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April, 2017
British Automobile Owners Association
Newsletter Dedicated to Educating people about, and the Enjoyment and Preservation of, British Automobiles!
The BAOA Membership Meeting is at
Quarters BBQ on
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
– Dinner at 6:30PM, Meeting at 7:30PM.
All British cars and their owners are invited to participate; BAOA club membership
IS NOT required, $10 entry fee.
Join us on April 22nd for a fantastic
British Motorcar Show at the Unser Racing Museum,
1776 Montaño Road, NW,
from 10:00AM until 1:00PM.
(On-site Registration begins at 9:00AM)
Calendar of Events Apr. 12: Membership Meeting
Quarters BBQ;
4516 Wyoming Blvd NE; 299-9864;
Dinner 6:30PM, Meeting 7:30PM.
Apr. 19: Board Meeting Smedinghoff Residence (potluck)
"111 White Tail Rd., NE; 856-6712; 6:30PM.
Apr. 22: British Car Roundup Unser Racing Museum
1776 Montaño Rd., NW; 9:00AM.
Apr. 28-30 British Car Days Las Cruces, New Mexico
Peter Voris (575) 312-5469 or Mike O’Donnell
(575) 680-8333 or www.bmc-snm.org.
May 6: NAMI Walks Car Show Ballon Fiest Park
contact Cy Stanton: [email protected].
May 7: Off-road trundle Around Madrid Java Junction at 2855 State Hwy. 14 North
in Madrid at 10:00AM.
May 10: Membership Meeting “Tyre Kick” Owl Café; 800 Eubank Blvd., NE; 291-4900;
Dinner 6:30PM, Meeting 7:30PM.
May 21: Albuquerque Museum-NMCCC
33rd Annual Car Show Albuquerque Museum, 2000 Mountain Rd.; NW;
Theme will be Route 66 Cars of the 1930s-1940s
Contact [email protected].
May. 24: Board Meeting Funk Residence (potluck)
121 Carey Rd.; Corrales; (520) 400-3337; 6:30PM
May. 27: Fourth Saturday Breakfast The Range Café; 925 Camino del Pueblo;
Bernalillo; 867-1700; 9:00AM.
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May, 2017
Patrice & Jake discuss the fine points in a burned Jaguar Mark II.
The 2017 Río Grande Valley Regional
Rendezvous will be in Cloudcroft, NM on
September 22, 23,& 24, 2017!
WANTED
[LAND] ROVERS FOR OFF-ROAD TRUNDLE AROUND MADRID
Sarah Leamy postponed the mid-April off-road lumber around Madrid until Sunday, May 7.th
Every one is invited (including Foreign-make off-roaders owned by BAOA Members) for an off-road excursion around Madrid, NM. The drive will go over some of the fun back-roads of New Mexi-co. We’ll meet at Java Junction at 2855 State Hwy. 14 North in Madrid at 10:00AM to start the event. Be sure to drive a 4-wheel-drive vehicle with good clearance and bring a picnic lunch to enjoy while digging out your Suzuki Samurai or Jeep Cherokee. You’ll get back to Madrid after the Rovers get everyone un-stuck.
(Unfortunately, Kevin Kittle’s 1962 Land Rover Series IIA 109 truck cab needed more than an engine to go on the off-road.)
Go to
the ...
Hi Kevin,
I’m looking forward to spending
a lot more time with the club on driv-
ing tours in the Hillman this year.
It will run down the Interstate
and I can drive it with the top up
without poisoning myself with
carbon monoxide. The heater is
good down to about 45 degrees
Fahrenheit. It seems to be reliable.
It should provide some amusement to
club members if I am wrong about this
last item.
Over the next winter, I intend to make
some significant improvements to the car. I want to bring everything up from
'insufficient” to “sufficient,” or perhaps even better. That means changes to suspension,
brakes, tires, maybe overdrive, and other drive-train enhancements. In essence, it will be
a “Hot Rod Hillman.” I would like to keep the modifications as close to what the “blokes”
would have done with the Hillman in the 1960's. Naturally, Sunbeam parts, and after-
market parts for Sunbeam, are a prime consideration.
The Duchess (mansion mortgaged, smelling faintly of mouse and horsehair, but
still dressing for high society) was sold new in 1961, in Florida, to a “barnstormer”
named Jack Colton. I think he drove it back and forth to Florida. I have a 1972 Florida
registration in his name.
My brother Brink says it was the “airport car” at the Middlesboro, Kentucky airport
that Jack owned. In the 1980's he had it repainted and reupholstered for his wife.
A tornado blew a shed roof down on it. Then it sat outside under canvas for nine years.
In the early 1990s, my older brother Mark did some work for Mr. Colton. He took
the Duchess and a parts car in trade. The parts car had rusted away but Mark salvaged
some bits. Mark preserved it. I bought the whole shebang from him a few years ago. I am
the third owner of this mostly original car. It has 44,000 miles on it. I have a lot of
documentation about the car. The correspondence between Jack and the parts houses
is elegant.
