James' Barn: Triumph Spitfires to Porsche 911 Dreams
To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History
James' Barn: Triumph Spitfires to Porsche 911 Dreams
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Car
Scooby-Doo Monster Truck
The Scooby-Doo Monster Truck is a big truck designed for stunts and shows, featuring a design based on the cartoon character Scooby-Doo. It's part of monster truck events where these trucks perform tricks and crush smaller cars.
Concept
barn find
A barn find is an old car that someone has left in a barn for a long time. When people find these cars again, they can be special and sometimes worth a lot of money.
Concept
classic auto restoration
Classic auto restoration is when someone fixes up old cars to make them look and work like they did when they were new. It can involve a lot of work, like finding old parts and fixing the engine.
Car
Chevrolet Caprice Classic
The Chevrolet Caprice Classic is a big car from the 1970s that many families used. It was known for being roomy and comfortable.
Car
Holden Caprice
The Holden Caprice is a big, comfortable car that was made in Australia. It's known for being nice to ride in and has a lot of space inside, which is why some people remember it fondly from their family.
Term
two-barrel carburetor
A two-barrel carburetor helps mix air and fuel for the engine to run. It has two openings to do this, which can make the car go faster than one with just one opening, but it's not as good as newer systems.
Term
V8
A V8 is a type of engine with eight cylinders that work together to make the car go. It's powerful but can use a lot of fuel.
Car
Chevrolet Caprice
The Chevrolet Caprice is a big car that many people drove in the past, and it was often used by police. It's known for being comfortable and having a lot of space inside.
Car
Toyota Tercels
The Toyota Tercel is a small car that was made by Toyota for many years. It's known for being very reliable and good on gas, which means it doesn't cost much to drive.
Term
V8 engine
A V8 engine is a type of car engine that has eight cylinders. This helps the car go faster and run more smoothly than smaller engines.
Term
power steering
Power steering is a feature in cars that makes it easier to turn the steering wheel. It helps you steer without having to use a lot of strength.
Term
bench seats
Bench seats are long seats in cars that can fit more than one person. They are usually one big cushion instead of separate seats.
Term
land yacht
A 'land yacht' is a nickname for very large cars that are comfortable and smooth to drive, like a boat on land. They usually have a lot of space inside and are not very fuel-efficient.
Term
Pioneer stereo system
A Pioneer stereo system is a type of music player made by the Pioneer brand, which is popular for its good sound quality. People often install these in their cars to listen to music more clearly.
Company
Alpine
Alpine is a brand that makes audio equipment for cars, like speakers and amplifiers. They are known for making good quality sound systems that people like to use in their vehicles.
Term
stall
When a car stalls, it means the engine stops running suddenly. This can happen for various reasons, like not getting enough fuel or air, especially when the car is cold or struggling uphill.
Term
choke
A choke helps your car start better when it's cold by making the fuel mixture richer, which means more fuel and less air. This is important for starting the engine in cold weather.
Car
Oldsmobile Tornado
The Oldsmobile Tornado is a car that was made in the 1980s. It was known for having a powerful engine and being good in snowy conditions because it was designed to drive with the front wheels.
Term
front-wheel drive
Front-wheel drive means that the front wheels of the car are the ones that move it forward. This setup helps the car handle better in snow and makes more room inside the car.
Term
digital dash
A digital dash is a type of car dashboard that shows information on a screen instead of using old-fashioned dials. It can show things like speed and fuel level in a more modern way.
Term
glitch
A glitch is a small problem or error in a car's electronics that can cause things like the dashboard to not work properly for a moment. It's usually not a big issue but can be annoying.
Car
Triumph Spitfire
The Triumph Spitfire is a small sports car that was made in Britain. It's known for being fun to drive and has a classic look that many people love.
Term
British Racing Green
British Racing Green is a specific shade of dark green that many British race cars are painted. It's a traditional color that represents British motorsport.
Term
overdrive
Overdrive is a feature in cars that helps the engine run more efficiently at high speeds. It allows the car to go faster without putting too much strain on the engine, which can save fuel.
Term
stick shift
A stick shift is a type of car transmission that you control by moving a lever, which lets you change gears yourself. It's different from automatic cars, where the car changes gears for you.
Term
handbrake
A handbrake is a brake that you control with your hand, usually used to keep a parked car from rolling. It's also sometimes used to help with turning or stopping quickly.
Term
MG club
An MG club is a group of people who love MG cars, which are classic British sports cars. Being part of a club means you can meet other fans, learn more about the cars, and enjoy events together.
Brand
MG
MG is a car brand from Britain that makes sporty cars. They are famous for their classic designs and have a long history in car racing.
Car
Ford Mustang
The 1967 Ford Mustang is a famous car from the 1960s that many people love for its style and speed. It's one of the first cars in a category called 'pony cars', which are sporty and affordable.
Car
MG TD
The MG TD is an old British sports car made between 1950 and 1953. It's famous for its classic look and was one of the first MG cars to have better handling thanks to its new suspension design.
