West of Bangkok Discover a Trove of Classic, Vintage and Strange Rides

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West of Bangkok Discover a Trove of Classic, Vintage and Strange Rides (Photos)
By Cole Pennington
Correspondent



NAKHON PATHOM — Find chrome curves and steel spans of DeLorean, Ford, Citroen, Cessna and more just a short hour west of Bangkok.

Despite terrible traffic and exorbitant taxes, Thailand’s vibrant car culture and love of the automobile might best found at in the collection of Jesada Deshsakulrith, one of kingdom’s most notable collectors, at Jesada Technik Museum. Open to the public, the museum is home to hundreds of historic imported vehicles, from classic Hondas and Mustangs to vintage airplanes.

Full story: http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.php?newsid=1462082387&typecate=06&section=

-- Khaosod English 2016-05-02

[yellowboat]

Yes, Thais do an amazing job restoring cars. Was walking down the street one day when I saw an old '60's Chevy being worked on. They were installing a Toyota V8.

[Jimbo2014]

Until more safety on the roads the showroom is the best place for those vintage cars

[kennw]

Difficult to find the place but well worth the effort,

[Boycie]

Every time i read in the Motor Forum about a member that would like to import their car they are told to 'sell it and buy another here, don't even think about, you'll never get it out of the port and if you did you wouldn't be able to plate and tax it'

Does the owner of the this musuem know someone something we don't?

[NongKhaiKid]

Any monks involved ?

[captainhornblower]

What surprised me is that the entrance to the museum is free - very rare in Thailand where the norm is to gouge as much money as possible especially for foreigners

[ignis]

Must go back there... went there just after they opened in 2004, lots of the cars then had German, French, English, Swiss plates on. on the driveway was a old English double decker with UK plates and a USA old Taxi just behind it and a extended USA Taxi Estate about the same length as the Bus with Thai plates on.. back then there was a covered area + a number of tents + loads of cars just under tarpaulin

Couple of year ago some were on the road [driving to a show?] even then some had French plates..

The other interesting thing, notice a number of old cars in peoples private houses in the area, eg: Rover 2000, Rover 3.5 coupe, Triumph 2000, etc

[impulse]

Every time i read in the Motor Forum about a member that would like to import their car they are told to 'sell it and buy another here, don't even think about, you'll never get it out of the port and if you did you wouldn't be able to plate and tax it'

Does the owner of the this musuem know someone something we don't?

Yup. Things were different back in the '60s-'80's. But we know that.

[RigPig]

Every time i read in the Motor Forum about a member that would like to import their car they are told to 'sell it and buy another here, don't even think about, you'll never get it out of the port and if you did you wouldn't be able to plate and tax it'

Does the owner of the this musuem know someone something we don't?

Maybe they are not plated and registered.........

That would save a lot of the hassle!

[billd766]

What a coincidence as I went there last Friday.

Though they do have a lot of stuff it was difficult to take photos as they were parked so close together. In the main hall there are some very interesting older cars and bikes but there was virtually no information in either English or Thai about what any exhibit was.

Some were in excellent condition but others were just stuffed anywhere they could fit.

There are about 4 parts to the museum.

1 is the main exhibit hall and around the back to the left is another area jammed full of rusting cars and bikes etc.

2 Leave the main hall and go further on there is a site with a few aircraft plus a collection of mainly UK buses both single and double deckers and several open tops as well. To one side of that there are a lot of Cessna single engined fuselages but no engines, wings or wheels.

3 Go back past the main hall a bit and on the other side of the road there is what I can only describe as a vehicle dump. It is a very large area and in the front there is a giant dumper truck and some ordinary trucks, a collection of fire trucks and further back there is another collection of ex US army vehicles all rusting away. Beside and behind them is another large collection of old cars, trucks, a US army half track and even a genuine team powered road roller that is just rusting away.

4 There are a couple of steam railway locomotives sitting in an area close to the railway line, alone and all forlorn.

It is sad to see them as they are now but I suspect that the cost to restore them and display them properly would be enormous. IMHO I think that it would be in excess of 100,000,000 thb and that would depend on finding people with the skills, finding the parts though there is probably enough of some stuff to cannibalise, Just finding enough leather and cloth etc to rebuild the seats alone would be hard enough let alone things like gauges etc for the instrument panels, body parts and even things like indicators would have to be imported or built from scratch. Where on earth would you even find the simplest of things like an ignition key for a mid 1950s MG TD or TF?

I am glad that I went there and saw it and if anyone wants to go then do so but please don't have any high hopes or expectations.

[jerrybeirne]

well worth the trip if you like that sort of thing.

routemaster and leyland busses, isseta and meshersmicht bubble cars,

n.y.c. chequer taxi cab, lots of cars, motorbikes, scooters etc. from all over the place.

[ignis]

No idea now, but back in 2004 they had the model and year on a lot of them

Or a sticker on the windscreen

[Boycie]

Every time i read in the Motor Forum about a member that would like to import their car they are told to 'sell it and buy another here, don't even think about, you'll never get it out of the port and if you did you wouldn't be able to plate and tax it'

Does the owner of the this musuem know someone something we don't?

Maybe they are not plated and registered.........

That would save a lot of the hassle!

I wrote my comment because the picture that is used in the OP has both (can't see if the tax is valid thou)