Monday, July 26, 2010

1938 HRG Coupe comes to life at the 2010 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix


On Saturday, July 24th, for the first time in over 45 years, Bob Affleck's "one of a kind" 1938 HRG Coupe roared to life and motored under its own power to its long awaited debut at the 2010 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix.

The car was very well received by the crowd in the "British Car Day" field. The coupe is the only one of its kind produced by HRG during their brief history.....all of their other cars were roadsters. It is also the only HRG powered by a Triumph engine.

Congratulations to Bob!

The event marks another milestone in the car's history and it's appearance at the PVGP owes much to hard work and long hours put in by our build team at Hahn and Woodward Auto Restoration. We couldn't be prouder of the effort of our guys during "crunch time". Special thanks also goes out Michael and Colby Schindel for their help in transporting the car from the shop to the PVGP (and back).


Here are a couple of pictures of the car as well as Bob being interviewed at the PVGP.




Sunday, July 18, 2010

One of a Kind HRG Coupe to appear at Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix - British Car Day


The 1938 HRG Coupe had been one of our longer running restorations but we're now coming down the home stretch. Car owner Bob Affleck wants to present the car at British Car Day at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix on Saturday July 24th in Schenley Park.

The HRG Coupe is the only non-roadster produced by HRG during their brief history. It is also the only HRG powered by a Triumph Engine.

The body of the car has just been painted and we will be in a major thrash this week to get it put together and running for Saturday. Even after this weekend, there will still be work to do to finish the multitude of details.

We're looking forward to the challenge! Please stop by and check out this unique automobile. Here is a concept rendering of the car......

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Upcoming Event - Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix

The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix is coming up at the end of July and we are planning to attend both days at Schenley Park (24th/25th). On Saturday the 24th, we will be hanging out with Roger McIntyre's '72 Morgan 4/4 in the British Car section. We're looking forward to meeting a number of British Car enthusiasts and will be happy to provide details about the Morgan's restoration. On Sunday the 25th we will be displaying Dave Frankovich's '66 Pontiac GTO in the second annual Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Concours d' Elegance. The field for the Concours in limited to 20 cars so we are honored to have the opportunity to enter a car for the display. The restoration on Dave's car was done several years ago but it still looks fresh. If you are attending the PVGP this year, please stop by and say "hi"....

We may have some more surprizes for the PVGP this year.....more about that in our next post.

If you have any questions, please feel free to drop us a line at info@hahnandwoodward.com
as always, visit our home page at www.hahnandwoodward.com for more information about our shop.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Shop Update - June 2010

Hi folks......we'll, for some reason blogger doesn't let you cut and paste text into the blog posts...gotta type it all from scratch. This normally wouldn't be a problem but I've already got the whole post written in a word processor and cutting and pasting would be so convenient. Oh, well.

Anyway, it's been a while since we blogged on our Restoration Times site. Things have been extremely busy over the past few months. We've been wrapping up some details on the '46 Chevy Hot Rod Panel truck and expect to debut it in July. We've also been tending to a couple of last minute items on the '71 Mercedes-Benz 280SE Coupe. This car is for sale and a cool video of it in action can be found on our web site at www.hahnandwoodward.com

In May we began a major push on the 1938 HRG Coupe. The hand made window side curtains have presented us with a few challenges as the multiple compound curves have required a lot of work to get perfect. Within the next week of so, we'll be pulling to body off the chassis and will send it into the paint booth for its paint job. The fenders, running boards and boonet have all been painted and the interior wood trim has been cut and is awaiting final finish work. Also in May we were invited to take the '72 Morgan 4/4 to the Import and Kit Car Nationals at Carlisle, PA. The car was very well received and the folks we met there were excellent.

In June we hosted an open house for members of the Antique Auto Club of America (AACA). It was a great opportunity to make some new car enthusiast friends. We had a great time.

Were are currently taking a break fro working on the '55 Mercedes Gullwing and have shifted focus to the '57 Mercedes 300SL Roadster and the '62 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso. Both cars are showing excellent progress. Finally, we've started working on a little Mercedes 230SL Roadster that is owned by one of our Gullwing customers. He has owned this car since it was new and considers it his "baby". We'll soon be posting some pictures and updates of this car on our web site. Stay tuned.