Car
MGB GT
The MGB GT is a classic sports car made by MG. It's known for its stylish design and fun driving experience, making it popular among car enthusiasts.
Car
Porsche 911
The Porsche 911 is a famous sports car that many people love for its speed and unique shape. It's been around for a long time and is known for being fun to drive.
Car
BMW 323I
The BMW 3 Series is a popular luxury car known for being fun to drive and having a nice interior. People often talk about it because it's seen as a high-quality car that many enjoy owning.
Term
horsepower
Horsepower tells you how powerful an engine is. The higher the horsepower, the faster and more powerful the car can be.
LIVE
All right, welcome back, everybody, to your podcast where every car tells a story.
We are to all the cars I've loved before, or as I like to call it, Cars Love Nation.
I'm Christian.
He is Doug.
Get ahold of me, Christian at CarsLove.com.
He is Doug at CarsLove.com.
This is a special Blue Angels weekend, and where I sit in my air-conditioned bunker.
The Blue Angels, this is their air show they do every July.
They were streaking over my house, and we had to wait until all the roar of freedom
as they say died down, so it wouldn't drown me out as I was speaking.
So they have a practice show today, another practice show tomorrow, the real deal is
Saturday, and hey, you know, I am in the mood, it gets the blood pumping, which is good
because we have a great guest today who is, well, we'll get into this in a minute.
Doug, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great.
Great to be back here with you.
That's my tagline.
All right, sounds good.
And I've been having some internet problems.
This is what happens when you get your internet from Dollar Tree.
It's a little spotty.
It's a little iffy.
But you know what, hey, you know, I got it back there where you can get the discount orange
juice.
Hey, I didn't know dial-up was still a thing, but you grieved me wrong.
Yeah, well, yeah, this is a spin.
This is dial-up with the rotary phone.
So it's actually very curious the way it goes.
But a little bit of housekeeping as we normally do.
We see the stats go up when a thank everybody.
The audience is growing, again, all around the world.
We can see the downloads.
Especially in Europe.
I don't know if it was my recent trip to Ireland, but very excited to have you aboard.
If you would like to be on the show, if you are a car nut or just fascinated with the...
We get this a lot where people say, hey, I like the spirit of the show.
I'm not a huge car person.
But you know what?
Invariably, those people have some of the most interesting stories to tell.
Okay.
Or they may have a car nut friend.
Sorry for the interruption.
Indeed.
They may have a car nut friend.
Refer to your car nut friend.
Love it.
Love it too.
Yeah, one of our earlier tandem guests in season one was husband and wife team, Adam,
who we love, who goes way back with Doug.
But his wife, Melissa, was an even better guest.
I mean, she is way up there in the pantheon of guests here.
So yeah, very good point.
So every car tells a story.
Feel free to reach out to us.
And yeah, get involved.
Email us.
Okay.
You can also check out carslove.com.
More and more we're seeing in the analytics that more and more people are actually listening
to the show from the site itself, carslove.com.
So you can listen to the episodes there as well as Doug has us propagated all over
the internet.
I think we're on...
What are we on?
Spotify?
Apple?
We're everywhere.
Of course, Apple, Apple, Castro.
You name it.
We're on it.
Yeah.
Fidel Castro.com.
Who would have known that he would have started an ISP?
But yeah, we're huge in Cuba.
What can you say?
So listen to the episodes.
Follow the show.
Download the episodes.
Follow the show.
We track all that.
And we love to get all the feedback from listeners too.
So Doug, please feel free.
Do we have anything, Doug, to share with listenership?
It's been a week or two since we've recorded, so we're jumping back in with both feet.
Anything new about the show?
Any guests we want to tease, shows upcoming?
Anything you want to share before we introduce this week's guest?
Yeah.
Well, besides this week's guest who I went to high school with and we have another
mutual friend that we went to high school with who was also a guest, Joe.
We just interviewed a very famous former rock crawler turned professional monster truck
driver turned YouTube star and can't wait to get that episode out.
We're just going to keep dropping little tidbits, but what a great lady.
Gosh, so much to say.
Nicole Johnson.
Yep.
Name Nicole Johnson and Nicole Johnson's detour, former driver of the Scooby-Doo Monster
Truck.
Yeah.
So check her out at NicoleJohnsonDetour.com and that'll get you to the show on YouTube
which is blowing up.
It's so much fun.
And yeah, but not to bear the lead here.
Let's bring in today's guest.
And by way of prologue here, Doug, when I say barn find, what do you think?
What's a barn find to you?
So barn find and there's a great show on YouTube by the way called Barn Find Hunter
that I like.
But barn find is just a car that got left behind.
Maybe it broke down.
That's right.
Somebody passed away.
Maybe.
That's right.
Somebody had a car buying habit and not their repair budget in mind and they just got forgotten.
And perfect.
So there you have it.
And that's what I call a car.
That's perfect.
That's perfect.
And you're welcome.
And the setup is that you find these cars in a barn which is the perfect prologue
to today's guest because as we're talking to him, guess where we found him?
In a barn.
