Watch as 92-year-old Vin Wardman ‘test drives’ his Chitty Chitty Bang Bang model, which he created from an old mobility scooter and a mixture of household items.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00My name is Vin Wardman and I make all my models out of plywood and pedal bins.
00:14The front on there is a pedal bin which came from the tip of the recycling place and the
00:21wheels are off a push chair.
00:23The windscreen is a brass picture frame out of a charity shop.
00:26The scooter I bought in Shrewsbury, it's a shop rider which is the best for making models
00:31on.
00:32The plywood, I cut a template in cardboard, took it up to the van people up the road,
00:39commercial people who line vans and he kind of cut out the shape of my template to do
00:46the plywood sides.
00:48My mate does all the vinyl work for me, I put them on but he had to do 70 odd lines
00:54for the side.
00:55We had to stain the white plywood and get it the right colour.
01:00The seat I went to Minsterley and bought a large red tub chair which was four inches
01:06too wide.
01:07I had to cut all the centre out of it, bring it down narrow enough to put on here and I
01:13got a mate up the road there and he welded a stand onto this seat.
01:18First I jumped it together on a bit, I upholstered it after I cut it down and the neighbour up
01:24there made an iron pedestal to hold it there instead of the original seat.
01:31Most of the bits come from a charity shop but my friend who runs the sign workshop supplies
01:38me with all the vinyl.
01:40He made the lights on a 3D printer and he supplies me with bits of metal to make my
01:47mud guards and any vinyl that's required.
01:52I made the bits of wings myself and I bought a basket which was too big so I cut them in
01:58half and made two baskets and the front was a kitchen strainer and a cake tin like a utensil.
02:07That's all part of a cake tin and something on the front of there.
02:11The exhaust was on the side of your copper, it was made by a retired plumber from Kempton,
02:16Gary, because it's a bit awkward that I couldn't do that so he sold it and I put it on.
02:23The idea came really from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang came to Ladlew in August, two men had
02:30made it and it's got on tour around the world now, you've probably seen it on the Midland
02:35News to raise money for prostate cancer.
02:40They're coming back a week next Saturday on the 23rd and I shall take this down to show
02:45alongside their real one and it's the Christmas lights going on as well at two o'clock a week
02:52on Saturday.
02:54So that's what gave me the idea when I saw theirs I came back home and I started on the
02:591st of September and I finished on the 5th of November which is only just over eight
03:05or nine weeks.
03:06Well everybody tells me it's a wonderful model, I can't say that myself can I?