Antique & Classic Cars Blog

A friend just bought his wife a ’68 Beetle, mint. He told me this and I thought I replied but I guess it didn’t get to him. So he asked whether I disapproved.

Disapproved? Of a Beetle? Who on the planet doesn’t like the iconic air-cooled dome-top symbol of youth and freedom and open roads and guitars and sandals and beaches and bungalows that is VW’s little Bug?

It isn’t a car everyone should own—wouldn’t make a great work vehicle for a carpenter, for example—but does anyone actually dislike them? Hard to imagine. They’re so unique looking, fuel efficient, unassuming, easy to park—they even float! What other car floats (besides an Amphicar)?

No, I salute Grace’s new car. My father bought a red Beetle with light grey interior new in 1973. He drove it well over 100,000 miles then gave it to my sister who drove it well past 200,000. She gave it up when the floors were so rusted she would get splashed in the driver’s seat going through a puddle.

I loved that car with its burbling little engine, AM radio, floor-mounted pedals and notchy little four-speed gearbox. I remember coming home from a girlfriend’s in high school late in a snowstorm and going off the road at a tight juke by one of Pennsylvania’s very narrow one-lane bridges. I got out, managed to get a foothold on something and pushed the car back on the road backwards with my back against the driver’s doorframe. Wouldn’t have worked with my mother’s ’74 Plymouth Satellite.

That red Beetle was a good little car. When freelance writing finally displaces neurosurgery on the income tables, I’m going to add one to my immense warehouse of classic cars.

Parts gathering for the long-lived, slow-moving TR6 project is mostly complete. The car was short a battery bracket, though, and traveling without one is a bad idea because a loose battery can hop around, short across the terminals and start a fire.

Ebay is a pretty good spot for such odds ‘n’ ends and an original one for ’72 Triumphs turned up for 15 bucks. It wasn’t flawless, but flawless is boring anyway.

When I go back to get the back bumper overrider, which I left with a friend who cut the Bolt from Krypton out with a cutting torch, I’ll use his wire wheel to buzz the rust off this and give it a nice coat of primer and semi-gloss black.

First, though, it needed some straightening. For slightly misshapen flat steel, a few level hammer blows got the job done just fine. I hit directly on the steel since I’m going to repaint it and used a flat block of wood behind for support. (In the photo below, the little flare to the left of the hammer head is a stamping mark.)

One of the mounting rods was also bent. No big deal as these are soft steel. A vise handled that task, used two ways. I clamped it just below the bend and did a little hand straightening that way, then clamped lengthwise to press out most of the rest of the deformation.

A couple small wood blocks, a little observation and some crushing a couple different directions did the job. It isn’t perfect, but I use the can-anyone-see-it? standard and when the answer is no even for myself, it’s OK.

Finally, chasing the threads with a die will make for easy clampdown when the part goes in–soon!

Small car and classic fans alike know BMW’s curious Isetta model, sold mainly in Europe in the early ’50s to early ’60s. Word’s out that Bimmer may reintroduce  the model in response to a lot of people being around and gas costing a lot. Talk on the wind suggests battery power and regular side doors instead of the unusual front-entry setup on the original.Here’s a blurb, though if you don’t make the end of the piece, note that the photo is an artist’s speculation not a BMW production drawing. Â

Unrestored cars that is.

I’m doing a book on unrestored cars–vehicles that remain today pretty much as the manufacturer put ‘em together years or decades ago.

If you own one or can point me toward one with some collector significance, I’d like to hear from you. Doesn’t need to be in Minnesota or the US and it doesn’t need to be worth seven figures. Can be near perfect; doesn’t have to be. Wood-spoke brass era to last year’s Nascar winner all good.

An unrestored Corvair or Beetle or six-cylinder Camaro or even a Pinto or Gremlin that still looks decent and hasn’t been messed with would help fill out the range. Yep, even Gremlins are collectible today.

Of course if know of a tucked away Shelby Daytona or Arnolt Bristol, my ears are still open. You can post something right here or send me an email at weekendgarage@comcast.net.

Just to get ideas flowing, here’s a sweet unrestored Texas T-Bird that now travels England’s ancient hedgerow-lined roads. I’ll put up some more cool examples too as they come in.

Ok, it’s really a trailer, but cool, huh? Reader Bruce sent in these photos. His company, which builds truck bodies, thought it would be cool to make a retro trailer. They’re going to market it and their instincts and timing seem pretty sharp.

We’ve talked about fuel mileage lately–who hasn’t?–and ways to save gas. One reason people buy big is to accommodate the occasional heavily-laden trip. Well, maybe trailers’ll catch on as an alternative approach. You can buy smaller and wheel that way most of the time, and when it’s time to haul a big load, like that first trip of the season up to the cabin, you can hitch up the trailer and move a lot….

