WATER BOYS!

THE GOLDEN AGE OF PUBLISHING IS IN THE PAST, SO WHAT'S A JOURNO MEANT TO DO? HOW ABOUT HYDRO-BLASTING

- DAVE MORLEY

We probably should have done this 20 years ago, but my mate Bondini and I have now gone and done a thing. Yep, we've started a business.

It's not that I'm going to turn my back on writing about cool old cars and the people who drive them, but it's also true that since COVID, my industry of choice (motoring publishing) has kind of hit the wall with a bit of a thud. Not to mention that the current crop of SUVS and EVs leave me colder than a well-digger's bum-crack, and you can maybe see how I thought it was time to perhaps branch out a bit.

And since Bondini was also a bit jaded with the way the engineering industry was heading, we figured we might as well come up with a Plan B for the pair of us. Mainly because nobody else was going to employ a pair of stooges like we two.

The good news is that the business we've started is still closely snuggled up to the subject matter of this fine, family magazine you're holding right now. And that's because we've gone and built a monstrous hydro-blasting plant which is the centrepiece of our venture.

Anybody for a quick history lesson? Okay. The idea of using pressurised water to clean stuff is not new.

Think mining sluices and steam jets and you're on the right tram. But it wasn't until the 1970s and '80s that the concept of using a jet of water mixed with a blasting medium was picked up.

Until then, of course, we'd had sand-blasting (invented 2000 years ago when an overnight wind-storm in the Sahara desert took the high spots of everybody's camel) which is very effective but can lead to heat build-up which can distort panels (and possibly camels) and is reckoned to be a major contributor to the incidence of breathing disorders and even some cancers. That said, with proper dust extraction technology and careful use, sand-blasting can be effective and safe, but we had what we reckoned was a better idea.