The DGB story (or Carli's tv appearance.)

Well, things have changed big time with Carli. Let's just say that Carli has won the lottery. I guess I will need to explain this a bit as it would otherwise sound a little bit strange.

Let's just give you a before and after picture first. This picture is a screenshot from the program so copyright Rene Stokvis Producties/Veronica.

A bit of a difference huh? Well, like I said this was thanks to a new Dutch tv-program. It is called (in Dutch): 'De Grote Beurt' which is something like the big make-over but then for cars... I had send them an email after seeing an announcement about the program. You never know, right? Well, and it was just a try.

Carli had had an accident about a year ago and after MOT had run out we just didn't have the oppertunity to repair her. She was decleared a write-off, basically. But Carli is special to us, so we had left her standing in front of the door for about 8 months.

Then the program came about and I send the email. You might understand my surprise when the program's researcher returned my call and an appointment was set for the next day. Well, this person came to talk to me, but first went to Angela (my girl). The problem was that Angela was not supposed to know that he was from the program. So he told her he was from a body shop in Haarlem and that his boss liked English cars so he had to come and talk to Angela, maybe to buy the car. She didn't think more of it and just told him Carli's total story. I was pretty happy because I thought she would notice something, but she didn't. The researcher then came to me at work and talked with me. He would report back, with the pictures he had taken from the car. The team would then decide whether to go ahead with the make-over of the car.

A few anxious days passed, it was so difficult to keep my mouth shut to Angela! I prayed they would go ahead, although I thought they might not do it, because Carli was in a pretty bad state. We were darn lucky: 2 days later they called to tell me they would go ahead with it. This was on the Thursday, they would come and surprise Angela on the Monday. A weekend passed with me anxiously trying to keep my mouth shut.

Finally the Monday was there. I worked half of the day, although it was difficult to keep my concentration at my job... The program staff called me around 13:30 to tell them they were already in IJmuiden. I went there and then together we went to Angela. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me see the surprise, because Jorinde (the presenter) went to Angela with the camera crew to surprise her. She was surprised...although they said it didn't show enough on her face, so they had to redo the take. They used the first take in the end.

Let's just say it was a marvellous week! Angela didn't know what had hit her, Carli got a total overhaul and we have now all been on Dutch television. I even had a friend come over from the UK to be there as a surprise for Angela. It was marvellous!

In the next couple of pages I will show you pictures before, after, in between and behind the scenes.

A big THANK YOU goes out to all the staff of Rene Stokvis Producties/Veronica and all the sponsors of the program. Especially the car technicians of CARe Schadeservice. They have worked so darn hard to get our car (and the other persons car) ready within 3 days, they have had sleepless nights (you will see that on the pictures) and we owe them a lot...we have got Carli back!

Carli has got MOT again, so she is totally up and running now. A big thank you goes out to the whole crew of DGB, especially the technicians, what they do with 2 old cars is just unbelievable! Also thanks to the rest of the crew, it was fun to be part of this and it was great to talk to you all! :)

See the next couple of photo pages for the story in pics!