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June, 2018
British Automobile Owners Association
Newsletter Dedicated to Educating people about, and the Enjoyment and Preservation of, British Automobiles!
Six local automobilia artists:
Gabe “Sparkie” Gonzales,
Tom Graham, Chuck Holt,
Perry Key, Tom Lamb, and
Paul McLaughlin will be featured
during July at The Gallery ABQ.
The gallery is open 10-5, Tuesday
thru Saturday. On July 6, the gallery
will be open also thru 8 pm during
the ARTScrawl event, where the
artists will be present. Show begins
July 5 and ends July 30.
The Gallery ABQ is located at
Hoffmantown Center, 8210 Menaul
Blvd., NE.
An antique and specialty Car Show
will take place Saturday, July 21,
9:30 to 1:00.
Automotive Art Car Show
Join BAOA Member & Automotive Artist, Tom Graham,
and BAOA Sponsor, Clocks & More at a free car show!
July 21st 9:30AM to 1:00PM
Hoffmantown Shopping Center
Hosted by Gallery ABQ in Hoffmantown to help showcase the automotive art in the Gallery’s salon during the month of July.
Antique, British, & Specialty cars park along the front – at Menaul. A few cars can part to the west
in front of the Gallery, and many more can park along the front I front of Clocks & More.
Calendar of Events
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July, 2018
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June, 2018 Jul. 12: Membership Meeting “Tyre Kick” Owl Café;
800 Eubank Blvd., NE; 291-4900;
Dinner 6:30PM, Meeting 7:30PM.
Jun. 23: Fourth Saturday Breakfast Le Peep;
4921 Jefferson St., NE; 883-3161; 9:00AM.
Jun. 27: Board Meeting Greenside Café;
12165 NM-14, Cedar Crest; 286-2684; 6:30PM.
Jul. 11: Membership Meeting “Tyre Kick” Backstreet Grill;
41919 Old Town Rd., NW, Ste. 6; 842-5434;
Dinner 6:30PM, Meeting 7:30PM.
Jul. 18: Board Meeting Jacobsen Residence (potluck);
12408 Morocco Rd., NE; 228-1361; 6:30PM.
Jul. 21: Automotive Art Car Show Hoffmantown Shopping Center
9:30AM to 1:00PM
Jul. 28: Fourth Saturday Breakfast “Morrisons’ Mountain Flapjack Flip!”
Doc Long Picnic Area; 259-1537;
The fun begins at 9:00AM.
Fourth Saturday Breakfast
June 23rd
Le Peep
4921 Jefferson
St., NE;
883-3161;
9:00am.
Check out this new hidden away din-ner location with your BAOA friends!
Wednesday, July 11th
41919 Old Town Rd., NW, Ste. 6
Dinner at 6:30PM. Meeting at 7:30PM.
Go to the Old Town Plaza or the Albuquerque Museum.
Backstreet Grill is happy to offer free parking for all of our dinner guests only. When you arrive at the
restaurant, simply speak to a member of the manage-ment staff to receive a free parking pass. As you ap-proach the restaurant look for the Backstreet Grill sign attached to the nearest parking meter for directions to a member of our management team.
The parking at the Albuquerque Museum is not covered by the Backstreet Grill.
Greetings, Car People. Plans are coming along quite nicely for the First An-nual (and perhaps only) Trans Trinidad Trivia Tour, August 17-19, in beautiful historic Trinidad, Colorado! The good news is--this is going to be a fairly inexpensive weekend, because the city of Trini-dad is excited about the event and has waived most fees normally involved with meeting places and ven-ues. Cost per person will be $35.00.
Here is what we have planned for your enjoyment. Group rate (based on renting 10 rooms or more) at the Quality Inn at exit 11 off Interstate 25 at $90.99 plus all those pesky little
local fees. The hotel has been recently remodeled and is really nice with saltwater hot tub and indoor swimming pool. Locals and those in the know (truckers) pay $10 a person to have breakfast at the cafe which is included in your room rate! Give Sofia a call at 719-497-8000 and tell them you are with the Trans Trinidad Trivia Tour. This rate is also good on Thursday night if you want to arrive early.
