A very forlorn MG Midget

My insurance agent called a couple weeks ago and told me another client had to be rid of a MG for her mother’s estate.  It was nearly 100 miles away and not even a “B”. The pictures they sent were pretty discouraging and there was no title, but it did have a 1275cc engine and gear box. I gave her $100 for the “parts” and $200 to the tow truck driver (Tom-a good guy) and next had to decide what to do with it. Part it out, build a race car or restore it..

The floors had rusted through or nearly so..

Drivers seat? (click to enlarge)

But as I mentioned it did have the drive train and only 36000 showing on the odometer, which works, but the engine was not original color so its been out and did I mention that the throw out bearing was missing the carbon/graphite face and probably was parked many years ago for that reason.

It all seems to be there.

After several days I have most of the paint off the body and engine compartment. The trunk area is pretty much OK as is.

Dirty job..

Hammered out the tree damage to the rear..

new floor pans, sills and cross members

I glued the new pieces in with a 3M bonding mastic for this purpose. A first for me. I don’t like it. It’s very expensive, requires more prep work and needs 24 hours to fully cure. I still have to repair the bottom edges of  both rear fenders and I’ll just MIG them in as usual. I understand that the insurance co.’s require the glue for new vehicle repair..

Well, as things would have it, I had another glue cartridge and decided to go ahead and use it up.  So here are two methods for gluing repair panels. The small one is probably the superior method. Cut to size, flange the edges, glue and clamp. The inside is wedged against the trunk floor edge with carpenter’s door plumb wooden wedges. In the second photo even though the damaged area was smaller than the first I decided to use the entire patch. Just glue it over the cleaned/prepped substrate and use a bunch of screws to clamp it until it dries, at which time the screws can be removed and the edges feathered with Bondo.

Correct way?

Incorrect way?

Regardless of the technique it will be interesting to see how these repairs weather time. I will admit that the floor and sill repairs seem very robust and I don’t foresee any problems structurally.

I’ve had a few more days to devote to the Spridget.  In the next set of photos I’ve finished with the dent repairs and Bondo phase. I also have coated all non painted and mostly hidden areas with 3M Body Schutz. It’s a rubberized sound deaden-er and sealer. It also serves to give everything a clean uniform look.

Right rear quarter

Body Schutz

Best hood of the 3 on hand..

The 36 grit tends to leave some “marks” so after the 80 and 180 grit sanding I use some glazing to fill any visibly deep gouges, hence the multi-color appearance in this last photo. Next step is to get the body and engine compartment primed for paint..

Of course the more the details are corrected, the more it pushes one to take it to the next level. I have no idea how the “1 day” paint shops can sleep at night knowing how much better a job they might have done. I’m also starting to appreciate why good body shops charge so much money, the price of materials notwithstanding.

Anyway, here it is in primer and awaiting today’s job of blocking. I did 3 coats of primer so I’m going to start with 180 grit to speed the process along. I finish with 400 wet or finer..

primed and ready to go?-- NOT!

Rear quarter shot

Still have a lot to do here..

So today I spent 10 hours block sanding every square and curved inch of the project car. I used 180 grit dry since I had applied 3 or more coats of primer before the guide coat and 400 or finer used wet would have been a multi-day affair.  I found some low spots and filled them and I found some high spots and I hammered them, and then I re-shot the repaired or sanded to bare metal areas with another coat of primer and then I re-shot the entire car with a light even coat. Next I’ll do the 400 grit wet and it should go very quickly as it it already flat and straight except at the repaired spots, but they are small and not very numerous. After that step it’s time to consider paint type and color… decisions, decisions… And lastly, but not leastly.. a tip of the hat to my pal Bruce, who volunteered to come over and help with the blocking. Thanks bud!! PS: I’d add more pictures, but it looks just like the ones above.. or nearly so.

