nzcarnerd
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Posts posted by nzcarnerd
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7 hours ago, 58L-Y8 said:
Is the device mounted on the crank location on this 1910's Lozier Briarcliff a compressed air driven starter?
Spring operated - Mechanical, Compressed Air and Acetylene Starting Systems | The Old Motor
A similar one on a Cole in the photo on this page - Mystery Cars at a Los Angeles Pennant Gasoline Station | The Old Motor
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19 minutes ago, Oregon Desert model 45 said:
1926 or 1927 Buick Master. The headlights look a little odd to me so they might have been replaced
Agreed. The car is at least a few years old in the photo as there is a Model A Ford waiting its turn under the tree.
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7 hours ago, 30DodgePanel said:
Canopy?
Maybe a locally built body repurposed from an earlier car?
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Going by the front dumb irons of the chassis it might be an early Darracq - circa 1902, although with some modifications, like a radiator update.
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Rickenbacker???
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3 hours ago, Touts said:
Hi All,
Today I followed up from my early attempt to sort out my Carburetor dilemma.
Currently I’m working on three seperate options in an attempt to solve my carburettor woes.
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The option to have my UU2 and Spare units rebuilt was always my preferred method moving forward.
I was told that Both Casings were unsatisfactory. The Carburetor shop is very highly regarded so I didn’t question their decision and asked them to return them.
Would anyone have any updated information about this elusive Carburetor?
It depends on whether you want something 'original', or at least looks original, or you want practicality. Our next project is a new, rebuilt engine for my GE Dictator. The intention is to run a modern down draught Weber two barrel carb on it. Apparently it should give a 50% improvement in economy.
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3 hours ago, Rusty_OToole said:
NZcarnerd that is more or less what I thought except, I thought the difference in price between comparable British and American cars would be closer as both had to be shipped a long way.
I think this is why the Dodge and DeSoto had leather upholstery and possibly a few other accessories that were optional in North America. They were competing with cars that, while more expensive, had nicer interiors with leather and wood ambience and possibly more instruments and other niceties.
The Americans had nothing to compare to the smaller more economical English cars but if you wanted a larger six cylinder car that could stand up to tough conditions and hard work, they were hard to beat especially at a price.
American car companies sold a lot of cars in south America, Europe, Asia, and other places that could be supplied from Detroit. But they would be subject to import duty. Anything sourced from Canada got preference as part of the British Commonwealth and paid no import duty at least in other Commonwealth countries. This is why cars to New Zealand and Australia were so often imported from Canada.
As recently as the 1980s and 90s a lot of cars destined for the middle east were made by GM in Oshawa. They made a special version of the full sized Impala sedan and station wagon for the middle east with heavy duty cooling system, air conditioning, suspension special interior and other improvements. They cost quite a bit more than the regular models but they sold a lot of them to oil rich countries.
There was a special order of Chev Malibu sedans with V8 engines, manual transmissions and air conditioning destined for Iraq which were never delivered because of the Iraq war. They were sold off cheap in Canada and were known as "Iraqui taxis" although in fact they were supposed to be used by government officials.
So Canada has been used to building special models for export for a long time.
One thing that has always interested me is that the US industry began export right from its very earliest days when I would have thought they would struggle to supply local demand. American cars were imported to NZ in penny numbers but we had Oldsmobiles, Cadillacs and Ramblers from their earliest years, along with a lot of more obscure stuff. Of course in those days anybody could contact a manufacturer and get a few cars sent out, but I think in many cases the manufacturer went out of business by the time the importer reordered.
Just as an example Henry Ranger, who later became the local Ford dealer, had these Conrad cars on display at the local Agricultural and Pastoral Show in November 1903. My copy of The Standard Catalog says Conrad went out of business in 1903 and I believe there is only one surviving example of the make.
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3 hours ago, Rusty_OToole said:
The advertisements seem to imply that importing the cars from Canada is something new, and cause for a significant drop in prices. This is a bit surprising as I thought we had been making cars for export all along.
You are correct but for some reason Todds. the importer, sourced some models from the USA as well though I don't know why.
They only began local assembly in 1935. Maybe Canada didn't supply CKD kits until 1939?
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22 hours ago, nzcarnerd said:
British Daimler at lower left. That horn on the cowl was a distinctive feature of those for several years. Whether it is an early poppet valve model or a later sleeve valve model I can't say.
I sought an opinion for elsewhere and the suggestion was a circa 1909 sleeve valve 38 hp model.
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9 hours ago, MetroPetro said:
British Daimler at lower left. That horn on the cowl was a distinctive feature of those for several years. Whether it is an early poppet valve model or a later sleeve valve model I can't say.
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11 hours ago, 30DodgePanel said:
More tire cover photos
The upper photo looks to be an eight cylinder 1930 Graham.
In the lower photo is a 1929 Studebaker Commander GJ, the last of the six cylinder Commanders. The cabriolet was probably a rare sight even when new - total production of the model in all of the many body styles (13 of them) was only 16,000.
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I didn't find any reference to Gardner Motors in the local papers - perhaps they didn't advertise.
I did find this one from Cossens and Black - https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ODT19390530.2.6.4?end_date=31-12-1939&items_per_page=10&phrase=2&query=new+Dodge&snippet=true&start_date=01-01-1939&title=AHCOG%2cBH%2cCL%2cCROMARG%2cDUNST%2cESD%2cLCM%2cLCP%2cLWM%2cMIC%2cMTBM%2cNOT%2cOAM%2cODT
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Regarding new prices (which will mean nothing to US readers) it would seem that the Mopar stuff was dropped in price during the 1939 year - one ad suggesting it was due to a change from US sourcing to Canadian.
A small English car was not a lot cheaper. A Hillman Minx, another model handled by Todds, was 288 pounds in 1939.
I couldn't find any ads with prices for new 1939 medium/larger English models, but secondhand prices would suggest they were quite a lot above the American low-price models. The larger English cars sold in much lower numbers than the US cars.
Even though in 1939 English makes outsold American ones by 3 to 2, American cars dominated the large car sector, the two biggest sellers were Ford and Chevrolet with the combined Mopar models a distant third. Because so many Fords were hotrodded (or became racing stockcars) the survival rate today of Chevs and Mopars of that era is higher than that of Fords.
A Studebaker Commander, a car not much bigger than the Plymouth was quite a lot dearer.
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Regarding why buyers would choose an American car over a British one in 1939. Simple answer - price. Anything British with comparable power and size to a 'regular' American car - e g Ford, Chev, Dodge etc - cost at least half as much again. American cars dominated the NZ large car market up to WW2. During the war there was a steady trickle of new trucks (and a handful of cars) coming into NZ, mostly for the military, that the UK was unable to supply.
The outbreak of war was a sort of coincidence as far as the NZ car market was concerned. Partly I think due to the very brief worldwide downturn in 1938 which had an effect on US car as sales as well, NZ suffered a 'balance of payments crisis', which led to the government introducing a whole raft of sever import restrictions, on all sorts of products, which led to the situation that most of us who grew up in the 1950s-1970s learned to live with where many things were either simply not available or were very expensive. I should add though that nobody went hungry and there was near full employment. This led to increasing numbers of British cars on the road as tariffs favoured British Empire products. Post WW2 dollar restrictions caused American cars to drop to a very small percentage of the overall market. The opening up of the economy that began in the 1980s led to NZ going from one of the most restricted markets to nearly the most unrestricted market in the world.
As far as the situation of US plants building right hand drive cars, of course they all did up until the gradual change to left hand drive that happened mostly before WW1. Practically all makes continued to offer right hand drive cars for export. GM's Tarrytown, NY, plant, one of the oldest in the industry, supplied rhd stuff for export quite until late in the piece (up to 1970s maybe?).
I presume there were a few cars not available in right hand drive. The only Packard Twin Sixes I have seen photos of in NZ were left hand drive.
This photo taken in Rotorua of a group of hire cars used to show visitors around the area shows two left hand drive cars - at the back a circa 1915 Chalmers and in the middle at the front I think might be a Reo. The others were models obviously readily available in right hand drive, at the back an Oldsmobile and at the front A Studebaker Big Six and a Cadillac. The second photo shows another Chalmers.
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Todds were the NZ agents for all Chrysler products for a long time and began local assembly in 1935. The company had its origins in a small country garage in Heriot in Central Otago.
Some good info here - click on the Motor Industry page - History - Todd Corporation
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1931 wire wheel hub cap.
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13 hours ago, MetroPetro said:
1906 Oldsmobile Model S - thank you to Varun Coutinho for the id.
[Dr. A.R. Baker at the wheel of his Model "S" Oldsmobile] - City of Vancouver Archives
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New Zealand 1926.
Maybe a Graham Brothers truck on the left. Or could it be a Reo?
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23 hours ago, Rata Road said:
Is there a site which would tell me where my 39 Dodge was built.
I would like to confirm mine was built in Canada.
Engine number D1203004 (original) and Body 9392919.
The reason I ask is I have discovered a 39 Desoto here in NZ which has the same basic look, headlights & body shape etc but it is a floor change, has a different speedo and the number plate light in the centre of the boot isnt a 2nd tail light like the Dodge is.
I am wondering if the Desoto is a NZ build using some earlier left over parts.
The Desoto original engine number is 2083 and chassis 9604614
Thanks
Can you post a photo of your car?
I suspect the fourth digit in the engine number you quoted should be a C and not a 0. That would define it as a Canadian built car - assuming it has a 25-inch block.
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Here is a long wheelbase '39 Plymouth in service as a taxi at Taeiri Airport near Dunedin in 1947. I guess the '37 is also a long wheelbase model as well.
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Just to show that not all '39 Mopars were Plymouth-based here is a 1939 Chrysler Royal converted to run on gas during the war.
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Just for interest a few photos from the Centennial Exhibition held in Wellington in 1940. Even though the country was at war there is no doubt that the exhibition had been a long time in planning and went ahead anyway. I wonder what happened to the 1940 Chrysler. As likely as not it was impressed into the military.
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19 hours ago, Fordy said:
T.J Richards in Adelaide Australia built Chrysler bodies for the local market (and possibly export to N.Z. - look on the driver's seat riser for a Richards body tag. They "rationalised" output by utilising common sheet metal across different makes. Holdens body builders did the same with GM products - so a Chev and a Vauxhall for example could have shared fenders.
Richards built the body on a few of my Hupps as they were imported in a stripped down form to reduce tarrifs
Richards eventually morphed into Chrysler Australia until they shut down local production in the late 1970's and Mitsubishi took over the factory.
The New Zealand and Australian markets were unrelated (primarily due to the Australian rules insisting on local bodies) and any Australian-built cars from that era to be found in NZ will be later private imports. I have a 1934 Holden body Buick that came to NZ in 1946. I believe there is the odd Richards body Mopar here.
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The majority of the lower price Mopars for NZ were sourced from Canada but not all of them. Todds only began local assembly in 1935 so anything up then will have arrived already built up.
My copy of The Standard Catalog of American cars suggests that most of the Dodge D12s were actually built in the US, with Plymouth supplying the bodies, chassis and running gear. Apparently nearly 6,800 D12s were built of which 3,438 had right hand drive. Of the total, 3,885 were exported as CKD kits. (Another 10,328 were built in the Windsor Canada plant for Canada.)
The whole business of export Mopars is a can of worms. Post war we had various models from a variety of sources. I have seen a 1952 Dodge Kingsway that was built in Detroit according to its data plate.
The major difference between US and Canadian sourced cars from 1939 is the engine. Canada only built 25-inch blocks, so the 1939 Plymouths and Plymouth-based cars built in Canada have a 201 version of the 25-inch block and the US cars have the 23-inch block. People have been buying wrong head gaskets ever since.
I have accumulated several photos of 1939 Mopars but have not seen their data plates. I only know the information that has been supplied for registration purposes, which is available on carjam but we all know that the info is often incorrect. Many often rubbish carjam but the fault lies with whoever supplied the information at the start.
As far as how many were sold in NZ I do have the registration figures. As far as I know there were no 1940 Mopars sold here new as once NZ declared war on 3 September 1939 all orders for new cars were cancelled. Any cars registered new in 1940 will be late registrations of 1939 cars. The figures will likely include a few were late registrations of 1938 models.
New registrations - Plymouth 1939 - 374, 1940 - 16
Dodge 1939 - 497, 1940 - 99
DeSoto 1939 - 361, 1940 - 17
Chrysler 1939 - 270, 1940 - 32
Also of that total (1662) the great majority will be Plymouth-based models, even the Chryslers. I know there were a few Dodge D11 Luxury Liners imported but not a lot. There were always a handful of used cars being privately imported and it wasn't until 1962 that they were recorded separately.
As far as the use of the term 'left over parts', the is no reason to suggest that as they are 1939 cars using 1939 parts.
Attached a few local cars. I suspect all would originally have had square headlamps, but many have been converted to more readily available round ones.
Photo credits to a variety of photographers, some from Flicker and others who have posted on various local facebook pages.
The Chrysler registered BJ7195 is currently for sale on TradeMe for NZ$30k. Even though it is badged Chrysler its engine is a P7C.
Chassis numbers of those with visible registrations numbers are readily found on carjam - Report - BJ7195 - 1939 CHRYSLER PLYMOUTH in Black | CARJAM
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Period images to relieve some of the stress
in Period Photos - Pre WWII
Posted
1920 Lexington Minute Man. I guess the guy in the badge could also be described as 'minute' - ie very small? 😉😀