2016 - Page 2 of 2 - Vermont Auto Enthusiasts

1954 R Type Bentley

Christina and Paul McCaffrey’s ’54 Bentley

Are those Holley Carburetors we can see in the Bentley? Oh no, they are SUs, straight from the island!

We purchased our 1954 Bentley R-Type on 10/3/1999 from Philip Palmer – Starksboro. Original owner was Stephen John Pilkington of “The Quarries”, Quarry Drive, Ormskirk, Lancaster County, England. The vehicle was imported to Lake Placid NY in 1985. Chassis is a Standard Steel Saloon # B109ZX; 4 1/2 Litre; bench front seat; RHD; Coker Tires

We took it to the RROC ( The International Club for Bentley & Rolls-Royce Owners & Enthusiasts) national meet in Greenwich Connecticut where the local dealer completely over-hauled the brake system. They say that Bentley and Rolls Royce vehicles don’t breakdown – they only may experience “failure to proceed”. Our Bentley R-Type had a failure to stop! Once the work was finished it practically stood on the bonnet when the brakes were applied.

I grew up in Greenwich with six siblings. Our family car was always a Ford station wagon where we fought over the chance to sit in front “way back”. We took regular Sunday drives and played “punch buggy” when VW’s were spotted. My Mom always said she’d love a Rolls Royce if she could have any car she wanted. With a small inheritance from her, the Bentley became the first in our modest “collection”.

We have used it in a few family/close friends weddings. We’d love to do more but insurance restricts “commercial use”. Paul is the designated chauffeur – I’ve only driven it in parking lots and open fields. We have taken it to VAE shows in Stowe, Shelburne, St. Albans; Knight’s Point; Manchester VT; and has been a regular 1st place winner at the Bristish Invasion in Stowe. We enjoy the Tailgate competition and dressing in Vintage clothing of the 50’s era.

Bio: Paul and I were married in Ireland. We both work at the University of Vermont Medical Center in the Operating Room. Paul has been a surgical technician for 43 years; I am a neurosurgical nurse there. Paul served in the Army in Vietnam, was a City Councilor in Winooski, and was a private investigator. I formally worked as an independent stockbroker and as a Cost Estimator for General Electric/Lockheed Martin. We have five grown children: Lauren, Coberlin, Jameson, William James and John (Jack). Five grandchildren: Hillary, Marley, Paris, Taylor and Zoey. We also enjoy Lake Champlain – Sailing out of LCYC in Shelburne Bay and fishing.

A Universal Problem – Dave’s Garage

Many automobile manufacturers have been making drive shaft universal joints as a non- serviceable item. These universal joints are also sealed, with no grease fittings or provisions to grease the joint. When the joint eventually fails, (due to lack of lubrication) the entire drive shaft has to be replaced. These universal joints are held in the yokes with stakes, punched in with a press at the factory, and are therefore referred to as “staked in” U-joints. Ford, Chrysler, GM, Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Jaguar and BMW all have models utilizing staked in universal joints. The Mazda Miata and virtually all Subarus have those joints.

I recently noticed a vibration in my Subaru Outback. When I removed the driveshaft between the transmission and the rear axle both universal joints were binding, with rust powder falling out of the trunnion. Subaru has been using staked in universal joints for years. Subaru does not offer a replacement joint. According to Subaru, the drive shaft is not serviceable, and when a carrier bearing or a universal joint fails, the entire drive shaft assembly needs to be replaced. The cost for a replacement drive shaft is roughly $850. I was not about to purchase an $850 driveshaft because a $30 universal joint failed. Outside of the joints the driveshaft still looked new, no rust anywhere.

Once again, Google is my friend. I found a driveshaft shop that makes replacement universal joints for staked in universal joint drive shafts. This replacement universal joint has an internal snap ring designed to work with this type of drive shaft yoke.

I ordered two joints. The original joints were easily pressed out with my press. Once there was moderate pressure on the trunnion cap, bang! They popped right out.

Installing the new joints was slightly tricky. I had to dress the trunnion cap mating surface in the yoke with a half round file to remove the burrs from the previous staked in joints. I also needed to dress the inner face of the yoke to make a nice flat surface for the new snap rings to go. Once assembled, I needed to tweak the caps a tad to make the joint flex easily. Slight persuasion with a ball peen hammer was required to seat the trunnion caps with the internal snap rings. Once everything was done, there was no binding or free play in the joints. Before I installed the drive shaft I applied grease with the grease gun until I could see fresh grease oozing out of all four trunnion caps. Here is one of the old joints. Notice the burrs on the bearing surface.

