1912Staver

Michelin X were the tires of choice in those days. I don't think they made them in white wall. Dunlop Gold Seal might have been made in a WW version, but they were not as good as the Michelin's .

Over the years in the ATHS club magazine I have seen a few of this era Mack's fitted with cranes similar to this one. They seem to have been a popular chassis for such set ups. If I ever came across one in this part of the world I would drag it home instantly. The wife would have a fit, but sooner or later I think she would get over it. Life really isn't complete without a big old crane. Actually as cranes go these one's aren't really all that big, just a very handy size around the yard. 10 ton capacity ?

My catalog shows Kelsey - Hayes rims unless it is quite a big truck w Firestone B rims. But those won't be disk wheels. So I assume they are the Kelsey's. Do you have the side rings free and pushed back out of the way ? The lock ring won't come off until the side ring is moved toward the inside with the tire. { 3 piece rims, typical of most in this era } Some photo's would help. If they are 2 piece rims like on a Model AA Ford you just have to get the tire out of the way and pry the combined side ring / lock ring out of the groove in the wheel. These ones are quite easy to take apart but are more difficult to correctly assemble than 3 piece rims.. We all had to learn the procedure. Articbuicks is 100 % correct. Never inflate unless the wheel is in a cage if at all possible , or at least very securely wrapped in heavy chain. And inflate with a clip on tire chuck and air control valve several feet away from the wheel. If one does let go ; even in a cage, you don't want to be standing right next to it. A mistake in assembly and it could be your last mistake.

Great information ! As skilled pattern makers become all but extinct, it is great that this technology is becoming more accessible and cost effective. I have a number of parts that I need to have made eventually myself. Not ready to take the plunge yet, but when I do the technology may be even better than it is today.

It all depends on the depth of your pockets. If you can actually afford it, any or possibly even all of those things can be a great idea. What those people jump out of bed each day chomping at the bit to get on with. It's only a bad idea if you can't afford it. And therefore all the joy and purpose these pursuits can bring, instead bring something quite different into your life.

Unfortunately this observation is all too true Jack. And even more so here in the wet Pacific North West. Not all of us can live in Arizona or New Mexico. You need the $400,000.00 property plus a $750,000.00 insulated building and heat budget or else all those " cars of our dreams " just turn to iron oxide and compost right before our eyes. I have said it many times before " the cars are very cheap, it is the land and buildings where the real cost comes into play ". Those people that have all the parts of the puzzle in place, land , buildings. You always need at least two, one to work in and a bigger, simpler building to store all the " clutter " that gets in the way of the task at hand. Things like bulky jigs and fixtures, frame rotisseries, engine test stands and lots of other bulky things that you need but really get in the way when you are not using them, parts only good as patterns or samples for reference, etc. Equipment, tools, including a good truck and trailer. Skills and working capital. Lots of working capital ! Those people are the people who actually are functional in this madly expensive hobby. The rest of us are sadly dysfunctional and delusional. At least we keep the producers of "pickers " , "hoarders " etc. supplied with source material. In my case I think it stems back to my childhood / youth years. { 1960's } My great uncle had a farm reasonably close to the city { Winnipeg Manitoba } where I lived with my family. We would often visit when the snow had cleared. My great uncle was always known as the mechanic of the family, and since anyone in the family first had a car they would be retired into my great uncles side yard beside his machine shed. Brass era Model T's on up to mid 1950's cars. Lots of Model A's and old farm trucks, about 35 or 40 of them , plus a bunch of old tractors and misc. farm equipment. It was to me the best playground on the planet. I guess I have been unconsciously been trying to reproduce that yard all my adult life.

In my area you can sometimes find 5 acres for as cheap as 2 million. But not often, with a decent house usually more like 2.5 - 3 million. You have to go way up north in B.C. ; true middle of nowhere, to find land for 10 K / acre. A good friend manages a smallish electrical specialty manufacturing co. that works out of a shop about the size as yours on one acre of industrial zoned land. The owner thought he got a good deal on it at 8 million for the land and building. But that is industrial land just South East of Vancouver.

