no talent at all (tone deaf, living with Stuart & Stacy has that effect!) and Andrea’s talent lies in time management (“I will be back in 5, just going to the loo” yeah right!!!). See you in the morning Andrea. I am glad that we all felt comfortable enough amongst these friends to make complete arses of ourselves.

The whole weekend was incident free as far as we know ( just showing how much work went into improving the Hop from last year), but our own cars showed a little grief for some of us during the weekend. Despite this we all made it home safely with great memories to savour. A BIG thank you must go to the organisers of The Beach Hop who have worked hard to make it the fantastic event it is, even keeping us updated with on-going information via e-mail. I would also like to thank the best hosts you could ever ask for, Rae & Ray who allowed us to invade their home with our children and spares, your hospitality was very much appreciated. To the Dyers & Oliver’s, thanks for the laughs, you guys rock. Looking forward to Hop ’07.

Andrea is proud to announce the arrival of her 66 Mustang convertible. It is a 289 (mildly warm) 4 speed car. She would like to thank the following people for the delivery. Eric Wentz (MotorCity in Washington State USA for finding it and then sowing the seed)
Steve Curl (Kiwi Shipping in Los Angeles) and Trevor Rice (Owens International Wellington) for the delivery to its new NZ home all safe and sound.

Friday night cruising seems to be popular with car lovers in Hamilton. A few members from our Mustang Club took the opportunity to cruise this Friday night past (3rd Feb). The numbers of cars vary Friday to Friday, but there is always something to look at, plenty of people are getting wind of it and coming down for a look, and not having to cook dinner (Burger King right next door!) is a bonus for us girls!

Car owners are in order: Archie Stutt, Steve & Debbie Oliver & Willie Van der Poel

Just before Christmas the Early Childhood Centre that I work at held it's annual children's Christmas party. The venue was Hamilton Gardens, the bottom car park down by Turtle Lake. I told the girl's at work that I would provide Santa's sleigh this year, thinking that I could use our 65' Cadi as it is roomy and you can see more out of and in the car......however, it wasn't vinned in time so instead I took the 71'. It was a big hit with the children AND the dad's, I even allowed Santa to drive it (his well padded stomach didn't offer to much resistance) and for once someone loved my airhorns!

Back on November 19th, Archie & Stuart used their mustangs for a wedding at Papamoa. It was a sunny day, very hot and the wedding went off without a hitch. Here are some shots of the cars.

Robert Moore's 67 restore job, currently undergoing full panel & paint at mustang alley. The 67 notch back has 3 layer pearl paint, being built as a restore mod,19'' chromed rims, 351 Cleveland, 4 speed top-loader, 9'' rear, seats recovered in leather. More photo's to come as car becomes assembled
These four photos were taken Feb 2006

It is with great pride that the Waikato Club were once again involved in celebrating the return of our fantastic World Champion Rowers. The late afternoon was overcast but the rain held off so the champions could cruise down the main street in the convertibles. Lack of sunshine did not dim the smiles of the rowers, Ray escorting Nicky Coles in Merilyn's 70', and Jude Brown had Juliette Haigh in her cool 66', Bert Harrison drove his 68' Caddie in the parade too. Fantastic to see our cars used for such a celebration of these young peoples proud achievement!

1. 2. 3.
1. Nicky & Ray with Evers-Swindell Sisters in the background.
2. The Cool 66' Jude and Juliette
3. Bert's 68' Caddie.
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Waikato Club Chitchat