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First Peak- early Chandler sedan


29 Chandler

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Here's your first peak of the oldest (newest) Chandler to our collection of cars. Its an early Chandler sedan. There are several conflicting clues on this one to help us nail down the exact year. When the light is better and access is better I'll know the year of the frame better. Been sitting here for several decades. This will be a long term project, but one worth saving from the scrape heap.

Car is not home yet, but when it is I will be pouring all over it for clues to its history.

post-31249-143142784575_thumb.jpeg

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  • 2 weeks later...

We've done a little more digging on the old Chandler sedan and determined (for now) that it is a 1914 sedan body sitting on a 1920 chassis. We found the chassis number on the right frame rail and looked at more of the details of the car and that lines up whit the serial number. I will be interested to see what year hood I should have on it as it looks like it might have had the 1920 radiator on it. Wonder how that would line up with the 1914 cowl on the body?

The speedometer is also correct for 1920 as it drives off the drive shaft and not the front wheel. This car is full of mysteries.

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Chris, I know someone with a 1914 Chandler chassis....me. Mine is for a Model 15. I have most of a Model 15 touring body including the splash aprons and fenders. It would be nice to preserve an early closed Chandler as there is already a 1914 Model 15 touring restored, but no closed cars.

Let me know if its available and if so, how much?

Thanks.

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Hi Mike,

Nice to here from you its been a long time since we saw you in Seattle at the Chandler Meet. At this point the body not available as we have been looking forward to getting this project for over a decade now. Now that we finally know what we have we are torn as to how to restore it. Matching up the body to the correct chassis is the ultimate goal, but there is supposed to be a picture of the car from 1921 that will be delivered with the car. In that picture we hope to learn more details about when the car was put in its current configuration.

After doing more research on the body we are pretty sure that it is a Willoughby body. From what we can tell this was the only year for that body style. Hopefully when we get the car home we can find more details on the car that further confirm this.

A couple of interesting modifications that have seen done to the car in its past include:

- fitment of four lug hubs and disc wheels

- a second gas tank up front with SW vacuum tank

- Pullman style fold down front seat

- and a big metal rack crudely mounted to the back

A couple of thought come to mind as to why these changes were made:

- the car was used to to camp in (I've heard this was popular in the 1920's)

- maybe it was used for long trips? There were a few Chandlers that traveled across the country in the early days of motor travel.

One thing is for sure we will take our time on this one. I still have our 1929 sedan to get running. And we have this dream someday of displaying the first and last Chandler sedans together.

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Hello Chris,

Dad looked up information about the body style and found a listing from the Standard Catalogue of American Cars (p.254). It has a picture of a 1916 Chandler Six sedan that has a center door body very much like the one in your picture. The catalogue lists all the body styles that were available in 1916 (5 passenger touring, roadster, Limo, sedan, convertible sedan, coupe, and cabriolet.) This book has only one picture from each year of production, but sadly, only one picture per year.

By the way, his 1914 Chandler 15 touring has had its work out over the past summer - two HCCA tours (about 1000 miles total) and one national AACA show where it got another preservation award and the AACA Century Medallion. It has been a lot of fun!

Keep us posted on your progress.

from Harold's daughter, Marie

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Hi Marie,

Thank you for that information. And congratulations on all the event and awards your family's Chandler has won! I would love to see the car someday and get more pictures of it.

This sedan body is definitely from pre (late) 1915 when they went to the Springfield bodies. The main difference that we can see in the earlier Willoughby body style is the front side windows are flat. On the Springfield the sedan glass is curved on the front side windows. There are a number of other differences including a pointed detail that can be see on the front doors of the 1913 and 1914 Chandler touring cars that are better documented.

I have the book you are referring to and as you noted there is not a picture of the earlier sedans. If you find any other information please let us know.

Thanks!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello Chris,

Interesting photos! Dad says he has no pictures of a 1914 sedan; he only has photos for a touring body. In the 1914 instruction book that Dad has, it shows a touring and a roadster. In the back it does talk about other models - they list coupe, limousine, and a sedan. Then it says, "Information on request." Ha! Ha!

In the 1915 instruction book that Dad has, it shows pictures of all models including the center door with the curved glass. From the picture in the 1915 book, it looks like the cowl is much shorter than what your car looks like it has. What a great adventure you will have figuring all of this out. Keep us posted.

By the way, if you want to see a better photo of Dad's 1914 Chandler Model 15, it is the centerfold for the November/December issue of the Horseless Carriage Gazette. We were so surprised and very proud.

Harold Wintz via daughter Marie

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  • 1 year later...

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