BROOKLINE, Mass. — From May through October, the Larz Anderson Auto Museum (LAAM) holds a monthly “Cars & Coffee.” These are free events, including complimentary admission to the Museum (a true bargain as Museum-sponsored car shows have gotten very expensive). The official hours are 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., though participants start arriving by 7:30. There is no advance registration.

If you are bringing a vehicle, plan to arrive by 8 a.m. or you may be closed out. The free espresso bar is located in front of the main Museum entrance. The barista works very hard and deserves a good tip.

Last year I attended the June 8th event. It was a bright, sunny day, and when I arrived at 8 a.m. volunteers were already directing cars to the lower (overflow) lawn.

There is always a good turnout of British cars, plus many other marques representing a wide range of years. Every Cars & Coffee has some rare or unusual vehicles. It is worth attending multiple events as you never know what will show up.

Several classic Minis were present at the one I attended. They included Adam Blake’s 1967 Austin Cooper S and a black Mini with a white roof I was not familiar with. There was a single MINI, a Triumph Spitfire, a Triumph TR250, a Lotus Elan, a recent-vintage Lotus (Emira?), a Rolls-Royce, a Jaguar E-type, and an Austin-Healey 3000.

It was a challenge identifying vehicle models and years since the Museum does not give out window tags for the show cars. I suggest bringing your own sign.

The oldest car was a 1930-ish Model A Ford pickup truck. Numerous recent-production American and foreign vehicles were there as well, including a Maserati and several Ferraris.

Plenty of American and foreign classics from the 1950s and 1960s were also present. My favorite American car was a 1951 Frazer Manhattan four-door hardtop. Only 152 Manhattan hardtops were built, and the owner said he still has the original engine, transmission and differential.

My favorite foreign car was the rare 1959 Mercedes-Benz 300d Adenauer. Only 3,077 were built from 1957 to 1962. This Mercedes is pillar-less, features removable rear quarter windows, and uses the same engine as the more famous Gullwing.

There were several Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) kei cars on the field, including a Nissan Figaro and a 1992 Suzuki Cappuccino. The Cappuccino is a two-seater roadster with a detachable hardtop, produced from 1991 to 1998. I had not seen a Cappuccino before. (It was certainly appropriate for a Cars & Coffee!)

The most unusual JDM car was a 1993 Toyota Sera. This is a three-door hatchback coupe featuring butterfly doors, which are similar to gullwing doors but hinged at the top center of the windshield. Toyota built 15,941 Seras, and fewer than 150 are in the U.S.

Other foreign vehicles included a 1989 Trabant station wagon, a Citroën 2CV Charleston in maroon and black, and the truly unusual 1977 Pinzgauer 712K six-wheel drive off-road military vehicle. The Pinzgauer was built in Austria by Steyr-Daimler-Puch, and has been used by many armies around the world.

Two British cars were displayed inside the Museum, a 1951 Jaguar XK120 Fixed Head Coupe and a 1951 Rover 75 P4 Cyclops. The P4 was the first car produced by Rover following the Second World War. A center-mounted fog light led to the name Cyclops. These cars were part of the featured exhibit, “Revolutionizing the Road: Post-World War II Car Design in Europe & America.” The exhibit ranged from high-end cars such as a 1955 Mercedes 300 SL Gullwing, to people’s cars such as a 1947 VW Beetle and a Fiat 500 Giardiniera.

The first LAAM Cars & Coffee of 2025 is scheduled for Saturday, May 10th. A new Museum exhibit, “Shifting Perspectives: The Japanese Car Revolution,” is due to open that day.

There is always a huge show car turnout for the first Cars & Coffee of the season. You should plan to arrive well before 8 a.m.!

NEMO and the North American British car community owe a vote of thanks to Faith Lamprey and Bruce Vild for the huge effort they have put in over many years to edit and publish British Marque Car Club News. I will miss reading newsletters from clubs around the country, having several favorite writers whose articles in the Marque I look forward to every month.

The quality of the British Marque copy has always been high, no doubt due to Faith’s editorial and spelling fixes. On a personal note, I want to thank Bruce for squeezing in so many photos with my articles even when space is at a premium. I take lots of photos of rare and unusual vehicles, and Bruce always humors me by printing pictures of non-British cars in the Marque.

