Meetings - Archive

Finally went to the King Cruise again, was a nice one. Here a short impression:

King Cruise May 2010, dry but chilly weather and not many cars there today (why... mother's day?), here a small impression:

Sjoerd came from Friesland, and together we drove to the last King Cruise of this year in my lime gold Mustang convertible. It was clouded, with wind and a bit of rain, but still about 900 (!) US oldtimers made it to the Maxis parkinglot!

April 12, 2009; 1st King Cruise of 2009. Very very full with cars, some could not even park in the Maxis parkinglot! Nice weather, we had a good time chatting with two "oldtimers" Ben & Nico and checking out the cool rides!

Went to the 6th 2008 King Cruise last sunday. In my Mustang convertible, together with Sjoerd + Dave who came all the way from Friesland. Probably because of the excellent dry and sunny weather, this was the best meeting ever at the Maxis in Muiden! According to KC Maria, there were almost 1.000 US cars. And we did see some very nice ones, a lot of Mustangs (new and old), cool Hot Rods like the '50 Suburban and Bel Air Wagon, a '59 Plymouth Fury, two beautiful Studebakers, some lowriders and lots more. No pictures this time though, as my wife took our camera to Barcelona (but I love her anyway ).

Another meeting at the Maxis in Muiden. Last week a finally got my '69 Ranchero driving again when I installed a new wheel oil seal...and after installing my repaired and re-upholstered black leather bench! A nice job by Jan Balk. So for this King Cruise we used Che. And met up with my cousin Sjoerd plus friend Dennis and some other Ranchero owners. It started a bit slow because of the weather. But after the sun came out, so did the cars!

Today we joined Ranchero Nederland for a short cruise to Maxis King Cruise. Only 3 Ranchero's there (plus 3 other US cars), most are being rebuild. As I am still trying to fix the leaking axle problem on my Che'69, we joined the club in our '67 Mustang.

Nice guys, nice cruise and a great King Cruise, where we met some friends. Ben and his Lucky Luke Corvette, "Mercedes Nico" and later in the day our '67 Cougar palls. Here some pics, starting with 3 very nice Fords, a Ranger, a Country Sedan and a beautiful 1969 twelve seat Chateau Van.

Here a small impression of the first King Cruise of this year.

Went to the 4th Ranchero meeting today, organized by www.ranchero.nl. Small meeting, but I did meet some very friendly owners. Hope to see more Ranchero's (including mine) at the 5th!

Yesterday we participated in the Midland Classic Show and the 'fotopuzzelrit' in Almere. Cougar & Mustang '67, and although smart Sjoerd joined us, we did not win the first price

Last King Cruise of 2007; first time with my superfly yellow 1969 Ford Ranchero! (my67stang was left at home..) Here some pic's:

Took Stangie to the King Cruise again today. As I bought a '69 Ranchero yesterday, I was on the lookout for other Ranchero's and booklets, metal signs and sofort. But no 'Chero's, only two Chevy El Camino's. I did see a '68 Torino, which is in the same family and (almost) has the same frontside and dashboard as my 'Chero. And I did find an original Torino-Fairlane-Ranchero owners manual, printed in January 1969!

Here some pic's; 'Cuda's, hardcore bikes, very low Chevy truck, strange & nice hotrods, '68 Torino and '59 El Camino

Season opened very nicely at the first King Cruise of 2007. What a beatiful sunny day, and I have never seen so many US cars here in Muiden before! Our friends were also there with their black 1967 Cougar.

It was our first drive in 2007, last winter I have not done much on my 1967 Mustang convertible. I have only attached the exhaust pipes a bit better to the manifolds as there was some leaking going on there. And I have changed the front of the car a bit by putting a aluminium mesh grill in front of the original black grill.

King Cruise August 2006. Present again in my 67 'Stang. With Marcel's 67 Cougar up and running again. And the Tempation Bikini Carwash again, but this time complete with truck, DJ and a bit better looking girls having some fun! With (tattoo) Michel showing us some pinstriping. With a (newly build?) silver Shelby Cobra. And with a beautiful blue/green '32 Ford hotrod, perfect in every detail!

Here we are again, at the monthly growing King Cruise meeting at the Maxis / Burger King near Muiden. This time without Marcel's Mercury, which has engine trouble... To take away some of the pain, we were waiting for the announced Temptation Bikini Carwash, but when the (only) two Belgian girls finally arrived it appeared they didn't have the 'equipment' to properly wash a car (I mean how old are they; 14?, and where was the temptation?)....

