Ihle Restoration Complete

  After the World Microcar Meet 2010 in August, it was time to complete the car by adding the electrics, hardware and some gas! The car is set-up for 10 mph only. Engine still has the governor installed.

  The next event I attended was the Wheels In Motion open car show at Konner Chevrolet in W. Caldwell NJ, where Ihle took 1st Place in the Special Interest category. There were 14 participants in this category. This gives you an idea of how many cars Ihle actually competed against.  In total there were 19 categories and over 140 cars.

  The last event I attended was The 1st Atlantic City HorsePower Rally. No categories for my car but it did receive many votes for the Low Rider category. With all the cool vintage cars including many low riders I am happy to say that most of the participants showed great interest in the car. It was definately the oddball of the lot but it put a smile on everyone's face.

   The following pictures were taken there. The Ihle car is currently listed for sale so please inquire. Offers considered. I can also provide shipping for a fee (east coast).

World Microcar Meet 2010

Here is the latest news regarding Microcar events. As I advanced my home build projects early this year, came across the news of an upcoming event, the World Meet 2010 in Crystal Lake IL. I wanted to bring a project car but they are far from being complete. Turning my attention to my IHLE Schottenring car that was waiting for restoration,  I asked myself if there would be enough time to do a complete restoration in 6 month's? Was gamed but never realized how difficult it would be to get the car ready for the meet in such a short time. Would have to say it was wonderful torture?

  The IHLE Schottenring car is an amusement park car noteworthy of being considered a real microcar. That is my personal opinion, but believe many enthusiast's would agree with me. I knew the car would be displayed amongst some of the very best of microcars around so had to bring my A game. Decided to add my personal touches to the car to make it unique. Plans were to make the car look and feel more like a full size vintage roadster and less like an amusement park car. Not sure if I accomplished this due to the size of the car but it now features parts I custom made for it. Got like 80 percent done. Need to do the final wiring and add my lights and try to make it street legal?

   This is the first and only IHLE Schottenring car with doors. Fabricated the doors and full length running boards to tie in the front and rear fenders. Color scheme was changed from black/orange,red to Blue/Red. Also made a new dash with rivet accents, added new stainless steel bumpers, interior hand brake, pleated upholstery and new Honda GX390 engine. This is a my passion, to combine my interest in art, metal and microcars. 

Winter 1/4" Scale Project

Winter keeps me from the car projects, so I work on my art, design, new ideas, finishing my locomotive and hunting down whatever parts and supplies needed. I recently decided to build a miniature version of my Supercar. I love 1/4 scale models but since the Supercar is a miniature roadster of 65" wheelbase, quarter scale would make it smaller than desired and half scale would make it too large.

  The appropriate scale would have to be 3/8" scale. Why? because the Supercar tires are 16" dia. and 3/8" scale of 16" works out to be 6" exactly. That is the size of the miniature tires I purchased at auction. At this scale the model would be approx. 32" in length, a good size.

   To make the rims I purchased a solid aluminum bar stock (lot less expensive than round stock) and cut them down to equal square pieces.  Using the original rims as a guide only, I machined the profile as close as possible to 3/8 scale. Not an expert machinist, novice at best. I use a Prazi miniature lathe primarily for small locomotive parts.

   Am happy with the final results on my test piece. Original rims are made up of 2 halves riveted together. The scale rims will be 1 solid piece that will look like the original. Next step will be to add the rivets that give it that 2 part rim look, next post or whenever I get back to this project.