75ZT Community

Sign on the door says Ashes is reopening on 15 Feb, as soon as I can make contact with the new tenant will find out about our meets

Good news Rob
Hope they are as accommodating as others have been.

Let's hope the new tenant will be able to make a living from the pub and therefore stay for longer than all the previous ones.

The only way that a pub can now survive, is to employ a Chef and to have a decent Restaurant, as the days of making a profit from what's known as "Vertical sales", are now long gone!

The problem with the Ashes is that it has had so many tenants in recent years, I can think of at least 9, some have tried real hard others not so but in my opinion the punters have gone elsewhere and it will take more than a 6 month stint from most of the new tenants to make it work, the pub owners also want £10k up front as its a tenancy and rent of almost £18k per year, so add to that staff wages, business rates, utilities, cleaners, purchases of beer and other drinks and it must be extremely difficult to make a go of it which is a shame because it is a nice pub with lots of land around it which could be used. We have had tenants who thought that the chap who cuts the grass can also double up as a " chef" was a good idea to those who had grand ideas of some sort of gourmet food and charged £15 for a burger about as big as a ten pence piece and all have failed so far, the last tenant has run another very successful pub a few miles done the road for a number of years it is local to me and the car park is never empty, he provided decent food at a decent price, but he too has failed after trying it for around 11 months, he even closed it before Xmas when you would think that would be a time he would at least make a profit over the festive period. I fear for the place in the long run as the owners are a large company who also have a property portfolio and some pubs have been converted to Co-op stores, we can only hope as we were told once that it is a listed building on greenbelt, otherwise sold to a developer there would soon be lots of houses on there, I have got to the stage where i just hope we get through the 2020 meets before there is another change, and then the cycle starts all over again and I can go cap in hand to the next tenant just as I have with all the others. Long live the Nanos !

Excellent news Rob, and thank you for all your efforts in keeping the Nano meets going.

Ok just seen the new tenant at the Four Ashes, Damon, who is happy for us to continue with the Nano meets without any changes to our existing arrangements. He was not aware of our meets and I said I would drop the 2020 dates in over the next few days.

The reopening is now delayed though and earliest will now be Tuesday 25 Feb so watch this space for the exact date when I know it.

In the meantime the 1st Social evening meet set for Tuesday 18 Feb is cancelled until the Ashes reopens.

Damon is medium height and I would say in his mid to late 30s, he has a lot of experience in the pub trade at Telford but doesn't have any other pubs at the moment so can hopefully concentrate on making the Ashes viable again

And the merry go round continues, Damon left the Ashes before he could get started due to Covid 19 and it has been closed until last week when a new tenant called Michelle took over, who is keen for our meets to continue, I have lost count of the number of tenants who have taken over the Ashes in the last 10 years, but must be at least 10 to my knowledge so no guarantees for the future but nice to see it reopening which hopefully means our September and October meets can go ahead

That is good news.

Trebor wrote:And the merry go round continues, Damon left the Ashes before he could get started due to Covid 19 and it has been closed until last week when a new tenant called Michelle took over, who is keen for our meets to continue, I have lost count of the number of tenants who have taken over the Ashes in the last 10 years, but must be at least 10 to my knowledge so no guarantees for the future but nice to see it reopening which hopefully means our September and October meets can go ahead

Will be there on the Saturday, 12th, but can't make it on Sunday.
More info on the Nano website.

Martyn.

Going forward work Corrals for hands on meets may work, easy to set up with a few metal stakes, and nylon rope, in each corral have a corner with (sanitising station) ie a chair with some spray and paper towels,
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anything is possible with some fore thought and organising, those whom will not wear masks and gloves could or will be asked to vacate the field, as they should realise that they too must help by following simple rules.

Also not hard to wipe down your car if any internal work is required with doors open if possible, and the owner only to be inside the corral at a distance, or a crew member in the coral with him to guide what ever he may want to do, anyways i am sure with all our knowledge and common sense we would be able to work something out which would work smoothly.


