Project Mini: The Halfway Point

Occasionally, Classic Car Adventures will have an update on our in-house project cars, and also those of our readers. In this first installment of the Project Mini series, Warwick has reached a milestone in his first ever restoration – the teardown to bare shell is complete!

Owner: Warwick
Car: 1966 Austin Mini 850
Project Status: Car has been fully stripped and sent for a hot bath!
Pros: Sense of great satisfaction from getting the teardown done.
Cons: Scared to death of what the shell is going to look like when it comes back from rust dip!

The First Day

First off, let me introduce you to “Abby”. She is a ’66 Austin 850 from Vancouver, Canada. The car has lived here it’s whole life, having been in one family since new. Approximately 40,000 miles on the clock and is in a decent state. I bought it in November 2008, and it made its first public appearance on the 2009 Spring Thaw. I drove it all summer, so it was certainly in better nick than some projects I’ve seen people start with! The car had been sitting under a tarp on the side of the road for goodness knows how many years, so I just *had* to rescue it. After a minor tune-up and safety check, we were on our way for the Spring Thaw.

Apart from nearly popping the motor on the first major climb on the ‘Thaw – coolant spraying on the windshield is never good – the Mini handled everything I threw at it for the rest of the event, and indeed the rest of the summer. The usual rust bubbles were popping up, however, and she did have some mechanical gremlins to sort out. As the leaves turned orange and the temperature dropped, I decided I was going to take the plunge and start on a basic restoration. I could turn this thing around in 7 months, right?

Subframes, doors, and glass off - time to get dipped!

Fortunately for me, the ‘Rookie Restorer’, the Mini is as simple as they come. My lack of experience with wrenching on cars has often caused frustration in the past. I told myself at the beginning of this project that I was going to put my head down and just motor through any problems or confusion. Apart from a few rusted and stripped bolts, the Mini didn’t throw up any problems that a forum search or manual read couldn’t solve. Each problem solved resulted in more satisfaction and confidence to attack the next task.

It’s now mid-January, and the Spring Thaw is just three months away. At the beginning of the month, I finally got the last nut and bolt off the car and the shell was officially ‘bare bones’. Its very satisfying to stand back and look at a car that you’ve totally stripped with your own hands. In effect, undoing 40 years of “togetherness!” Visually, it marked a big turning point because now the long climb back to roadworthiness could begin.

It's sometimes handy to have a small car!

I decided to take the shell to Redi-Strip in Vancouver for chemical cleaning and rust removal. As of January 14th, that is where the car sits and I am scared to death of what the car will look like when I pick it up!  Was the shell in as good a condition as I thought, or am I going to get a horrible surprise? I should know by Monday whether I’ve got a 3-month or 13-month project on my hands!

As co-organizer, am I allowed to delay the Spring Thaw a few months to ensure I have a car for it?

Abby disappears into Redi-Strip's warehouse

Then There Was Us: Bill Molle

The late Bill “Doc” Molle was somewhat of a renaissance man: Lawyer, Dentist, legitimate Admiral in the US Navy, and a racer’s racer. He would, as the saying goes, race you for “money, marbles, or chalk”. An active road racer in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, he won two Pacific Coast Championships in Class “H” Modified. However, it seems he became a bit disillusioned with all the attention being given to the ‘new’ class of big bore racers, and felt particularly chapped when Jim Hall (of Chaparral fame) came along and usurped his accustomed number ’66’ in the West Coast events.

Bill Molle in his Panhard Special (66) - www.tamsoldracecarsite.net

In his later years, Molle prepared an article “…for Joe Puckett, who began making a small news letter called small times, but he died and the project ended. I tried to get the message across that we were there too.”

Bill sent this unpublished article to “apprentice” motorsport historian, Frank Sheffield, and urged him to put it online. With Frank’s permission, we are reprinting Bill’s article – an honest, humorous, and emotional look back at when sports car racing all began. From turning down a Le Mans drive, to testing harnesses on cadavers, this is a great read. (Note: We have made some minor punctuation and grammar edits for ease of reading, but otherwise it remains as he wrote it.)

———————————-

I think it is about time that I say something about “us”. We started this thing about racing about in sports cars in the early 50’s. Some of us went on to gain fame in the big bore machines, such as Shelby, Miles, Motschenbacher, Patrick and many others like these. But there was a much, much larger group of us who, for the lack of money, professional, prior commitments, dedication, made up the bulk of the program. The majority of the crowd in attendance who drive their MG’s, TR’s, Porsches to work every day really came to these events to see how their car did against others like it, and of course there was the Walter Mitty syndrome. Certainly it was exciting to see the big bore monsters run too, but that was icing on the cake.

Bill Molle (far right, cut off) at Riverside in 1969 (Formula Photographic Archives)

Now there was the sweat, work, all night before the race, buying spare parts, making spare parts – even when the kids needed shoes – and doing your own work because you could not hire mechanics and pit crew. You did it with volunteer help who also loved the race, but driving was not their bag, fixing was. It made up a dedicated team of friends who are probably still friends after all these years. Some of us got killed or injured due to lack of skill, mechanical failure and a dozen other reasons, but we still came, for nothing more than a trophy and the occasional fan that wanted your autograph. The mechanics didn’t even get the trophy.

