Old & Slow #5
The Reborn Maiden Voyage"

By Bill Elder

In the late Eighties the annual club meets ran from Thursdays to Saturdays, with departures on Sundays. Over the years “a good thing” has evolved into four-day events. So, Louise and I were breaking new ground by heading to the Spring Meet in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday May 6, 1989. We left home at 5 AM, driving our newly restored 300K convert.

The car had spent a year at RM Restorations in Chatham, Ont. The craftsmen there had completely refurbished the body and paint. They left the interior alone, but bumpers and most of the diecast pieces were re-chromed. The hood was deemed to be unusable. Water had been seeping into the hood bracing from the mounting holes for the center chrome strip for years. They secured a replacement from a yard in Arizona. Not only was the sheet metal perfect, but the center chrome strip and the nose piece were perfect. I think my bill for chrome plating was $1,200. At the same time as the K was in their shop, they were working on a ’56 Eldorado Berlitz and the parts for chroming on that car occupied shelf after shelf. Even the radio knobs got the treatment. The Shop foreman was kidding me by telling me the chrome bill for the Eldo was the same as mine, except there was an extra zero on his bill.

While they fussed and pampered the body, I took everything that was under the hood home to work on. The transmission remained in the car, but everything from the grill to the firewall was in my garage. The engine went to a local machine shop for a complete rebuild, including bearings, pistons, rings, cam shaft and a complete refurbish of the cylinder heads, including hardened valve seats and guides. I sent the radiator out for a re-core and I cleaned, painted and detailed accessories. In those days, the flag style battery cables were not available, but I had an old metal working gentleman in my shop. He created a set of battery cable ends. Step one was to take a piece of flat plate steel and make a fence on it; that was roughly the size and shape of the terminals. I supplied him with some aftermarket lead terminals that you use a couple of bolts and nuts to secure them to your battery cable. They were melted down and from there the metal man carved and drilled his way into what we wanted. I remember him rubbing the finished terminals on some old leather gloves to make the final satin sheen on them.

When RM was ready, I took all of the engine components back to them and they installed it all. I reasoned that it was better to let them do the work, rather than me scratching up a fender or worse. All of the little rubber and detail components came from Gary Goers and I was grateful to get them. The original top stayed on the car, except that RM installed a new rear window.

So, there we were hitting the open road with a car without a blemish and a new motor. I drove all the way across Michigan. At this point we stopped for lunch. I was dead tired. I’m sure nerves and anxiety were also at work. I agreed to let Louise take a turn behind the wheel. This was our first time passing below Chicago and I had no idea of the traffic volume. Nerves and anxiety spiked when we ran into a construction zone. This was a three-lane interstate, but road work was going on in the right two lanes, all of the trucks were in the third, passing lane and we were running on a narrow lane that was the shoulder of the road with cement hi-way barriers, inches from the driver’s side of the car and trucks on the passenger side. I couldn’t look and spent an hour white knuckling the dash pad. Louise was as steady as a rock! Finally, it was over and we burst out into three lanes and the traffic volume was greatly reduced. At last, I could relax and with the tires drumming on the pavement and the engine purring out front, I fell into a much-needed sleep. BUT NOT FOR LONG! I awoke to a loud “POP” sound. I knew that sound. I didn’t have to look at the speedo to know we had just exceeded ninety miles an hour. Even with a new paint job and engine, the same old top was still there and the same old lead foot Louise.