New England 1000 day 5
2015 New England 1000 day 4
Wednesday’s driving took us from MA and into CT, where we visited Dragone Classic Motorcars and lunched at the home of Bill Scheffler. The Scheffler homestead was the day’s highlight, for the magnificent garage, the lawn’s car collection, and the lobster lunch. It was a long but lovely drive back into NY and a return to the Mohonk Mountain House.
2015 New England 1000 day 3
Tuesday was a long day’s drive, taking us from Lenox MA, into NY state, back into MA then VT for our first stop. The weather, which began completely overcast, became rainy enough for wipers on all the time.
The next stage pulled us through Bennington again, then north to Grafton VT where we had lunch in a charming old inn. After lunch, despite forecasts to the contrary, the clouds parted, the sun broke through, and we had marvelous driving weather.
On the way back to The Cranwell, we stopped at Donovan Jaguar, an outfit which specializes in servicing street and racing Jags.
Stop
2015 New England 1000 day 2
Today, our first day of driving started by taking us from New Paltz NY to the Saratoga Auto Museum in Saratoga Springs NY. We toured the museum and ate lunch on the grounds.
From Saratoga we drove to Hemmings World Headquarters in Bennington VT. From there it was off to the Cranwell Resort, our host hotel in Lenox MA for the next two nights.
As we have discovered in the past, once the driving starts, the photo ops become less frequent. Nevertheless I was able to squeeze off a few shots including some cars in motion. Again I will let today’s pictures tell the story.
2015 New England 1000 Day 1
Each year, this classic car rally has a home base which serves as a starting and ending point. For 2015 that home base is the Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz NY. Departing NJ at about 1pm, the Alfa easily handled the ride up the NY Thruway. Improvements to the cooling system kept the engine temperature under control at 85 degrees and 70mph.
The Alfa and I arrived in a little over two hours. It was a personal thrill to meet up with my rally brother Steve Hansen, who flew in from California (again) to drive the rally with me.
As always, there was the ceremonial installation of the front license plate. We then perused the parking lot to take in this year’s rally choices. The cars were more eclectic than ever, with a larger mix of domestic iron than we usually see.
Having completed our first rally together in 1998, the fun of meeting up with other rallyists whom we have gotten to know through the years sometimes outweighs the fun of seeing the spectacular cars.
From here I will let the photos speak for themselves. At 8am Monday morning the actual rallying begins.
The Alfa gets a 65-mile maintenance run
With the front suspension rebuild finally done, it was time to entrust a front end alignment to a true professional. Ed Haggan, the owner of Haggan Tire & Auto, conveniently located 0.2 miles from my house, was able to schedule the alignment on my Alfa for this past Friday. Brian, the lead tech, ably handled the job, and didn’t charge me extra for leering over his shoulder as we both stared at the screen on the Hunter machine.
Hunter did not have specs for a ’67 Alfa GT 1300 Junior, but I handed Brian printouts from one of my Alfa manuals which called for positive caster of 2 degrees, plus or minus .5 degree, and total toe-in of 3 mm. There is no camber setting (well, there is if you purchase the optional adjustable upper control arms, an option on which I passed). Brian seemed especially pleased when I told him that I had left all the adjustment locknuts finger-tight. Actually, his facial expression made me think that he wondered what else on the car was only finger-tight.
A little over an hour later, I left the shop, and put 20 miles on the car. It was a revelation. The car tracked straight, steering effort was good, return to straight-ahead after a turn was amazing, and best of all, there was not a sound from the front end. (Before the rebuild, the front end clunked over every bump in the road.) Everything felt tight and right.
Today, with my wife along for the ride, we put another 65 miles on the car. (I’m also trying to consume the fuel from last November so that I can add fresh gas.) It was a beautiful afternoon for a ride, and the two-lane backroads of Hunterdon County were relatively deserted. After a stop for some photos, with the sun about 20 minutes away from leaving us for the day, we were home.
Today’s ride reassured me that the front end was good, and so was the rest of the car. An oil and filter change plus quick once-over will be done tomorrow. I hope to have time for a wash and wax before departing on Sunday to drive to Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz NY for the start of this year’s New England 1000 road rally.
Alfa Romeo Front Suspension Rebuild, 6th and Final Part
The last post on this topic was three weeks ago. What have I been doing? The remaining tasks seemed easy; they were easy. But they took time to do correctly. And several events occurred in the interim (like our first breakfast run of the year, and the Carlisle auction) which I refused to ignore in spite of the looming deadline – more about THAT below.