We wish Faith and Bruce all the best in their retirement and hope to see them more often at area car events.

BACKBARROW, Lake District, England — As promised, here is my third and final article on Motor Museums in England.

In addition to those I wrote about previously, my trip with the Morris Minor Registry of North America also visited the Lakeland Motor Museum.

On the day of our visit, the weather was gray and rainy, and we arrived at the Museum the same time as a Brass Era car club. The cars all had hoods (convertible tops), but were completely open on the sides. Think about that the next time you don’t want to drive your classic Mini in the rain! Ford Model Ts were in abundance, and there were several unfamiliar marques including the Scottish-built Arrol-Johnston.

The Museum website states they have over 30,000 exhibits, including 140 cars, trucks and motorbikes. A variety of small airplanes were suspended from the ceiling, and there were several 1960s-era faux storefronts and a 1930s-era car repair shop.

There was an entire gallery of pedal cars, and a bicycle collection dating back to 1870. Costumed mannequins occupied some vehicles, and some interiors contained period products. Every inch of wall space was covered with automobilia. An incongruous advertisement for Exide car batteries showed a picture of a smiling baby playing with a toy car.

Of course there was a focus on British vehicles, but there were also French, Italian, German, Swedish and American cars. British cars included a 1937 SS Jaguar 100, a 1936 Austin Seven, a 1964 Peel P50, a 1965 Peel Trident, a 1957 Austin A35 (with a loose metal child car seat in the back), a 1931 MG M-type Midget, a 1960 MGA Police Specification Roadster, and a 1968 Triumph TR5. The lone classic Mini was a 1990 Mini Cooper Limited Edition.

For motorcycle fans, there was a 1948 Vincent Black Lightning, as well as other historic British marques.

I did a double-take at the huge Smurf collection under the hatchback of a blue Ford Fiesta. Smurfs were very popular in Britain in the late 1970s and ’80s, when petrol stations gave them away as promotions and sold them in their shops. The blue, white and yellow color scheme of one petrol chain matched that of the Smurfs.

I counted four Citroëns — a 1921 Type A 10CV, a 1952 Model 11BL, a 1990 2CV6 Dolly, and a late model DS. American cars included a 1920 Model T Delivery Truck manufactured in Manchester, a Buick and a Corvette. Germany was represented by an Amphicar, a Messerschmitt KR200, and a Trabant.

There were far too many vehicles to list them all, but these were some of the highlights.

It was difficult to pick a single favorite vehicle, though the 1960 MGA Police Roadster was at the top of my list. The car was driven by male and female mannequins wearing police uniforms. There were flashing lights, police signage, and public address megaphones mounted at the front and rear. Controls for these accessories were mounted in the dash where the radio would normally reside. The MGA was a variation of the 1600 Deluxe/Twin Cam specification, with larger battery carriers to handle the extra electrical equipment.

It was amusing to see a Peel P50 and Peel Trident parked next to each other. The P50 holds the record as being the world’s smallest street legal motor vehicle. It weighs only 130 lbs., is powered by a 49cc moped engine, and lacks a reverse gear.

Many readers no doubt have seen the Top Gear episode where Jeremy drives a P50 to work at the BBC, then into the building, into the elevator, and around the office corridors. The Peel Trident is not much bigger. It tips the scale at 198 lbs., uses the same moped engine, and is optionally a two-seater.

The Museum owns about 50 pedal cars, many of which are a good match to their 1:1 scale counterpart. Most had their steering wheel in the center, though a few larger models were right-hand-drive. Marques included Austin, Jaguar, Lotus, MG, Morgan and Land Rover. The Morgan Aero Super Sports 3-wheeler had working headlights and a non-working replica of the V-twin engine.

The most noteworthy bike was a 1930 Tricycle with two front wheels and a single rear wheel. The Tricycle is believed to have been built in Bath and was powered by a front-mounted Micromoteur Propellor two-stroke engine, which the French company Labinal sold to be added to bicycles. According to the Museum, the engine did a fine job keeping the rider cool but did little to reduce the pedaling effort. I have never understood the French fascination with mounting propellers on vehicles other than planes.