Helping hands at Riverside 1969 (Formula Photographic Archives)

We remember many of the innovative ideas and mechanical gizmos that some of the backyard mechanics made to get more out of the engines. Balchowski, Jerry Fairchild for another. Don Miller with his one-a-week Crosleys, Vaseck Polack cutting the top off of the 356 to make the first roadster. We had ideas and idea of ideas. I had an idea to have shoulder harnesses in the cars, like fighter planes. Chick was president of the Cal Club and he and I built the first shoulder harness and tested them on cadavers in the Dental School morgue. They worked, and Chick mandated the harnesses in the Cal Club. The first Saturday after this rule, Lee Brown tested it for real in a Bug Eye at Riverside. It worked.

We remember the angst of getting the crew together in the early a.m. to get to the race and get through inspection, get the pit passes, con Sylvia into giving you 6 instead of 4 passes. How come they raised the entry fee from 15 dollars to 20? The hard labor of getting the car and tools off the trailer into the pits, and then taking the tow car out of the pits about 600 feet away, where you had to go to get what you forgot. We won’t forget that. We hated it at the time and now we loved every minute of it. We grieved when one of us was killed or injured, we rejoiced when we could win.

Bill Molle's 1952 Fairchild Panhard H-Modified Racecar (www.finecars.cc)

There were lots of us – Monise, Ribbs, Edmiston, Parkinson – who could hold their own against any driver, given the opportunity. I remember listening to the factory rep of Duetsch-Bonnet talking at me for 6 straight hours, pleading me to allow them to use my fuel injection system, offering me the Le Mans ride in their car, but I had enough money to say no. Mostly because the Frenchman all the time he was talking to me was about 2 inches away from my face and he was spitteling on me all the while. I not only got wet, but pissed.

Yes, we had creativity, perseverance, and courage to try. We paid our dues and then some.

Balchowski's 1959 Ole Yeller III (www.conceptcarz.com)

It has come time for us who drove our cars, some home built, some factory cars, and some the production cars that we drove to work the next day if running – to be recognized for the hero drivers we were. Balchoski built Ole Yeller and beat the best of them, Miller built 1500-dollar Crosleys and beat the best France had to offer. I found it much harder to drive to the limit a small bore car with narrow tires than a large horsepower machine that you could help steer with the engine.

It is time for guys that made fame and, once in a rare while, fortune out of the racing to recognize that without us you could not have done it. Now that I am an old geezer, I give this from the heart.

– Bill “Doc” Molle

A 4-door 911 for Christmas

By Nigel Matthews

Porsche débuted it’s new and unique four-door Panamera to the public at auto Shanghai April of 2009, and is now available to anxiously waiting customers here in Canada.

The Porsche 911 is the core of the company brand, so it is no surprise that the Porsche designers have incorporated the timeless 911 shape into the four-door Panamera.

A 911 four-door sounds a little odd but, believe it or not, it is nothing new as the first one was built 42 years ago. Dr. William Dick, a Porsche dealer principal in San Antonio, Texas, wanted to give his wife something special for Christmas. The Dick family garage housed a fleet of cars that included a number of Porsches, a Ferrari and a Rolls-Royce, but not one of them was a four-door sedan. Dick sent the general manager of his Porsche dealership on a trip to Italy; his task was to visit the various coachbuilders with his idea of building a four-door Porsche 911. Only one of the firms took this request seriously and returned some design prints.

A contact in the U.S. suggested that Troutman-Barnes of Culver City, Calif., could handle such a project and that is exactly what happened. They began with a new 1967 911, cutting it in half through the roof and floor.

They built a new “B” pillar and added a “C” pillar to hang the rear door from. The rear doors were standard 911 front doors mounted in reverse and on opposite sides. A reversed left front door became the right rear door and vice versa. The Porsche factory made two non-adjustable rear seats for the car. The Fuchs aluminum mag wheels were replaced with chromed steel rims with hubcaps, to give it a more appropriate sedan look and to handle the additional weight.

Other luxury touches included the installation of electric motors, normally used to power the sunroof, into the doors to operate the windows.

Mrs. Dick received her four-door 911 for Christmas in 1967, at a cost of slightly more than for a Rolls-Royce.

Paddocks of the Past: Riverside 1967

Here’s the first of an ongoing series of archive snapshots of paddock and pit areas from days gone by. There’s so much character and intriguing little details in these photos – they never get tiring!  Today’s is a walk-by snapshot from a 1967 round of the US National Championship Road Races at Riverside International Raceway in California. The TR3’s owner seems to be trying to up the pressure on his MOWOG rivals (The MOWOG acronym for Morris-Wolseley Garages is cast into engine parts and other pieces of BMC/MG cars), and his crew are hoping to keep him focused on the task at hand with a big “Go Faster!” reminder on the dash. Racing was simpler in those days.

