Skilled workers shortage: only retirees can repair classic cars

Menus

Only retirees can repair vintage cars
1965 was the year of the sports car
It is better to restore the carburetor than to install a new part
The car with the aircraft engine
Association wants to reanimate old screwdriver knowledge
Cars are so funny to operate
Manfred Schumacher alias "Vergaser-Manni", Classic car specialist

Only retirees can repair vintage cars

Gray hair, antiquated technology: not many car mechanics can restore a carburetor anymore. One of the few who can do it is Peter Kronthaler

Source: Peter Zangerl

The love for classic cars is growing, but the new drivers are no longer screwdrivers. Even experts can hardly handle the antiquated engine technology – except for a few super competent retirees.

W.hen Manfred Schumacher is a little bored, it’s these connectors. The plugs that are plugged into the so-called OBD interface (on-board diagnosis) somewhere below the dashboard and whose cables then automatically spit out error messages on a screen. Lists of diseases that a car has that no car doctor can touch by hand or diagnosed with an expert eye.

The modern way of approaching cars in auto repair shops is not Schumacher’s thing. And although he prefers to tweak the way he did 30 or 40 years ago, his services are in greater demand than ever. “I’m fully booked,” says Manfred Schumacher. The 72-year-old is only known in the scene as "Vergaser-Manni". And its popularity marks a structural problem.

With a needle and a magnifying glass: Adjusting the carburetor is mechanical precision work

Source: Peter Zangerl

The classic car industry has been booming for years. In 2013 alone, sales of vehicles and spare parts as well as services generated sales of around six billion euros, and there is no end to the upward trend in sight. In 2014, around 354,000 cars with an H license plate were on the road on German roads, officially recognized oldies with at least 30 years on the tin hump. That was almost ten percent more than in the previous year. An increase that the new car industry can only dream of.

But the new wave of oldies also brings a new type of driver with it. In the past it was mainly screwdrivers who could do it themselves, today it is more and more technically ignorant who buy rolling scrap metal. And this increases the demand for qualified service – but it can hardly be satisfied.

However, it is not high-tech specialists who are in demand, as they were able to bring about the education system of tech-savvy subcontinents for a while, but people like Vergaser-Manni with gray hair, but a wealth of experience that has been accumulated in the workshop ditch over decades.

I know every type of carburetor that has been produced in Germany.

Manfred Schumacher alias "Vergaser-Manni", Classic car specialist

In 1971 Manfred Schumacher started production at Pierburg-Solex, a French company that produced something that is only used today in lawnmowers or power saws: the carburetor, the component that at some point in the nineties was completely replaced by the far more efficient fuel injection systems would. “I know every type of carburetor that has been produced in Germany,” says Schumacher.

If the specialist lends a hand, he would not even be able to pull out the diagnostic connector, because this technology was not yet available in classic cars. If something is wrong with the exhaust gas values, his knowledge, which has grown over decades, is required. There are only a few specialists left who can restore old Solex parts or other aged carburettors from relevant manufacturers such as Weber or Stromberg and adjust them precisely. "There are maybe two or three of them in Germany," says Schumacher.

1965 was the year of the sports car

1 of 10

The BMW 2000 CS, the New Class Coupe, was presented in June 1965 as a “comfortable touring car with a sporty heart for long journeys”.

Source: BMW / SPS

2 of 10

At the 1965 IAA, Opel presented a surprisingly sporty prototype, the Opel Experimental GT. Development had already started in 1963, and it was supposed to be after the IAA premiere…re another three years before series production of the Opel GT could start.

Source: Opel / SPS

3 of 10

From 1965, Porsche offered the models 911 (photo) and 912 as Targa. Because of the rollover protection system, which was mainly due to the stricter approval criteria in the USA, were… this sports car is often referred to as a "safety convertible".

Source: Porsche / SPS

4 of 10

At the Turin Motor Show in 1965, Lancia presented the elegant Fulvia Coupe. With its timeless, graceful design, the Fulvia Coupe is considered the masterpiece of designer Pietro Ca…stagnero.

Source: Lancia / SPS

5 out of 10

The Alpine 110 had been on the market since 1962. The French sports car had numerous uses in motorsport until 1977.

Source: Renault / SPS

6 of 10

The Fiat 850 was available in three versions: a sedan, a spider and a coupe. The latter was a 2 + 2 seater fastback style. And if you take it very seriously, the Fiat became so…r is offered in a fourth body shape: the 850 T delivery van.

Source: Fiat / SPS

7 of 10

The Volvo P1800 was built in the UK from 1961 to 1963. However, because the quality was so poor, production of the sports car was relocated to Sweden. The model designation…In 1800 an "S" was therefore added for Sweden. The sports car was, by the way, the company car of Simon Templar alias "The Saint" for many years.

Source: Volvo / SPS

8 of 10

At the Paris Motor Show in 1964, Ferrari pulled the canvas off the 275 GTB. The street sports car had the difficult task of being the successor to the legendary Ferrari 250 GTO.

Source: Ferrari / SPS

9 of 10

One of the most beautiful sports cars of the 1960s was without a doubt the Jaguar E-Type. It was presented in 1961 at the Geneva Motor Show as the successor to the Jaguar D-Type racing car. A.…In this photo, then Jaguar boss William Lyons poses next to an E-Type.

Source: Jaguar / SPS

10 of 10

The Toyota 2000 GT was seen as the Japanese interpretation of the Jaguar E-Type. Only 351 copies of the sports car were built.

Source: Toyota / SPS

For example Dirk Kind, owner of the carburetor workshop in Niedernberg, Hessen. His order books are also full for months. "We are currently not accepting any more orders," says Kind.

The fact that the demand is so strong is also due to the fact that there are many classic car owners who switched from carburettor to gasoline injection in the 1980s and now want to restore their vehicle to its original condition. Back then, people wanted to save fuel with modern injection systems. Today authenticity counts again.

Old engines may seem simple at first glance – mixture preparation is a science in itself. It is also run by Peter Kronthaler in the Tyrolean village of Erl, a stone’s throw from the Bavarian border. He, too, is one of those experts who have become rare, to whose workshop vintage car owners from all over Bavaria make a pilgrimage.

It is better to restore the carburetor than to install a new part

Kronthaler specialized in classic car technology almost 30 years ago and knows the complexity of the subject. “There are also new parts on the market, but they are often from China and of poor quality,” he says. If the accuracy of the fit is not correct, the engine will run unevenly, need more fuel and the driving pleasure will be gone.

For Kronthaler it is better to restore an old carburetor than to install a new part of dubious origin. This applies, for example, to carburetors from the British company Skinner Union, which also counted Mercedes-Benz and Volvo among its customers. "With the SU carburetors alone, there are carburetor needles with around 4,000 different maps," says Kronthaler. "There is a great risk that the wrong parts will be installed."

Carburetor – for the inclined layman, that sounds like antiquated technology, which you can master yourself with the help of old mechanics’ textbooks. But even for some automakers, the secrets of mixture preparation can only be unlocked with great effort. Some manufacturers now have competent classic departments.

The car with the aircraft engine

1 of 8

The unusual old-timer called Brutus is equipped with a 47-liter twelve-cylinder aircraft engine from BMW, but first you have to look like “Welt” -author Lutz Fugene…r (front) and engineer Jorg Holzwart out of the garage of the Technikmuseum Sinsheim.