Please email all inquiries to: Dave
or snail mail
32 Turkey Hill Road
Richmond VT 05477

Hello 2016!

First, wishing you all a happy and healthy New Year! We had our Colorado daughter and grandson here for Christmas, which was a good all-family-together time, including my brother Scott and wife. Wendell and I had actually gotten the bathroom wallpapered and a new shower curtain installed a couple of days before their arrival. I had “sort of” cleaned the house – wouldn’t want them to be too shocked, if squeaky clean! I didn’t get a chance to make wreaths this year, another first, but there’s always next year I suppose. We did get the Christmas tree up three (!) days early and put the lights on it. The rest was up to our guests, who did a fine job. We undecorated the tree and got it outside before it started shedding needles. It now has another life as a bird feeder with suet hung on it.

We were at a loss for what to bring to January “Memorabilia Meet”, when it occurred to me that we had a mysterious tool on the shelf that I had picked up at an antique store a couple of years back. Maybe it was automobile related. This might be an opportunity to get some educated opinions as to what it is. Wendell took it along and put a note on it asking for ideas as to its identity and use. We got some wild stabs, but no direct hits. Well, now this is the age of Google and computer search engines, so we subsequently gave that a try. Bingo! You probably never heard of an Alligator Wrench, but that’s what it is. Looking at it you can see where the name comes from. It was used mostly by steam locomotive maintenance workers to loosen nuts and pipes. I never would have guessed.

The Stowe car show is months away, but we’ve got to be thinking now about what items we’d like to offer for sale in the souvenir booth. We’d like to Jazz up our inventory a bit. If you have any ideas as to items you think would sell well, we’d like to hear them. Contact me or Kit Wheatley if you have any suggestions. We’ve heard umbrellas, coffee cups with VAE on them, water jugs, again with VAE, cloth tote bags with VAE or Stowe Show printed on them. Any ideas would be appreciated. Again, have a great 2016!

1979 MG

Dick & Kit Wheatley’s ‘79 MG

When did you purchase the MG, Dick?

I purchased in February 2006. I was looking for a reasonably priced MG, spotted this online one cold Sunday afternoon. The car was located in Maryland. I threw a bid on it (wanted to see how ebay worked), didn’t think too far ahead, then left for a tennis match in Essex Jct,. When I came home there was a message from ebay “Congratulations, you won, now pay!”

Why an MG?

I thought they had nice clean lines, the ones with the metal bumpers, my first choices were a bit pricey.

What have you done to it…any future restoration plans?

The car hasn’t needed much. I filled the tank with gas one day, parked on a hill and gas leaked out the filler cap, stained the black rubber bumper, white, so I took it to a local body shop and they painted the rear bumper the same color as the body. The front bumper was painted when I purchased it, has held up pretty well. I did replace the exhaust, so I could hear the radio.

What was the mileage when you got it and how many now?

In the 90’s when purchased, something over a 100K now.

Was there a nice trip that you and Kit have had with it?

Mostly local trips, a few garage tours. It has been a hit with our grandkids.

Any other points members would be interested in reading?

I had to find a carrier to bring it up from Maryland. We live on a dirt road, slightly hilly. The guy showed up with a car trailer after dark on a snowy night with a plan to back into our driveway. He could not get up to the garage, it was too slippery. The driver says “why would anyone want to live out here?”, he was from Florida. I pulled it up the driveway with the tractor and pushed it into the garage. The seller told me he would fill the rear hatch with spare parts, but the lid would not open, no matter what I did. I called a good friend, Rod Rice, the next day. Rod said his son Dave had a similar MG in South Burlington and Rod had a key to his garage. Without hesitation he said he would meet me there in 45 minutes. We looked at the rear hatch mechanism on Dave’s car and determined the only way to get into mine was to drill the lock out. Simple procedure, we found a pin had slipped out in transit, ordered a new part to replace it, everything was fine. I think Rod loved any excuse to get out of the house for something to do with a car. Rod was a great guy, helped our son with a Boy Scout project, our daughter with a school project on the Long Trail, always there ready & willing.

David Lamphere’s 1919 Franklin Touring

This 1919 Franklin Touring has been a car David Lamphere has known about much of his life. Franklin manufactured about 150,000 cars in Syracuse, New York from 1902 to 1934. This one has a story to tell…

World War I had just finished its four year blight in November of 1918, our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, died in January and according to Wikipedia, Amānullāh Khān became king of Afghanistan.

