Old Timer Garage

Today is the day. The fuel tank is full and it is 7 am when I crank up the V8 of the Challenger. We have a 3 hour drive ahead of us plus the way back tonight so it is going to be a long day because I want to spend as much time as possible on site.

We pass Tucson around 8 am a apart from a few slowed-down portion of the motorway, the rest of the crossing of the city is pretty quick. The Challenger swallows the miles at 70 mph on cruise control while the V8 runs on 4 of its 8 cylinders most of the time which gives me an average mileage per gallon of 22 mpg. It is only the R/T version of the Challenger but it is pretty comfortable and I find the sound of the engine just loud enough to be heard inside the car but not too much so that it is still easy to talk to my passengers. Compared to the previous version of the Challenger (beginning of the 2010s), this one marks a clear amelioration in terms of design in my option and particularly so with the rear lights and the interior (steering wheel and dashboard).

When we get to Phoenix, we go around the city towards the east to drop my wife and my Mom at the botanical garden and I cross the city to get to my friend’s workshop. I will get blocked on the way by a freight train which will make me waste 30 minutes at only 5 minutes before arriving there but eventually I got in front of the workshop.

I recognize a few of the cars that are parked there for having seen them in pictures before. Among others, a Pontiac Grand Prix, a 1960 Dodge Polara, a 1950 Cadillac Coupe, a Chevelle SS, a customized Mustang…
I park the Challenger on the last spot still available and there I am at the reception desk of the workshop. I am told where I can find my friend and I walk into the workshop.

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The introductions are quickly made and after the standard courtesies, I am already getting a guided tour of the workshop with comments on each and every one of the 50 cars that are there.
Back then, I didn’t know much about American cars except a few Mustangs. But I knew quite a lot about French classic cars and I had no problem identifying a 1953 Citroen Traction and a few Renault 4cv parked there. A together with a restored Volvo, these are the only 4 cylinder engines in this workshop. There are about 3 or 4 modern cars in there of which a V12 Mecerdes-Benz and a brand new Cadillac Escalade for an Australian customer. This one has been ordered specifically and entrusted to my friend so that he can convert it to a right hand drive and beef up the engine to 1000 hp. A 250,ooo dollar car that will arrive brand new to Australia in a few months! A container is also being loaded and will be shipped to Poland before the end of the week.
Then we move on to the office to have a look at the huge stock of parts that are there. In total 15 offices filled with parts of all sorts.
Further down the hallway, it is the upholstery workshop that is there with rolls of leather and cloth of every colour you can think of together with a few restored benches and car seats that are waiting to be mounted into the cars.

It is already time to go for a lunch. We get in the car and go to a Mexican restaurant not far from the workshop. It is a good opportunity to discuss in a quieter environment. On my side to try and discover more about these cars that I don’t know much about yet and for my friend and his wife to learn a bit more about me and why I am interested in these cars and how the classic car market is in the different countries I have lived in so far.

Going back to the workshop, my friend offers me to take me to his house where he has a few more cars to show me. I suggest that we take the Challenger and he accepts as soon as he had me confirm that the car was fitted with the Hemi engine. About 20 minutes later, I discover the 2cv that I had seen on Facebook a few months earlier and that had started the discussion we are having face to face today. It is a Belgian 2cv that was imported to the US a long time ago. A few details are specific to this market like the steering wheel, the trunk lid and the indicators. It is in rough shape but nothing too serious. There are also two 203 in his garden. One is supposed to be a part car for the other one. A big Cadillac is also waiting its turn next to another part car. It should end up in convertible in a few months.

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Back at the workshop again, my friend has a few customers to deal with so he leaves me in the workshop with permission to take as many pictures and videos as I want so I don’t wait any longer and start shooting. The idea in the back of my mind is to take pictures of everything I can and use them to learn more about those cars when I get home after this holiday. It won’t make an expert out of me but it will be a good start at least (I have improved quite a bit since then…).

 

Then my friend comes back to me and offers to take me for a spin in a few of his cars. I accept of course that I take a seat in a Plymouth Prowler to start with. Not really my type of car but an interesting design for sure. The inside looks like that of a Ford Ka and the outside like a modern hot-rod with a front grid that reminds me of a PT Cruiser. All of this pull forward by a 6 cylinder engine.
Once the soft roof down and the cameras installed, we are off for a spin. I learn a bit more about the car and a few minutes later we are back at the workshop again.
Here are the two videos I made (one is a standard video and the second one is taken with a 360 camera for a more immersive experience).

 

  

The next one will be the 1960 Dodge Polara. Just a few minutes to move the cameras from the Prowler to the Polara and we are off. I discover a few nice features of this car that I didn’t know about like the satellite clock behind the wheel or the buttons on the dashboard to switch gears (before the American Automobile Federation made it mandatory for car manufacturers to standardise the way they shifted gears). I learn some more about the specificities of this particular car like the transparent plastic steering wheel that was specific to the year 1960.
It is the first time this car is driven so far in 30 years. The last time this car was driving was in 1986.
After a few minutes, the engine starts running rough though, first softly but it became apparent very quickly that something wasn’t normal. And we understand very quickly too that it is actually the fuel tank that is empty… we should have checked it before leaving the car park. Fortunately there is only a few hundred metres to cover to get back to the workshop so I stay with the car while my friends walks to the workshop to get a jerrican of gas.
Once some gas is back in the tank, we try starting the engine again but stop quickly after not to drain the battery. The tank is at the back of the car and fuel pumps are not very good at pumping air so we open the hood and pour some gas straight into the carburettor. Another couple of trials at cranking up the engine and it starts without the carburettor first catching up in flame due to the gas we poured in it. Nothing important though and once it is put out, we put the hood back down and drive off to the workshop.

 

 

We keep discussing about his business and one of his remarks caught my attention. He tells me that he likes restoring his cars but that he has to do as little as possible or even nothing at all on the cars if possible and just buy them and sell them back in order to be making money because that’s how he can make more profit. He adds that sometimes if he starts working on a car, the profit is so reduced that in some cases, it becomes even negative because of the cost of labour in the US.
This makes me think and I ask him if he has never thought about sending some of his cars to be worked on in Mexico just a few hours away to get them done cheaper and in turn get his profit back. In my mind he could keep the most interesting cars in his workshop and build a relationship with a good workshop in Mexico for the other cars. He answers me that he has already thought about it but doesn’t speak Spanish and that prevented him from trying.
I am fluent in Spanish and tell him that I could work on this project for him and that we could do a test with one car to test the quality of the work done in Mexico. I would even be ready to buy a car from him so that this project is risk free for him. My idea sounds interesting to him and we finish the day discussing this in more details.
As soon as I am back in Europe, I will start looking for restoration workshops in Mexico and interview them to check whether there would be one I would feel comfortable working with.

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After having said my goodbyes, I go to pick my wife and my mom up from downtown Phoenix and we start the drive back to southern Arizona. This 3 hour drive give me time to think about everything I was going to have to think about and take into consideration for this new project: finding a good workshop in Mexico is one thing but making sure that everything goes as planned is another. I am going to have to find someone, make sure he is reliable and professional but also study what the laws are, what is possible and what isn’t to drive a car across the border and get work done in Mexico, see if I am allowed to buy a car in the US as a non-resident foreigner etc… my brain is in overdrive during the whole drive back. I am going to have a lot of work but before that, I have to learn more about these American cars so… let’s get started!

To be continued… here: 1960 Cadillac Coupe de Ville

 

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