wayne sheldon

A lot of model T people like to collect things made from model T pieces. I have a forge blower, the crank handle on it is made from a model T brake handle! That garden cart could be a nice addition to such a collector. Restore it with care, make it like it was many years ago, and you will have something special.

A very interesting piece of art regardless of its original purpose, or age. It would be admired by many. One point of clarification. Right hand drive or left hand drive is based upon the side of the car, the front is always the front. And the right side is always the car's right. It is never the "hand" of someone looking at the car from the front. In the early days of the automobile, most cars were driven on/from the right side of the car. This evolved down from traditions going back many years in horse and carriage days. In the early days of the automobile, traffic was sparse, and roads were bad. It made sense to drive automobiles from the right side of the car to watch the edge of the road. As things progressed, and traffic became heavier, it became more important to watch the left side of the car as cars passed each other going opposite directions. A number of car companies started switching to left hand side driving even as early as 1900. However, Ford's model T was the big switch beginning in 1909. Welcome to one of the best forums for antique automobiles on the web!

I would ride in one of those side drawer seats in a minute if offered, even at speed (preferably on a good road!). But then, I have run thousands of miles in model T open wheel speedsters and racing cars. The '29 Reo coupe I had when I was in high school had a rumble seat. Getting in and out on the provided steps was easy once you got Arthur Murray to give a few lessons. Actually, it was easy to figure out, however, there IS a right way. The Reo's steps were quite substantial and did a good job of protecting the paint on the fender. Kicking the side of the body was a different story. It was a bit more modern than I really wanted to play with. But sometimes I wish I had kept that car!

F Jim, I have missed the past several Bakersfield meets due to family I must care for. That is also the main reason I am not running down to Dan's place already. I know Erik Barrett in Auburn quite well. He is one of the best people doing serious antique automobile mechanical restoration around West of the Mississippi (and maybe somewhat East as well?). I am only about twenty miles North of Erik's place. I do hope to meet you some day!

My aunt lives in Long Beach (on the coast). The quakes splashed water out of her swimming pool!

The Reo may be a '28. The '29 had smooth fenders, not the "double crown". I had a '29 Reo coupe many years ago. They are fine driving cars, unusually good performance and handling for the late '20s, however with a limited following. That one would cost more to restore than it would be worth finished. I would actually like to have another Reo. But I have reached the point where I do NOT need to take on any significant projects. Hopefully you can find someone with a good interest and a desire to do a restoration. I would love to see that car done!

Nasty! Just out, a 7.1 about ten minutes ago! I have been in Califunny most of my life, been through several 5 to 6 level, as well as the '89 Loma Prieta 6.9! Never seen a swarm like this. These are also being felt unusually far from the epicenter. Sometimes about 200 miles away.

F Jim, Even on the world wide web, it is a small world. I have been following the "sympathetic restoration" of that model B Ford as much as I can. I know a few of the people involved, some only on the forums (but we trade emails and information quite a bit), and Kim D I have met and talked with on several occasions. Now I find that incredible model B has a connection to the fantastic Stanley my long-time friend has gotten! I do want to thank you for your part in the Model B work. I think it would be wonderful to have one of those really rare cars back on the road again! You do have a wonderful job! And I would bet you meet a lot of very nice, and often very happy, people. (How many claimed as "rare" cars really are really rare?) Drive carefully, and Enjoy! W2

I can't tell you just how WONDERFUL that photo is!!!! I have known the new owner for about thirty five years! He is a great guy, had some steam cars years ago, but sold them. He has been wanting to get back into a steam car for several years. I can only imagine just how he feels at this time. I have been on pins and needles for a month since he told me he was getting this!!!! That Stanley has an excellent new home, someone that knows and understands steam cars, and takes very nice care of all his antique automobiles.

A quite unusual early car! I don't know what it is, but I do wish I could find that in a barn nearby!

Details, details. Details matter. A bit tough to be certain, however, looking through the front wheel spokes it appears to have the over-axle type wishbone. They were used from the beginning of model T production until the more stable under-axle type was introduce late in 1918 with carryover into 1919 when both under and over style were used. The windshield on the car has what are sometimes referred to as the "offset" windshield hinges. The 1915/'16/ and early 1917 hinge pins were lower, causing the upper windshield frame to fold down lower, basically even with the lower frame. In mid '17, the hinges were changed to hold the folded upper frame about two inches higher and provide slightly better protection for the driver when folded down in warmer weather. Those hinges mean the car must be a late '17 or later car. The oil side lamps, and non-demountable wheels (no removable rim to easily change a flat tire while out on the road) don't really tell us much. Although the starter package and demountable rims became available during 1919, the cheaper models continued to be offered with no starter or demountable package. So those details can and do often show up on later model Ts in era photos. It is important to note that the oil side lamps were originally only installed on NON-starter cars. I can make out enough detail in the car's body to say it is an earlier "five-panel" touring car body. The five-panel body was replaced by an updated (slightly) cleaner lines three-panel body during 1921. So, although it at a glance is a 1917 to '22 model T touring car, the details narrow it down to a late '17/'18/early '19 touring car. If the picture was a bit clearer, and showed the horn button and/or light switch combination? We could narrow it down even further.

