for final bits of the jigsaw

Show and tell, all expenses paid

The penultimate Glam Van makeover in 2010.
Overnight accommodation happened to be the worlds first nature reserve Walton Hall

Above, Autumn 2010, arrival at Walton Hall  / Walton Park Hotel

Above, Walton Hall, a good few years earlier.

 Kids had broken up from school so we decided to take advantage of a great 'show and tell' opportunity -

Very excited when I told them our hotel was surrounded by it's own lake, but a little nervous when I mentioned it was once filled with hippos.

Then early morning outside broadcast with my little helpers -

 Final farewell before hitting the road to catch a plane to Ireland -
 

What a great way to earn a days pay......

best in show

With an ever changing herd of Airstreams I needed to find a sizable indoor work and indoor storage area to call home. To be honest, this is easier said than done in my neck of the woods around the North Cotswold's.

So when this 12,000 square foot dairy building came up I knew it was just the ticket for what I needed.

It has been empty for over ten years. Below is a picture taken in the mid nineties with a very well looked after herd of Overbury Guernseys -

Taken today, below is the same area which houses some of our airstreams for sale and others due to have work started on them -

Newest arrival is the little 54 Globetrotter which arrived late last night for rehab -

I'm still learning about the history behind the Overbury herd and over the next few months hope to find out more about what drove their success -

I'm determined to lift the lid on the Byam Bubble in this building before the New Year.

that was the week that was....

Prescott Hill Climb Autumn Classic 2010

Below, Wall of Death Hell Rider taking a shine to one of our little airstreams...

We had been invited to attend and had the pleasure of feeding the race marshals from a couple of our airstreams.

Earlier in the week the Airstream Glam Van was back on the road with ITV

This time it was Warwickshire.

I was having a bad satnav moment when as if by magic the editor of the Camping and Caravaning Club magazine Candy Evans walked by and asked if i needed help! She quickly offered to personally escort us to the filming location, luck of the 'Irish' i say ........

Thanks to Candy I arrived a little early

the rewards of recycling.....

I find it a feelgood exercise to recycle my waste. Good to get it out of the way and also good to know it's not going into a landfill site.

Very so often I seem to get a little payback, i've had a good few this year but this one has to be the best .



An unwanted Zenith Trans Oceanic radio. Freshly dumped just before I arrived at the recycling center.

With antenna built into the handle.




This was Wally Byam's favorite brand of radio. I believe he had the 1000 series, but I'm sure this royal 3000 would have tempted him in the 60's.

a seaside rescue attempt followed by carry on doctor.....

A few weeks back I got an SOS call from the owner of an Airstream. She was discribed as a '59? Globetrotter' which got me thinking.

I asked for some images and was told to just google it, they said just google 'rubber house dungeness'. I followed the instructions and was amazed to find 10's of photos of a little 54 globetrotter with front side hung hehr windows.

Her name turns out to be Dolly and she is a little beauty -



I came well repaired to haul this lady back to our workshop and get her under cover. But it was not to be, the salt air has badly corroded her chassis and she will need flat bedded back and then a lot of tlc to get her healthy again and more prepared for coastal living....

A good nights sleep and I was off again with another day on the road with the glam van, this time the lucky lady had some interesting fancy dress outfits gathering dust -



the setup went well after we got a few cars moved -



Back in London to drop off some props and amazingly enough to meet a potential client for a cup of coffee before heading back to the country -

lights - camera - AIRSTREAM

itv needed something a little special to add more glam in their morning makeovers. something that could be used as a walk in closet......

they fell for 'ruby tuesday' a seven panel overlander from the west coast that i had available for hire



i had to report for duty the night before so the trailer could be dressed ready for the surprise.....



early morning wakeup call and a 5am start outside itv studios, even the daybreak crew had not arrived -


the surprise makeover was on a narrow dead end road on a steep hill with no area to turn except a little area used for garbage bins. to be honest i felt a little faint at the thought of pulling this stunt off but lucky for me with a bit of help we unhitched and swung her round by hand, not that easy with a beast of a twin axle.

with trailer nicely in position the clouds started gathering -



in the middle of running about getting things ready, someone asked me, brown or white? i looked down and saw a bag of bacon butties! what a lovely sight after missing breakfast. then someone handed me a cup of tea, it really was a very well planned and executed shoot.

things quickly came together -




the makeover nominee was informed -



then after a manic makeover out pops the transformed lady -





with job nearly complete, i headed back to itv to unload and head home. with london underground on strike the roads were a little busier than normal.....



one down, next one is same time next week....

stay tuned...

Early dawning, Sunday morning........

It's just the wasted years so close behind you......

Early morning start, outside our home in Gloucestershire -

Early morning arrival, central London -

I spent the best part of my late teens waking up on Sunday m

ornings in London with a hangover, red eyes and the urge to blast a bit of Lou

Reed and wake up my long suffering next

door neighbours.

Some things change, but then again some things don't, I found myself driving into London last Sunday morning, with hangover, red eyes and you guessed the same urge to play Lou Reed at a reasonable level.

This time it was work, I was delivering a vintage trailer converted to a

coffee shop to the Oxo Tower SW1.

With the kids in the back I decided we had time to do a little sightseeing. 10 Downing Street above, then onto Trafalgar Sq and Nelson's column.

A quick drive by Harrods -

Never one to miss an opportunity I pulled over on the mall and started serving a few Aussie tourists......

Quick stop in Covent Garden, I worked nightshift in the Gardening Club/Rock Garden on the Plaza. It's been taken over

by apple.

It really turned out a 'Perfect Day'. With the Trailer delivered on time and on budget and with very impressed clients we headed to Belgo for

some hair of the dog...

excape

it's in the name......

This was very amusing little find. I was alerted about this little girl, an extremely rare mid 50's whale tail bubble.

When I got the pictures I really did think it was a wind up considering my surname is Harkness

Making ribs in the hot weather

It's been a hectic few months with Airstreams to say the least.





With our workshop running a little behind schedule weekends and weekdays have merged into one just for the moment.


Hopefully things will adjust back to normal in time for the kids breaking up for summer so we can do a little exploring ourselves.


We managed to make time to meet some of our fellow airstream bloggers. Tracy and Pete who are currently full time airstreamers popped by and we spoke about the possibility of bringing over aa founding member of the WBCCI at a future meet. We also had Chris who is doing up his flying cloud drop by and pick up some left over goodies from the 50's. It was great meeting everyone and wish I had more time to hangout.

We decided to move over a bit more inventory from the states and among the newcomers are two whaletails, little and large. It's a paradise for whale watchers -



The task of making ribs for a 50's trailer resulted in a few failed attempts before hitting the right formula -


This particular project is due to be delivered into central London early next month and could well be on the way to becoming a central London landmark. More to come on the delivery in the next few weeks.

My dear wife Hazel has been kind enough to knit us an office tea cosy, I think if weather continues we will be asking for knitted drinks coolers -