A story of French returning to its former glory! part 1

On 27th April 2019 a Bonhams auction in Tupelo took place. An auction that featured hundreds of lots consisting of both automobilia and great cars. The origin of the featured lots were in Tupelo Museum which was founded in 2002 and which had its depository inserted by late Frank K. Spain, US inventor and television engineer, best known for founding and building WTVA, an NBC affiliate in Tupelo, Mississippi. Frank Spain died in 2006, but the museum kept on going, until eventually in 2018 it was closed and it was decided that his heritage would be sold through an auction. Who else to pick but the famous Bonhams?

A beautiful Hispano-Suiza H6B from 1928 was one of the cars that were in Frank Spain’s possession and thus was auctioned. The car itself has a beautiful Coupé Chauffeur body by J. Fernandez, a body he built before partnering with the famous H. Darrin to create the famous Fernandez & Darrin combo. It had been in the collection ever since 1995 and he was only the last of the high-profile owners. The car was originally owned by the Potter Palmer family, the family who ran the Potter Palmer & Co. stores with its innovative ideas like no question asked returns policy or try home before buying… All these about 160 years ago! In 1968, the car was sold for the first time to Walter Weimer who shortly after sold it to Jim Stickley. In 1971 was the car acquired by Al McEwan who gave a lot of love to the car. So in the 70’s the car was restored to the state it was in when purchased from Bonhams Tupelo Auction in April 2019. After McEwan’s ownership, the car was sold to Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s Pizza chain who at the time had a very significant collection. Then it passed to Mr. Spain.

The person lucky enough to win the car in the auction is also our member and friend of Hispano-Suiza brand so I have the opportunity to share this story with you. When bought, it had to be moved from the state of Mississippi to the center of Europe… Hard task, but with the help by the company CARS UK, the logistics were handled with ease and not a single problem occurred. The car arrived to the UK in July and had to undergo a trip on a trailer to the heart of Europe, Czech Republic.

When it arrived, the condition of the car was inspected. The paintwork and interior that had supposedly been worked on in the 70’s are still in great condition and do not require further work but some polishing and work on preservation. The chassis seems to be in a really good condition with only some minor work should there be any will to have the car in total pristine condition. The engine however needed some work to be done. Actually, a lot.

*Hispano-Suiza H6B 6.6L straight six engine in the workshop*

The engine has aluminium engine block with steel liners and built in head, so basically the engine only consists of crankcase, block together with head in one piece, and cover of camshaft. The aluminium and water over time reacts and the result can be seen above. The oxidised aluminium parts cannot be replaced since they are a part of the whole block and even though the degradation of the engine can be stopped and current state preserved with advanced fills like Evans Vintage Cool 180, the engine’s thermal management would be corrupt for good. Unfortunately, the previous owner did nothing in this sense to preserve the engine, the above is the result of years and years of water oxidising the aluminium.

Also there was water found in the oil so one could expect other surprises in the engine, the dismantling thus kept on.

*The crankcase and lower crankshaft bearings shells with the scratches*

The lower crankshaft bearing shells have big scratches. The greasing was a problem for long periods of usage.

*The connecting rods. See upper bearing shell of the second rod from bottom…*

You can see some of the connecting rods with the bearing shells as they were in the engine when dismantled. Scratched from bad greasing but what’s worse, you can see even a total collapse of some of the shells. You cannot think of anything good that could have happened to the crankshaft…

Above you can see some details of the crankshaft. The scratches are visible even from distance. The bearing shells collapse led, as feared, to damage on the crankshaft itself. But there are good news! The damage on the crankshaft is not beyond the point of no return! The crankshaft can be repaired.

The state of the engine made the owner a little bit sad and because he likes things preserved and working, it led to the decision to have the engine redone to 100% state. So stay tuned, I will continue with this story as soon as the material is ready and the engine gets assembled again! In the meantime, the car will sit here and patiently wait!

PS: Yet another Hispano in the workshop! About that one maybe in the future. :-)

PS2: I am not an English native, so please, be a little bit forgiving for my English…