StillOutThere

AACA thread: Spohn Carosserie Customs On US Chassis https://forums.aaca.org/topic/175766-spohn-carosserie-customs-on-us-chassis/?do=getNewComment

Howdy, One look at my avatar will tell you I am the "forum member who owns a Spohn". And it is "SpOhn" pronounced like "phone". Spohn is a German family name, as is my own. The article in Undiscovered Classics is my piece done early in my '52 Spohn ownership and research. That article answers most of the questions that have been bantered about in above posts. The AACA currently displayed car is visibly the most controversial of the handful (literally five) existing Spohn Customs and its prior display for decades in the Florida Dezer collection went virtually unnoticed. I would be more than happy to fill in any blanks club headquarters has about the Spohn Karosserie (GER spelling) but will defer to owners Carini and Murano on their own car as I have yet to see it myself in person. There are certainly difficulties in "categorizing" the Spohn Customs. The carosserie was a world class coachbuilder serving Maybach from 1923 to marque closing due to WWII, but did take on limited other contracts. The only corporate contract of any significance when trying to survive in post-war Germany was that for Veritas cars, both road and race. Interestingly, two Veritas race cars returned to Spohn after competition collisions to be made into Spohn Customs. The former Waksler car is the survivor of those two. The singular concept about these customs which is foundational to understanding is that standard production car came into Spohn at their owner's desire to have them customized in the evolving styles being shown at early 50s auto shows as well as in the "new" rod and custom car magazines in every serviceman's locker and hidden behind every high schooler's history book. The car's owner stood there with the manager /owner of Spohn, Joseph Eiwanger, Jr., and chose design elements to create his personalized car from those magazines and other photographs. Eiwanger then did his best to meld those ideas cohesively into a producable vehicle from the craftsmen in his shop. Not every car owner made tasteful choices. However Harley Earl's '51 GM dream car LeSabre's tail fins were a singular most popular choice. US-chassised cars almost all got a "new" popular OHV8 engine shortly after arrival at their US owner's home city. Briefly, my car, with the given name "Spohn Palos", should you wish to do any net searching, was driven into Spohn as a 1940 Ford Standard coupe. It was disassembledd of sheetmetal to the chassis, saving the firewall as a starting and reference point. From there tubular structure was created to outline and support sheetmetal and all the acoutrements. Yes, Spohn employed production bits from other cars. There are parts from Horch, Porsche, Volkswagen, Kaiser and Taunus mixed in with those hand-crafted. Spohn apparently held a catalog from Lyon Mfg. in Detroit of their full wheelcovers as owners chose a variety of them, my car also receiving a set. Restoration of the Spohn Palos ongoing at Manns Restoration, Festus, MO. For months, for unknown reason, I have been incapable of posting photos to AACA after years of abilty. No idea what is wrong. Point being I can't respond with phtos in answering and am very sorry about that. If desired, message me with your personal email and I can directly post pix back to you. Thanks AACA and members for your interest in Spohn. Wayne R. Graefen

Seller reports elsewhere on Facebook the Terraplane pickup has sold.

Please post a picture of your worderful wagon progress to date. Thanks

If you found a carpet material you are happy with, ANY auto trim shop must have the skills to trim it to lay out and edge it. You do know the original carpet material was known as "hogshair"? It is still available in a few colors.

Torsion bar suspension was introduced for the 1957 model year on all Chrysler products. Did you typo and intend 1959? Your replacement torsion bar must come from the same SIDE as a replacement. Check part number cast on the end of the bar. It must match. I don't know that you will find any shop anywhere who will re-create just ONE torsion bar. This is not a simple job for a machinist; more complex. Use the bar you have if it is the same side. Or get one from a collector salvage yard.

Also on Craigslist Reno with a price of $27,900 so there may well be a reserve on the eBay auction up near that. I like it a lot. Not a bidder however.

Harbor Freight! 3 tool set! $14 !!!

Still Looking.l

It is STILL in my shed? ANYONE?