Coming up in July will be the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. We plan to be there....more on this in our next blog post. Until then....Happy Cruise Season! If you have any questions/comments, please drop us a line at info@hahnandwoodward.com

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Shop Update 03/04/10

No doubt about it....February was a struggle for us here in Western Pennsylvania...and the entire Northeast for that matter. The 40+ inches of snow we received certainly had us all singing choruses of “I Hate Winter”. It also wreaked havoc with our plans to display the '72 Morgan at the Pittsburgh International Auto Show and made our retrieval of the '46 Chevy Panel Truck from the trim shop an interesting adventure.

None the less, we had plenty of activity going on at the shop to keep us busy.

Steady progress was made on the '57 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster. The hood alignment has been complete and shaping of the passenger side of the car is well underway. As usual, special attention was paid to the fender “eyebrows” as well as the points on the fenders where they attach. Lot's of shaping and sanding of the wheel-houses is taking place as well. This is tedious, time consuming work but it will form the foundation for the paint job and it has to be absolutely correct.

We've also begun some similar work on the '55 300SL Gullwing. This one has a lot further to go but we've made steady progress on the engine bay and front wheel-houses. We're now moving to the roof area and door supports. Lots of nooks and crannies here so the going can be slow.

The '38 HRG Coupe has seen quite a bit of activity as well. The interior wood is being fabricated and fitted aling with the side window curtains. These are being hand fabricated from brass. The final alignment of thebonnet and cowl has been competed and we're nearly ready to begin disassembly in preparation for paint. We have a punch list of items to address while the body and fenders are off the frame.

We drove through a snowstorm to pick up the '46 Chevy Panel truck. The trip was a bit of a challenge but we made it just fine. The interior work done by Portage Trim is superb. We have a few minor details we're wrapping up and we'll soon post some pictures of how nice this has turned out.

We also wrapped up the next stage of work on the '71 Mercedes 280 SE Coupe. It is current;y out of the shop having a few mechanical issues looked at. When it returns, we'll complete the remainder of the interior installations and this car will be ready to go.

Finally....look for our 300SL Gullwing/Roadster articles on www.mercedesheritage.com and check out our profile on www.myspeedtv.com

If you have any questions please give us a shout at info@hahnandwoodward.com or visit our web site www.hahnandwoodward.com

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Mother Nature throws us a curve


Well, we held out until the last minute hoping the snow would subside and the roads would clear so we could take the '72 Morgan 4/4 down to the David L. Lawrence Converntion Center in Pittsburgh so it could be part of the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix display at the Pittsburgh International Auto Show......but it was not to be. The trailer was effectively snowed in....the road conditions were bad and eventually trailers and similar vehicles were banned from the interstates as the snow removal crews tried their best to keep up with the latest storm. Eventually, we had to cancel. We are very disappointed but at the end of the day, it was the right call. We have submitted an application to have the car invited to the Import/Kit-Car Show at Carlisle in May.....and no doubt, we'll have it at British Car Day at the Pittsburgh Vontage Gran Prix in July as well as a few appearances at the Starlite Car Cruise in Wexford, PA. The little car will definitely have a busy summer. For now, here's a picture taken at last months World of Wheels Show where the Morgan took first place in its class. As always, be sure to check out our web page at http://www.hahnandwoodward.com/

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Finally....an update

First of all.....many apologies for taking so long to get a new post up. It's not as though nothing's been happening. Quite the contrary....we've been very busy the last month and a half. In that time we have reached a significant milestone with the HRG Coupe...the engine is running and we are hard at work on the interior woodwork. We've also created a pair of graphic renderings that represent the completed car. It will look magnificent when it's done....we can't wait. The '46 Panel Truck is due to return from Portage Trim....we've seen pictures of the completed interior. They've done a beautiful job. The '72 Morgan made its debut at the Pittsburgh World of Wheels Show two weeks ago taking first place in its class. The car is scheduled to again appear at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center this weekend as part of the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Display at the Pittsburgh International Auto Show (weather permitting). While all of this has been going on, we've begun a major push on the '57 Mercedes 300SL Roadster as well as the '62 Ferarri Lusso and '55 Mercedes 300SL Gullwing.......no doubt we are busy. That's it for now...more to come. Check out the cars at www.hahnandwoodward.com