RUMCars Forum

General Category => Unusual Microcar Discussion => Topic started by: Bob Purton on March 05, 2013, 02:34:23 PM

Title: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Bob Purton on March 05, 2013, 02:34:23 PM
Here is a link to the recent weiner auction, Inter lot description, mostly nicked straight off my web site I hasten to add!! ???

http://www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1057206

Most of it is correct some is not. The bit that really cracks me up is the last sentence, Robert Purton, British Inter expert! I bet the French LOVE that, and we all know the definition of an expert dont we! :D

Note in the photo of the engine bay, the Villiers S25 carb! Wrong of course but all I could find at the time. It ran great on it. My Torpedo thankfully has the right carb.
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: richard on March 05, 2013, 09:35:03 PM
a fine looking car and obviously one to be very proud of . your are english bob and within england you are the best informed - i guess that would make you the english expert .
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Big Al on March 06, 2013, 07:22:25 AM
I did not know you used to be pert, Bob. So sad to here you are no longer. Age has a lot to answer for, as does Schmitt suspension.

Of course it might be an error and should have read 'Ex Purton Inter'.
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: wilksie on March 06, 2013, 12:56:15 PM
On the same lines an extern is one that has been eaten by a predator?
That reminds me of the famous sketch:

THIS IS AN EX - PARROT !!!
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Bob Purton on March 06, 2013, 03:42:52 PM
I certainly feel like I've been eaten by a predator!   I think it was  Weinersaurus!
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: richard on March 06, 2013, 03:49:26 PM
Perhaps not eaten but you did get a good licking bob
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: steven mandell on March 12, 2013, 09:36:02 AM
Looks to be in near perfect shape.
Except of course for that nasty looking speedometer face.
With all of your expert restorations of antique barometers and such- looks like Mr Purton has some explaining to do.
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Bob Purton on March 12, 2013, 10:06:42 AM
I certainly do Steven , right after you have explained your comment about Bruce giving all the auction proceeds to charity.
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: richard on March 12, 2013, 01:39:34 PM
Wow steven major apology due I think !! I aso was awaiting clarification on the charity auction thing
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Bob Purton on March 12, 2013, 02:00:29 PM
I think I know what happend here, when you google the Bruce weiner auction several paragraphs come up and some say all proceeds to charity but when you open the page and look they are auction news sites and the charity part is a reference to a completely different auction. My guess is that someone saw this and jumped to a wrong conclusion. There are also some references to rides in some of the cars with proceeds going to charity.   So, has a mistake been made? I fear so but on the other hand if it were true I would be delighted! Surely though it would have been mentioned at the auction to encourage the bidders to pay more, not that they needed any encouragement by all accounts! :D
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: steven mandell on March 12, 2013, 04:32:02 PM
I certainly do Steven , right after you have explained your comment about Bruce giving all the auction proceeds to charity.

Bob, on March 4 I sent you a personal request for clarification as to what it was that you wanted me to explain on the Forum, as i truly did not catch what it was that you were referring to.
Your personal reply was that you were"afraid that my (actually your) mind reading skills were not up to the job here".
I then got a very bad flu and stayed off the Forum for a week.
So now I know what you were looking for.
All I know is what I heard.  The talk about the floor at the auction was that Bruce was donating every cent to a local Children's hospital.  I heard this discussion going on at least a few of times from non related auction goers.  Whether it is true or not is something that have no special vantage point to be able to determine.
I was merely reporting what I was hearing.  The same as when I emailed you within a minute of the Auctioneer's mention of your name as a consultant/ restorer for the Inter just prior to its topping out at $140k plus 15% commission.
Now about that speedo face? 
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: richard on March 12, 2013, 05:38:20 PM
steven dont make your insult any worse . the speedo's fine ! unrestored - whats your problem . certainly no need to make ill advised refernce to peoples trade and profession  :(
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Bob Purton on March 12, 2013, 06:36:49 PM
Thanks Steven. So, still speculation at this point then. Interesting. I did ask one or two  prominent American micronaut chums that were in attendance and all denied any knowledge of it.