Unfortunately a set up like that is simply impossible around here. I have enough land, but it is agricultural land reserve zoning and quite restricted to what can be built on it that isn't used directly for farm purposes. That and the cost of a building that size. My pension for the rest of my life wouldn't pay for a building like that. I am only allowed 200 square meters of non agricultural buildings . { 2150 square feet , not very big } Anything bigger and you have to apply for a building permit for something like a horse stable. Build the horse stable and then after final approval ,modify it and start using it for car work or storage. Expensive and a very drawn out process.

I got to the point of having far too many last year. I moved 10 miles to my new place. A nightmare when you are doing it 95% by yourself. 30 cars , parts cars , project cars. vintage tractors and motorcycles sold. And more deals still closing from last summer. Unfortunately none of it put any money back in my pocket, moving costs and rent back on the old place ate up the money as fast as I could sell things. Rent back for 10 months on the old place was a killer. Costs for everything in the Vancouver area are nuts. Still have two or three I would like to sell . Once I finally save enough to build a building at the new place I might buy something. But that's still a long way away. As a retired person the bank balance builds at less than a snails pace.

That's quite the shop set up arcticbuicks. I should have stayed with my friend back in the 1980's buying and selling U.S. cars. He has a shop a lot like that as well. Just fooling, his came from the family business of commercial real estate rather than the car biz. Had a lot of fun with the cars , but the cars rarely did more than break - even, once all the wages were paid, dealer license , dealer insurance , light, heat , taxes etc. The big earner was always the property itself. He is now on his fourth and final location, each time the business moved it was because the land had gone up very substantially. He kept moving further each time out of town and let growth work for 5 -8 years and grow the value of the property. He is now out near me in the farmland, turned a 80 x 400 former mushroom barn on 5 acres into his shop. He is now retired , like I am, so no need for all the business overheads. His father had a smallish trucking and excavating co. in the 1970's and early 1980's. Smart guy , ran the business well, plowed every nickel he could back into undervalued commercial properties. Made many times over what he could have with dirt or his son with vehicles. My friend then built on what his father started and now enjoys his old cars without all the restrictions most of us face. I just got an education and career as an engineer, hardly the road to a million $ shop set up. Actually around here; Vancouver B.C. area, either your shop or his shop is more like 2.5 - 3 million with most of that being land value. I expect the land in Manitoba is quite a bit more reasonable.

I believe that is actually a 1930 or so Durant.

First of all do you want a truck or a car ? A question both for arcticbuicks and everyone at large. Yes, with a chassis like this you can turn an old work vehicle into something like a Corvette. But don't expect it to do any truck work with it. My own take on this is aimed more at mid 1960's - very early 1970's Ford trucks. Because they are the ones I like and own. Just the standard cab, long box, 2 WD. trucks like probably 80 % of the ones out there. And yes, I own them to do truck work, not to show up at the odd cars and coffee get togethers. So these trucks as built have two short comings. The brakes, as 99% of the time I drive one I am pulling a trailer, and the power steering . The old style hydraulic ram style that is what these trucks came with. Ford way back in the early 1970's realized both these things were seriously inadequate for the driving conditions of the time. So for the 1973 model year brought out the much improved " dent side " trucks. Good disk brakes, and a GM sourced Saginaw power steering box. Also I use even newer one piece 16 inch wheels for obvious reasons to anyone who has experience with split rims. But just standard O.E.M. wheels, nothing aftermarket. Both my 1966 Mercury and my 1969 Ford are going to end up on circa 1975 frames. It is a near bolt on , and makes it possible to use both my older trucks as work trucks in the 21 st century. I can't possibly afford a new truck, but for what I do my 50 + year old trucks plus a bit of slightly newer engineering will get the job done . And at a cost of 1/10 or less than a new truck.

