I tend to get around quite a bit as it gets tougher all the time to find good E-Type parts and projects…
Last fall, I traveled out to Cincinatti, OH and picked up the tail section of a Series 2 roadster, and stayed with my brother-in-law David who lives in Columbus. I promised myself that if I ever went out that way again, I’d plan it so that Janie and the kids could come and spend time with their cousins, and lo and behold, about a month later, I found something else I wanted in Ohio!
Right before Christmas, I got ion touch with a gentleman near Toledo who had recently sold his E-Type roadster, and was still selling off some of the spares he had collected. One thing he had managed to round up was a stack of FIVE, excellent Series 1 wings! After a short negotiation, I agreed to his price, sent him a check for all 5, called David, and we planned a family vacation for the MLK holiday weekend.
We drove out on Friday, and arrived around dinner, catching up and partying with the neighbors and tons of kids until the wee hours…
The next morning, I got up a little more “tired” than usual, shall we say…, and headed north to meet “Fred” – that’s not his real name, but we’ll use that alias for this story…
ABout 10 minutes from Fred’s house, I pulled into a McDonalds to use the rest room, and I did something really dumb that I haven’t done in a LONG time – I locked the keys in the car. Now – you have to realize that I’m totally out of my element – I’m in Janie’s Honda minivan instead of the truck, and her keys have this big leather key fob and a bunch of those supermarket club cards, and so I don’t typically put her keys in my pocket, I just hold them or stick them in the pocket of my jacket. Add to that the fact that I’m screwing around with my phone for directions, I have to pee SOOOOO bad, I already have my keys in my pocket so subliminally, I’m fine, and there you go, I’m locked out.
This would have been no big deal if I had been in the truck – the latch on the sliding rear window broke about a decade ago, and I often just climb into the bed and crawl through if it’s locked and I don’t feel like going into the house to get my keys. So I CAN’T even get locked out of the truck, PLUS the truck has a hide-a-key stuck to the frame anyway…
But that’s all irrelevant, and here I am in McDonald’s just 10 minutes from when I am supposed to be there, with no keys, no phone, no tools, no coat, and it’s 11 degrees out. So I called AAA from the McDonalds phone and just sat there and waited like any other poor dumb slob – when normally, I either don’t get myself into – or quickly get myself out of, these types of screw-ups…
Finally, after an extra cup of coffee that I didn’t need, AAA came and helped me out – it was actually pretty ingenious. First, he jammed a wedge into the top of the door and shoved it out a bit, then he slid a deflated bladder into the rear edge and pumped that up with an air bulb like a blood pressure thing, and then he just stuck a long industrial version of a coat hanger in there, grabbed the keys, and yanked them right out the door and handed them to me. Pretty slick!
When I got back into the car, I called Fred immediately and apologized. He said no worries, and that maybe that was a good omen that I would have a good day from here on out. Well, he was right – because the rest of the afternoon was a BLAST!
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- Up early, it was a beautiful drive a few hours North – with about 3 inches of fresh snow blanketing the Ohio countryside…
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- Once I arrived at my destination, I was happy to see this excellent original condition Opel GT – I haven’t seen one of these in a LONG WHILE! I had a “car buddy” in college who was into these for a while – and even his were alot more ragged than this – 25 years ago! These little cars do have a very loyal following, and the owner and I chatted about them for a few minutes.
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- These headlights aren’t exactly flip-up, but instead are “roll-up” – they roll open from side to side…
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- The interior was in VERY GOOD original condition! And this car had the rare option of factory Air-conditioning – I wonder how well the little 4-cylinder engine in these did propelling the car AND running an AC compressor!
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- Aside from just a bit of loose sticthing on the seats, they were in like-new condition!
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- Another testament to a lifetime of sports cars (and adventures in them!) was this Austin-Healey hood – which Frank found in a barn and his son painted up – commemorating an Austin-healey that his father had owned, and then crashed, in the early 60’s…
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- Finally, we got around to the business at hand, which was the pick-up of these EXCELLENT original wings I had purchased in December.
