1951 Tatraplan review in Motor Manual

Australian Monthly Motor Manual was a technical magazine from the 1940s through to the 60s. Occasionally, new vehicles were reviewed or premiered, as with this February 1951 edition, which announced the imminent arrival of the Tatraplan on the Australian market. One Tatraplan was displayed at the Melbourne Motor Show that year, but the expected vehicles were delayed and did not arrive until late in 1952. It is believed that 12 Tatraplans were shipped to Australia. By the time they had arrived the Tatraplan had stopped production, which did nothing to encourage sales. As noted in the Motor Manual below, the Tatraplan was quite expensive at 1475 pounds (in Melbourne. It was 25 pounds cheaper in Sydney). At least one of the Tatraplans made it to Perth, but it's certain that it went east in the 1990s as a restoration project. My Tatraplan was one of the original 12 cars and lived most of its life in Melbourne.



For more of Tatra posts check out my dedicated Tatra blog: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/

Tatra restoration update

In 2016 Shelly and I traveled overseas for six months so while I was away I decided to put the Tatra in the shop to address a couple of issues. The immediate issue was that the starter motor had failed and I had to hand crank her to get her started. Once I mastered the skill she started easy enough but it was a bit of a pain. The exhaust also needed replacing and there were a number of other, relatively minor mechanical issues to fix. I left the car with Classic Gasoline who had helped sort out the engine problems when I first bought the car.

The exhaust was replaced and the starter motor overhauled.

The engine out

A new clutch went in as the old one was virtually worn to the metal

The whole gearbox had to come out to fix the leaking boots. When I bought the car the gearbox did not leak as the oil in the gearbox had turned to sludge. Once the gearbox had been flushed and filled with fresh oil, it began to leak quite a bit. I was asked if I wanted the gearbox rebuilt. I said no as I was gearbox worked quite fine and I foresaw the risk that once the gearbox came apart it would be difficult to put back together.

Inevitably though, while the cats away the mice will play and once the gearbox was out, the guys did open her up and, as expected, problems were found. The gearbox had been restored using parts of dubious quality and it was probably the fact that the car had rarely been driven in the past 30 years that problems had not occurred. The guys sheepishly told me that they could not put it back together without replacing the worn parts. Now I had to find a donor gearbox. Great! Thank God for the internet and Tatra enthusiast forums. After putting the word out I obtained a replacement gearbox at great expense. Unfortunately, the donor gearbox had just as many problems as the original.  Some parts were okay but most were unusable.

Tatraplan gearboxes do not grow on trees. The company only built 3300 Tatraplans over four years. Due to wear and tear, gearboxes often require repair and replacement and stocks of NOS parts are no longer available. Wrecked gearboxes are pretty much all you can source these days and many have already been cannibalized for their most useful parts. In October 2016 I had put the word out again but had had no leads. After much cajoling I finally managed secure the missing parts from a source in Czechia.

By this stage Classic Gasoline had handed the gearbox rebuild over to a specialist gearbox rebuilder. It made sense as the job really needed specialist attention. However, none of the Tatra parts I was able to source met the company's high standards, which led to a lot of frustration on both sides. I couldn't make them understand that we simply had to make do with what we have.

The Body
With the car laid up it seemed a good time to send her in to the bodyshop. Although not really apparent in the photos I've posted, the paintwork was in pretty bad condition, especially on the car's left hand side where great cracks had opened up. I put the car in the hands of Karson Pasznicki of KPaz Panel and Paint.

The Tatra goes for a ride....

To KPaz

We were all pleasantly surprised to find that beneath the thick layers of bog the Tatra was in excellent shape. It appears that the car was involved in an accident on its left hand side and this had simply been bogged over. In some places the bog was a good inch and half thick. Beneath the bog was a resinous film from the decomposition of the old primer, but there was no real rust. This was really great news as I had expected the doors especially to be in very bad condition. The dents were beaten out and prepped with modern primer.

Taking a chisel to the cracked door panels

Despite the appearance of rust, this dark stain was resin from the original 1980s prep.

The steel beneath the resin was in pristine condition.

Signs of damage on the rear panel

Oddly enough the cake layering of bog was carried right under the car. This has all been take off now.

The roof is back to bare metal. Note the seam across the centreline. Tatra did not have presses big enough to stamp the roof as a single piece so the roof was built in two sections and then welded together by hand.

In primer



We decide to keep the Tatra silver because it's just such a traditional 'Tatra' colour, however, this isn't really correct. Tatra offered the Tatraplan in a wide variety of colour schemes include two tone. This came at extra cost of course and needed to be specially requested. The majority of Tatraplans left the factory in a standard gloss black. The trend towards silver as the standard is recent as restorers of T87s have adopted it to emphasize the aerodynamic appearance of their cars. Some people have even painted T603s in silver, a colour that that car never came in. When we peeled back the layers of paint we discovered that our car was originally dark green.

Final buffing

And rubbing down





The car looks fantastic now.

Back home temporarily

To the final chapter - http://heinkelscooter.blogspot.com.au/2017/12/tatra-restoration-update.html

For more of Tatra posts check out my dedicated Tatra blog: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/

English Tatraplan prospectus

For more of Tatra posts check out my dedicated Tatra blog: https://tatrat600.blogspot.com/

Rear Engine Car Day Photos

One year ago members of the Special Interest Vehicle Association proposed to host a rear engine car show event. At the time we speculated that 25-30 cars covering half a dozen marques would make for a successful show. Months of hard work organising the show paid off on Monday 28th September 2015 when 70 cars covering 16 marques arrived in Kings Square, Fremantle. The variety of cars and marques attending far exceeded our expectations and really made for an exceptional display. On behalf of the members and committee of SIVA I would like to thank everyone who bought along their cars. I would also like to thank the SIVA committee and members who assisted with planning and support.

