Blakely car

A dedicated Blakely Owner

2010-12-24T16:37:00.003-05:00

Guest how Santa-Claus is going to deliver your gifts this year? In a Blakely of Course! Ivan spotted Santa in a fabulous Blakely.

Merry Christmas to all Blakely lovers.!

Buying a Bernardi

2010-12-06T13:34:00.007-05:00

Many years ago, I was trying to decide whether to restore my 1969 Firebird, by this time carrying a couple of decades of wear and tear, or to try out a different impractical car. The restoration process for most old cars involves a serious investment in body repair, particularly for thin-skinned American cars built in the '60s. I had rust on all four corners by this time and needed the full jolt.

One wintry afternoon, I sat down in one of the local watering holes with all of the estimates I had so far. These covered approaches from American-made full body panels (expensive but basically bolt-on) to nameless third-world country half-panels (much cheaper, but not as good-looking and needing to be carefully welded into place) to "donate this beater to charity". The total project price was daunting, no matter which path was taken. After a couple of years of saving, I had the money in the bank for one of the cheaper approaches. But was this the right way to spend it?

I also had the local used-car classified papers and decided to do a quick experiment. I would circle every car I had even the slightest interest in owning that was posted with a price below the Firebird's most optimistic restoration cost. There were hundreds of candidates: Camaro, Fiat X1/9, BMW 2002, Roadrunner, MGB, Porsche 912 or 914 or even the odd skanky 911, Barracuda . . . The big problem was that pretty much any of these 10- to 25-year-old beauties would require exactly the same kind of bodywork investment I was trying to avoid.

Except for the funky plastic-bodied Corvette. An old Corvette would not be rusted through, although it might be pretty beaten up mechanically. The sweet spot for prices started at about ten years old, which was much fresher than some of the European exotics I lusted after. A ten-year old American car was just getting into its prime - lots of wrecks for spares, mechanics familiar with all their quirks, plenty of after-market suppliers to keep me poor. Genius!

So I started serious shopping. Every Thursday I bought the classifieds, found all the Corvettes in the right price range, called owners, set up test drives, and cajoled my sainted roommate into driving me around. We saw many, many Corvettes. Pretty much all of them had been rode hard and put away wet, most had power windows (!) and automatic transmissions (!!!), few appealed. At the end of the summer, though, we found a fine late-70's instance with the (laughably named) high-performance engine, four-speed, and no options. Perfect.

Typical Corvette

This started my romance with plastic-bodied cars. A few years later, a group of us bought a lovely Austin-Healey 3000 replica based on the venerable VW chassis. This car was a revelation to me, since I had equal fun driving it as the Corvette and spent about one-tenth per year on maintenance (and gas, for that matter). Plus, it was far smoother on the highway and had a certain social appeal the brutal Corvette would never develop. Though we sold it a few years later for a tidy profit, I couldn't get it out of my mind. Skipping ahead a few years, I found myself on Ebay making a Saved Search for "replica and kit cars".

Lovely Austin-Healey 3000

I wanted cheap fair-weather top-down driving fun in a plastic-bodied car. After three years of haunting Ebay, almost closing a deal on another Corvette, I found a fine red Blakely Bernardi for sale. I had never bought anything bigger than a fountain pen on Ebay, had never heard of the Blakely company, had no idea what I would be getting, and forged ahead in a fluffy cloud of ignorance and optimism.

The deal was done and I began the arduous job of getting a car from a distant state into my garage. The owner said the car had an overheating problem and I would not be able to drive it home, much to my disappointment. It later turned out that the car only overheated if you drove it too slowly, so it's probably fair to say that I would never have noticed the problem until I got into my own driveway. On the other hand, its dried-up old seals and gaskets are sorely stressed by travel at speed and joyfully leak about a quart of oil for every hour on the highway. But the car-shipping option worked out very well and one sunny spring morning a few weeks later I received a call telling me to jog pronto to the corner strip mall, the nearest the auto transport semi could get to my back yard.