Today's guest is a little bit of a barn find.
His name is James.
I just met him, delightful gentleman, but he is joining this podcast.
We're recording.
He is in his barn surrounded by a bunch of cars, some simply skeleton, some chassis
in different states of repair, restoration.
This one needs a paint job.
This one's on the lift.
That one doesn't have the body.
He's got a 19.
What is it?
31 Packard frame that he just got a 41 Packard motor for.
He's going to tell you all about it.
But since he and Doug go way back, I am going to gently hand the introduction baton to
Doug so that he can tell you a little bit more about James.
Yeah.
James and I go back to probably middle school and certainly through high school, having
talked in about 30 years, but recognized his voice on the phone like yesterday, joked around.
I didn't realize that.
You guys just...
Yeah.
We reconnected through James.
You knew him then, but you have not heard this guy's voice in 30 years.
Correct.
I love that.
Didn't realize that.
Love that.
Sorry.
Didn't mean to break it.
I had heard from Joe, our former guest, that James does auto restoration on the Eastern
Shore.
That is his job, classic auto restoration.
Perfect guest.
Perfect guest.
Perfect guest has lots of stories, not only of his own cars, but of these cars that they're
hobbyist cars.
So he's restoring them and somebody's holding on to an old car.
They've got some stories behind it, whether it was the grandmother's car, grandfather's
car, whether it was the neighbor's car, whether the wife had one just like it but
had to get rid of it 40 years ago and she's been dying to have it back or something
close to it ever since.
So kind of with that, and it's funny, James and I were talking and he filled out our online
form about his first car, which was, I will leave it to him, but I remember that car in
high school and I remember that car doubling as a police look-alike vehicle.
But let James, James, feel free to introduce yourself, tell us about where you live,
what you do, and we can talk about your first car, which is definitely a family affair.
Well, thank you both, Doug and Christian for having me on the podcast.
I'm honored to be on here and this is a lot of fun and listening to some of your other
podcast people talking about their cars, it's been really enjoyable.
Thank you.
Coming back to my first car, so yeah, that was, it's a bit embarrassing now.
It was a 77 Caprice classic, it came from one of my grandparents and I think it was maybe,
if I remember serves, it was a couple of hundred dollars or something or it may be
worked off the payment or something, but it was a four-door, yeah, it was a four-door
Caprice classic, two-tone, it had a 302 or a 305, I'm trying to remember what it had.
It was a V8, but it wasn't a big one and it was a two-barrel carb, so it wasn't fuel efficient
nor was it very powerful, but as you know with first cars, it was freedom and it didn't matter.
So well put.
I love with that car and I'd have, I think my neighbor would say if you wax
that car anymore, you're going to wax the paint right off of it and I didn't, I just,
I tried to make it as clean as possible and it did look later like a Caprice undercover
car of the day from the 80s because at one point I had to put new tires on it and they
didn't put the white walls on the outside, so it had black walls on it, which all
the police cruisers looked like that and I think it was just kind of tongue in cheek,
but it was two-tone, it would never pass, but it was fun.
It did get me through a couple speed traps on the way to Ocean City one time.
There are many, yes, yes.
It was like many that have the first car, I was lucky to have it and I was probably
mid-17 to 18 when I got it.
I got my license though when I was 16 and a half and I was driving my parents Toyota.
They had one of those Tercels, the hatchback and it was an economy little car, but that's
why I learned to drive on and when the Caprice came in, it was a V8.
It had power steering, power brakes, power locks, it had air conditioning, it had
a big back seat, a big front seat, it was bench seats.
By driving a smooth boat right on land, yeah.
It was a land yacht and I think Joe had one too.
He had a big convertible land yacht, so we could relate and they were horrible on gas,
just absolutely horrible, but gas was $1.50, $2 a gallon I think back then until the
first Gulf War and Doug and I were probably shelling out over $2 a gallon thinking
how are we going to do this and little did we know where that would have gone, but that
car turned into freedom and I drove that car for several years and I loved that car because
of what it was.
I remember putting a Pioneer stereo system in it and an amplifier, yeah, the old Alpine
amplifiers and subwoofers and stuff and it was learning how to wire stuff, pinker with
the car.
The car always had this really bad fault when I was going to the community college where
it would stall on this one hill every time when it was cold and it was a left-hand
turn going uphill and it would stall because every time and I had to go that way, I
couldn't go a different way and I'd be stuck in the middle of the intersection, all these
people honking at me, have to get out, open the hood and then stick a finger down to get
the choke to open up and get unstuck and then so you're going to school smelling like gas,
it was always fun, but the memories you have, I remember that to this day, it was freezing
out and your hands cold and you're smelling gas.
So what happened to that car?
So that car ended up going to my younger brother and that became his first car and he was three
years younger.
I drove it for several years and when he got his license, I ended up buying a, the next
car was an 85 Olds Tornado, I bought it from my stepfather and it was all gold
and it had tan interior and the sheep cloth interior, you know, it was, it was the
epitome of the 80s, it was a gold vinyl tire, it was Caliente, it was a front wheel drive
V8.