Well…… I went and bought all the “stuff” for the base/clear coat.. ah $425 .. I’m quite used to and pretty good shooting good old Imron..  Let me set the stage.. it’s been about 60 degrees at 8 am the past few days but very windy by mid day.. So yesterday I got all the base color laid down and only a couple mishaps that were easily fixed. I usually use a little “repair” gun for bikes and rarely have used my big full qt. cup gun. But after adjusting the fan pattern and the air pressure it went OK. Now I’m told that I have to shoot the clear within 5 hours or I have to wet sand the car again.. OK the wind is still not too bad and all the scurrying about has me warmed up and I’ve not even thought about the ambient temp. The directions say two med-wet coats. OK Well not really, the clear is not flowing out because its too cool outside, if I try to make it wetter it just runs. what a mess, what a waste. Well, I guess a learned a lesson and that won’t happen again. Or I’ll just let the car guys do the painting! here’s a trick I learned after the fact for you DIY outsiders.. Put the paint in the microwave and warm it up first…why didn’t I think of that? I’ve put catalyzed paint in the ice box overnight to slow it down. I’m going to wait until this week of high wind speeds blows through and after a day or two I’ll wet sand it out, being very careful to not go through the color coat! And try it again when the conditions and pressure are better.. Here are my disappointing results..

double click to see how bad... arrow back

More work to do..

re-loaded

Wet sanded/blocked all the orange peel last evening. Actually it wasn’t a bad as I’d expected. It doesn’t have to be perfectly flat as the clear will fill what I’ve left behind. There are tape markers where I went thru to the primer. This morning I’ll go get an adequate amount of a less expensive urethane clear that has a slower flash time. I thought initially that it was the temperature that was the reason it didn’t flow out.. nope, it was setting up too fast.  Good for spot repairs, but not for an overall car shoot.  I’ll get a pint of color and fix those spots. Then I’m going to tarp off an area in the shop to paint it indoors. I have a couple big floor fans that will help. This isn’t the “right” way to paint a car, but it’s a one time deal… till the next one  ;~)   I’m also going to get a small can of reducer for the clear, Just in case I’m wrong about the drying time. Don’t want to sand it again!

The ’60′s circa dash panel arrived yesterday. It has had an extra instrument hole cut in it. I’ll either weld in a patch or add an ammeter or voltmeter… a work versus money decision..

I’m beginning to think this car is jinxed… Spent several hours repairing the dash and the paint went south on that too.. Monday last I had a professional painter friend come over to do the clear coat (I’m tired of messing it up) Well, he didn’t have much better luck. The back half of the car is fine, but the front half has water spots and enough hair and dust to make it in-salvageable. So I’ll sand it down again. This time I’ll just take the front fenders and hood to his shop where hopefully it’s not as dusty or dirty..

close, but no banana

this half I'll mask off and work around

This has gotten out of control as a fun project. I decided to just re-shoot the front half here, but out side again, instead of taking them to the other shop. I may have also decided to leave it as a Midget variant. The Sprite dash is going to be a PITA and requires new larger diameter instruments. Remember I was going to keep the drive train and recycle the rest at the beginning and I’ve already spent too much money just to make it presentable. So today’s result is OK, probably better than the back half now. I did get a couple small runs in the clear, but they will buff out and be just fine..IMHO. Here’s it is pre buffing..

ready to be buffed out finally.

I must say that the painting turned out to be a frustrating addition to a skill set. Most would agree that they want  the best result from their skill level. Well, where does the practitioner say enough is enough or that is not or is good enough. What about the parts and pieces that will be mounted on or adjacent to this shiny new paint? Personally I wanted the paint to look really good so when someone asks “Where’d you have it painted?” I could puff up a bit and say “Why I did it myself in the drive way” The reality is that now I have to spend extra time or extra money on the rest of the rehab to match the quality of the paint work.