I grew up around hot rods in Knoxville, Tennessee. I especially liked the converti-
bles. My older brothers and their buddies drove these cars as hot rods. My dad drove a
1960 Ford Sunliner (black, red interior) then a red 1966 Dodge Coronet convertible.
These cars are part of my heritage.
Imagine the Duchess in the original gloss black. I don't know what the original
interior color was, but red was an option. Now we're talking real money. That will be a
few years down the road. I want to drive it around Middlesboro, Kentucky with Mark
when it is done.
I’m asking the club to have an event to consider the car and to brainstorm
about modifications. I would like input on what to do and how to do it. Can you help
me arrange this?
John Bishop
1955 MG TF 1500 Roadster Owned by Tyler Irwin and Cindy Mathiasen
C indy and I bought the 1955 MG TF 1500 in 2008. MG made only about 3000 of the TF 1500 model and this car was made at the end of the production run. I thought the car was in good shape, based it’s outward appearance and that the original 1500 engine
was still in the car, but we really didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into. It had been terribly mistreated, as if it was parked outside in bad weather (repeated and slowly melting snow/repeating rain) without protection for years. But, it looked pretty good when we first saw it! (Old British sports car intoxication?) The engine (most valuable part of the car) had been terribly abused. Half of the wood frame of the body tub was rotted away. Every piece of chrome on the car had to be re-chromed or bought new. Luckily, the engine had dropped so much oil, it lubricated the underside of the car and kept the frame from rusting.
After getting the car home, the results of a closer inspection determined that a total restoration would be required – as opposed to a running restoration. Every metal piece required something: chemical dipping, media blasting, wire wheel, paint, powder coat, or plating. A consid-erable amount of bolts had to be cut off the car with an electric grinder. Every recoverable nut, bolt, and washer was processed (wire wheel, paint, anodize, or clear coat). All nuts, bolts, and machine screws were odd-ball gauge: British Standard Whitworth (BSW), British Standard Fine (BSF), or British Automotive (BA), so any hardware that couldn’t be restored had to be purchased from a web-based supplier.
The rare TF 1500 engine was in very poor condition. It was actually restored twice. After the test start of the first restoration, anti-freeze was found to be leaking into the oil gallery. This condition required a second tear-down and inspection which discovered corro-sion holes inside the engine block. This problem took about a year before a solution was reached.
The mechanical stuff (frame, suspension, brakes, engine, and drivetrain) was the easy part. The hard part was the body reassembly. The hardest part was the interior upholstery. Even though the replacement interior was supplied as a kit, it took three kits to get it right (the first two Moss kits were defective in some way), and just because the part comes in kit form doesn’t mean you take it out of the box and put it on the car. All six upholstered panels in the kit required trimming (won’t get into the details here) to get them to fit correctly. Cindy and I reupholstered all interior wood cockpit rails, trim, all smaller panels, crash pad, and the glove boxes.
I also learned about sequential assembly. Have a 2-mm gap between the windscreen and the windscreen frame that needs a spacer? First, drop the steering column in the cockpit, then drop the dashboard, then remove both kick panels to expose the windscreen frame nuts. Loosen both wind-screen frame brackets, then remove the bracket that requires the spacer while also carefully setting the windscreen aside. Install the spacer. Reassembly is in reverse order of disassembly.
Everything took about 8 years with some time off here and there and we are nearing the end. The only things remaining are the weather equipment. The top and side curtain frames are media blasted and painted, just need to buy the new top and side curtain kit. And a tonneau cover. And a (fill in the blank). It really never will end when you have a 67 year-old car.
(To Cindy, “Okay, what was it you told me I needed to do in the back yard 5 years ago?”)
from Tyler Irwin
Every British motorcar owner has a “Saab” story! British motorcar ownership is filled with tears.
They flow with happiness when we find and bring home the dilapidated Bond Minicar 3-Wheeler – that we fell in love with – when we first saw it behind Sears next to the dumpster as a kid.
They streak down our cheeks during restoration as the paint stripper dissolves the Griffith TVR 400 glass-reinforced plastic body.
They swell our eyes when we see the invoice for body & paint work on the Land Rover Series IIA.
They gush uncontrollably when we make that perfect gear-change in a corner with the Triumph TR-7.
They tumble out with frustration as we try to console our companion (who is stuck in the middle of nowhere!) and fix the Jensen Healey’s ignition.
They glaze over our vision as we buy only one more spare Morris Minor for only… They are choked back when we see our ratty MG 1100 trailered away to some other home and then we sob with relief when the buyer gives us first
dibs to reacquire the Jaguar 420.
Jake Jacobson’s story is a 1971 Saab 95 that he and Karen bought in Utah. About 10,000 were made with the same body style from 1958 to 1981. It is a seven passenger estate wagon with seat belts for all! Quite unheard of in
the ’70s. The third row seats fold up again the middle seats and the passengers (children) face aft … guaranteed to make them carsick! The second row seat also folds down to give almost six feet of flat cargo space.
