Wednesday 25 May 2016

Finally - The Big Move

I rented my first unit in Devon in October last year on a short lease. It was a bit of an education as the unit needed a lot of work - all of which was to be done / paid for by me! It seems commercial property letting is not governed by the same rules as residential i.e. its fine to let property with the electric cut off and the wiring condemned and the Loo's broken and the roof leaking etc .. This unit was 1200 sq feet taking 6 cars at a push so it gave me somewhere to move my cars too and to store the new cars I had bought in Devon. In April I found a new unit at Wrangerton business park. Its an old building that stands alone and looks like a 1950's fire station, its ideal for a classic car business. It needs work but in this case the Landlord is also helping out having had the place painted inside and rewired. The new unit is over 2000 sq feet so I now have enough room for storage and workshop so this meant moving my workshop from Lichfield to Wrangerton. 12 years of accumulated tools, spares and classic car bits and bobs can take some shifting! Not to mention the remaining classic cars and project classic cars that need to be transported at £400 a time. I hired a Luton backed van from Ivybridge and it took two back breaking trips to get everything sorted, loaded and unloaded. I had to be ruthless in chucking out bits I had been keeping 'just in case' or 'for the next classic car project' selling off some of the stuff to people on site or even leaving it for others to sell and take the money - better than transporting it all south. I unloaded the last of the workshop stuff last night (still aching all over!) so now I'll be spending a few days getting it all sorted and finding a place for everything but now www.selfdriveclassics.co.uk is officially located at Wrangerton Business Park. I have lived in Lichfield for 30 years and run a business from Blythe Farm for over 12 years so its the end of a era for me - time to close the book and concentrate of "Steve's adventures in Devon". Self Drive Classics is going to be a very different business here in Devon. Instead of a collection of 60's favourites I have set up a mixture of everyday classics, modern roadsters and fun cars so we can see what people go for. I will be working hardest on the tourist market getting the idea out there that you can enjoy driving in Devon in something a bit special. It will be tough starting again both personally and for the business but sometimes you just have to take the plunge - planned or not!
New Unit at Wrangerton (boat has now been moved!)

My 1970 Dodge Challenger project

My Lotus Europa Project

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