Here it is with the fenders finally bolted on and the repaired grille in place and ready for the wiring and plumbing work to commence.. I thought about “making it run” for the first time today. It’s been here for 9 1/2 weeks now and if my real job doesn’t get in the way perhaps it will be on the road in another 2 months.. give-r-take

Some assembly required..

piece by piece

and hour by hour

The head light buckets were total trash in the original car. I spent nearly 6 hours repairing and piecing and polishing up my “cleanest dirty shirt” assortment of parts to get the two I finally installed..

Well, I was running out of things I wanted to do next so I decided it was time to think about getting the engine installed and running. So I moved the power-plant to the other bay and drained the oil as I wanted to drop the pan and inspect the bearings before it went back into the car. I had turned the engine over with the starter motor before it came out to check for compression and ugly noises and it made sorta OK compression (for a car that had sat for 20 years) and I didn’t hear anything bad. Well, you guessed it, after the pan was off I saw the oil pump screen was coated with chewed up bearing material. Yup, number 4 rod was spun. Damn, I hate it when that happens. I think in the interest of time I’ll use an available re-built engine and deal with this one later. It just means more money to spend now, but it will give me a better sales pitch for this right now.  When I had separated the gearbox from the engine I found the carbon facing on the release bearing gone and had assumed that the owner couldn’t put it in gear and had simply parked it for that reason…

missing carbon face on the Throw out bearing

but, here is the real reason it was parked..

#4 rod needs about .020 removed.... sigh

In the meantime, even though I have a miserable summer cold, I have the rest of the dash instruments installed and wired up. The harness I got from my trusty British car parts wholesaler is very close but not quite right for this year of Midget. It’s missing a couple grounds so I’ll get them made up shortly and that should make the dash lights work. Also the seats are back from Jim and Jerry Tanny’s upholstery shop. I can’t bolt them in until the carpet is down.. another semi big job for me.

The good news today is that the rebuilt engine arrived today. It used to belong to a Austin Healey club member in the Chicago area. He was traveling to one of the Healey gatherings on the West Coast and spun a bearing. A local Healey club guy gave him a spare he had and the Chicago guy paid to have this one rebuilt. So it’s just been sitting for a couple years waiting for a new home. I’ll eventually rebuild the one from this car when the urge and sufficient funds move me to do so. Here’s the most recent pictures..  The club guy recalls that the head had been modified. I measured it as best I could without removing it and well, it looks pretty stock to me. It is a later head, that had air injected into the exhaust ports, but no signs of porting or polishing or even much if any removed from the height dimension. I do know that the push rods all hit the rockers off center. I’m not sure if I should be  concerned or if this was purposely done to make the valves rotate more. I checked a couple others I have in the shed and they all seem to be about half this way…. ??

dash and instruments

seats from a '65-ish car

Re-built 1275cc engine"

I’m thinking about painting it gold. British Motor Corporation had a “Gold Seal Replacement” program for their replacement power plants. And they were painted a sort of gold color. I did this once before on one of my Bugeye Sprites and I liked the way it looked and it was always a good story to explain why it wasn’t the “proper” engine color…

Well, I’ve gotten ahead of the story line. An able bodied friend arrived and we dropped the engine/gearbox into the chassis before I took pictures of the gold engine block. Well, you get the idea.  I rebuilt the carbs while the paint was drying. Even after several hours in the carb washing machine still most of the black oxidation was untouched. I gave it my best shot. It won’t affect the operation any, but clean and shiny is often good for another 10MPH ;~)

Gold Seal Replacement?

..and the other side

Story to follow in installments..

Much to my surprise I found that Pino had signed this one and written an interesting bit of philosophy in his own hand. It said, in Italian:

Pino Morroni
Detroit maggio 1978
alla facciaccia di tutti i maghi del telaio di tutti i Walden mel mondo

Made in Warren, MI Click to enlarge

The best translation I’ve heard is: In the brazen face of all
the frame sorcerers to all the “Walden’s” of the world..

I’m not sure what he was trying to get at, but knowing that Pino was usually disappointed with the way his ideas were generally received, I suspect it’s a rebuke to them.  That’ a purely WAG on my part. Any other ideas are welcomed.

