... of my last excursion to the North Sea, I've ordered a set of five 600x16 tyres and tubes and deposited the rims with the powder-coating chaps just down the road from me. That involved me choosing a colour, so after some hours on the computer, I finally decided on RAL 7026.

Described as Granite Grey, the problem is that each representative swatch you look at is very slightly different, so it's a bit of a gamble. I anticipate plating the hub caps in nickel (and the rest of the brightwork as I'm not so fond of chrome) and the hint of yellow in the grey will set the caps off nicely. I've lately been taking notice of the BMW Mini Cooper colours and will get some touch-up paint in the three blues: Digital, Ice and Oxygen. I'm also going to look at 'Silk Screen' which would be a nice touch as I spent 20 years as a silk screen printer and colour matcher in the textiles and wallpaper industry.

I'd just finished the last of the alterations to the loom trolleys - it was easier to build the new ones than shorten the old ones - when a call came through to help with the unloading of the latest of The Great Collector's purchases.

Well, I didn't actually help, save sitting in the seat to steer it down the ramps, but this Talbot 14/45 Coupé is a welcome addition to the stable. It has a 1695cc six-cylinder engine and runs very sweetly. There are a few things to do - sort out the brakes, make a hood and so on, but when complete will make an excellent Breakfast Run car. I would have liked to have seen it with wire wheels for that extra touch of elegance to compliment the superb build quality and attention to detail that made the Talbot name. Incidentally, a lot of my 20 years in textiles was spent working in the Pall Mall Depository, opposite the Talbot works in Barlby Road, London.

The dash even sports a rev counter!

And talking of class and style, The Great Collector this weekend hosted the East Anglian Rolls Royce and Bentley Club's annual garden party. There were several bodies which caught my eye, all of them Bentleys.

This Ripon-bodied example was probably my take home car, though if pressed I would have happily received the grey DHC as an alternative.

Although at a glance much the same as the Ripon car, subtle differences relegated this Bentley to my second choice.

I didn't know that the Phantom III had a V-12. I can't find a lot of technical gen on the engine, but I wondered if it didn't have some Kestrel ancestry. Unusually, it has two separate ignition systems so doubles up on distributors, coils and spark plugs (24!).

Another recent and slightly eye-wateringly expensive purchase was the DC Electronics Microsteer system billed as being particularly suited to classic cars. The Riley RM's are heavy at parking speeds and some extra muscle will be very welcome.