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Manitoba Antique Automobile Museum - Old Cars in Manitoba Canada |
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Isaac Clarkson, “Ike” to his hundreds of friends, had a boyhood dream of being able to collect and display for future generations some of the machines of his youth; here, the dream came true.
Mr. Clarkson for many years worked a farm only about three miles from where the Museum stands today, and it was on this farm that the Elkhorn Antique Auto Museum really began, back in 1946. A fairly successful farmer at the time, Mr. Clarkson one day located the sad remains of what once was a lovely car, a 1909 Hupmobile two-passenger roadster. One of the first cars built by the Hupp Motor Car Co., the little roadster, if it could be restored, would also be one of the very oldest Hupmobiles in existence. The major problem was that it was a mess, to put it very politely. Ike’s first task was to start clearing the location where the wreckage lay, as trees actually had grown up through what was left of the car. The metal shell of the car, the frame and a rusted pair of axles and a mined steering assembly were intact. The engine and transmission, rusted solid from years of disuse, also remained. The parts were carefully removed to Ik's garage, then the area was combed for any small parts that still remained. What Ike started with was about two-thirds the total weight of a finished Hupmobile and in pretty poor condition. And so the hunt was on: ancient spare parts had to be located, photographs of what the car had originally looked like had to be found, swatches of the original upholstery had to be obtained and mechanical detail had to be unearthed from old books, old memories, any source which may have them. Letters were written, telephone calls made, journeys undertaken, all with the object of learning something new about the rare Hupp, possibly obtaining one part from one source, a couple of bits or pieces from another, a rare accessories from another.
And there was the wreckage itself to deal with. First, everything had to be doused with penetrating oil and the engine cylinders filled with Diesel fuel in an effort to loosen the rusted-in piston rings. Gradually, parts had to be separated one from the other, always using as little force as possible and preserving ancient fittings wherever there was even a chance of saying them. Finally, the metal body-work was all separated into a pile of sheets of battered, rusted plates. The engine was soaked loose, removed from the frame and very carefully stripped down to the last nut and bolt. Now, the Hupp occupied an entire farm building. A few parts were starting to come in from the search. Now, the rebuilding could begin in earnest.
First, every piece of sheet metal bad to be hammered back into its original shape. Thin spots had to be built up with new metal or welding until the thickness of the original part was duplicated. The frame had to be sanded down to bare metal, primed and painted. Body parts had to be primed and painted, the engine and transmission to be rebuilt to “new” condition.
But parts for a 1909 Hupmobile are hard to get and many are more than hard to get: they are impossible to obtain. In those cases, Ike simply got to work in his shop and made the parts from scratch, starting with simple hand tools, bits of metal and an immense amount of patience. Every single piece of wood in the old car (and there was a lot of wood in a ear back then) had to be made, by hand, using hand tools only to cut the pieces and steam to bend them into the correct shapes.
It is not ‘lust as much work” to rebuild an old car as it was to make it in the first place: it is a great deal more work, for the restorer is starting off with something that already is ruined, taking it apart and remaking it to new condition, without original tooling, designs or factory facilities with which to work. Gradually, the 1909 Hupmobile roadster took shape as Ike pieced it together, one part at a time. Wooden wheels were rebuilt from new wood to the old designs, brasswork painstakingly duplicated from original pieces, leather buttoned upholstery handmade from raw materials, working always from photos and drawings of the car when new.
Finally came the day when the little Hupp was rolled from the garage. Fill the gas tank, turn the magneto on, retard the spark and push the throttle lever forward, turn the engine slowly over a couple of times, then snap the crank upward and hope she doesn’t kick back and the Hupp was running like the day it was made.
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