1912Staver

You have a huge advantage in having an intact car to work from. It might not be cost feasible however you could use your existing engine as a pattern to build a new engine. It's been done before . And your Mason is a reasonably simple engine { as these things go }. If you make the investment in casting patterns it might make the restoration of other engineless Mason's possible as well. Factory original parts are wonderful, but on such a rare car modern replacements might be the only option. Greg

Yes, styling is definitely more Mercer like. If only people 100 years ago realized how significant cars of this type are and managed to save more of them rather than junking them for a couple of dollars worth of brass and aluminum. But even if there were 10 times as many as exist today I suppose they would still be beyond most of us. Greg

I would actually call it more of a Bearcat sized car than a Mercer. And from little I know about Palmer Singer's I suspect it is probably even bigger than a Bearcat. Its hard to picture cars like this ever ending up in a junkyard somewhere but unfortunately they did , by the thousand. Somewhere I have a photo of a similar body style on a 6 cyl Pope Hartford chassis. Such a grand car, and like sports body Palmer Singers no survivors as far as I know. Greg

With early P cars you can never rule out a restoration. They probably have the most fanatical group of owners existent today. Not really my thing, unless it is a mid engine Porsche. Greg

I don't recall ever seeing a front frame constructed like this. Is it possibly a European car ? That or a very obscure domestic. Greg

If you need an intake manifold and the fellow with these parts doesn't reply I have one. P.M. me. What exact year ? there are a few small differences. I have two or three spare ones and it seems to me they are all slightly different. But they are all Buick 6 1916 - 23. Greg

For once not even too bad a asking price, if it happens to be something someone needs. Mind you I have been trying to sell a very similar seat for a B-25 Buick for about 10 years at 1/2 that price and so far no takers. My seat unfortunately has no remaining leather or seat springs. Greg

I recall an old article from the 1960's I believe that mentioned compiled books like this. The article was focused on Harrah's operation with emphasis on the behind the scenes aspects , particularly the research library his people had assembled. It would have been from one of the 3 main club magazines, Horseless Carriage Gazette , The Bulb Horn or The AACA magazine. I don't recall which one , it will be buried in my stack of back issues. i even recall someone at a Washington State swap meet , at least 15 years ago who had a couple of the books for sale . He wanted more than I was willing to pay so I don't know where those particular ones ended up. Probably somewhere in the Washington State area. Greg

The poor man's warbird in the 1960's when I was a kid was the P 40 Warhawk. I used to look through my grandfathers copy's of Trade a Plane; sort of the Hemmings of second hand aircraft, and see the occasional P40 at about $10,000.00 . Quite a bit of money, but conceivably within reach. Surplus Allison's were cheap and quite plentiful. P 51's were at least $25,000.00 and a lot more expensive to keep in the air. Try pricing any of them these days. There is a admittedly much better condition than you would typically find in the 1960's, P 40 currently for sale very near me, " just " 1.5 million U.S.D.. Not much different than Model J Duesenberg's I guess. But unfortunately I don't own one of those either. Greg

Somewhere along the line the costs of flying took a big jump upward. At one time my grandfather and father were both pilots, my grandfather was an AME and my father was a recreational flyer. I flew quite a bit with a friend up until the mid 1980's recession wiped out all of our jobs. Incomes never seemed to keep pace after that. Prices of planes seemed to steadily march upwards along with all the other costs of flying. Wages took a decade or more to recover if at all. Flying became priced out of reach for all but a few. Sort of like what is happening with the car hobby. Greg

They don't look that bad. And at least one title. Way too far away for me, but I don't see what would hold someone back if distance isn't a problem. Greg

I had no idea they stayed in production as late as 1976. I suspect if they came to North America at all after the late 1960's it was in handful numbers. Great little engine. Based on the Coventry Climax racing engine of the late 1950's - early 1960's. Lotus Elite etc. But quirky with a reputation for frailty. They sold in small numbers in Canada in the 1960's , but were quite popular in the U.K. market. Most of the ones I have seen are badged as Hillman Imp's but I have seen a couple of Sunbeam's as well. They have a loyal following , but I suspect this one is priced a bit on the high side. Greg

I also have a liking for the weird but strangely appealing , 4th generation Crown. 1971 - 74. They look like something the Human hero would drive in a Godzilla movie.

I would like to own a 1965 - 66 Mustang like I owned back in high School. [ 1975 } But at todays prices ? Not going to happen . I paid $650.00 for a OK , but not anywhere near mint, C code , 2 +2. From what I see these days that's a $25,000.00 pretty average car. Over $35,000. 00 by the time I get it home. Exchange on my crap $ and all the usual fleecing's at the border. Way better things to spend that sort of money on. At least I still have the memories. Greg

About 1948 - 49. most likely from an Austin A 40.

