A by the sea

From 1957 I have a bill of sale for a Maxwell 1909 Touring Car with engine #2962. At the time it was bought by Harry Niehaus. I would like to see if I can get this to the current owner of the car. Thanks

My parents used to sell at car shows. They stopped in the early 90's. I have a bill of sale for a Clement Baird (clearly a mis-spelling) dated 1951 from a Fox Chase Garage. In 1963 a Mr. Schieffelin from Whitehouse Station, NJ was trying to identify the model. There are no serial numbers on the documents. I guess there are not very many of these cars around and I would like to try and re-unite these documents with the car. A little update, I searched on the name in the letter. The guy is dead and apparently played with antique cars. He restored a Stanley Steamer in 1961 https://www.conceptcarz.com/profile/7648,8863/1909-stanley-steamer-model-r.aspx

I have more then a foot stack of Antique Automobile magazines going from recent to a while ago. I think the 80's or 90's. Looking for someone to pick up very near Atlantic City, NJ. Cheap, look at it and tell me what you will pay. I am tired of tripping over them, but cant put them in recycle.

I have a about 1.5 feet of the AACA magazine which I do not need. Mostly recent in the last few decades, but some go back to the 1970's. Pick up only in Northfield, NJ which is near Atlantic City. Please email me at 68c@comcast.net

First off, I am 6' 6" and I got into a 28 roadster pickup and almost got stuck in it. They are small. Slant window bodies are more roomy for those who are taller. Second off. Is the car truly restored? Keep in mind that the Model A from the factory could do 60 MPH all day long and feel comfortable running that fast. YES, even on the crappy lack of paved roads in the day. They were considered extremely reliable which is the reason why you read about people in the day hopping in their A and driving all over the country. Ford was able to build a car to do this through extreme (like race car standards today) precision machining and balancing. This is lost to most people today and the mechanicals are rebuilt with the attitude it is just an old car. So If you are looking at a car for $33K it dam well ought to be jump in and run highway speeds all day long and not have any modern 'upgrades'. If you are being told the car is only good for 45 MPH then it is likely not safe at 30. I can tell you it is not cheap or simple restoring the chassis to factory specifications. But what can I know as all the A's in my family have been stock and driven 60+ MPH.

No quick fix. First determine if they are original Fords. They should have the adjuster in the top of the center shaft. Next, are the shafts loose, will they move up and down? Loose shafts are much more complicated to fix involving machine work. Some of the seals that have been made for the center shaft are not very good. There is a somewhat pricey rebuild kit that has good seals. Of course you will have to get the covers off and that is not always trivial. I suggest going to the A board on Fordbarn.com and search the archives and do not be afraid to ask questions there.

NO one is cheap with plating. What do you need plated and what is the correct plating for the part? Not all parts are chrome. Some places may not do a process that is important for the proper look. Many of the pre 1940's plating was done with a dull nickel and buffed before chrome. So backsides of bumpers would have a dull look. Do you need the parts to function, like top irons much function when done? Are they flat parts that you want to remain flat after plating, not wavy (think hand sanded to shape= more labor)? Keep in mind many shops are oriented to making parts look pretty, not form and function. My expensive experience with Paul's. I called several times and after talking to the lead guy explaining the work I wanted done, I sent them my parts with 8 pages of directions. By directions I mean how the parts must work together when done like the hinges for my top must fit together when done. Well I got the parts back and it was clear none of the directions were even looked at as the hinges could not fit together. Areas that were to be left rough castings were ground down to where the countersunk screws were above the surface. The very expensive and hard to find in good shape top irons were ground so thin at the edges it looked like a decorative sword. I was willing to pay Paul's for hand done work and thought I made it pretty clear in my notes and telephone conversation that was what I wanted. Now I will say they did their best to make my parts workable. I had to send them parts back twice and they wasted a couple of very rare top parts that I was lucky enough to have a workable spare to have them plate. The parts are workable, but they do not look correct. Frankford Plating in the Philadelphia area is slow and expensive. I have seen some of their work and they appear to have good attention to detail. My brother has had some work done by them and was pleased, but it was slow and expensive. They operate 3 nickel plate tanks to handle the correct type of plating depending on when the parts would have been made. Librandi does not have dull nickel tank and was rude with me when I asked at Hershey a few years ago. I ask if he had the dull nickel tank and said no and then told be he would not want my business go away. I do not know what kind of work he does. When considering others comments on plating you have to keep in mind my idea of a good plating job will be vastly different they your idea of a good plating. My final words- Good Luck with your plating.

