Have a look at this killer ‘33 Street Rod. My friend Tony is looking to sell it and I would like to help him find a new home the car. He had a blown Chevy big block in the car but decided to sell the car without an engine.

Interior tint

Tony Street Rod ‘33

Here is a Porsche 356 C coupe that we just purchased from a friend in southern California. It is a totally legit “black plate” car with perfect original floors and an original battery box floor which in the world of 356’s, is huge.  The car is 100% complete and has what what I believe to be a matching numbers engine but I am going to apply for a Porsche Certificate of Authenticity so I can be certain of the numbers as well as learn what the original color was. I believe it was blue but not sure the exact shade.
Even thought the car needs everything rebuilt, overhauled or refinished,  it will be a wonderful car to restore because it is so complete and its rock solid integrity

356 California desert

Sometimes the shop can be a pretty nostalgic place, a pack of 60’s cars downstairs, tractors outside, and a Deusy upstairs – upon arrival, a visitor could feel like the result of a successful time-machine test.

This picture is more timeless than most and embodies the outside of the shop on a cold winter day. The wreaths have been put away now and the icicles have been replaced with rains’ drizzle. The tractor is, of course, an Oliver. A 1954 Super 55 diesel receiving a full overhaul, from the mains on up. At the time, the Super 55 was Oliver’s first compact tractor with enough muscle to do a good bit of work.

Bill took a few pictures from around the shop today that show both the range and the beauty of some of the cars that we are working on. Sometimes I fear that there is too much “range” and not enough beauty! Bill takes outstanding photos that look super pro. Have I written a post on Bill yet? Bill, can you write a post on yourself, introduce yourself?

Upstairs: the Osca, Whitehead Special, and a silver Ferrari

Downstairs: The rare green 330 GTC and a deep inventory of stored classics, projects, and restorations.

Ferrari 750 Monza at Restoration and Performance Motorcars in Vermont

This engine had low miles on an complete overhaul. It came in for us to check out, but after finding that the compression was low and the leak down numbers were terrible, we pulled it apart.

The cylinders were polished like a mirror and piston rings had lost their temper. The main and rod bearings are wiped out, and due to major detonation, the rod bearings were hammered to the point that they fell right out of the cap when they should be held in firmly with spring tension.

What a mess. I am doubting that it was actually overhauled because the whole engine was “buzz-bomb” painted right over dirt and all of the hardware.

Ferrari 209

Main bearing

The gauges are almost finished, I started on restoring these late last summer (ah, how time flies by) and as you may remember from a past entry, I had to make one complete gauge that was missing on the car. We had the oil and water temp gauges as well as the oil pressure gauge but old photos show that the car had a fuel pressure gauge so I had to create one from scratch. Since we had to make one, we had to re-make many parts of the other gauges so they all match which meant fabricating new beveled-edge jewels, bezels and faces.

The original faces were 60mm aluminum discs with an acid etch screen for the font. I used a different process of clear anodize the disc and laser engraving the font into the aluminum which gave an identical contrast to the originals. Using the oil pressure face as a template, a graphic artist created the art work to make the “benzina” and instead of 0-10 Kg/Cm2 we used a 1/10th scale of 0-.1 scale. He had to create the artwork on all of the gauges since the fonts are so unique and the laser engraver wanted Adobe Illustrator file instead of a jpg file.

The bezels were scratched and ugly we we had to make new ones, not so easy since they have to thread onto the case using a super fine 1.0 thread pitch, a 65 mm by 1.0 thread!

The Benzina pressure gauge uses a 1/4 scale movement and no one makes a low pressure mechanical movement so I had to adapt an electrical movement and install a special sending unit that could register the super low (5-10 PSI) scale.

A water jet shop cut out the delicate needles from brass sheet and I made a bunch of tiny spindles and pegs on our lathe to complete the package.

So many sub-contractors and suppliers to make a set of gauges work for this car, and I am so happy with the final product!

Fuel and oil pressure

These gauges are made by Smiths for Touring, a company in Italy who built bodies for Ferraris in the early 50’s. They built bodies for other brands like Maserati using light tubing for an armature and thin aluminum for the “skin”. They called this style of construction “superleggaria” or Super Light.

Since Touring of Milan built the body, they also outfitted the car with an interior and all the little delicate detailing such as door release handles and had Smiths make these beautiful gauges.

After photographing a number of Touring built cars with this style of gauge, I found  most to have a beige/tan background color where these gauges appear to have always been dark blue. Maybe because the car was originally dark blue? We carefully stripped the paint and could find no evidence of another color so we had them restored as you see them.

Smiths gauge

Touring ferrari smiths

Karl installing headlight buckets on the Morgan.

After 8 years of sitting, the 1954 Morgan +4 (a four passenger) is beginning to look like a car again. Maybe it’s been on the back burner, and perhaps many of the parts had been sent out to be refinished like the gauges and dashboard, but now it seems to be coming back together in a hurry. Karl has been with the Morgan throughout its stay here, and with the car is shaping up beautifully, we’re excited to see how nice the car is when complete.

In addition to mechanicals, body, and floor work, the Morgan received a new windshield made of a cut piece of tempered glass carefully inserted in the original frame, as well as new brackets to hold and fold the windshield. The windshield bracketry is exceptionally simple on this car. It is made of polished stainless steel and laser cut – admittedly a departure from old world techniques.  Surprisingly, the windshield hinge brackets are available new from Morgan. Their operation is simple, and what look like thumbscrews are actually nuts, held captive by small screws threaded into end of a larger threaded post. The feel is solid – an excellent example of a functional yet beautiful part, with simplicity not found on modern cars.

Laser cut stainless windshield hinge brackets

Notice the threaded stud, large diameter nut, and keeper screw