Linda Vaughn’s racing style suit was fine for autographing the Fox Valley Tech Bonneville ‘Bird, but we’ve got to scrounge up the heavy-duty version for driver Dave Sarna. (Pete Sweely photo)

The Fox Valley Tech Firebird won’t get very far at Bonneville this fall unless we come up with an approved firesuit for driver Dave Sarna. Last year Dave had to borrow the required safety gear and almost missed his flight because of it. This year we can’t borrow the same suit, so we need to come up with a replacement.

Dave wore a lot of safety gear when he served with the National Guard in Iraq and Afghanistan, bu the Utah Salt Flats Racing Assoc. can’t approve “camo“ gear for car racing. He can’t borrow the racing suit that Linda Vaughn wore when she autographed the car, because it won’t fit Dave. So, our only solution is to beg, buy or borrow another approved firesuit and gear.

We heard that some racing teams donate their old suits to educational efforts like ours, but we haven’t hooked up with any of them.  We looked on eBay to see if there are any suits we can afford with our small budget, but we’ve had no luck so far. Without a suit the six college kids on the team might not get back to Bonneville this year, as well as the six old-time hot rodders (adult advisers) who work for them.

Dave’s quest to take the college’s car into the 200-mph club is not going to happen unless we can scrounge up another suit similar to this one he borrowed last year.

We don’t need a shiny new suit — just something that will get us through Tech at the Salt Flats.  If anyone knows of a person or company willing to donate an old suit or sell one cheap, please get in touch with me at Gunnellj@TDS.net.

The 2.5-liter Hemi V-8 is now installed in the restored chassis of Gene Knutson’s Daimler SP-250 “Dart.”

To Mopar fans the Hemi Dart is a legendary car, but there is another Hemi Dart that is just as legendary to British sports car buffs. The Daimler SP-250 roadster is a fiberglass-bodied, Hemi-powered machine that was made by the British (not German) automaker Daimler.

Daimler was known for building big cars, especially the limos used by British royalty. But in the ’50s it made a few sports cars called Conquests. These didn’t sell well and in the late ’50s the SP-250 was released. It was originally called the Daimler Dart, but Chrysler had rights to the Dart name and forced Daimler to rethink using it. Only around 2,500 Daimler SP-250s were built.

Gene Knutson bought this car when he was in the Navy in Hawaii. He brought it home. When it came to Gunner’s Great Garage in 2010 it was a nice car that needed a total restoration. Although the work is far from complete, the comparison between photos taken at the beginning of the project and today show a major improvement.

The chassis is powder coated and restored. The body is painted and ready to go back on the chassis soon. Last week, with the help of Dave Sarna from Fox Valley Technical College, we put the clutch and transmission together. On Sunday afternoon the restored and rebuilt drivetrain was lifted back in the car.

Well-known car collector and comedian Jay Leno has been restoring a similar car. His progress can be seen on his Jay Leno’s Garage Website. We have been sending Jay photos that show the progress of our project.

Our ’36 Pontiac gets attention in our Old Cars Weekly ad, so we put it on the new business card, too.

We have had four business cards designed for Gunner’s Great Garage since we opened in 2010. The first two showed a sketch of a 1950s style car dealership. This art was originally gold, like that on the card for my writing business. Using the same color confused people we handed the cards to, so we switched to red for the second design. It looked ugly!

On the third card we switched to yellow and brown with the same style lettering we use on the building signs.  This was an OK design, but it did not illustrate the idea that we are in the antique car business. The card said that, but people had to read it first to get the message. Not everyone reads the small print.

Each week we have a small ad in Old Cars Weekly. It shows my ’36 Pontiac and it gets some attention, as we get calls from all over the country. So, we had the folks at Zander Press in Brillion, Wis., design a really knock out card with the Pontiac on it. Zane Zander has been an old car guy for many, many years and the talented folks who work at the company that bears his name created a card we really like.

Nigel shoots the Poncho. He also took lots of measurements.

It all started with a long-term, long-distance friendship with Graham Weber, a Pontiac collector from England.  Graham told modelmaker Nigel Parker about a ‘36 Pontiac Deluxe Six Touring Sedan we own.

Parker is one of the owners of Brooklin Models, a British concern that hand builds a diverse range of 1:43rd-scale classic car models. Brooklin has built a series of ambulances, a series of police cars and a series of Buicks. Naturally, a series of Pontiacs was in order. That’s where our car came in.

Having already done several different ’37 Pontiac body styles, Nigel was hot to follow with models of the art deco ’36 Pontiacs and . So, he came to our home last Sept. 13—just a day after we got back from racing at Bonneville.

