Coldplugs - Phil's Shop

Dr. Milton Schaefer's race car is currently owned by Mark Schoenlein and is has been living in Phil Curren's shop where Phil is just completing a very high quality restoration job.


The starting point...	Not much left in there other than the master cylinder.

	This is an interesting period modification - Dr. Schaefer was a very tall man, so the seat was modified to provide more leg room. Unless the photo is misleading, the wall thickness on the roll bar material looks too thin for this application.

	Corrosion. If the car was together, we'd be looking at the front inside edge of the right rear tire.

	The "frame" pieces have cleaned up nicelyt.

The punt looks thin in places.

This 3 cylinder 492cc engine will be used. The car started life and raced as a 2 cylinder S-E 328. Apart from the engine and related powertrain pieces, as much of the original car will be used as is possible.	The pieces in white are newly fabricated.

Phil is using a set of shock mounts from a 3 cylinder car - they're in good condition but needed cleaning.	It would have been dangerous to rely on the rear suspension mounts as they were. This photo shows the rear of the punt being prepped for repair.

Here's the repaired rear of the punt. "[You] need to be careful and do it right ... in this case if we hadn't taken the car apart and fixed it right, the rear would have broken off and that would have been disastrous at speed."	The punt flange was broken in several areas - here's the repair in progress. Berks were not the most robust cars ever built.

The original opening for the exhaust system has been covered, and a new half-moon shaped opening is being created to clear the Dynastart housing of the 3 cylinder engine.	The completed flange repair...

...and the completed cutout for the Dynastart. The floor of the engine compartment has also been repaired.	How many patches in the patched punt? - (Today's Berkeley tongue-twister.)

Here, the punt is in primer.	And here, it's painted.

	Remember, this is the underside of the car.

Phil removed the drain shields, then straightened and cleaned them.	As part of the conversion to a 3 cylinder engine, the damaged 328 firewall is being replaced with a repaired 492 firewall.

This is the finished punt.	Front subframes being installed.

Rear subframes being installed.	Another view.

	Routing brake lines.

Rear swing axles are now installed - you can also see the levers for the parking brake. The grey finish that Phil likes to use looks very close to that used by companies like OSCA, Ferrari, and Maserati in the fifties.	Lower front A-fames are in.

Phil is now working on the brakes.

The rear suspension and brakes appear complete.	A damaged upper nose section was replaced with a piece from another car.

	Here's the engine in bits and pieces. The crankshaft has a sheared key, two cylinder barrels need some work, and the pistons will probably be replaced. None of the damage or wear seems exceptional for a hard-used Excelsior two stroke.



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Photos to this point show progress as of mid-2008.

Just a reminder: this is the same car in its racing days - the objective of the restoration is to make it look like this again.	Almost done.

Berkeley racing drums were used in front. These aren't easy to find. Although they weren't used on the original car I'm sure they would have been if they'd been available. (Notice that the car has already started to attract women...)	It's hard to imagine anyone doing a better job than this. Awesome!
	Racing history - Photos Racing history - The "Swarm of Bees" The car as found Original sales documents
Beautiful! Click here to learn more about the car's racing history.