messerschmitt enthusiasts club - take off...

EDITORIAL Running Repairs

Club CommitteePresident Roger Hall� 01993 881421@ [email protected]

Chairman Tony Yates� +44 (0)7973 448023@ [email protected]

Secretary Alan Hitchcock� 01367 240125@ [email protected]

Treasurer Graham Taylor� 01793 764770@ [email protected]

Regalia Peter Darby� 01183 778174@ [email protected]

Registrations Alan Whitlock� 01256 702606

Membership Peter Darby� 01183 778174@ [email protected]

Take Off Editor Mark Hindell� 0208 422 4943@ [email protected]

Web Site Mark Hindell� 0208 422 4943@ [email protected]

Area RepresentativesLondon/SE Tony Yatessee above

South Alan Whitlocksee above

South Midlands Alan Hitchcocksee above

East Midlands Andy Carter� 01623 407868

West Midlands/Fens Mike Cooper� 01400 262637

South West/Wales Chris Jones@ [email protected]

Scotland Graham Johnston� 01968 660507

Running RepairsBy MarkHindell

W E LIVE in a throw-away world.On modern cars (well, modernmanufactured goods in general)the philosophy is not to repair

but to replace, and modern manufactur-ing seems geared to frustrating anyone daftenough to actually consider repairing stufffor themselves. So many parts are nowsealed units, pressed together never to comeapart. Flaky DVD player? Chuck it — geta new one. Broken washing machine? Nah,that’s “beyond economical repair”. Endlesslyrepurchasing the same stuff every couple of

Contents1 Editorial

Club Committee . . . . . . 2Area Representatives . . . 2Running Repairs . . . . . . . 2Badsey Feedback . . . . . 4KR175s on YouTube . . . . . 5

New Members . . . . . 5

2 NewsEvents 2011 . . . . . . . . . 6One From the Album . . . . 7

Pub Nights . . . . . . . 9

3 Alan’s Live Sachs LineThe Final Chapter? . . . . . 10

DownloadableMesserschmitts 11

4 ArticlesA KR175 is Reborn . . . . . . 12KR175 Ignition Switch Repair 15KR175 Story . . . . . . . . . 18

2 Messerschmitt Enthusiasts’ Club TAKE OFF May 2011

mailto:[email protected]









Running Repairs EDITORIAL

years doesn’t fit my definition of economical.And what are you supposed to do when the

55 year old ignition switch on your KR175suffers an internal failure? Well, I had a visitthe other day from Bernard Beeston bearingthe article on just this subject that appearslater in this issue, and in his case, you care-fully open the thing up and replace the failedcomponent with an enhanced design thatwill probably last for another 55 years.

Now that vehicle technology has moved onso far it’s easy to look at ’schmitts with thesentimental eye of a collector where oncethey were viewed purely as a functional pos-sesion with a job to do. Bernard’s car, 855EMY is a perfect example of a machine sim-ply doing the job for which it was designedand it carries several modifications (includ-ing KR200 wings) made for strictly practi-cal reasons borne out of necessity and itsowner’s many years of experience. The de-tails of many of these modifications haveappeared in Take Off over the years.

Now it might well be that few of us willhave to deal with a duff 175 ignition switchourselves, but that’s not the point — we’llcertainly have to fix some component thatwas never intended to be fixed, and there’s alot of satisfaction to be had in getting moregood service out of things that are “beyondeconomical repair”.

KR175Looking back through Take Off in recentyears I have to admit that the KR175 hassomehow had very limited coverage. Surelythis is unjust. It’s exterior styling is, to many,even more elegant than its successors. It’sconstruction is fascinating, particularly forthose familiar with the KR200 as it is inmany respects a completely different designwhich yields almost the same appearance.

One example of this design evolution isthe front suspension. Where the KR200(and TG500 in slightly modified form) usethe rubber torsion spring, the KR175 hasa simple hinged arm attached to which isa right-angled plate that presents a verticalface parallel to to vertical surface of the inner

wing. As the suspension hinges upwards sothe plate and the inner wing surfaces comecloser together — and an ingenious rubberball placed between the two surfaces acts asa compression spring.

May 2011 TAKE OFF Messerschmitt Enthusiasts’ Club 3

EDITORIAL Badsey Feedback

Although elegant I can only assume thatit proved excessively complicated to manu-facture and owing to the very limited travelin the system resulted in the 175’s famouslyfirm ride.

The relationship between rarity and valueis a funny thing — it’s the combination ofscarcity and demand that sets monetaryvalue. While it can’t be argued that 175sare indeed rare there is, somehow, less de-mand for them than other ’schmitts whichseems surprising.

Source URL:messerschmittclub.org/karoscene/node/808

Badsey FeedbackBy TonyYates

R EMEMBER the item a couple ofmonths ago that talked about theBadsey Bullet? I’m happy to reportthat the current owner of the Bullet,

Steven Mandell, has been in contact withnews of these interesting vehicles and theircreator — here’s his email, and my reply.

Hi TonyI heard through Alan Hitchcock, or “Big

Al” on the Rumcars blog re: world’s fastestmicrocar, that you did a piece in the Dec2010 issue of Take Off on the Badsey Bullet.Was there also a mention of it in Karoscene?

I am not a member of your club seeing asI am not a Messerschmitt owner (come close

by owning a Nobel 200 as far as the enginegoes that is). Therefore I am denied accessto these article(s)

I would be very interested to see them as Iam the person that bought the Badsey Bulletprototype in December 2010 after first seeingit and spending much time with its creatorat the 1982 Los Angeles Auto show.

