mrcvs

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.

Anyone have photographs of this K D installed in a Maxwell for reference? I am having problems with the Johnson carburetor on my Maxwell. Float seems to not working properly leading to flooding. This has happened periodically in the past but worse this year for some reason. Also, where might I get the vertical pin on a Johnson carburetor that sticks out the lower part of the carburetor? I was fiddling with this yesterday and it snapped off

Yes, misinterpreted! I thought you got these off a 1920's Maxwell but seemed them Also appropriate for one from 1917. What year were the ones like those in my 1917 discontinued and the ones depicted above begun to be used?

Howard, My 1917 Maxwell does not have this type of tail light. I know yours is a 1917 as well. I am fairly certain mine is original. I will try and snap a photo later today for you. It is pretty generic.

I have a 1917 Maxwell. In the Maxwell registry that is privately maintained for quite some time, about 25 we're registered from 1917, out of about 80,000 produced that year. Given that there has been a fair amount of time since the advent of this registry, my "guess" is maybe 20% to a third of all existing Maxwells are in this registry, so, add up the total numbers in the registry and multiply by 3 and 5, and this could be a good approximation. So, for 1917, from 75 to 125. Not many. No doubt many succumbed to steel drives in WWII.

An individual on this forum DID contact me about a 1913 Model T. It will absolutely, without a doubt, work for me, with regards to price and what it is. As mentioned above, the stumbling block is "where to put it". I do need to find a better place conducive to my hobbies, a now 4-year-old house purchased new on a postage-stamp sized lot with a 2 bay garage designed for the car an little else for space doesn't really cut it. It's what the wife wanted. I broached the subject yet again, let's get a place with LAND, outbuildings, an EXISTING house, all much cheaper, more for your money. Her approach, she found another new house being built, same type of garage, 2 acre lot (not really "land" in my book), and more than 1/3 more than my existing house cost! So, I haven't given up, but I may need to shelve this idea for awhile, at least until the spring. I have never gotten a grasp of a new house in a development. No space for any real hobbies, ridiculous high prices (amazing how much folks will pay for so very little!), it's like buying a brand new car, overpriced... I digress, but this is a major source of frustration and what is wrong with America these days. PLENTY of good real estate available, with existing houses cheap, with no takers, and they line up trying to buy a BRAND NEW house with a price tag that will floor you! Then again, I have never really grasped the concept of eating at a restaurant when you can buy it all a lot cheaper at the store, have control over serving and eating the meal (don't have to wait for a waitress to get you a bottle of ketchup), not have to listen to some blithering idiot next to you, and have to pay for this wonderful experience at the end, and add a tip on top of it all! Off my soapbox...for now.

You know, I actually thought of doing something like this. Buying a property with an outbuilding, cheap, and using it to store stuff, like cars. In the end, a more costly approach than just selling this place and buying a place with a bit of land and outbuildings, but it "could" work. Again, I would not drive or work on stuff as much as if it were in my back yard, and you risk vandalism and other problems during your absence.

Okay, a very generous member of this forum offered up for sale a beautiful 1913 Model T for sale to me not too far away. I last spoke to him at the end of the summer, and intended to look at his car. That car, in photographs, looks so incredibly good that I am okay with a Model T. Reliable, and affordable. But, here is the stumbling block. The way I left it with him is I was looking at properties for sale with barn and garage space that were actually somewhat more affordable than the home I live in, where I only have .25 acres and a 2 bay garage. One bay has an antique car, another antique car I have is in rented space in someone else's barn. However, no matter what I do, I cannot get my wife to look at other properties. I guess there are folks that actually like living in McMansions. Okay, mine is one of the smaller ones in the neighbourhood, but still mass-produced housing meant to look pretty, but really more for someone that goes to work, comes home, kicks back and watches some TV, goes to bed, and gets up the next morning and does the same all over again! I can't even put up an outbuilding on this lot, so I am at a roadblock right now. So, how do y'all get your wives on board with your hobby? I really don't want to rent more barn space for another car, and, admittedly, not having the car on your own property is a major inconvenience, even if the barn is less than a mile away. I find I drive the car in the barn far less than I otherwise would, and working on it is a chore. I had it out front of my McMansion for a week recently while I waited for a part to arrive, and all I heard about for a week was that my eyesore was depreciating property values, LOL! Interestingly enough, as I worked on it, or looked out my window on some days, I saw folks in the vicinity walking by who were genuinely interested in it, they had never even seen a car this old, and I was asked lots of questions about it, and they were interested. I was impressed! But, back to the part in bold, above. Any ideas? I cannot afford another McMansion elsewhere where you could put up outbuildings, the cost of these monstrosities are ridiculous. An existing property with numerous outbuildings does not seem to be my wife's idea of a place to live. I might add she lived in 11 (!!!) properties growing up, 10 of which were brand new, and one of which was not. (Yes, somehow her parents believed a house wasn't worth living in unless brand new, and they moved from one brand new house to the next--back in the days when you could sell a house in 2 years and at least break even!)

