Keeping up appearances

Been a while since we've posted a blog....but it's been busy!

During the past month we've made some appearances at local car events, includung GTO night at the Wexford Starlite Car Cruise as well as Carfest at the BeaveRun Motorsports Complex. We spoke with a number of people at each of these events. Thanks to everyone who stopped by.

Our next big appearance will be on Saturday/Sunday, July 18/19 at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix in Pittsburgh's Schenley Park. If you've a car lover and have never been to this event, you are truly missing out. Watching the vintage racers make their way around the Schenley Park racecource is in itself a treat, but combined with the car shows and other events and it's almost a religious experience. BMW is the marque of the year this year, but that won't stop hundreds of cars of every sort of marque from being on display. British cars - Lotus's, Rolls-Royce's, Triumph, Jaguar, Austin, MG and more. Italian cars - can you say Maserati, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa-Romeo to name a few...German cars - Mercedes=Benz, Porche, Audo, BMW, Volkswagen and more.....and then there are the American cars and hot rod.

Best of all, it's FREE (small donation for parking). If you can make it to the Pittsburgh area in mid-July, we encourage you to "come on down".

We'll have our dislay in the vendor area. We look forward to seeing you.

Keeping up appearances

Now that summer has finally arrived here in Western PA. car show/cruise season is in full swing and we're gearing up to make some "personal" appearances at a few events. We've already turned up at the weekly Starlite Car Cruise and this coming Friday will be no exception as we'll be on hand for GTO/Pontiac night. We plan to hang out with Gerry Kerna's award winning '71 GTO. So if you're in the Western, PA area Friday evening feel free to stop by the cruise and say hi. On Saturday and Sunday we're planning to be on hand for the Carfest at the BeaveRun Motorsports Complex. This two day event will feature cruise cars, a special edition of the Flashlight Drags as well as Karting, track tours and much more. So far, the weatherman is predicting sun and upper 70's for the weekend.....perfect. Coming up at the end of the month is "Import Nite" at the Starlite Cruise where we'll be on hand with Bill's Maserati Quattroport....a really cool car.
Check back soon and we'll post an update of our July appearances as well as a progress report on the Morgan, '46 Chevy Truck, the HRG and Bill's Dodge Magnum.

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.

Updates

Wow, it's been a busy time around the shop. We're continuing to add items to our eBay store. Right now were putting out a lot of components that were left over from the '46 Chevy Panel truck. We've also got some NOS Mercedes fenders along with our Koolmat insulation products. Hopefully, we'll be able to sell off some of these and make some space around the place.
We're taking a brief pause in working on the Mercedes Gullwing so that we can wrap up work on a couple of the other projects. The repairs to the '37 Ford Phaeton are coming along nicely and it should be ready for paint soon. The '71 Mercedes 280SE is getting ready for paint as well and will be on its way to the upholstery shop in a couple of weeks. We're offering this car for sale (info is on our web site www.hahnandwoodward.com ).
The wiring of the '46 Chevy Panel Truck is nearly comeplete and we're finishing up some fabrication on the dash. This will be going to the upholstery shop soon as well.
The '72 Morgan is nearly ready for paint as well. This car is going to look awesome when it's done. We hope to have it ready in time for display at the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix in July...timing will be tight but we'll give it a shot.
We've also had some recent inquiries from folks about restorations on a '70 Chevelle, a '66 Riviera and a '67 Grand Prix Convertible. Some cool projects for sure.
Check back soon for more project updates....and check out our eBay store.

Minding the store

....so we had this idea....let's set up an eBay store to sell off some of our products and any unused parts we might have in our inventory. It's a nice idea, but it is taking some time to get it off the ground. None the less, we've listed our first items: some KoolMat Insulation kits for the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwings, some wheels as well as some hard to find Mercedes fenders.

The is more to come....in the following weeks we will be listing additional KoolMat kits, some Torco oil products as well as some spare parts from the '46 Chevy Panel Truck. There is a link on our website that will take you right to our store. In addition, you can pay for the parts with a credit card through paypal......makes the whole transaction rather simple. Please take a look and check back often. There might be a part you can use.

On our web site, we'll be announcing our intention to sell the '71 Mercedes 280SE with the notion that if a buyer is interested, s/he could have input to the choice of interior upholstery, wheels, etc.

We're also in the process of updating out Project pages with some new photos and additional cars.

More updates to come.

Shop Updates

Time to provide an update on progress at the shop...
The Morgan 4/4 is coming together. We're in the process of connecting up the engine linkage, cooling hoses etc. We've also installed some KoolMat heat barriers on the floor panels and rebuilt and installed the heater core and fan assembly. Soon it will be time to paint the body.
The '46 Chevy Hot Rod truck is in the process of being wired and since it has electric "everything" it is a slow and tedious task. We also installed and began initial alignment of the hood. This truck will be ready to fire up soon and take on some shakedown runs before it heads to the upholstery shop.
We're taking a brief pause in the work on the 300SL Roadster and have turned our attention to one of the 300SL Gullwings. The car has been metalized and we're now in the process of grinding it down.
Work has been underway on a '64 MG Midget. This is mostly work on the front section of the car...although we did need to straighten the frame to get everythng to align correctly. We're now preparing to paint the hood and remaining front components and should have this car back in its owners hands shortly.
We've also begun work on two other cars...a '72 Mercedes 280SE and a Ferrari 250 Lusso. I expect to have picture of these cars up on the web site shortly.
As you can see, our little shop is humming with activity......and the warmer weather is almost here. Time to check out the car cruise schedule and plan our events.
The other big news is the launch of our Ebay Store. We just got the site up and have some Koolmat isulation kits for sale along with a couple of sets of wheels....more to come as we expand the product list.
See you on the road....