But look who was also there! A Dutch Shelby GT500 "Eleanor" .. the ultimate dreamcar. If only I was rich instead of so damn good looking

Here an impression of the 3rd King Cruise of this year, held today at the Maxis near Muiden. Despite the very high temperature of +30 degrees celcius and "Orange" playing the first match in the soccer World Cup, there were plenty of USA cars & bikes to have a close look at..

Here some pics taken at the Big City Rollers meeting at Caddy's last sunday..

First drive of the season. I didn't do any work on my '67 Mustang last winter. Very nice and busy opening meeting; the first Maxis King Cruise of 2006. Our '67 Cougar friends were also present, and so was Nik with his blue '72 Chrysler Valiant with new wheels (2nd pic).

On Sunday 11 September my wife and I picked up Martin and his 8 year old son Dannique, and drove to the last King Cruise of this year.

On arrival I had the surprise of my life!
That cannot be Marcel and Wendy's black '67 Cougar, can it?! The last time I saw the "Koekert", it wasn't ready at all, it still needed some welding, the whole interior installed and to go through the APK inspection! And where are the Wolfrace wheels? With a big smile on his face Marcel tells us that Jaap and he have worked their asses off to have the car ready, including replacing the rear brake cylinders (because the rear brakes failed the inspection). And that they had decided not to tell us, although this was very hard!

And then, when the car was finally ready, Marcel almost lost one of the wheels while driving home! Apparently some wheel nuts where not secured thightly enough... The worst thing was that he had now damaged the alloy wheel so badly, that it needed replacement. After some searching, Wendy decided to pull Marcel out of this crisis by buying 4 brand new wheels and tyres at Tyra!

So here they are, together at last; the '67 Mercury Cougar and the '67 Ford Mustang!

(and some other nice rides; a Chevy Impala, and a 2005 'Stang GT-350)

After a few hours of renovating various engine parts and installing the heater with the new heater core and hoses, it was time for a test drive. So today I went to this years 2nd King Cruise in Muiden. Great meeting! W&M, Ben (Lucky) Luke and I had a good time looking at lots of different USA cars, here are some pics..

Yesterday we drove my '67 convertible to Friesland to attend the 4th annual Ford-day at Jaarsma. Although there weren't that many cars (and specially T'birds at this celebration of 50 years Thunderbird), Harry, Wendy, Marcel, Aimée and I had a pretty good time talking to various people. W&M even spotted the red Mustang II (see picture) which they sold not so long ago. Regretfully their '67 Mercury Cougar was not ready yet for this meeting. It would have been the only one!

I talked to a guy who had his '67 coupe (see picture) recently painted in the same colour as mine; Lime Gold. He gave me the address where he had it done, because mine will probably need some fresh paint in due course and they did a pretty good job. At about 15.30 we drove home with a new heater core from Jaarsma and the roof back on as the temperature dropped considerably.

Last sunday I drove to the 10th Big City Sunday at Caddy's. Here are some pictures of the beautiful US cars present... Check out the great Dodge's, Camaro's, 'Cuda, Studebaker and specially the 22 inch wheels on the Sedan de Ville!

The last picture is my heater.... which started leaking during the drive to Purmerend and which was completely taken out of the car today! Marcel and I excluded it from the cooling system so I can still drive. I will buy a new heater core next sunday, during the Ford Meeting at Jaarsma.

Oops, I just wet my pants......

Together with my girl and Wendy, I went to the 40th Mustang Anniversary Meeting organized by TMCN in the IJsselhallen in Zwolle on 12 & 13 June 2004. We went on sunday, and o boy.... there I was .... face-to-face with my ultimate dreamcar: Eleanor!!!! It appears this German guy had an "Eleanor-package" shipped from The States and rebuilt his own GT500 as if he is Carroll Shelby himself....wow!

And ofcourse there were lots of other Ford cars present in the two halls.

As we arrived a little late, my Mustang was not allowed inside anymore. But we had a jolly good time, eating hot dogs and watching cars. For example this nice black & gold Ford Torino!

On very sunny sunday the 16th of May we took my 'Stang to Hartwerd, to the 3rd Ford Meeting at Pyt Jaarsma of Motown Parts. With this meeting he also celebrated the 40th birthday of the Mustang! We went there with my brother René en his girl Susanne and stayed only about one hour as we had to go the yearly meeting of the Lemtra's in Friesland.

I had a little chat with the owner of the white '67 convertible. His car also has the Deluxe Interior, although it does not have the rev-counter and the optional safety lights in the middle of the dash. But it still has the chrome grills with the door warning lights, the parts I am still searching for!