I can't explain it and AACA has not helped me to recover the ability to post photos. Message me for photos. I think, I hope, I can still attach photos to the messages. Have multiple good photos. Wayne

1953-56 accessory faux wire wheelcovers. I received these installed on another car via clip brackets used to install them (as shown). I do not have the black baskets, which bolted to wheel lugs, of the original accessory package. The hub cap centers were drilled to install another medallion but could be filled and painted over. What you see is what you get. Have tried to photo the only minor damage. I do not honestly know how to price these. I'm calling it $500 but please make a fair offer. UPS shipping will be charged. Thank you for looking.

Hudson stepdowns are all supposed to be factory stamped in the right front door upper hinge, body mount half, with the paint code for the car. That location happens to be under a glued, wide rubber weatherseal which is there to divert water coming off the right corner of the windshield. I was around a lot of stepdown Hudsons in my active hobby years. I think I actually did see ONE such code stamping. The problem being that seal very typically trapped moisture underneath it causing rust scaling which obliterated the stamp. And I'm not sure they actually did do the stamping!

Colors comment regarding the '54 Hudsons. I've owned two '54 Hornet Special coupes in the distant past. Have an acquaintance that owns a '54 Hornet Special Club Sedan (2 door sedan, long roof). The entire model year did offer the color called "Green Gold" which was a darker yellow that most would liken to the color of the condiment "mustard". My friend's Club Sedan is "Green Gold" with black roof. The Sunburst Yellow is an interesting alternative.

The car on offer is a Murphy body landau sedan. It is not a Biddle & Smart. Note previous offering: https://car-from-uk.com/sale.php?id=31498

Though the "Highlander" option became very seldom offered into the mid '50s, it was still available in 1960 and '61 DeSotos. I have seen the material and it had become pastels. Still interesting and I suppose better suited to the times. There are other examples that late but they are quite extreme rarities.

Listing is gone. Someone thought it a good deal.

The black '33 Chrysler Royal "CT" convertible coupe has been relisted. Price RAISED. Now $42,000 It has not been driven since last summer due to owner's knees. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/485132050444092/?ref=search&referral_code=null&referral_story_type=post&tracking=browse_serp%3A8a3140a3-7d94-4a1c-b3dc-547f01e37c2e Sorry, site continues to not load any photo I submit.

First line of text in the ad: "This is the same 58 Fury as in the Christeen Movie. " Except Christine was, in fact, a '58 Belvedere.

https://windshieldframes.com/ with my recommendation after multiple purchases over many years

Chrysler's first overdrive offering was for the 1936 model year, so one should clarify what sort of O.D. this car has. Yes, screamin' deal at least on the surface.

Photo choices are the photographer's decision. Can likely be properly "filed" under "artistic license". On rare occasion I've done sort of similar to crop out something from the background. Agree shots on the level generally indicate the car offering is "on the level" in the viewer's mind.

I'm curious why they can make left handed bolts and nuts but you say they can not make left handed studs. https://www.mcmaster.com/products/left-hand-threaded-studs/

With all due respect, this car was restored by well known collector Milton Robson for his personal collection which was downsized a few years back and this car was cut. I know this car from the day I bought it as an original, unrestored, California car sitting in long term dry storage. Milt started with a car which I was able to put on jack stands, wipe down the non-undercoated UNDERSIDE of the car with kerosene and then WAX it. It was that nice before major restoration. When it auctioned it brought $50K more than the current advertised price. Granted markets change down and up. The '57 DeSoto Adventurer along with the '57 Chrysler 300C are considered the absolute pinnacle of Virgil Exner's time at Chrysler. Ad states 18 of these currently known to exist and that sounds about right. I would personally guarantee this is the best of those except I haven't seen it in recent years. There appear from postings to be very few AACA people who really know and appreciate post-war MoPar cars. This car was in one of America's premier collections and should go into another.

I first learned the "proper" repair technology as "acid copper". The filling of the holes happens through some slightly altered electro-chemistry, plus repeated dippings. The repeating adding coats of copper which do in fact fill the pits. Using "acid copper" when talking to shops has at least let them know I'm not a bumpkin at the counter. Many shops won't even offer the service because they know the customer will not like the resultant doubling of the price. High price ruin their business. But the result IS what we are looking for. Shops may have names for this process that they prefer from their experience. Comments welcome on this. I'm just another hobbyist. Some of you surely know the deeper ins and outs of show chrome plating.