And photobucket wonders why I refuse to sign up for a subscription service. I figure they made promises, they broke promises. Not exactly the sort of thing that makes me like a company. I never EVER used them as a web host for photo links. However, a lot of people did. Suddenly hundreds of websites, had dozens, hundreds, even thousands of linked photos vanish from them. I had a good number of era photographs open to viewing by anyone that wanted to study them. All were harvested from a website that was open to public viewing. I simply put them in a better order so that people with an interest could find ones they may be interested in, whereas the website I got them from had them scattered through a couple years of random postings. I found their service and website glitchy, difficult to navigate, and generally unreliable. Every time I went there, I had difficulties signing in, several times I was unable to sign out because their server had a glitch in it. Other occasions I could look at a single page of (16 I think it was?) thumbnails, then when I wanted to move onto the next page, I had to sign in again. One night I was trying to rearrange some things, and needed to sign in nearly thirty times! I wanted to delete most of the photos I had there, but four different nights I tried to do so, I kept getting "error" messages saying the "delete" function wasn't responding. I was trying to be decent, now as far as I am concerned, they can keep those thousand photographs tying up part of one of their servers till the end of time. How they think any intelligent person would want to do business with them is beyond me.

You think THAT is being a "hoarder"? My wife sometimes thinks I am a hoarder, but then I remind her of my dad. I have a lot of stuff. But my dad? HE was a hoarder! I grew up with it. The reason the '27 Paige 6-45 sedan I have has never gotten restored was that he bought it as "the great family project", took it apart and then promptly buried it in the garage. A nice big two car garage that you could not see had a '20s sedan under all that stuff! Over the years, I restored nearly a dozen cars. Eventually I ended up with the Paige, but between family and finances I didn't have the resources by then to do the car justice. I am still restoring cars, but not to the quality the Paige deserves. Hopefully, maybe in a few more years? I may try to get it done yet. I used to say that when my dad died, the first thing I would do is get a BIG dumpster and fill it up! And I did. We gave away several cars that he never restored. I gave away a Bridgeport mill and a nice medium size metal lathe because I had NO place or time to put it. My brother spent about three years selling off hundreds of antique radios, clocks, tools (many I wanted to keep!). Meanwhile more piles of stuff was taken in for scrap. The last twenty years of his life, my dad would go to auctions and estate sales, see one item he wanted and pay a few dollars to get it, along with about a pickup load of other crap! It could have been okay if he kept the couple pieces he could use, and disposed of the rest. BUT HE KEPT IT ALL!!!! After my brother passed away, my sister went in and got rid of most of what was left. I KNOW what hoarding is. I am a collector. (Anybody buy that?)

Mugger, "Your money or your life!" (Silent pause) Mugger, "Well? What is taking so long?" Jack Benny, "I AM THINKING IT OVER!" Beautiful Maxwell! A good friend many years ago had a '22 Maxwell touring car. He loved it, and drove it on many tours for years.

Still there!? I saw that in Williams a good ten years ago! Yes, as Layden says, a Chevrolet. But then, Layden is nearly always right! And if you are there? One does want to get lunch (or dinner!) at Granzellas! About four to six blocks from where this chassis was (is?) sitting. No connection to the restaurant, I just love their chocolate milkshakes and well-made sandwiches! I was there to get lunch when I decided to stop in the antique shop when I saw the chassis.

Don't think anything I might say can help you any. Although I like and appreciate many cars from the '50s, they are much too modern for my collector interests. I didn't buy it, own it, or drive it. However, many (nearly fifty) years ago, I looked at and seriously considered buying a Kaiser Darrin. It wouldn't have worked out. My life never did. I had to sell every car I ever had and wanted to keep for the rest of my life, every one, for one reason or another, usually the "needs" of family. Still, to this day, I remember that Kaiser Darrin as the ONE 1950s car that I regret not getting.

BearsFan315, That is not the spliced version I saw some years ago. The one I saw had the frames cut and spliced together probably frame by frame. I figure it was likely done digitally. One side of the street showed the before while the other side showed the after. It certainly wasn't totally lined up and clean as the filmings weren't exactly matched. But the one side of the street being beautiful and the other side being rubble created an unforgettable image. The before film was with a camera mounted on the front of a cable car (you can see the tracks in the road). The after was likely on some sort of wagon as I think it took awhile before the cable powerhouse was operational again. The cable car tracks are still visible in the street in the after film, and the camera was bounced around a bit.

