Alan

Meet Toby the shop dog... He actually belongs to Rob, who is now retired and is spending a lot of time at the workshop giving me a hand with the heavy stuff.. Thanks mate Toby is about 6 months old and had spent much of his life in a cage, so he is a bit nervious and scared of everything... But each day his confidence is getting a little better, which is nice to see I expect his confidence will rapidly disappear when Nigel shows up, then he will wish he was back in his cage. And I don't mean Toby in the cage.

Happy Birthday Ian. Have fun.

Looks much more weathered now. A combination of sea air and wind. Or maybe just old age.

Just about to have a go at reducing ALL my bills. Gas, electric, TV broadband phone package, car and house insurance. Worked in the past, time I tried again.

Good video Joseph. The Showman likes Bolens now so keep yours locked up.

Bit of a long shot Norm, but I THINK there may be some wheels and roller at you know where. Assuming they haven't already been dumped. Will look next visit. Don't suppose the spindle housings from the Mountfield ? deck are the same. You know, the one you DON'T want.

Just caught up with your progress Darren. Looks very smart.

Can't have been at John's place. It's RED. The Showman would have grabbed it.

Have I seen this before somewhere.? Let me have a think.

To be continued. Stay tuned.

Don't just take a chainsaw, take a mini digger as well. Chris was busy today earning extra brownie points. Anything to keep Pam off his back. Plus, the more wood taken home, the less chance of Pam seeing the red bits hiding behind in the wood store. Apart from the sawn up tree, ( still another chunk to be recovered ), a large quantity of other wood also found it's way into the Sprinter.

Happy Birthday Jonathan. Have a good one.

Happy Birthday Gareth.

Not much room left on the back of that roll of wallpaper Chris. We might need another roll.

Don't think there will be room in the van. There's a BIG pile of stuff with your name on it already Norm.

Looking good Norm. Hurry up with the stickers though or the man with the big red van will never shut up.

That seat looks familier, and the glossy rust looks good Chris.

Looks brill Darren.

Having seen it today in the flesh, or metal, I can say that it is in very good condition. Chris did say though that he was going to start collecting Bolens so that they don't all end up in Norfolk.

Thanks Philip. I'll have a look. Not really thought much about tracing it until now. As said, just been keeping a lookout at the various shows I have attended. Wonder how many owners it has had since I sold it,

Yes, would like to see it again. No luck so far although I make a beeline for any BMB's seen at shows.

I can vaguely remember paying £7 at the time, but not sure if this was for road tax or insurance.

Definitely not at John's now Chris. The Showman would have spotted all that red paint long ago.

Restored this BMB PRESIDENT about 40 years ago. Member Paul on MoM who has one was interested in seeing photo's so I dug out my old prints and did a few quick copy's. Towed it back to friend John's place with either a David Brown or the recently departed B450 along with a trailer load of bits and pieces. The people in blue weren't too fussy in those days. Kept to the back roads anyway. Not too much wrong apart from paint. Didn't take long to get it running and have a play. Then dismantled, cleaned and repainted. Don't remember the make of paint but all brushed. No facility for spraying. Whatever it was was good quality, same with the brushes. Think I applied 3 top coats to get a good deep finish. All the lettering was done with water slide transfers. 1/8" and 1/4" high letters applied individually. The other parts were cut from sheet. Cannot remember though how I did the PRESIDENT. Might have been cut out letters etc or just painted. No Titch or Mark in those days. Drove it to a few early local shows and did a garden leveling job with a scraper blade mounted on the rear hydraulic arms. Worked well. After a period of standing idle it was sold. Not seen since. The last photo shows me in my streamlined form and before my hair faded.

This was part of a job lot of machine tools bought years ago by a company I worked for. They didn't have a use for it so a deal was done and it finished up in friend John's barn. It never did get used and as can be seen, has suffered from the damp and is very dirty. The chuck turns and extends easily and the upper sections of the column and slides look like they will clean up reasonably well. Not 100% sure but I think these were used to drill VERY FINE holes which needed a high speed. About 6 ft tall on it's base. Ex Royal Aircraft Establishment. Anyone interested in bringing it back to life. ?