Fun Tour!

[JCE]

The MBCA section in San Diego had a meet yesterday at the Alan Taylor classic restoration facility in Escondido, CA. Well worth the trip - we saw a 1912 Flanders, a FWD Cord Convertible, Talbot Lago, Blower Bently, Type 57 Bugatti, Straight 8 Packard, 12 cyl Lincoln, 66 Ferrari, and a very rare 'Springfield Ghost' Rolls Royce nick named 'bullet hole' (still has a 32 cal bullet protruding from the cowl under the wind screen from being at a SpeakEasy at the wrong time in the ealy 30s!.

The shop has 10 employees, including a former F1 engine builder for the engine shop, who had just finished turning out a Type 57 Bugatti crankshaft ($10,000 for a custom 1 piece crank cad design to replace the failure prone 2 piece stock crank that destroys engines when it fails. Also there was a huge fabric shop and European craftsman (for matching ostrich skin upholstery, for example.) A general machine shop for body work, and a lot of hand fabrication areas.

Unfortunately, several owners requested no pictures of the cars - apparently there is a rare barn find from europe being prepared for Pebble Beach and is supposed to be a semi-surprise. Mr. Taylor did give me permission to post pics from his brochure on the site, and Bill Wood said it was OK, so here they are (That Daimler 40-50 double six arrived as several hundred rusted parts, with most valve sleeves missing!!!) BTW, they are full service for the vintage cars as well: The Rolls was there just for brakes, tyres, and an oil change.)