Right, the speedometer face. When I owned that Inter it was not a cossetted investors car but a working vehicle, I was driving it as a local run around and also rallying it as classic microcars should be,  restoration was still in progress when Bruce approached me about it. If I had restored it as a museum exhibit I would have approached the work in a very different way, I would have painted it the correct colour for a start! The original colour was a very drab shade of yucky yellow, almost mustard, I couldnt live with that! It was my intention to go back over several areas of the car as more information came to light. I didnt have any patterns for the original silencer, a correct carb was still to surface and as for the speedometer? Well the engine doesnt even have a speedo drive or a cable for that matter, all that was to be another phase of the restoration. The face of the speedo I would have had someone else do, I restore Georgian and Victorian barometers with engraved brass dials that I resilver with a silver nitrate based paste of a secret recipe, I just finished a Sympiesometer dial yesterday by the celebrated maker Dixey of London.  I'm not a dial painter, thats a seperate trade all of its own!  I was visiting French autojumbles in those days and was in expectation of finding a replacement in much better original condition which would have been preferable to a repaint. Funny enough the dial on my current speedo is actually glass and even that one has a crack in it, one day I hope to repair that. I have the drive unit now but as the car is out on loan I have yet to fit that and connect a cable.  Hope that explains why the speedo was unrestored where as the rest of the car "looked" finished. I'm hoping the new owner will get in touch some time.  
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: jean-do on March 12, 2013, 07:01:11 PM
yes  Bob, restoring is as you think it should be ...
you're an original condition fan ... it stays like you find it, restoring the inside mechanic, brakes, tyres ; and you drive car with a story ...
you're a restored vehicules fan, it will be fully restored like at its factory exit ..
you're an " amĂ©rican restoration hi quality fan,  and get speedo restored, bolts chrome plated ...
you're a stupid guy, and you get this vehicule in your color scheme and technics without busy with original status ...
you are a bizarre vehicules fan, you'll have to restore at your best looking days and days for parts as rare as the rare can be ... and to be able to drive, you let some detail in progress , waiting and searchig the mysterious parts ...
i do like original lok as i can  and factory restoration 3... and " american restoration" .... but hate guys that have theuir Citroen traction avant red painted because all are black !!
i bob hab installed an electronic speedo, drilled a new hole for rpm speedo ... i would have been very angry...
this inter was nice and in the factory style ,except some details ... would have made it mine without any problems !^^
(http://i77.servimg.com/u/f77/11/44/77/74/bubble10.jpg)
see Henri Malartre Rochetaillée museum 's Inter 100% original condition .... with Mr Vaireaux it's director ...
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Big Al on March 12, 2013, 07:38:44 PM
[  The same as when I emailed you within a minute of the Auctioneer's mention of your name as a consultant/ restorer for the Inter just prior to its topping out at $140k plus 15% commission

What Bob got 15% commission for being an expert? The Milky Bars are on him. Sorry I will go away now as there have been enough red herrings to confuse a trawler.
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Bob Purton on March 12, 2013, 08:34:08 PM
Thats a great example Mr Jean-Doo!  I am NOT an expert, I just know a little more about Inters than other British guys. Its the French micro fans that are the real experts!  I think I understand your comments, something is lost in translation but you are saying we all restore our cars to our own idea of what is best. I kind of agree, the important thing is that the cars are preserved.
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Jonathan Poll on March 12, 2013, 10:13:30 PM
I think it's nice to have a few parets left in "cleaned original condition", proves itsa not a replica! (even if we know no repliuca Inters have been made, it still seems more genuine).

I would have probably took the face of, T-Cut'ed it, then realise I polished all of the numbers away!

