Jeff Herndon, South Alabama British Car Club, Mobile

I am one of those people who turn their heads at the sight of a classic car. I have many nostalgic and fond memories associated with restored vintage automobiles and trucks from different periods. My friend, David Pierce, just bought a classic MGB which I first saw last week with him smiling behind the wheel.

We’ve written about the Cruisin’ the Coast 8-day event in Mississippi. This past Fall, they had over 10,000 vehicles registered representing every make and model for every classic car era. That’s where Linda and I met Jeff Herndon, a participant in the show. 

I noticed the Barber Motorsports license tag on a beautifully restored 1954 Jaguar XK-120. I asked Jeff if he was from Birmingham because of the plates. “No, I just thought the tag was cool. I live in Mobile.” That’s all he had to say, I knew I wanted to meet and do a story.

I saw Jeff again a month later at the South Alabama British Car Club event in Fairhope. There, he had the Jaguar XK-120, his other stunning 1970 Jaguar XKE, and his recently restored Triumph TR3. There is a story behind each automobile, and he agreed to meet so I could learn more. 

Jeff has had a passion for sports cars since he was a boy. He tells me the Triumph TR6 was his favorite car in the 10th Grade, but the cost of $4000 was too out of reach. 

As a senior in high school living in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, Jeff settled for a 1970 MGB for $800 that wouldn’t crank and had wiring issues. “I pretty much rebuilt the engine outside on a shell driveway in the heat of the summer.” In college, in 1978, he bought the 1970 TR6 he had always dreamed of. “I didn’t have to do a thing to it,” he tells me.

What happened to those cars? I asked. “Well, I was married and sold them both at the same time to buy bedroom furniture.” He tells me that he is always looking for vintage cars that need some TLC. He is a do-it-yourselfer. “Austin Healey’s were great cars, but I haven’t figured out how to work that in.”

His first full restoration was a Triumph TR3. Then he saw an ad for the 1970 E-Type XKE. “It was underwater in Gulfport after a hurricane. I went to see it. I thought I could get it cheap and thought I could fix it.” He made an offer and the next day the owner called and agreed to my price. I went to get it before he could change his mind.” 

It took Jeff 5years to restore the XKE. “I’d wake up in the middle of the night thinking about a problem I needed to solve and start Googling for answers. Taking a car apart  is not hard, but if you can’t put 1000 parts back in  the right way, you have a mess.” 

Jeff says he is better than he used to be fixing and restoring cars. “It’s a hobby. Bodywork is hard. You have to know your limits and make difficult decisions on just how perfectly you want to take it.” He still has the XKE and it's a stunning automobile.

“The 1954 Jaguar XK-120 showed up on eBay and I went to Lebanon, Tennessee to look at it. It was a chassis with the shell body off in the corner. I bought it and trailored it back to Mobile. It took me a year to restore.” It’s a cool vehicle and rare to see. At the car show, Jeff had matching pieces of contoured luggage that fit within the contour of the trunk. “It’s like jewelry for the car,” he says.

The Triumph TR3 that Jeff purchased in the early stages of his restoration hobby has been restored twice. It wasn’t quite ready for the Crusin’ the Coast show, but he proudly showed the car a couple of months later at the South Alabama British Car Club. It’s a show-stopper! 

He added a 5-speed to the XKE, which isn’t standard equipment, to make it perform better and drew a lot of admirers, including Jay Leno, a renowned car buff himself. “Jay knows cars and likes to work on them himself. He wanted to know all about the 5-speed I added to the XKE when he was at the Crusin’ the Coast event a couple of years ago. He enjoyed talking cars and was very approachable. That was a neat experience. ” 

Jeff tells me that he loves tinkering with his cars and that he is happy to drive each one on a nice day. as much as possible. His two sons also enjoy driving them, especially with a date in tow. We talked a bit about the Art of Buying Cars. “Each make and model is different, and not every restored car is going to make money for you.” 

“A guy buys a car, Joe the Restorer brings it back to like-new condition after a couple of years, and he may never get his investment back. I know a lot of people who will spend $75,000 restoring a car and when they are said and done it may be worth $30,000. I’m in it because I enjoy doing the work myself and  love driving classic British cars.”

We discuss different groups of car enthusiasts. “There are restorers like me who form 20% to 25% of the group who just enjoy the whole process. Then there are the people who have a particular car they’ve always wanted to have and pay others to restore them. These people want to drive their cars for fun on weekends and constitute roughly 50% of the hobbyists. The other 25% or so attend high-end car auctions and bid on cars they want in their collections.”

Jeff enjoys attending the Amelia Island Car Show held each year at the Ritz Carlton. “It’s the best show on the East Coast. The pinnacle of car shows is the Pebble Beach show. That’s where the major players and major auction houses come to bid on the finest vintage cars in the world. Millions of dollars change hands over two or three days. A vintage Ferrari GTO-250 recently sold for $56 million. There were only 36 of these cars ever produced.”

Jeff’s real occupation? He is the owner of Belzona Alabama, a regional leader in the provision of repair compounds and industrial coatings. On a customer visit in Birmingham, he met the owners of Impatient Creations. “They needed some of our products and it turns out they are really good at painting restored classic cars. I’m taking my next paint restoration there. Getting a good paint job is hard for the do-it-yourselfer.” 

He says his boys love the hobby and have learned a lot by working together. He recalls when he had a blowout on the twin-span bridge across Lake Pontchartrain in his early days of driving to New Orleans. “We had wadded up some blankets and stuffed the boys in the back. The rules were different then and the old cars broke down a lot. You better know how they work if you are going to drive them.”

Good advice, Jeff. I’m so glad we met and I  enjoyed getting to know you and your hobby. The next time you see someone driving a cool sports car with a big smile on their face think of Jeff and the passion behind the wheel. Stay tuned to Scenic 98 Coastal for updates on the next classic car show near you! Thank you, Jeff!