I have spent most of my spare time sinceI finally acquired it re-engineering some in-terior panels and improving the fit of thecockpit cowls. It is all coming together nicely(literally), and I expect to have it all back inone piece again in the next couple of weeks.Needless to say I have had ample opportu-nity to familiarize myself with many of itsengineering details.

I was also given the entire collection ofvideo tapes, photographs and promotionalmaterials and even a racing suit as a legacypassed down from “Wild Bill” so I am able toresearch items of interest.

Please allow me the opportunity to con-tribute as I do feel the obligation to carry onBill’s legacy but as yet have not been able toview your article(s)

Sincerely Yours,Steven Mandell (USA)

Hi Steven,It is very good of you to get in touch and

your story makes a nice postscript to the ar-ticle.

I’ve attached a copy of the article takenfrom the ‘electronic’ version of our Club Maga-zine, Take Off, which appears on KaroScene.Most of what is in the article is probably wellknown to you but my particular interest wasa possible ‘local’ connection to the village ofBadsey, which is not too far from me andadjacent to where we have a monthly get-together of Microcar and Three-wheeler en-thusiasts. It was Big Al who first mentionedthe Badsey Bullet and although my researchdidn’t turn up much to start with, I trackeddown a message from “Wild Bill” on the Vil-lage ‘visitors book’ which set off the train ofevents!

I realised the Prototype was up for sale


http://messerschmittclub.org/karoscene/?q=node/808

Badsey Feedback EDITORIAL

KR175s on YouTubeBy MarkHindell

Our Edward has been’researching’ KR175s onYouTube and in the processhas turned up a coupleof interesting items. Oneis a newsreel style item(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnXPV5JWGz4)which shows a 175 beingtaken for a spin around Up-per Norwood. The otheris a series of extractsfrom a 1955 Richard Wid-mark film called Prize ofGold (http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzfjpOhPOgY). The 175appears a lot and is nicelyphotographed.


Badsey Bullet

back in November so it is interesting that theperson who purchased it has got in touch. I’msure that we would welcome your contribu-tion should you wish to pass something onto us. You are of course welcome to join theClub too, which is open not only to owners ofMesserschmitts, but also prospective owners

New MembersA warm welcome to the MEC to:

Luigi Pannozzo Deventry — owns a 1956KR200.

and those who are just fascinated by theseunique motor vehicles from an interesting pe-riod of world history. We have recently intro-duced an ‘Internet Only Membership’ whichfor just £5 Sterling (Pay Pal accepted), givesyou full access to our website, the ability todownload our magazine ’Take-Off’ and ac-cess to everything else the Club offers.

I look forward to hearing more from youand especially your experiences with the‘Bullet’.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnXPV5JWGz4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnXPV5JWGz4

http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzfjpOhPOgY





NEWS Events 2011

Hello, I’m Daniel Poll, Nick Poll’s son.After lots of encouragement from friends

and family, my parents and I thought Imay be able to make the most of what I’mgood at — drawing — to help towards thecosts of my university course.

I’ve put together a little website with in-formation and plenty of pictures, whichcan be found here: http://danpoll.daportfolio.com/

Seeing as I share my dad’s interest formicrocars, enjoy drawing them, and amfamiliar with the microcar world and someof the people in it, I was wondering if I maybe allowed to place a little advert for mydrawings with a link to my site in yourclub magazine (and maybe a link on thewebsite too, if you allow that sort of thing)?Yes, of course — excellent artwork -Ed)

Events 20118th May Abingdon Air and Country Charity

Show

Abingdon Airfield, Oxon,

� 01235 529142@ [email protected]

8th May Wallingford Vehicle Rally and Parade


8th May Basingstoke Festival of Transport

� 01256 466144

As an additional benefit to its members theMEC has joined the club discount scheme atOpie Oils, which entitles members to 10% offall products, available online at www.opieoils.co.uk and for phone orders too.

Opie Oils are the UK’s leading independentonline oil and lubricants retailer, offering a re-ally extensive range of oils, lubricants and au-tomotive fluids from 9 major oil manufactur-ers at prices lower than the high street andmain dealers, backed up with free oil adviceand recommendations. Brands include Silko-lene, Fuchs, Millers Oils, Gulf, Castrol, Mo-tul, Mobil, Amsoil and Redline. The range in-cludes oils and fluids that meet pretty muchall manufacturers and international specifi-cations, with delivery throughout the UK viacourier.

Opie Oils also sell UFI and Mahle filters (oil,air, fuel, cabin), workshop products (greases,aerosols etc.) , spark plugs (iridium and irid-ium tough), cleaning,polishing and detailingproducts from Bilt Hamber, Meguiars andMuc-Off, Trico Wiper Blades (including Neo-form Beam Blades).

If you would like any oil advice or a recom-mendation, feel free to ask and we will getback to you as soon as we can.

