A blog about 64SAINT, my Volvo 1800S

Quick set of photos at Glen Eyrie

julian m bucknall — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 23:05:00 GMT

Another year, and another retreat at Glen Eyrie for my wife, and another opportunity for me to pop over there to, er, take her something she’d forgotten. In the Volvo, of course. And it was a lovely sunny October day before the next snowstorm closes in tomorrow, so of course I had to take a couple of photos.

Not very happy with the ones by the castle because of the angle of the sun, which is why the second one there looks a bit washed out (and I’m not mentioning anything about the flare). Plus I did a better one three years ago in the same spot more or less.

Next time I shall have to go in the morning rather than the afternoon.

Quick photo at the Shops at Briargate

julian m bucknall — Thu, 09 May 2019 21:46:00 GMT

It was a very sunny early Sunday morning and I was out getting the breakfast bagels from Panera, when I noticed that I could do a clear shot of 64SAINT in front of the side wall of Biaggi’s. No cars parked in the way, no one around. ‘Nuff said – especially as the previous day I’d washed and waxed the car – so I quickly drove there and took the photo.

Fun stuff, must do more of these now that spring is just about here.

64SAINT.com is now secure

julian m bucknall — Thu, 05 Jul 2018 04:33:00 GMT

Over last weekend and today, I finished up the first steps to making this website, 64SAINT.com, fully secure. As of this moment, the SSL certificate is installed so you should see https:// as the protocol for visiting the site (and trying to use http:// will just redirect you to the secure version), and those browsers that mark such things should have a closed padlock icon next to the address bar.

Locks on Amsterdam bridge

The only security item still to complete on the site is to activate the “Content Security Policy” header, but that’s going to involve some fixing to every blog post, so it’ll be a little while. It is the hardest item to get right, which is why so many secure sites don’t bother.

In doing these changes, I had to “retire” the old “blog.64SAINT.com” subdomain. I debated whether to purchase an SSL certificate just for that, but given that my audience here is small, I decided that virtually no one would have stored a link using it to a page here and so didn’t bother. I have updated all the other places where I used the “blog” subdomain in a link to remove that reference.

Finally, in doing all this, I moved 64SAINT.com’s hosting over to Azure rather than GoDaddy. The main reason was GoDaddy’s cost for a certificate, plus I’d have had to upgrade to a more expensive hosting plan in order to use it. Why bother when I already have an Azure account because of what I do at work (and many of my other domains are already hosted there). This particular change should be invisible to everyone.

Panhard 24CT in Antwerp

julian m bucknall — Wed, 30 May 2018 18:10:00 GMT

A week ago I was in Antwerp for the Techorama developer conference. Ordinarily that would not be interesting enough to post about here, but on the last day, the Thursday, as we were leaving we came across this wonderful car, a Panhard 24CT (and, yes, I admit I had to use Google to find out what it was). Even better, just like 64SAINT, it was red and it was from 1964.

To me, it’s distinctly French, and indeed Panhard, at least the passenger car division, was taken over by Citroën, that most Gallic of car makes, in 1967. I reckon there was a group of designers employed by both companies that met in secret and devised that “French car look”. And this example is doubly impressive in that whoever owns it managed to get the Belgian number plate of 24 CT. I doff my hat.

My “other” Volvo 1800S

julian m bucknall — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 00:09:59 GMT

Long, long ago (OK, it was in 1998 that I sold it), far, far away (OK, England), I used to own a 1969 Volvo 1800S, the last year before it became the 1800E. Red, as well, as it happens.

I’d had it for some four years by the time I moved to the US in 1993, and I cheekily asked my parents to store it for me, because, obviously, I was going to return to the UK after I’d had my fill of Colorado. Never happened. They dutifully kept it until 1998, when my dad found someone to buy it (and I needed the money to get married later that year).

We just found a stash of old photos sent to us from my mum from that time. Some of them were of the Volvo (excuse the less than high resolution: scanning already-discolored prints doesn’t really work that well).

In front of house

Close up

I must admit I’d completely forgotten that my dad had taken off the chrome bumpers, wheel covers, etc, so that they wouldn’t rust or discolor in the damp Yorkshire air. And then stored them in the attic of their house.

Chrome removed

Chrome in attic

The funny thing is, about a year or so ago, I was contacted by someone in Kent who’d just bought the car. He’d traced me through one of my blog posts about the car (using the number plate, obviously) and we had a good old chat about it. He was kind enough to send me a photo of how it looks now.

ABW77G in 2016

Looks damn good now!

Quick photo at Glen Eyrie

julian m bucknall — Thu, 16 Nov 2017 18:35:00 GMT

2017 has been weird year for owning 64SAINT: in essence, we moved (bigger house, and an extra garage space – no more winter storage!) and I just didn’t have a lot of time for enjoying the car. Until the clutch went on my Audi that is, and I had to drive 64SAINT for 10 days or so in all kinds of crappy weather while it was being fixed. (And yes, I can attest that the windscreen wipers do work…)

My wife went to a retreat at Glen Eyrie again this October, and although the car needed a good clean and wax, I just had to pop over there again and take a photo. Luckily for one of the days the sun was out in a deep blue sky, so you can just about ignore the dirt on the car.

