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Welcome to Ken's Hillman Page
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The Hillman Saga |
1958 Series II Now For Sale at $7,500
I remember
getting a E-mail from the Hillman list server in 1999, September, about a
person in Poway Ca.. near San Diego CA, who was giving away FREE a 1958
Hillman Minx !! I filed it into my Hillman folder.. around the
first of 2000 I pulled up the ole E-mail and fired off a request to the
person, Russell, who had sent the message back in Sept. Asking him
if he still had the car... I got a response in a day or so, it was YES
!
Jan
2000
I arranged
to drive down a couple of weekends ago to look at it... In all the
confusion I had left the exact address at home, but had the street name...
I drove down the street hoping to remember the number... by the time I was
at the end of the street I figured that I had made a BIG mistake, and
should of gone back for the address... I stopped the Jeep, and looked
around... I saw a glimpse of a RED right rear fender in the carport !!
maybe, just maybe I was going to have a lucky day after all.... I got out
of the Jeep and strolled back to see if it was the Minx ... Sure enough,
there it was !!!
I found
Russell getting ready to wash it and he took me to inspect the car...
after looking at the car briefly I said are you sure you want to give it
away, his response was YES, he had another car in storage, and wanted it
out to work on !!. I told him that I would make arrangements to pick
it up the following Sat. He showed me the car, and all the extra
parts and what he had done to the car. He had driven it till June of
1999, when something broke on it and he left it in the
carport.
So we
drove down to Poway on 1-14-2000 and with our tow flatbed in tow, we
pushed the Hillman onto the flatbed and drove back to our home in Rancho
Santa Margarita, CA.
The car is
almost identical to the one I owned as a teenager, even the same color !!
It even had a sawed off shifter! So I thought I would give a digest of the
car as the restore project goes along for all to see...
Feb-Dec
2002
After
getting the car home, I proceeded to get it washed ! no car goes in my
garage unwashed, no matter how old and dirty it is!! So out comes
the pressure washer..... BLAST goes the YEARS and YEARS of built up grime
& grease.
Now comes
the part of taking apart the car, so I take many photos of what I expect
to remove so I can have a clear idea of where it goes back. Since I
am known for having more parts left over on most projects I want to make
this one different. Out come the wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers,
plastic bags, rags, boxes.
Over the
next 6 months I get the car stripped down to what I think is reasonable
for some bodywork to begin on it. So with the engine removed I took
it to a local British engine re-builder, he had it for 6 months and then
went out of BUSINESS and I had to go door to door in the area to locate my
engine, and he got me for $1,500.00.... So I located another engine
re-builder late in that year and took it to him. It took another 5
months for him to rebuild it, but this time it is just like new...and
another $1800.00.
Also
during this period I had the car towed down to a local body shop that said
they could do all the body work for another $1,500.00. So far this
"FREE" car is costing me a lot of money....:-))
After 2
months+ of being in the body shop, the guy calls and says "Pick up your
car" it is done. So I make arrangements with our local "One Day
Paint" shop and have the car towed over to the paint shop. I pick
out a nice RED that matches the original color pretty close and told them
to paint EVERYTHING that is red, inside, outside, under carriage, truck,
engine compartment, wheel wells......everything... SO they did, and it
looked GREAT.
Jan-Sept
2003
Now the
car was at home, but it needed all the interior redone, a family member
had a friend that did interiors of cars and I contacted him, another
$1,200 for a interior... OK, go and get it done......so the guy takes 4
months to get it done, and the darn door panels won't go on the doors, and
he won't come out to the house to fix it!! Just my darn
luck!!!
Sept 2003
Time to
move, we sold our home in Rancho and bought a new house being build in
Murrieta, over the hills about 40 miles from Rancho. So we moved to
a 2 br. apt for 3 months while the house was completed. On December
24 we were ready to move into the new house, it closed and was ours, we
arranged for the moving man to be at the apartment on the day after Xmas
to get us out of DODGE, that apartment drove us stir
crazy..... The Hillman was being stored at Tim's (oldest
son's) house in Temecula, and it was ready to be back in its owner’s home
again....
Jan
2004
Tim
arranged to have the Hillman (clown car) moved over to our house one
weekend in early January, and sure enough it came early, 07:00 in the
morning here comes the flatbed tow truck with the "Clown Car" on top of
it! Into the garage it went just like it belonged there... resting
at peace for now until my other house projects can get
done....
June
2006
Now that
just about all the honey doooo's are done it is time to get back to
working on the Minx. Looking online for additional parts that are
needed to get it running...
Jan
2008
Have
decided to sell the Hillman, so if you are interested, please contact me
at ken@kendreger.com
List of
parts needed:
Transmission, floor
shift 8 bolt, Wiring harness, water pump assembly & pulley, trim
fasteners for the chrome strips, side door mirrors, inside mirror,
emergency brake latch mechanism, new tires & lots of effort and
time.....
I After the paint Job
Installing the Carpet
The New Interior!
The new headliner!
Rear interior
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