The Ebay Bernardi

Think "Christmas for a six-year-old" levels of excitement. The tire straps were loosened, the papers signed, the keys found, and the car started. On the first try - FTW! I immediately noted one of the Bernardi's less civilized traits (well - depends on the beholder, I would guess) - a significant disproportion between the engine size and the muffler complement, writ large by being the only object inside a shipping container with the acoustic properties of an ogre-sized subwoofer.

The car rolled out of the truck with no drama, and into my garage a couple of minutes later. Many hurdles lay ahead before it would be licensed and on the road, but those are tales for a later post.

New blog contributor - WF1010

2010-08-17T13:14:00.009-04:00

I own a late-eighties Blakely Bernardi and have been actively maintaining and driving it in the sunny months since I bought it a couple of years back. Philippe and Carey have kindly given me the chance to document some of my adventures on their blog.

The car is red in both body and fenders, with the optional "jump seat" feature behind the driver and passenger seat. It has a white convertible roof that defines the term "rag top" in spades. (I haven't had the roof up in nearly two years - thank heavens for a dry climate!) The engine is a Ford 302 V8, with a Holley carburetor to keep the petrochemical industry fully funded.

I have been in email contact with Philippe, Carey, and the other Blakely enthusiasts since buying the car. I would like to recap in this blog some of the information and adventures that I've earlier shared by email, in the hopes it may inform or amuse the broader community. The older emails will get digested and posted first, and I'll work forward in date sequence until I reach the present happy times.

Mikes McCully's Hawk

2009-07-20T19:57:00.005-04:00

I had these pictures for a long time but I actually forgot about them. Here is Mikes work on a rare Hawk with a V6 a beautiful car. The firs of our litle (growing) group is aware of. Noticeable difference between the HAwk and the Bantam are the front fenders, wider rear fenders, the roll bar and frame suspension design. The rear suspension is using coil overs.

Phil's latest pictures Bantam

2009-07-19T22:01:00.004-04:00

Gentlemen here are the latest pictures of my 1974 Bantam after a lot of work this winter, new paint, widen fenders, alu fender guards, new engine mounts and suspension bushings... and redesigned oil pan to add capacity. Comments are welcomed!

But here is the bad news due to some power trip and misunderstanding of certain individuals at the Provincial DMV (Quebec) they decided to categorise this car has a 2009 self-built, this makes the car almost unsassurable basically 3000$ a year witch cost me 200 $ in the previous province of ownership in New Brunswick. So I am seriously considering selling the car. Any serious offers will be taken. Note: I paid over 7000$ for the car and put considerable time and money to make ot right, I will also assist the owner with transportation at cost since I have family in the brokage business also getting a car over the border requires very litle papper work and is easier than one might think.

Turbo boost control

2009-05-19T09:24:00.003-04:00

This is not related to Blakely car but one day might come in usefull for others running turbos. On my Bantam boost is controlled using an Impco TC" control valve and did not wrok properlly (at all). After wititing Impco and searching the net for months I finally came up with this:

On my car the vent valve was plugged exlanning the valve did not work propelly. I will be trying this solution next weekend.

Mike's Bantam not a Bantam but a Hawk

2009-05-03T19:41:00.003-04:00

After getting more pictures from Mike I made a discovery his car is not a Bantam but the very rare Hawk witch is belived to exist 5 to 8 according to Carey. From the picture below we notice that the front fender has a diffrent profile and the rear roll bar is different.

Mike's Bantam

2009-05-03T08:55:00.007-04:00

Mike was kind enough to send in some pictures of his recently bought Yellow 1982 Bantam. With a litle love this car will be looking great.

This is the first Bantam with a V6 I have seen so far. I have also noticed that the frame design seemed different than my Bantam, The bottom cross member seems much beefier than on my 1974.

Bantam in one of the greatest movie of all time (not!)

2009-04-01T13:26:00.002-04:00

Some of you requested this video from the movie "Cherry 2000" to be posted on our blog:

In the movie the image is very dark, I tried my best to adjust brightness and gamma value.