Lots of things can and will go wrong with them. But as long as the car is reasonably rust free repairs are just time and money. If you owned a GT6 you probably already have an idea of what ownership involves. TR6's have better gear boxes and rear ends than a GT 6 but still on the weak side. The frames break where the rear end mounts hang from. But not a huge job to fix. Same where the front lower control arm bolts to the frame, the bracket is weak and fractures over time , later cars this bracket is stronger and fails less often. U bracket where rear trailing arm bolts to the frame sometimes fails. None of these problems are a huge job to repair, but it will give you a bit of excitement when it happens plus a tow home. Rust is the only true deal killer unless you are looking for a parts car. I have owned these since 1976, and also worked as a British car mechanic for a number of years , late 1970's , early 1980's. Not the best British car but far from the worst. Parts availability is good. Parts prices are not too bad. And they are pretty easy to work on. $3000.00 is very cheap in todays market. Almost what most people think a parts car is worth. I would have a really good look at every inch of it, unless you want a parts car you could be buying someone else's trouble. Really good ones are up to 10 times that price.

Big project. But at that price it is very tempting. Not a lot of power or speed. But you could always pair it with a TR 3 for the days you needed a bit more performance.

Not just stopping. The tires were the #1 hazard to high speeds in that era. Many simply flew to pieces at high speed. Tires have come so far over the decades.

Very true indeed in the case of cars like my S2 Lotus Europa. Really built down to a price, Chapman was like Henry Ford, always looking for ways to save a few more pennies during manufacturing. Much of the mechanical end of the car is very " bottom of the barrel ". When I bought mine in 1978 it was all of 9 years old and was on its fourth engine { Renault 1600}. Something like 41,000 miles since new. So cars like Europa's end up being very flawed in original form. These days there is tons of interest in them, the basic concept has lots of merit. But the best ones out there now have complete aftermarket chassis assemblies { Spyder, Banks, and similar } and Toyota 4a-ge engines. Transforms the car into something you can actually use without having a tow truck follow you around wherever you go.

Ed, when you get back to this era many of them are "floor sweepings ". But often resurrected in the early post war era when interest in these early machines saw a big resurgence. Not much different than over here in North America. Look at how many early racers / early Indy cars etc. here in North America fell on very hard times during the later 1920's and the depression, were hacked up and re used as fairgrounds racers . And were finally saved and brought back to something resembling their original form in the first decade or so of the post war era. A very small percentage remained intact after their racing days, but most seem to have a " floor sweepings " phase in their history.

Only the latest Model T's have a frame number, 1926 and 27 as far as I know. Otherwise they are registered by engine number only. Once a 23 T { or any other 1925 or older Model T for that matter } has lost its original , factory installed engine block it looses any way of documenting its origin. Thousands of Model T's out there , but many have had a engine replacement or substitution over the last 100 years. Much the same as vintage Harley Davidsons. Engine number only, they did not get frame numbers until somewhere in the post war era. Around 1962 as far as I know, but it did not match the engine number and was not used for Title or registration purposes. Not until 1970 did Harleys have a matching engine and frame number.

In the 1980's the owner of the shop I worked at was doing much the same. A good friend since childhood, his family was quite well off and had property in California which made the buying end a lot easier. That's actually where I first saw the usefulness of having a piece of U.S. land to store things on while all the details were worked out. But I was Canadian and on the West Coast so 95 % of my disposable income was tied up in paying for my Vancouver area house. Still is. I live a pretty good life right on up to where old cars are concerned. Great house these days,{ finally } but still not enough shop space. { does any old car guy ever have enough ? } As for several million , well we can all dream. For me it is simply a hobby. When i made my living with old cars it was just work. Getting into another line of work { ships engineer } gave me back my hobby.

I actively buy anything from these cars, parts ,wrecks, carcasses and bones, Anything. TVR 1958 - 1976 But restored, driving cars like these ones are well beyond me. Unlimited sweat equity available. But limited $, it has to be under $10,000.00 CDN.