Registration with munchies and a no-host bar will take place on Friday evening at the hotel. We will make sure they have some-thing other than Bud Light. Afterwards, the Trinidad Trolley will take us on a tour of downtown, leaving the parking lot of the Quality Inn at 6:30. During the ride, the group will get a private tour of the Bizarre Car Garage which is one of the largest permanent collec-tions of art cars in the country. Check Artocade.com or the Artocade Facebook page for a preview that does not do the cars justice, because you just have to see them to believe them!
On Saturday morning, the cars will be displayed in the parking lot of Central Park next to the ball field. It is nicely shaded, and the event is open to any cool old car, any year, make, or model. We will keep the awards simple: 1st, 2nd and 3rd popular choice. The honorable Ace Fry has agreed to provide us with some of his custom made ceramic tile awards. The folks at Redneck Smoke in Trinidad are eager to set up their food truck and serve some of the best barbecue in the area for a no-host lunch offering right there at the park from 11:00 to 1:00. In addition to BBQ, they have an awesome vegetarian menu (for a bunch of rednecks.) If you aren't into BBQ, there are plenty of really good places to chow down all over town, and most everything is 10 minutes away!
Following the car show, packets for the Trivia Tour will be distributed at the park. The drive will take less than 2 hours (probably a lot less) and will hopefully take you to some places you would not find on your own. No separate classes, drive what you brung.
Awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. We will gather completed packets at the banquet (included in your entry fee) Saturday night at Tequila's, just across the highway from the Quality Inn at Exit 11. You will have several dinner choices, including vegetarian. See below for details:
Chile Colorado. Chunks of beef in a tasty red chile sauce. Veggie Fajitas. Fresh vegetables sautéed in seasoned tomato sauce. Pollo Bravo. Chicken breast sautéed in a hot salsa. Chile Verde. Chunks of pork simmered in a green tomatillo sauce. Dessert (flan) and non alcoholic beverages are included. Bar service is available. Sunday morning, we will gather at the dining area of the hotel at 8:00, eat breakfast (included with your room or $10 if you are
not a hotel guest), hand out the car show and tour awards and say our farewells. Then we will call it done for the weekend so you can hit the road with full bellies and great memories, hopefully by 10:00 or so.
Please contact Dave Fain at 303-704-1352/[email protected] or Gidget Fain at 505-250-7918/[email protected]. Let us know as soon as possible if you are interested in participating.
We expect mostly British cars at the event, but it is open to anything you want to drive so your Corvette, '56 Chevy, or low-rider is welcome. We want to encourage our guests to arrive on Thursday night so you can spend Friday exploring Trinidad's numerous art galleries, museums, antique stores, and other unique "specialty stores". We also suggest driving the Scenic Highway of Legends which is a self guid-ed tour through the mountains west of Trinidad fea-turing 70 miles of Colorado's most beautiful scenery and ending up in Walsenburg.
Join us for a fun filled weekend that won't bust your budget.
K en Adams can lay claim to witnessing and influencing much of the history of British cars
in Albuquerque. As a car owner, mechanic, and business owner, he has been involved since the early 1960s. He has seen and weathered sweeping chang-es in the import car market and has observed the winners and losers through the years. Born and raised in Iowa, Ken joined the Navy right out of high school. From 1958 to 1960 he was stationed at Kirtland AFB at the Navy’s special weapons facility and got useful training which helped him later. After leaving the Navy, he decided to stay in Albu-querque. He started working in gas stations and as a mechanic, and then got on with the Albuquerque Fire Department. By mid 1963 he’d grown tired of the politics and bureaucracy and responded to an ad by Odum Motor Company seeking a mechanic for the dealership. Ken owned an Isetta 300 (max. speed 62 MPH with white knuckles and clenched teeth) but had no other experience as a foreign car mechanic. He got the job and just “figured it out” as he went along. Odum had a Sunbeam and Triumph dealership at Central and Rhode Island, and the showroom was an old Quonset hut. At that time, parts were ordered from out of town, and Ken recalls many a trip to the bus station to pick them up. After three months he came to work one morn-ing to find the owner had left town and folded the business, and shorting Ken a paycheck and stiffing his creditors.