Remember that clicking on the photos enlarges them.
By sub-assembly:
BRAKES: Truth be told, I love working on brakes, especially disc brakes. Deceptively simple. Brakes were the first real mechanical job I did on my own, on my 1970 Fiat, while I was in college. On the Alfa, once both front hoses were bolted into place, the new pads were installed, and the two front calipers bled. I saw no need to bleed the rear brakes, even though the master cylinder reservoir had drained dry. My wife agreed to enter the garage just long enough to endure the oft-repeated litany of “press; hold; release”. She actually inquired this time as to “what exactly are you bleeding when you say you’re bleeding the brakes?”. I tried to explain. She left the garage. I went back to work.
FRONT SWAY BAR: Once the end links were pressed on, it was just nuts and bolts to get this bad boy back into its rightful location. Except the sway bar is heavy. And it’s balanced in such a way that it does not want to behave when you need to run the bolts up. Jack stands were enlisted to serve as an alternate set of hands. Which sort of worked. A pry bar was engaged too. Once the bolts were started, it went back on nicely.
CASTER ARMS: Perusing an online Alfa spare-parts catalog shocked me into the realization that I never had ordered the rubber bushings which fit in the junction between the caster arm and upper control arm. The real reason I had not ordered them at the same time I ordered everything else is that there were NO RUBBER BUSHINGS when I disassembled the parts. The rubber left the car long ago. The parts were inexpensive; fitting them involved another opportunity to use a BFH to bring everything in line. I also find that use of the BFH increases in direct proportion to the anxiety one feels as one nears the end of a project.
STEERING LINKS: In an earlier blog post, I mentioned that the 6 steering link tie rod ends were replaced as a “might as well do this while I’m here” job. It seemed simple enough, and if the front suspension were to be like new, the steering rods should be too. Six steering ends were duly ordered and threaded into the sleeves. The sleeves were then bolted back onto the Pitman arm, idler arm, and spindles.
In my haste, I reinstalled them without giving a thought to steering wheel location. This was a mistake. (Isn’t this what I’m supposed to do in a blog? Confess my sins?) I found that A) with front tires pointed straight ahead, the steering wheel was upside-down; B) I had a different number of turns to left lock compared to right lock; and C) the two front tires had toe-out of about 30 degrees (probably 5 degrees, but I was so frustrated that it may as well have been 90 degrees).
As I learned during the Isetta restoration, when you get to this point, get the largest BFH you have walk away from the car and return to it the next day. Not only did I do that, I consulted my more-knowledgeable friends (thanks, Mike and Larry), and the next day, was able to disconnect the Pitman arm linkage, center the wheel, rotate all the sleeves in the correct direction, reconnect everything, and perform an approximate front alignment. Hooray, as it was time to drive the car.
FIRST TEST DRIVE: This past Saturday, for the first time in five months, the Alfa left the garage, and was driven several miles. The steering felt great, ALL prior knocking and squeaking noises from the front end were gone, the car tracked straight, and the steering wheel was almost centered. Brakes worked too. Upon return, I performed a final torque, complete with insertion of cotter pins in all the ball joints. Ed at my corner garage does alignments, and I will endeavor to get that done this week.
THE UPCOMING RALLY: Two weeks from today, I leave in the Alfa to begin this year’s running of the New England 1000 old-car rally. Home base for the rally this year is Mohunk Mountain House in New Paltz, NY, a scant two hours from my home. I would still like to put about 100 maintenance miles on the car, but I’m fully confident that the Alfa will get me there, run the rally, and get me home. My rally brother Steve Hansen is flying east AGAIN to co-drive with me. This marks the 7th time we will have shared a car in this event.
So I got it done just in time – isn’t that how it’s supposed to work?
All photographs copyright © 2015 Richard A. Reina. Photos may not be copied or reproduced without express written permission.
NJ Region AACA Meet, May 3, 2015
The New Jersey Region of the AACA (Antique Automobile Club of America) held its 64th annual Spring Meet on Sunday, May 3, 2015, in Florham Park NJ. The location was the immense parking lot of the Automatic Switch Company, the same spot it’s been for the past 50 years. We had tremendous spring weather for a car show: temps in the low 80s, with lots of sunshine and low humidity.
Vehicle registration into the show is not limited to club members; the general public is invited, and they do turn out in force. While adherence to AACA rules (25-years-old and older vehicles in “stock” condition) is encouraged, there is a special custom class, and no one turns away vehicles that have mild modifications. This approach helps bring in the traffic, both vehicular and pedestrian.
