[Neil O'shea]

Hi All,

My name is Neil O'Shea and I live in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire UK.

A brief summary of my background is

I initialy trained as a draghtsman when I left school, but I always had an unhealthy interest in cars and motorsport. After being made redundant when the company folded I needed work and took a job at a garage. Whilst working at the garage I became good friends with the guy next door ( Hywel Absalom ) who is an engineer and ran a race car team. I continued working in the garage trade but also worked for Hughie with the race cars off and on for a few years in various formulas of single seaters. After getting more and more dissilusioned by working for garages that ripped people off I decided to start up my own garage business. A few years ago I sold up and moved to my current location in order for my partner to keep horses and for me to have a workshop at home so I could finally get round to building myself a Hot Rod. I have spent the last few years building and tooling up the workshop and learning basic metalshaping ( and shoveling copious amounts of horse manure !!! ). I have learnt a lot about shaping metal but am still very much a novice shaper ( the biggest thing I need to learn is patience. I think I try to get too much shape too quickly and don't spend long enough plannishing and perfecting the fit )

I have made a start with my Hot Rod, but it is still very much at the mock up stage as I would be the first to admit that I have probably bit off a bit more than I can chew for a first project. The whole car is being designed and built from scratch and until you try this yourself you have no idea how difficult it is !!!. I got to a point last year where the mock up was taking shape but I just couldn't get the shape right around the scuttle area. I took a break from it for a while and when I got back to it I decided that the windscreen was the wrong shape and this was causing most of my problems. I have now sourced a new windscreen and mocked it into the car . I am much happier with the new screen and feel I should be able to make some progress now.

I hope to pick up some more tips from the members of this forum as I am always blown away by the craftsmen out there and by how willing they are to share their vast knowledge with others. Keep up the good work and hopefully some of your talents might rub off on me !!!.

I was going to attach some pictures to go with all this waffle but just realised I can't attach photos yet. I will post them later when the account is up and running.