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Feature Article: Bud Brick's 58' Hillman Minx Series II |
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 To cut to the chase, we found it
in a new car show room at Charlesworth Pontiac, Springdale, Arkansas. We
bought the car new in August, 1958. Hillmans didn't sell too well in a small
Arkansas town back in 58. My wife didn't drive at that time and she liked the
car because it was small, by 58 standards. She (Betty) learned to drive on
that car and drove it until 1976, (she drove it from Ark. to Seattle, Wa. in 1968 with no
problems). In 1976 it was getting a little tired, so we retired it then.
I have a pretty big shop, 28'X 56', and the Hillman rested there until about 1993-94. I retired in 92, and one day a year of so after that I decided to get the old girl back on the road. The engine had never been opened up, so I was just going to do a valve job and check the bearings. Well, I started and one thing lead to another: took the engine out plus the tranmission and wound up completely stripping the engine. The bore was .003 to .004 wear, so I didn't rebore and the crank still checked standard after a polish job at the local machine shop. I got most of my parts from R.J Grimes Garage. I had the engine all painted up but just couldn't put back in a dirty engine room, so there we go. You just can't paint the engine compartment, so it turned into a two-three year deal. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, one thing leads to another and the next thing you know you've gone over the whole car.
I will say one thing for that car, it gave us good service for 16-17 years. The only thing I can remember spending on the car was, tires, a few brake shoes, one generator, about three water pumps (I never understood why they didn't last a little longer, but I'm not complaining though) a few light bulbs here and there, and points and plugs. Well thats my story, not very interesting, but that was the way it was. <Here's a shot of Bud with his other pride and joy, a 1962 Ramber American Convertible with a 196 Cu. in. 6 cylinder motor and automatic transmission. Obviously, for a guy who says he doesn't know a lot about cars, Bud is a very modest and humble man. |
The engine and all accessories were black when new,
the engine compartment was the same color as the lower part of the car. The white on
my car is very very close to the same as when new. The paint was enamel and
that is what I used to re-paint it. The bottom is not an exact match, but is as
close as I could get. It has a little metallic in the paint, the original
didn't. The seats are very close to the original, pattern is the same.
On the doors, the bottom was the same as the seats, but the top
part was a pattern of very small black and white squares (about 1/16" X 1/16").
I couldn't find anything close so I used what you see. On the
floor, the hump was carpeted as was the back, but on each side of the hump was a rubber
mat. I still have the originals but they are not in very good shape.
I've looked and looked but I can't find new ones. 