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I'm hoping someone can explain why the left front wheel on this old racer is splayed out from the top. This was deliberately done as there are hammer tracks on the spindle where it was bent. Guessing it has something to do with running on an embanked circle track?

Wish we could see a picture of the racing roadster 90 horse with large gas tank and small oil tank.

My next door neighbor bought a sweet 58 cameo pickup several years ago missing a few hubcaps. He ended up finding them at an old guys place. He told me, "I really need to take you down there. He buys these cars and restores them and then sticks them in old shelters. The shelters are scattered all over out in the woods and he has parts galore." I never went. He died a couple of months ago. When I bought my current house, built in 1915, there was a 40 Ford convertible in the garage, in barn find condition. It didn't go with the house and was later street rodded. I suspect the OP was truly wondering if anybody had heard of anything like a private sale. Perhaps he had heard a rumor about something changing hands he'd like to track down, or, maybe his car had been found and sold as a barn find. A few years ago, a friend's dad was operating a bull dozer, leveling out a building site. Within view was a pole barn with several brass era cars in it. He told his son, who promptly looked into getting the cars out. Not long after, the cars disappeared. I suspect some barn finds are actually stolen cars. After a car sets around in a barn or garage a while, titles get lost and proof of ownership gets muddied and possession is 9/10ths of the law.

The Limited racing train photo can be purchased from MaryEvansPrints.com.

Does anybody know what this goes to? Period 4 cylinder Timer by Thomas A Edison Jr.

Talking about burning the shop down, a friend in Canada always left the radio playing in his shop until one day it shorted out and burned the shop down with his car inside. The experts do recommend a little thread sealer smeared on the flares if you can't get them to seal. The 410a refrigerant is notoriously hard to seal up with flared fittings but that's a whole different kind of gas.

My question would be how much difference would there be in this jug and the next size down. What if you took an A or B jug and sized it up?

I wanted to give an update to this problem in the hope that I might help the next guy who runs into this problem. What shoulda been very obvious wasn't. It wasn't the flare connection that was leaking; it was the solder joint next to it. It took me a while to find a 7/8 flare wrench. I'm kinda stupid as I still prefer to buy from local suppliers. To be fair, however, several suppliers said that had the wrench, both online and in store, only it turned out they didn't. When I finally found one at Ace, one village over, I figured out my solder joint didn't take. Several more attempts didn't take as well, and about the time I was ready to give up, I carefully set all my pieces up and set a chair in front of my work and got success. For some reason I decided to try and blow through the line and that's when I discovered the solder had completely blocked the line. A 1/4" drill bit cut out the excess solder and I blew the line out, installed it, and turned on the gas with no leaks.

Yes, what I'm dealing with is a solder on flare joint. I have been using open end wrenches. I'll look for the flare wrenches.

OK, I've got everything sealed down to the cut off between the tank and line. It is still resisting me.

Hey There, I am attempting to reassemble a 1911 Buick race car and keep as much of the original patina as possible. I knew I would have leaks once I put gas in the tank, and I don't know near as much as I once did and never did know as much as I thought I did, but oh my gosh. These are 100 year old fittings, still, they should, at least in theory, tighten up and hold, right? I'm thinking there used to be something like plumbers putty that could be slathered on the fitting to help them hold once tightened. Got any ideas?

From gtr80083 post in Mercer clutch question in 2020. "Continental announced later in 1910 that they had expanded their factory and could now take orders again. Mercer dropped the Beaver engine, and offered their 1911 cars starting in early July 1910 with Continental engines. Some months thereafter, they added their own T-head engines in the 1911 cars. We do know they had at least one T-head engine running in a prototype Raceabout at race tracks starting in August 1910. It seems that the first appearance of Raceabouts in public was at the Vanderbilt Cup series of races on Long Island in early Oct 1910. Mercer took 3 cars to that event, 2 racers and a backup car. Porter indeed "made improvements". The Raceabout was a fast car right out of the box. It just needed a good driver to make it win. Young Washington Roebling 2nd took a Raceabout to Savannah in Nov 1910, and came in 2nd in his very first long-distance race. One of the drivers he beat was Hughie Hughes, who saw first-hand how good the Mercer was with just a novice driver. Either he approached Mercer, or Mercer approached him; either way, he led Mercer to a very successful first full year in racing, in 1911." Really good information Terry. Thanks for posting. I wonder why Mercer didn't continue with the 6. Could it be that the power to weight ratio no longer worked?

Using your idea, I should be able to cut the 5/16ths rod and solder short pieces inside the housing I have without starting over. How does this sound? 1/4" brass pipe is about 9/16 OD. This should give me plenty to turn the wheels on something so light?

This is from SuperCars.Net: "The first Mercer was the Type 30 and the Type 35 became Mercer’s second car. It had a new T-shaped cylinder head designed by Finley Robertson Porter that produced around 60 bhp. At the time, the Porter engine was running on much higher compression than it’s contemporary cars and could produce more horsepower from less displacement. This meant the Type 35 was both powerful and light and essentially became the first production race car. The first Mercers featured a T-head engine which utilized massive 2.25 inch valves. These valves, with high-compression pistons and high lift cams, offered 56 horsepower at 1900 rpm." I was sure I had read on numerous occasions that Mercer used Wisconsin T head motors but that looks to be erroneous. This information from SuperCars.Net might also answer my other question as well. If Mercer built a 6 cylinder car, most likely Porter designed and built the motor.

