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micro car chassis


pcolleary

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Guest orphanbaby

There is nothing prototypical or particularly unusual about this item. During the late 1930s through the early 1950s, many old American Austins were cut up and converted into toys of all sorts, including dirt track racers and garden tractors. My guess is that's what's happened here. All American Austins used cast iron cylinder blocks mounted on aluminum crank cases, just like this bone-stock 1930-32 American Austin engine with Tillotson carb. (Later American Austin engines used traditional distributor mounts instead of this early version in which the distributor was driven by the generator.) The transmission, foot pedal and rear end are also stock American Austin. The Austin fuel tank was mounted in the cowl, as was the coil, so those items have been bolted to the engine. Also lending doubt to the prototype idea is the front suspension is completely missing, meaning this little chassis would be extremely rough-riding. And the radiator is oversize and newer, perhaps 1940s.

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There is nothing prototypical or particularly unusual about this item. During the late 1930s through the early 1950s, many old American Austins were cut up and converted into toys of all sorts, including dirt track racers and garden tractors. My guess is that's what's happened here. All American Austins used cast iron cylinder blocks mounted on aluminum crank cases, just like this bone-stock 1930-32 American Austin engine with Tillotson carb. (Later American Austin engines used traditional distributor mounts instead of this early version in which the distributor was driven by the generator.) The transmission, foot pedal and rear end are also stock American Austin. The Austin fuel tank was mounted in the cowl, as was the coil, so those items have been bolted to the engine. Also lending doubt to the prototype idea is the front suspension is completely missing, meaning this little chassis would be extremely rough-riding. And the radiator is oversize and newer, perhaps 1940s.

There IS actually a transverse spring, so there is some suspension there in the front.

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Guest orphanbaby

Keiser31, can you describe the location of the transverse spring in front? I'm not seeing it. For a minute, I thought that the blurry photo (number 4) showed the Austin transverse buggy-style friction shock absorber, but it was incorrectly mounted. But on photo 6, I notice I was actually seeing the steering arm.

On a stock unit, Austin dropped two bolts through the radiator mount, through the front of the frame, and through the top of the friction shock to hold it all together. But in this case, the radiator was changed out and a wider front member added to the front of the frame. So there may be no place to mount the friction shock.

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Guest orphanbaby

I'm newer to the message board and haven't figured out all the tricks yet. But I've found it helpful to see the vehicles owned by other participants. So somehow I'll figure out how to add a few of my old cars to my signature:

__________________

1927 Willys-Knight 70A Sedan

1932 American Austin Roadster

1939 American Bantam Roadster

1939 American Bantam Coupe

1951 Crosley Super Station Wagon

1952 Packard DeLuxe 250

1959 Metropolitan

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Guest orphanbaby

Ah yes, now that I enlarged the image I can see the transverse spring. Thanks for the tip. On a complete American Austin chassis, the friction shock would be mounted under that spring.

__________________

1927 Willys-Knight 70A Sedan

1932 American Austin Roadster

1939 American Bantam Roadster

1939 American Bantam Coupe

1951 Crosley Super Station Wagon

1952 Packard DeLuxe 250

1959 Metropolitan

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hi everyone

thanks for all the input , I checked and the wheels are solid brass. The bronze chassis still is up in the air for debate . I feel stupid having bought this the way I did but thats the way it goes . Its for sale at a loss if anyone is interested

regards pat 516 305 9787

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Interesting piece.

I dont understand the brass wheels. I'm not a professional machinist, but I am an engineer who machines, and one would never design a wheel to be machined with that profile. It looks just like a normal two-piece welded wheel with a paint job. Very odd from a machining standpoint.

The easy thing to do is to grab a magnet. Bronze and Brass are non-magnetic.

(You can also do spark tests or chip tests to identify metals. below is a site with some good info)

Fundamentals of Professional Welding

I say make a cover for the propshaft and a vintage looking bench seat and just drive it around car shows like it is! You dont need a trailer, it fits right in your pickup!

