1912Staver

As a car owner for the last 50 years, former professional mechanic, High School Shop teacher and 30 years as a Marine Engineer I can't even imagine a wet sump, I.C. engine or substantial gearbox without a dip stick. The propulsion engines on most of the ships I worked on were dry sump, so not a dipstick on the crankcase. Rather they had a very large reservoir tank { often several hundred gallons of oil } , generally gravity fed from the crankcase { a few had scavenge pumps } that the pressure pump drew from. The tank level was usually monitered by a electronic gauge and verified with a sounding tape once a watch. { 2 or 3 times a day depending on the watch cycle } Those tanks normaly gained oil over time as there was a separate fresh oil supply pumped into the cylinder wall for piston ring lubrication . Some would be burned and some would end up in the crankcase. Once a week or so we would use a centrifuge to return some oil back to the clean oil storage tank. It got used up in the gensets. Big Cat's that most definitely had dipsticks.

Just a couple of data points that struck me as I did a few errands today. Not directly Vintage car , but the perception of Motor Vehicles in general in the current world. Dropped in to my local new car dealer today to pick up a part that they had ordered in for me. Good sized dealer, I am sure they sell a lot of cars in a year. I could barely find the parts dept. The Service receptionist said go over to that little wicket at the side and ring the bell. A parts person responded quickly enough, I expect from the Parts counter serving the Service area. Point is there wasn't even a Parts Dept sign , just a small counter with a bell. Perhaps I am showing my age , but I clearly remember the later 1970's when I worked in a Dealer parts dept. Saturday especially , the public, walk in parts counter would be staffed with 4 or 5 countermen and often several customers would be waiting in a take a number line up for their turn. A serious volume of parts sales on a typical Saturday. I guess very few private owners actually do their own work on their cars these days. And those that do find most of what they need online. Second stop took me to my local public library. I decided to have a look at the Automotive section. I have noticed the selection of Automotive books at the library has been slowly shrinking over the last decade or so. At one time there were lots of Automotive books , and manuals. Today the selection had shrunk beyond anything I could have imagined a decade or two ago. Not one single book ! Not even a Consumer reports book. Has the general public really turned its back on motor vehicles except to view them as a necessary evil ? Hold your nose and use one, but no more interest than you would have in your kitchen toaster ? Feeling a bit out of step with the world.

From a speed point of view I expect quite a few modern cars could hold their own with early 1950's production cars. As far as surviving the often quite rough track conditions for a full event that might be a different story for some of the higher performance, modern cars. More the ride height than anything else. Cars like the Subaru WRX do very well in modern , very high speed and demanding road surface events. I expect a well driven WRX would be quite a bit faster than a Hornet or Rocket 88 and would hold up very well.

And Morgan 1954 and up, except the rare +4+ . Quite similar to MG TF styling except the grill work.

Do you have enough parts to do a mock assembly of the rear end , springs and gearbox housing ? Now that you know that the torque tube is probably from a slightly different year or model Mitchell , you might want to confirm it is the correct length. Wheelbases often vary from model to model back in the early teens.

My personal favorite PA's are the ones just before the molded in introduction. Circa 1908 up to the end of gas lamps. Close to the pinicle of Brass Era cars in my books.

I seem to remember that one of the internal pinions is GM's less than wonderfull zinc based alloy . If I am remembering correctly it has probably swollen and has bound the winder up tight.

I think the avaiaibility of reproduction wheels is very dependent on the make and model. Popular wheels may be reproduced, but many / most are not.

I think that's the base for an air cleaner that uses an oiled foam filter. They used to be somewhat common, but had a habit of catching fire . Less common these days. Years ago I did a major repair on a TVR that used foam filters with tripple Webers. Much damage to the wiring and some to the body fiberglass. I will never use one.

Around here Cat. converter theft is out of control. A friend had his truck behind a 8 foot fence and video security / motion detectors. Caught it all at 2 AM , over the fence , under the truck, Cat. removed, back over the fence and driving away in less than 2 1/2 minutes. He didn't even have his shoes on yet let alone outside to confront them. $1,100.00 insurance claim. One of thousands each year around here.

Thats a very crafty repair ! A first class example of outside of the box thinking.