In October of 1963 Ken went to work as a mechanic for Jack Miller, a used car dealer at Lousi-ana and Central. The dealership later moved to Eubank and Central becoming Miller Sports Car Center selling Sunbeam, Jaguar, Lotus, Austin, MG, and other British marques. Ken worked his way up to service manager where he learned to deal with often frustrated import car owners and get them rolling again. One indignant lady brought in a Sunbeam toaster and couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t fix it [RF: yeah, I get that a lot too]. The inside joke among mechanics was that the typical import car owner worked on the base (Kirtland/Sandia), smoked a pipe, and had a Sears battery in the car. Ken got valuable experience and got to know many import owners. This came in handy when after a year he came to work one morning and found the whole place had been cleaned out and the owner had left town while owing Ken two weeks
wages. Ken gathered up a bunch of old invoices with owner contact information and set about start-ing his own independent repair business. He rented space for a while and got a loan to take over another mechanic’s repair business. In 1967 he bought a property at Wyoming and Copper, which he still owns. By that time, he was married with five kids, so it was a whirlwind 10 years for him.
In over 30 years in the business, Ken saw many changes in the import market with British, Italian, German, and Japanese cars all having their heyday. Melloy had taken over the BMC cars and Jaguar, and Joe Heaston had Triumph in addition to Fiat, Saab, and some other marques. In the ’60s there was greater product loyalty and identity among owners. That changed as cars became utilitarian and were considered little more than transportation. Ken says mechanicals on early Japanese cars were often bad copies of British or American counterparts. Build quality was initially low but improved later. He
(Continued on page 5)
BAOA Member Profile: Ken Adams
by Rex Funk
remembers doing three or four valve jobs a week when he started out, and far fewer later as metal-lurgy build quality, and reliability improved. The Albuquerque Sports Car Club, an SCCA affiliate, ran weekend gymkhanas in parking lots around town. There were some dirt track ovals, and Ken prepped and raced jalopies, formula V, and other cars. It was common for mechanics to be involved with week-end racing, and the Unser family was one example. There were also road racing courses at an old airport at Ft. Stanton and out of state.
Ken survived by working on ”anything that came in the door” as long as it was an import. Most other shops were scared of foreign cars, and he was able to build a good customer base. Prior to the Internet, there was little information available about the cars other than Glenn’s Import Repair manuals. Everyone helped each other out. The early labor rate was typically $6-per-hour. A valve job on a VW took 7.5 hours and cost about $45 for labor. The mechanic got about half of this. In addition, they got uniforms and one week vacation a year, but had to supply their own tools. A good “flat rate” mechanic did only what was needed to fix the car, and did it quickly. One mechanic once did a clutch job on a
VW bug in about 45 minutes. Parts houses like European Auto Parts, Imported Auto Parts, and Checkered Flag Auto Parts opened in the ’60s, but eventually went under due to competition from UPS, FEDX, and chain stores.
Ken is proud that he made the effort to become a “Certified Master Mechanic” under the Automotive Standard of Excellence program for over 30 years. He closed his shop in 1997 after 33 years at that loca-tion. Cars were becoming increasingly complex, with complicated and proprietary electronics known only to dealers. At 79 he stays active and arbitrates for the Better Business Bureau on auto repair dis-putes. He also advised TVI on their auto repair cur-riculum. One of his favorite pastimes is campaigning a Ford Escort in endurance races at tracks in the Southwest. He is on a team of “Geezers” who share driving time in the car. He also likes to fiddle with classic car distributors, and has equipment to check advance curves, dwell angles, etc. He also owns a few motorcycles and race cars and dabbles in what-ever interests him. He and his wife Viola are long-time members and regular participants at BAOA events. Ken has many other stories to tell about his experiences and has a wealth of knowledge about import car history in Albuquerque.