Here’s what the wonderful little jig looks like. The legs are off and its sitting on the floor, but you get the idea.

Pino Morroni frame jig 1978- CLICK ON IT

Just a fun piece of cycling lore for all.

DP

Well, if you say “no” they go somewhere else.  I made arrangements to go look at the car some 30 miles from my location. If I recall correctly I took a friend with me. He was Dan Pendergraft, somewhat of a Healey expert and definitely a Healey racing expert from his experiences with the Healey Challenge series. Here’s one of many links, BTW that’s Dan’s #106 at the front http://healey.org/content/category/10/97/243/ or maybe Phillip Coombs.. can’t tell for sure.. I’m sure I’ll be hearing from one of them…  Ok, it’s not Dan’s #106, his was RHD and no driving lights. Ergo it must be Phillip.. #105

When we arrived we found a pretty sad looking mess. The fenders were held on with duct tape, for instance. It was a right hand drive car. On the positive side it was mostly all there and it had a louvered hood, but no cold air box. We thought that perhaps it was from Jamaica and had made its way to FL. We suggested the owner (Judy) send off for a heritage certificate from the UK and see what we could ascertain of the cars history.

In the meantime we arrived at an agreement and loaded up the “stuff” and had it hauled to my shop for complete tear down.

Start of an odessey

In the meantime the Heritage Certificate arrived and we were all very pleasantly surprised to learn the car was the 2nd factory 100M built. So it went from a desirable Healey 100 to a very sought after factory hot rod! Needless to say our plans of ending up with a nice “driver’ changed to a more aggressive  restoration since the car had suddenly more than doubled in value.

Here is Dan studying the car after it was at my shop and some basic steps had begun.

Ready for the long haul

Rough stuff

Well, I wanted to replace floors and sills and a bit more than Judy, but there was a budget in place so I did as much as I could get away with and no doubt wanted a better result than the customer at this point,  but she still wasn’t as convinced that the car was “that” valuable.

Here, I’ve replaced door hinge panels, trunk floor, bulkhead bits, battery access area and much more and sent it to a body shop/painter who Dan thought would do an economically credible job on the body work.

Judy&Dan at delivery to body shop

Here’s a series of progressions though the body and paint work.. In the meantime I was busy with the engine and trim and interior items…

pieces parts

In the paint booth

Rolling chassis

Back to my shop for assembly…

engine bay and electrical s going in

Engine in, starting to look like a car again..

Bumper back from the plater, lights, windshield..

Here’s another customer and his wife examining the nearly done car. BTW, the Heritage Certificate indicated that the car left the factory as a left hand drive. That change was made early on if you’re wondering..

"Is it safe to drive?"

Well, I’ll just cut to the chase.. Agatha, as Judy named the car, has been a star at most of the shows and conclaves she’s attended.

Judy is a dedicated owner and has become active in several car clubs and become a “gearhead” through her association with Agatha.

Here’s a highlight for Judy when she won a top honor at the San Diego Conclave and Gerry Coker told her that if he’d had his way he too would have used more chrome like we did with Agatha’s rebuild.

Gerry Coker congratulates Agatha and Judy

Thanks to Judy for her pictures she supplied for this entry. dp

Judy just sent this followup note that she wanted included…

The 150 S had three 2″ HD8 SU carbs on long individual intake manifolds and the 9:1 high compression hemi- head. Some were 3.4 Liter displacement and some were 3.8L All had 4 wheel disc brakes, a first for Jaguar cars.

Here is a bevy of XK 150′s in front of my shop, the red ‘S’ roadster, a black 150 ‘drop-head’ or convertible in US parlance, and a white ‘fixed head’ or coupe if you like.

Customers Jags-3 XK150's on the same day!

(  Click once or twice on pixs to enlarge)

The black DHC is one I am just finishing up a multi-year restoration on. Perhaps I’ll finish documenting  it in the future. Today’s entry however regards the red roadster and its mechanical ills.

