mrcvs

This is the bind I am in! I have contemplated selling my Model A just because of this! Have to stumble over everything just to get it out...temporary storage has turned into long-term, with a monthly rent. Just this weekend my wife said she found a better place... But, no barn, a typical McMansion (shouldn't those be illegal?), a huge monthly payment. Admittedly, I liked the small farm over there at the bottom of the hill with the bank barn a whole lot more.

Yes, of course it all boils down to money and priorities. In my friend's case, he already has several tractors and cars. It's just that he doesn't have room for one more. In my case, my wife wants the house in a development, so not much room for anything. Not my ideal choice, but that's what she wants. Learned from how she was raised--everthing had to be fancy and new as her parents haven't the foggiest idea how to fix anything, which is sad, when you think about it. BUT, my friend not buying that Model T, and the seller maybe having to lower his price, myself not raising my bidding card for yet a higher bid...although not quantifiable, has to be a real phenomenon. E.g., a lowered inherent value due to storage problems. Saw the movie Salem's Lot last night. I think the car in it is a 1959 Cadillac. They just don't make cars like that anymore!

Rural vs urban. Yes, more country roads to drive, probably more urban and suburban dwellers not so interested in antique autos. In my development, driving my old cars around does attract attention, but beyond that no one else here shows any interest in such things.

Really? Lots of open land in southeast Pennsylvania (at affordable prices)? That's essentially where I live and that's not the case. I would prefer to live much more rurally, but something annoying called a job (LOL) prevents me from doing so! I have two old cars, one in my garage less than a mile away, that I rent. Not having the car on my property, I have found, means I have done little with it. Having to drive over to get it, work on it, etc Is more inconvenient than one might think. Have to haul tools, not having the right tool, having to have limited access. Works for some, not so much myself. I regard it simply as dry storage until I find a better property someday.

Obviously, this is an immeasurable, and abstract, value, but it has to be "real". I was talking to a friend today and he mentioned he could have bought a Model T at a reasonable price a few months ago, but refrained from doing so, as he had nowhere to store the car. He stated, in an ideal world, he would have a 50 x 100 ft barn to store cars. Likewise, I refrained from purchasing a car at auction last month for lack of where to put it. I know a limited amount of folks, and if this is the case, multiply times numerous other folks in the same predicament, it has to lead to a suppression in value, in prices realized. Of course, an abstract concept, but it has to lead to a decrease to some degree, perhaps 20 or 25%, vs an 'ideal' world where all folks interested in antique vehicles have no limitations on storage capacity. Comments? Call it what you will, but urban sprawl, too much development, overpopulation (excess population, and not necessarily saying I'm not one of the excess), leading to (too) small property size, zoning restrictions, home owner associations and restrictions, etc, etc, all these things which were not problematic until the last several decades, have to cause downward pressure on antique car prices and values.

Okay, fair enough! I AM moving very slowly on this. Something called "work" gets in the way of my hobbies!

We're they helpful? Don't know how to depict a 3-D image that is curved, etc.

What's that supposed to mean? With other obligations and limited time and space to work on cars, things sometimes move slowly around these parts.

Okay, the lower toggle piece makes sense as being for the choke. I thought it would be similar to the choke on the Johnson carburetor. I thought of plumbing supplies to make this work, as AutoZone didn't have what I needed.

Howard, Here are some photographs with a tape measure.

Please refer to the attached photographs. Shown is the currently installed Johnson carburetor and the replacement K D Type B carburetor. This is what would have originally been on the Maxwell but the Johnson carburetor has been on this car the 6 years I have owned it. I have not ordered a Zenith carburetor as I already had a K D. I have not encased the cork float in an ethanol resistant material, and both are options. The K D float is not cork. To start with...this Johnson carburetor has always been problematic. Not sure why it was installed other than to replace an even more problematic K D??? So, right now, although the game plan could change, I will give the K D carburetor a try. I believe all threading is pipe thread, and it looks like 3/8" flexible copper tubing would work, flare the ends, and I think the end at the fuel line is 5/8"; threading at carburetor 1/2". Does this sound right? Reason why I ask is local Ace Hardware did not have pipe threading for what I needed so have To order on line. But, the issue at hand "that I just don't see", is how is the choke assembly affixed to the K D carburetor? I just don't see any such mechanism in place--but there just had to be such!

I started looking on eBay under Johnson carburetor, limiting to automotive parts, to restrict results. In addition to some parts carburetor, some synthetic modern floats come up. Any ideas as to what would describe my cork float such that it translates into the nomenclature of a modern float, such that the correct size might be ordered?