Logic says I should get a Model T, eventually, but, then again, I am not always that logical, so we shall see. I am not completely a novice to early cars, as I have a 1917 Maxwell and a 1930 Ford Model A. I suppose if the Brass Era car ended up put away for awhile pending finding a particular part, I always have the Model A to drive, so it is not imperative that the car run at all times, although this tends to be more attractive than the alternative.

First, I am interested in one for touring, so having a Brass Era car that sits under a tarp all the time except when hauled on a trailer to a car show is not my style. I would take it to the local car show, but that is just my means of transportation to and from the show. As for a Model T. That is indeed an entry level Brass Era car. I think I want something a bit less pedestrian, although I have not certainly ruled out a Model T. I had seen a 1913 Studebaker at the local show and one was offered for sale in California, I think, some time ago. I tend to accumulate and not flip or resale, and with limited garage space, it would probably make things crowded a bit when I get the Model T, and then some other Brass Era car as well, although, hopefully by then, I will have long ago sold where I'm at and moved on to a place with more covered space. On this note, a car that can be in a barn, or similar environment, as opposed to a show car, would prove more practical. So, how do you know what to pay? I mean, even if an identical car as one that was listed for sale, it still is comparing apples to oranges. Condition may be far different, the asking price of the car you are using as a reference may be far different than what it sold for, if it even sold at all. Maybe a Model T is better in this regard, as at least there are a significant amount of sales relative to other makes & models. I was born 3 years after you joined the HCCA, for what it's worth. But, thank you!

Update: No, I don't have that Brass Era car yet, but I have joined the HCCA and enjoy the quarterly journals. Also, perusing the Classifieds section on their website makes me drool. I have realized, in the past year, either that I had completely missed the boat, and either focused on that super rare pre-1915 car, like the Pope Hartford or a 1910 Maytag, and given up hope, or that some of the lower priced stuff, is more readily available and/or that the lower priced stuff isn't as much of an economic hurdle as previously perceived. A few months ago, I did locate a 1913 Studebaker for $25,000, and there is a beautiful 1910 Maxwell for sale currently at $32,000. I am trying to pay off some pesky student loans in the next year or so, and once I am free of that burden, it makes sums such as these not seem so cumbersome. So, I am optimistic that maybe not in the next year or two, but relatively soon, I will be in possession of said Brass Era car. As I start to become more knowledgeable and pursue the Classifieds for this sort of car, how do you determine what is a fair price to pay, or what such car(s) are worth? I guess, I mean, how do you not overpay? The best I can do is maybe locate a similar car for sale and note the asking price of that one, and see if the one I might be interested in is priced less, of course not really knowing if that "other" car is fairly priced, or actually ever sold at that asking price, or anywhere even close to the asking price. I mean, how many 1913 Studebakers trade hands in any given year? The other hurdle I face is a lack of garage space. Trying to work on that...my wife adores the cookie-cutter house in suburbia, whereas I am more of a house and barn in the countryside in which the barn can house several cars...of course, fully realizing that a barn isn't the best of places to store a car--more accessible to vermin, etc., than an enclosed garage.

Was turnout good earlier today? I headed out and a little bit of drizzle, decided not to go, was afraid of getting caught in a downpour that never materialized. I have a Maxwell I drive with the top down because I cannot fit it in the garage otherwise. I will likely go tomorrow and walk around some.

Fortunately, no.

Yes, if time allows on Friday, I will give it a good flush.

I worded this improperly. It IS retarded (all the way back) when attempting to start and as it starts it is advanced. Does de-advancing it (putting it back, or, more correctly, pushing it up) decrease chances of overheating if steam formation seems imminent?

Fan belt is somewhat loose. But if I tighten it more, past experiences suggest it will just ride off the pulleys.