The car presented with a lack of power and a lot (!) of valve tappet racket. These engines are of twin overhead cam shafts which act directly on the valve stems with an inverted bucket, the lash (valve clearance) adjusted via variable thickness shims or discs between the bucket and valve stem.

Visual inspection after removing the cam cover (exhaust side-where the noise was) showed nothing and compression reading were within normal expected at cranking speed. Now, its not too uncommon for the exhaust side to have the sleeve that the buckets reside within to move from their factory interference fit depth setting.  Clever aftermarket plates are sold to sit on the vertical exposed face of the sleeves to hold them stationary in the head. So, I ordered a kit and installed it, but it made no difference in the racket. Sigh.

Bucket sleeve hold down plates

The picture above is after the head was removed. Since the hold downs didn’t fix the problem, I informed the owner that the head would have to be removed to see what was going on. I ought to buy a boroscope , but even then the head still has to be pulled to repair it. These triple carb cars require quite a bit more time to take apart as the inner engine compartment panels have to be removed and the fuel system piping and filters are a nightmare.. Try counting all the nuts that were removed, polished and replaced!

Well to make a long story short, the offending cylinder/valve was a wallowed out valve guide and do I mean wallowed out. Here’s a picture. Compare the guide diameters..

The guide in the middle is nearly half again the size of the adjacent guides.

As it turned out all the exhaust seats, guides and valves were replaced. I also installed new intake guides and 2 intake valves, did a 3 angle valve job and resurfaced the head. might as well do it right when its apart.

From the picture below its also clear to see that the cosmetic condition was rough and the customer requested that the entire engine compartment be detailed as best as possible with out removing the engine and other major assemblies.

A rough idea of the "before" picture

As you can see there was a lot of corrosion/oxidation on all the aluminum and the paint was badly degraded and the block was painted a GM orange at some point in the cars past. UGH!

So the customer wanted everything polished and painted..which meant dis-assembly and rebuild of the carbs and manifolds…

One of the big SU's and the aux. cold start "carb" and piping.

After nearly a full day of standing in front of the polishing wheel, here are some of the finished bits..

Still have the carburetors to polish..

here’s the area prepped for repainting parts of the firewall and radiator surround..

Takes longer to mask than to squirt some paint...

And finally here is what it looks like now…

More than a couple hours of work..believe me!

So after restoring the air filter assembly and painting the under side of the hood (bonnet) it was looking damn nice and needless to say the car ran like a scalded cat.

Cost? More than the customer wanted to hear, but it was what he’d asked for and he did get some frequent flyer points from his credit card company.. :~)

Dave

Click once or twice on photos for close ups. Use back arrow to return to text.

My customer bought it in 2006 thinking it would be a pretty easy job, well, no. Here’s a picture or two of the original condition.

Engine compartment

Multi layer rotted top-dried out leather interior

Body on the way to media blaster

Engine and gearbox out

Restored chassis

Rebuilt head

Previous brass welding repairs

The rear half of the car had sustained a lot of damage and was poorly repaired and heat distorted from all the welding, so the entire body was cut in half behind the driver’s seat.

New rear clip

The new rear was fabricated down in Chula Vista, CA by new found friend Jorge. More on Jorge later. The fenders are still missing as one was a terrible fit. The original rear end en toto was shipped to Jorge so he had a good “pattern” to work with. Apparently there were differences with the FHC, the Roadster, and the Drophead.

Underpinnings

A shot of the dirty, from the body shop dust and wet sanding, of the new dual exhaust and the missing automatic transmission, which was replaced with a Jag manual and Laycock Overdrive.

Before

After

Engine compartment

As you can see the car is now black..  I installed the engine and running gear after painting the engine compartment beforehand. Some of the new harness was also installed, so the painter could easily move the car under it’s own power. The compartment was also pre-painted so the painter could simply mask off the entire area and not over spray everything in sight. I’m currently working in the corner installing more harness and fuse block bits.

