Life after our restrictions has been a gentle start with our first club event being held at Rod Boy’s home. Rod and his wife Pauline were kind enough to open their home to our club to view his private collection of cars that are on display and have an afternoon tea provide by the club.

Most of us drove separately to Rod’s home while a couple of members did join up for a drive together. Most of us arrived at around 1pm and parked out the back of his property and down his driveway and also on the front verge! We had a great turnout for the day with more people than expected. When I arrived with my sons and Jim we made our way to Rod’s “man shed” only to be greeted with a sign saying “No Stupid People Beyond this Point”.

Once inside I was greeted with a great display of car badges, memorabilia and of course Rod and Pauline’s collection of Fiat cars. On display was Rod’s favourite Red Fiat 501, this was the first car he every owned at the age of 17 years old in Victoria. He brought it over from there when he moved to WA and it has not left his side for nearly 60 years! Also on display was a Green Fiat Ute with his supply of Grapa on the back. I think I caught Stephen Kent eyeing this off!

Also, in his garage was one of his pride and joys, a Fiat he built from the ground up from just a chassis. He moulded all of the body by hand and managed to find enough parts to make it into a fully working car! Amazing. But what got my attention was a tray top truck parked under a canvas car port. My sons reminded me that it was actually this truck that we had seen before at the Chittering Veteran Car Day back in November 2017!

We could remember this as it had distinctive hub caps on the wheels…. You have one guess! If you want to have a look there was a photo of his truck and his yellow hand-built Fiat on the back in the Photo Gallery of our Chittering car run in our Past Events page.

While we there Rod started up his Red 503 Fiat. It was great to hear the old car start up, but for some the fumes at the back of the shed became too much and we had to get some fresh air. Thankfully Pauline and Bev put on some snacks and drinks and some members brought a few extra biscuits and other items to share so a number of us took the opportunity to take a break and chat with each other. It was great to see our newest member Daryl Cook come and meet us on his first outing. I am sure he was eagerly waiting to come out and meet other club members as he joined just before COVID fell upon us.

In addition to Rod and Pauline’s Fiat collection, Rod had on display two Bushman motorbikes and from memory (I maybe wrong) Paul Spittle was attempting to get these started with Rod’s help!

All in all it was a great day to get out and about and meet one another again after our stint our isolation!