1912Staver

Not so far removed. My mother { now 91 and very hale and hearty } used to occasionally reflect on her early childhood. My grandfather saw his stationary engineer { steam } job undergo a very sharp cut back in work { circa 1934 }. As a result my grandfather decided to try to return to his farm roots around the time my mother was 2 or 3. Bought a small farm on Prince Edward Island where he was born and lived as a teenager. My mother tells me the three of them barely survived the couple of years on the farm. Starvation was only a small step away from what they had to endure. My grandfather started sending letters to his former employer in Winnipeg and finally business improved to the extent they offered him his old engineer job back. And the farm episode ended. But very tough times that left a deep mark. Her frugal ways rubbed off on me as well.

Jaguar XK 120, really put the "sport " in post war sports cars. Probably the largest production number / high performance car of its day.

While it won't help the mediocre performance of a MGTD . If you fit wire wheels { most MGTF's have them } the look of the car improves significantly. The parts from a wire wheel TF are a direct bolt on.

I suppose the Prius qualifies. If I hold my nose just a bit. But the Cyber Truck ? In my mind one of the worlds leading solutions looking for a problem.

The size is beyond a dream. But yes, $25.00 / day just to cover basic expenses brings it into perspective. I expect heating costs would be somewhat cheaper here in the greater Vancouver area, but I fear the property taxes in my area would more than make up the difference.

This one just sold a week or so ago on B.A.T. for $62,000. Not nearly as original as the Oregon one , but just think of what the final cost is going to be on that Oregon car. Lovely little cars ! The first thing I look into after the lotto win. No Reserve: 1956 Lotus Eleven Sports for sale on BaT Auctions - sold for $62,000 on December 18, 2023 (Lot #131,172) | Bring a Trailer

" Brampton " style rear end. Somewhat unusual even here in Canada. I am just in the process of selling my AA flat deck. Very similar needs everything / unrestored condition. I thought I was somewhat lucky to get a sale at $800.00. I guess the market for early tankers is a lot better than I thought. Or perhaps someone in Chilliwack { about 35 minutes East of me } is a bit delusional on the market for these old Fords.

Small point, but your Fuller is a roadster, not a coupe. The coupe body style existed in the 1908 era, but was quite uncommon { any maker, not just Fuller }. Roadsters on the other hand were very popular. { still are }

Canadian service manuals probably are reasonably close to the U.S. counterparts. Parts books in my experience are often a substantially different situation. Many G.M. of Canada { almost everything I have came from a local G.M. dealership } models are quite a bit different than the U.S. market counterparts. I agree there are a reasonable number of Canadian built cars in the U.S. { and it seems to be a growing trend }. Perhaps there is hope of moving my excess along to a new owner some day. I expect your commercial Canada Post account does save quite a bit. But that option is not available to most of us " north of the border " hobbyists

It can be done, but U.S. Customs makes it a bit of a song and dance. For larger value sales I have braved the U.S. paperwork, but the Customs people make it clear that they would rather you were not there. How much trouble are you willing to go through to sell a $20.00 or $25.00 parts book ? Over the last decade I bought lots of things ( hundreds and hundreds } in the U.S. and maintained an account at one of the nearby WA. State shipping outfits. Covid derailed that. And even with things more or less back to normal I have not started buying again. Much of my pre war stuff went during my recent move, and I am still quite a ways to being back on my financial feet after the whole sale / purchase / rent back of the old place so I could move wallet lightening. It will be a few years at least before I am a position to buy much of anything again.

Now that's a shop ! Every car guy's dream. Lotto Max win ? { they always sell me the wrong numbers ] Around here you would have to sell out on you manuals each year just to pay the property tax bill. As you are in Canada perhaps you have found a way of dealing with Canada's very high postage rates on things like manuals ? I have a fair number of GM parts books. My father worked at a GM dealer all his life and used to bring me the old parts books when new ones were issued. About 25 or 30, mid 1970's to mid 1980's issue. As I have recently sold my 1969 Buick GS 400, and am unlikely to ever have another GM car covered by any of these parts books { later 1950's - mid 1980's } . I was thinking of trying to sell them off. But by the time postage is factored in I can't even give them away. At least in the U.S. there is media mail. No such luck up here in the great white north. How do you do it at a price that makes sense ? Also I expect most of your manuals are Canadian editions. On the parts books I have that means about 0% interest from U.S. buyers. Shop manuals are probably a bit more universal . But I get the feeling most U.S. buyers are mostly interested in U.S. editions.

It looks like a reasonably desirable car. Almost any roadster with Buffalo style wheels is a pretty good catch. I would at least try to pin down the owner. Cars like this are reasonably rare / desirable.

Since retirement the fretting over money part has been ever more evident. So yes, the wrong hobby. But I find it very hard to turn my back on a very large part of my life for over 50 years. Licensed mechanic, 2 1/2 years working at a restoration shop ,mostly mechanical work , but lots of the under the skin metal fabrication / repair. Floors, sub frames , pretty much everything but outer skin. We had a real sheet metal wizard on staff that handled all the skins. Further 3 years at a British car shop. Gave me enough time in the trade to qualify as a journeyman tradesman. High School shop teacher. About 1/2 and 1/2 mechanics and machine shop /drafting. Only did this for 2 years, then went on to be a Marine Engineer on a large vehicle ferry for 29 years. And eye balls deep in the hobby all the way along. Just no way my retirement income keeps pace with the accelerating cost of old cars. When a set of tires costs $6,000.00 Canadian, I know I am being pushed to the sidelines , like it or not.

A 1960 Nash Metro for $10.00, sold it a year later for $50.00. Huge profit ! A good friend bought a quite ratty 1966 Mustang convertible for $20.00 and a case of beer. Drove it for a few days but then the brakes went. Several friends also had Mustangs so my friend started selling the convert for parts. My 66 fastback had a hole cut in the hood and a partially broken, fiberglass hood scoop pop riveted on. Ugly as sin on an otherwise reasonably nice car. $20.00 later the stock hood from the convertible was on my car and the hood scoop / butchered hood was on my friends car. I painted it matt black with a spray bomb, 101% improvement for less than $25.00 and an hour or so work.

They do have some good , period racing use / history. But these days I can't imagine anyone but a small handful of people wanting to race one. They probably are quite a bit cheaper to buy / race than say a Bentley 3 Liter or a 30/98 Vauxhall. Not very many pre WW-2 American, production based cars being vintage raced that I am aware of. The odd Brass Era speedster, and a smallish number of American built race cars are all I have seen at West coast events. { Miller, Duesenberg Indy type cars as well as a " junk formula " car every now and then }. Most of the cars I see out on the track are either post war sports cars or post war , purpose built racing cars.

It would only be important to a new owner who wanted to also race your car in events where this matters. Mostly the larger European events as far as I am aware. Really adds no value at all to a 1928 Chrysler 72. Perhaps 6 people in the world might want to race such a car at events where this would be a requirement. Now if you were talking about a Lotus 23 or something of the like where quite a few examples are raced in Europe or the U.K. it would be a much different story. But I don't believe this " technical passport " is required for events in North America. I don't have one for my Lola T492, but it never goes further than Western Canada.

I agree the cost of the space is trivial. It's all the other costs that you state that are killing off the lower income segment of the hobby. Middle class people were the backbone of the hobby , these days many middle class households can't even come close to dealing with costs like this. There are only so many well off / very well off people that are interested in old cars. Number of participants tumble, venders go out of business , events wither.

Underslung for sure, so most likely a Regal. Not an American Underslung.

No car from Canada has a title, we don't use them. As far as I have seen on here a few States don't use them either and a larger number don't issue them on cars older than a certain year. So there is bound to be a fair number of collector cars out there that that don't have a formal title.

Look at how rust free they are. It must be somewhere very dry. I have been fighting rust in my old cars for 50 + years and counting. Such a waste of rust free body parts /shells !

Smaller { and some not so small } English car makers used wood body framing much longer. Riley RM series into the 1950's , MG up to 1954, Alvis right into the 1960's , Morgan up till today. And probably others I have missed.

Possibly the largest model Overland , circa 1909 - 10 - 11. Rad cap and rad construction is very like Overlands of this vintage.

In my experence at least the odds are against you finding someone who is both capable, and has any spare shop space. { and time to spare in this crazy world } I am a reasonably capable guy , but I have 0.00 % empty covered space , and need at least another 4 or 5 hours a day just to get caught up on 6 months ago's stuff. I suspect many are in the same situation.

Nice machine, but a very limited market.

That is one great looking Buick ! Out on the road where it belongs ! You guys look like you are having too much fun.