OK the corner or correctly the fuse block, wiring strip connector, voltage regulator, and cover (sans the hold down stud and nut) are installed. For some reason the fuse block won’t sit flush on the one rear/right corner. I looked at the original (before dismantling) pictures and there was no fastener there then either.  Odd..I think. I’ll spend some time there when I get back to doing the “details”, right now I’ll push on with the front half of the cars electricals.

In this next shot the headlight buckets and adjusters and all are installed. The re-chromer’s shop still has the bezels and a whole pile of other stuff.

Lighting almost done in front..

Backside of the instrument panel

Well, this should be fun… There are still about 9 pieces of the full wiring harness to install.

Got it whittled down a bit today. Only 5 sub harness bits left to go.. here’s with a flash and without a flash..

dash wired and functional

in the dark...

It’s been about a week and as the chrome parts are trickling back from the plater  (Triple Plate in WA.) I’m getting the lights all installed and wired and functional.

The rear boot lid was a real problem to both fit and make the latch and lock work again.

boot lid and chrome bits

and here’s the front. In both photos the bumpers are not fully attached, if you’re curious about the angle…

front end, chrome and lamps

Rear end of the 150 all done…except for the interior of the boot..

finished rear end chrome and lights

The steering wheel was a mess. They, I believe, were originally enameled completely. the hub, the spokes and the rim. I don’t mean paint enamel either, its the hard baked ceramic like finish. Well, this one was totally devoid of the original enamel. After soda blasting the paint off there was nothing but the most porous metallic surface I’ve ever seen. I tried to paint it with straight black Imron, but the thousands of tiny holes just caused an air bubble mess. So, it was blasted clean again and sent to a powder coater, who after two coats made a nice job of it. The old rim wrap is back on to protect it while the car is at the upholstery shop. The Bakelite  ring around the horn ring really looks better than the camera flash makes it appear.

Adjustable steering wheel assembly

This next one was a bit of a challenge. The grille originally had a lip of some sort cast into the bottom inside edge that acted as a safety catch should the main latch fail. No one wants a bonnet bent over the windshield.  Anyway, there was no easy way to weld anything to the newly chromed grill.. note (do this stuff before sending to re-chromer) so I had to fab a catch. Using 5/16” tubing I cut and brazed together a hanging loop from about the grill’s midpoint, where it had a drill-able spot on the bonnet. Then it drops down in a smooth V like  shape and catches the latch on the pan behind the grill… Pretty neat and it barely shows..

Safety catch

The next day or two will be used to install some noise deadening blanket material. Then the customer has a remote located radio, requiring an inverter for the positive ground nature of the car and lastly the speakers which also need to be hidden some where in the vicinity of the two rear jump seats..

The side glass and vent wings and chrome is in. New fuzzy velcro in the guide channel. The amp and inverter for the hidden “Secret Radio” is installed.  See it?

interior shot

Set back…

Cracked glass.... Not acceptable

The project leaves tomorrow for the upholstery shop. I’m planning on driving it the several miles there. Need some cushions to sit on and someone to run interference as the seat belts aren’t exactly installed yet..

Well the car has been at the upholstery shop for a couple months now. Mostly it’s been a fight to rebend and fit the wood pieces that were badly warped.. the new stuff fits worse in many cases… here where it is today..

dash is done

more required on the top..

Stay tuned..much more to come……

The project car recently returned from the “top shop” a couple weeks ago. They have completed most of the work, but the trunk (boot) is still unfinished and two side kick panels in the cockpit are needing panels to be made. We are unhappy with the fit of the top at the windshield header, but I’ve come up with a simple solution I hope.

Here are pictures of the interior so far.

Leather and Wilton wool

nearly done

Click on this one!!!

The new wheels and tires are on and the front end aligned and new rear springs have it going down the road indescribably well.

