Ensign Autobody In the Press
Ensign Autobody Commercial
Ensign Autobody Service Commercial
1953 MG Contemporary Special
Sweetness and Light - Hemmings
What's so hard about designing a car? Who among us hasn't done it, sketching out our dream designs in the margins of a sheet of notebook paper while we were supposed to be listening to a history lecture or a sales report? A billion sleek roadsters and GT coupes must have blossomed in blue Bic ink, the stillborn fantasies of daydreaming minds.
What separates Bob Ensign from nearly everyone else on the planet is that he actually built his dream car. Built it and drives it nearly every day, in fact, even when the weather has the most resilient drivers in Albany, New York, rolling up their windows and cranking their bun-warmers to "fricassee." It would take more than a 10-below cold snap to pry him out from behind the steering wheel.
1935 MG PB
Straight from the Box(es) - Hemmings
With due apologies to everyone who may think one is appropriate, there's a coterie of people who believe that before World War II, the great empire of Great Britain was jammed up in some sort of a floating alternate reality that lazed between the Industrial Revolution and true 20th century mega-commerce, while really grabbing neither. In 1935, Britain really did have an empire; while rife with fault lines, it still extended from Belfast to Hong Kong. When it came to its most esteemed homegrown automobiles, however, England was still ball-and-chained to the craft or artisan method of building things: hand tools, tiny fasteners, stove-size foundries and the like. Cars from England were often built the same way as harpsichords. Achieving the best result when trying to restore one can demand the same sort of musician's virtuosity.
1970 Mercedes-Benz 280
Three-Pointed Perfection - Hemmings
Imagine a restoration project so daunting that it requires 20 months of steady work, not to mention more than 1,000 hours of labor just to make the rusted body sound again--in other words, a car like the 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280 SE 3.5 on these pages. Can you imagine how dilapidated it must have been when it rolled into the shop for its rebirth?
Restorer Bob Ensign knows. "It was," he said with a can-you-believe-it smile, "a local show winner."
1947 MG TC
Forecast: Fun - Hemmings
Slingerlands, New York, in the foothills of the Helderberg Mountains. The warm, blacktopped lane is empty. It's time to shake up a bracing cocktail of primitive car, primitive road and get a grin. Only, there's been a stumble or two on the way over here and a persistent whiff of gasoline. Shouldn't be detectable in a roadster as tractor-open as this 1947 MG TC. Abruptly, then, the engine quits.
"I'll tell you, I drove this car for over 1,500 miles with zero problems. Every light on the dash lit up. Didn't have to tap a bulb to get it working. Rebuilt the carburetors, cleaned the float bowls and lubricated them," Bob Ensign explains, tools in hand. "Then the car decides to go English on me. One of the floats gets a pinhole in it from corrosion and the engine floods out. My only problem was that the little jerry can I put on the back of it didn't hold enough gas. So I put another can behind the seats and it would still run out, hopefully just as I was coasting past a gas station or convenience store."
1949 Maserati A6 1500
Ensign Restoration Services Interview and Profile - Sports Car Digest
Bob Ensign of Ensign Restoration Services of Latham, New York, has been in business for 16 years. His philosophy is, “Do what you love. Love what you do. It is going to work.” His short cropped hair, animated gestures, steel blue eyes and great stories draw you in. Bob demands the highest quality. Here he discusses his work with restoration of a 1949 Maserati A6 1500, a 1953 Cunningham C3 Coupe and his unique MG custom while giving a tour of his shop.
The Porsche Club Tech Session
Ensign Autobody in Latham hosted the Monthly Meeting and Tech Session
"Do's and Don'ts of Detailing". Bob Ensign, the owner of Ensign Autobody,
showed us the proper techniques for wet sanding and polishing out new paint work.
Ensign staff with Diane Fitzgerald - President of the RPM Foundation
Hagerty Education Program
From The SEMA Show in Las Vegas, NV to Albany, NY and connecting with 2 car club meetings, 2 restoration shops and 1 car museum - it's been a very wonderful 1 1/2 days. The Hagerty Education Program at LeMay - America's Car Museum (HEP) was spreading the word about young people, old cars and the future of restoration with presentations to the Capital Region Jaguar Club of New York and the Adirondacks Triumph Association (an all-British club) and meetings with/at Donovan Motorcar Service, Ensign Autobody and Restoration Services and the Saratoga Automobile Museum. Collecting, loving and restoring cars is alive and well in Upstate New York, no doubt about it!
News 10
After four tires were stolen off of a local man's vehicle, Bob Ensign was called in for his expert opinion.
A Project Car With A Heart XI - Hemmings
The day before Thanksgiving, 2006, our Good News Garage project MG arrived at our offices here in Bennington, looking forlorn. We showed it around to the staff here, and everybody looked at us like we were stupid. Stupid like a fox, we said. We could see that under its faded paint and beat-up interior was a car that was a lot more solid than it should have been for sitting outside for a year. Our day of reckoning finally arrived, and with the help of Victoria British (who supplied the sheetmetal), Kurt Zimmerman at Upstate Autobody Supply (who supplied the U-POL undercoating), and especially the incredibly gracious staff at Ensign Auto Body, we've got a body that went from zero to hero in twelve months.
The end result here is that one of you is going to get a car that has been completely transformed. But enough palaver. Let's get on with the story: