Car Thread

[John Webster]

Monday I went to the Put-in-Bay vintage races which are held on an island in Lake Erie. The races are now held on the airport so I found a good spot and took some photos. What I should have done was be at the staging area for the parade laps of the old race course through the village as there were many cars that were there for that event and did not take part in the actual races. That's my plan for next year.

This is the AC Bristol that was shown in a recent episode of Chasing Classic Cars:


An Elva:



With some racing history:

[healey36]

This is the AC Bristol that was shown in a recent episode of Chasing Classic Cars:

[/url]

I must be sick...I look at that picture and I pine for the Westfalia...

Healey

[John Webster]

The slowest car on the course, a beautifully restored box stock MG TC. After watching it for a while I realized that it was being driven very well, hitting the apexes almost every time and sliding slightly as it exited at the edge of the pavement:



An MG TC, MG A and Austin Healey 100-6:



An Amphicar:

[sarge]

Ohhhhhhhhh mannnnnnnn!

I wanna do that again. I just was sorting through an old toolbox today and found a couple old dash-plaques of mine from the mid '70s, a CNY-SCCA autocross and rallye. Was that really forty years ago?



Then I look at these lovely photos!

Oh, the hormones...

[rogruth]

My nostalgia is about to overcome me.

[webenda]

What I should have done was be at the staging area for the parade laps of the old race course through the village as there were many cars that were there for that event and did not take part in the actual races. That's my plan for next year.

I can think of some other places to get photos.

Like the lake. Take a photo of that amphibious car swimming to the Put-in-Bay vintage races.


Or all the other cars taking the ferry across.


Who knows, it might get interesting on a ferry on Lake Erie.

[sarge]

Healey mate!

The bloody Westphalia? Really!

We gotta talk...






Now this is one of the most achingly lovely forms I've seen in a long time.

[sarge]

Think of all the little oil puddles on the deck after that lot unloaded!

[Tony-h]

Looking at all those photos made me start to lust for my old '60 Bugeye. Got the crazy notion that if a nice Sprite became available I just might break the bank for 5K or so and get one. But 15K+ for one missing the front bumper and grille??? Good thing my heart is strong and I was sitting down! Oh well, anyone want to take a spin around the block in a 27 TT truck?

A sad Tony

[sarge]

Tony:

Once you're wearing any Spridget, you won't see the badges. A later Midget can be had within that price range and the grin-factor will be just as wide. Even less scratch gets you in a 1500 Midget, which with a few changes like a good Weber on a manifold gives you the horses that 1500cc Trumpet engine should have had originally and never did thanks to EPA. Add a gas-shock conversion for a stiffer response. Hardened valve seats for no-lead already included, as are discs up front.

Healey and I saw one at the Gettysburg meet that someone backdated with a frogeye bonnet up front and the rest of the car was pretty much untouched, if you really have to have the headlight bumps in your line of sight for the nostalgia...

[Tony-h]

OK Sarge! You're on! Put your money where the mouth is, or something to that effect and let me know where to go! Oops, I meant where to get one!

Actually, I was thinking that the older the cheaper it is. Guess I was wrong.

I was never enamored with the looks of the headlights. Designed to be retracted but never implemented. The later style cars were much easier on my eyeballs.

I really liked the looks of the Sunbeam Alpine, especially the dash design, but never got one. Ended up with a red 63 Dart GT convertible with that push button transmission selector. Wish they still had that design.

Have you ever seen one for sale at York? I'm not blowing smoke on you. I would really jump on a nice specimen that does not need extensive body or chassis work. Like my old Fords, pay a little more up front and enjoy trouble free fun. I'm turning 76 next week so I want to enjoy my third childhood before I croak.

Tony

[sarge]

Tony:

York, and Carlisle for that matter, usually insanely optimistic in pricing and condition. To do well, you have to initially stay away from the venues of the flippers and the car-show hobbiests.

