Four States of Separation: Seeking and Hiding in Massachusetts (Post # 67)

Peeling back the hide of one of the front seats. Locating
original materials with which to reupholster the seats
and door panels is proving difficult. Derrick Dunbar. 

In an update in September Derrick Dunbar at Paul Russell & Co. indicated he is still seeking correct or similar hides (well, vinyls and rubber, actually) for the seats and door panels.  It looks like the headliner and vinyl covering the shelf under the rear window can be reused, but most of the rest of the interior will have to be replaced.   It's a Spartan interior for sure, more race car than grand tourer, and that's just as well as far as I'm concerned. 

Beneath the upholstery of the svelt racing seats lurks
several different cushioning and support materials--all 
having exceeded their "best before" date. Derrick 
Dunbar.

While the search for materials continues, disassembly of the seats, frames, door panels, and package shelf under the rear window has revealed that other types of work are needed.  Original support and cushioning materials include a potpourri of burlap, at least two types of foam, felt, and something that looks like cotton batting! 

The backs of the front seats were designed to pivot forward
to allow access to the rear seating area.  Although the
driver's seat does pivot, for some reason the passenger's
seat back was brazed to the lower frame, rendering it
immovable. We decided to leave it that way. Derick Dunbar 

Having lost all of its springiness decades ago, the original wide Pirelli rubber webbing supporting the seat cushions had to be replaced with new material and secured with matching compression rivets. 

The seat frames and bases needed to be stripped, primed and refinished, making sure to match the original color and type of paint.  

Beneath the upholstery on the door panels Derrick found The Alfatross' Zagato serial number!  Derrick Dunbar.

The fluted vinyl upholstery on the package shelf looks like
it may be reusable, but The 4 mm plywood it is tacked to is
warped and split, but the supports underneath will be
re-used.  Derrick Dunbar.

The aluminum interior door panels to which the upholstery was attached had to be straightened and flattened and oversize fastener holes had to be filled.  In the process Derrick discovered the car's Zagato serial number boldly painted on the surface between the panel and upholstery. The thin, fragile plywood used to make the parcel shelf under the rear window will have to be replicated and replaced.  

The carpeting is another matter awaiting resolution. Derrick will not be able to install carpets until The Alfatross is in his trim shop, but that will have to wait until Tim, DeWayne and I have finished our parts of the restoration.

This kind of work is all about labor. The materials used originally were cheap and they're (relatively) cheap now.  The cost of materials so far comes to less than $100, but labor is many times that amount. 

If it sounds like we are "polishing away the past," remember that The Alfatross may have been a preservation or even "barn find" candidate 45 years ago when it fell into my lap, but those days are long gone.  Sympathetic restoration is now the only path to follow with the intention that when we are finished it will look great, be totally roadworthy, and offer seating that enhances the driving experience.  

Four States of Separation: Seeing Red in Tennessee (Post # 66)

Seeing Red in Tennessee

Tennessee Tim at Vintage Autocraft hopes to have the body and chassis finished in December.  The previous post talked about color, but what about the type of paint to be used?  Here is his explanation:

The Alfatross was originally painted in nitrocellulose lacquer which was introduced in European car paint by BASF (Glasurit-werkes) in 1925 and used until at least the late 1950s at which time acrylic lacquer became available. In order to retain originality, some restoration shops have used lacquer paint. However, the final outcome is not always met with long lasting success. I know of one early Bugatti which after being sprayed in lacquer was left in a transport vehicle overnight in sub freezing weather. Because of the sudden shift in temperature, the paint shattered resulting in a complete re-spray. 

The goal with The Alfatross is to use new technology in BASF acrylic urethane yet make it look as originally painted by Zagato in nitro lacquer.  Having worked with original nitro lacquer and knowing what it should look like, I have developed a process to achieve the correct original look using the newer paint without the limitations of 1920s technology. Besides, lacquer is hard to come by, is toxic and flammable, and is technically illegal to use in the automotive industry.

The steel frame of the driver's door.  Rust abounds in the
panel at the bottom.  Corrosion protection was non-
existent at this time.  Tim Marinos.