Yeah, I was going to say that was a front wheel drive V8 vehicle.
And I love that about that car, it was really good in the snow, it was great handling, it
actually was very smooth riding, but it had the biggest doors, it was a two door
and the biggest doors of any car I've ever owned and I remember taking that car when I
went away to school at Towson State and trying to park in the parking garage and you can't
open the door to get out of the car, you may forget it, you have to find a spot like
on the end that you could get the driver's door open without hitting a door.
So it was limiting in that respect, but I ended up driving that car for a number
of years and it was, it was a great car.
We had a lot of fun back and forth from Annapolis to Towson in that car and it was the car had
a digital dash, remember the early Oldsmobile and it would roll up to 188 and then roll
back down, well this car had this glitch where you'd be driving along on 695 and
all of a sudden the dash would roll up to 188 and roll back down and then you'd
have to pound on the dash and it would come back on and you could never trust the little
gauge of gas, it had these little bars and I remember one time I ran out of gas and I had
two bars left and I was walking distance of the gas station.
I said that I'll never trust those bars again and the digital was not as accurate
I guess, but I had that car for a number of years and I think that car went to my
younger brother after I was done with it and the Caprice moved on somewhere else and
when I owned that car I ended up buying a, a good friend's, his mom had it in a state sale
and there were two triumph spitfires in the state sale for Sherwood Forest.
This is what started it all, all right.
It started it, yeah. I said, I said, can we go look at them and he said, yeah I'm
doing the sale, let's go look and I fell in love.
I said, how do I get one of these?
And he said, well, they're $1,000 a piece, you know, and I'm like, that's a lot of cash.
I was going to school when I was working, so I just, I did it.
I bought it and I didn't look back.
The car was, I would call John Deere Green, but it was Triumph Green or Kermit Green.
Not the British Racing Green?
No, not British Racing Green.
That's distinct from British Racing Green.
Got you, got you.
Yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't that dark, but it was bright green, so to speak.
Okay, so there were two spitfires, right?
Yeah, there were two in the sale.
One was mustard yellow and the other one was this light green color.
And the green has a soft top.
The yellow one had a hard top and overdrive and I, I like the green one.
It just sang to me.
So I bought that, but I didn't know it didn't have brake.
Both 76s?
I'm sorry, the year was both 76s?
No, I'm sorry.
Todd, my friend Todd bought the other one and that was in 1980.
And it was one of the last years, I think of the Spitfire 80 or 81.
And it had overdrive.
It was a little switch on the stick shift.
And it had brakes, but it would only do like 40 miles an hour.
It had some weird water choke or something, but mine didn't have brakes, but it could drive.
So I had to follow him from Sherwood Forest all the way back to St. Margaret's Road
in Annapolis, using his bumper as a brake and a handbrake, what's left of the handbrake?
Oh boy.
It was like watching Beavis and Butthead try to drive through vintage cars.
Stop ramming me, Beavis.
And of course this was at night, right, James?
Yeah, we did not do that in the day.
I think that was late in the evening or something.
Yes.
And I don't even remember if the lights worked, but I just remember the smile on our face is driving.
It's like we stole the show or something, and these people are probably looking at us like,
why did they buy those?
I was 20 or 21 years old, 20 years old.
And I remember my parents saying, how can you afford two cars?
I was like, I just did it.
You know, I didn't think about it.
I just, I had to have that car.
And I never regretted owning the car.
It was one of those experiences that took me to where I am today.
It set that seed.
It planted that seed where that love of working on it and tinkering on it
turned into a business later down the road.
But it was a car that I ended up taking from Annapolis to Towson.
And I ended up joining an MG club at Towson to justify the insurance on the car
because you were only supposed to use it for parades and special events.
And I was, you know, I'm under 21 years old.
And to have a convertible when you're that young is really expensive.
So I got historic tags.
And I think it was with all state at the time.
And they said, well, you can only drive a certain amount of miles a year.
And you have to use it for events.
And I said, well, that's a big gray area.
What's an event, you know, is a monthly meeting of the Towson at the MG club and event.
That sounds like an event.
And I joined this club.
And I still to this day have the patch from one of the rallies I did.
I don't know if you can see that.
Yeah.
I kept it all in here.
MG's have pulled that up.
Yeah.
MG's the Baltimore Historic Rally.
I pulled that down for you guys.
So that was one of the first rallies I did.
We ended up driving the Triumph.
My girlfriend at the time at Towson went with me as a co-pilot.
And we did a time speed distance rally where you drove.
It was from Towson out to Mount area.
And we did all these back roads.
And it was, it wasn't about speeding.
It was about keeping the proper speed.
So whoever was closest to the speed won that leg.
And then they had a parking lot set up where you do cone drills.
And the Spitfire had one of the best turning radiuses of any car I've ever owned.
And it did the best in that cone execution.
Because you could literally turn the wheels sideways.
It had incredible turning radius.
But it was, it just kind of, I did a couple rallies with them.
