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- Editor’s
Note:
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- This
column is a regular feature in the Wayback Times in which my
husband takes interesting people out to lunch … and sends
me the bill.
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- (It's
a tough job, but someone has to do it!)
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- Send
us an e-mail if you have someone in mind for one of Peter Neilly's
interviews over lunch.
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- Peter Neilly is Out
to Lunch
- Breaking bread with
interesting people
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- Out to Lunch!
- with Peter Neilly
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- Lots of people have hobbies.
Some collect stamps, some acquire antiques and I even met a man
who built a model ship inside a bottle.
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- Today's Out To Lunch guest,
Bob Murton, built a car in the basement of his Scarborough
house. Not a model or a ¾-inch scale replica, but a full-sized
1912 Model T Ford Racing Speedster.
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- Bob has chosen Sister's Great
Buffet located at 4 Old Kingston Road in West Hill, a tried-and-true
favourite of many Scarborough locals, noted for their excellent
food and friendly and attentive staff.
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- Bob
& his Model T
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- Peter: Thanks for meeting with me Bob. I could see a retired
GM or Ford assembly line worker attempting to build a car from
scratch, but you had never done anything like this before. And
why build it in the basement of your home?
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- Bob: I was a millwright by trade, a machinist and
licensed electrician and I always enjoyed working with my hands.
As far as building the car in the basement, I knew that I could
finish it a lot faster by being able to work on it year round.
All I would have to do when it was finished was dig out the back
yard down to the basement foundation, cut open the basement wall,
wheel it out, put the wall back together and fill in the hole
in the ground.
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- Peter: That doesn't sound like the average classic car
restoration process to me. What made you decide to do this and
why did you pick that specific car?
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- Bob: My next-door neighbour, Aldo Bijoni, was
a collector of antique cars. He owned a construction company
and was quite well off. I would find myself helping him work
on his cars and that got me interested. I couldn't afford to
purchase a restored antique car outright, but I wanted to build
one. I saw an ad in an automotive publication that had a Model
T for sale. I called the number and a lady gave me the address.
It was down in an older part of the Beaches in Toronto and when
I pulled up to the front of a very large house I noticed a three-car
garage that looked like it was ready to fall over. Two big maple
trees that were leaning against it were holding it up. I couldn't
get the doors to the garage open as they were wedged shut. It
was about that time I figured maybe I was being conned by this
lady who just wanted someone to clean out her old garage. Anyway,
I went and got a friend with a tow truck and we finally managed
to pull the doors open. I was amazed at what I found. The garage
was full of smashed up 1910 to 1915 racing cars piled up in pieces
on top of each other. There were five or six cars that where
pretty well demolished and a lot of parts. These cars would most
likely have been raced on old wooden oval board tracks that they
had long ago in Toronto. I decided to pull out everything that
I could use to make myself a racing speedster. It took about
four days to get the garage cleaned out, but she only charged
me around $250 if I remember correctly.
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- Peter: How did you get the car into the basement?
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- Bob: Everything was in parts and pieces. The frame
was the biggest problem, but we managed to squeeze it in through
the side door and down the basement stairs. I took all the good
parts I could use and had them sandblasted and painted, but I
needed more parts to complete the car. I started going to the
car show in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with my friend Aldo each year.
He was in a different league than me financially. He was buying
cars to add to his fleet of antique cars while I was searching
for the parts I needed to finish my car. The wooden spokes on
the wheels that I got out of the garage in the Beaches were rotten,
so I would search for old wheels at Hershey. Most of them only
had two or three good spokes per wheel, but they were cheap.
I think I paid around five bucks a wheel and I remember buying
20 wheels one year and bringing them home in the back of my '67
Oldsmobile. I remember getting my wife, Joyce, to stand the wheel
rims while I tried to attach the spokes and balance them because
I didn't have the right equipment, She's a very patient woman.
She enjoyed my trips to Hershey as much as I did because she
got to stay home in peace and quiet and relax.
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- Peter: I've heard about Hershey. Apparently it's quite
the place for auto enthusiasts.
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- Bob: It is and I have met some of the most interesting
people there and formed some great friendships. At Hershey, they
have these large tents set up on the grounds where they display
and sell everything to do with old cars. I was in a literature
tent talking to race car driver Phil Hill, who became
the first American to win the Formula One World Driving Championship
in 1961. Actually, I think I heard he just recently passed away.
