The MV Hobby, De-Mob

[chris vickery]

Phil, kudos to the superheroes, without them many a vehicle would now be a Walmart toaster...
My key point is that in order to introduce new blood into the hobby we must make available resonably priced entry level projects for young or new enthusiasts to start with. There are also those of us enthusiastic to build one, two or many vehicles yet sourcing decent projects is very difficult.
It becomes frustrating when you look over your fellow collectors fence to a yard full of vehicles which truthfully, will never be restored by the owner.
This becomes a case of "look at me, look what I have and you don't..."
I truly believe that there is a class of enthusiasts which I shall name "collectors", those who never have and never will do anything other than to gather relics like squirrels gather nuts. On one hand, yes they are saved. On the other hand, for how long? Either the owner passes on and the family relegates it all to the scrapper anyhow or by the time enthusiastic restoration specialists come along they are too far gone.
Parking a bunch of collected vehicles in the middle of a hayfield or bushlot and you might as well send them to scrap to begin with as no level of preservation has been done to slow them from deterioration. Case in point, my neighbour with his CDLV242 Willys MB which has been sitting in the same place I saw it 10 years ago (he is going to restore it...)
I did know one collector at least who parked his stuff on gravel and oil soaked everything on a yearly basis.

[Rob Fast]

restoration passion is the international flavour that comes with it. You can log onto MLU at any time during the Canadian 24 hour day and see the Aussies waking up to this forum, followed by the Europeans and Uk. Cmp'ers. I may have my time zones a little out of whack here but you get my drift. I would like to see a little more input from the fellow restorers in South America...and the more obscure places where CMP's are still running. If only we could inspire young collectors/restorers with the global phenomena of CMP's.

[chris vickery]

I agree Rob. There is a whole gamut of cmp restorers I am sure in places that you mention. Thing is, I think many are disconnected with the internet. Even here in Canada it always suprises me to find out how many collectors are private and shy away from organized clubs or forum websites...

[David Dunlop]

I agree, it would be great to connect with some other areas of the globe we know, CMP's went during the war, but perhaps to some extent language is an issue, and I also wonder if political climates play a large roll in limiting what collectors can do in some parts of the world. Would you want to be an avid military vehicle collector in a country run my constantly changing military governments?

David