| Who Will Buy, Maintain, & Restore Solid Axles When The Folks Who Worked On Them New Are Gone? |
Subject: Who Will Buy, Maintain, & Restore Solid Axles When The Folks Who Worked On Them New Are Gone? by j3studio on 2008/12/24 14:39:11 Who will buy, maintain, and restore solid axles when the folks who worked on them when (at least relatively) new are gone? I've been thinking about this a lot. In the NCRS, we've done a decent job of codifying how these cars should look and perform, but the knowledge about how to maintain them seems fairly ephemeral. An example: A couple of years ago, I was at the NCRS national convention near Boston. There were six or seven newly or recently restored 1953s and 1954s, with the "Blue Flame" in-line six and its three side draft carburetors. None of them was running worth a darn, despite the cubic dollars that had been thrown at them. A friend of mine (Dick) went back to his 1957 fuelie and got a screwdriver. He went up to one of the 1954 owners and asked him if he could give the engine a try. The owner, who sounded desperate, said yes. Dick spent about 10 minutes on the carburetors, while a crowd gathered. When he was done, it was running quietly and smoothly and revving freely. He ended up "fixing" every Blue Flame six out there. Dick beat cancer a few years ago, but I'm increasingly aware of his age. Knowledge transfer to paper comes from him but it's got to be (maybe) about 1% of what he knows. What happens when him and the folks like him are gone? Will these cars ever run right or will they just become sputtering, flighty museum pieces? |