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- And additional parts were available as well – I also picked up this pristine 4.2 E-Type full-sychro, close-ratio gearbox to further complete our 1966 E-Type Fixed-Head Coupe project car. This is a car that the previous owner began to part out, and we purchased everything that was left not too far into that process, and are now filling in the gaps. The project is for sale – see our “For Sale and Wanted” page!
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- After the “business” was over, Frank invited me inside to chat about E-Types, etc. I had already been all through the 3-car garage, so I was caught a bit off guard when I looked over and saw this window to the right inside the front hallway. “Hey – what’s that!?!” I asked excitedly! And his answer BLEW my mind!
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- Hidden in a sort of “secret garage” sandwiched between their house and the actual garage, was a 1957 Mercedes 300SL roadster. It was without a doubt, THE COOLEST car I have seen in a LONG time! I actually could feel my heart rate climbing as I alternated between literally screaming about how great it was, and a steady barrage of questions! Now, I had JUST had another cup of coffee, so you have to picture the scene, I was REALLY excited!
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- These photos cannot even BEGIN to describe how incredible this car was in person! And of course, the STORY was even better!
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- Frank inherited this car from his father a few years ago when his father passed away. Frank’s father purchased the car as a USED car from the local Mercedes dealer in Ohio in 1964 – for just a little more than a NEW E-Type would have cost!. Oh man, this gives me goosebumps! Because…
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- The car is STILL in the family – is STILL all original (minus paint) – and is STILL regularly driven by Frank! And – it is currently valued at substantially more than the 1964 sticker price – to say the least!!! The crazy thing is, Frank is just a normal, middle class guy like the rest of us! WHY does he have a car this great and this valuable? Because his father “did whatever it takes” to get his hands on it in 1964, and then once he had it, he never let it go! I LOVE IT!
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- And I was LOVING IT at Frank’s house for about the next 2 hours! One of the first things I mentioned was that I don’t think I could have been any more impressed by ANY other paint color. This is, of course, a “Gullwing Convertible” – same car. And I guess I would venture to say that this is one of the few – if not the ONLY – collector car where the price goes DOWN when the top goes down… And ironically (as if my day wasn’t already incredible…) just a few hours later, back at my brother-in-law’s place, I watched a Gullwing coupe go across the auction block at Barrett-Jackson – WITH Stirling Moss in it – for some SERIOUS money!
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- The interior is 100% original.
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- The original Becker radio…
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- Look at the con dition of the interior handles – especially the intricate pull-handle – the patina is PERFECT!
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- And I’m pretty sure it was the original top!
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- The ashtray in the dash was right out of a James Bond movie – I actually didn’t know what it was when it was closed…
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- Another shot of the gauges – the best part about these phgotos is that I was sitting in it when this photo was taken!
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- Proof that this breathtaking color is what the car wore when it left the factory…
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- Another shot showing the intricate detail of the inside of the top fabric.
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- This tiny little handle popped the rather large door open like a hair trigger – very little pressure was required and the action was SMOOTH!
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- Are you getting this!?! How could this even be better!?!
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- More mind-blowing patina on the original leather seats…
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- These are the original speaker grilles, and that crazy handle in the center is part of the top release mechanism – we’ll come back to that…
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- The exterior door handle was also James-Bond-esque – you pushed in on the little triangular part to reveal the handle itself, then pulled it with the same light, smooth action as the interior handle.
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- The paint is 2 years old and was FLAWLESS – Oh My God I LOVED this color! That hole in the rocker is the jacking point.
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- Speaking of the jack, here is the original boot. In the flurry of discussion (it was just Frank and I but there was alot of excited talking…) I believe Frank did admit that this boot liner was a new piece…
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- …but these weren’t! Talk about originality – that dark green paint on the inside of the spare wheel is apparently leftover German military paint from WW2!
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- The tools were equally as impressive.
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- AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH – Make it stop!!!! That is the ORIGINAL SPARE TIRE – complete with the chassis number of this car on it in chalk from the factory!
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- The car was about half and half aluminum and steel, but there was not a speck of rust or corrosion anywhere…
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- I found this to be a fascinating piece – an aluminum casting to hold the spare. I told Frank, “On something like this car, when you’re restoring it, you either have this, or you don’t!” – there’s really no finding or making it…
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- Next, I was treated to a pile of factory spares Frank had collected over the years. This is a cast aluminum brake shoe, for the factory finned aluminum drum brakes.
