Member Profile

Test Survey:

Which of these machines do you have in your workshop?

• Lathe

• Drilling machine

• Tool and cutter grinder

• 3D printer

• Linisher / belt sander

• Compressor /air tools

• Welder

• Gas torch / brazing equipment

More about me:

My name is Nico but I listen to Nick as well, born in 1956 so at the very instant of writing this I'm 61 years old since my birthday is the 20th of November. Yes I'm a Scorpio in case you wanted to know.

Grew up in the most wonderful neighborhood of The Hague in the Netherlands, for those of you who don't know where that might be, look up Amsterdam on google maps or any other map thingy and go like 35 miles south along the coast. Yes, there!

I studied electronics and fine mechanics, no way near any automotive education but from the time I became conscious about my life I was interested in cars. After my studies I got my first full time job and a company car. Yeah, right.

Being a poor student at the time and a born car addict I did own and driven cars in the 70's. Not able to pay for the maintenance back then I did all work on my car myself. The virus of being a car addict never went, it only grew because there is no cure for, or vaccination against it. During the time I drove company cars I always kept a private one, the most iconic was my 1978 Buick Riviéra. Sure I did have other cars that are worth mentioning as well like a VW beetle built in 1972, a Maserati Bi-Turbo which was built in 1983 and the list goes on.

I became a specialist in computer communication protocols and taught that knowledge throughout Europe in 3 different languages. It's only in the last 10 years I learned French, before that it was Swedish, German, English and Dutch. I lost the Swedish though, not enough practice over the last 30 years. Like they say, use it or you loose it. Now I got the time to myself and enjoying it while doing what I like to do most, working on cars! On top of that I moved to the south - west of France, not only because the climate is much milder as it is in the Netherlands but also because the French way of living attracts me.

So, I'm not a professional in the automotive industry at all, I'm not a panel beater, not a grease monkey or whatever in that line of work. It started out as a necessity to keep my own car running and it grew out to what I do to cars now. To me it's a hobby and nothing else, exercising that hobby leads me to learn about everything concerning cars. Not to make money mind you. My greatest challenge is to take on a project and inventing my way onto, into and around it, thus bringing the project up to a high standard and giving me a very satisfactory result. The sub title on the start page states that I'm specialized and in a certain way and that's absolutely true. I think of myself as a DIY-guy who reached a respectable level in getting my projects done. I'd even go as far as saying my work is better as what a professional does, I got time and making money over it is no subject, so there is no rush to get things done and "forgetting" things which need attention as well.

Because there is no commercial interest from my side whatsoever I'll share all my knowledge with the rest of the world. Just hoping somebody out there might benefit from it, eighter putting the things he/she reads on my site to good use or maybe even learn something in general. For me it's enough if you just enjoy my site reading the chapters and looking at the pictures I put online.

Nobody is allowed to touch my cars and there is absolutely nobody out there telling me I'm doing it all wrong. Having said that be sure I'm open to suggestions because I know very well I don't know all and everything! Nobody is perfect and that includes me too.
 

My stats:

• 26 forum posts
• 5 photos
• 0 articles