Raiders Of The Lost Cars

Raiders Of The Lost Cars Raiders Of The Lost Cars follows my travels around the USA searching, buying and selling classic cars

09/09/2026

Some more comparisons for scale.

08/09/2026

Do I build another Chitty or leave well alone after creating this one in 2018. It now resides in a movie vehicle collection since selling her three years ago.

08/09/2026

Comparisons.

A little more progress. It never ceases to amaze me how good quality the metal is on all these old U.S. vehicles. Once c...
07/09/2026

A little more progress. It never ceases to amaze me how good quality the metal is on all these old U.S. vehicles. Once cleaned the parts are pretty much as they were 110 years ago.

07/09/2026

I’ve got a little 4cyl Lafrance engine of 9.5ltr displacement sitting on a test bed. This came from the back of a chicken restaurant in Georgia along with some other bits and pieces, including a fire truck that it fits. I thought Id fire it up after finding that I had the spare parts I needed to repair the starter motor.

06/09/2026

Building and playing with massive engines never ceases to float my boat. This 1917 seagrave parked outside my workshop just, literally, blows you away whenever it’s run up without the manifold on. It’s 16.5ltr straight 6 is a sweet as the day it left the factory in 1917 having only covered 2000 miles in all that time.

All the main bearings have now been removed and measured with Plastigauge for tolerance and so I lifted the crankshaft o...
30/08/2026

All the main bearings have now been removed and measured with Plastigauge for tolerance and so I lifted the crankshaft out this afternoon so that I could make a new rope seal for the rear of the main bearing. This was originally a fibre seal but this graphite rope will work just fine. I’ve reshaped it as it needed to be flatter and also it’s been soaked in oil for 24 hours. It will then sit in the grove in the crankcase. The corresponding seal sits in the sump. This engine came completely dismantled and in numerous boxes mixed up with other engine components, so I’m sorting through everything as I go to try and locate all the parts. I’ll lay the crank back the main journals, with a coating of assembly grease, tomorrow, and torque it up. One thing I am being asked by some people about this post is, how big is this engine as it’s very hard to get scale from the photographs. Well for those of you who don’t know ALF vehicles, or even old cars generally, these engines are massive. This one is a 14.75ltr straight 6. It weighs in, with all its ancillaries, inc clutch, at about 1-1.1 tons. From the floor it’s about 3.5 feet tall and from end to end with clutch, it’s about 6’ long. l’ll add another post to show what they look like when running on exhaust exhaust stubs.

I bought this Lafrance a little while ago and I thought that it was about time I got round to doing it. I’m now working ...
29/08/2026

I bought this Lafrance a little while ago and I thought that it was about time I got round to doing it. I’m now working on the engine assembly after I did the machining on it. I’ve always found that straddling these engines on my two post ramp is the easiest way to build them up. Firstly the underside then flip over to do the top. After grinding the crank on my Prince Grinder I had the white metal done in all the journals. Plastigauge is a must when reassembling and I’m pleased to say the at we are showing around 0.0025” clearance on the mains, which is great. I had the camshafts cleaned and re-ground by Newman Cams who, thankfully, are local to me. I’ve had new aluminium pistons made, which makes a massive difference to these engines and I’ve had three new blocks cast by my guys.

It’s time to head back to good old England after what can only be described as an epic two months in the U.S. hunting ca...
18/08/2026

It’s time to head back to good old England after what can only be described as an epic two months in the U.S. hunting cars. I took the decision to cancel my flight back from San Francisco and go home the old way. So I flew to NY last night and have just turned up here.

Well I have an upcoming new look for the Tour RV.
14/08/2026

Well I have an upcoming new look for the Tour RV.

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