In my case the #1 deal stopper is the need for a Title. The cars I am personally interested in are almost always projects, and the paperwork side of things is more often than not missing. Next hurdle is transportation. My old truck is just plain old, good for trips I can afford a tow home from , but beyond that you are rolling the dice. It's just the reality of being a retired person in Canada { at least 80 % of us or so } these days that you can't just go to an auction and take your pick, pay your money. Any car I am INTERESTED in; in running , driving condition, is going to be beyond my means. The reality of living on a pension in the Vancouver area. I am pretty capable, have a comprehensive tools , shop equipment set up, lathe mill, welding ,fabricating, and over 40 years experience in industry building things / and 4 years restoring cars in a commercial shop setting. So I am much more of a project person than most. So like I say, in my case at least the border is a 50 ft high wall. Pity as I only live about 15 minutes from my local crossing into Washington State. I really need to buy an acre or two of cheap WA. State land and buy all the parts cars I think I can use. Strip off what I need at my leisure and bring it back home a few parts at a time. That way the entire Export process circus is avoided. But even cheap WA. land has gone up quite a bit since I first started seriously thinking about that solution 20 or so years ago. Artic Buicks , how do you handle parts cars ? Or are they just not worth your time from a business / profit generating point of view ?

Thanks for the clarification. I have actually only done it 6 times myself , but each time it seems to get more difficult. Not the Canadian side of things that's just money and the tip of the cost iceberg at that. But rather the U.S. part. It's to the point where I have almost given up the thoughts of any further imports due to a combination of cost and the flaming hoops you have to jump through to do the U.S. side of the export. { import into Canada } But I don't do it for profit like you do so if the process becomes more trouble and cost than it is worth to me it is easy to just walk away from the whole situation. In your case earning a living has to make it worth your time and trouble regardless of how convoluted the process becomes. I am at the point in life where I don't need any more old cars. A person like me for some mysterious reason always seems to want another one, but another 10 years and I doubt that will even be the case. Every 6 months or so I see something Stateside I could really get excited about, but when I work all the costs involved I; out of facing reality , realize the numbers don't work. Prices are dropping , but I am afraid I am going to run out of years before they drop enough for me to rejoin the ranks of buyers again. I really only have to buy one or perhaps two more cars to achieve my car hobby goals, if I don't find them in Canada the desire will probably go unfulfilled.

The Roadster Factory has always been my choice for Triumph parts { that is the things that Good Parts does not supply } but they recently had a catastrophic fire and who knows what will happen with them. Moss motors has lots of parts, but most of it is offshore made and of suspect quality. I hope The Roadster Factory gets back on its feet soon. They were really great .

Looks quite good. One thing to be aware of on these is the crankshaft thrust washers. The rear one { the one that takes the load every time you step on the clutch } can become worn and fall out of place. Then you have metal to metal contact between the crank and the block every time you step on the clutch. An expensive mess caused by a $20.00 part. I ran into this quite a bit back in the 1980's when I was a British car mechanic. I always change the thrust washers when I buy a TR6 or TVR { uses the same engine }. Cheap insurance. Most of the ones that came into the shop I worked at with failed bearings were less than 100,000 miles, often 70,000 - 80,000 . TR 6 engines use thrust bearings quite unlike normal U.S. made engine practice. Look at a diagram and you will see what I am talking about. Google has tons of information, a well known problem. And easy to fix if you don't let things get too worn. Good Parts have much improved ones for not very much money. Everything Good Parts sells is very high quality. A big improvement on original Triumph quality.

Unfortunately the law in Canada at least is pretty vague and unspecific. But in the end it is just how much tax you have to pay, a relatively small issue compared to all the other costs involved with importing a vintage car into Canada. in most cases transportation and exchange on the dollar is going to a lot more expensive than the tax.