In addition to the judged field, the NJ Region has a car corral, flea market, and food vendors on site. While small compared to Hershey (what am I saying? We could fill this lot with vendors and it would be small compared to Hershey), it provides some variety and encourages show-goers to mingle for the day.
This blog entry will focus on the photos, and you’ll see the very broad range of cars on display: pre-war and post-war, domestic and import, trailer queens and daily drivers. Remember that clicking on the photos will enlarge them.
The meet committee members were efficient as usual; judging was completed shortly after lunch, trophy award presentations commenced before 2pm, and we were packed up and outta there by 3pm. Car show season has officially begun!
All photographs copyright © 2015 Richard A. Reina. Photos may not be copied or reproduced without express written permission.
Carlisle Auction Report, April 2015
“Carlisle” held its Spring 2015 collector car auction on Thursday and Friday, April 23 & 24, at the Expo Center across from the Carlisle Fairgrounds in Carlisle, PA. For the uninitiated, “Carlisle” is classic car slang for Carlisle Events. What started in 1974 as a single flea market for post-war cars has grown in the ensuing decades into one of the biggest old car enterprises on the east coast, if not in the country. Today, in addition to the all-makes Spring and Fall events, there are marque-specific shows for GM, Ford, Chrysler, and Corvette. Imports are covered once a year at the Import-Kit Car Show. A number of years ago, auctions were added to the calendar. At first the Carlisle group ran their own auctions. They then partnered with Auctions America, the U.S. arm of RM Auctions. Most recently the auctions are again independently run.
This is not Mecum. Approximately 400 cars ran across the block over two days, and based on lot numbers, it was about 250 cars on Thursday and 150 on Friday. The vast majority of vehicles are the Chevrolets (Corvettes, Camaros, Malibus, Impalas) and Fords (Mustangs, T-Birds, Rancheros, pickups) you see at other auctions, in other words, the usual suspects. Unlike AACA, there is no model year cut-off. I witnessed a 2008 Ford F-550 truck attempt to maneuver its way onto the block (it didn’t make it, nor did it sell), so sometimes you feel like you’re sitting in Manheim at a late-model auction.
Reserves are up to the consigners, and based on my most unscientific observations, many reserves were high and kept the sell-through rate down. Thursday seemed to be a better day for sales than Friday, with a sales rate perhaps approaching 70%, dropping to 50% on Friday. One attraction for consigners is the “you don’t pay unless you sell” policy. The consignment fee ranges from $100 to $400, and Carlisle states that if your car does not sell, they will refund your fee. Both days, the Expo Center was standing room only, with plenty of active bidders crowding the block. There was not a seat to be had in the bidders’ area, likely helped by the free food and booze offered as part of the consignment package.
Again, this is not Mecum. While I give the Carlisle staff full marks for their efforts, there were times when the proceedings had a true mom-and-pop feel to it. More than once, the auctioneer lost his place, and could not find his current two highest bidders. At least one of those times he had to wind the bidding back by a grand. Another vehicle had its mileage misstated on the screen (it showed 19k when the car had 99k) and all bids were struck while the auctioneer started again. On the other hand, it was nice that TV monitors scattered throughout the room clearly showed the car, the lot number, and the current bid. There was no such luxury in Atlantic City this past February.
My specific vehicle coverage below is all-import; first, this is where my heart is in the hobby; second, I find that many European cars get ignored at a domestic-heavy event like this, and some potentially good deals can be had. I would be remiss, though, if I didn’t mention the weekend’s star car: a 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am, owned by the actor Burt Reynolds, and modified into a “Smokey & The Bandit” tribute car, crossed the block around 7 p.m. on Friday. It STAYED on the block for about 30 minutes, or 10 times longer than the typical auction car. My personal guess was that the car would sell for $70,000. Add a one in front, as the car hammered for $170,000. Burt had signed the hood AND the dash, so that must have made the difference….
In model year order:
Lot #F395, 1957 BMW Isetta. Chassis #493993. Mileage: 10,000. Bubble window coupe, not the more common sliding window. Dark red and white two tone, black vinyl sunroof, red and white interior. Beautiful workmanship inside and out. Having owned one for 35 years, I know these cars. Outside restoration is almost 100% authentic, except for painted headlight trim rings (should be chrome). Rare to see someone get all the outside details correct. Interior modified as most are, with vinyl-covered panels (factory gave you painted fiberboard panels). This interior is relatively understated, looks professionally done, and complements outside colors well. Overhearing attendees’ reactions is priceless. One fellow said “this is not a car. This is almost a car”. Although Isetta market has cooled slightly, high bid was light by $5,000-10,000.