Orders can be placed by phone (01209215164 opt 2) or online at www.opieoils.co.uk. Just choose from the list of clubs andenter your KaRoscene user name when youregister on the web site — all the prices willthen be reduced to show your club discount.You can register at https://www.opieoils.co.uk/createaccount-short.aspx

Contact Details:

Web http://www.opieoils.co.uk/

Phone 01209 215164 opt 2

Email [email protected]

8th May Two Stroke Rally

at the Motor Heritage Centre, Gaydon, justoff the M40, to which you receive accessover the day inclusive in the entry. Achance to view many strange and one off


http://danpoll.daportfolio.com/

http://danpoll.daportfolio.com/



http://www.opieoils.co.uk




https://www.opieoils.co.uk/createaccount-short.aspx

https://www.opieoils.co.uk/createaccount-short.aspx

Events 2011 NEWS

One From the AlbumBy AlanTown

Dear Mark, here’s an image from thepast. It came from my erstwhile neigh-bour in Steyning, West Sussex, ( Neil ? ),whose father ran a Motor Cycle & Bubblecar Sales & Service Business, late 50s /early 60s, I think, in Epsom, Surrey Note

the Schmitt Mountain Pass promotionalposter on the far wall. What must thisstock be worth in today’s microcar mar-ket?

Thanks for that Alan — good photo, veryinteresting -Ed.


machines. Other strokers welcome to joinus. Alan Hitchcock


28th – 29th May XIII International Rally

Manresa, Spain, for ’old speedy’ ClassicMotor Club Del Bages

� 0034 9387 51820

22nd May 4th Bourton Hall Classic Vehicle Dis-play and Fun Day

at Bourton Hall near Rugby, Warwickshire.The day is a fund raising event raisingmonies to eradicate polio. Entry for Clas-sic vehicles and their occupants is FREE.Alan Mudd

� 01926 812734� 01926 810677� 07881 956596




NEWS Events 2011

@ [email protected]

June Chipping Campden Vintage and ClassicCar Show

Chipping Campden, Cotswolds. No datespublished yet.

�

19th June MEC Rally

at Toddington GWR Classic Rally, runout. Entry forms available at http://www.gwsr.com/planning-your-visit/2011-events/classic-vehicle-days.aspx.Alan Hitchcock


17th – 19th June Micro North

at Coldwater, Ontario, Canada. A ‘laidback’ multi make microcar meet with noadmission or registration fees and no judg-ing. More information can be found on ourweb site. Ralph Hough

www.microcar.org/micronorth@ [email protected]

23rd – 26th June The 22nd North of England Mi-crocar Rally

Bewerley Park, Pateley Bridge, Micro Mani-acs. Ray

� 01274 200782� 07977 445694

25th – 26th June Strawberries and Steam

Lotmead Farm, Wanborough, Swindon

� 01642 526733

1st – 3rd July Bath Rally

Keynsham Rugby Ground. Wynford Jones


8th – 10th July Reliant Owners Club NorthernGala

Major Bridge, Holme on Spalding Moor.Caroline Lewins

� 01430 860992

7th – 10th July MOC International Rally

Netherhall Rugby Club, Maryport, Cum-bria. The MEC is invited, further detailsto follow.

15th – 24th July Liege-Brescia-Liege Rally

4th revival for slightly bigger cars

web www.classicrallypress.co.uk

29th – 31st July Yorkshire Camping Weekend

at Rydale Folk Museum, Hutton le HoleJim

� 07912 579278

27th – 29th August DWAC Dutch Rally

is expected.

1st – 4th September The National Microcar Rally

moves to Atwell-Wilson Motor Museum,Calne. Early days but traditional formatand backed by the Bond Bug Club.

18th September GWR September Classic VehicleDay

Combine the scene of historic road trans-port with a backdrop of vintage trainsand you have a very special event. TheGWR Classic Vehicle Days provide youwith just that when Toddington Sta-tion car park is covered with classiccars, motorcycles, commercials, busesetc. Entry forms available at http://www.gwsr.com/planning-your-visit/2011-events/classic-vehicle-days.aspx.Alan Hitchcock


14th – 16th October Oktoberfahrt

A weekend based at Golden Square Cara-van Park, Oswaldkirk, Nr. Helmsley, York,YO62 5YQ. The meeting is arranged to co-incide with the wonderful experience thatis the 1940s week-end in North Yorkshire.Jim Jamieson, Micro Maniacs


Contact details and events listings are asaccurate as possible given available informa-tion at the time of publication.




http://www.gwsr.com/planning–your-visit/2011-events/classic-vehicle-days.aspx




http://www.microcar.org/micronorth



http://www.classicrallypress.co.uk






Events 2011 NEWS

Pub NightsBristol Clubnight 2nd Wednesday in each month. The Major’s Retreat, Tormarton,

just north of Junction 18 of the M4, 1st right off the A46 Stroud road, down tothe crossroads, right into the village to find a proper local. Always ’schmitters atthis one. Contact Alan Hitchcock


MOC South West/Wales 3rd Monday of every other month. The Fox and Hounds,Little Canford. Bottom roundabout on the A31 Wimborne. Contact Colin Archeror Peter Houghton on the following numbers.

