One of the shames of time is of losing those who not only had Vintage Equipment but knowledge to use them.
Our friend Benz was one. He rebuilt the old Ford Flathead V8's but conceded that his father was the one who could wring the Horsepower out of them.
When I was attending Auto Body Repair in Community College I was one of select few who got to spend a week at Lew Beesan's Alignment Shop. Lew had customers who would move hundreds of miles away but return to Walla Walla for Lew to do the alignment on their cars.
One day while at Lew's a friend of his brought in a '54 Chevy for help. The guy had misjudged a turn and hit the curb. Lew set the ramp up and did the turning side to side etc then got out a porta power and pushed a lower A-frame forward just a tad, then rechecked and finally made some adjustments and never ever looked in a book. He knew the specs by heart.
He also had the equipment and knowledge to bend 'Dropped Straight Axles' for roadsters etc.
One day a woman brought in her Cadillac for an alignment. Lew asked what the car was doing and she said that she'd had Goodyear put four new tires on it the day before and now it was pulling to the right. Lew wrote it all down and the woman left with her ride.
Lew had me jack the front of the car up and then remove the two front tires and swap them left to right and right to left. He said; "You're not supposed to do this". Then he took the car for a short drive.
Once back on the rack Lew said that the car now pulled to the left and had me change the tires back to their original position.
Lew called Goodyear and said that Mrs So and So would be bringing her car in for a replacement for her new Right Hand Front Tire as it was defective. There was a pause and Lew bellowed; Lew Bessan says so that's WHO! Then very calmly said, yes she'll be in tomorrow and hung up.
He was a workaholic. After his 5th heart attach he cut his hours of operation back from 7 AM to 6 Pm Monday through Saturday to only 8-5 Monday through Friday.
He was a joy to be around. He enjoyed sharing his knowledge. His shop was just up the block from our shop and if our instructor ran into something he was having problems with, he'd ask Lew to come down and he always came over.