This is my first blog post on my first blog. Webfoot Inspections is a relatively new venture for me and I intend to use this as an arena for sharing my thoughts on the collector car hobby and market.
I have over 40 years of restorations, maintenance, and building classic cars and hot rods. I’ve decided to take that knowledge and put it to use helping people get the most bang for their buck when they decide to make the jump to buy a classic, collector car, or street rod. Buying one of these can be a very emotional experience, and many people tend to overlook or minimize problem areas of their potential dream car. That can cost thousands of dollars down the road. My goal is to arm them with knowledge that works to their advantage when it’s time to negotiate a deal with a seller.
I’ve always been a gearhead. Back in elementary school (Los Angeles in the ’50s) my uncle Alf, who was a line mechanic for Nash for 30-some odd years, got me the bug. I used to watch him change oil and do a tune-up on his ’53 Nash Statesman (with the 2-carb LeMans engine). He’d ask me to get a particular wrench or whatever for him, and that was my first introduction to tools. When I was about 11, my neighbor, Rick, who was five years older than me, had a ’55 MG TF. We’d crawl underneath and he’d point out all the different components and have me recite them back to him. It was a great education.
Pretty soon I started messing with my mom’s ’53 Packard or dad’s ’53 Mercury, cleaning spark plugs and changing oil. By then I had a subscription to Motor Trend and was memorizing all the specs for the new cars, typing them out and carrying the list in my wallet for quick reference. Encouraged by my dad, I started building my first vehicle when I was 13. It consisted of a ’41 Willys Americar chassis, including trans and rear end. I added a seat and a crude dashboard. Power came from a 2-cylinder Onan stationary generator (with a built-in in/out clutch) that I hooked up to the Willys trans via a coupler I had made. It was fun, and I kept out of trouble with it because it would only do about 20 mph driving up and down the street. Eventually, I felt the need for speed and latched onto a ’28 Chevy 4-banger engine and trans. That made me somewhat of a threat on my street because I could (theoretically) go much faster. Thankfully for the neighbors (and probably my hide), I didn’t get a carburetor problem worked out and it never went much more than 30 mph. Going 30 mph, however, was fast enough for me to gain a thorough understanding about the need for shock absorbers (vehicle dynamics) and why you don’t use kerosene to clean nasty, old grease off brake shoes. It was around this time that my dad and I went to our first classic car show, or Concours. This changed my life forever.
I have over 40 years of restorations, maintenance, and building classic cars and hot rods. I’ve decided to take that knowledge and put it to use helping people get the most bang for their buck when they decide to make the jump to buy a classic, collector car, or street rod. Buying one of these can be a very emotional experience, and many people tend to overlook or minimize problem areas of their potential dream car. That can cost thousands of dollars down the road. My goal is to arm them with knowledge that works to their advantage when it’s time to negotiate a deal with a seller.
I’ve always been a gearhead. Back in elementary school (Los Angeles in the ’50s) my uncle Alf, who was a line mechanic for Nash for 30-some odd years, got me the bug. I used to watch him change oil and do a tune-up on his ’53 Nash Statesman (with the 2-carb LeMans engine). He’d ask me to get a particular wrench or whatever for him, and that was my first introduction to tools. When I was about 11, my neighbor, Rick, who was five years older than me, had a ’55 MG TF. We’d crawl underneath and he’d point out all the different components and have me recite them back to him. It was a great education.
Pretty soon I started messing with my mom’s ’53 Packard or dad’s ’53 Mercury, cleaning spark plugs and changing oil. By then I had a subscription to Motor Trend and was memorizing all the specs for the new cars, typing them out and carrying the list in my wallet for quick reference. Encouraged by my dad, I started building my first vehicle when I was 13. It consisted of a ’41 Willys Americar chassis, including trans and rear end. I added a seat and a crude dashboard. Power came from a 2-cylinder Onan stationary generator (with a built-in in/out clutch) that I hooked up to the Willys trans via a coupler I had made. It was fun, and I kept out of trouble with it because it would only do about 20 mph driving up and down the street. Eventually, I felt the need for speed and latched onto a ’28 Chevy 4-banger engine and trans. That made me somewhat of a threat on my street because I could (theoretically) go much faster. Thankfully for the neighbors (and probably my hide), I didn’t get a carburetor problem worked out and it never went much more than 30 mph. Going 30 mph, however, was fast enough for me to gain a thorough understanding about the need for shock absorbers (vehicle dynamics) and why you don’t use kerosene to clean nasty, old grease off brake shoes. It was around this time that my dad and I went to our first classic car show, or Concours. This changed my life forever.
In this blog, I will be re-releasing articles that have been featured in various publications relating to the old car hobby. I will also be answering automotive and car culture questions, so if you have a topic you’d like to see addressed, please send me a note.