� 01202 734207� 01202 897594

General meeting MEC/Heinkel-Trojan OEC Ltd. 3rd Wednesday of each month.The Fleece Inn, Bretforton, Nr Evesham, Worcestershire and therefore covering(in the broadest sense) Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Oxford-shire, Warwickshire, and Wiltshire. Classic car meeting in the summer behindpub. Contact Tony Yates


East Midlands section of The Morgan Three Wheeler Club 3rd Wednesday ofeach month. The meeting is held at the Royal Oak, Brandon, just off theA428 to the east of Coventry. Messerschmitt owners and enthusiasts are invitedby the group organiser, Malcolm Bull, who is also a Club member and runs a’very nice’ 1957, KR200. This will suit East Midlands Members for whom theThe Fleece Inn, Bretforton, is a shade too far for an evening trip out! ContactMalcolm Bull

@ [email protected]

MOC South Eastern 3rd Wednesday of each month. Three Crutches, Strood, Kent,close to the junction of the A2 and M2. Contact Mark Snowden

� 01634 309292

MOC Eastern Area 3rd Thursday of each month. The Queens Theatre, Billet Lane,Hornchurch, Essex. Contact Mick Morton (phone before attending)

� 01708 475662

MOC Nottinghamshire Last Wednesday of each month except December. The Horseand Groom, Linby. MEC contact is Colin Burton

� 01623 481050

General meeting MEC South East Area Last Tuesday of each month, Now fixed atEngland’s Rose, Postcombe just a couple of miles from J6 of the M40. ContactTony Yates


MOC Caledonian Contact John Miller

� 01475 724229






ALAN’S LIVE SACHS LINE The Final Chapter?

The Final Chapter?By AlanHitchcock

T HE RED AND BLACK CAR managed toplay yet another googly before it is sold.It was all prepared to be supplied to itsnew owner with new tyres, extras as

requested and running well on the viewingat Christmas time. As seems the way withdeals these days two months later and thebalance money was ready to clinch the deal.So out to the car only to find it would notstart forwards. Perfect backwards. It wouldbump start forwards but no dynastart action.Great!

So in with a circuit tester. Ignition switchfine and relay clicking. Dynastarter leads offand a direct check of the dynastart can bemade using the marked thick leads thus:

Forwards B2/D+ joined to HE/92l withclamp/baby mole grip. B1/92+ to bat-tery negative. A/30b can be touchedto the battery positive terminal. Thedynastarter should rotate forwards.

Backwards B1/92+ is now joined toHE/92l and clamped. B2/D+ becomesthe negative lead and once again touchA/30b to the positive and the dynas-tarter should spin backwards.

This test proved that the dynastarter wasworking fine. Therefore it would suggest a

Nice to look at and finally all sorted out

problem with the black box. A quick checkout showed this so far untouched item fromthe previous botched restoration had severalloose connections and, more worrying, a fuseon the charging circuit with a lot of new wireshere and there. The fuse was blown. Re-placing it made no difference. Removing thecharging lead likewise but the effect wouldbe much the same save the pole on the reg-ulator. Neither of these tests should havebeen needed but you know how it is. So totest if the leads to the dynastarter were work-ing I removed the switch and used a lead toshort-circuit the switch (as the starter po-sition is sprung loaded of course). The testshowed current where it should be when itshould be. This left the possibility a badcontact in the electric changeover solenoidor a hot spot/resistance reducing the avail-able current to the dynastart over a directlyconnected battery.

I removed the whole black box and re-placed it. The new black box checked out OKand I rewired for a new full system test fromthe key. The problem remained so it had tobe some malfunction in the dynastart itselfas the chances of two black boxes sufferingthe same fault were less likely. So out withthe engine and onto the bench. On gainingaccess to the brushes I did a standard set ofearth and cross current tests. Fine. My mul-timeter is pretty unreliable but I tried it outand compared the read outs with a good dy-nastarter. Then thought that really I neededto test it on full current rather than the tinyone used by the multimeter. This time Ifound a discharge on the starter brushes. Soon taking them apart I isolated this to onebrush and examined the evidence. Therewas the problem. The restorer had failed tounderstand or use a full set of insulatingpaxolin washers.

The restorer had failed to under-stand or use a full set of insulating

paxolin washers.

One under the brush holder was steel thusthe only insulation was the paxolin tube and


The Final Chapter? ALAN’S LIVE SACHS LINE

Dynastart Brush Holder Details of thefibre insulation for the brush boxes. Theshoulders on the brush indicate thepermissible limit of wear. Note that all thebrush boxes on dynastart systems fitted tovehicles like the Messerschmitt that aredesigned to be run both forwards andbackwards are all insulated in this manner.

the waxed paper gasket. The paper gasketwas in the process of breaking down underthe leaking current and would have burnedout eventually into a spot weld and totaldynastart failure.

So another own goal by a previous restorerand proof if it were needed that you are betterdoing all checks and rebuilds yourself as itcan only be your fault if the thing fails. Neverrely on anyone else’s build — unless one ofthe few who have the skill and experience to

do it right.On checking out the removed black box I

found that the Siba regulator had the twocharging coils replaced with an ali coveredjobbo. Wynford tells me this is probablythe early version of the mod available fromColin Archer. The fuse is consistent with thisinstallation. I cleaned the unit up, sorted outthe cable runs and made sure the unionswere tight and this can go back on the shelffor re-use.


DownloadableMesserschmittsUntil we get to being able to downloadreal cars (which will have to wait until 3Dprinting develops a little further) we canalways entertain ourselves with this, thedownloadable paper Messerschmitt. Andthen, once you’ve made yourself a fleet ofthose, you can have a go at a Mini, anIsetta and even, interestingly, a Flitzer!

Paper Model KR200

The models are available for free down-load here: http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/˜

kamaboko/1 30model/.