The Saabs started with two-cylinder/two-stroke engine, went to three-cylinder engine, and then finally to a 1.5 liter V-4 engine. The V-4 was a Ford of Germany design for the Taunus line of cars, but it was originally made for industrial engines to power generators and welders.
Parts for the V-4 engine were easy to get, but it was difficult to figure out where the “cross-use” was. The carburettor is shared by early Pintos and Autozone has rebuild kits for $9.99. The main bearings and rings are for a Ford 289. The rod bearings are used by 2.8 liter Ford V-6s. Consequently, Jake ended up with extra odd engine parts – no biggie, just kind of funny.
The transaxle uses a “freewheel” system that allows you to disengage the engine while coasting downhill. This is a holdover from the two-strokes when they only received lubrication when the throttle is open (one had to mix oil in the gas). Hence, when you would roll down a long hill the engine got no oil and could seize the pistons with the throttle closed with engine braking.
The suspension uses the same Armstrong lever shocks in the back as an MGB and a Girling clutch master from a Mini.
Jake is Saabing with hope that someone will buy his storied car so he can continue to support his Sprite racer and Karen’s MG MGB GT.
For Sale: Yellow 1976 MGB
Roadster. Project car, not cur-
rently running. 1.8 L 4-cylinder
engine, manual transmission.
81,199 miles. $2,000 O.B.O.
C a l l o r t e x t N i c k a t
(505) 270-6292 for more info.
Fourth Saturday Breakfast
The Range Café
925 Camino del Pueblo; Bernalillo
867-1700
May 27th – 9:00AM
Kevin,
While I don’t (yet) have a little British car that drives, as
a long-supporting member of BAOA, I’d appreciate it if you
would forward the following to the membership:
The National Alliance on Mental Illness is having it’s
2017 annual NAMI Walk for the Mind of America fund raiser,
starting at 8AM at the Albuquerque Balloon Park on Satur-
day, May 6,th
2017. The Mayor of Albuquerque and other
officials will be in attendance.
It occurred to me that it would be really cool to have
some little British cars in our NAMI Walks car show this year,
which is why I’m reaching out to BAOA!
If you would like to show your little British Car in this
year’s NAMI Walks cars, you can do so for a nominal dona-
tion to our NAMI Walk fund drive. Any amount is ok, but
$15 (or more) is suggested if you want to enter a car. When
you donate, the system will email a confirmation - just bring
that to the show as proof of donation to enter the show.
NAMI is the nation’s largest grassroots organization
that advocates for individuals with mental health challenges,
as well as their families, via a variety of support and educa-
tion programs.
If you would like to show your car in our “2nd
annual”
NAMI Walks car show, please contact me, Cy Stanton:
Hi
Jean and I are members of a Vintage Car Club of Sun
City, AZ. We have about 250 Members.
We have a cruise-in every Wed. evening at McDonalds.
Every Thurs. morning we meet for breakfast and hold lots of
car shows. Lots of street rods, hotrods, customs, and restored
cars. Only three British cars so far. but all are welcome.
Soon we will have a building with 12-15 lifts.
Last Sat. the club was invited to a car show at Freedom
Plaza, a large life-care assisted living retirement home,
seven stories high – beautiful place, It’s like a 5-star hotel
– great food, too. My uncle lived there for many years. Jean
and I visited him often when it was cold in Abq. :-)
Freedom Plaza has events and entertainment weekly.
Sat. was a warm sunny day and the show cars were
parked under covered parking. They served hot dogs and
brats with drinks and chips to the entrants and residents.
There was no entry fee.
The Cobra club was invited, along with several other
clubs. I would think over 200 cars attended. Beautiful ex-
pensive cars. Everything from an early Model T to a New
Corvette. The residents were the judges.
I took the MG TF, not the highboy roadster [TR-8]
this time. I hadn't even washed the TF yet this year.
I wasn't going to go to the awards, but Jean said I
should go to see if anyone from our club won anything.
Jean said while I was walking around drooling at the
Cobras, Corvettes, Vipers, Customs, and Street Rods, a lot
of the residents stopped by to talk about someone they knew as
young people who had MGs or other British Sports Cars.
I was shocked when they announced the TF was one of
the 3 winners. Yesterday the TF got a well-deserved wash-
ing and wax job!
Dick and Jean Roberts [BAOA Members]
Kevin and the Zen of Jaguar wiring.
To quote Lucas - Prince of Darkness,
“May the smoke stay within your filament.”
B.A.O.A. P.O. Box 35445 Albuquerque, NM 87176-5445
Board of Directors Rex Funk (520) 400-3337 Steve Keppler (915) 549-6859 Andrea Kittle (505) 934-2482 Henry Morrison (505) 259-1537 John Smedinghoff (505) 856-6712 Patrice Smedinghoff (505) 856-6712
Newsletter Kevin Kittle (505) 345-4207
www.baoa.org
4215 Menaul Blvd., NE; Albuquerque, NM 87110
888-3833
Hours: Mon. - Fri., 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Adam O'Connell