Tim has been working on The Alfatross for almost a year now.   The steel chassis needed a lot more work than I thought.  In many cases, the condition of the chassis and steel framework inside the doors, hood, and boot lid necessitated removing the aluminum skin to get at the corroded steel. Various bits and pieces of steel and aluminum had to be removed and replaced with exact reproductions.  Recent examples of this kind of work are the doors and hood.  

The aluminum skin of the driver's door after removing the
steel frame.  Tim Marinos

Tim at work on mating the restored steel frame to the
hood.  Tim Marinos.

The completed hood going back on The Alfatross.  Tim
Marinos.

Of course Tim still has a few hundred hours of work left to do.  Tim's job is the most critical right now because until he's finished the rest of the work has no sense of urgency.  Once he's finished the ball will be back in my court.  I can pick The Alfatross up and trailer it back to Santa Fe for installation of the suspension, steering, brakes, electrical harness, drive train, wheels and maybe even the engine. Then it's off to Derrick Dunbar at Paul Russell & Co. in Massachusetts for the interior.  

Derrick is hard at work on the interior even now, preparing the door panels, package shelf under the rear window, and seats in advance of The Alfatross' arrival.  More on that in the next post: "Seeking and Hiding in Massachusetts."

Seeing Red (Post # 65)

Color

They tell me I'm color blind.  They show me test results to prove it.  Unless you are color blind too, trust me, you have no idea what I'm talking about.  I doesn't seem to me that I'm missing anything, but apparently there's a big chunk of the visible spectrum that I just don't see.  There are different types of color blindness.  Mine is called "blue/yellow", which is less severe than "red/green".  To confuse matters even more, it doesn't mean I can't see blue and yellow--in fact they are the colors I see best. Go figure.  All this is to explain why, when it comes to issues of decisions about color, I defer to other people.

The Alfatross in about 1965, before the repaint.

The Alfatross was born red.  I admit that red is not one of my favorite colors.  I can't tell you why--it just isn't.  They tell me that there are a lot of different shades of red.  I see differences, but they are limited to "light red" and "dark red", not the 55 or so Wikipedia lists, or the "millions of colors" available in the digital world (or so they say).

Tim Marinos (Vintage AutoCraft) called last week to say that he compared the red on the Alfatross' original interior metal trim pieces, which seem to have retained their true color, with Alfa Romeo colors used in 1955 and decided that it was "AR 501 Rosso".  He then went on to describe it and I began to worry that he was talking about "light red", a color I really can't abide.  

Here it is, or something close to it, depending on all kinds
of factors like how well my camera captured it, what kind
of light it was shot in, how your computer translated it
and how your monitor decided to show it.

I asked him to send me an actual sample, which he did. And so it was with great relief that I laid eyes on 501 Rosso and found it to be the much more pleasing (to me) "dark red" red.  So much for the color.  What about the paint? 

Paint

Tim explained in great detail how he conducted some tests with a sample of this color produced by Glasurit.  He wanted to reproduce the kind of Old School finish The Alfatross would have had in 1955, which means a single stage paint job consisting of several color coats buffed to a gloss.  He didn't like the results.  So now he's thinking of a more modern two-stage approach in which the color coats would be covered by a clear coat to make it more durable.  The danger is that most clear coats are engineered to create a high gloss--inappropriate for cars from the mid-50s.

*02062*  with its two-tone paint scheme. 

Scheme

Same car, racing in period.  Michele Marchiano.

Of course there is always the temptation to paint the car the way you want, rather than as it originally came from the factory.  A few 1900 Zs were given two-tone paint schemes and some of these are quite attractive.  Back in the 70's when The Alfatross was just another used car I considered a two-tone paint scheme reminiscent of an Austin Healey 3000--  Maybe a purple top with pearl lower panel?

Fortunately, I didn't have the time, money, or determination to follow through on that . . . or the installation of a small-block American V8, or the Corvette seats, or the frenched tail lights or 8-track stereo system.

*01931*  Looks pink to me, but may be dust and fading, not 
the original color.

*01941* Looks kind of orangy to me.  Still not there.

*10405* Better, much better.  Matteo Bosisio.

Red Flags

About half of the two dozen or so known 1900 Zagatos are painted red.  Keeping in mind that photographs can't be counted on to faithfully represent what a color looks like in person, (and that I can't see the differences anyway) here is a selection of The Alfatross' red brethren for comparison:

*02056* Now this is more like it!  Tim Marinos.