And it just kind of was like, wow, this is fun.
And all these like-minded people were doing this.
And I just kind of fell in love with that.
When I left school, when I moved to the Eastern Shore,
I brought the car with me and I used it for quite some time.
And then it developed a, oh, I'd say a bad noise.
It was, there was a crack in the head that I was always adding water to it.
And I could never find it.
And it perpetuated into a worse and worse problem.
And one day it just died.
And then sat, and it was nothing sadder than seeing a car you love
with grass growing up around it in the yard.
So I think we've all seen those pictures.
And I ended up selling it to my brother's girlfriend.
Took it in the family again, GS.
It was, I think, you know, whatever a truck payment was at the time,
400 bucks, 300 bucks.
And she took it and knowing that the engine was shot and had it rebuilt and used it.
And I got to drive it one last time.
It was really cool.
And then I was, yeah, she brought it, they brought it down.
My brother and her and they let me take it out for one last drive.
And then I'm not sure where the car ended up after that.
They broke up and I never saw it again.
But it was one of those experiences that for years, it stuck with me.
But I would drive that car and I would imagine some of your,
I say older podcast listeners,
I'm old, I'm 51, but I'm not, you know, Doug and I,
You're vintage.
Going back, we're vintage.
But these cars were not, you know, that was a 76 that, you know,
was three years older than I was when I was born.
You know, that was not a vintage, vintage car, but it was vintage enough
in 91, 92, 93 when I was driving it.
You know, it's a 25 year old car.
And I would drive that car at 11, 30, 12 o'clock at night from Annapolis,
where I was living, up to Towson and all over the, you know, the Beltway
with a vintage British car that barely had headlights, you know, Lucas electronics,
and was prone to overheating.
And I had no cell phone.
This is before cell phones.
And I didn't have a care in the world or a worry that I would make it.
I just, you know, caution to the wind, just trust in the universe
and to people that might stop and help you.
And it was one of the most free freedom type of things where you just, you just go.
And then for so many people that I've talked to in this business that have grown up with
these cars older than myself, you know, that's how they live with them.
They drive these cars cross country and I give a thought to it.
And, you know, I had somebody recently helped find a home for a 67 Mustang
that was going up to Philly.
And the guy said, do you think I can drive it back to Philly from here?
And I said, I don't see why not, you know, be prepared, you know, make sure that you have,
you know, coolant and oil and the car was fully restored.
It was gorgeous.
It was 20 year old restoration, but it was immaculate.
And he drove that car back.
Not a problem, you know, three hours to Philly.
And, you know, that was commonplace.
That was a car that was built to be driven every day.
And I think we lose sight of that sometimes.
Now, it's not going to be as comfortable as the modern car.
And it's not going to be as fuel efficient and the creature comforts.
But, you know, that was a nice car back in the day.
So I got that Spitfire under my skin and I loved it and I always had a soft spot for it.
And then a couple of years ago, I sat in one that a customer brought by
and I just said, this car got really small.
I don't know how I fit in this car and getting in and out of it.
They shrink over time.
You know, you put them in the dryer and yeah.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And but there's such a love for these cars.
And then if you look at some of the prices that Spitfires are bringing,
it's like, oh my gosh, I should have kept the darn thing.
But who would have thought, right?
Yeah.
So yeah, that's where it started with those cars.
And then along the way, I never lost the love for the sports cars or the European cars
and had many different jobs and ended up about seven years ago, eight years ago,
getting back into classic cars, working for somebody.
And it did that for a year and then started out with a business partner.
And we did that for three and a half years.
And partnerships are tough.
We worked hard.
We had a really good client base.
And we went on our own way and I started over.
And I just, my love has been for keeping these things on the road as best I can
and learning as much as I can about them.
So yeah, that's okay.
So perfect segue.
That's where we wanted to navigate the conversation
to.
So would you mind telling us a little bit if you feel comfortable sharing the business name?
How do you, I'm fascinated by small businesses like these.
Sort of what's the cadence on a car?
How long is it?
What are you comfortable doing?
Is it kind of one of these from the ground to the crown things?
In other words, you handle everything?
I've done that on a couple full restoration or finished the full restoration on a,
it was a 53 MGTD that later we had a customer that did a full restoration on it.
And we did finish the car and it went to a concor and it won an award.
And it was a really nice car.
And then, but it was a car that did 45 miles an hour.
You just, you don't drive those on the highway really.
They're not suited for that by so much faster nowadays.
And he ended up selling it, taking it to auction and getting another British car.
He got an MGB GT.
That's a little faster with overdrive.
But yeah, I've done a full restoration.
That does take time.
It does take years.
It's not a TV show.
It depends on how many people you can throw at it.
And the TV shows throw 25 or 30 people, but it's not realistic.
I like watching some of the stuff because it makes you laugh.
And you, old cars are like old houses.
And you run into stuff and it's usually rust and it's usually not good.
So you have to have the stomach for it if you're going to get into it.
And you have to know sometimes when to say when or what's a good candidate.
And as it, as I am like everybody else, you're learning every day,
the better way to do it.