Next to the white convertible you see a very nice blue '67 Fastback. The other pictures show a red Mustang IV with very nice wheels, a great black 1956 Thunderbird, some good ol' Fordson tractors and a small Chevy truck (but what was it doing at a Ford meeting?)

The first official Mustang meeting of this season was a home game for us. This morning we drove the approx 10 kilometers to the Ford Museum in Hillegom with the top on, because the weather wasn't that great and Aimee is still suffering from the flu. Harry joined us in my '67 V8 Mustang convertible.

It was a good meeting, with about 40 Mustangs present I would say. Lots of stuff for the boys & girls to look at, like these great American Racing wheels and some nice engine jobs....

And I bought another one of those nice metal signs, to decorate my garage.

While still working on the electrical problems now and then (not having enough spare time to do as much as I would like) I sometimes cruise the internet...

Here are some links to our Belgian Mustang friends:

The Mustang Garage
Belgian Mustang & Cougar Club

So here we are, my Mustang and I in Pony Corral; the quarterly magazine by Team Mustang Center Nederland. This interview was taken during the swapmeet in July. There are some mistakes in the text - 60.000 miles instead of 90.000 - and I already replaced the lenses back in 2000. But who cares; we are looking good!

A beautiful day for a drive, with temperatures of 30 degrees celcius! We went to the Mustang Swapmeet in the 'Autotron' in Rosmalen, but we took our time to get there by only driving on B-roads. We did not bring anything to sell, but I bought a very nice secondhand chrome oil cap to replace the leaking black one.

I was also interviewed by TMCN for their article 'The Man behind the Mustang'. The interview took about 1,5 hours in the hot sun; pfffff it sure hurts to be famous. The guy also took a lot of pictures, my girl and I will be in the next copy of the TMCN magazine!

To celebrate 100 years of Ford automobiles, Pyt Jaarsma organized a meeting at his Mustang Garage in Hartwerd. All (classic) Fords, but especially Mustangs & Thunderbirds were very welcome. My mum and Handy Harry also joined the party!

Today the Guinnesbook of World Records in London confirmed that the Ford Museum Hillegom now holds the World Record for the longest driving parade of classic cars. This parade was held on May 11, 2002, and guess which car was one of the 948 vehicles of 35 years or older...

This was one one of those days when it is too damn hot to drive around without a roof and airco! But as always, American Power On Wheels was a big happening. We drove to Antwerp with Marcel's white Corvette and my green Mustang. Wenne & "Harley" Marcel, Teethgrinder & Suus (in their boring 206 GTI but at least it has airco!) and my girl Aimee made the party complete.

International Mustang Meeting 2001 in Rhenen. Organized by Team Mustang Center Nederland. With lots of beauties, like this black '67 fastback and red GT-350!

American Power On Wheels in Antwerp, one of the biggest USA car meetings. About 1.500 cars in 2 days. It's nearly a 2,5 hour drive, but it was worth it! Looking good, two old cars with two young girls (third picture)! Thanks for modelling, Wendy & Aimee

First real meeting this year. Although this is supposed to be an All American Meeting at Caddy's in Purmerend, there were more than enough Mustangs present. Good for me! The weather wasn't that great, but me and my brother had a good time looking at all the nice and shiny cars!

Talking about a big meeting... this was great! I drove to this American car meeting in Antwerp with Marcel, who left his white 'Vette at home this time. Lots of things to see; shiny cars, hot women and a good rock 'n roll band. Nice!

Mustang meeting at Caddy's in Purmerend with my girlfriend Aimee. The two women in the world I love most in one picture. Naturally, I love one more than the other

(The engine overheated again - this of course had nothing to do with the hot woman sitting next to me!)

My first Mustang meeting in Midlaren near the Zuidlaardermeer in Groningen. My brother had the nerve to sit on my car. I quickly took a picture of this, to be used as evidence for the trial.

The 500km drive did not completely go without problems. The engine stopped a couple of times, reason unknown. After this drive I had the first possibility to calculate the fuel usage of the engine; 6.6km per liter, not bad at all for a V8!

9-9-'99 - 'Stang-Day!

With the help of a good friend I went to Essen, Germany to pick up the Mustang! Very exciting indeed! I did this with an 'one-day licence plate' as the car still needs official Dutch registration. Ofcourse I did most of the 2,5 hour drive with the top down which resulted in my first 'convertible sun burn'!

The ride did not go without problems though. Due to the hot summer temperature and a traffic jam, the engine overheated! After a little cooling down at the site of the road, that little problem was solved and we made it back to Amsterdam safely.