Restoration Challenges – The HRG Frame

One of the more unique and rare cars in our shop is the “one of a kind” 1938 HRG Coupe. Built as a never produced prototype by HRG in England, it's body style is based on the MG Airline Coupe however it's hood and fenders are handsomely lengthened to produce a striking silhouette.
Because the car is a prototype, it has created several challenges for the restoration....first, documentation is hard to come by and second, not everything is “standard” when compared to other HRG models.
One of the more interesting challenges has been the amount of flex that is designed into the chassis. The frame was originally intended to be an integral part of the suspension and was designed with a great amount of flex. With the frame on stands, you can lift one corner several inches off the stand before a second corner begins to raise.
When combined with the quarter-elliptic springs used on the front end, the ultraflexy chassis was prone to stress cracks both in the front and at the cowl. We set out to address this issue during the restoration.
After significant research, we considered several options including adding legs and gussets to the frame, or the addition of a flitch plate to span the crack prone areas. Eventually we decided to employ a boxed frame solution by adding a reversed section of frame (same gauge/profile) to the forward engine compartment and ending under the cowl. This is accompanied by a set of legs/gussets at the front of the chassis and a special “C” notch section near the cowl to more evenly dissipate the stress over the upper and lower frame rails (rather than a straight cut-off which would create another stress/crack point).
The result is a frame that is stronger and stiffer than initially designed while retaining the overall look of the original and dimensions of the original. Ultimately, we'll have a safer, more enjoyable ride.
For more pictures of the HRG and other project, please visit our web site at www.hahnandwoodward.com

Cruzin' Season

Finally....after a long cold winter, the Spring/Summer car cruise season is here! Our shop is looking forward to participating in a number of events this year both as a vendor and as cruisers. Our first event will be the Wexford Starlite Cruise ( www.starlitecarcruise.com ). Starlite is a weekly car cruise held every Friday (weather permitting) on the campus of the Northway Christian Church in Wexford, PA. This cruise regularly attracts 1200 cars each week. The vehicles run the gamut form Street Rods and Muscle cars to Antiques, Customs, Tuners and Foreign cars with participants from all over Western PA, Eastern Ohio and West Virginia. Our shop is among many sponsors of the cruise and several of us volunteer to help with traffic control, etc.....along with bringing our own cars to the show. The first cruise is scheduled for Friday, May 22nd.....stop by and look us up.
We're also planning to attend the BeaveRun Carfest over the weekend of June 13/14. We plan to have a vendor display at this event which will be held at the BeaveRun Motorsports Complex( www.beaverun.com ). It will feature both a car show/cruise along with a special running of the Flashlight Drags (www.flashlightdrags.com) as well as tours of the road course and other festivities. For those attending the Happy Days Car Cruise in nearby Beaver Falls, why not make a day of it and cruise on over to BeaveRun Saturday afternoon and run the flashlight drags....you'll have a blast!
Finally, we'll have a vendor display at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix in July. More on this in a later blog....suffice to say, if you haven't attended this awesome event you are missing out on a ton of fun highlighted by the chance to watch vintage racers navigate the course through Pittsburgh's Schenley Park.
So if you're in our neck of the woods, stop by one of the events (either as a participant or a spectator) and ask around for one of the guys from Hahn and Woodward. We'd be happy to meet you.