In Rutland, Vermont that year George Lamphere was shopping to buy a new car. He and his wife, Eva, lived at 3 Clarendon Avenue and their creamery & dry goods store on Main Street must have been doing fairly well. There were a number of auto dealerships in the area but the one at 107-109 West Street must have caught their eye because they sold an air cooled car where you didn’t have to worry about the radiator freezing up during the winter. Another thing they might have seen in the car ads was, “you could put the accelerator to the floor, even in the desert, and run it that way all day or until you ran out of gas”. That is how good these engines were. The dealership was named Rutland Machine and Auto Company and they sold Seldon trucks and Franklin Automobiles. The Franklin touring car pictured above is the car the Lampheres decided upon.

David and Cereta Lamphere are VAE members from Westford, Vermont; George Lamphere is David’s grandfather and the Franklin touring sits in David’s garage today. The car was passed from George to David’s dad, Richard, and then to David.

The Franklin Company had sold about 43,000 cars by 1919 and had the process fairly well perfected by then. They were using 6 cylinder engines in 1906 for some of their models and by 1914 all Franklins had six cylinder engines. Managing the air flow was important in these air cooled vehicles and until 1922 all that was required was a fan between the engine and the transmission to help “pull” the air through. As the horse power increased they moved the fan to the front of the engine and continued to use the cylinder fins to force air down past the hot cylinders, this was called a “down-drafter”. As the 6 cylinder engine power grew, from 24 HP to over 100HP, the company changed again in 1930, to keeping the fan in the front but now forcing air “across” the engine thus calling it a side drafter. A much more efficient way to keep the engine cool.

It appears George and Eva began a family tradition with the Franklin car. Over the years they had the 1919, a 1923 sedan and two 1929s sedans. One of those 29s later was reworked into a pickup truck which also sits in David’s garage. David’s dad, Richard, added a 1930 and 1931 sedan to the family Franklin history and then David took his turn when he was 15 years old, when he purchased a used 1930 sedan for $45.00. David also bought a ’31 roadster at one point bringing the count to eight Franklins.

Richard was an engineer and loved to tweak things and make them better. While the 1919 was in his possession he added an electric fuel pump with a pressure regulator, to keep the carburetor from handling anything over one and a half pounds of fuel pressure. He also added a fuel pressure and a vacuum pressure gauge to the dash. The ignition switch has an extra position so when you engage the starter a second battery is wired in to have 12 volts. Once the engine is running, the switch is moved to the 6 volt position.

It is probably not totally unusual for an automobile to be purchased new and be in a family for ninety eight years, but Wheel Tracks did not want to miss out telling this story.

As you have read in our classifieds the 1919 is for sale. David and Cereta need to down-size and have decided to try to find a good home for the old girl, that still runs perfectly. The hope is that the car stays in the VAE family and will have many more stories to tell years from now.

How many of you will be watching for those Rutland addresses the next time you go through. Please take a picture of what is there now and send them to Wheel Tracks.

Goodbye 2015

happy new year 2016 If you are reading this, then Christmas is over and thoughts of putting this season away and what 2016 will bring are on your mind. Did I get what I wanted for Christmas? First, I don’t know because I wrote this 2 weeks before Christmas and second, I really didn’t ask for anything special but I’m sure I got something. We always say, ‘don’t get me anything’ but somehow can’t seem to honor the request. Just doesn’t seem right not to open something, no matter how small or silly. One of my favorites has always been dried pineapple, so one year I went to the natural food store and bought enough of it to fill my stocking! Probably at least 10 bags and maybe more, we all got a good laugh out of it, so it was sooo worth it! I forgot to tell you that some years Santa has been too busy to fill my stocking so I do it myself, which really isn’t so bad as I get exactly what I want and like and not what Santa is sure I’ll enjoy!

I think Christmas used to be better, I mean…. more fun and certainly more anticipated. Oh sure, I know what you are all saying, ‘you can tell Nancy is getting old, she is talking about the “good old days” – all true! When I say better, I know being young is certainly a big part of it all but Christmas in the years before we had all that we needed or wanted, it made (in my opinion) the whole season something to really enjoy. This was a time to get what you needed, socks, pjs, new boots, coat and in our house, a new game for the whole family. Not to say we didn’t get something we wanted, we did, but not to the fever pitch of today!