Video Bantam Chimney Rock HillClimb 1984

2009-03-28T10:28:00.005-04:00

Carey found a set of great videos of a Bantam at the 1984 Chimney Rock Hillclimb:

The orginal files and credit goes to ageci on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTXB_wclNNk

Slide shows !

2009-03-17T22:33:00.002-04:00

It is also possible to create slides shows for the blogs from flicker using the instructions at:

http://www.flickrslideshow.com/

Created with flickr slideshow.

Blakely Bearcat 78 LtGrn 1a FrQt 1895 cr

2009-03-17T22:27:00.001-04:00

Blakely Bearcat 78 LtGrn 1a FrQt 1895 cr, originally uploaded by toadalfa.

This a test from the flickr interface its possible to post from flickr to blogger great news for Peter.

Present Day Pictures

2008-06-10T08:57:00.004-04:00

Above are tw0 photos from around 2005 showing the car in its present condition. Not much has changed in 30 years except some new wheels and tires. Under the hood the 2.0L has now been built to 2.1L with a bump in compression to around 10.5 to 1. The car now has a Holley 360 CFM 4bbl carb (vacuum secondaries). It is still a lot of fun to drive.

Competition Pictures

2008-06-10T08:54:00.003-04:00

This is a picture for an autocross (Solo II) run by the Des Moines Valley Region of the Sports Car Club of America. It was probably in May or June of 1983

Build Pictures

2008-06-10T08:48:00.003-04:00

On the left i a picture of the car almost completed in Fall of 1979. I thing the seat were just set in and the bumper was just tentatively bolted on to provide pictures for licensing purposes.

The rolling chassis is shown on the right - probably in early spring of 1979.

2008-06-10T08:41:00.004-04:00

I wanted to add some pictures of my 1979 Blakely Bearcat S. This car has always been in my family and I was one of the original builders. Above is a picture of us picking up the car at the factory in Davis Junction IL in spring of 1978. The building was still there as of several years ago.

Pictures of a Blakely Bernardi

2008-03-17T00:21:00.008-04:00

Here are some pictures of my 1981 Blakely Bernardi.

It is equipped with the Ford 2L engine and automatic, quite likely from the Pinto as they most of them were. At this point, it is still quite good looking for it's age, but does have several items that must be reworked. Well, all in due time. When I start working on it, I am sure that there will be some stories to tell.

Peter

Carey's engine bay

2008-03-08T18:05:00.005-05:00

Carey was kind enought to send out recent pictures of his "White" Batam engine bay. From this picture and confirmation from Carey it is possible to instal Weber's DCOE carbs witouth moding the body work. The engine bay looks really good compared to mine.

New Blakely Owner found - 3

2007-10-21T01:41:00.000-04:00

I recall that this Bantam was sold and shipped to Oklahoma. A couple months or so after those pictures were taken, a Bantam shows up on ebay, located in Oklahoma, with the same exterior color, but a completely different and new looking dash and upholstery. Then looking closely at the engine compartment, I began to notice too many similarities to be simple coincidences. Looking even closer and comparing the pictures I had taken with the one on the ebay site, I found markings that simply are unlikely to be coincidences. There was enough evidence to indicate that this was extremely likely to be that very same car, but nicely redone. Unfortunately I did not record any text from the ebay site, so today I have no data.
And that is where I thought the story ended, until recently.

New Blakely Owner found - 2

2007-10-20T13:29:00.000-04:00

Indeed so. I saw this as an ebay offering, located in the San Diego area, and lost my bid. Very shortly after that I had the opportunity to go to San Diego, and asked if I could see the car before it was shipped to the winning bidder. No problem. Here are some of the pics I took.