Greg, My interest is not in the value of the cars but in the history and the truth of what is reported. From what I can ascertain from those who have driven the early cars, they truly are remarkable feats of engineering. It is not just hype. Mr Google reports that all the early cars came equipped with the Wisconsin T head motors and it is reported that Mercer asked Wisconsin to increase the compression ratio from 4-1 to 7-1. The thing that makes these cars so outstanding is the power to weight ratio, which also improves handling and they were lowered by using a smaller diameter wheel. The six cylinder cars, however, seem to be virtually unknown outside Mercer's inner circle. From my research, Wisconsin did not make a six in 1911, which begs the question, what motor did Mercer use in these cars. They did exist, and not just in pictures. I would also like to know if Wisconsin redesigned the motors before increasing horsepower. Mr Fred Hoch probably knows these answers. I have found him to be a real delight to talk to and I may have to call him again.

Here is the 6 cylinder Mercer at the 1911 Grand Prize race, Hughie Hughes driving. It was knocked out of the race due to magneto trouble. I guess it's just me, but very little seems to be known about this car.

Here is the bottom of the steering shaft and how I have it attached to the frame. Everything about this car is super light. Still, I can't see anybody undertaking a project such as this to end up with something unusable. My original thinking when starting this thread was that if I converted over to 30" bicycle tires, it would take less to steer. The wider the tire, the more difficult to steer. As to whether or not the car was ever practical, when I got the frame, it had been lengthened, indicating it was practical, otherwise, why modify it. I think you can see, I'm using common sense. We are pretty far out in the country here. The frame was made out of readily accessible items. If memory serves, I cut a square hole in the pitman arm and made a square on the steering rod. The steering attachment is simply a 1/8" inch piece of steel rolled over the side rails of the frame and bolted together, each end, with the shorter piece spaced and bolted to it. The housing bolts to this cross member and the second piece has a hole in it, not drilled but punched, for the rod to pass through. Without modifying something, I see no other way to do this. ABear, your car is very professionally made; what I have is very much less.

There is the anecdotal story of the blacksmith throwing his girlfriend out of the car as they went over a bump and the recoil of the spring sent her sailing. Really, the only thing I started with was the frame and a picture of the car and a firm conviction the car should be brought back to life if at all possible. Most of the family had passed on before I learned of the car's existence. This is an example of reverse engineering.

notice the size of the steering shaft I believe the second rod to be a throttle.

ABear, Thank you for all your kind words. Please don't be overly impressed with my motor. Several people told me I couldn't build a motor but it's amazing what you can do when you don't know what you can't. I scaled the steering off the picture. There is a cross member on the frame with a hole in it that would only accept a piece of 3/8ths pipe. I will try to post a picture tomorrow. The picture of the car shows a very small steering shaft. The 3/8ths looks to be the right size. In fact, if you go on the restoration page and compare the original picture and the one of my restoration, you will see they are the same. Could you post a picture of your motor? I'd like to compare. Is yours upright or horizontal. Do you know the make?

It looks as though the name on the picture may be correct. The closeup of Hughie Hughes does resemble the driver of the 6 cylinder Mercer. I've noticed Mercer has a cult like following. My suspicion is very few people ever knew Mercer produced a 6cylinder car in 1911. Mr Google can find nothing more than this picture. If I didn't know a couple of early Mercer guys, neither would I. Google the cars and you will see Mercer used 4 cylinder Wisconsin motors exclusively, but even that is not true. A customer could have any motor they wanted in the early life of the company. As I understand it, there are records of how many cars were produced with Rutenber, Continental, and other motors. I am just at a loss as to what 6 might have been used in these two cars. I might have accidentally answered my own question. Rutenber and Continental were both making a six cylinder motor in 1911. Both were rated at 60 hp but the Rutenber was a well tested motor while continental had just developed their 6 that year.

I wanted to say thanks to all the generous souls who attempted to help me with this dilemma. I went back and took some measurements today and the 1/4" pipe has an id of .312 while 3/8ths rod measures .375. I believe I can open up the pipe enough to accommodate 3/8ths rod without compromising wall strength. Still, as some have suggested, it might be unnecessary. The 5/16ths may be plenty with tires on the rims and the car under motion. I don't understand however, why so many applications use tube instead of rod for this application. From the information I have gleaned, the strength of tube is diminished by the hole size proportionally. I guess I'm too much of a purist; if the car cannot be replicated very close to original, why bother. I'm pretty sure this is the hardest project I have ever tackled.

I've been wanting to post this picture here for a while. I found it in the Detroit Public Library. It is labeled, Hughie Hughes in Mercer 6 in Grand Prize, 1911, on back. From what I can gather, Mercer made two six cylinder cars in 1911, this being one of them. Only, I believe this is Grover Truckstell behind the wheel. Grover Truckstell was in charge of Mercer's racing division at this time and has this distinctive nose. I would like to know what six cylinder motor was used in this car and anything else that could be shared.

OK, are we saying that a tube has less flex than a rod? I was thinking that both my 1911 and 1915 car uses a tube. I've already made too many changes for my taste. At some point you're not restoring/recreating but making. My experts all told me I needed at least five hp for a motor but now I realize the car was geared down twice, once at the trans to jackshaft connection and then at the jackshaft to wheel location. Notice the large gear on the jackshaft and again the large gear on the wheel.

The steering is direct. Are you saying I’m trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist?