Repairs and
Mechanicals
Sport and Classic Car Company offers complete rebuilding services for a considerable number of components and assemblies such as:
1. Engines.
Here is a typical MGB engine rebuild in the final stages.
This photo shows
one of our rebuilt MGA engines going into the engine bay.
This next photo
shows the completed installation. On this job, we cleaned, prepared
and painted the engine bay as well. In the background is an
Austin Healey 3000 being reassembled after a body restoration that included a
major rust cut out and weld repair.
This photo shows
a 1967 Austin Healey 3000 engine resplendent in it's new paint. Our
goal is to return engines to as new a condition as parts
allow and make them look great as well. All pieces are painted the correct colors with attention to detail. There
are many performance enhancements available. We do not perform engine swaps (Such as stuffing Chevrolet motors into Jaguars for example or V8's into an MG).
I wrote the following thoughts twice and could not decide which version best expressed the deteriorating parts quality situation so here is version #1.
All our engine rebuilds are carefully done using the best quality parts available. This said, it's very much a changing world and not for the better regarding vintage car parts. Most parts for MG and Triumph cars are made in Taiwan or China these days. Who knows what sort of materials they use. The quality is abysmal and this means the quality of some jobs are only as good as the parts that go into them. Many established and respected manufacturing companies have moved production of quality parts out of England and the USA to third world countries such as India, China and Indonesia and have done so because they can offer parts at the lowest possible cost by using slave labor combined with junk materials and thus increase maximum profit. These companies are not what they were and have no pride in their products. Some companies are essentially just using the names of the old companies to lend credence to their low quality parts. To produce parts at the lowest cost with little regard for quality means most owners no longer have much of a choice. Even if an owner is will to pay twice as much for quality parts, this desire matters not as in many situations there simply is no quality option presented. We would prefer that manufacturers not follow this destructive business trend and would instead produce parts to a high quality, made in the USA or England on the expectation that owners will be willing to pay for quality. Otherwise it's a continuing downward spiral to what end? Manufacturers cannot make good pistons from beer cans while paying workers little to nothing and expect quality goods in return.
Here is version #2. The same thing but different...
These days the parts quality of many engine parts for the majority of vintage non Rolls Royce or Bentley British cars is very poor. Most of these poor quality parts are manufactured in China or other third world countries and are so bad, we and other quality shops refuse to use them. An engine will only be as good as the parts used. There is a brand of parts out there called "County" These are reproduction parts that most of the large mail order houses sell because they can get nothing else. "County" parts are absolute junk and that descriptive is kindly. This is a sad state of affairs and has been caused by a business model that desires to sell parts for the lowest possible price without regard for quality. The major manufacturers of pistons for British cars were Hepolite (long gone) and AE ( now made in India). Many of the respected names in car part manufacturing moved their factories out of England and said goodbye to any quality. All that is left of them is a once well respected nameplate.
Nowadays we rebuild engine with high quality custom made parts mixed with new old stock parts so we can still offer a quality rebuild. We search and pay whatever we have to to get the parts we want. These parts are much more expensive than the reproduction trash parts so our engines take longer to do and are certainly not generally price competitive. We build engines for owners that want the best engines they can get without regard for the cost because that is the only way a good engine can be rebuilt these days. Until manufacturers decide there is a sufficient market to make parts of quality for these cars, this sad state of affairs is the way it will be. Yes, we cannot stand to look at junk parts and imagining them in our engine rebuilds so we don't.
2. Manual transmissions- We inspect the inside components for wear and all worn parts are replaced with quality parts as available. Transmissions generally always receive new bearings, synchronizer rings, seals and gaskets with all other parts examined and replaced as required if available.
3. Laycock Overdrive units. We rebuild these units as well.
4. Steering and suspension systems- There are many enhancements available to improve the drivability of cars and allow them to retain a stock appearance. For example, we offer many shock absorber applications that when combined with new springs and bushings will greatly improve the handling of a car.
