It is always good to have the right equipment to effect a proper repair.  Our old Bridgeport-style milling machine came to the rescue last month when my friend Dean approached me with a problem with his beautiful Jaguar MK II Saloon.

It seems that Jaguar, in its infinite wisdom, designed the engine compartment of these early 60’s era cars so tightly that  was no room left up front for more than a single drive  groove on the crank pulley.  When Jaguar later introduced power steering as an option to their cars, there was literally no room to mount a power steering pump, given the cross-flow head, which fills the right side of the engine compartment with a pair (or more) of SU carburetors, and the left-side which is reserved for the dual exhaust manifold system.

Jagua...

I love online car enthusiast forums.  There is just an amazing wealth of knowledge out there on the internet, and lots of car-guys willing to share their expertise with other forum members. Recently, I undertook to rebuilt the Stromberg carburetor on my venerable 1940 Cadillac Fleetwood Sixty Special:

A few months ago, while visiting my neighbor and good friend Matt’s house, he pointed out damage to his Suzuki Aero that was caused by an unfortunate encounter with a deer one early evening.  The car was in horrible shape, but, amazing, it seemed to be undamaged mechanically, and ran and drove fine.  But, with a busted headlight, and front bumper assembly broken and dangling, it was in no shape to be safely or legally driven:

Matt...

If you are visiting this blog, then chances are you are a car or motorcycle enthusiast.  Appropriately then, you most likely own one or more classic or exotic vehicles.  If that be the case, then you’ve probably yearned for a space for that next classic on your bucket list.  Such was the case with the three principals of Austin’s newest facility, the Petrol Lounge, Jack McCauley, Randy Whitten, and Glen Nordell.

This trio o...

My lovely MGA roadster, pictured below, has been running rough at idle for a couple of months now.  The engine seemed to smooth out at higher rpm’s, so in my inevitable optimistic way, I did nothing.  Err, that is, until several weeks ago when, on a short trip from shop to house, the engine suddenly developed a significant miss.  Clearly from the sound, the engine was just running on three cylinders.

I go...

Put 2 car guys in a vehicle in pursuit of yet another car, and only good things can come of the adventure!

Such was the case when I mentioned to my friend Bill Hayes that I had purchased another car via eBay, located in Minnesota, and intended to fly up to Minneapolis, take possession of the car, and drive it home back to Austin.

Many of you younger car enthusiasts scarcely remember the era of the overdrive transmission, but in the 1950’s and 60’s its use was ubiquitous in a number of American cars, dating as early as 1934 for Chrysler’s Airflow, and extending to 1972 as installed in Ford trucks.  Other makes included Nash, Rambler, Studebaker, Hudson, Lincoln, and Mercury.

To my knowledge there is no vehicle in production today that offers a transmission similar to the Borg Warner.  I personally have owned 3 different vehicles with that same transmission (a 1951 Hudson Hornet, a 1950 Studebaker truck, and a 1953 Nash-Healey Lemans Coupe), and have found them to be a delightful enhancement over a standard 3-speed transmission.

These units are v...

There is hardly a classic car out there which doesn’t cry out for some sort of paint work.  It seems that interiors, if well cared for, can last for decades without issue, and even mechanical items, especially for a low mileage car, can retain their youth far into the future.

Not so with exterior automotive paint.  Of course, the paint on a car is most exposed to the elements, and so is more susceptible to degradation.  Even for cars carefully stored indoors however, paint just seems to have its own life span, measured in years, not decades.

So it...

I normally shy away from promoting any specific business on this blog.  I generally  want the blog’s content to be “influence-free”.  However, I have been so enamored with one online presence that I just felt compelled to share the knowledge with my fellow gear heads.

Although my buddy...