This truck has been all apart and put back to together. I put it at a late 60's to early 70's 'restoration' on likely a nice body to start with which was 40 years ago. So 40 years ago a restoration was done on a 40 year old car- think about it so now it may seem like a survivor. Odds are real high it was not built back to factory. You are likely to find it was built with a minimum of new parts and probably does not drive as it should. If it has 4 working shocks then try to run it 55 MPH. It should stop well and be happy and comfortable at 55 to 60 MPH. I think you will find 45 is pushing it. The $15,000 price is way out of line. If all things lined up well the most I could see would be $8000 as I have seen pickups sell for that kind of money in the same or worse shape. In reality, you are looking at $8000 to $12000 worth of mechanical work to make it a reliable truck that will go 60 MPH with all factory parts. Dollar wise $4000 to $6000 with the $6000 if the truck sheet metal, frame and such were all obvious nice rust free original parts quickly going down to the $4000 mark. Bonus points if they can prove they used all NOS engine parts that might have been found more easily in the past.

Ahhh All the 'modern upgrades'. To me all I see on that sheet tell me that the owner has no clue on what it takes to properly build a the Model A, but he did have lots of extra cash. Hopefully the car will be reliable, most of what was done to the car is not field repairable when it fails so the car will have to be towed back. If the car was sort of done right then with all that it has it would run 60+ MPH comfortably!!!!!!!!! It should not be darting about hard to hold on the road. It should not feel like you are lucky to stop (please be careful as they are drum brakes, not the disk brakes you are used to). If the guy has reservations about letting you run above 45 MPH then move on to another car. It is clear the car is not built right at that point and you may spend a lot of money making it right. From the factory the original A's were capable and were driving 60 MPH. The dealers demonstrated this and those of us who know how to rebuild a car properly back to factory drive that way. The original model A was very reliable and even more so today with a few minor items like modern condensers, modern batteries, and modern tires. Ya I sound kind of negative, but that is from long term experience. People do all these 'modern upgrades' because they do not understand how to properly rebuild the original parts. Drive the car and do not baby it. For the bucks this guy has spent it can take it. If it seems to be fine then you have to figure out if it is a good value to you. I do not know what the guy is asking, but with $17k into it I am guessing he wants a bunch more. There are better deals out there, but you have to take the time to look. You could very easily come away losing money as what this car truly sell for might really be much less in the future. Not to mention that you could get stuck with lots of repair bills if the car was done wrong. Just because lots of new stuff was installed on the car that does not mean it was done right. I know of more than one guy spending top buck at a professional shop only to spend another $8k in making the car safe and reliable to drive. It is your money, you have to decide how much you are comfortable in risking. It would be very wise getting someone that knows how to build the A to run 60 MPH to come with you to inspect the car.

Bernie Johnson was a steeple painter. He painted stuff up high. He had a bunch of old cars and was working on building his own house. While on the roof he took one step too many backwards and fell off. He was paralyzed from the neck down. This medical problem caused some family troubles. They were divorced a long time ago so I do not know what she might know about the car. I saw his wife like 2 or 3 years ago at a local meet in Northfield. They were active members in the Jersey Cape region AACA, she might be a member now. I have not done anything with the club in almost 10 years so I do not know who is still involved. My parents were friends of theirs at the time and that is how I know some details.

You still have the original wiring so you know what gauge wire to use. Something to understand. The fuses protect the wire and are sized for the amount of current the particular gauge and insulation of wire can handle without smoking. The fuses are not sized for the current draw of the devices on the wire. The wire is sized to the needs of the devices and the fuse sized to the wire. So what I am getting at, you need to be sure you replace the existing wire with the same gauge or thicker wire for proper protection.

Shoot you can run a properly restored Model A at 60 to 65 MPH - if you properly restored it to factory. That is how I drive em. So you are worried about running your modern iron at 50?????? Dude if it is not comfy running that fast then I would question how good it was restored. So many do not really restore their cars to factory specs in the drive line. I have even seen $150,000 cars that looked pretty anywhere you looked on top- the bottom still had 70 years of dirt hanging off- with paint on it!!! Our 1939 Ford with a little 60 HP was happy all day long wound out at 60+ MPH. It hated parades.

A few years ago my wife car had its interstate battery get weak. It was only 10 years old. I replaced it with a 8 year old interstate that tested good. That battery finally died recently at 10 years. It is not likely I will have this car for 8 more years so I will not be able to report when the new interstate fails. My brothers 31 Model A has between 6 and 8 years on an Optima. That replaced the Interstate he got off the bad pile at Interstate which was 6 to 8 years old when it failed. He runs the original gen with a diode cut out. The charge rate is turned up some because he runs direct replacement halogen head light bulbs (the ones made in Australia). People who 'upgrade' to an alternator might be surprised to find out some single wire alternators draw current when the engine is off.

Fuses protect the thinnest gauge wire on the circuit from getting hot enough to cause a fire. Note that the fuse is not necessarily based on the current rating of the device at the end of the wire. So you are protecting the wire not the device. Keep in mind that the type of wire insulation and length of wire matters as you are trying to keep the wire from getting hot enough to start a fire. A little google searching will yield the chart of fuse or breaker to wire size. And Yes many guys are picking fuses by the wrong criteria for use in their cars.

The pins to hold the shifter forks are generally reusable if removed carefully. They just need to be good enough to not go back through the hole when you upset the end.