As soon as the remaining upholstery work is complete, it will go back to the paint shop for flaw and incidental flaw repair and final buff out. Then, my friends, I’m afraid I will have to turn it over to the rightful owner. A dark day indeed..for me…

SF Concorso bicycle display

Though the bikes were not judged this year, the organizers indicated that they would be next year. the bicycle entrants were however each given a Directors Award  ribbon for our time and expense. Of course we were treated to VIP credentials and privileges.

A highlight for me, as I am also an avid sports car owner was a chance to mix it up with Sir Sterling Moss, arguably one of the greatest race car drivers of all time. Here I  have Moss on my left, a D-Type Jaguar and an OSCA MT4 in front of my “54 Austin Healey 100. I won’t mention what our speed was in the photo to protect the innocent.. ;~)

Too much fun!

Here is my “winning” entry:

Me as a happy camper

In addition to my entries there was a Columbia ordinary, a Bates, a Cinelli, and a Guerciotti.

Here is the link to the official Concorso catalog: http://www.santafeconcorso.com/2011_flipbook.html

Many thanks!

Dave

PS if you missed the IQ magazine article it is here

Framers and visitors:

Finished and ready for the San Diego bike show… It’s pretty sweet if I may say so myself..

I was in a hurry and took the pictures before I’d properly adjusted the handlebar positions.. so I’ve already been chastised for that..

This is the low trail design that Martin Manning (bike geometry 101) suggested that I try. This falls below the 2″ threshold and I must admit that it feels very light. The idea is that it will be less twitchy at lower speeds but still very stable at higher speeds  due to the team weight (mass).

Haven’t had a stoker on it yet, but due to initial feeling I see no reason for it not to be as predicted. It’s a 74.5 degree head tube if you all are wondering.

OK, if one looks at the pictures you’ll see that the captain’s bars are at the same height as the seat.  I don’t know precisely what the dynamics of this arrangement set up, something akin to over-leverage, Suffice it to say that after I flipped the stem over to a slightly negative rise the oversteering issue disappeared and the tandem handles like a dream.

In respect to the short trail design, I suspect that the major tandem suppliers don’t do this to protect themselves from litigation arising from neophyte owners with little or no tandem experience.

Hope you all approve.. have a great weekend

dave

Click on to enlarge-return arrow to escape

tote that load

sure is green

lotta rake

pretty Turquoise bits

adequate stoker space

Price yet to be determined…

I’ve had a few days between projects to dust off some old stuff and try to tie down things that have gotten away from me. Because of interest from some of the CR bike list I’ll post this today and add others details as I am able.
This first one dates from 1989 and and may be one of the oldest surviving records.
It is Carolyn Donnelly in the midst of her US senior woman’s Hour record ride..

Donnelly Hour Record ride

5 km 6:40.61 Carolyn Donnelly, Colo. Springs, CO, 10/29/90

10 km 13:31.15 Carolyn Donnelly, Colo. Springs, CO, 10/29/90

20 km 17:12.40 Carolyn Donnelly, Colo. Springs, CO, 10/29/90

1 hour 44.028 km Carolyn Donnelly, Colo. Springs, CO, 10/29/90

50 km 1:08:26.24 Carolyn Donnelly, Colo. Springs, CO, 10/29/90

This next one is from a recent Velo-News article, no doubt about Lance.
 Nevertheless, on his elbow is New Mexico's own Noah Kaufman.
click on to enlarge.






US Junior squad

L to R:  George Hincapie, Noah Kaufman, Lance Armstrong, Chann McCrae and Bobby Julich.
 Pretty neat old picture.
 Here is one of Noah and relates to my association with him and his parents.

Noah and his medal
The interesting thing here is that they both used the same bike. In the picture of Carolyn

the seat post can be seen as all the way down, and in fact I vaguely remember sawing some of
the seat tube off at the top..This next one is Jane Marshall, who has just won the Moriarity

NM Record Challenge 40K for senior women. Jane went on to the National squad and I believe

she was in the Olympic road race with the then local rider Janniel Parks.
Jane Marshall Gagne
This is a unique bike from the last one above. I think it was sold off to another local rider.