ARTICLES A KR175 is Reborn

“You’ll never get that car runningas long as you have a hole in your

backside”

A KR175 is RebornBy RalphHough

A S MANY OF YOU ALREADY KNOW mywife Wendy and I bought our FirstMesserschmitt KR200 on Septem-ber 27, 1962 just one week before

we were married. We traded in our Paris-Nice scooter and the ’schmitt became oureveryday transportation for three years. Wewere very active in the Messerschmitt Own-ers’ Club of Great Britain and went on manytrips with the club including a very enjoyabletrip to Europe in the summer of 1964. Thistrip included a visit to the Messerschmitt fac-tory where they advised us that productionof the Messerschmitt had ceased a few weeksearlier. In February 1965 we traded in theMesserschmitt for a Fiat 850.

We emigrated to Canada in 1970 andthought nothing more of the Messerschmitttill the summer of 1989. Wendy saw a redconvertible ‘Tiger’ in Orillia and I managed tolocate the owners, Lloyd and Nellie Watson,who we became very friendly with. Wendyand I decided it would be great for us to finda Messerschmitt that we could tow behind amotor home when I retired. We never did buya motor home but instead bought a ‘Tiger’from Lloyd Watson but that’s another story.After several ‘false starts’ we did eventuallyfind an unrestored 1961 KR200 with only3500 original miles showing on the odometer.We bought this car and had no plans to addto our collection. After some minor work tothe car, which was mostly replacing rubbertrim etc. we took the car for a spin whichbrought back some great memories. A fewdays later I drove the car to Orillia, where Iworked and one of the reporters for the localpaper saw the car and did a story on the carand why we had purchased it. The story waspicked up by a broadcaster named ArthurBlack and he did an interview on CBC Ra-

Ralph Hough’s newlyrestored KR175

dio with Wendy and I that went out acrossCanada.

As a result of this on-air interview I re-ceived several phone calls and letters includ-ing one from a gentleman who lived nearMontreal, Quebec. He advised me that in1978 his son was living in England while at-tending university and he had purchased amodel KR175 Messerschmitt for £75 to useas his everyday transportation. He decidedto bring the car back to Canada with himwhen he returned home in 1984. A friendof his, who was supposed to be a ‘bodyman’talked the owner into stripping everything offthe car, including the body panels and fire-wall, in order to do a restoration. Everythinggot stripped off the car and thrown in vari-ous boxes with nothing labelled or identifiedin any way. They got as far as putting a flatsteel floor with no reinforcing ribs in it underthe floor frame and a flat steel firewall withno reinforcing ribs. At this time the project


A KR175 is Reborn ARTICLES

was put in the father’s basement as the sonleft the Montreal area to work in Toronto.The father had moved house twice and wasfed up with moving all these boxes of car bitsand wanted to know if I knew of anyone thatwould be interested in buying it.

I was not aware of any other KR175 in

Canada at that time and decided I would buyit. Wendy and I, along with our friend PeterSvilans set off for Montreal bright and earlyone Sunday morning to pick up the car. Weloaded what was left of the car, along withall the boxes of parts on to the trailer andheaded home. It was a long day as we weregone about 18 hours.

Once I got everything into the basement Ibegan sorting out what I had and how bestto proceed with the restoration. I decidedI wanted to do it as accurately as possibleso the first thing I had to do was get someproper floor panels and a firewall or tem-plates to make them. I checked all aroundbut could not locate any panels anywhere.I found that the German club used to pro-duce them but had none left and did notplan on producing any more. Unfortunatelynothing was done for a few years until I waseventually able to get some good templates.At this time I met a very good restorationguy named John Poole who was looking fora project Isetta for his teenage son. Fortu-nately I had one so we struck a deal that hewould trade his time to help with the Messer-schmitt bodywork.

We began working on the car together andit slowly started to take shape. In the mean-time I was continually trying to source hardto find parts such as the ignition switch,cables etc. Parts for the KR175 are muchharder to find than they are for the later,more common KR200. I finished up acquir-ing four more wrecked parts cars from whichI was able to reclaim a lot of parts. I was alsoable to make over ninety pages of notes andsketches and take numerous photographsthat were a great help as the restorationmoved ahead.

We got the bodywork finished and primedand for various reasons the project gotstalled again. Some time later John Poolewas teaching body and paint courses at acommunity college and through this I wasable to get the body painted. Two studentsspent almost 200 hours working on the paintwork. Once the body was painted it gavethe project new momentum and John and Iworked steadily on it. I had already cleaned


ARTICLES A KR175 is Reborn

Under restoration If you’re more familiarwith the underside of a KR200, this isfascinatingly familiar yet weirdly different.

and sand blasted the engine frame, suspen-sion units, wheel hubs etc. so these werealso painted. and assembled.

When I got the car the engine was par-tially dismantled but as the previous ownerhad been driving it around in England beforeshipping it back to Canada I figured thathopefully there would not be much wrongwith it. I removed the cylinder and had agood mechanic hone it out for me. There wasno ‘play’ in the crankshaft bearings and hefelt they would be fine. My idea was that Iwould clean everything up and assemble theengine and put it in the car. If it ran, great, ifnot then I could easily remove it and rebuildit over the winter.

Fortunately I was able to purchase a re-production windshield surround as my orig-inal was in very poor condition. Fitting thedome and windshield was challenging butwe eventually got it fitted. Unfortunately wedid manage to put a small crack in one of mydomes in the process. Hopefully I will usethis in my second KR175 project some timein the future. I have a Cyclemaster mopedand a KR200 convertible to do before I dothe 175 so I’m not sure if and when the 175will get done.

