I've been lurking on this forum for awhile, mostly posting on the BCA and ROA sites regarding my 63 Buick Riviera. I've had the car sickness for 45 years but late last year I took the plunge with my first-ever prewar car, a 1928 Pierce Arrow Model 81 5-passenger sedan. It is mechanically and structurally original with a decent black paint job and new interior, tires, and brake linings done by the previous owner. It runs and drives but needs fuel system work, rewiring, an exhaust system, and lots of detailing. I've taken things very slow trying to educate myself about the car - I joined the Pierce Arrow Society and have obtained owners and parts manuals. Today I finally joined the AACA and wanted to introduce myself and my car. As I get further into things I'll be looking for a lot of help and information but for now I would love to hear from anyone with a similar car or situation. I'll also post this in the Pierce Arrow forum. I'll come back with a photo or two later. Thanks!

Don,

Welcome. Sounds like you bought yourself a nice old driver.
Can you post some pictures of your new ride.

Good Luck With her

Here goes nothing...

Don,

Thanks for sharing the pictures. It looks like a great driver you can fit the whole family in there

Very nice. You've got to love those headlights!

All that crappy weather up in Buffalo gave them time to do an extra nice job with quality coachwork LOL! Beautiful Car! Definitely an icon of the 20s.

Tom, Chris, and Mike, thanks for your comments. I saw a coupe version of this car offered on Ebay a few years ago, much worse condition but I really liked the styling. Pierce was quite daring in 1928 in the amount of "streamlining" they did on this car. They chopped the top, added the curved visor and hooded headlights and lengthened the fenders. It was a one-year only design and a lot of purists didn't like it! They also added an enamel radiator emblem for only that one year, turns out the family crest they used on the emblem was for the wrong Pierce family. In a quest to save weight and increase performance they used a lot of aluminum - the body panels, running board covers, cylinder head, rods, pistons, crankcase, and intake manifold. Curb weight for a 130" wheelbase car was around 3500 lbs.

I have a question for you - can anyone recommend a source for tuneup type parts for this car? I would like to have spares for points, condenser, rotor, distributor cap,starter and generator brushes, generator cutout, and thermostat but have seen almost nothing advertised for this car, let me know if you can help.

You might try checking out a NAPA Auto Parts Store for all of the tune up items you mention. Several of our local Chapter members get their tune up parts there. I've heard of people picking up parts for Packards, Chryslers, Hupmobiles, Willys, Grahams, Pontiac, Buick, Chevrolet and Ford to name a few.

Thanks, I haven't tried NAPA. I have a pretty good older one in my area where they will actually pull out the old books and spend the time to search for stuff. I know most of the original electrical parts were Delco, I've heard sometimes they were used on a bunch of different makes. I'll give them a call.

Also, if you scroll down on this site, under "Other Domestic" there is a heading for Pierce Arrow. Maybe they could help you. By the way, beautiful car!

thanks, I actually copied my original note into that forum but there doesn't seem to be too much activity there. I'm also working through the PAS message board but I haven't done much since the car is in storage right now and I'm not working on it. I've got a few more projects to finish on my Riviera then I will get serious with the Pierce.