As I was leaving that tent, attempting to take a short cut to
another area, I walked into this other huge tent by mistake.
There was an elderly man sitting in a rocking chair under an
umbrella and he called me over. Immediately, two bodyguards walked
down a ramp towards me until the man in the rocking chair motioned
that it was okay for me to be there. I didn't realize it at first
but he was Mr. Harrah, the man who owned and controlled
Harrah's Casinos in Las Vegas. He turned out to be quite a regular
guy. We sat and talked for a half hour about old cars, both his
massive collection on display in his casinos and my own work
in progress, while being served brandy, cognac and coffee with
fruitcake by his staff. He even gave me his private phone number
and told me if I was ever stuck getting parts for my car to give
him a call and he would help. He was a real gentleman.
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- Peter: It seems like most people involved in auto restoration
and collecting form close bonds and friendships based on those
common interests and they always seem willing to help each other.
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- Bob: It has always been that way. Americans especially
have been very helpful. I met another man at Hershey, a Mr.
Routleeb from California, who was into manufacturing classic
car parts. After telling him about my find in the garage back
in Toronto, he asked me to bring down some of the damaged parts
I had. The following year, I brought down a damaged front and
rear fender and an old flattened gas tank from my race car. He
took them and made replicas of the original parts at his shop.
I ended up with brand new front and rear fenders and a new gas
tank for the price of his materials only. He was interested in
the original pieces and is probably still making parts from them.
I got other parts from him as well, but I'm 75 now and can't
remember exactly what they were. My wife and I were invited along
with Aldo to the Lowenbrau (of beer fame) estate on Long Island,
New York. Aldo was there to show his car, a Hispano Suiza, a
car that is probably worth over a million dollars today. We were
invited to dinner with their family, which was served in the
middle of a stable full of their antique cars. I remember all
the staff and servants were armed. It was quite an experience.
It was amazing to see how the other half lives.
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- Peter: How long did it take to finish the car and do
you have any idea how much money you spent building it, not counting
the labour involved or digging out the backyard and the basement
wall to get it outside?
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- Bob: I know exactly what it cost because I saved every
bill and receipt - just under $5,000. It was an enjoyable, but
painstaking, process. Finding the correct parts, matching the
correct wood stain and trying to keep it authentic took a long
time. Ten years to be exact. I did the upholstery and the assembly
myself. The most expensive part was having the motor rebuilt.
Ross Saunders, whom I met at the Barrie Auto Flea Market,
rebuilt the engine completely to early racing standards of 1912,
with aluminum pistons. Ford didn't make racing engines back then.
Race car drivers and mechanics modified standard Model T engines
to get the most out of them. There is a brass whistle that is
connected by a lever to the exhaust pipe that was used back when
they raced on farm roads. When connected, the whistle would warn
people, sheep and cows that you were coming down the road. I
used to hook it up the odd Saturday morning and drive through
our subdivision just to get people up and about.
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- Peter: How does it drive?
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- Bob: Great. When the car was finally finished, I wanted
to see what it would do so I took it out early one Sunday morning
along the east end of Lawrence Avenue. Model T Fords only had
two speeds back then, slow and fast, and I wanted to see just
how fast this racing model speedster would go. Joyce followed
me in our Peugeot wagon to gauge how fast I was going. At 30
mph, it was as smooth as silk, with no vibrations or shakes.
I got it up to 60 mph, which is pretty fast for a car of that
vintage. It felt twice that speed because of being so close to
the road with the openness of the car. The monocle windshield
actually flipped back onto the steering wheel and I felt a little
nauseous. It was then that I found out that it takes a full city
block to bring one of these cars to a stop. There is only about
two inches of tire tread on the road to slow the car down and
it only has rear brakes.
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- Peter: Have you taken it to antique car shows?
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- Bob: Not recently. I took it to the Inn On The Park
shows a few times and to the Guild and it won its share of firsts
and honourable mentions. I get called by auto auctioneers who
want to sell it all the time, but I'm not sure what I will do
with it. The most enjoyable part of building it was the friends
and great people I met during the process. It was great fun.
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- Peter: Thanks for meeting with me Bob. It's been an
interesting visit. By the way, that 60 mph on Lawrence Avenue
back then was almost fast enough to get your car seized by today's
speeding laws.
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