And you have to be open-minded because sometimes you don't know everything.
And there are other people that, especially that have been doing this a long time,
that you listen to and you learn from their experience.
And that's been the greatest teacher for me.
I have, like I said, I have a mentor that is 81.
That was a Mercedes mechanic and European specialist for 52 years.
And he's retired, but he comes in every week and checks on me.
And I am, it's, it's like a college education.
You can learn more in five minutes listening to this gentleman than you can reading a book.
I mean, it's just, somebody's been there and done that.
And that's what we need.
You know, we're losing that every day.
We have an East and we have a gentleman in Dickey, Moreland.
That is he, he rebuilds crankshafts.
He's one of the few that's left that still does it.
There are very few engine rebuilders in this area.
There used to be several.
And now we're, we're, you know, we lost these people.
It's, it's become a lost art.
And we're, you know, trying, I'm trying to soak up as much of this information as possible.
So my business, when I started over, it's called McCrae Enterprises LLC.
It's just my last name.
Enterprises, because I do a little bit of everything, but mostly it's European
sports cars and classic cars, some American classic cars.
I do a lot of 50s, 60s, 70s, some 80s cars.
I've done a couple 90s cars, but it starts getting into computer stuff.
I'm more comfortable with carburetors and early fuel injection.
It's just what I've been working on.
And I know, and I know my limits and they're not so much on the newer stuff.
So I just feel more comfortable with the older stuff, points and condenser and coil,
plugs, wires, you know, that type of stuff is pretty straightforward.
And I, I like that.
Is it hard for you to get hearts for a lot of these cars?
That's one question I have.
Great question.
Second question is, what, what happens when you get, when you get stuck or you need to
find documentation?
Is that, do you have a huge library?
Do you find things online?
Do you get manuals on?
Well, I can show you.
Oh, look at that.
It's like a library.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I've got a good collection of books for a lot of the cars I work on.
I think I saw Chilton's manuals.
Oh yeah.
You'll probably see a couple in there.
Yeah.
There's Haynes.
Our younger, our younger listeners don't know about those, but.
Yeah.
Pre-internet.
And I'm going to let you in on a little secret called YouTube.
Yes, sir.
There is, I'm not, I know it's a joke and YouTube mechanics certified and all that stuff,
but I'm going to be honest with you.
There are a lot of people that, especially if you get into a situation where you've
never been into that part of the car or have to diagnose something,
it is a really valuable resource because there's like-minded people that are struggling with
the same thing.
And these forums, there are a lot of forums that are specific to the car.
And I recommend going to those.
There's nothing better than a owner's group that has 25, 30, 50 years of experience on a car
that has been there and done that that can lead you down the path to fix a problem.
I've had so many times where I've talked to people and, you know, you find that
you pull a thread here and it takes you to another thread on a forum and then you find
your answer or at least a way to solve a problem.
So, yeah, the internet's a huge part of it.
But also, I have had a lot of success with vendors and private companies that sell parts
where they have experience and expertise in certain car makes and they have the answers.
You can usually, you're going to find in most cases that the people that are selling the parts
or selling the cars, they're passionate too and they want to see them stay on the road,
so they're going to help you.
I've had so many cases, I've had clients, I've had vendors that have sent me
thousands of dollars in parts without me paying for it.
I mean trust.
Wow.
Yes.
That's very unusual in this day and age where they say, I'm going to send you an invoice,
you mail me a check and I've had that happen a couple times and that is remarkable
that that happens still and it is a testament to some people.
It's kind of, it's amazing because most people will be like, you know, give me a credit card
number and I'll send it out once it's paid for.
But I've had several instances that's happened and then I've, those same people
have helped me diagnose an issue or a particular issue on like a 1940 Buick that I was having
and just remarkable and they've been doing that for 50 years, that's all they do.
And if you, I'll just say, if you're into a certain car and you're having trouble,
find an owner's group, join a club on Facebook.
Yeah, Facebook's a good gateway.
Yes, absolutely.
And my motto has been for years, you don't know unless you go, you don't know unless you ask.
You may not like the answer, but if you don't ask, you will never know the answer.
And sometimes asking the question will end up getting you another project car.
Ask me how I know.
So, you know, that's bitter experience, but, you know, that's just what happens and we
keep them going.
So, but yeah, the business I just, I work on mainly these 50, 60, 70, 80s, some 40s work on
the Packard's my own project and that's taking up most of my shop.
But that's a passion project that I've always wanted to build and it's slowly coming along.
I did last year for my 50th, I bought a 9-11 from a customer that just couldn't refuse
the deal and he wanted a newer one and his wife wouldn't have to.
Why'd you have to have it?
Why'd you have to have it?
Was it him?
Was it the car?
Was it about it?
It was the car.
I've always wanted a 9-11.
I wanted an air-cooled 9-11, but the prices are so astronomical.
Even a junker is just a fortune.
And I've worked on a lot of them and I have a client that's got a bunch.
You have one right behind you?
Yeah, there's one behind me, but yeah, the green one.