Howard, Where did you obtain the photograph as the source of the photograph should be able to oblige. Because I don't know how to measure something with irregular dimensions. But, if we can figure out how to measure, and reproduce accurately, we can duplicate. I have one to provide as a template but would like to accurately duplicate because one is missing.

1917 Maxwell. The Johnson carburetor would not have been original to the car but I don't know why it would have replaced the original K D carburetor other than perhaps because the original carburetor proved to be problematic???

I am having a terrible time with the Johnson carburetor flooding this year, despite rebuilding it. The cork float just doesn't operate properly. I have an original K D carburetor which is what would have been on the car originally. It seems to me the Johnson replaced a problematic K D. Without regard for historical accuracy, what functional carburetor would you use that encourages reliability? It seems to me all this stuff would operate properly if you could still get "real" gasoline in this country, but this is the subject of another thread.

What a great topic for a thread! And, what a marvelous book! They just don't make authors like F Scott Fitzgerald anymore! Based on the description, realizing that the narrator is describing the events of the Summer of 1922 at a later date, he could have exaggerated the description of the car, in that it may not have contained a labyrinth of windshields, etc. E.g., artistic license. Someone as flambuoyant would be unlikely to drive a car more than a year or, at most, 2 years old. So, it had to be a car produced between 1920 and 1922. (Obviously, it could not have been a car produced after 1922, which is my gripe with Hollywood adaptations of this Great novel!) In my mind, it could have been nothing other than a Stutz Bearcat.

This might be part of the problem, too, sort of like real estate. Traditionally, up until after WWII, a house was a place to live and real estate didn't appreciate all that much. The last 10 years are more like this, or, worse yet, housing depreciated. But, from after WWII until about 2007, it didn't matter what you bought, when you sold, you were going to make money, be it a house or an old car. Now, with this not necessarily a given, it has taken a lot of the fun out of owning or investing in real estate and, likewise, the same must be with old cars as well, I should think.

Me too! Ran it Christmas day and it ran well. Now flooding and running rough. Ran two out of four tries so far. Other two tries led to flooding. Did they change the formulation of awful gas now available to something worse?

I did hear the 2 door '57 Chevy manual transmission on the column, no post hard top white with red interior, good recent restoration brought 40k no sales tax or buyer's premium. Seems a bit high to me but not over the top.

Same thing with auctions that are live streamed on the internet. More fun when just bidding against anyone motivated enough to drive to the sale vs against any idiot in the world with a thick wallet and lack of common sense!

If you like vintage drill presses here's mine. A $2 auction find a few years ago.

I think the problem today is multifaceted. Unless one collects old cars that are at the high end that has outpaced inflation, I think that old cars are not necessarily extremely expensive and outpacing inflation. As others pointed out, a car of 1920's to '40's vintage can be had very reasonably, even '50's stuff. If you want a brass era car that is in impeccable condition and not of a common make (I do!), or a muscle car, maybe this stuff is priced out of the league of most folks. If you just want a vintage car that runs, might have replaced parts, not a trophy winner, but something to take for a Sunday afternoon drive with the wife and kids, this can still be had reasonably. But, the problem lies with stagnant wages and inflation on everything else. How is the average working stiff going to afford something extraordinary when he has to pay for day care or junior's college expenses plus a mortgage, when his wages are stagnant? Or, where does one store all these cars? If the wife wants to live in a neighborhood (most do), gone are the days of buying from a local builder, a house on a decent size lot, room for outbuildings, at a reasonable price. These national builders cram as many houses as they can into a development and you get a 2 Or 3 bay garage with no room for a workbench. With tools in the basement and one car in the garage, it makes working on cars a cramped experience with trips to the basement to fetch tools. I rent space in a barn for the second car and it is nowhere near as much fun as having it nearby. I think in the past, there wasn't the propensity for national builders to corner the real estate market and base the cost of a house on the maximum two working individuals can afford. Okay, why not buy an old farmhouse with outbuildings? First, the wife won't like it. Secondly, unless really run down, they are rather costly. Even run down can be costly due to development value. Around here you are competing against the development value of the land to a developer, so good luck purchasing a place with some acreage and a pole barn one can fill with 8 Or 10 vintage cars.

Howard, Also, do you know where I might get the t-shaped adjustment screw at the base of the carburetor. It is actually a threaded pin with a cross wire. Mine snapped off from metal fatigue.

I believe mine is an A 320. I have a K D carburetor I have considered installing. It's not simply removing one and installing the other. My weakest link this year is the carburetor. Had problems with it years ago, then good, and now this year flooding and leaking again and cork float obviously not working properly.

Does anyone have a record of the hammer price of this small collection of automobiles? A '57 Chevy and several Ford's from the '50s.