Restoring a Wreck

© Todd Wallis

Todd adds the final touches to his newly restored basket-case Puch.

Todd Wallis figured out early on in life that he enjoyed the attention that owning something unique brings to you. Always a lover of old cars, this led him to undertake a compete restoration of an old AMC Javelin. At a mammoth Detroit auto show, he explains, "I saw a thousand Mustangs, a thousand Corvettes. I saw maybe eight Javelins."

Wallis's attentions later turned to motorcycles; so three months ago, when he came to a British Motorcycle Association of Colorado (BMAC) meeting to find they were raffling off a basket-case Puch motorcycle, he threw in $20 for 20 tickets. The first ticket draw was held by someone who didn't want the bike so another ticket was drawn. It was one of Wallis'.

What he had won was a 1966 Sears Sabre, a machine made for Sears by Puch. Two months later Wallis was back at the BMAC meeting showing off his fully restored Puch.

"When I won the bike I was new in the club and was not well known. I had only been to three or four meetings," he says. When he brought the bike back just two months later, fully restored, it brought him a great deal of credibility. "My stock exploded. It was a lot of fun, very interesting.

Fixing 'Er Up

"When I got the bike home I started tearing it down. The tires were flat and shredded and the speedometer was broken. Some of the shrouding was off and missing, but the salvation to the bike is that it had good compression," he explains. That meant he could make it run.

Compression or not, however, the engine was full of sludge. "It dripped out like slow molasses," he says. Wallis repeatedly poured an oil-gasoline mixture into the crankcase, turned the crank manually to clean it out, and then drained it until it was clean.

Some parts of the restoration were surprisingly easy, while others were surprisingly difficult. Many parts, such as points, condenser, and even the rubber boots for ignition wires are available, although Wallis was able to just clean the old points and condenser and use them.

The spokes were a different matter.

"I needed to remove the spokes to clean the hubs and the wheels. I tried to remove the originals but they just broke, so I figured I'd be able to get new spokes and I just cut them out. It turned out the spokes were the most expensive part of the restoration because I had to have new ones custom-made."

One crowning success was Wallis's discovery of a new old stock speedometer for sale online from a seller in Cyprus. The unit, still in the box, had presumably been sitting on a shelf in a shop in that Mediterranean country for 40 years or more.

Wallis has no professional background in the various tasks such as body work, painting, or auto mechanics, that are involved in restoration. A stint as a service writer in a body shop did expose him to the tools and techniques, however. Mainly, "I like working with my hands and the creative aspect of it. I have the creativity to come up with good solutions and make it look right. I get a big sense of accomplishment taking a vehicle from a basket case to something that makes people say 'Wow!'"

Still, Not a Carriage Queen

And when Wallis restores a vehicle he doesn't intend them to be "carriage queens," sitting on display and being hauled from event to event on a trailer. He rebuilds them to be ridden or driven.

"It's smiles per mile," he says. "When you pull into a restaurant in a unique car people will stop eating and come out to look at your car."

Since restoring the Sabre, he adds, it has been a very fun, reliable bike.

"I don't need to go fast, but I like the attention on the road."

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