1914 Cadillac fender reconstruction

This 1914 Cadillac is a very nice example of a well preserved piece of history.

Not surprising though, it did have a small amount of rust problems. I had to make a few pieces for the front fenders, fit them into place.

1956 Jaguar XK140 Roadster Restoration Project

The Jaguar XK140 Roadster, in my opinion is the sexiest one the the Jaguar fleet.

This particular example has only about 35,000 original miles on it. The previous owner was not good at keeping it on the road, so it was a bit of a challenge getting it looking the way it does now.

I'm pretty confident that it will stand up to in depth critiquing now that we have got a smooth finish of black on the body.

We are waiting for the owner, who is having the chassis finished. Once we get the chassis back, we can set the body back down on it and get all the sheet metal bolted and fit back into place again. Fitting of all the panels has been done numerous times throughout the process of body restoration. (I just wanted to mention that to those who don't understand the proper process.)

I had to make the rear section of the body, up about 12 inches from the back/bottom. Also a large portion of the left front fender, behind the wheel. I think I got about 5 pounds of lead out of that LF fender, around the side vent area.

 

1931 Bentley 8 Litre Sedan 1929 Isotta Fraschini

Classic Car Restoration on cars like the 1931 Bentley 8 Litre Sedan and the Isotta Fraschini was going strong in the 1980s and 1990s.

I was working with Walt Johnsen back then and these two particular cars were among those that we restored. His business was "The Auto Shop" on Bainbridge Island, Washington. The 1931 8 Litre Bentley was a complete restoration that we did. Terry Foss was apprenticing with us at the time.

Dave Loeington did the Mechanical and wiring, Dave had to manufacture a lot of the components to get this car up and running in the fashion that Bentleys are known for.

Don Volgosang took care of the bright work and chrome trim,

Kirk Person who was the best of the best in his trade, did the Upholstery. He was an all around, nice, easy going guy. It was a tremendous loss to the car community when he passed.

The Isotta Fraschini was more of a cosmetic, or body restoration in "The Auto Shop". I did make a new fuel tank for the car, in the original fashion, with the leaded seams etc. The 1929 Isotta-Fraschini is a Tipo 8A with limousine bodywork by Castagna of Milan. The marque and the coachbuilder were a great combination among European luxury cars. This is one of the very few Isotta-Fraschinis to have come to the United State in the 30s. The Tipo 8A's massive straight-eight, displacing 7,370cc, was just under 450 cubic inches and produced 110hp.

Both of these cars were owned by Al McEwan and Dick Hooper of Seattle area. They have both subsequently been sold. Jay Leno purchased the 1931 8 Litre Bently and the Isotta Fraschini went to Mort Bullock, pictured here from left to right, Al, Mort, And Dick, standing in front of the Isotta Fraschini.

We didn't have many pictures of the Bentley 8 Litre, but this one is interesting in that it shows the turnbuckle system on the bottom of the frame. Over time a large car like this would tend to sag from all the weight. This system would correct sag. The top was covered with leather that had to come from a very large bovine.

Here is a picture of the Bentley in Suite 200 in Kirkland before Jay Leno took ownership.

1928 Chevrolet Roadster Restoration

1928 Chevrolet Roadster Restoration starts with complete disassembling and cleaning to bare metal. The metal is then acid etched and primered with epoxy primer. The rust is cut out, patch panels formed and tig welded into place. All the sheet metal repair panels are butt welded unless they are at an original joint. Usually, in that case, they are lapped and spot welded
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All Chevrolets were wood structure with sheet metal skins until 1937. We contracted out the wood kit manufacture to a local talent, who has much experience with wood, including boat building. Although fitting wood inside automobile sheet metal is more difficult than building boats, there are a lot of similar processes and skills required for both.

After we got the new wood structure, we went about the process of final trimming and fitting of the wood to the metal. Paying close attention to the fitting of doors, trunk lid, body lines etc. is very important in this process. You cannot bend wood to compensate for misjudged fit like you can metal.

1930 1931 Cadillac V-16 Engine

GM built multiple cylinder engines for the Cadillac line in the early 1930's and unlike the Ford Flatheads, these were in head valve engines. It's true that Ford built a very inexpensive and relatively fast vehicle, starting in 1932. Which is one of the main reasons Ford became so popular. To this day, the 32 is still a popular car, and only a very small fraction of the 32s that you see are actually real 32 Fords. Most are plastic replicas and now they are reproducing them in metal.
Believe it or not. You can most likely own a very nice early Cadillac for the same money you'd have to pay for a real 1932 Ford. Am I painting a clear picture here yet?  I'm sure that there isn't a guy out there, that hasn't seen plenty of the Ford Flatheads. How many of you have seen the V-16 Cadillac engine from prior to the first Ford V-8? Well here is a nice example of that beautiful V-16 Cadillac engine. They also built a V-12 in the same time period. I found this example on an auction site that deals in Vintage Cars and parts

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1929 Duesenberg Convertible Sedan Murphy Body Classic Car

Duesenberg was the first production built automobile that boasted the ability to maintain 100 miles per hour. This custom coach built Murphy Bodied Convertible Sedan is one of three bodies built in this configuration and one of only two remaining. The other one is a Packard. The thing that is most unique about this car is that a tray folds out of the back of the front seat and a windshield folds up for the rear seat passengers.