 

Obviously not every vehicle is suitable for pulling every trailer, or any trailer. A longer wheelbase is better than a shorter one for stability and preventing the “tail from wagging the dog,” and vehicle and trailer load and tongue-weight limits must be carefully followed.

(Please note that I am not related to or paid by this reader and I have not personally used this trailer. Stands to reason that if they build truck bodies, their design and engineering will be up to snuff.)

The problem with spring in Minnesota is that it’s just so nice, all that winter-long car planning goes right out the window.

All you want to do is grab the golf clubs or the bicycle and spend the day basking in glorious warmth and sunshine.

This is why car collectors flock here and why every buyer likes to see in any description of a classic that universal badge of rust-free condition, “Minnesota car.”

Had lunch with a friend today who finally parted with his Honda sport tourer.  He’d owned it since new and had reservations about lettin’ the ol’ gal go (–ol’ beautiful, fast, responsive, fun gal.)

The buyer ultimately made the decision easy and underscored the reason you sell valuable goods with a cashier’s check, not a personal one. He showed up a couple weeks ago when there wasn’t quite snow on the ground, but still frost and cinders and the usual hazards. My friend, let’s call him Lance, said, “you wreck it, you bought it.” Most sport-bike sellers adopt this policy because of how easy it is to turn Slim Pickens aboard an errant missile.

Lance’s driveway has a puddle at the bottom of it, about which he warned the speed-hungry buyer. The warning did not improve the buyer’s willpower. He got to the end of the driveway,  pointed the bars left, and cracked the throttle with the rear tire in the puddle. The tire did what friction-limited rubber always does when you throw too much juice at it–it broke loose, and since the front tire wasn’t in front of it, the rear end kicked out and bike and rider pinwheeled across the road.

Shaken, scraped and wobbly, he apologized to Lance. “No problem,” my astute friend replied. “It’s your bike.”

Seeing it all scraped up eased the whole post-partum issue, allowing Lance to watch the new owner ride off with bent bars and clutch lever, loved-one-who-saw following him in the family car.

This story brought to you by Doh!

As if their beauty, speed, utility and thrill capacity were not enough, cars also inspire great art.

Years ago, my brother gave us a wonderful Monaco print for Christmas. It proved instructive from the start. When I went to the frame shop (picture frame, not car, hence my general disorientation) with my wife and mother-in-law, they turned me loose with all decisions. I said yes to matte, yes to UV protective glass, and chose a frame with genuine silver leaf.

As a car guy, I gave these simple non-mechanical components a dismissive value of “oh, forty, fifty, dollars.” My jaw dropped a bit to learn my choices were over $500.

I managed to pay that off and the print is the centerpiece of our downstairs. But another challenge remained. Who painted the original work? The name appeared to be Gooham, or Gosham or Goottam. Internet searches yielded bupkiss.

Many of you will know that the signature actually reads Geo Ham, for French artist Georges Hamel. His work for automotive magazines of the time remains some of the most compelling ever created. I’d recommend a piece of his work for any car fan anywhere.

Just have your wits about you when you venture to the frame shop.

Freelance writing is not international banking. I have less Ferraris, Bentleys, Jaguars and Mopar Muscle cars than everyone with at least one. But it does have the benefits of freedom and flexibility.

Of course, these things run amok result in low work output. That’s why Frankie and Dean, my productivity consultants, are sure to hop up on my desk regularly to make sure work is proceeding apace. The best place to take productivity measurements is between a two-legger and his computer, ideally directly between the biped and his keyboard.

I write a lot of things for this blog, often while looking over or around a cat. If you like anything you’ve read here, thank Frankie and Dean for their constant vigilant oversight.

Before the auto show, I foolishly remarked to my wife that I hoped I still had enough charge in my digital camera to get a good batch of photos. Entered the main floor and snapped these, looped around the outside before discovering Chrysler’s display near the center of the room. There sat ‘54 DeSoto, ‘34 Plymouth and gorgeous 2800 mile ‘59 Fury with fins that would be at home breaking the surface of some lagoon beside a kayaker in National Geographic. I framed up the DeSoto, hit the “on” button, battery signal flashed empty and that was that. Dang.

But the battery held out long enough to snap a few fun vehicles, including several with classic ties, like Beetle and Camaro.

The rear-engined Mitsubishi is one of the company’s earliest and the Dakar rally 4×4 is as spartan and stripped down–and girded up–as when it raced.

As the Fast and Furious car chronicler, couldn’t resist snapping the new Skyline, seen here in RHD Japanese spec.

Scion’s display was also unmistakably F&F influenced.

Most of the cars are open for browsing and it’s fun to watch youngsters climb in for a gander over the dash–or up at it, depending on age.

This massive Jeep Rescue concept was interesting to look at, though a rescue driver with a car show background might leave a few lost hikers stranded: “I’m not driving through there–we’ll scratch the paint!”