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Weren't American Austins and Bantam engines monobloc? This has a separate crankcase with a bolted on cylinder block.
I had a picture in my mind of my old "T" bucket. It was built on a Bantam chassis, with a 3" narrowed glass T body and an English Ford 100E sidevalve monobloc engine. Wish I had a picture of it. Cute, fun, super gas mileage. The only one in the world, I bet.
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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest orphanbaby

Pcolleary,

Ever since I saw your first post, I have been thinking I had seen this chassis before. So I looked back through some old correspondence this morning. Sure enough, I found it. In April 2010, I was contacted by a gentleman from Ontario, Canada, on behalf of the fellow who owned the unrestored chassis at that time. He wanted to know if I had any information about it, and he sent me several photographs.

The engine and transmission were operable but not mounted. There were no wheels of any kind on the chassis. And no radiator. The steering wheel was located on the left side, but the foot pedals had been relocated to the right.

The previous owner had told him the vehicle could have been built for use at a fair. That seemed plausable to me , as several modified American Austins actually were used in the Midget Village at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair.

However, the current owner had a different theory. He believed this shortened, 50-inch wheelbase chassis may have been the remnants of a LifeSavers productmobile. His theory was based on the fact that the chassis came with the remnants of a small cylindrical body with an open cockpit and tall rear fin. To my eyes, the rusty body appeared to have been fabricated from scrap material; the fin may have been shaped from the remnants of a DeSoto dealer's sign, as some of the lettering was visible under the top layer of peeling paint. But the remains were so severely rusted that they had nearly disintegrated; 80% was missing.

After hearing the owner planned to restore the productmobile to its original condition if he could find proof that this had, indeed, been a LifeSavers productmobile, I began my research. I learned that Pep-O-Mint LifeSavers were invented by Ed Nobel, a well known businessman from the area around Gouverneur, New York. Pep-O-Mint built and operated a fleet of up to 40motorized LifeSavers candy rolls over several decades. The first, which was built on a Model T Ford chassis, abandoned any resemblance of an automobile in order to fully represent the product. Later, larger LifeSavers cars were built on Dodge truck chassis, one of which vended LifeSavers at the 1924 running of the Indianapolis 500.

Although most productmobiles were large, many were small (although not THIS small). For example, the makers of Bromo-Seltzer mounted a 6-foot facsimile of its product bottle on the back of a Ford Model T -- the smallest American production car in 1912 -- to dispense its seltzer.

By the 1930s, productmobiles were everywhere. But I have yet to find any that were built on an American Austin chassis. However, in 1940, the American Bantam Specialty Company was organized as a subsidiery of the American Bantam Car Company (formerly American Austin) to build productmobiles. They built a Pepsi-Cola 6-pak carton truck complete with giant aluminum bottles prior to the parent firm turning its attention to jeep development.

Ultimately, a museum in Gouverneur, New York, was contacted to find out if their archive had any record of PepOMint operating a tiny LifeSavers productmobile. A museum representative responded with his findings in November, 2010:

"I found no information that a LifeSavers productmobile was made with the small American Austin chassis. But we at the museum cannot confirm or deny whether an American Austin was converted into a touring LifeSavers candy roll. My guess is not. I can't picture Ed Noble going 'mini' nor can I picture him using scrap metal for his advertising vehicle. He was racing beautiful, large wooden boats in the Thousand Islands and he bought a castle. It seems inconsistent with how he lieved his life -- he lived large."

Meanwhile, it appears that the owner commenced with his restoration, hoping for verification of the LifeSavers idea. I suspect he fashioned his own set of wheels, but I cannot confirm. Since there was no radiator mounted on the unrestored chassis in the photos I receieved, he may have found and mounted the radiator that's on it now.

Since no proof emerged of the chassis having any significant history, he decided to suspend restoration, toss the body in the trash, and put it up for sale to recoup his investment. It appears you are free to build it into whatever you wish without fear of losing historical value. Should you decide to sell, its primary value lies in the running gear which, if properly rebuilt and operable, should be worth around $2,000, give or take 25%.

I hope you find this information useful. Best regards.

OrphanBaby

__________________

1927 Willys-Knight 70A Sedan

1932 American Austin Roadster

1939 American Bantam Roadster

1939 American Bantam Coupe

1951 Crosley Super Station Wagon

1952 Packard DeLuxe 250

1959 Metropolitan

orphanbabycars

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Thanks so much for following up with this information. I thought the castle reference sounded familiar so Googgled the castle and found this:

Official Boldt Castle Website – Alexandria Bay NY in the Heart of the 1000 Islands

So glad to hear it will be around a little longer, last I knew it was rotting away. Absolutely amazing story and structures.

Howard Dennis

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