On April 11th 2011 I took the car in toget the exhaust fitted and when I got homeI was anxious to try to fire up the engine. Iwas delighted when it fired up but it wouldnot idle. Unfortunately the carb also had a

slow drip. It was a few days before I wasable to get back to it and I got the engineto idle fine but the clutch was not properlyadjusted and would not allow me to selectany gear. Unfortunately with the KR175 youhave to remove the gas tank to do much withthe engine so once the gas tank was takenoff I removed the carb and re-set the clutch.On April 18th once everything was put backtogether the engine idled fine and I was ableto select first gear. What a thrill when thecar actually moved ahead. I could not selectsecond but a minor adjustment on the gearshift solved this and I was able to take thecar on its maiden drive. I have now doneabout five miles but still have a couple ofminor things to finish before I can get thecar licensed. I have to fit the rear lights andfind a windshield wiper motor. Unfortunatelythe carb still has a very slow fuel leak whichI will hopefully solve before too long.

Many years ago my wife Wendy said Iwould never get the car running as long as Ihad a hole in my backside. She now has toeat her words!

I have already shared my notes andsketches with several people who are work-ing on restoring a KR175 but if anyone elsecould use them I would be happy to copythem. Feel free to email me at [email protected].

The car will make its official debut at ourannual car show, MicroNorth on June 17,18, 19. We also hope to have several othernew restorations and different microcars atthis years event so please try to attend if youare interested in unusual vehicles from the50s and 60s. This is a fun weekend withno judging and no registration fee. Moreinformation can be found on our web site atwww.microcar.org/micronorth.

Wendy and I hope to visit England in 2012for the Messerschmitt Owners’ Club rally aswe will be celebrating our 50th wedding an-niversary. Ironically of course it will alsobe fifty years since we purchased our firstMesserschmitt.





http://www.microcar.org/micronorth


Switch disassembled with the replacement insulator in the centre

KR175 Ignition Switch Repair ARTICLES

Bernard Beeston’s KR175 ignitionswitch

KR175 Ignition SwitchRepair

By BernardBeeston

I PURCHASED MY KR175 second-hand in1958 and as it is now 55 years old itis not surprising that from time to timesomething fails and a few months ago

the HELLA combined ignition and lightingswitch ceased to control the lights; in rota-tion the ignition key was not limited to itsthree positions but just kept turning, withthe lights doing silly things. So out it had tocome and hopefully be repaired.

Before removing the switch I disconnected

Ignition switch and key

the battery as there is always a danger ofshorting something while working on theelectrics. I then removed the three screwssurrounding the keyhole and worked theswitch out from under the dash. I had todisconnect the lead to terminal 56 first as(in my case at least) it was too short to allowthe switch out from under the dash. As Iremoved each lead I labelled it as I didn’tknow how long it would be before I would beready to refit the switch.

Having removed the switch the next stepwas to open it up. First I removed the wirelink from between terminals 51 and 30/51as this was in the way. I then lifted the fourtags of the metal cover using a screwdriverand pliers and parted the cover from the plas-tic body, being careful as there is a strong


ARTICLES KR175 Ignition Switch Repair

Original insulator Completelydisintegrated.

spring pushing them apart.On inspecting the inner workings I found

that the lights are controlled by a brass con-tactor that is rotated by the key holder. Butthe key holder is metal and needs insulatingfrom the contactor; this is accomplished witha moulded plastic insulator and that had dis-integrated. It was obvious that all the stressof rotation was taken through the insulator’srim in the hole of the contactor, so I madea larger insulator where the stress was alsotaken by the contactor’s raised edges.

My choice of material for the new insulatorwas determined by what I had available thatwas both electrically and mechanically suit-able. Choosing 3mm Perspex for the mainpart as there was room to accommodate theextra thickness, but had it been available2mm Perspex would have done just as well.

The rim to fit in the contactor’s hole wascut from a piece of 1.5mm thick fibreglasssheet (as used for high quality printed circuitboards). Mine had a copper coating whichI had to remove to maintain electrical insu-lation. If available 1.5mm Perspex could beused, in which case Perspex cement could beused to bond the two parts. However, usingdissimilar materials I chose UniBond RepairExtreme Power Glue as this will bond almostanything. See fig 2 for dimensions of replace-ment insulator. And for comparison, detailsof the failed part.

Both parts were cut very slightly over size.

Replacement insulator In position on thecontactor with both on the switch body.

Repaired unit ready for refitting Note thered link wire repositioned with neatersleeving

After gluing together the complete item wascarefully filed for snug fits for the key holderand into the contactor’s hole and also theoutside fit against the inside of the contac-tor’s raised edges.

Before reassembly I smeared the contactswith a thin film of grease suitable for elec-trical contacts, and made sure that the fourtags on the metal cover were free of kinksand correctly aligned to enter their slots onthe plastic body.

I then assembled the parts in order, mak-ing sure that the key holder correctly enteredthe new insulator and that the tags of the


KR175 Ignition Switch Repair ARTICLES

Switch mechanism insulator

cover entered their slots in the plastic body— not the easiest of operations as this has tobe done against the spring’s pressure. Notethat the cover can fit in four possible po-sitions and only one is correct, this beingdetermined by the position of the earth ter-minal on the cover.

