MIke Hall lost his lease last January 1st on the building where he ran John
Bull Automotive , so he operates out of his home and will come to your own
garage if the work doesn't require a lift. Had him completely rebuild
Erika'a front brakes several months ago in my garage. Very convenient.
Vrooom vrooom,
John
----- Original Message -----
From: "Blue One Hundred" <healey.nut@gmail.com>
To: <STEV0001@aol.com>
Cc: <healeys@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2005 6:51 PM
Subject: Re: Follow-up to the Mechanical Mystery Tour
> Steve -
>
> Glad you took it to Mike at John Bull at my suggestion. Happy to see
> he is still working there, he really knows his stuff.... one of the
> few... and his prices are very fair.
>
> He's actually a very interesting guy. His father used to be the Del
> Monte plantation manager in Mindanao, Philippines. Imagine my shock
> when, after having used his services on and off for 15 years, we were
> shooting the breeze one day and he told me this funny story about how
> this guy was running a crop dusting service in the P.I. and he watched
> as the guy crashed his plane in the field, did several somersaults,
> and proceeded to walk out of the wreckage without a scratch.
>
> When he told me this story, I told him that I actually knew the man
> myself (Al Onstott), because this same guy had started an airline with
> my Dad in Manila in 1948, but it fell apart when the Dutch Navy tossed
> them in Indonesian jail in 1949 for a year accusing them of supplying
> tommy guns to the communists (they were flying PBYs in and out of
> Singapore and Indonesia at the time).
>
> Of course they were doing no such thing and it all had to do with
> post-WWII colonial politics & the US anti-colonialist policy... so
> they eventually got out but my dad says that year was pure hell...
> they still had Japanese prisoners of war there, the camp wasn't run by
> the Dutch but by the Indonesians... imagine!! My dad reckons the
> Japanese POWs died there.
>
> Anyway, Mike later told me he learned to work on British cars because
> his father had transferred to run some farms in Rhodesia... so when he
> was a teenager he grew up around all the great British cars...
> learning to work on them. I think he has 4 or 5 Sunbeam Tigers
> himself! The guy is a walking encyclopedia of British mechanical
> diagnosis, and has lived a pretty interesting life for a mechanic!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alan
>
> '53 BN1 '64 BJ8
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