Our shop provides the “official” mechanical support for the rallies set up by Rich and Jean Taylor at Vintage rallies ( http://vintagerallies.com/index.html ). We chase the pack in 3 events per year, a Rally in the New England, in VA/W.VA/ and in TX making sure that most of the classic cars that break down can be revived so the owners can continue flogging them on some of the best roads in the country.

Karl and I just got back from the Mountain Mille 2007 where about 40 pre-’74 (a few newer cars) sports cars gathered in So. Boston VA to start off the event. Upon arriving, we had our hands full preparing a few broken classic cars and fuel up a fleet of brand new Porsche Boxter’s and Cayman’s. We loaded the 5 new Porsches into our Freightliner and Exotic Car Transports Freightliner and prepared for a week of repairs and logistics.

On the Monday (first day of driving) I guessed which car would be the most trouble, would it be the 1986 Ferrari 328 or the 1954 Morgan? How about that stunning 1957 Lancia B24 Aurelia Convertible? Well, the joke was on me, within the first 2 hours our 2007 Freightliner blew a turbocharger which made so much smoke that I could not see the rear axle!

I stuck around with our truck waiting for it to be towed and Karl and Tom from Exotic followed the route. I called a truck repair center in Lynchburg VA and made sure that they ordered me a new turbo ASAP because I need this rig, mostly to get home on Friday. They assured me that it will be no problem.

We worked that evening to shuttle the dead 1986 Ferrari and 1975 Aston Martin that were both too broken to repair and freed up a sticking needle valve on a Porsche 911. The next morning I called Lynchburg to see how the truck was coming along and I was assured that the parts are on the way.

Over the course of the event I had a Alternator shipped in for a 1967 Jaguar XKE overnight. I also had a Fuel pump for the Ferrari sent in for the next day and we managed to keep nearly every car on the event performing beautifully.

The Freightliner was a different story. On Thursday we visited Lynchburg to learn that the Turbo was still not in. This is a 2007 truck that is one of probably 2 million produced and the Mercedes-Benz engine in this truck is used in a bunch of farm machines so it should not be a problem getting this part. They claimed that the only one was in OR. even though the truck is assembled in Mt. Holly NC, 3 hours from Lynchburg. We finally left the Lynchburg with the high range engine brake not working and drive shaft vibrating from being improperly installed after the tow truck driver removed it for towing.

My point….. we can get parts overnighted into remote areas of W. VA for nearly 40 year old foreign cars that had limited production numbers, and get them running the next day but the same cannot be said for a 2007 mass produced domestic vehicle? What is going on? This incident makes me really appreciate the parts suppliers that I deal with every day to keep these cars running!

We had a Yellow Bora at our shop a few years ago and I was always so impressed with the car.
The chassis is a thing of beauty, robust steel tubing that is both square and oval in areas with proper gussets and buttressing in key areas for strength. I am not sure how well the bodies hold up to rust but they are beautifully built as well with excellent gaps and nice detailing at the stainless steel roof and glass surrounds. I am sure the car weighs close to 4000 lbs!

Who cares how much it weighs when you have the most sinful sounding V-8 in existence. It has a raw and rowdy feel of an Chevy/Ford small block with the sinful smooth nature of the classic Italian engines that pull from idle to red line without a hitch.

The car has pavement rippling brakes that are not boosted by engine vacuum but by a super high pressure hydraulic system. The stopping power makes the driver dizzy!

Anyhow, I really like this car and the color makes me weak in the knees.

Eben is cracking away at the 166. The most challenging element is re-making the flange that wraps around the “Superleggaria” frame work. When this aluminum was wrapped around the frame originally it became work-hardened. When we un-wrapped the body to blast and repair the tubing it split and became too damaged to replace. Some areas are workable but in tight radius areas the aluminum is a disaster.

Elias helped to sand all of the old oxidized contamination from the edges. One photo shows new aluminum welded to the windshield opening area. She’s starting to look like a car again!!

Homer is a great friend who lives close to our shop. He is a true “mad scientist” even though he is a aesthetic visionary who can create what he dreams up. He truly enjoy his energy and he has more passion and enthusiasm in his little finger that most guys have in there entire being!

Homer disassembled an old dairy barn and used the laminated curved rafters to construct his workshop. He has always dreamed of having his ceiling open to allow natural light to “inspire” his craft and after buying a section of clear poly his vision turned into reality. Homer is a sucker for interesting materials be it plastic, metals or paint finishes but most of what he works with is scrap material so for him to buy a brand new.. –anything— is amazing but he bit the bullet and got the exterior grade poly.

He took the “found” 2″ square aluminum tubing and made a jig so he could use his body weight to mimic the curve of his rafters to make the framework. He used straight sections to tie it all together.

My brother Eben, 5 friends and myself were called upon to install this thing onto the roof of the shop. I had leave at 9:30 to show a Ferrari Daytona to a potential buyer from CA.

An impulse buy got a married couple into this 1963 Porsche 356 Coupe, “it just like the car my father owned when I was young” and “I remember how much fun it was when he let me drive the little car” she said. So when they saw this little red time machine they had to have it.

Right away they had engine troubles and numerous electrical issues and if you search the posts on this blog you will see an entry describing the overhaul of the engine. We installed a new wiring harness and got the car to work with great reliability. It was a total blast to drive with 86mm pistons and a lightened flywheel, overhauled brakes and rebuilt transmission.

They asked me what it would take to “freshen up” the car over the fall/winter 2007 and I spent some time looking over the car. The paint was checked all over the place and there were some minor “pimples” in the bottom of one door skin. The floors were replacement units but they were not installed by a professional but they also did not look terrible. Overall the car went down the road straight, doors closed well and except for a poor front hood gap, the body looked good. I gave them a price to do the car assuming it would need some rust and tuning of some gaps and we started working on the car.

Started digging should have been the word I used, the car was a “bondo-buggy” with areas on the car over 1/4″ thick! It turns out that the past body man was an expert at sculpting a car from body filler. This car had been hit in the front and rolled onto its side and the sheet metal work was a joke. There were numerous holes from stud type slide hammer work and terrible welds with no effort made to fill in all of the holes. The bottoms of the doors were mostly plastic.

I have spoken to a few shops and stumbled across an identical body that has just finished a complete restoration. The doors are properly “gapped”, edges are leaded and the bulk of the body is block sanded. All we have to do is decide on the color and spray the thing!

I will post photos soon.