The green Triumph TR3B in this
photo is receiving new rear axle bearings, front wheel bearings, brake rotors,
rebuilt brake calipers with new pistons, brake master cylinder, wheel cylinders,
brake shoes, brake hoses and some new steel brake pipes as well. We rebuilt the
overdrive that never worked for this owner and made the car into a solid
driver.
5. Differentials. We rebuild these units as well. We can change the ratio as well for certain applications and new supply Posidrive differentials for many cars.
This
MGC just received a replacement differential.
6. Custom Air conditioning systems and general air conditioning work- see our A/C section.
7. Electrical systems. We can rewire an entire car or repair whatever electrical problems may exist. We have many reliable "fixes" for cars that suffer from poorly engineered factory wiring. As few, if any replacement wiring harness is totally accurate, they have to be modified during the installation to make all the systems work. We recently completed a re-wire on a 2000 Mercedes Benz collision car for a local body shop and the factory supplied harness was a bit different even though they had the same and correct part number.
Challenges such as Jensen Interceptor wiring repairs are amongst the
interesting jobs we do.
8. Brake systems, We perform many sorts of brake repairs from complete replacement of entire systems to minor work like replacing brake pads or fluid flushes.
This photo is a fresh disc brake rebuild on a circa 1965 Jaguar as a part of a rear
suspension package of work. Whatever a car requires to have safe and proper brakes, we do it.
9. Carburetors? We rebuild S.U. , Weber, Dellortto, Zenith and Stromberg carburetors and can supply new carbs in certain applications.
10. Lucas distributors, we rebuild lots of obsolete units and can supply new distributors (sometimes).
The rest of the car?
Yes, we can probably rebuild
or restore most anything I neglected to mention.
such as this Lotus Esprit that
came to us after having it's engine rebuilt in a way that would have destroyed
it had it been able to start. It would never have run, thankfully. The car was
in a flood and sat around for years afterwards. Yes, it was a formidable project but
the new owner wants the car brought back to daily driving condition so we
rebuilt the engine with new custom made pistons, up rated camshafts and so on.
We also rebuilt the Dellorto carburetors. The radiator had been smashed to bits
along with the carriage and these were restored as well. The brake system and suspension
were also rebuilt and lots of other work done like rebuilding the rust damaged
steering rack. As the car lost some parts along the way, we are still
searching for just the right bits to complete this fine car.
A little horror story.
An owner shipped a 1972 Jaguar E-Type 2+2 to us so we could examine and advise a situation concerning some fire damage. The car had recently been in a local Jaguar specialty shop for repairs. About 20 minutes after the car drove off from their shop, the cockpit started filling with smoke and the owner noticed flames coming out of the bonnet vents and managed to pull over and stop the burning. The car owner, spooked by the experience, had the car towed to us.
Later, when we examined the car, we found an aftermarket engine block to oil gauge hose had been draped on top of the exhaust manifold. It melted, high pressure oil squirted all over the engine and poof. The original Smiths gauge is electric and does not use such a hose. Had we done this job, we would have rebuilt the original gauge and would never have fitted a el cheapo gauge in it's place. The car was extensively fire damaged. The owner of the repair shop that had recently performed some work on the car came over to view the sad situation. I gingerly discussed the poor workmanship, pointing out the new and melted oil line they had installed and also pointed out the exhaust system had been attached using bolts rather than studs as original. Why this matters is that over time, bolts rust solid to the exhaust manifold and when removed, break the manifolds. Jaguar and many British car makers always use studs. I asked him about the bolts and he thought they were fine to use. Needless to say, after examining the car and the recent workmanship, my opinion of his shops professionalism dropped to the negative numbers. This shop also charges less for labor than we do so the owner saved some money on the initial repair and ended up losing the car as it was totaled. The moral of the story is that sometimes you get what you pay for, sometimes you get something else.
A shop's reputation is everything and we do all we can to preserve and always reach higher with ours by making sure all work is right and is performed at an affordable cost such that an owner gets what he wants and we can continue to earn a living and improve the shop so we can continue to provide the intensive work we offer.
Here is a 1971 Morris Mini that fought a Mustang and lost.