Red Badge of Courage

It takes a lot of courage to paint something a color you can't see.  I could use some help from all you seers-of-red out there.  Is Tim steering me right on this? Is 501 Rosso the way to go?  There's always the two-tone scheme with purple and pearl to fall back on . . . .

Not There Yet .... (Post # 64)

The Santa Fe Concorso

In Italian, the word "concorso" means "an occasion on which a winner is selected from among two or more contestants."  Car events are central to the Age of the Automobile.  The first car show in history had to wait until the first car was produced.  But the first car contest had to wait until the second car was produced.  Then they took turns winning and losing until the third car was produced.  The rest is history.

Great cars, great setting, great day!

For me, the Santa Fe Concorso has been a good introduction to upscale car shows.  Actually, in addition to the normal heavy classics, American iron, featured marques, sports racers, and grand touring categories, the Concorso includes electric cars and hybrids, motorcycles and even bicycles.  The setting is the lush greens of The Club at Las Campanas during what is usually one of the best times of the year in this part of the country.  The catalog this year included about 120 well-chosen cars and motorcycles--more than anyone can truly appreciate in one day.  

But Wait . . . Something's Missing!

1960 Tipo 61 Birdcage Maserati--250 HP, 1,300 lbs!  

Only 16 examples were built between 1959 and 1961

The only thing missing was The Alfatross, rubbing shoulders with the other great cars and basking in the public's admiration.  

It has been 18 months since I determined that restoration of The Alfatross was my highest priority.  Why is it still not finished?  After all, it wasn't in bad condition to start with, and it's a relatively simple car technologically, utilizing 1950s technology.  Where has the time and money gone?

Radiator ornament on a 1932 Packard Deluxe Eight.

It's easier to tell where the money has gone than the time.  By far the biggest cost has been the work done on the chassis and body, but then it's the body that makes The Alfatross what it is.  I get monthly work summaries from Tim Marinos at Vintage AutoCraft which show that labor is running 30 times the cost of materials.  It's all about knowing what to do and how to do it, not about swapping out components.  

1956 Maserati Tipo 300S.  Piloted by Stirling Moss, this
 thoroughbred racer won the Venezuelan Grand Prix in 
1956 and went on to win other races in South America 
driven by Harry Schell and Juan Manuel Fangio.  

Work on most sub-assemblies like suspension, steering, brakes, drive train, electrical harness, instruments, steering wheel, electrical components, and wheels and tires can go on concurrently. Those are the things that I have been taking care of while the body, interior and engine are in the hands of recognized experts. But the time factor comes into play when a great deal of effort is required by research to find the right materials or when one stage of the restoration has to wait until another stage is completed.  

1913 Triumph Type C, complete with wicker side car, 
parasol, picnic basket, and golf club bag.   

Restoring the interior is a good example.  In spite of hours of research, the blue faux suede material used throughout the interior has proven extremely hard to duplicate, although Derrick Dunbar, trimmer at Paul Russell and Co. seems to have found a solution. The interior cannot be installed until the car is all but complete, but Derrick has already started on "stand alone" components such as the seats that can be done even without the car being present.  No time lost there!

Al Unser, Sr. takes the 1938 Maserati 8CTF "Boyle 
Special" Indy race car for a spin.  Some consider this car 
to be the most successful racer in the history of the Indy 
500, having won outright in 1939 and 1940, and having 
placed third in 1946 and 1947 and fourth in 1948!

Restoration of the engine seems to require equal parts time and money.  DeWayne Samuels of Samuels Speed Technologies has had the engine for more than two years. Progress has been delayed by research requirements, limited parts availability, the necessity of re-manufacturing worn original parts for re-use, and inefficiency associated with fees, taxes and duties when importing foreign-made parts.  The fact that several of The Alfatross' brethren do not have their original engines may be evidence that restoring an SS 1975cc engine is not as straight forward as one would think. 

The odd thing is that I'm not either surprised or disappointed.  I'm intent on getting to the end of the journey as quickly as possible while still doing the job properly--and enjoying the ride.

In a conversation with Paul Russell during the Concorso I learned about the Revs Institute for Automotive Research and the Stanford-Revs initiative (http://revsinstitute.org/about-the-institute/).  If you aren't familiar with it you should visit the site.  It's more than a car collection.  It's dedicated to the scholarly study of the automobile in all its myriad facets, and at the heart of it all is a library and archive containing more than one million items.

