your projects
SOS members outside the workshop, June 2019 (left to right):
Stuart McDougall, Paul Montgomery, Mark McGawn, Craig
Montgomery, Robert Hamilton, Garry Lawrie, Sean Johnson.
afes, museums, village halls, pub
car parks, even a farmer’s field
— when most classic Ford clubs
get together for their monthly meet, it’s
usually somewhere informal where
plenty of talk happens. Ayrshire-based
group, Scottish Old Skool (SOS) are a
little different though. Their monthly
meet takes place at a local workshop, and
as well as the banter, they get to work on
their own cars, too — a Ford home from
home, if you will, that also just happens
to be a working garage.
“That’s all down to Garry (Lawrie),”
admits Sean Johnson. “He runs the
garage during the day, along with
fellow club member Keith Knight, but
come evenings and weekends he likes to
muck around with old cars, and is
happy for us to do so, too, so the garage
has become our defacto headquarters.
As well as a great and secure place for us
all to meet, it means that some of the
bigger jobs on the cars can be done
here, and everyone mucks in to make
sure they get done and the cars back on
the road as soon as possible.”
“We’re running out of space,” admits
Garry, “and I’ve half joked that we need
to get another unit. It’s nice to be able
to get the paying jobs out of the way at
the end of the day and then muck about
with the older stuff. We get together
once a month or sometimes every other
week here, then during the winter
months, if there isn’t a job to do on one
of the cars we’ll go out for a curry.”
SOS is a relatively new club. “We
officially started last year, but most of
us knew each other before then,”
explains Sean. “We’re open to all makes
and retro models, but it just happens
that the majority of our members have
a Ford or two in the garage! Everyone
brings something to the group, and
while we’ve all got different levels of
knowledge and experience, the
important thing is that we all share a
love for these old cars.”
The group, which includes core
members Sean and Garry, plus Paul
Montgomery who owns the Fiesta and
Mk1 Escort, and Mark McGawn with
the Saph, are serious about attending
events, too. “We’re at a show every
other weekend during the summer,”
says Paul. “We’ve done 15 so far this
year – sometimes it feels like a full-time
job, but a hugely enjoyable one. If
there’s a problem with one of the cars,
then it’s all hands on deck down the
garage to make sure it gets there.”
Impressed? Turn the page to take a
look at some of the SOS members’ Fords.September 2019 9C