On a 1916 they are most likely Baker. As long as you can collect the needed metal parts the easiest solution is to have the wood parts made new. It also works out best in the long run as your chance of finding decent, usable 100 year old wood wheels is rather slim. You can use your rears as an example of what you need for the front. Other than the hubs the wheels themselves will be the same front and rear. Your car looks like a really decent starting point. Greg

I used to be an Engineer on that ferry. The Dodge wasn't there in those day's. Sure looks run down compared to when it was a working ship. I always thought one of our retired ships would make a great storage space / workshop. But waterfront land to either tie it up , or land it ashore if worth huge money in this part of the world. A few of our ships went for very low prices when they reached retirement. The plan was to dig a big trench with a cat , float the ship in ; they actually are a lot smaller underwater than you think, and backfill the trench with the cat. But the land you would need would be several million $ these days. The two elderly brothers that own that ship are multi millionaires but live like a pair of old hermits. They bought lots of land around here years ago for peanut's . They used to have a big yard full of old cars and trucks on a property across the river from where the ship is moored , but eventually the authority's gave them tons of hassle and the majority were scrapped. Greg

The holes are most likely access points for grease fittings. The two stanchions are Westinghouse { probably , there were a couple of other makes on the market but Westinghouse was the most popular} air shocks, a somewhat common option on high quality cars in this era.

In parts of Canada things are even more restricted. No non essential travel, to work and back and to stores for essential purchases. But most places are at about the same stage of restriction as you are . Here in British Columbia we are slightly more relaxed than much of Canada. No Curfew but a very strong advisory to limit activity to essential only. No checkpoints { yet }. Your bearing shells are looking great ! Greg

I would tend to agree Ed, but like many things these day a lot is going to depend on where you live. A good friend decided to retire 5 years early from his high pressure job as shop foreman in a very busy , large ,aircraft machine shop . And start his own one man operation. But he had to rent space . Property is so expensive around here that he and his wife always lived in a town house. Very skilled guy, but it was feast or famine . A mix of aircraft , general commercial machine shop work and quite a bit of hobby car and vintage motorcycle work. In an area where a very basic starter house is $1,000,000 there is essentially no opportunity for home based businesses. He is now retired for 4 years and lives in a small house , in a small town in Alberta. No machine tools, but his house cost about the same as a parking spot in this area. Greg

I also see the situation as being the result of the drive for ever lower production costs. And overall operating costs. The Company I worked for has a good sized fleet of Costal Ferry ships. everything from small 25 or so car capacity vessels, right on up to 350 car capacity ships . Close to 40 ships in all , and ranging in age from 40 years old all the way up to brand new. When I first started 35 years ago the company repaired everything. If parts were no longer available we just made new ones in house. The Company had a comprehensive machine shop, and there were local foundry's that could produce any needed replacement castings. And things continued in this way right on up to about the year 2000 or so. But eventually the Company started to examine every serious problem from the point of view of what was cheaper ? Repair equipment or replace with a brand new { often offshore } machine. Major repairs on existing machines became less common , and far more outright replacement took place. Everything from 50 HP air compressors to main propulsion engines the size of a locomotive . { not a locomotive engine , the entire locomotive } This is the new way of operating. Greg

Fiat's and Alfa's would both would be great cars for someone who lived in Arizona... or the Sahara desert. I owned a couple of each , but they started composting almost as soon as the paint dried at the factory. 1960's and 70's Alfa's have shot up in price over the last 15 or 20 years, but Fiat's are still largely shunned by old car guy's. If you can find a good 124 , they have a lot of merit. But strictly as a nice day car. Greg

For a second gen Capri I would say the price is optimistic. It does look like a decent example however not nearly as popular as the first model. I can see a 1970 - 75 car hitting this price reasonably easily, but these facelift versions 1976 - 1979 don't have nearly as strong a following. Greg

Seller is as you say, 1st class bs artist. But $10,00 G's for a Buffalo wheel, open Lincoln doesn't strike me as a truly " crack pipe " price. A few of us like big Classic tow truck conversions and with a certain amount of flexibility on the part of the seller this could be a good start. I even have a spare 314 Caddy engine and trans to swap in and give it some real class. Greg

For a long time the dream was a cheap, fast " Saturday night " car. I fell into it myself as a young person in the late 1970's and early 1980's. These days the dream has shifted. I often see comments on a couple of other forums I look at along the lines of " that would make a cool EV conversion ". All the performance of a Tesla at 1 / 4 of the price is the new dream, Just the flavor of the month. Greg