I don't even have to see the video of the film to know what it is. I have seen it many times, and it has been discussed on many antique automobile-related forums for many years. All good, it is an incredible look into a rare moment in time so soon before a huge catastrophe changed the face of a place forever. It should be looked at by anybody interested in history of the past two hundred years. And it should be discussed often. As I recall, about half the cars passing and turning around are of a single marque. If I recall correctly (getting worse each passing year?), they are Wintons. Apparently, the local Winton dealer got wind of the film being made and sent all his inventory and a couple personal cars out so that they would be "seen". Looking at the cars carefully (I did this some years ago!), there are at least three touring cars that are of the same year and model, and even have the same passengers sitting in the cars as they pass in review of the camera over and over again. Another car seen is an Autocar of about 1904-05. Incredibly, that Autocar is believed to still exist in a private collection. I do not know who owns it, but have in the past spoken with a couple people that do know the owner and the car, and swear it is absolutely known to be the same car! Makes a good story at least. Not seen so often, a followup film was made about a month after the earthquake, following the same route, and at about the same speed. It showed the same area and buildings as they looked after the quake and only some cleanup done. Also, about eight or ten (?) years ago, someone took the two films, and spliced them (I think using digital technology, but I do not know for sure), one side showing the before, the other side showing the after the quake. That was a startling image to watch.

Check in the attic!

My dad used to say that such air filters were designed to keep small rocks and low flying birds out of the engine. Regardless, no proper restoration or preservation of a car that had such a filter is complete without one. But if you think that needs a replacement? You haven't resurrected anything bad yet! Looks like an easy fix.

Sometimes fun to read these old threads again. I have through another antique automobiles forum gotten to know a fellow that owns two Gray automobiles. He is finishing one, and hoping to restore the other. It is still believed to be about ten (give or take one or two?) surviving complete Gray automobiles existing in the world. Gray, Dort, and Star, all seem to get mixed up together. On-line and book references are confusing, and not consistent. However, I do not think the Gray and the Dort are one and/or the same.

I figure this car is worth maybe half of the '28 Frank Wilkie is trying to sell. And even at that, Frank's would be the better buy by far! He has been asking $18,000 for awhile now. So that makes this worth how much? I do really wish I could consider Frank's '28. It is beautiful! And could be parked proudly next to almost any restored '20s or early '30s car!

Very unlikely that a 1918 Dodge would have had 19 inch tires. Very few cars that year used tires for rim sizes under 23 inch. Dodge probably did not use a 19 inch rim size until at least 1925, and probably closer to '28. There were smaller sizes way earlier, some cars around 1905 used 28X3 tires which fit on a 22 inch rim, a few small early cars used smaller sizes. Otherwise, pretty much nobody used rim sizes below 20 inch before 1925. So if your tires are 19 inch, the wheels are likely late '20s at the earliest.

What a wonderful gathering of fantastic cars! The Cole most certainly deserves more of a following in the hobby. You should be proud! And, hopefully, you can do this again in a couple years.

I wish I could be happy with one antique car. But I just ain't built that way. One of my longtime best friends (passed away too young about seven years ago) was good that way. He restored a '29 model A Ford Murray body town sedan beginning when he was in high school. He finished it after a few years in the Navy and drove it happily for several more years on antique car club and group outings. For several years, he actually drove that model A as his only car. He toyed for a short time with getting a model T. Then decided instead to get a bigger, better one antique, and a modern car for work. He sold the model A, bought a nice older restoration 1925 Lincoln seven passenger sedan. A car big enough to carry lots of friends. For about thirty years, he was quite happy with his one antique car. Joined a model T club (the '25 Lincoln was built by Ford in the model T era!), went on tours with them, CCCA, Lincoln owners club, and other clubs and groups interested in that era of cars. He took very good care of that Lincoln. Tinkered and improved the car quite a bit, rebuilt the engine (twice). His wife still has the car, and it gets driven occasionally, usually by one of his many friends that still keep close. For me? I lean toward older cars. Brass era, horseless carriage, both the bigger ones that go fairly fast, and the really slow ones. No one car really fits both those things. On top of that, I really like a model T speedster, properly restored to era correct in accessories, materials and construction. They represent an exciting area of automotive history, and they can be driven considerable distances at fairly high speeds. Gotta have one simple model T just as Henry built them, and because I really like to drive all year 'round, I do really want a nice Nickel era sedan. Over the years, I have had and toured nearly all the cars I really want. Unfortunately, family "needs" along the way forced me to have to sell all of them. So, I am left with piles of parts and projects hoping to get a couple cars back together to drive and enjoy again. None of the parts or piles is worth enough to be worth selling. Anything that was worth much already got sold. Besides, I like working on those really bad project piles and seeing them turn into a decent and enjoyable antique. I just need to keep them from now on. So my minimum collection would be one good T speedster, a '10ish one or two cylinder, a '15 T touring car, and a mid '20s sedan (CCCA acceptable preferred). That should do me just fine. None need to be high end expensive cars. Older restorations are fine, no show cars necessary.