CONDITION: 1-
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: $29,500 NOT SOLD
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $28,000-53,000 (CPI)
Lot #F399, 1966 Mercedes Benz 230 SL roadster, warm silver with red vinyl interior, stick shift. Mileage is 70,936. Optional hard top. Unknown if soft top is included. Striking color combo, very clean overall. Nothing to fault with interior. Only glaring misstep is aftermarket exhaust, with tips extending about 4 inches past rear bumper. Sign says same owner last 20 years. If it runs well, this was well bought, especially with the stick, and will only appreciate.
CONDITION: 2
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: $39,000 SOLD
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $40,000-76,000 (CPI)
Lot #F443, 1973 Mercedes Benz 280 CE coupe, green and white with green velour interior. Mileage is 53,380. Automatic. Sign says “barn find”. Odd two-tone, with white paint across center section of roof. White hub caps. Outside is rough, with both doors not shutting well, poor paint, rust bubbles everywhere. EPA label verifies this is US spec car, but upholstery looks odd. Cheap sale price reflects an attractive body style on a car that will need serious work before becoming drivable.
CONDITION: 4
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: $3,000 SOLD
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $5,000-12,000 (CPI)
Lot #412, 1976 Triumph TR 6, bright green, black top, tan interior. Odometer just over 56,000. Sign claims car is rust free and it looks it. Red line tires and trim rings add elegant air to exterior; clean upholstery, unmarked wood dash, and coco mats do same for interior. Convertible top has correct reflective stripe. Overall strong presentation. Sale price is fair to buyer and seller.
CONDITION: 2+
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: $18,000 SOLD
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $12,000-20,000 (Sports Car Market)
Lot #T199, 1977 Fiat 124 spider, orange, black top and interior. Mileage not noted. Quality repaint but overspray on windshield frame. No signs of rust. Front bumper crooked. Nice looking Fiat alloy wheels. Interior looks straight with no rips or tears. Lots of eyeball but would need to look at floors and underside to ensure solid metal was underneath.
CONDITION: 3+
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: Not sold, high bid not noted
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $7,000-10,500 (Sports Car Market)
Lot #T150, 1981 Porsche 924, silver with black interior, bra on front, mileage not noted (it doesn’t matter). Sad and tired looking thing. Silver paint worn, faded, scratched. Factory sunroof, Porsche alloys. Interior no better than outside. Seat covers with driver’s cover pulled back to reveal black electrical tape on seat bolster. Wires running through door jamb from hood into interior for aftermarket gauge. Aftermarket exhaust looks too large for car. Trailer hitch! Bid to $2000 and did not sell. Car is living proof that Porsche is not infallible.
CONDITION: 4–
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: $2,000 NOT SOLD
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $3,000 (Sports Car Market)
Lot #F339, 1983 Mercedes Benz 380 SL roadster, black with gray interior, hard top, sign says mileage is 50k. Sign also says light blue interior which is wrong. Straight body, aftermarket fog lights, exterior bright work dull, Benz alloys look scruffy, black paint shows every wash/wipe/buff mark. Interior good except for driver’s seat with blue pen marks. Car looks no better and no worse than any other of the dozens of 70s-80s era SLs for sale. Sold for a bit of a steal considering mileage, as many of these cars have over 100k on them. A good detail will do it wonders.
CONDITION: 3-
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: $7,500 SOLD
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $7,000-16,000 (Sports Car Market)
Lot #F447, 1984 BMW 633 CSi coupe, black on black, 80k original miles, sunroof, automatic. BMW alloys. Black looks well maintained but still shows swirl and buff marks. Trunk roundel chipped, aluminum bumpers dull and scratched. Clean underhood. Sold near mid-price guide number, should provide many more enjoyable miles.
CONDITION: 3+
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: $5,250 SOLD
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $3,700-7,600
Lot #F434, 1984 Fiat 2000 spider, badged as Pininfarina, 47k original miles, red, tan top and interior. Fiat alloy wheels, Repaint looks quality and shines up well. Little to fault on exterior. Sign on car claims original interior and chrome, new tan top. Interior very clean. Overall very attractive presentation. Really good Fiat spiders are gaining traction, as witnessed here with this result.