New Blakely Owner found

2007-10-19T17:42:00.000-04:00

A couple days ago a Blakely owner left a comment on one of the post: Peter Kunedt. Peter does not own a Batam, I will let him tell more about his car himself He was kind enough today to send a couple of great pictures of a Bantam last seen on ebay in 2005:

Camera mount

2007-09-23T20:25:00.000-04:00

After seeing for the first time my car on Video (see previous post) I wanted to see how it would look driving in the car on video. So I made a simple camera mount for my digicam using a 1/4 bolt a piece of iron and some duc tape. Here are the results it looks good but the sound is crap:

Click To Play

Some video

2007-09-23T15:08:00.000-04:00

Here is a video of my oldest son and me (Philippe) taking off for a Sunday afternoon ride. This was my first long ride just a week after fixing the clutch cable. YOu will notice that we speak French at home. After this ride approx 90 minutes I noticedthat the cltuch would pick up lower might be due to the new cable stretching.

Clutch cable broke

2007-09-16T17:29:00.002-04:00

Last friday I took my oldest son to school who just started kindergarden. The car was very popular and all the kids where around asking questions what a show! Unfortunately on the way back to work at a light the clutch went soft and I could not release it! After pushing the car to the side at 8:00 AM in the morning at a very busy time (how imbaracing), I found that the cable broke. Two hours later the towing finally arrived to get the Bantam back home, the towing company actually charged me 25$ extra because they said the car was too low nonsense since I helped te fellow out puttting the car on the truck and it took no longer than 5 minutes!

After I got home here is what I found:

I took the cable out of the car, again the longest part was jacking the car off the ground to get under! I started going around town looking for a Pinto/Mustang clutch cable. Again no parts are listed for Pinto's in my local part stores and dealer. Spent almost 3 hours looking for a cable and realized I will have to make my own. I bought a mustang II clutch cable which was way too long and lacked covering on the whole cable but at least it fit my throw out bearing arm:

The mustang cable must be using a puley system to route the cable. Also notice the custom cable from the Bantam.

What I did to make my cable was to cut one of the end and slide out all the cable protective/guide coverving and reslide the two longest sections on the cable and spliced the protective covers using a 1/2 copper pipe which fit nicely on the firewall penetration fitting on the cable covering. I then crimped the copper pipe using my vise and then used electrical tape to make it look good, I wish I had shrink tubing but the stores where closed:

Clutch cable covering showing bracket/firewall fittings with copper pipe cut to length.

Cooper pipped crimped with vise on clutch cable covering. The coper pipe is used to give rigidity to the splice so the inside cable would not kinked.

Final assembly with electrical tape tightly rapped around the splice.

Here in this picture you can see the new clutch cable. Not shown is how I have attached the cable to the pedal sinced I did cut the crimped end of the cable which contained the required ferule. I used a two steel cable clamped from a hardware store and basically tore my skin off trying to get it on in the clutch cable holder on the pedal.

Final assembly/fit of cable. Testing proved out pretty well except the new spring on the cable seems a little weak and sometimes the pedal will note come back to its position. From the previous picture you will notice that the clutch pedal dose not have a return spring which is weird. Next weekend or this week when part stores are open I will try to find a spring and install one attached to the fire wall to the top of the pedal dowel pin.

New steering wheel

2007-09-01T19:35:00.000-04:00

My birthday was a few weeks back so I bought myself off ebay a new steering (almost) wheel, 100$ including shippiong. It is one of the best mod I have made so far driving wise. I went from an 8 inch wheel to 13. This helps alot fight the bump steer that would rip my hands from the steering. On a negative note it does make it harder to get in the car.

New steering wheel in looks better!

New oil pan (sump)

2007-08-17T20:41:00.000-04:00

Two weeks ago I have killed the oil pan hitting a man hole cover at around 100 km /h an hour. The original oil pan sticks out approximately 3/4 of an inch under the frame making it an easy kill. It took me several days to source an oil pan locally for a Pinto 2.0 L engine, got it delivered for 100$. Taking the old oil pan out was not a trivial thing than most cars. I had to actually lift the engines 4 inches to get it out. The following things where done:

0)Lift car up on jack stand and drain oil. This was my first time lifting the car up had to be creative because of the height. Used a low profile cheap jack stand out of my Ford escape to lift it up a couple inches than my hydraulic jack.
1)Remove engine mounts bolts
2)Remove transmission mount
3)Remove turbo exhaust flange
4)Remove starter to get access to bolt of the sump
5)Move out of the way wiring between transmission tunnel a bell crank cover (in the way of the lift)
6)Take oil pan off by removing the 10000 10 mm bolts. (For my engine had to remove turbo oil return)
7)Jack the engine/transmission using a 2X4 a floor jack.*
*Caution the gaz line a brake lines can hit the transmission make sure it does not happen by limiting lift height .
8)Remove oil pan by jiggling it out of the way of the sump pick (rotation was required)
9)Reinstall pan in reverse order and than find out the pan shipped was from a 2.3 liter see picture bellow!

After finding out the oil pan that was delivered was not the correct one and making a few phone calls to find out it would take weeks to get another one I decided to modify/repair the old one by shortening it by 3/4 of an inch to make it dwell under the frame rail.

To do this it was simple and I was inspired by http://www.dwjenkins.plus.com/short-sump.htm except I felt I did not need the extra oil capacity tank since when doing the math I was losing only 1/4 of a liter or (1/2 us pint) all I have to do is to watch for oil level more often. Instead of re brazing the oil pick up I cut and rewelded (MIG) the oil pipe since I did not have access to brazing equipement.

Pictures:

Damaged oil pan out of the car. You can actually see the shape of the sump pick at the bottom of the pan, the pan took a real beating!

Lifting the engine up a couple inches. Distributing the load between the bell crank cover and the transmission using a 2x4. I don't think this is the propoer way to do it because you can damge the bell housing but I was too lazy to lift the engine using shop crane (I did not have one in my garage)

New oil pan from 2.3 liter engine and the old one. Difference is noticeable after trying to fit new one in ! I was very happy:).

New oil pan with flat bottom shortened by 3/4 of an inch. I repainted it to hide the excellent welding job.

Shortened oil sump pickup. Removing the top bolt actually takes a very short 10 mm wrench and I actually grinded off one of the wrench end to fit in the tight space.

New oil pan in the car barely clearing the frame cross member. The oil on the floor is not from the oil pan but from the valve cover breather which seems to spit out a lot of oil when I use turbo extensively. I am going to have to install a catch can!

Phil's Specification

2007-08-12T21:34:00.000-04:00

It seems the previous owner had limited knowledge about the technical specifications for the car here is what I know so far and this information will certainly change has I tinker with the car:

Engine is a Ford 2.0 L EAO Pinto engine which has been modified with a custom turbo. According to the previous owner(s) this engine would develop approximately 265 bhp. I personally think with the current tune state of the engine that 200 bhp is more a conservative figure, but I. After breaking open the oil pan (more to come) I did find that the crank shaft was balanced so hope of a high reving engine is possible.

The Bantam's powertrain and frontend was borrowed by the 70'S Pinto and Mustang II. My car runs an 8 inch differential with very high ratio what seems to be above 4.11:1 and some type of LSD mated to 4 speed manual transmission. According to a pinto site the ratios are 1st = 3.65, 2nd = 1.97, 3rd = 1.37, 4th = 1.00, Reverse = 3.66 (Do we need the reverseratio?, this car is made to go forward).
Ignition seems to be a Ford Dura Spark with a mechanical and vacumm advance distributor. A Carter knock control sensor was fitted to the car but removed by the previous owner for an unknown reason. I am still investigating if I need this back on the car with the boost pressure I am running (a very low 8 PSIG).
More to come

FIrst Post Introduction

2007-08-12T21:24:00.000-04:00

This is the first post for the Blakely Bantam car blog. Hopefully this blog will grow with content , information and user comments on their experience of owning this incredible American made Super Seven replica.

Carey and myself Philippe will try to add as much information possible about this car, the modifications we have made, the problems we've had... Carey has been a 30 year lover of this car and has collected considerable amount of information on the car. Myself have been an onwer of a Bantam since July 2007 and have already felt in love with it.