tomcarnut

I would vote for a Model A. I have a 1911 T and 1936 Ford. The T is easy on parts but tricky to drive in mountainous national parks with out a second gear and back seat passengers adding weight. The early V8 fords when running are great but mine has not run right since I got it. Fuel system issues are my current problem that an electric fuel pump will solve. The Model A has a gravity fuel system, simpler electrical system than an T or V8 and has three gears and four wheel brakes making it perfect for most cooler weather National Parks.( can even put in manifold heater or some closed A's have had A/C added. A standard A will run easy at 45MPH all day and easy to master shifting using a double clutch and are fine with back seat passengers. Add that to reasonable parts and tire availability via internet or phone arriving in day or so. If you want to go faster or worry about shifting the overdrive transmissions are available. Tom

1911 and early 1912 were open front doors that look just like the 09 and 10 but with a steel body that keeps paint on better than the full wood ones. They also have lot more brass. That is why they bring a lot more money plus substantial fewer around as they were pre production line cars. Those are I assume the reasons.

Late to this post. My Dad took his 1911 T engine to Mass from Ohio about 15 years ago to be stitched. Probably Frank. It is still going strong with no leakes. Had it out yesterday. Tom Muth

Keep checking out the HCCA.org classified site. They have one now in Jersey for sale but maybe too nice. There will be others later. Also check the Model T Club sites. I have an 1911 but not for sale as it has been in my family since the 1950's and I use it to tour. Tom

Transfer on Death title also avoids gift taxes if you give some of more than $15000 in a year.

I did find a brass Westchester # 22 Headlight for my 09 Maxwell. Now I need to find another. Some prewar stuff if you look at bit. Big crowds this past Saturday and only saw one empty booth. First Time attendee and I will be back. Perfect time and location for an indoor swap meet.

Anthony, I share the same affinity for 57 T Bird with my father. He ordered new one in 1957 and brought me home from the hospital in 1958. I inherited in when he passed four years ago. Fortunately I was able to enjoy it with him for most of my life. I live in Ohio so not near Florida but plenty of 57 T Birds there. In fact AACA is hosting a winter meet this weekend in Miami, Florida. You can look at the calendar on AACA’s home page and to get the location. The Show is this Saturday 2/29 and I am sure there will be a few 57 T birds. They could be in either their judged class, Original Class(HPOF) of driver class (DPC) You can maybe check with host to see what is registered. You could at least see some and maybe talk an owner into your dream. Tom

Very Cool!! Interested that there were few cars in New York. There is a 1906 video taken in San Fran just before the earth quake from a cable car on Market Street. A lot more cars and the people and wagons were driving and walking on both sides of the road. It appears in New York by 1911, at least the cars were staying on the right side of the road but the people were darting across the street wherever they felt like it.

I put on Hankook Optima Radial narrow whitewalls on three cars in the last 4 years. 14 inch on a 1966 Chevy Impala and a 1967 Chevy Camaro and 15 inch on a 1996 Buick Roadmaster which will be AACA eligible next year. I have several thousand miles on all three with no issues. The price was a little over $100 per tire in 2016.

Jan, You should buy it. Less work than your Moon. Tom

Ah, yes that is why I will probably not restore my Mom's 67 RS Camaro Convt that has lots of big door dings and some rust. My wife takes it out sometimes with her girl friends for dinner or concerts and I don't worry about what might happen in the parking lot. It has new rubber, brakes etc and is ready to drive anywhere. It is also our go to if rain is predicted on tour day as it has a newer top. Same deal with my 36 Ford Phaeton when I get it running again.

I have two of them. A McLaughlin -Buick Model 35 I have toured in for 15 years. Hope to have it at Hershey this year for the show and Hangover tour.. It will cruise on flat ground a 35-40 MPH like Gil mentioned above with the 22.5 HP engine that maybe is a bit more with the aluminum pistons. It runs about the same cruising speed as my 1911 T but the ride is little better and most steeper grades you can do in 2nd gear at 25mph vs low at 15mph with a T. When comparing to a 30 HP car of the era, the cruising speed is about he same but they might run a little faster up a hill with a heavy load in the back seat. This a lot less money than a 30 HP car. I also have a Flint bodied Model 35 I inherited from my father. Hope to get it running and sorted this year. It was a ground up restoration but not finished and sorted. A little nicer than a T but like any non Ford of this era, you need to get friendly with a tool maker if anything mechanical breaks. Probably 30-40 of these around the country and many are active on this forum or Brass Buicks. Best of luck to the seller and potential buyer. The seller may want to put this on HCCA site if not already. Hope to see this one on a future tour!