TR4A at Riverside

[Image from the Girvan Patterson/AB3 Racing/Formula Photographic Archive]

Anglia design ahead of its time

By Nigel Matthews

Two cars were launched in 1959 that had a profound impact and will be remembered by many in Britain as one of their favourites.

The Mini was one and the other was the Ford Anglia 105E. The Anglia was a design way ahead of its time. The very distinctive rear window, which had a reverse slope, and the overall shape and functional rear fins gave it the appearance of a small, modern American car, not that there was such a thing as a small Ford in the U.S. of 1959.

Ford went out on a limb with colours that had not been seen before in conservative England. These included primrose yellow, light green and some of the Deluxe models were painted in an attractive two-tone combination.

Ford put a lot of thought into the design of the rear window. All too often the rear passengers in small cars had to endure less than perfect comfort due to headroom heights. The reverse-rake rear window solved that problem; the longer roof offered improved headroom and comfort, and it also helped with improved rear visibility in wet weather.

The engine was completely new and quite a departure from the side valve, flat-head of the 100E. The new engine was a high revving, over-head-valve, that produced 39 horsepower at 5,000 r.p.m. The four-speed synchromesh manual transmission was the first of its kind fitted to a production saloon built by Ford’s Dagenham factory.

The Anglia was built in a number of body variations, including a two-door, four-door, wagon, van and pickup. There was a Europe-only model called the Sportsman; this model carried its spare tire on the back, similar to the North American Continental kit.

English built Fords will be one of the celebrated marques at the 2010 All British Field Meet which takes place on May 22nd at Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver, BC. Come and see if you can find a Ford Anglia on display.

The Personal Touch in Retail

By Dave Hord

I had the unique opportunity to grow up in both the pre-internet days, and the post-internet boom. To folks just a few years older than me, I’m one of those “internet kids” who have always been attached to a computer. But, I’m old enough to appreciate the days when one had to use magazines, the yellow pages and a physical store to go about finding car parts. My younger days were spent reading Dad’s HotVW magazines, planning out the parts I would one day buy for as-yet-unpurchased vee-dub.

Fast-forward about 20 years, and I finally got around to buying a Beetle of my own. As is tradition in my family, I low-balled on a bit of a fixer-upper and soon had it sitting in my driveway. Before purchasing the bug, I had spent a couple of months catching up with some magazines, as well as the now-common practice of surfing the internet forums. When it came to actually buying parts for my car, however, I was fully immersed in the whiz-kid world of internet shopping.

It’s difficult to deny the convenience of shopping online. Catalogs expand and unfold with simply a click of a mouse. Should a description be missing, the manufacturer’s website is right at your fingertips. Still unsure about a particular part? A simple search on an enthusiast forum is likely to tell you everything you need to know. For most dealers you’ll even be told before you order whether the part is in-stock or backordered. I live in a fairly small town, and the closest air-cooled parts specialist is a two-hour drive away.  Can you imagine driving two-hours these days to find out a part wasn’t available or sold before you arrived?

It was at least a year that I was singing the praises of easy internet shopping. I could plan jobs ahead of time, order the parts, and know they’d arrive on Friday for weekend wrenching. I was confident I was getting great pricing deals, and always got exactly what I ordered. The problem with getting exactly what you ordered is perhaps we aren’t actually the best judge of which product we need. I over-spent on expensive items where the cheaper option would have been more then adequate. Vice versa, I broke or wore out cheaper options when I needed the better quality option. Have you ever tried to return an item to an online retailer? It’s not always so easy.

About the time that I was starting to see cracks in the internet masterpiece, I met some gents on the Spring Thaw Adventure. They happened to own the local Vancouver VW specialty parts store, and by the third day we were discussing why I purchased online versus locally. In the end, the best reason I could give them was that purchasing from their store vs. online would mean I’d have to pay for shipping. My online retailer offered free shipping for most of my orders. “We can work that out,” Art suggested “don’t worry about the shipping.” With that, I began to order from their shop.

We’ve all heard stories about how things were “better in the old days”. Well I must admit, my experience with buying parts over the past year has me longing for the ‘old days’ where we used to have to get to know the retailers we worked with.

Art, and his brother Rob, have taken the time to get to know me and my project. When I call with a list of things I need, they’ll often have a suggestion on a particular brand and explain why it suits my project and budget. When it came to shipping a heavy rear-disc conversion kit, Rob simply decided it would be worth taking a Sunday cruise with the family and brought it right to my door. Returns on bits I ordered and didn’t need have been seamless, and at one point they even offered to take a return on some cylinder heads I didn’t even buy from them!

I’m not suggesting every retail shop experience is going to turn out as well as mine has. But when it comes to classic cars, I think you’ll find that getting to know the owner and counterperson at a specialist benefits your projects in more ways than one. I only see Art and Rob at the annual car show and a couple of club events during the year, but our mutual interest in similar classics, combined with a mutual effort to get to know each other has resulted in a great friendship. There’s no reason you can’t develop an equally great relationship with your parts specialist just by simply taking an interest in their projects, and their business. Try doing that with a webpage!