Start with the local "Craig's List" (craigslist.org), which seems to have taken the place of the local weekly-inkies. From there on, its the usual contact the seller, go look at the car and buy as normal. I avoid eBay as the playground for flippers, liars, and other people who have something to hide you never get to meet. The average citizen and car guy is usually on Craigs.

Prices vary across the USA; places full of affluent retirees like AZ, FL, CA seem to be pricey at something like $6K for a sorted 1500, while places that are a bit depressed and working-class like here in Central PA are about $4500 for the same. Cars that need a sorting out should be a little less, of course.

Check the smog laws to set the latest build date; many states require smog testing after '75 or '76 even though you can reg the car as an antique; that can be a pricey trap if the car has been desmogged and you discover the local nannies want it all put back together.

Fair warning here; there is a site called MG Experience which is a forum. The majority of people there are collector carshow guys, so lots of sniping at each other and general rudeness over stupid shit like whether the car is rubber-bumpered or chrome, an absolute inability to understand or even accept the survivor hobby, and some serious blowhards. However, worth reading without participation until you can get the nuances of the cars enough to winnow the wheat from the chaff.

Don't get me wrong, there are also many really nice folks there, they just don't get the survivor hobby but are helpful and the tech knowledge is pretty legion there; you have to be able to sort the tripe from the good stuff a bit. Beyond the technical knowledge there, the rest of the opinions (including pricing) are pretty much to be taken with salt in massive quantities. Be careful, though; quite a few flippers there so pricing info is not reliable and quite a percentage of clubby trailer-toffs there who seem to own the place.

Look at Craigslist and send me a link to what you find and are curious about, if you think it might help.

[robert.]

Try Hershey pa in oct. Even if you don't buy a car the show is great.

[sarge]

Hershey; go for the show but don't go to buy. Again it's highly inflated for the toffs.

I cannot emphasise enough how important this concept is to your wallet, to keep the two worlds separate.

You find survivor/drivers' cars amongst the normal adverts in the day-to-day world and priced appropriately. Go to the collector/show world and you'll find "good bones"; read that as incomplete barn-finds needing restoration, like the $15K Frogeye you mentioned which probably fell into a flipper's hands for $3K tops.

Good bones is legitimately important to that world, because that is their hobby, to restore something to (usually well beyond) showroom by one's own hand or chequebook. To play in that world, though, you pay a premium. Once a car arrives at Hershey, York, Carlisle, it usually is already lost to us.

In case you haven't experienced the "flipper" by the way, he makes his profit by buying cars from the "normal" world and reselling them to the toffs at their pricing. These are the cars, the people, and the pricing you deal with at Hershey, York, and Carlisle. You want to buy where the flippers buy, not from the flippers at Hershey &c.

[sarge]

The story of the Midget continues today (and Tony, you might want to follow the saga for your own use) as Jack has finished up the major undercarriage work. Sorting the car included new kingpins, rear axle seal, sort the brakes, resecure the exhaust at the centre, new tailshaft seal and re-load the bearing (the bearing nut was finger-tight so the bearing is fine but seal was perished; lucky the 1500 can have all this sort of thing done without yanking the engine and gearbox.) and the whole front end and the steering rack were dry as a desert from being stored for so long. A good lubing up made lots of improvement in steering.

Some interesting faults were the loose spindle nut because someone slid in a split-pin that was too short so it couldn't be bent over to capture the castlated nut. Before it went in the air I dealt with the previously found loose shock bolts in the rear, a buggered plug in the dif, and overfilled by a half-pint (how they can do that I don't know; idiots defeat the laws of Physics again)

So now a well-sorted car fully woken up and the investment so-far (for Tony's info as he might start the quest) is up to just short of $4200 all in.

Still to come is a new set of tyres before end-of-year (The exchequer needs a little time to recover) and next spring might see some stiffer shocks to compliment.

Meanwhile, a hoot to drive; very light on the steering. Pulled the soft-top and bow-work off and hung it all up, and replaced it with a simple tonneau cover.