Eisenstark Siata Part 2: The Big Ouch

Story and photos by Sean Smith

Read Part 1

On June 4th, 2017, Walter and the SIATA won the “Vintage Rallies” award at the 2017 Greenwich Concours d’Elegance. But the car still was not running right—so off it went to Automotive Restorations in Stratford Connecticut.

They were chasing what they thought were some electrical gremlins. They got the SIATA running better, and technician Chip Webb took the car out for a road test.

On June 8th at 1:30 in the afternoon, Chip was waiting for a light at the corner of Stratford and Surf Avenues with his signal on, when a woman in a Toyota Camry came along doing something she shouldn’t have been doing… one hand on the wheel and the other on her ubiquitous cell phone… driving distracted.

BANG!

She ran into the right rear of the SIATA, pushing it d- i- r- e- c- t- l- y in to on coming traffic and a young kid’s Honda carrying parts for NAPA. It damaged his ride a good bit, but did major damage to the left front of the SIATA, which took a hell of a hit!

The car was a mess. Chip was whiplashed and bruised, but OK. Over the months he had to undertake a little restoration himself.

The first years of the SIATA’s life were spent on the race track without a scratch to show for it. It had only had two small dents in its life with the Eisenstarks up to then… and now it had sustained major damage at the hands of a careless person with a cell phone.

You can’t call your local SIATA dealer for replacement panels for a car that only had a total of 11 built. The saving grace is that the SIATA was under the tender care of Automotive Restorations. Inside ARI’s 52,000 square foot facility they could resurrect the crumpled SIATA from the ashes.

The shop was started in 1978 by Kent Bain and grew to include under-one-roof mechanical, metal and fabrication, upholstery, and wood and coach trim shops. They could do everything you could possibly need except chrome.

The first step was to have insurance adjusters come from the two companies, Allstate and Hagerty. It was total culture shock for the Allstate adjuster—walking into Automotive Restorations… trying to grok the myriad exotics spread out over the shop floor, surrounded by highly trained technicians. This was not your everyday corner body shop.

The Allstate guy started asking questions about the SIATA.
“What do you think the car is worth?”
“Were they ever made out of fiberglass?”
Then he started looking closer and exclaimed “Gee, there’s no Bondo in it, is there?” He had never seen the likes of this hand-built aluminum machine.

It was business as usual for the Hagerty man. This was the kind of specialty car he dealt with on a regular basis. He looked the SIATA over and exclaimed, “This car HAS to be restored!” He then successfully explained to his Allstate counterpart what the car was worth, and how he would be able—with the help of ARI —to make clear what it would take to rebuild it. Walter had an “agreed value” policy with Hagerty.

Based on the rarity and originality, the number was into 7 figures.

So even with a repair estimate of between $350,000 and $400,000. The car was still a very viable rebuild. Having Hagerty on his side fighting tooth and nail to get what the car was worth the project could move forward.

The next step was for the still-sore Chip Webb to start tearing the car down. Unbelievably, the original left front headlight glass had not perished in the accident, so it would be able to stay with the car that it had spent so much time with.

The SIATA was put on a chassis rig. To the amazement of all, the chassis was spot on, but a new rear sub Frame had to be fabricated

The SIATA then moved on to The Panel Shop where Steve Hall and his crew of artisans would massage the Balbo designed body back into shape.

The team was successfully able to pull out the front left quarter, but the right rear had suffered enough damage that new material was going to need to be cut in. In the end, 17 pieces of aluminum were shaped to create the new section. But first they needed to get that shape right.

They just happened to have one of the other existing SIATA coupes to look at. Owned by Michael Schwartz, it was the first one bodied by Balbo. On close inspection they found it was quite different from Walter’s car, closer in style to the previously built Farina cars, and would not be a good match. The solution was to digitally scan the left rear quarter to build a jig for the crushed right side.

Then the shaping began.

The English Wheel, many hammers, and a great deal of talent started bending metal to recreate the flowing lines of the little coupe. All pieces were checked on the wooden jig that had been made from the opposite side of the car.

Cars like the SIATA are not symmetrical. They are not cookie cutter, mass produced autos. They are handmade works of art. One man could be working on the right side and another on the left, so discrepancies arise. Also, the way the car was hit, it moved the roof line and popped out the windshield, so there is only so much measurement you can do before you have to throw out the tape measure and, as Chip Webb says, make it “Eye-sweet.” You make everything fit even though the numbers don’t match side to side. The car had to be reshaped so it would fit the windshield, not the other way around.

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The crew is working with aluminum the way a sculptor works with clay, smoothing and shaping to create desirable lines. After all that shaping and smoothing, the SIATA will be ready for paint and a rebuild. After all is said and done the wizards at ARI will have spent around 1600 man hours to bring the car back into pristine shape.

Two interesting things came up during the restoration. First, what they thought was an electrical problem was found to be a timing problem. Years before, Walt Spak had done some work on the engine and in error put the timing chain back incorrectly—it was off by 9 degrees. ARI put it right, so now the SIATA will run as smoothly as it is beautiful.

The other thing that was discovered was that very early in its life it had had a color change.
The early owners before the Eisenstarks were racers, and someone had decided that the SIATA should be Italian racing red.

So when the reborn SIATA rolls out on to the concours field at Amelia Island, it will be as stunning as ever—in its original color, and ready to take on all comers.