memories of- bigsbys/economy rebore

[mitchy965]

while freshining the 2liter from my bug in the shop the other day when my young friend asked who did the machine work on the case,was it local?? when i told him i did it with my work mates at economy rebore in the mid eightys he reminded me that was 28 years ago! i quickly did some math (never my strong point) and realized i had owned this car for 33 years! ten more than my young friend......i feel old..

[pittwagen]

The 1776 in my Sports Bug was built 25 years ago next month at the Port Moody location.  It runs great and has never been out of the.car. I see or talk to Ron J. about water cooled pts. from time to time and remind him of the motor.

[mitchy965]

check and see if there is an H stamped on the case at the very top left hand case split if so i be guilty. we didnt have a M stamp so andre said here just use this (in his thick polish accent) Ron was always a real cool cat.

[Geoff]

I never had any work done by Economy but I do remember an article in the Vancouver Sun about Bigsbys and wanting to check it out. I was 16 or 17 at the time and my brother took me there. At the time they had the Blue metalic beetle in the showroom and a bunch of cars getting restored in the back. The 54 vert is still owned by my friend who bought it when they closed their doors.

My 1835cc is still going strong, I built it 24 years ago!

[mitchy965]

terry (bigsby) once showed me some photos of a top secret bone yard located somewhere in northern alberta.  rows and rows of early tin,no splits but a few barndoors.the 58 and up stuff was at that time,not even considered valuble. they had an arrangement with the owner for all the cream and brought back quite a few. really a shame that their investor pulled the plug on that shop for a tax break! previous to this i had called in some pals to work there (marty danzak.arnie chappel.brett marse) all quality dudes that got walking papers when i got mine.

[mitchy965]

i believe your friends 54 was one of last cars to be in the process.i remember it being in the compound. what terry and the boys did was truly amazing , they managed to secure  the one and only one time issued "Re-manufature" license from the federal government. so it was like ford, gm, oh and bigsbys  !! they had an export license and sold reman beetles overseas. try that today.....