Up on the list.
Love the color.
I can see just a little bit of color peeking out beneath these.
It's like an anaconda green, I think, or a conda green they call it.
That was almost the color of my triumph spitfire, believe it or not.
Wow.
About that green.
It was repainted and I don't think it was the original green.
But the 9-11 he had for 10 years, it's a 9996 6B cab.
And I knew the car.
I knew him and I knew the people that worked on it and all the
usual suspects of things on 996 is that everybody complains about.
Had already been taken care of.
And it was an opportunity that I was looking at a BMW at the time
that another client had.
It was a 323i five-speed convertible low mileage.
And we were talking price and I was getting anxious.
And then this 9-11 popped up that was way more than the BMW.
And I remember taking a picture of each to my wife and saying,
if you had an opportunity to buy, if I could buy one of these cars,
which car would you drive?
And she said, oh, I drive the 9-11.
And I said, okay, that answered it.
It's done.
I see.
Yeah.
And I bought that car a year and a half ago.
I've driven it maybe six or seven times.
I've worked so much.
It's in the garage at home.
Every time I take it out, it's like therapy.
It's 296 horsepower and the 9-11 is nothing nowadays.
But it's not just the horsepower.
It's now they're 400, 500, 600 horsepower.
Yes, they are.
Glad six.
And you can't compete with that, but it's the handling.
It's the way the car responds.
And Doug, you've had a 996.
You know how they feel.
It's the closest I could get to an air cool by one year affordability-wise.
But if there's nothing like...
I always said to myself that if I could afford one sports car to be a 9-11,
I grew up my best friend in school.
Todd had a 74, 9-11 S Targa that I rode around in.
And I just loved that car.
The way the car handled, the way it sounded, the way it could take a curve and pull out of it,
it was just something about 9-11.
And so it always stuck with me.
And I said, one day I want to own one.
And it just fell in my lap and I don't regret it at all.
So I look forward to the times I take it out.
And I actually have a new exhaust up on the shelf for it waiting to go on.
Well, I'll tell you what, heat exchangers, right?
Yeah, on the old one.
Yeah, the Fister exhaust, have you ever heard of those?
I think so.
Fister out of California, it does a lot of 9-11 exhausts.
And it's kind of like an automatic bypass or it's a built-in bypass.
So I'm looking forward to putting that on and doing some maintenance to the car.
But shop is full.
Yeah, we have to have that.
And that might be the perfect place to kind of draw us to a close here
because we have to have James back because as I'm telling you,
this guy's a barn finder, he found him in a barn.
But he's got, he pivoted his, this is for our listenership who can't see,
he pivoted his phone and he has a library, just books and books.
Yes, he's pivoting it again.
I'm pivoting because the triumph I showed you earlier, the 60 TR3A,
that is a barn find.
That car was found in a barn in Oxford when Doug went down there to see it.
It sat in that, the family owned it 25 years.
And for at least the last 10 or 15 years, it sat in a barn at a boat yard in Oxford.
And I helped them pull it out of there.
And I mean, the steering was stuck.
The wheels are stuck.
You know, it literally was a barn find.
And it was just one of those things where it's exciting.
You get goose bumps at the same time and it's like, oh, the potential.
And then you realize, oh, they're rough.
The reality sinks in so much.
Yeah, rough comes for everybody.
Yeah, as they say, all the time is undefeated.
Yeah, that car is now, the engine's rebuilt, transmission's rebuilt,
waiting to go back in the car.
It's waiting on me.
So I got to get going on it.
So, thank you for having me.
Hey, we're not going to hold you much longer, but I'd love to have you back.
I'd be honored.
I'm just so, we'd love to have you.
I just like, and you're maybe the second or third person that we've interviewed who,
it just feels so authentic when we have you on in your broadcasting from your barn,
from your garage, so that we can see all of this.
You know, it's the fluorescent shop lights across the top, over his right shoulder.
He's got the 911 up on a lift underneath the car cover.
Very mysterious, but uber cool, man.
And the Volvo is over the left shoulder, which I'm a Volvo.
Are you?
Yeah, I'm just drooling all over my notebook here.
I should not get a couple good Volvo stories.
One of my clients has a 62-210 duet.
Oh, boy.
That is, he brought it home from Sweden, brought it over here from Sweden when he worked there.
And that car did a lot of work to that car.
First car I've ever worked on as two heater cores, one on each side.
That is not supposed to have that.
It only has one, but it lived above the Arctic Circle its whole life.
And it was turned out, we found out that it was orange in the engine compartment
and that the car was owned by the Swedish telephone company.
And they painted all their vehicles orange.
And someone owned the car after that.
They bought the car, they painted it blue.
And it was owned by a textile business and it lived above the Arctic Circle.
So someone added another heater core to have it in the car.
And it has this, it has, you ever seen the radiator shades on the old Volvos?
No.
I had to make one from scratch.
I had to get a Lowe's and buy a Leveller blind.
It was crazy.
We're going to have your back.
We got to have you back.