This is in front of the Echo Rock Amphitheater, essentially at the end of the road in Glen Eyrie. Taken with my iPhone 6, so I feel it’s a little distorted.

Roger Moore, RIP

julian m bucknall — Tue, 23 May 2017 14:05:00 GMT

It had to happen sooner rather than later, I suppose, but I’ve just read the news that Roger Moore, erstwhile star of The Saint, the character that drove a certain model of Volvo, has died in Switzerland of a short battle with cancer. He was 89.

In essence, as I’ve reported here and elsewhere, it was the fact that Simon Templar drove a Volvo 1800S in that original TV series that made me fall in love with the car and encouraged me get one as soon as I could afford it. And now I’m on my second: one in England that I sold in ’97 after moving to the States, and one over here that I bought seven years ago.

Rest in peace, Mr Moore.

Articles previously posted elsewhere

julian m bucknall — Wed, 21 Dec 2016 22:20:00 GMT

Yesterday’s post about Google Street View and 64SAINT and the fact it was posted somewhere else than this blog, prompted me to gather all the posts I’ve published elsewhere into one article right here. After all, this blog is about my “Volvo 1800S” – a term which could also encompass those posts I wrote about my previous one from 20 years ago. By doing this, I can more easily find them in the future.

So, without further ado…

64SAINT-related

64SAINT gets its own blog – fairly obvious, but I’d forgotten I’d taken the main photo shown here. (Mon 26-Nov-2012)

Garden of the Gods and my Volvo 1800S – my first photoshoot with 64SAINT in Garden of the Gods, here in Colorado Springs. (Sat 5-May-2012)

New front lenses for the Volvo 1800S – replacing the indicator/driving lights lenses on the front of 64SAINT. (Wed 21-Mar-2012)

Taking the Volvo 1800S out in snow – a photoshoot with 64SAINT in the snow. This was a couple of years before I started putting it into storage over the winter. (Sun 12-Feb-2012)

Volvo Club of America National Meet 2011 – my first car show with 64SAINT. (Sun 3-Jul-2011)

My Volvo 1800S – the first blog post about 64SAINT, just after I’d bought it. (Thu 2-Sep-2010)

My English 1800S

My first Volvo 1800S – talking about the 1800S I had in England before emigrating to the States. (Mon 9-Jul-2012)

The Saint, Volvos, and Nostalgia – in which I find my first 1800S in the Volvo 1800 Picture Gallery. (Sat 5-Nov-2005)

Brochures, data sheets, etc

Volvo 1800S Data Sheet, October 1968 – a one page data sheet on the 1800S from October 1968. (Fri 13-Feb-2009)

Miscellaneous

Wheeler Dealers–Volvo P1800 – they bought, did up, and sold a Volvo 1800S. (Wed 21-Mar-2012 )

The Daily Shoot 123 – in which I photograph my Corgi Toys The “Saint’s” Car, the one I’ve had since the mid 60s. (Mon 22-Mar-2010)

Now I know where to go to find everything.

Google Street View from July 2015

julian m bucknall — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 16:44:00 GMT

I thought I’d posted this image here from a year or so ago, but it turns out that I’d only posted it to Facebook. Sigh.

I was out grabbing some lunch in 64SAINT one day just off Academy Blvd here in Colorado Springs and I spotted the Google Street View car doing its stuff on Shrider Road. I wondered if I’d be captured on Street View and, once Google had updated it for that part of town a good couple of months later, there I was. There's a sequence of six shots showing me pulling out in front and waiting at the lights to get onto Academy.

Fun!

Here's a short link to the Street View: http://jmbk.nl/Hy9m8

Photoshoot at Glen Eyrie

julian m bucknall — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 18:15:00 GMT

What’s not to like: a beautiful sunny blue-skied late October day, my wife at a retreat in Glen Eyrie, and … she forgot something, so could I bring it to her? Pretty please? No sweat: it would make an ideal opportunity to do one of the last drives this year in 64SAINT before it goes into its winter hideaway, and in doing so an ideal opportunity to take a couple of photos in front of the castle.

Glen Eyrie is, well, wacky, or even, well wacky. It was built by General Palmer in 1903, who famously made his fortune founding Colorado Springs. It’s a tudor–style castle in a 800-acre estate with lots of other buildings and lodges dotted around. These days it’s owned by The Navigators, and they run it for conferences, retreats, and the like. As it happens, I visited it a long time ago, a good dozen years or more, and thought that it would make a good backdrop for 64SAINT.

Not too bad, although unfortunately the best places for the car were in shade with the castle in full sunlight. Still, pretty good, considering.

And on the bridge over the stream (which is more about overflow water than anything else).

Now playing:
Hall, Terry - Castles in the Air
(from The Collection [1994])