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I am happy to say my corral equipment arrived the other day, so i would be ready if i attend and needed to help or carry out any jobs on a members car, it would be only the owner and me inside the corral he she would be ask to wear a mask, i will be wearing a mask and gloves, if any inside work job needed doing the owner would be asked to wipe down handbrake, steering wheel, door handles dash etc inside, it would be wiped down again after i have been in the car.

External help jobs the owner would be asked to stand back a little 1.5mtr any other spectators will be out side of the corral which would be set up again minimum 1.5mtr from the car making a barrier /corral around the car.

As above this will happen if i decide to attend.

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You will also find these inside of the corral please use.
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Hopefully owners and other members who visit including crew of cause to take properly responsibility at all times while there is still a real risk of Covid 19, please note cases are rising again so be careful and safe out there.

Hi Guys & gals
What a difference a day or two can make in our new world of C19, i was on the fence from the start, at 65% against going to 35% attending, i know am 100% not attending, to me its just not worth it, as Gail as a very poor immune system due to the drugs she takes etc.

Also i have been banging on from the start that we need/needed to take strict control over how we were going to have the meet, introducing corral type of sections on the field, so much so i even bought my own stakes and plastic fence, and rolls of hand towel, anti-bacterial wipes & spray, hand sanitiser, as crew or members whom run the meets we should have introduced these anyways in my opinion, and the Nano funds used to do so? as donations will always build up again, personally i think we will also struggle to run a Nano meet as we used to in 2021.

If the Four Ashes survives into 2021 we really need to get our act together going forward with the Nano meets, or it will die off which would be a shame, those going Saturday or Sunday please be careful and think of others as they should you too. :thumb:

Ok as i did not attend the September Nano meet the first i have missed in the last 10yrs, i decided as the weather was kind today to finally spray the front grill satin black.

This is a follow on with my plan to do all the chrome bits on the NUK in satin black, as the thread shows i have already done the door handles.

So off with the bumper.
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Front bumper on the bench/seat & mask the grill off ready for spraying.
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Spray first coat of etch primer.
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Once the primer as dried the first coat of satin black goes on.
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After a few more coats the masking is ready to come off.
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All i have to do now is let it dry a little more while i have Sunday dinner:drool4:
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Now that my Sunday dinner as settled, its time to refit the front bumper.
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Front bumper fitted with the new satin front grill.
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Grill with the original badge.
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Grill with the Viking black & silver badge.
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Decisions now have to be made as to which badge i go with, as the rear tail gate is a black & silver 75

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I have carried out some further spraying on the NUK so that the front lower grills are now satin black, and the rear tailgate handle & number plate chrome surround are now both satin black also, i have removed the Rover emblems.

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looks good Steve, very trendy these days and something different

Trebor wrote:looks good Steve, very trendy these days and something different

Hi Rob.
Cheers i think its given it a bit of a lift still need to do a bit of work on the paint work of the car, but it looks like we will have plenty of time on our hands again over the next six months

When you did the door handles did you have to take the glass out to release all 4 of the thumb buttons, not a pleasant job just doing one let alone 4

Trebor wrote:When you did the door handles did you have to take the glass out to release all 4 of the thumb buttons, not a pleasant job just doing one let alone 4

Hi Rob.
No i cheated i had some extra thumb units so i was able to snap them them out, as you know to replace them you do not need to open the spring they just push back in, link below.

wheel-refurbishing-t9598.html#p87069

Once again the Four Ashes is closed down, this manager never even got to open it at all, a local member saw the manager put her personal belongings into her car, Michelle had also gone from answering all of Rob's calls to leaving phone on voicemail and never ringing back, that was before said member saw her leaving, so i think the time as cone to find another venue for 2021 if the restrictions are lifted for us to have a meet, but we must not let this close our meets that's for sure.