A car of this size and length, undoubtedly allowed a lot of wind to hit the rear passengers, so it was a real advantage to have a windshield for the rear too.

Dual Cowl Phaetons were fairly common in this era. The dual cowl would also have a windshield for the rear, but it wouldn't stow away in the back of the seat like this Murphy bodied convertible sedan. The difference in a convertible and a phaeton is that the convertible has glass side windows and the phaeton has snap on curtains on the side.

We rebuilt all the wood in the body of this car with the exception of most of the door wood. There were quite a few parts missing from the top and fortunately I was able to see pictures of the Packard in order to copy the design of the missing parts. Actually, I remade all the irons in the top including one of the top bow mechanisms that was missing completely, because the originals were so damaged from careless re chroming.

This picture was taken of me sitting in the car at the 1993 Pebble Beach Concours d' Elegance. It was quite exciting at the end of the awards ceremony because the judges had a very hard and time consuming decision process for the Best of Show Award. They went back and forth between this car and Ralph Lauren's Mercedes, numerous times before making the final decision to give the award to Ralph.

This photo is quite a contrast to the photo that was taken of me in a pedal car, 40 years earlier.

1950's Pedal Car Genuine Vintage Original Pedal Car

This Original Vintage Pedal Car is likely the beginning of my automobile passion. This photo was taken in 1953, when I was a toddler. I think it was a bit overwhelming to me by the look on my face here, and I'm sure it left an impression on me even though I can't recall the actual event. I didn't own the pedal car, it was a loaner, from my aunt Emily.

I'll be posting another image of me, 40 years later sitting in a Duesenberg. As the owner called it, a photo opportunity. I actually had a big part of the restoration of that car, which was close runner up for best of show where the photo was taken, at Pebble Beach Concours d' Elegance in 1993.

1922 Kissel Boat Tail Speedster Body Restoration

1922 Kissel Speedster sheet metal restoration. There wasn't a lot of the rear body that was reused on this car because a good portion of it was rusted away. It was easier and far better to remake the pieces on top, between the lids and at the rear of the cockpit too.
This car has some of the more unusual features of any classic car. This is a boat tail speedster, and in it's hay day, it was very fast. It would do 75 miles per hour. The car had drawer seats which I have never seen on any other car. The rectangular holes in the side of the rear body is where these drawer seats slide out. The rear passengers could sit on these seats and rest their feet on the running boards. They had to be very trusting of the driver, that he wouldn't brush up too close to a tree as he was speeding down the road.

Amelia Earhart owned a 1923 Kissel Speedster

Electric Car 1913 Detroit Electric

The Anderson Carriage Company, established in Port Huron, Michigan in 1884 was moved to Detroit by its founder in 1885. The first Detroit Electric car was in 1907. The electric car business prospered, and in 1911 the firm was renamed the Anderson Electric Car Company, but the cars were still known as Detroit Electrics.

The company was always careful to insist that its cars were not for touring. It was designed as an urban vehicle for the woman driver. The advertised range was 80 miles between charges, however in one company test; a Detroit Electric ran 211.3 miles on a single charge.

In 1913, Detroit Electrics were built under the license in Scotland by Arrol-Johnson. In 1919, the company name was changed to Detroit Electric. Production continued until 1938. Sometime before WW11, The most famous American electric car quietly disappeared from the automotive scene.

1953 Chrysler Ghia at Kirkland Concours d' Elegance

The 1953 Chrysler Ghia concept car at the 2009 Kirkland Concours d' Elegance is the one that really caught my eye. It is interesting to note that a lot of the features of this car have been used in many of the late model Chrysler products. I have always had a strong belief that those early designers were blessed with immense talent. If you look at pretty much all of the 1930's automobiles, you will certainly understand my point. They were designing with their hands and from pictures in there heads. Not with the modern technology available today.

I had invited some friends to ride over to see some real classic cars. Because so many people refer to Mustangs and other mass produced vintage cars as Classic Cars, (not that I consider Mustangs as Vintage), I wanted to show friends what real Classic Cars are. I think they caught on to the term Classic Car shortly after they walked into the show area.

There were a lot of very nice Classics at the gathering. It was a good show.

Check out this Ghia! WOW!