With the parts held firmly together the tagswere bent down using mole grips and finallya hammer and a blunt punch — nothingbrutal, just enough pressure with the gripsto bend the tags over and gentle hammer-ing on the punch to bed the tips of the tagsdown. I then refitted the wire link, but fora neater finish, repositioned it to enter ter-minal 30/51 on the terminal 51 side. Thereshould be a barrier around terminal 30/51on this side preventing the wire’s entry, butin my case this was missing and as it servesno purpose anyway can be removed. I alsoused a neater piece of plastic sleeving to

cover the link.The switch was now ready for refitting, but

first I extended the lead for terminal 56 by afew inches so that it reached out from underthe dash. I did this by soldering a piece ofinsulated wire on to the existing lead andcovered the joint with a tight fitting rubbersleeve. All the wires were then refitted intheir respective terminals and the switchscrewed back into place, the battery recon-nected and the switch tested.

One thing I discovered was that the igni-tion coil terminal (15/54) is earthed whenthe key is removed. This serves no purposefor coil ignition and is a side effect of termi-nal 2 being earthed and I assume terminal2 is used to earth the contact breaker (tostop the engine) when this switch is used inmagneto ignition systems.




ARTICLES KR175 Story

KR175 StoryBy StuartCyphus

T HE BASIC STORY of how Fritz Fendand Prof. Willie Messerschmitt joinedforces to produce the MesserschmittKabinroller is surely well-known to all

of us by now. However, compared to thewealth of knowledge that exists on almostevery aspect of the KR200, the finer devel-opment points of its forebear, the Messer-schmitt KR175, are almost entirely unknownto the majority of enthusiasts. Indeed, theKR175 often seems to be treated only as afootnote in history on our way to look at theaforementioned KR200. In the pages thatfollow, it is intended to bring the KR175 outfrom the shadows and thrust it firmly backinto the spotlight.

The basic ideals of Fend’s Kabinroller ofcourse first started to form in the FendFlitzer invalid carriages produced by Fendthe engineer in the suburbs of Rosenheimimmediately after the war. It was on thisvehicle, after several years of trial and error,that the basics of the familiar monocoquebodytub, consisting of steel sides and floorhanging from two main chassis rails angledfrom nose floor to tail top were hammeredout in the summer and autumn of 1947. By1949 Fend had also established his famousrelationship with Fichtel & Sachs for the sup-ply of engines. Whilst the 98cc Flitzer provedto be a success in its own market followingits launch in March 1949, behind the scenes,Fend Automobiles Ltd was forever in intense

financial difficulty. Unscrupulous sharehold-ers and business backers had been contentto rake off the profits whilst Fend did all thehard development work for very little gain.In December 1951 Fend was forced to dis-solve Fend Automobiles Ltd as a result, andthe Flitzer passed into history. Of coursethe Flitzer story is much more involved thanthese short paragraphs suggest, and it ishoped to return to it in more detail in duecourse. Meanwhile, throughout 1950 and1951 Fend had received many requests to de-velop the Flitzer design to a broader market.Slowly but surely a working prototype, to beknown as the Fend FK150, began to takeshape around the basic Flitzer monocoque,extended to take two persons sitting in tan-dem. The new prototypical Fend had rathermore eye-pleasing rounded lines over the an-gular Flitzer, with a shape that would beinstantly recognisable to any Messerschmittfan. Also, whereas the Flitzer had proved tobe rather claustrophobic with its solid roofin later form, the Fend FK150 was giventhe first incarnation of the famous plexiglassdome as Fend looked back upon his days asan aeronautical engineer for inspiration onimproving all-round visibility and weatherprotection. In January 1952 Fritz Fend beata path to his former wartime employer, theaircraft giant of Messerschmitt AG in or-der to present the Fend FK150 project tohis old boss, Prof. Willie Messerschmitt. Ofcourse Messerschmitt embraced the projectwith open arms, and so a new working re-lationship was swiftly forged, with Fend be-ing given the run of the Regensburg factory.On 25th July 1952 the Fend FK150 wasshown to the press, to receive encouragingreviews. Meanwhile the basics of the carwere still being continually developed andevolved. At around this time it was decidedto risk putting the Kabinroller into full pro-duction, but with a larger engine and changeof name, from Fend FK150 to MesserschmittKR175.

If we assume that KR175 chassis num-bers started at 1,000 with the beginningof manufacture in February 1953, certainlythe first 350 cars at least are immediately


KR175 Story ARTICLES

Test DriveGoing for a quickspin aroundUpper Norwood

recognisable as being very early cars inthat they retain the original FK150-stylewindscreen mounting arrangement of body-coloured metal surround integral with themetalwork of the lifting section, lending valu-able support to the dome. The Automu-seum Enstingen, near Reutlingen, south ofStuttgart, holds quite possibly the earliestknown surviving car; chassis number 1129,of February 1953, complete with metal wind-screen surround, and its very early statusfurther confirmed by the chassis plate re-ferring to the car as an FK175. The nextearliest car known to the writer is chassisnumber 1351, dating to February/March1953 and which was featured in the Febru-ary 1987 issue of the American magazineCycle. Then (and possibly still) owned byPaul Prince of California, this car was atthat time the earliest known car in America.Although the car was mechanically incom-plete in 1987 as it awaited restoration, itstill retained the obvious early features ofmetal windscreen surround and kickstart.In March 1953 the KR175 was publicly an-nounced at the Geneva Show, and a few dayslater, the UK got their first look at the carfollowing a write-up in Light Car magazine.By now the windscreen had advanced to themore familiar design, in which the screenwas an integral part of the dome and thuscompletely separate from the lifting section.The same report went on to mention that theengine incorporated a three-plate automaticcentrifugal clutch, operated by the action of

