Well, it is almost a New Year OFFICIALLY. Here at Team Elf that happens when the new Casale's Half-Way Club calender arrives from Reno. Auto sends a couple of these beauties to Der Elf every year and they find their way onto the shop wall, up over the computer, in the cubicle where nefarious deeds earn Filthy Lucre to keep the team afloat during the season. A finer establishment than Casale's cannot be found in the racing community and its legend looms Large in the Mythology of the Mysterian Marquee. Der Elf has already scuttled off to hang his...where ever it is he sleeps (frankly I don't know where that is and am smart enough NOT to ask).

Hoping you all have a Happy and Safe New Year's Eve, we will be thinking of each and every last one of you as we sit our Champagne and shuffle the cards. The Holidays are drawing to a close, can the racing season be far away??

Happy New Year from TEAM ELF!

Well this is the doldrums of the year and there isn't much to be said other than we here at Team ELF are hoping that you and yours are having a pleasant holiday with your loved ones. Merry Christmas from Team Elf

A picture is worth a whole bunch of words, or something to that effect! Weather has closed in on us and Der Elf is sulking like Achilles in his tent (if Achilles had Egg Nog, Rum and a VCR). I think being an Elf this time of year gives new meaning to "Seasonal Adjustment Disorder". As soon as the decoration boxes came down he disappeared.

That is all just as well as the Wine Country is doing its best to catch up for lost time, rain wise. Be that as it may we are decking our halls and "Fa-la-laing" as much as work will allow. As the shop is still filled with other people's car part waiting for paint or fiberglass (Hi Bill! Hi Brian!) the Old car is cocooned in the courtyard while the Mysterian continues to "Fly" on her work stand.

Isn't this exciting? Aren't you glad you stopped by? WELL WE ARE SURE GLAD YOU DID!

The past week has been pretty quiet here at "Surf's Up HQ". After the obligatory "Let's try on the car to see if we still fit" (BOY! was the seating position back then DIFFERENT!) the weather began to close in and the car had to be cocooned for the moment. On Further reconnaissance the dry desert air has been very kind to the chromoly (yes, chromoly in 1962) the car was made out of, but that having been said I worry about what the weather here in Northern California might do to accelerate the rust. We will have to work fast to get the car under cover.

Der Elf and I did manage to remove the added in "Rollbar" on December 1. In this case the term "Roll" described how the car and driver would be fashioned into a ball if the time had come where both had to depend on this "vanity item". Brother Norm made comment that the rollbar seemed to be the focus of a mine and I will admit that to be the case. When Bill Burton sent me the first photos I thought "Sweet Jeebus on a Pogostick, what have they done to the rollbar?!?!?" It was one of my first goals to remove this eyesore and re-engineer it to be safe but closer to the original rollbar. When I told Bill this he said "Well that will be easy as this one is BOLTED IN!" I shudder to think what a modern SCCA scrutineer might have said if the car had been presented in this form today! It took surprisingly little elbow grease (thanks to a LOT of Liquid wrench) to persuade the bolts to come loose. All hardware is Grade 5, but with additional markings on the bolt heads which lead me to think that they came from a Military source originally. In the best emulation of Howard Carter I am being careful to record each part as I remove it and to preserve the relationship between parts as best I can. Why? I dunno, because it's the off season and Der Elf told me to do it! Putting a functioning modern roll structure on the car, given the way the frame has to slide into the bodywork, is problematical, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Since I have been watching "Monster Garage" so much I decided to do some work on the trailer the car had come on, also built by my Dad way back when. Originally built out of channel just to haul a Formula Vee the trailer had been modified to carry a Triumph TR4 production racer by cutting the inside wall of the channel off, which substantially weakened it. The bracing welded on to re-enforce it was, (are you ready?) galvanized water pipe. On the tow north several of the welds had broken so before I can tow it to my friend Mace's property to store it until I need it again I had to cut these bits off. Jesse James would have been proud as I attacked the welds with a grinder, sparks flew and the bits with them. As I worked on the trailer I noticed something pretty amazing, speaking from a craftsman's point of view at least. The axle had been fabricated from a heavy piece of mild steel with Ford spindles welded onto it. . The remarkable thing is the quality of the welds on this heavy material, especially considering that they were done with a GAS welder. Before anyone asks NO I am not treating the trailer "restoration" the same as I did the car (although I am going to use the original DOOR HINGES to support the new ramps!) and being a noble denizen of Sonoma county the galvanized pipe is off to the re-cycle bins.

Parts are coming off the car, but work and weather are slowing things right now. Der Elf is muttering about it's time to get to work so I best get at it, he tends to throw heavy objects if I ignore him.