It takes a certain amount of stubbornness to drive a tiny Classic Mini Cooper in a rural area populated with cowboys driving enormous pick-up trucks. The Cooper could fit in a flatbed with plenty of room left over for some hay bales and a few farm animals. But Ken Hyndman, the Classic Mini pro on…
Sometimes restorations go well. And sometimes they don’t. No matter how big the job at hand, having a written contract going into a job can pay huge dividends at the end—and ensure many fun returns. I always buy myself a birthday present. When I turned 25, I bought myself a sports car. I grew up…
Michael: Dad brought up the idea of getting a TR6 to work on when I was 14. Great idea, I thought, we’d have a car done by the time I got my license. I had no clue of the amount of work it would take. I just thought it would be cool to drive a…
(Authors note: This story is part fiction and part fact, the names have been changed to protect, well…me obviously.) Part One: Discovery It was a dark and stormy night…no it wasn’t either, it was a rainy Wednesday morning, really. March, 31st, 2004, look it up. I had just stopped by the heating and cooling repair…
Over the years, there have been times when I thought car projects would drive me crazy. My son Jonathan and I both owned MGBs that we maintained and restored. Armed with the shop manual, every MG repair book written, Moss catalogs, and a good supply of parts, I learned a lot about how to keep…
“Experience keeps a dear school, but fools will learn in no other.” Ben Franklin may not have owned an MG, but he was wise enough to leave that advice for MG owners. Recently I took bits of my MG engine to a machine shop to be examined, ground, bored, and otherwise refreshed, and I realized…
A few years ago I sold my beloved Austin-Healey 100 in order to continue my quest to own as many interesting old British sports cars as possible. I wanted my next car to be a good all-arounder. I like to tour, autocross, and just tool around or take the wife out to dinner on a…
It was a stunning Sunday afternoon in Texas, a top down day if there ever was one. As I drove with a cigar set firmly between my teeth, I took in all the senses that only a car like this can provide, senses poetically described by the rock band Rush, in a song from their…
So you are starting to hear rumblings, crunches and other unfamiliar noises from under the transmission tunnel that are now getting louder than all the other noises in the car. Turning up the radio doesn’t help anymore. It’s seems to be getting a bit more difficult to get into some or all the gears. Once…
You’ve poured your life, soul and wallet into restoring your classic car for the past few years, and things have gone pretty well. You’ve done most of the work yourself, hiring only a few professionals along the way when you haven’t had the time, skills or equipment. The day finally comes when you go for…
