Around April 2009 I saw an advertisement for the 2009 Chev 4 Tour, a 6 day event to be run at Castlemaine, approximately 157 kilometers from Melbourne.
http://www.castlemaine.org/
This caught my eye immediately as I had not done any rallies for well over 20 years, and never a long event such as this.
The tour appealed to me as it was only for Chev 4's, produced between 1916 and 1928, and with an expected turn out of 30 cars, this would be a great chance to see a large number of similar cars to mine, not to mention the networking opportunities.
After a lot of deliberating and negotiation with my wife, and encouragement and support from my then employer Paul Grant from Baldwin Medical to attend, I made the move, signed up, and all is underway. Its now May, and the tour starts the 4th October through till the 9th.
I booked a cabin in the caravan park in the middle of town, and also went for a drive to Castlemaine in the modern car a few Sundays before the tour to get a lay of the land.
Nothing major needed to be done to the Chev, being less than 2 years since the wedding restoration, but I still found a lot to keep me busy, including a weeks leave prior to the event. Knowing that there would be a lot of Chev experts at the rally, it was a good time to get all those little jobs done that may detract from the overall appearance.
The biggest jobs were pulling out the radiator to replace my home made insert with an authentic reproduction, and repainting the bonnet sides after treating several areas of rust. Other jobs completed were repairing all 8 door hinges, replacing door rubbers, rehanging the doors, repainting all interior door posts, replacing all door post screws, polishing all door fittings and latches. As the body lines changed from rehanging the doors, I asked my friend Warren Hedges to replace some of the the pin striping. For the first time in many years the doors now closed a lot better.
There are probably a few more jobs that were done, but they have faded from memory.
The morning of the 3rd of October, the car was packed with spares, clothes and numerous other bits and pieces, washed, polished and put to bed ready to go in the morning.
Little did I know the following week would change my life and my opinion of the Chev.
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