55fireflite

Greetings, With the museum where I volunteer closed for reasons I need not explain, I have some extra time on my hands. I decided this was an opportunity dive back into building model cars, after a hiatus of about ten years. The first kit I pulled out of my stash was a Revell-Germany Jaguar XKSS. It's a beautiful kit, although most of the parts needed some cleanup of "flash" and mold lines. I'm adding some wiring and plumbing details to the engine bay, such as the ignition wires and fuel lines. Fortunately there are lots of photos and videos online of the XKSS and D Jaguars. (Fantastic one on Jay Leno's YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/4Ai0uSj_OVE ) There is one component that has me stumped. On the right side, ahead of the driver (remember: right hand drive) and next to the battery, there is a cylindrical tank mounted parallel to the steering shaft. On some cars it is painted black. Three hard lines come out of the tank. One or two go to the steering shaft, and the third one, along with one from the steering shaft, go across the firewall and disappear behind the engine. I can't for the life of me figure out what this tank is for. I'm sure someone out there does. And if you happen to know the destination of those two lines on the firewall, that would really be great. Thanks in advance, Tom

That's the one! I had read one that Checker made cars for a while, but I've only ever seen one or two in person, and certainly not one of these. Very cool car.

Greetings all, The Bowery Boys is a podcast and website about New York City history. Below is a link to a collection of photos taken along the Third Avenue Elevated. http://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2018/01/bowery-third-avenue-elevated-capturing-soot-shadow-old-new-york.html If you scroll down the page there is a photo by Marjory Collins showing a rear view of a taxi cab taken in 1942 at the corner of Bowery and St Mark's Place. It has an opening roof section over the rear seat. It appears a section of the roof may even slide down inside the rear bodywork. It reminds me of those luxury car bodies from the teens and twenties with the fold down rear roof, but I've never seen anything like this from the late thirties/early forties. Any ideas what make of car this might be, or who might have built the body? Might there be more photos somewhere on the web? Tom

That's it! Thanks guys.

Greetings All, This Davenport, Iowa police car is one of the first photos I ever bought for my collection, and it's still one of my favorites. I have never been able to identify the make. It looks to me to be from the mid 1920s. It sports a Rolls-Royce-style grill shell and some very classy octagonal headlamp rings. There is a grill badge, triangular in shape pointed downwards, with white on the lower two sides, and dark color in the center. I'm sure someone out there must recognize it. Any ideas? Thanks, Tom

Great photo! Roadsters and touring cars were not uncommon for police cars up through the 1920s. Presumably cost was a significant factor.I have a photo of a Detroit police 1929 Lincoln 7-passenger touring, a circa '31 Wills St Claire, and several Model As in my collection. After 1930 the practicality of a solid roof took precedence, but convertibles occasionally show up. The North Carolina Museum of Transportation in Spencer has an original NCHP 1936 Ford roadster. After WWII they disappeared except for parade vehicles. A surprising number of two-seaters (coupes or ragtops) were used. If the perp was the non-violent sort, he might ride next to the officer, but more likely he'd call for a paddy wagon. Again, I my guess is cost was factor. The whitewalls are nice touch. They show up occasionally too. I have neat black and white '53 Packard Clipper sporting a set. Getting back to Studebakers, Inglewood, CA some 1950 sedans, and Missoula, MT had a fleet of 1955 models. I believe this LaGrange, IL car is 57 Commander, and St. Petersburg Beach, FL showed off a pair of new Larks in this press photo.

Thanks to all who responded. As suggested I posted the photo over in the Studebaker forum. Now that I think about it, I have another photo that's had me stumped for years. I will post that one here as well. Tom

Greetings, Recently I posted this photo of an Indiana State Police car over in the What Is It? forum. The folks there confirmed it's a 1932 or 1933 Rockne. Someone suggested I post the photo here as well. It's a very nice quality copy print I purchased on eBay. I only came up with the Rockne theory after my library turned up nothing, and I Googled every independent make I could think of. A search for 1932 Studebaker finally produced a photo of a Rockne. Your thoughts are appreciated. Tom

Greetings, I have a beautiful photo I purchased on eBay of an Indiana State police car from around 1931-33. I'm trying to identify the make. I'm convinced it's from one of the independents, but searching all my books on and googling various makes on the web I had trouble finding an exact match. There are no badges visible in the photo. At first I thought it might be an Auburn. It looks similar to a 1933 Auburn, and the Indiana State Police is known to have used Auburns (they had Cord 810s too), but the details in the photo don't quite match. The hood and bumpers look okay, but Auburn grills inserts were slightly recessed, and the center divider bends forward at the top. On the ISP car the grill is more convex with a straight divider. Also Auburn doors were apparently all hinged at the rear in this period, and the ISP has front hinged doors. I was about to click the submit button on this message but decided to take one more look on Google. I did a search for "1932 Studebaker", and while it's clearly not a Studebaker, I stumbled across a photo of a 1932 Rockne, Studebaker's short-lived sister make. I think I may have found it. Could this be a 1932 Rockne? Thanks for your thoughts. Tom