Certainly they can fatigue and crack. But depending where you live, rust is the # 1 killer of old wheels. People leave them sitting around for decades with old tires mounted and the bead flanges rust away. 21 inch Model A wheels { late Model T , factory wire wheels as well } have a rolled outer flange that around here at least { Pacific North West } is often rusted internally to the point where holes appear. 1969 Mercury styled wheels are very often cracked across the lug nut holes. You almost never see them anymore ,by the time they were 10 - 15 years old most had at least one crack . But most wheels just rust away to the point they are unsafe to use.

Interesting to see that one of the very rare Brass Era, Oakland , big 6's passed through his hands. { upper advert } They were discussed a few months ago on the forum. I think the consensus was that there are only 3 or 4 survivors. Mind you, $19,000.00 was a very large amount of money in 1974.

I expect you have mentioned why you are using this housing with the damaged bearing location. But I believe you said you also have a housing without the damage. Is it damaged in another area? A good repair in this spot looks to be a difficult thing to accomplish. I am sure you have a plan in mind.

I would guess this was used in a everyday sedan model. Most of the British Sports Cars used more basic , black gauge faces, with white numbers and needle. . This one tries to look " fancy " rather than the usual no nonsense Smiths gauge that the sports cars used . I have seen somewhat similar gauges on early 1960's Volvo's.

These look to be steel lamps that have been painted gold. Is this correct ? Most automobile lamps from this era are brass. The steel lamps are usually off either a very inexpensive car or a teens truck. I suspect these are probably off a smaller truck, roughly 1910 - early 1920's.

Thats quite a press. Imagine what your back would feel like after loading and unloading disks of steel into that monster all day.

I have never seen the Gier part of the name mentioned before. They do look quite big. 25 " or perhaps even 26 ". Rare to see disk wheels that large. What was the wood wheel diameter on Cole's of this era ? The net says the merger of Gier Tuarc and Prudden wheels was the formation of Motor Wheel Co

From what I can see of the cab it looks reasonably intact. The Model T chassis should be reasonably easy as these things go. Parts supply for T's is better than any other vintage car except possibly Model A's. Is it a T or a TT ? It's hard to tell from your photo's. Your shop space would be the envy of many of us on here. Best of luck with the project.

Many / most that large are going to be pre 1920 and most of the time aftermarket, accessory wheels, rather than a factory fitment. They were reasonably popular , much like the wire wheels that were also available in the same time frame. Makes like Budd Michelin, Disteel, Tuarc, Kelsey Hayes, and Jaxon. I am sure there were others as well.

Quite the opposite in my area . Lots of old cars for sale, but 98% of them are street rods that don't do a thing for me. There was one I have admired over the years a month or so ago. A very traditional 34 Ford 5 window. But the ask was something like $ 75,000.00. And it didn't seem to stay for sale for long. And one Morgan I probably could have afforded, but the seller { flipper } didn't advertise it locally, just went straight to Bring a Trailer and the auction ended before I saw it. Another one most likely gone from my area after being a local car for 60 + years. Seller was probably hoping to make a killing on a sale to a U.S. buyer , but the Morgan actually sold for a very modest price. Otherwise virtually nothing over the last 3 or 4 years. High prices, cars that I wouldn't cross the road to look at. Buying anything from the U.S. is more or less a non starter. Weak Canadian $ , high travel and transport costs , plus a bunch of extra red tape and fees at the border. Good thing I already have a few cars { projects } I really like.

What a truly odd car ! Too bad the bodywork was so altered and left unfinished. The original version actually looks reasonably good. But the Packard 12 is hardly a Sports Car powerplant. One can only wonder how much time and money this will take to see the road again.

Brand was Pontiac, the model was Laurention. It was the top trim model. Basic car was a Pathfinder, then the Strato Chief was in the middle, then Laurention. In later years the Parisianne became the Canadian top trim model.

Most early motorcycles seem to have a motorcycle size version of a typical automotive headlight. { If they have lights at all, many don't } I have a friend who is quite involved with pre 1920 MC's. He always tells me to keep an eye out for MC lighting when I am at swap meets. Rare and expensive.

I think this one is built on the car chassis . It just does not look quite big enough to be a TT. Also TT's normally have the small running boards without the car style splash aprons. The running board irons are quite close together on a TT chassis.