Buying and loading the car

As said, we were perfectly on time and welcomed by quite a few people. It was a complete family and a few friends as far as I could tell. And the place looked like just as on Google Streetview. The car and trailer just fitted between the gates. Only one guy was capable to do the communication and translation in English but this was hardly necessary. This as Jos speaks fluently French which helped a lot to break the ice. I guess by now they sensed as well we were "normal" car enthusiasts.

So time to inspect the car. It was just as worse as on the video and the pictures. But it was not as rotten as we thought it was. And it was mostly complete and not messed with, meaning no attempts to repair it or taken useful parts away nor replaced. Clearly the front and rear body work was a huge concern of us as these are the tailor made parts of the car. Although these parts were not completely in tact it was good enough or sufficient to be restored. Mostly the lower parts of the body were poor due to the known areas not being capable to drain water and moist. Over the years dirt and polution happened which are the likely cause for this matter. Judging by the acorns in and around the car there were other little creatures who used the car for storage. I was surprised all 4 doors opened up fairly "easy". The dashboard, steeringwheel and the dials looked okay-ish as well.

The rest of the interior looked in a very sorry state. The engine bay was no different.

It was difficult to do a proper check underneath but Jos was convinced the important areas were OK. I guess we were very quickly in agreement to go ahead and finalize the deal. Although Jos was already preparing for loading the car I reached out to the owner and translator to finalize the buying price. We were given luck and got it for a little less.

Now came the difficult part; getting the car on the trailer. It had 2 flat tyres and a locked steering wheel since the keys are missing. A tree in the garden did not help as it was making it difficult to get the trailer straight in front of the car. We knew it had 2 flat tyres so we had brought a set of wheels (8.32) but unfortunately it turned out the wheelnuts had a different size and were to big. Bummer! The seller had already removed the front brake pads, so these were not stuck. Somehow the rear drum brakes were running free as well (amazing). And since there were so many people around we had enough power to push the car on the trailer. In combination with a rope and a winch on the trailer we towed it on board. It took us a few attempts but finally we got it straight on the ramp

Due to the flat tyres the car moved in the wrong direction though. With help of another two rolling jacks at the front, another winch and a few people pushing at the side it eventually moved in the right direction.

It was a tiring job but finally we got it properly on the car. We have been pushing firmly with at least 4 people on the front sidefender and it was rock solid. The car is larger as expected as it just fitted the trailer.

Now it was on the trailer we could do a more closer inspection underneath and it looked better as expected as far as we could Judge. It remained a superficial inspection of course.

We were invited inside for drinks and got offered freshly made crêpes (pancakes) with Nutella. How nice! By now we got to the hear more about the story of the car. More about that in the next blog update.

We paid the money, got the papers and left to Jos's home in the Alsace.

We arrived home late in the evening and I stayed over that night and got up early in the morning at 5 to get my flight from Basel airport to Amsterdam Schiphol - and then onwards by train straight into the office and start my working week. But I started that week with a huge smile being a Monteverdi owner.