Wool felt front wheel seal

Today Peter created new bearing seals for the 1934 Lagonda M45 Rapide. The seals of the day did much the same job as today’s plastic over steel equivalent. The main sealing surface is wool felt that, soaked in oil, does a good job holding most of the oil and grease in place. The tools of the trade are pretty simple ones: a spoon, a ball-peen hammer, scissors and a razor blade. The thick wool felt is traced and cut via razor blade.

To make the wool a bit “proud” – to stick out like the chin of a duke – paper gasket material can be cut and built up behind the wool. A spoon and a ball-peen hammer are all that is needed to make an imprint to cut out.

This twenties automotive seal technology was used in agricultural equipment for decades such as wheel seals on an Oliver or Cockshut tractor.

Using the ball-peen hammer to trace the inner lip on the gasket

A spoon has a nice radius for tracing the outer edge of the seal

Lagonda M45 Rapide front brake shoes and axle with hub removed

Hacker Craft

An advertising company called us last week asking if we had a car that would be appropriate for a photo shoot in the Adirondacks for a major fashion company. We sent them photos of cars that we felt would be appropriate and they chose one of my favorites, the black and gray 1959 Austin Healey 3000 that is in excellent original condition and sits on pressed steel wheels rather than the typical wire wheels.

I was hired to bring the car to the Lake Placid Lodge in the Adirondacks and spend the morning helping to maneuver the car into position for photographs. There was no way anyone could have prepared me for scene I was about to experience. Not only was watching the intricate details of the photo shoot mind boggling, the Lake Placid Lodge was one of the most intricately detailed pieces of property I have ever seen. There were thick wooden layers after rich leather layers followed by curly birch bark layers of intricacies and rustic luxury.

It has been such a hot and humid summer here in the northeast but on this particular morning it was 48 degrees and overcast only to heighten magical experience of the experience.      http://www.lakeplacidlodge.com/

Breaking its back

Earlier this summer we had five (!) Austin Healey 3000′s in for service needing tons of small details addressed. Thankfully, nearly all the replacement parts are available for these cars and arrive the day after you order them through Victoria British, Moss Motors and my friend Mike Bounanduci in Vermont. Mike has some amazing new old stock stuff and has pulled a rabbit out of his hat on finding  odd parts for me on many occations. People complain that the reproduction parts are of low quality but i don’t care… the original parts were terrible as well and when you pay $15 for a complete gasket set for an overdrive unit or $9 for a thermostat housing, who cares if they aren’t perfect. We have had difficulty with repro brake and clutch hydraulics but when you pay $30 for a cylinder that has a 50% success rate, it beats the $250 clutch cylinder for a Ferrari with a 30% success rate!!!

Here is one reproduction item for the Healey that I don’t like. The rear leaf springs are too stiff and make the car ride high in the rear. A Healey with original springs has a nice ride but these replacements make the car feel like a empty boat trailer, in fact, maybe these are trailer springs that happen to fit the Healey.

Anyhow, after removing 2 leafs per spring pack, the car still rode high in the rear so here is how a redneck like me re-arches the springs to get the correct ride height and to get the LR on this car to be at the same height as the RR.

Syl has been using a new clear coat that needs next to no wet sanding and polishing. The clear is so crystal perfect and it lays down with no orange peel. He just shot some Ferrari Boxer wheels and they are perfect! Loving that RM paint!

Healey Blue 3000

Healey Blue with Ivory Coves