I have received, over the years, the typical, the unusual, useful, not so useful, what someone else wants, and the practical – like a snow shovel from my father-in-law – have to say never used the damn thing! Of course, telling him it was exactly the perfect gift! Don’t you just hate the way people gift? Kitchen stuff to the merry housewife and manly stuff to the man of the house, with the exception of my shovel, of course, but I think that was on sale and my 2 sisters-in-law got one too!! The last few years I have tried to convince the gift givers to give only edible things. It is not that I don’t appreciate the things but have long ago run out of places to put them.

Avery Hall’s 1928 Packard Roadster (model 533)

Avery’s 1928 Packard Roadster is very close to its coming-out party, it has been a 4 year project!

Packard’s motto was “Ask a man who Owns One”.
Avery Hall is that man!

This is what Avery Hall’s 1928 Packard Roadster (model 533) looked like when he started the restoration 4 years ago. Quite a difference from the beauty we see on the front page of this issue of Wheel Tracks!

Avery found the car in Florida in the early 1990s when he and VAEer, Bryce Howells drove there and trailered it home to Burlington. The two are in a small group of 16 VAE members who have Packards, wouldn’t it be great if we could see them all side by side, in all their glory, someday!

According to “American Cars Catalog” Avery’s model 533 is the fifth series of 6 cylinder Packards that started in production in 1921. After 1928, Packard did not build another 6 cylinder car until 1937. The 33 in the model number means the wheel base is 133 inches.
The L-head straight six with a bore and swing of 3.5 X 5 inches produces 81 HP and has 7 main bearings, mechanical lifters and the Packard updraft carburetor. The publication says there were 13,414 of the model 533s produced in 1928.

Wheel Tracks has been corrected a few times on what the 5 really means in the model number 533. The 5 might simply mean it was the fifth series as noted above. We were told it also means the travel of the piston and one informant says the 5 means the number of passengers the roadster can carry. Wheel Tracks will publish any “corrections” that might be sent in our next issue….please stand by.

There is no question about Avery’s 533 when it comes to beauty and quality. When standing in front of the vehicle and looking along the side of the body you can find it has a beautiful curve as it reaches the rear of the car……a little “boat-tail” feel!

The engine compartment is very simple and easy to understand it’s workings. Even the Stuart vacuum tank is in full dress, as you can see to the left. Most of the white oak body frame has had to be replaced in Avery’s 4 to 5 year restoration. The engine was rebuilt by the “Auto Shop” and the upholstery and top was done by Michael Lemire in Richmond, Vermont

The first Packard was built in 1899 in Warren, Ohio. In 1903 the main Packard factory opened in Detroit, it was designed by Albert Kahn and occupied 3.5 million square feet across 47 buildings on 40 acres and employed over 40,000 skilled workers. In 1956, when the factory was closed, it was claimed to be the largest abandoned factory in the world.

The Parts Car – Dave’s Garage

Several years ago the price of scrap steel went up. Way up. As a result of this rise in scrap prices, many salvage yards crushed and scrapped much of their inventory. This was not a good thing for those of us with older cars.

Recently, scrap prices have dropped, dramatically. This is good news for consumers of used parts for older vehicles. Salvage yards are less inclined to scrap inventory, and older cars taken off the road are less desirable for scrappers. A recent search on Craigslist led to the discovery of many available parts cars, all at reasonable prices.

For older cars, Gates Salvage in Hardwick has piles and miles of cars. For more recent cars, local pick-n-pull yards or Craigslist probably have the car you are looking for.

Purchasing parts cars can be quite valuable during restorations, and for maintaining an older daily driver. I recently purchased several Saab 900 parts cars. Parts for Saabs are becoming hard to get. It is very handy to have whole parts cars available when parts are needed. Often a whole parts car can be had for the cost of one replacement part.

I have had many parts cars over the years. I usually end up selling parts I don’t need to other enthusiasts, often recouping the initial cost of the car. Once the car has been picked of useful parts, it goes to the scrap yard.

The only down side to having parts cars is storage. It is hard to justify valuable garage space for a junk car. A lack of adequate storage could be a problem. Ideally a parts car should be located in a garage, barn shed or in an outside area where the vehicle is not visible. Your parts car is an eyesore for your neighbors. Many municipalities have ordinances prohibiting possession of unregistered vehicles on the property. With a few tarps, a parts car looks the same as a woodpile.