Making only slightly more sense than the Tricycle was a 1936 French home-built aeroplane known as Le Pou du Ciel (the Flying Flea). The Museum’s example was fitted with a Scott Flying Squirrel motorcycle engine. The engine had only five working parts, with no valves, valve gear or tappets.

About 120 Flying Fleas were registered to fly in England. However, the designer had a poor knowledge of aerodynamics, and the planes began to fall out of the sky. The British Air Ministry withdrew its permit to fly following three fatal accidents, each involving experienced pilots.

There was a second building that contained replicas of world speed record cars and boats as a tribute to the racing career of Sir Malcolm Campbell and his son Donald Campbell. Adjacent to the Museum was a 1950s-style café featuring local specialties such as sticky toffee pudding.

If your travel plans include the Lake District of England, I recommend allotting a half day to visit the Lakeland Motor Museum. Their website https://www.lakelandmotormuseum.co.uk/ shows a subset of their collection.

As the 2024 driving season progressed, I noticed the brakes in my 1968 Mini Traveller were becoming less effective. When I first depressed the pedal, it went down much lower than usual. Initially, pumping it once or twice restored pressure and normal braking. But the issue got worse and by the fall, three pumps were required. I tried adjusting the brakes but was unable to get one front and one rear wheel to lock up. Bleeding the brakes didn’t help, either, despite the expert assistance of my wife Betty.

Many brake components in my car were replaced between 2012 and 2016, with the exception of the left rear wheel cylinder. Removing all four wheels and drums showed significant, and uneven, brake shoe wear to all four front shoes, with some under 2 mm. There were no external fluid leaks, though there was a small amount of fluid inside two front wheel cylinder boots and the left rear boot, so there were minor leaks around the seals.

It was clear that a brake job was in order.

Of course, on closer inspection, additional issues cropped up. The handbrake rubber gators on the rear backplates were dried out and cracked, about half of the left handbrake cable threads were broken, the rear brake adjusters and tappets were worn down, bolts were used in place of clevis pins, and some steel lines and fittings were very rusty.

The biggest surprise was when I gave both rear hubs a firm spin. The left hub rotated several full revolutions, but the right hub only moved a few inches. Add replacing the right rear wheel bearing to the list.

I put together a large parts order for Mini Spares in the U.K., selecting genuine parts when available. This included AP Lockheed brake cylinders all around, AP rear brake adjuster and tappet kits, and a Timkin tapered roller bearing kit for the right rear wheel. The genuine brake cylinders are more than twice the price of aftermarket parts, but are hopefully of better quality.

Originally, only the Mini Cooper S was equipped with Timkin tapered roller bearings. Other models had ball bearings held in cages or inner races. Tapered roller bearings are stronger than ball bearings and can easily be removed and re-packed with grease. Eventually, all classic Minis had tapered rear roller bearings, and that is the only style now available.

It was mid-November when all the parts arrived. My garage is not heated, but I figured there was time to replace the rear wheel bearing before it got too cold. The brakes will wait until early spring.

I did an on-line search for “Classic Mini rear wheel bearing replacement” and found a lot of videos, articles, and newsgroup posts. The video quality varied quite a bit and there was some contradictory information. The procedure varies slightly — depending on whether you have early bearings that used a spacer, bearings with a built-in spacer, early rear hubs, or later hubs produced by Rover. My Mini is an Mk2 with early hubs that may be original to the car. They are stamped MOWOG and there are BMC part numbers in the castings. Later Rover hubs require a paper-thin shim and may take a small O-ring on the stub axle.

To access the hub, you must first remove the brake drum (after loosening the brake adjusters). The hub bearings are covered by a grease cap. Early caps like mine have a small hole in the center intended to reduce pressure when installing the cap. There was a lot of grease around the outside of the cap and on the face of the hub, which is not something you want to get on the brake shoes. I used a large flat-bladed screwdriver and worked my way around the hub lip, gently prying up. The cover popped off and it was full of black grease.