the gearlever.As time went on, some seventy detail mod-

ifications would be made as part of continu-ous efforts to make the Karo easier and fasterto produce. UK imports began in April 1954,and by August of the same year, the old 6velectrics and kickstart had been replacedwith the introduction of a 12v electrical sys-tem and Siba dynastart. Also, the automaticclutch had been swiftly deleted from the spec-ification as it had proved to be nothing buttrouble in practice. In its place was to befound a manual foot-operated pedal, thoughit is not known to the writer what sort ofclutch arrangement is, or was, present inthe two early cars already described. Mean-while, the entire rear engine cradle had alsobeen completely redesigned by August, inthe aims of better springing and road hold-ing. The very early cars having sported ascaffolding-like structure similar to the rearpart of a motorcycle frame. Best describedas a double wishbone in action, the wholewas mounted to the monocoque bulkheadby four rubber blocks, one at each corner,each rubber block also acting as suspen-sion units, with the bottom pair also serv-ing as engine mounts. It was a logical sys-tem in theory, but in practice it served onlyto transmit every undulation in the roadstraight to the occupants. The new rearend developed was a much more civilisedswinging arm arrangement with several ofthe important fulcrum points moved closerto the rear wheel and a single large rubberdamper introduced. Whilst it had the ef-fect of slightly improving the ride, the KR175remained notoriously dreadful to drive, par-ticularly when compared to a KR200 in lateryears. Meanwhile, another comparison wasto come twenty-three years later, in the Oc-tober 1975 edition of Kabinews when Ian An-drews travelled to Germany to compare his1955 UK-market KR175-2a, chassis number10151, with Dr. Hans Dopjan’s 1953 KR175-1a, chassis number 2880. The KR175-2ahad been introduced in October 1954 fea-turing an optional reverse gear and widerrear seat for added creature comforts, but forAndrews, the main observation differences


ARTICLES KR175 Story

picked out between the two cars, apart fromthe engine cradle as already discussed, wasthe early car having a ‘high spot’ on the cen-tre of the dome, sloping away towards frontand rear, compared to a more uniform pro-file on the later car. Moving round to therear, the earlier car had flatter and sharpercreases in the forming of the engine cover, re-flecting its hand-beaten status as comparedto the pressing of the later car. Both cars ofcourse had the ‘normal’ windscreen arrange-ment of being part of the dome.

In February 1955 the much improvedMesserschmitt KR200 was introduced. Thelittle Karo had come of age and many read-ers may consider that the KR175 story endsat this point when it officially ended produc-tion in October of 1955, but reality is in factvery different. Even today some prominentMesserschmitt enthusiasts will argue thatthe mythological KR175-2b does not actu-ally exist as a factory-built car, but with atleast three known surviving cars out there,all stamped as such on the chassis plate,surely that in itself is proof enough that the2b does exist! In essence, a KR175 with afactory-fitted KR200 lifting section and dome,the same people will argue that the liftingsection must be a later, non-original replace-ment, but with production of the KR175-2bappearing to have commenced at the end of1955 and continuing well into 1956, the sim-ple answer to the lifting section argument isthat by the time the 2b was produced, theoriginal 175 dome tooling had either beenscrapped or was elsewhere, and so the fac-tory fitted the later lids. A theory for theexistence of the 2b is that they were pro-duced only for certain markets, as out ofthe three known survivors, two are French-specification cars, and the third came to lightin Scandinavia, though it is not known ifthese cars were licence-built in those areas,or were direct exports from Regensburg. Per-haps the best and certainly the most originalof the trio is the French-market car whichsurfaced at Mannheim in 2008 and whichwas described in much detail by the SwissRoller Mobil Club on their website at thetime. As well as the dome, another key iden-

tifying feature to spotting a KR175-2b, is theflattened profile to the otherwise full-roundfront mudguards.

Meanwhile, various licences were certainlysold for the more familiar KR175-2a tobe built in countries other than Germany.Spain is known to have taken out a li-cence, but it would seem production neverbegan. Perhaps the best-known licensee isMetalmeccanica Italiana Valtrompia s.p.a ofBrescia, Italy, or Mi-Val for short. Primarilya machine tool and lightweight motorcyclemanufacturer, Mi-Val obtained their licencein late 1955, with production beginning inJuly 1956. Produced in its entirety at theMi-Val plant, with the aid of parts supplieddirect from Regensburg, the ‘Mivalino’, asthis Italian Karo was named, featured twoparticular details to distinguish it from itsGermanic cousins, the most visible beingthe painted surface to the dome, for as Mo-tor Cycling magazine noted in its road testof July 1956, “the burning rays of the Ital-ian sun would roast to a frazzle anybodywho went motoring under a square yard ofclear plastic!” We’ll overlook the fact that thetest was actually conducted in the pouringrain. Meanwhile, the second major differ-ence was that the power plant was not theaccustomed 173cc Fichtel & Sachs engine ofold, but a 171cc unit of Mi-Val’s own manu-facture, again two-stroke and again capableof the same 56mph top speed as the Teutonicbranch of the family tree. Production of theMivalino is thought not to have continuedpast 1956, with perhaps only single figuresstill existing.

Today, the KR175 in any shape or formis a very rare bird in the UK, with perhapsfewer than a dozen remaining out of severalhundred imported between April 1954 andthe autumn of 1955. To prove the point,your writer has seen only two examples inthe past ten years, and one of those was abox of bits deep in the Hitchcock shed!




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