We'll get deep into some of these stories.
And I'm just, it's been real wonderful geeking out with you.
What do you think, Doug?
What do you think about our barn find today?
James, our barn find.
This was the barn find in the season.
It was a blast.
And I love when we reconnect with old friends.
So again, if you want to reach out to James, get ahold of James,
we will have his information on our website, carslove.com.
We will also have it.
It'll be in the show notes as well.
Exactly, exactly.
So if you're listening to the show, you will be two or three clicks away from
everything you need to know about James, his business, how to get ahold of him.
And can I just say, I no longer take Dogecoin or the Doge and the other one.
I don't take that as payment anymore.
But Ethereum, he's good with.
He's got no problem with Ethereum.
Yeah, he's a cash guy.
Awesome.
Elon pumped and dumped.
Yeah, I hear you.
Well, all right.
James, it was great meeting you.
Hey, it's been a pleasure.
Thank you very much.
James, great, great meeting you.
Likewise.
Thank you, Doug.
I can't wait to make it out to your garage soon.
Come down to your barn.
Yep.
And I'll show you in the other, right down the line here in the building,
I've got another bay full of vintage sports cars that I can show you.
Maybe for the next time.
Absolutely, this might be our entree into a YouTube show with video.
Because I wish everybody could see what we're seeing.
It really is remarkable.
Oh, we got some cool stuff.
You know, congratulations on all you've built, James.
I mean that.
Well, thank you.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you, Christian.
And Doug, thank you very much for having me.
It's been a lot of fun.
And it's really cool to reconnect with someone from high school,
especially though that we're car guys.
And, you know, I had no idea.
And I'm so glad you reached out.
This is really cool.
Ditto.
Ditto.
We have Joe to thank.
And, you know, thanks, Joe.
Thanks, Joe.
Joe's another barn find.
Joe's another barn find.
Broadcast.
Joe, let's just say Joe is one of a kind barn find.
He has more cylinders than anyone I know.
I love it.
I love it.
Sounds like him.
And boats too.
He's the car guy.
Yeah, boats and cars for sure.
I love it.
Yeah.
All right, gentlemen.
Wonderful.
Well, this has been great.
Thank you again.
All right, Doug.
And we will see you later Cars Love Nation.
To all the cars I've loved before,
reach out christian at carslove.com.
Doug at carslove.com.
We'll see you soon next time.
Take care.
Goodbye.
Thank you, guys.
About this episode
James shares his journey from a teenage car enthusiast to a classic car restoration expert. He reminisces about his first car, a 1977 Caprice Classic, and how it sparked his passion for vintage vehicles. The conversation dives into his experiences restoring Triumph Spitfires and the challenges of running a classic car business. James emphasizes the importance of community and knowledge sharing among car enthusiasts, highlighting the joy of working on classic cars and the stories they carry. His insights into the restoration process and the emotional connections people have with their cars make for an engaging discussion.
Original notes
Click here to share your favorite car, car story or any automotive trivia!
Ever wondered what it takes to bring rusted classics back to life? Meet James, who's broadcasting from his barn surrounded by restoration projects in various states of resurrection.
From his first car—a '77 Chevy Caprice Classic land yacht—to an '85 Oldsmobile Toronado Caliente with doors so big you couldn't park it, James fell hard for a '76 Triumph Spitfire that changed everything. Bought for $1,000 with no brakes, that Kermit-green roadster planted the seed for a lifelong passion.
Now running McRae Enterprises, James specializes in European sports cars and American classics from the '40s-'80s. In this episode, he shares:
- Rally racing a Triumph through Baltimore's back roads
- Why barn finds are both thrilling and terrifying
- The vintage car community's remarkable trust and generosity
- His dream '99 Porsche 996 (barely driven because he's too busy!)
- A '62 Volvo that lived above the Arctic Circle
This is automotive passion at its purest—no TV drama, just real restoration work, hard-earned wisdom, and the freedom of driving cars that matter.
Check out the episode James mentioned!
- "Vintage Land Cruiser Love – Megan’s FJ60 Revival and Everyday Off-Road Adventures" https://pod.link/1733902541/episode/318975ea55657ba867726e293dd1ef14
*** Your Favorite Automotive Podcast - Now Arriving Weekly!!! ***
Listen on your favorite platform and visit https://carsloved.com for full episodes, our automotive blog, Guest Road Trip Playlist and our new CAR-ousel of Memories photo archive.
Don't Forget to Rate & Review to keep the engines of automotive storytelling running strong.
*** Your Favorite Automotive Podcast - Now Arriving Weekly!!! ***
Listen on your favorite platform and visit https://carsloved.com for full episodes, our automotive blog, Guest Road Trip Playlist and our new CAR-ousel of Memories photo archive.
Don't Forget to Rate & Review to keep the engines of automotive storytelling—and personal restoration—running strong.
To All The Cars I've Loved Before: Classic Car Restoration, JDM, and Automotive History
Carly, Doug & Dave: Classic Car Experts, Motorsports Enthusiasts and Automotive Storytellers
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