Yes, the cars on display at the Concorso are enthralling, awe-inspiring, but they represent a phenomenon with deeper significance.  The Concorso provides a good opportunity to reflect on the importance of the automobile in modern society, and how it has reshaped our world and attitudes in almost every way. It is easy to forget that.  We take our automobiles, the roads we drive on, the ready availability of fuel and the wherewithal to keep them running for granted these days. What was the world like before the automobile took over?  Unless you are 100 years old you can't even imagine.  

With any luck at all, a year from now The Alfatross will join the field next year at the 2015 Santa Fe Concorso and take its place as an historically important automobile.

And now for someting completely different: the 1946 Seagraves Pumper Fire Truck Rat Rod.
No car show is complete without one!

Why I Wasn't at Monterey (Post # 63)

I wanted to be there, I really did!  I wanted to see what the buzz was all about. And I knew that one of the Alfatross' brethren was going up for auction, Bill Kelly's car *01947*.  From the catalog images and description it sounded like a largely original example, minus the original engine. 

*01947*--Bill Kelly's  1955 1900C SS Zagato.  Gooding and Co.

I asked around at the Car Table what Monterey Car Week was like, and was told that it is one of those annual events that was better in the past, before it was "discovered".  Unless you like throngs of people, high prices for food, lodging and transportation, and frenetic hype--or are buying or selling a car at auction--better to read about it later in Sports Car Market or Octane.  One guy said about Pebble Beach, "You can't see the cars for all the people in the way!"  

I still wanted to go, but I had previous work commitments.  I was scheduled to return to Santa Fe a few days before the Gooding auction where the Kelly car would be offered, but I knew from previous experience that the job I had to do, installing an exhibit in the Turks and Caicos Islands National Museum, would likely take longer.

While I was in the Islands Tim Marinos of Vintage Autocraft called to say that he needed to see the Kelly car to help answer some questions that had come up while he was working on the chassis and body of The Alfatross.  There was also the possibility of seeing another one of the brethren, Arturo Keller's totally restored *02056*, but that was not certain.  With relief, I agreed that Tim should make the trip and see and photograph both cars, if possible.  By this time I knew I would still be 3,500 miles from Monterey during Car Week.

*02056*--Arturo Keller's beautifully restored 1955 1900C SS Zagato.  Tim Marinos.

When I finally returned to the US I discovered that Tim had closely inspected and photographed the Kelly and Keller cars as well as Corrado Lopresto's  "barn find" *01845*, whose presence at Monterey was a big surprise to both of us. So not only did Tim get to see three of the Alfatross' brethren but also a complete spectrum of examples from a non-running restoration candidate to a numbers-matching, running, preservation "barn find" to a fully restored example. Between the two of us we have now personally inspected six of The Alfatross' brethren--or about 24% of the known survivors.  Our database of 1900C SSZ characteristics is growing!

*01845*--Corrado Lopresto's "barn find" 1954 1900C SS Zagato.  Tim Marinos.

During the five weeks I spent in the Turks and Caicos Islands installing the new exhibits I kept thinking about The Alfatross and the many common threads connecting archaeology, carchaeology, and museology. One of the exhibits required us to fabricate a mannequin of a helmet diver from the 1800s who salvaged shipwrecks from all around the Caribbean Sea, and put him in his "dive locker" surrounded by his air pump, diving equipment, and objects he brought up from beneath the sea.  

Jeremiah Murphy mannequin in full diving regalia along with air pump and salvage items.

The other exhibit was a lot more complicated.  We had to build a full-scale reproduction of the "Lantern Room" of the Grand Turk lighthouse, install the lamp, lens, and mechanical clockwork--and make them all work together again for the first time in decades.  We had to balance authenticity with practicality, figure out how to get Industrial Age machinery working again, create physical contexts to put them in, pay attention to  authentic materials, textures and finishes and, most importantly, tell a true story.  Not so different from restoring an old car!

The "lamp room" recreation utilizing the original Fresnel lens, gravity-driven clockwork, and lantern parts.

But the thing that struck me as the most important correspondence between exhibit creation and car restoration is that they both take longer and cost more than expected!