The red and white paint jobs were all shop team equipment.

New World/US record- Kent Bostick

Above John and I are holding Kent up moments after the 100K record. He was, ahh…tired..   Also in the photo is Bruce, who was the manager of the Springs velodrome… Don’t remember where Fred Cappy was that night.. Sorry about the photo, has some water damage-hell it’s been on my refrigerator for 20 years ;~)

Here’s another from 1989. It is John Frey and Kent Bostick.
I think this is the meet where Kent set the US 100km record, which also still stands.  Kent’s 100K record was 2:09:11 which bested Ole Ritter’s record by 20 minutes!

I don’t recall John as having used this MAX tubed funny bike for his Hour ride. I’ll look for that picture. Also its a film photo so it’s a problem to reproduce herein. Click on photo for a better size..

John and Kent around 1989

Picture at the Colorado Springs velodrome..

49.97KM per Hour

There’s John and the Hour bike and ride.. and the last one for today is the crowd around John after the record

ride. The 150 is the lap count around the 333.3m track. It was one of the times the bike was re-badged in accordance with Ten Speed Drive contractual PS. If you can tag anyone, please leave a comment. His record was 49.9 Kilometers .

Victory crowd

OK kids now we’re getting down to it, here’s a rare shot of the bike store team..

Squadra Harvard Bike House ABQ. NM circa 1990

and and even more rare shot of the backup team..

NM Velo

Here are a few shots from the start line at the Record Challenge Time Trial in Moriarity.. not sure if this is Jennifer or Janelle?

two of John Frey warming up and at the start line (nice bike..)

Shaklee sponsored rider

go!

Here’s Gabe Aragon.. he got his National jersey with a tandem time trial ride with Desi Brown from the shop team.

lil Gabe Aragon- nice kid!

This looks like Robbie Quinlan..

Maybe ? Robbie Quinlan on a Bruce Gordon (NM) tt bike

The next are from a Tuesday crit in town.. this is Brian Belew on

George Tapley frame..

in the lead..

the pack..

sprint for a prem

That maybe Bart Bowen at the front, I see Frey and his green rims…and several Harvard guys in the hunt..next up is Jim Warsa

Waz

Wow, another oldie.. Frey with his (probably) first win at Moriarity Challenge or the State TT’s ? Early “flintstone” disc wheel. You could hear it coming a mile away, heavy too..

1st "funny bike" and 1st place for JF

Here is a link to a recent NM Sports magazine article about the Record Challenge history: http://www.nmsportsmag.com/2011/fall/

pages 24 and 25..

Here’s one many years later with Ten Speed Drive Rossin funny bike..

~6500 feet above sea level

Another cool pix- Frey and Rod Bush on my first tandem at the Red River Century. JF and Rod still hold the national tt record for a tandem..cool.

togetherness

One of the team sponsors and accomplished frame builder from Albuquerque–Bruce Gordon.

Bruce and Steve Hegg

An ad hoc 4 man TT squad..

Bostick, Frey, the late John Stenner and Hegg

J. Stenner and his very nice Pinarello. John was hit and killed by a motorist. Very tragic.

John Stenner

here they are in action…

Flying

and I guess by now some are wondering about me.. this is about 2006.

impatient with the cameraman

here’s another rare photo of me actually in a race, note the Sidi clown shoes and the Bell helmet on young John Castillo behind me..

downtown crit 1980 something..

and here’s Frey doing his best to hammer the chasers at a local crit.. enlarge to really see the power he had..

Human power!

here’s a look at a very small mountain bike I made for a chick I was in lust with.. 24 inch wheels! Wish I had a better picture of it. It was really neat. I don’t have any pictures of the girl.

tiny MTB

Here’s Frey (again) this time on one of my full sized MTB’s. My signature brass P is just visible on the head tube.

mud puddles

and lastly today a really out there paint job that was requested by a female customer..

Columbus SLX and Campy Chorus

More to come..