The next step was to remove the split pin, castle nut, and large hub nut washer. Note that the right castle nut is right-hand thread, and the left is left-hand thread. I expected the nut to be very tight since it was supposed have been torqued to 60 lbs. It came off rather easily, though I needed to use a small pry tool to remove the washer.

This exposed the ball bearings and a lot more black grease. With low expectations I pulled hard on the hub and it slid right off the stub axle. This was a pleasant surprise since I thought I would need to borrow a hub puller. One bearing cage had disintegrated — the ball bearings were loose, and several fell out. This was clearly the cause of the hub binding.

The hardest part of the procedure was removing the old ball bearing cages (inner races) and the outer races. The rear grease seal needed to be removed from the hub first. There are special tools for this purpose, but I used a screwdriver and small pry bar.

I don’t own a large enough vise to hold the hub, so I placed thick cardboard on the garage floor. My bearings had built-in spacers, and I used a ball peen hammer and steel drift to drive out the old bearings. (A brass drift is preferable and less likely to scratch the inside of the hub.) Starting with the back of the hub on the cardboard, wheel studs facing up, I worked around in a circle, tapping on the edge of the rear cage to drive it out. I then flipped the hub over and drove out the front cage.

There are two slots cast inside the hub that provide access for removing the outer races. I placed the drift on the edge of each slot and tapped two or three times with a ball peen hammer, alternating between the slots until the outer race fell out. I repeated this process on the other side. I was careful not to score the inside of the hub with the drift.

I wore a pair of heavy-duty disposable gloves and used a lot of rags and shop towels to clean the old grease off the hub, hub cap and castle nut. A spray with brake cleaner removed the residual grease. The old split pin and grease seal should not be reused. The roller bearing kit comes with new parts. I also bought a new hub nut washer since the old one had a deep groove in it.

The videos showed two different methods for installing new outer races. First you insert the new race in the hub with the narrower diameter side facing down. You then place the old outer race on top of it, and moving in a circle, tap the new race into place. The other method used a bearing race driver, which is a metal disk with a metal handle bolted to the center.

A professional mechanic friend loaned me a bearing race driver, as this seemed like the better method. After bolting on a disk that matched the larger diameter of the outer race, I tapped on the handle to drive the race into the hub.

For both methods, when the outer race is tapped into place there will be a change in pitch when it reaches the bottom. I checked to make sure it was fully seated and gave an extra tap or two to be safe. Then I repeated the process for the other side.

Most videos demonstrated the old-school “scooping” approach to packing the new bearing with grease. I used Timkin brand red bearing grease, though any good quality brand from an auto parts store should be fine. I wore disposable gloves, and put a large blob of grease in my left palm. Using my right hand, I pushed the large end of the bearing cone assembly into the grease. This forced the grease into the rollers, cage and cone.

I rotated the entire bearing assembly in a circle, repeating the scooping process. Excess grease that was forced out the small end was scraped back into my palm. I also smeared extra grease on the outside of the bearing assembly and made sure all the voids inside and outside of the rollers were filled.

After the first bearing was packed, I placed it narrow-diameter side down in the rear side of the hub (the side opposite the wheel studs). I put a little grease on the lip of the grease seal and installed the seal with the groove side facing in.

I used a seal driver to seat the seal, which is the bearing driver with the plate flipped around so the larger side is on the seal. Alternatively, you can lightly tap the seal with a hammer moving in a circle around the seal. The installed seal should be flush with edge of hub.

I packed the second bearing using the above method, and then it was time to re-install the hub on the car. After sliding the hub onto the stub axle, I inserted the second bearing into the front of the hub with the narrow-diameter side facing in. The bearing washer may have a curved edge and a completely flat edge, in which case the flat edge side should be against the bearing. (New washers are flat on both edges.) I tightened the castle nut by hand and verified the hub turned freely.

The Workshop Manual says to torque the nut to 60 lbs. I did so, then backed the nut off by one flat and a little more as needed to fit the new split pin through the holes in the nut. I then installed the split pin, bent over both sides, and installed the hub grease cap (without filling it with grease.)

Finally, I gave the hub a firm spin. No more bearing drag! First project complete.