Great News! Congratulations. I like the trunk and whitewalls. A nice couple from Vermillion, Ohio, Ken and Kay Evenson had one of these they drove on Ohio Region Tours back in the 1970's and 1980's. Tom Muth Cincinnati, Oh

Matt, Great to see you back on this project! A few years ago, I had a similar expensive issue with my 1912 McLaughlin Buick I hope to get to Hershey this year. It blew the ring and pinion on tour in Defiance, Ohio. After long discussions with Clay Green and others, I send the rear end to him and ordered a new ring and pinion from a company in Michigan. It cost about $2000 which was no big deal and expected. Unfortunately, that turned out to be the cheap part of the project as the whole rear end guts were trash I have more in the rear end than I paid for the car. My wife reminds me of this when she wants to spend money on something. Tom

I have driven my 66 Impala and 67 Camaro in the rain many times and never noticed any issues stopping. Both are convertibles and the Camaros top is new which means now we drive it if rain is predicted as the Impala's top will leak a bit on my wife.

Here are my thoughts. I have three cars with small original small block chevys, a 66 Chevy Impala with a 327, 67 Camaro with 327 and a 70 Vette with a 350. All are stock except for radials and hose clamps. The Vette and Camaro would qualify for Driver participation and the Impala for HPOF as it is all original except for wear items like rubber and battery( Plan to take to Auburn). Each car is used about 1000 miles every year to go on tours and cruise to the tours on the interstates at 70-75 MPH with no issues and the drums on the Impala and Camaro are fine with rebuilt systems. I also have 57 Ford Thunderbird my Dad ordered new and now has 25,000 miles and has not seen rain since 57. Until a few months ago it had two original tires along 40 year old ones. I put on new Goodyear bias ply just like the originals. Now that I have new tires, I have no problem running 70-75 MPH with a three speed overdrive, 312, manual steering and stopping with the manual drum brakes that were rebuild a few years back with silicone fluid added. In fact it seems more powerful than the Vette while not cornering as well. My point is a stock 55 Chevy or any other car of that era and newer with a stock V8 will do fine with modern traffic and better than my 2018 Ford E450 Motorhome. If you have to have a 350, buy a late 60's or 70's car that had one in originally. I think the Driver Participation class AACA now has that allow small modifications like radial tires is all that is needed to get more cars to shows. Keep in mind, you can drive whatever you want on local AACA tours including your modern cars. While Dual Master Cylinder brakes may be bit safer, I have instead rebuild my single cylinder master cars with new lines etc and put in Silicon. The disc brakes on my Vette are little better than the drum cars but the drum cars stop much better than my new Motorhome. I also agree with Matt's comments that this forum is the one of the rare places for discussion of stock cars including brass ones that I also have. There are plenty of other forums for hot rodding. Tom

Jim, Jeff is also an active SOC member too. Always great hearing his stories. Tom

Jim, The Harwoods and Muths plan to be at the Ohio Region Spring Tour in Wooster, Oh hosted by the Canton Chapter May 15-17.Any other Forum users from Ohio should join us. Canton always puts on a great weekend tour. We should also have a local SOC event in February I think in the Lebanon area. Will sent the Gauge to you soon once our new editor gets up to speed. Tom

We still have a great group in the Southern Ohio Chapter AACA and it is growing and have tour/event hosts for about every month this year. Even new officers and Gauge editor. Hopefully you can make it to some events/tours this year. I will be pestering you and West this year. Tom Muth

I have two 1912 Buick model 35’s. One is a McLaughlin -Buick and is also titled 1911 as it was built probably in late 1911. This car we are discussing is definitely a 1912 model 35. They did not originally have brass radiators so this one was made for it at some point. A friend of mine got a basket case 12 model 35 a number of years ago that came with a new brass radiator. While he and I know it was not correct it did not make sense to built another one. It went on to AACA Grand National status. Have fun. Great tour cars. Gil who is pictured in the blue one at Hershey has driven his a lot as have I Tom Muth Cincinnati, Ohio

Congratulations, I have 1912 McLaughlin - Buick model 35. I saw it at Hershey in 1972 when I was 14. I purchased it about 15 years ago from a guy in Michigan. I hope to return it to Hershey this year. It is a fun car for touring. Good luck with yours!

Matt, Maybe if you still have it this Spring, you can bring it on the AACA Ohio Region Spring Tour in Wooster and we can detour to Dragway 42 and watch you smoke my 67 Camaro RS with the 327 two barrel with Powerglide. Tom Muth

They were also called Every Morning Fixit. You see them on the pre 1916 on brass tours. Clay Green used to drive the fields at Hershey in a 1910ish.