The car is an original with lots of patina. It has original 1936 paint on at least 75 percent of the body and it still shines. Almost everything on the car is original. The ’30-style Goodyear whitewalls are reproductions from Kelsey Tire, but they look just like the ones carmakers supplied 77 years ago.

Both Parker and Paul Bender of Brasilia Press-the American distributor for Brooklin-came to see the car and Parker spent awhile taking measurements off of it and photographing it in detail.

Parker said Brooklin has crafted models of a variety of automobiles. He said there is no scientific process for picking cars to model. The commercial appeal of doing a “cult car” like a ’55 Chevy is considered, but choices are also influenced by the car’s historical significance, as well as Parker’s personal taste.

The modeling process begins when Parker draws an outline of the car on paper. From the line drawing, Parker can size up the actual car. Once a car is found, he photographs it and starts taking measurements. Parker’s development and engineering department takes over to bring the drawings from 2-D to 3-D. About one year after he begins his preliminary drawings a model is made.

The model of the 1936 Pontiac is expected to be released in July or August 2013. It will be available through Brasilia Press’ dealer network listed at www.brasiliapress.com.

Here is the ’37 Pontiac model.

Tim is a talented builder who has customized cars and bikes for years. He also builds aircraft. He has been featured in the Experimental Aircraft Association’s magazine and at least one of his car projects wound up in Old Cars Weekly.

He tends to use his talents on a lot of “orphan” cars and has built custom Studebakers, Hudsons and Plymouths. But his latest project — the MG Midget — is perhaps the most stunning little car he’s ever put together.

Tim Buttles bought this MG Midget from a friend for $300 and proceeded to turn it into a custom sports car that now gets 40 mpg.

Almost every Wednesday evening the Gunner’s Great Garage staff drives to the Burger King in nearby Waupaca for the weekly car cruise held there. This week the car getting the most attention was the MG Midget that Tim Buttles just finished building. Instead of looking like a Midget. it looks a little like a 2-seat T-Bird, a little like a Sunbeam Alpine/Tiger, a little like a Volvo P1800 and, from the rear, a little like an early ’60s Mopar.

The custom styling incorporates design motifs from several iconic collector cars. Tim made the raised section of the hood from a fiberglass-like material.

Tim bought this car from another friend of ours — Lance Masshardt – and decided he wasn’y happy with the MG factory’s styling or the little cars 25-mpg fuel economy. So he customized several sections of the body, changed the color from purple to black, redid the interior and swapped the twin carburetors for a single one. Now he has a eye-catching ride that gets 40 mpg.

At the rear, Tim purchased some steel, formed it into tunneled taillights and fins and welded it to the original MG Midget rear fenders.

A bank contacted Gunner’s Great Garage about a repossesed ’77 Corvette. It is a ’77 coupe with under 60,000 original miles. It has a 350-cid 180-hp V-8, automatic transmission,  A/C, tilt and other options. It seems to be a matching numbers car. The repair shop where the bank took it says they got it running rough, but it won’t drive. It might need transmission work. It also needs exhaust work. The interior is filthy with obvious wear. It is orange, but the paint code says it started out Black. Ugly but there is still paint everywhere.

Here’s The Facts

For info contact:

Gunner’s Great Garage

Phone: 715-281-5925 (anytime)

Email: gunnellj tds.net

Take A Slide Show Tour of the Shop at  www.gunnersgreatgarage.com

Wax, mask and spray.

Here in Wisconsin the changing of seasons from winter to spring can cause the surfaces of many roads to deteriorate. You hate riding your motorcycle on roads loaded with grit and gravel and the stuff can fly up and nick the paint on the front of your car.

About a year ago, a team of professionals from 3M flew into  this area to do a seminar on paint protection film at Gunner’s Great Garage. They applied the film to the front of Dave Schneider’s Chevy SSR and the job took 4 or 5 people over an hour. The paint protection film worked great, but if they had charged Dave shop rate for the work, it probably would have cost him $200.

3M has now developed a new spray-on paint protection product that car owners can apply themselves. The company says that a once-a-year removal of the old film and re-application will protect a paint job against damage from stones and road debris. The spray turns into a film that is so thick a car key cannot be poked through it when it dries.

Car key cannot poke thru film.

The film also provides an atmospheric barrier itself, so that even if an impact or scratch penetrated the paint, the film would keep the bare metal below the damaged paint from rusting.

3M™ calls the new system Paint Defender. To use it, you wax your car (making the film easier to remove after a year) and mask off the area to be treated. Then, you just spray the water-based product on the vehicle. As it dries it will become an invisible film. One $25 container of Paint Defender will do half a hood.

The system will be sold in a $44.99 kit that includes masking supplies and a spray trigger. Save the accessories and from then on a $25 container once a year will be all you need.  For additional information, visit www.3M.com.

Film is easy to remove.