CONDITION: 2
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: $9,300 SOLD
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $6,800-16,000 (CPI)
Lot #F402, 1986 Porsche 928 S4, automatic, 155k miles, garnet red metallic with brown leather interior. Car looks clean for mileage. No sign of overspray, could be well maintained original paint. Factory sunroof. Interior likewise appears like a good used car with no signs of typical 928 interior breakdown. Sign claims one owner car. Car appears more like an example with half the miles. Mileage did not scare away bidders. Only question is what maintenance and repairs are in the immediate future.
CONDITION: 3+
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: $6,900 SOLD
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $9,700-19,000 (CPI)
Lot #F451, 1987 VW Cabriolet, bright red, white top, white pinstripe cloth interior, stick shift. Mileage is 86,736. Exterior looks sharp as does interior. Sign says original paint and miles. As clean as the exterior and interior are, the engine compartment is a disaster. A valve cover repaint and power wash would transform it. Air cooled VWs are hot, water cooled VWs are not. This “chick car” has long been ignored in the marketplace except by a few who correctly see it as inexpensive top-down fun. Sold well above high price guide number, likely due to overall presentation. Most of these Cabrios are shot by now.
CONDITION: 2-
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: $6,200
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $2,300-4,600 (CPI)
Lot #F401, 1999 Jaguar XK8 roadster. Red, tan top, ivory interior. Chrome wheels. Automatic. Looks like a clean 15 year old used car (meant as a compliment). Mileage is 79,258. Driver’s seat has some leather cracking and wear, but still serviceable. Sign claims upgraded stereo and heated seats. At this sale price (10% of its MSRP), car could be a daily driver AND a weekend cruise night car.
CONDITION: 2-
SALE PRICE/HIGH BID: $7,500 SOLD
PRICE BOOK RANGE: $10,000-14,000 (CPI)
All photographs copyright © 2015 Richard A. Reina. Photos may not be copied or reproduced without express written permission.
Sunday Morning Breakfast Run, April 2015
Nine cars + eleven people = a very successful inaugural 2015 Breakfast drive. After the winter we had endured in the Northeast, those of us with collector cars were itchin’ to drive, so we managed to organize a Sunday run a bit earlier in the season than usual. We typically don’t get out for the first run until May or sometimes June.
The weather cooperated: blue sky and plenty of sunshine, although with temps in the 50s, it was cooler than it had been on Saturday, when we had mid-to-upper 70s. Almost everyone (Ted!) in a convertible drove top-down, and with a slight twist of the heater dial, it was plenty comfortable.
Destination today was Granny’s Pancake House on Route 23 in Hamburg NJ. We’ve been there before, and the ample parking combined with a waiting table (nothing like calling ahead) had us gulping coffee within minutes of arriving.
To the cars: if we’re counting (we are), GM product ruled the day, and Chevrolet ruled within there. We had two Corvettes: the marvelously original C1 driven by Burton Hall (who I believe has owned this car for close to 50 years), and the silver C6 of Bill Whited’s (who somehow seems to bring a different ‘Vette to every run). The other Chevys were both Camaros: Paul Dohrmann’s beautiful ’69 which he completely restored himself, and Larry Mihok’s 1994 Camaro, which serves him equally well as daily driver and collector car. Larry had plenty of company with Steve Sargent riding shotgun.
“Ralphie from Englewood” drove his ’67 Buick Skylark convertible, a solid-looking survivor and a model you do not see with any frequency. Ted Kadala (with neighbor Julio along for the ride) drove his ’66 Cadillac Eldorado convertible, a car so big I had to jog a quarter mile away to get it all on camera.
One FoMoCo product was present, and Nick Dragone proudly waved the Blue Oval flag with his 2014 Mustang. Nick was all too happy to show us his new Borla exhaust and Airaid cold air intake. The one MoPar car wasn’t a car: it was a GREEN Viper. Rich Stavridis looked splendid behind its wheel, and claims he would have driven his ‘new to him’ Alfa had it not just gotten off the truck the other night. The only import car on the drive today was your author’s 1993 Mazda Miata; he had every intention to drive his Alfa (still would have been the only import) but the front suspension rebuild is not quite completed.
Despite occasional harassment from a few of the hungry old men, the waitress service at Granny’s was top-notch. Breakfast was pretty good too. We parted ways by 11 a.m., and promised we would make every effort to drive again as soon as we can get our collective acts together. Perhaps next month.
All photographs copyright © 2015 Richard A. Reina. Photos may not be copied or reproduced without express written permission.
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