John, Thanks for the KUDO's and you are always welcome to join us again with the Southern Chapter of the Ohio Region, AACA. We had a great year in 2019 with wonderful tours monthly from April to October. We already have some neat stops planned for 2020. We had good turn out of the Southern Chapter when we hosted the Ohio Region Fall Tour in Cincinnati. We had nearly 100 people from the Ohio Region's six Chapters on this two day tour that included Jeff Wylers Collection, the Tri-State War Bird Museum, a covered bridge, Opie's Horsepower Farm and antiquing in Waynesville on the 100 plus mile tour. We even had a young 20 something couple from Youngstown bring their newly acquired 1923 Model T Ford that had not run for years until a few weeks before. After a tune up a couple days before and a couple mile test drive, they towed it down to Cincinnati and did the whole 99 miles on Saturday with out issues. Once back at the hotel, it did start to leak some antifreeze but just a couple turns of a screwdriver solved that. We also had a couple 40 year olds join with their kids and this forum poster rock star Matt Harwood and family attended in their 41 Buick. We also had a neighborhood friend and wife in their 50's with a Olds 442 attend after nearly 5 plus years of inviting. They had a blast. The key is quality tours that has stops for the non carnut spouse. While most of the car fans are guys, we have a few ladies too. Quality Tours sure beat sitting around all day waiting for $10 trophy. While I say that, I do try to do a few cruise ins taking a brass car and letting kids sit in the seat and try to squeeze the bulb horn. Besides Hershey as a vendor, I usually do the Auburn meet with group of guys in our Motorhome towing up one of our cars. Plan to be there in 2020. I also may be able to bring a brass car to the Concours next year where I will let kids sit in mine after telling them not to try that with other cars with out permission. I am always looking for new member especially younger ones. We have a neighbor kid who inherited a 1970 Ford Torino from his grandfather while high school. He got it running after rebuilding the engine himself. He did few tours then had a fender bender(not on the tour) so it sat for while he was college. He is now out of college with a good job, has the car repaired and ready to tour next year. I am also always reading these posts as we have got forum users like Junk Yard Jeff to become active. FaceBook is also a potential source of new members and many forum users like John are on that too. I am very positive about the future. There are plenty of young folks interested in cars including stuff like model t's. Just do an Ohio Model T Jamboree. You just have to push them quite a bit. As I am stepping down as our Chapter President this year and becoming a Ohio Region Trustee. It will give me more time to recruit and pester folks like you and your Dad to bring out that Auburn along with that Packard guy in Dayton, West Peterson. He has joined us in the past but is going to hear from me a bit more next year along with his buddies. Tom Muth Southern Ohio Chapter President, AACA

I love this post as I have been sorting out several post war cars I own the last few years. Now my focus is on several prewar cars including three brass cars and a 36 Ford Phaeton. I also try to drive all the sorted out cars once a month to keep them that way. Amazing the more you drive them, the better they run. I also have a 1911 T that is running great but a starter I added last year is now on the fritz. I have early Ford V8 guy giving me advise over the phone on the 36 after rebuilding the distributor and walking me through the wiring. The real issue with the car was the fuel system as the pump failed from probably from the alcohol in the gas. He rebuild it with a new diaphragm and it ran for a short period but it would try to die if I try to rev up when warm except if the choke was out. I put in new cork gasket on the top as the one that was new or old stock came apart. It then died after running just 30 sec and now will not pump any gas. The fuel lines appear clear as when pushing air from the line to the tank, I can hear gas gurgling in the tank. I am picking up a new fuel pump this week from Midwest Ford in Springfield to try before I drain the gas tank and take out. I helped my Dad do that on this car over 30 years ago and it was checked out and sealed. Don't know that was used to seal though. The lines look good and do not appear to have leaks. I may set up a separate post on this in the tech area if the new pump does not solve the issue. One question for this topic is have anyone used Thermocure by Evaporust to clean out cooling systems. While my 36 runs cool if I keep it moving, it will heat up a bit when at stop lights. While I plan to put in some new water pumps that the V8 guys say move the antifreeze better, I thought it would not hurt to run some Thermocure through first to clean out the radiator and block. I also have 1912 McLaughlin-Buick that runs ok but am taking to a brass guy soon to put on a starter and maybe solve some excessive leaks. Next on list is 1909 Maxwell that I got running a few years ago with lots of smoke but now will not stay running. After that is 1912 Buick( Flint body) that had a ground up restoration 20 years ago but was not fully completed or sorted out and now has Scheblor Model L Carb issues and probably other issues. Enough rambling. I really appreciate those that contribute on this forum including Ed and Matt. Matt, his wife and boys joined us on Ohio Region AACA tour we hosted a this past fall and were a delight to have. Hope to see them on the Ohio Region Spring Tour that will be closer to their home in Cleveland. I also invite any of you in Ohio to join us on local chapter monthly chapter events and tours or the Ohio Region Tours Spring, Summer and Fall. They are generally pre and post war friendly. Tom Muth .