I must admit that I underestimated the amount of running around involved on the day so I didn't take as many photos as should have. This photo summary of the day also includes photos by John Waterhouse, Mark Bird, Tony Wong, Rhys Mitchell, Ashley Rogers, Pat Danner and VW Jon of the VW Club of Western Australia (vwclubwa.com/).

Firstly - the weather. It was beautiful blue skies and a pleasant breeze all day. Last year on this day the German and French Car Days were washed away in a torrential downpour.

The 60th anniversary of the Karmann Ghia was celebrated with a display at the town hall end of Kings Square. Five Karmann's were present.

This grey Karmann is for sale from Mean Machines www.meanmachines.com.au/

Steffen and Shelly's Karmann



Graham's lovely 1970 coupe

Another Karmann from Mean Machines. This is a recent import from South Africa and is also for sale. www.meanmachines.com.au/

What it was all about - rear engines.

Mean Machines Kombi

Renault row

Renault Floride and Renault 10



Renault 10 and Renault 8

Renault 10 and Renault 8 Gordini

Renault Caravelle

Renault 8 Gordini racer

Renault 4CVs

Renault 4CV

The four Renault 4CV 750s make quite a statement

Renault rear engines

Renault Alpine A310 and GTS Turbo

Three gorgeous Renault-Alpine A110s





Porsche 356s

Porsche Club of WA http://porscheclubofwesternaustralia.wildapricot.org/



2015 Porsche 911 loaned by the Porsche Centre Perth www.chellingworthporsche.com/

The ring of Volkswagens

The red and white Beetle has just completed its restoration and this was its first show. The 18 year old owner received an award for his efforts.





Type 3 and Type 2 Kombi

An absolutely beautiful Type 1 Kombi

The front Kombi is a 4x4 Synchro built by Steyr-Puch.

Kombis in the carpark

Another stunning bus

Two rat Kombis parked outside Kings Square

A view towards the 'other' section - and what a section!

The oldest car in the show was this 1909 Schacht. Schacht were an American company who built archaic-style high-wheeler cars. At this time, most car manufacturers were building distinctively 'car-like' cars, like the Model T Ford, but in rural USA, high-wheelers were still popular thanks to their high road clearance.

A view into the engine bay. The car has a two cylinder boxer engine, lubricated by a total loss system (hence the cardboard drop sheets). The car is quite roadworthy and the owner drove the car to the show.

A trio of American Corvairs. From left to right - a Corvair Rampside ute, late model Corvair Monza Corso coupe and a early model Corvair Monza four door.

The Rampside

Two Manx Beach Buggies

Hillman Imp Californian coupe. The Californian was targeted to the American market and is a rare import into Australia. The Imp enjoyed great rally success.

The Smart car is almost the only modern car with a rear engine. Importation of the Smart car into Australia stopped last year so they will undoubtedly become something of a collectors item.

One of the most recognizable cars of all time - the Delorean. It is always a crowd favourite.

1967 Hillman Imp. All up there were three Imps at the show - something of a record around here.

Two NSU Prinz IIIs

Two German NSU's and a French Simca 1000. I had the pleasure of driving the red NSU to the show.

An NSU 1200 TT. Like the Imp, these cars enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) great rally and race success.

Fiat 500s

An early 50s Fiat 500 with suicide doors.

Fiat with street vendors. The vendors market beside the car show added a pleasant atmosphere to the show.

The oddball row - a Messerschmitt KR200, Nobel 200, and my Tatraplan

The Tatraplan and Nobel.

There was a lot of interest in the layout of the Tatra's engine.

The extraordinary Purvis Eureka. With its hood, bonnet and engine bay open it certainly looked space age.

The Bufori Mark II is another custom car built by an Australian company in Malaysia. This car is for sale.



Possibly the most extraordinary car ever built - the Amphicar. The car is a strange amalgam of ideas. An amphibious car, built by a German company, powered by a British Triumph Herald engine, and targeting a virtually non-existent market in American. It's no wonder the car was never particularly successful. Nevertheless several thousand were built. Thanks to the inevitable rust, few remain and most are in museum, not on the road. This car is one of three Amphicars known in Perth and we were extremely pleased to have it in the show.

A peak into the Amphicar engine bay



An at the end of the show is the passing parade...

Bufori

Porsche 356

Delorean

Porsche's and Fiat

The Purvis Eureka is completely transformed when it hits the road. Full on 1970s styling - a little Ferrari Testarosa.

Messerschmitt and Renault.

An Australian made Country Buggy sits forelorn in Kings Square waiting to be driven home. These iconic and rare machines are the epitome of industrial engineering - slab-sided and style-less. They're totally excellent!

The last cars standing. Stef's Renault Alpine and Shelly's Karmann Ghia wait their turn. What a great show it was. Until next time.....

Special thanks must go to our sponsors and supporters:
The City of Fremantle www.fremantle.wa.gov.au/;
Shannons Insurance http://www.shannons.com.au/ ;
 Mean Machines www.meanmachines.com.au/;
The Porsche Centre www.chellingworthporsche.com/ and;
The West Australian thewest.com.au/