Restoring British car for cross-country drive a Triumph
As a high school kid in Arlington Heights, Joe Pawlak looked at the economics of the recession and knew he had to change. Gas prices were higher than ever and he was tooling around in a gas-guzzler.
So the teenager saved his money and bought a more economical used car - a 1965 Triumph Spitfire.
"I paid $400 for it, and the insurance was $860," remembers Pawlak, who graduated from Wheeling High School in 1976 and is now 50 years old. "At that time, the gas crisis hit, so trying to figure out how to feed a 442 Oldsmobile that got 8 miles per gallon was a bit much. Also, I just thought they looked cool. One of the coolest things is that the entire front of the car opens up-much like a race car."
As a leader in Illinois and national clubs dedicated to Triumph sports cars, Pawlak and a couple dozen other members of the local club have spent a total of more than 1,000 hours in the last year with their heads under the hood of one special car- a 1973 Triumph Stag.
One of only a few hundred left in the United States, this "barn find" was discovered rotting away in Indiana, Pawlak says.
"The Illinois Sports Owners Association took on the project to rebuild the entire car," he says of the state Triumph club. "At its first car show, it won best in class."
Volunteering at least one long day a week, 75-year-old retired electrical engineer Don Sheldon would make the one-hour drive from his home in Glen Ellyn to Pawlak's garage outside Hampshire to work on the project.
"When you're laying underneath it, it's easy. And once in a while I'd take home some homework - like a radiator," says Sheldon, who got into the club after he restored a 1971 Triumph TR6 he bought.
"Rather than me restoring a car all by myself it was nice to restore a car with other people," Sheldon adds.
"It's a great learning opportunity with a bunch of great guys," notes fellow member Rick Paulsen, 52, of Huntley. "It's what I'd want to do on a weekend - hang around a garage, listening to a radio and working with a bunch of guys on an old Triumph. Good way to spend a weekend afternoon. And it's all for a good cause."
The restored car now is on a first-of-a-kind, 10,000-mile North American tour that culminates with it being auctioned off for charity. You can read more and follow daily updates about the journey by visiting www.triumphtransamerica.org.uk. A British writer and retired Triumph employee is driving the sapphire blue sports car through 25 states and five Canadian provinces and territories, meeting with Triumph clubs along the way.
Members of the Illinois club (and more than 60 of their cars) will reunite with their project during an open-to-the-public picnic from noon to 5 p.m. Aug. 2 at Burlington Park in Burlington. Donations, and the sale of the car after the tour, will benefit the Sidran Institute in the United States and similar international efforts to help those suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
For the 200 members of the Illinois Sports Owners Association (www.snic-braaapp.org), the restoration is like a fountain of youth.
The 1976 Triumph Spitfire Paulsen bought right out of college in 1979 got lost in the shuffle for a couple decades.
"Houses, kids, colleges, boats, life - I just lost interest," says Paulsen, who recently got the car restored and running. "I didn't have the resources or knowledge to do rebuilding until I got into the club."
Pawlak, his wife, Kathy, and their daughters own several Triumphs, including his one from high school.
"We don't have them for show. We have them for driving. We take all the back roads. It's an unbelievable experience just cruising the back roads of America and seeing the most unusual things, and pulling into small towns that might have a little drive-in or restaurant and meeting the people," Pawlak says, adding that the charity aspect of their biggest project makes it even sweeter during this current recession. "With the gloom and doom surrounding us, this is actually something nice that is happening."