(Continued from page 4)
BAOA Fourth Saturday Flapjack Flip
hosted by the Morrisons!
T he seventh high altitude Flapjack Flip for British automobile enthusiasts is a
go! Henry & Chris Morrison invited the entire club to an outdoor pancake
breakfast at the Doc Long picnic area in the Sandía mountains!
Buzz on up to the Doc Long picnic area at about 9:00AM on Saturday,
July 28th and Henry, Chris, and company will fling a flapjack your
way. Coffee, juice, and other breakfast goodies will be served too.
Please bring your own folding chairs if possible.
*** From Albuquerque, drive approximately 7 miles east on I-40 to Exit 175.
Proceed north on Highway 14 about 7 miles to Highway 536 (Sandía Crest Rd.).
Go just over a mile west on Highway 536 to the picnic area. ***
Keep your eyes peeled for the turn off for Doc Long
picnic area, other little British cars, and low flying flapjacks!
(Please, remember to pay the Park Service parking fee.)
Flip out on Saturday, July 28th at 9:00AM.
For Sale: 1977 MGB
This vehicle has been totally restored. It has 36,000 miles
on it. It has gas shocks, wire wheels, Weber two-barrel
carb., & cruise control. The car ran on the Indy Speedway
in 1996 during the MG International. I want to sell the car
for $9,900.00. Contact: Cosmo Lubertazzo at (505)
856-7137 or (505) 610-6237 or [email protected].
For Sale: I have a 1965 3.8 S Type Saloon, which I have
owned since 1990. The car (locally purchased from
Melloy) has historically been maintained by myself and
local mechanics, Bruce Kirby and Tom Leggets. I am ad-
vancing in age and am thinking of selling the car. I think I
have around $15K in restoration but will sell for $7,500.
Thanks, Tim. The car needs a “tune up” so I will contact
your mechanics listed on this site.
Name: Tim Callahan
Phone: (505) 440-6207
Email: [email protected]
For Sale: I have a 1971 MG Midget for
sale. It has 25,000 original mile on it.
I found it in a barn in Belén, NM.
It has an updated carb. and electronic
ignition installed. Car runs and drives
great. Needs minor body work and a paint
job. I have all lenses and emblems needed
to complete car. Asking $5,000 or best
offer. Contact Robert Patterson at:
(505)804-6206 or
Pick up the New MORRIS MINOR book!
Available from your local bookstore.
4215 Menaul Blvd., NE; Albuquerque, NM 87110
888-3833
Hours: Mon. - Fri., 8:00AM - 5:00PM
Adam O'Connell
Two Great Motorcars
For Sale!
1960 MG MGA: $20,000 OBO
(1958 MG Magnette ZB: $15,000
Contact Kevin Sullivan:
Hello: I just found your car club and made it to the show [NMCCC]
with my Dad, and our 1978 MG Midget. I’m offering her for sale as
my Dad can no longer work on her easily. We have kept her well
maintained and protected in my single car garage. Thanks so much
for any help you guys can give for us to find a new home for her, and
someone who will carry on our love and care for her.
Danita For Sale: 40th anniversary for 1978 MG Midget (original
paint color British Racing Green): New tires (2017). New Battery
(2106). Runs Great! 6,000 miles on complete rebuild engine/
transmission. 78,800 miles on odometer. This car is perfect for moun-
tain drives on the Turquoise Trail to Madrid. She always gets atten-
tion wherever she goes and we are looking for someone to take over
and love her as much as we have.
Asking $7,500 OBO – phone (505) 288-7920.
B.A.O.A. P.O. Box 35445 Albuquerque, NM 87176-5445
Board of Directors Ace Fry (505) 449-7507 Rex Funk (520) 400-3337 Jake Jacobsen (505) 228-1361 Bill Lawrence (505) 934-7827 John Smedinghoff (505) 856-6712 Patrice Smedinghoff (505) 856-6712
Newsletter Kevin Kittle (505) 345-4207
www.baoa.org