Best kept as original!
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: steven mandell on March 12, 2013, 11:56:59 PM
steven don't make your insult any worse . the speedo's fine ! unrestored - whats your problem . certainly no need to make ill advised reference to peoples trade and profession  :(

Well then Richard you take me too seriously,  and Bob Purton's perfectionism not seriously enough.
As you can see with his own secret recipe paste of silver nitrate for his antique brass barometers, Bob obviously has a higher standard than either one of us.  That's why I tease him so.
Do you really think that I would have emailed him contemporaneously with the announcement of his involvement with the Inter during the auction if I had any serious complaint?
Apply the same advise that you have given yourself for your unbraked trailer-lighten up!
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Big Al on March 13, 2013, 08:38:22 AM
Miss Ann Elke, an expert, had a theory about the Inter. It is similar to her one on the Brontosaurus. That is that it is very narrow at the front, gets much thicker in the middle and then thinner at the other end.  Unfortunately this was a posthumous theory but uncannily correct if it were the prototype with folding front suspension.

Was Bob unable to restore the dial because of high pressure on Barometer work? Fine if you can get it. Wet and windy if you cannot.
The car was, what, 60% complete when Bob got it from me. We did not have the joys of the internet so coms to find info and parts was not as easy. Also while the car was clearly something special only the Tigers had really made any real impact in the general classic car world. Only a wealthy or originality type restorer would have been likely to have restored the car over a reasonable budget. Add to that the idea of it being driven rather than looked at. You have to put these things into context of the time. Many a restored car is now under re restoration as the old work is just not up to the standards required today. That does seem to drift away from restoration into use but more restoration to look at, unfortunately, but the key thing is the cars are surviving. What is even better is if previous owners are about and can tell you what they did and why. It makes perfection more achievable if that is important. As a previous owner I get pleasure out of that car as it is still the centre of attention and I had a small part in that whole thing. On the occasions I grace an event it is great to see the hulks dragged out of hedges and yards restored by years of owners into good cars. Yeah, I enjoyed the money from doing it but that is spent and gone. The car remains and in quite a few cases would not be here had a few not recognized the minimal potential left in it at the time. Not many businesses allow you to invest in future enjoyment of other peoples efforts out of your own.
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Bob Purton on March 13, 2013, 09:39:58 AM
I like it Al!! :D I think half the problems was working in inches instead of millibars! Stormy!

At least YOU appreciate the efforts involved in resurrecting that car.  As you know it had the rear fire wall cut out where some idiot had attempted a big motorbike engine transplant! Why do they do that!! ??? ???
The front seat had to be made from drawings , to be more precise, Tom Musset ran a pencil around all the tube work onto some wall paper and I worked from that. The biggest problem was sourcing the missing engine, although it came with a loose engine it was an Ydral Motorcycle one with no fan cooling or gyrostarter,  Club Ydral came to the rescue, also Gilles Perez was an enormous help.
As you said, there was no Internet, most microcar guys in Britain had never heard of an Inter, it was just a case of a lot of letter writing, faxing, long distance phone calls and trips to France. At least all the running gear was on the car which is more than can be said for my current one. I enjoyed the challenge at the time. Wouldn't do it again though, now I have resorted to the simplicities of a fiberglass body and Villiers!
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: steven mandell on March 13, 2013, 10:20:19 AM
Quote
But the key thing is the cars are surviving. What is even better is if previous owners are about and can tell you what they did and why. It makes perfection more achievable if that is important. As a previous owner I get pleasure out of that car as it is still the centre of attention and I had a small part in that whole thing. On the occasions I grace an event it is great to see the hulks dragged out of hedges and yards restored by years of owners into good cars. Yeah, I enjoyed the money from doing it but that is spent and gone. The car remains and in quite a few cases would not be here had a few not recognized the minimal potential left in it at the time. Not many businesses allow you to invest in future enjoyment of other peoples efforts out of your own.
Yes Alan's Unusual Microcars is deservedly a legacy that can never be repeated.
You should be proud of being the king of the used unusual microcar market. Even more amazing that you actually made a living off of it.
Can I have the movie rights?
Title: Re: "Inter expert"!!
Post by: Barry on June 24, 2013, 12:04:32 PM
Interesting link on Facebook for Inters - Thanks Jean-do

https://www.facebook.com/jeando.jacq/media_set?set=a.180700745280168.51186.100000207327426&type=1