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- The locking fuel door.
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- The rear tail-lamps were works of art – absolutely beautiful!
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- This was probably one of the weirder things about the car – compared to everything else about it, the wheels were rather plain. Although, they were tasteful, and who knows, maybe their simplicity is their genius -0 maybe wires would look stupid on this car and the factory designers knew that – who knows…
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- This badge was identical to the one on my parents 1984 380SL – 25 years later. Frank’s car was built in 1957, but was not titled in the US until 1959 – apparently quite common with these cars.
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- I took this shot without the flash to try to capture the true color of the paint, but these photos already do a very good job of that. Some of the chrome wasd original, and some had been redone. ALL of it was flawless…
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- This was a neat photo on the wall, I believe this is a shot of Frank and his father out for a cruise. What a great family treasure…
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- Speaking of “treasure” – wait until you see this… This is an original crate from Mercedes that came with the car from the factory… The family has kept this crate safe and dry for the past 50 years, it’s only “damage” being the soot in the bottom RH corner from the exhaust of the car itself…
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- The crate was originally shipped to the dealer with the car…
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- …but what is inside this heirloom box?…
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- Nothing less than the ORIGINAL factory hard-top! VERY rare, and hand-fitted to THIS car from the factory, this piece alone is worth a substantial bit!!!
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- Here is the source of the soot on the crate – an inline 6-cylinder overhead cam engine, with Bosch mechanical fuel injection!
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- Note the drastic angle at which the engine is mounted in the chassis! Hmmm – that’s weird – OH MY GOD – it’s DRY SUMPED from the factory! In 1957! This is a SERIOUS machine!
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- Are you starting to see why I was there for HOURS!?! – thegreatness of this car just went on and on and on – and I had the whole afternoon to get “up close and personal” with it! If I had any clue that this was waiting for me, I damn sure would have planned my visit for a day when it wasn’t 11 degrees Fahrenheit outside!
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- The welded black canister in the middle of this photo is part of the dry sump system, as is the remote oil filter. In the photos above, the chromed tank on the RH side of the engine bay is the oil reservoir.
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- Look at the oil cooler mounted vertically on the RH side of the radiator.
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- We spent a while talking about the car, other car stories, about what I do, etc., and I got to see some of Frank’s other interesting items – including this thing which was pretty impressive in itself! This was an “invention” of Frank’s grandfather in the 1930’s that never quite got off the ground – this is his hand-built prototype. Apparently, a large speaker is mounted within here in a thetre or symphony hall, and all of the various cavities are supposed to separate the sound as kind of an early stereo or surround-sound effect.
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- The construction of this piece was abviously a painstaking labor of love – something I could really appreciate.
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- Unfortunately, it never really worked that well apparently, and 2-track sound was soon invented, but the prototype was just too beautiful to destroy, and like the Mercedes, has been lovingly cared for by the family for, in this case, 80 years!
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- Finally, I headed back to my brother-in-laws house where we visited with family for the rest of the weekend (when I wasn’t boring them to tears with the Barrett-Jackson ‘Salon’ cars on Saturday night!) And eventually, we made it back home to the shop. This jumble of duffle bags, pillow pets, and kid’s DVDs was a BIG departure from my usual E-Type road trips! But – there’s still GOLD packed away in here!
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- After a little digging, the family fun is gone and we’re back down to business – a bundle of E-Type wings and an EJ gearbox!
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- These wings were a real find – all original paint, NO RUST whatsoever, and only minimal crash damage on some.
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- This was the worst damage – we’ll straighten this right out, of course, and with the recent adition of the contour gauges and flexible shape patterns from a virgin original E-Type bonnet, this wing will be absolutely perfect again!
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- All 5 of the wings looked like this underneath – just beautiful!
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- But none of them matched the beauty of the hidden gem in Frank’s garage… The only thing more impressive than the car itself, was Frank’s dedication to keeping his father’s dream alive by continuing to care for, and DRIVE this fabulous machine!
