wayne sheldon

Eight and a quarter hours to go, and current bid is $40,000. This could get interesting. And for whatever it is worth? I could live with the colors and upholstery. Can't really see the upholstery when you are sitting on it and driving! When it comes to tan and brown for colors? These are better than most.

Wow! No help for you, but I was surprised when I looked at the photo. The raised back/inside part that protects the side apron is basically identical (floral pattern, shape, everything!) to the step plates that were on my 1927 Paige 6-45 sedan when my dad bought it over fifty years ago. It only had two of them however. The boot scraper and other general pattern is also very close. The only and quite obvious difference is the box with the "Franklin" name. The ones on my Paige have no marque name on them. The little bit of sales literature I have for my Paige says step plates were available as an option. Whether the ones on my car were the factory option or an after-market? I don't know. I have been to a lot of swap meets over the past fifty plus years, and looked at literally hundreds of original step plates. I have never in person seen one quite like the ones from my Paige. I have seen maybe two bad photos of something close.

Definitely not model T. It could possibly be a Ford models N/R/S, however I am not an expert on those. There were a lot of cars in the 1905 to 1912 years that used a four coil system. Someone out there will know it the moment they see it. Good luck!

Generally, the two upper and lower bars of the bumper before 1928 would have been nickel plated. The clamps that hold the assembly together may have been painted black, possibly some other color or also nickel plated. There were numerous exceptions. Another brand of bumper (I don't know who the manufacturer was?) of which I have seen several, the two bars were painted black. However, they then had a nickel plated trim piece attached to the front side of the bar by a few special bolts with decorated heads showing on the front side.

I have always loved the landau sedans/broughams (there is that "B" word again?), most of which in the 1920s American cars did not have tops that folded down in the rear. Landaulets, real ones where the rear of the top folded down for a fresh air ride for the passengers had actually been somewhat popular with certain upper classes and wannabe upper classes for many years as family town cars (usually chauffeur driven), and as taxicabs so that visitors and local customers alike could feel like they were getting the "Royal" treatment! For early automobiles they were an extension of the horse-drawn carriage days when similar carriages were somewhat common. However by the 1920s, that style for American cars was pretty much considered "old hat". There were always a few exceptions, usually custom ordered during the 1920s. Even most purpose-built taxicabs had fixed roofs for the passengers, although some of those did leave the driver out in the cold. General Motor's short flirtation with the style in the late 1920s and earliest 1930s always fascinated me. I have no idea who's car like that I first saw, but I was still in high school at the time. I am fairly sure it was a 1929 Chevrolet. Within a few years, I had managed to personally see about three other Chevrolets and at least one Pontiac. Over the following twenty years, I personally saw three or four Chevrolets, Another Pontiac, and if I recall correctly, an Oakland! I seriously considered buying a 1929 Chevrolet over thirty years ago, in spite of the fact I didn't really want anything built after 1927. I just really liked the durn thing in spite of the fact I knew I would never be happy with it (because of its year of manufacture). So I moved on and bought something else. In the past twenty years, with the internet, I have seen pictures of several others, usually Chevrolet, but again a couple Oakland/Pontiac as well. I sure like this Pontiac! Tell your friends it looks great, and hopefully they can enjoy it for many years to come. Tell them "Congratulations" on the refresh!

Thank you chistech for the clarification!

Nice catch Rusty! It appears to be the same license plate as well! Notice that in the first photo, the mother-in-law seat is clearly more narrow than the front seat, and the "box" under it is considerably wider than the seat. In the the first phot Varun C shared, the rear seat is wider than the "box" under it, and there appear to be two ladies seated in the rear seat and an additional lady with the driver in the front seat. A lot of cars that era had a detachable tonneau or "rumble seat" (mother-in-law seat by another name?) that could be easily removed. Many car manufacturers had "double rumble" seats available for their cars, and some owners would have a couple options and switch them for different occasions as needed. Two great photos of a very rare early car! Thanks to the original poster (wherever he is after so many years?). And special thanks yet again to Varun C for identifying such a rarely seen automobile!

It is a big project! I hope you are up for the challenge. Rust is a big problem with these, but can be repaired in several ways. Each area will need to be individually assessed and a plan made for repair. A lot of people will tell you it can't be done. I won't say that. Some of us enjoy the challenge! There is a special satisfaction for every piece that you bring back from the brink! I have restored a few cars that others told me could not be restored. Don't think it will be easy, or quick. First, clean it up! Take lots and lots of photos, closeups of every original thing before taking anything apart, and while taking it apart. Then decide whether to tackle the body work or the mechanical work. Don't try to do everything at once. However, along the way, an occasional detour to another area for small projects can break the monotony of not seeing progress. Make a list of items you need to replace. The bumpers look like you should try to get better ones. Hubcaps, interior trim, any other things you should be looking for all along. A good way to approach projects like this is to commit to at least one hour per day working on the car! Even if just a little thing each day, it keeps adding up. Take it like some "me time", a break from regular work and daily stresses. It works! The quickest way to end progress is to stop doing that daily one hour. First thing you know, it has been a week. Then a month. Then years. Good luck! And I am sure a lot of people on here would like to follow a restoration thread under the "Our Projects" headings.

Been years since I bought anything through eBay. So fully a guess on my part. I would suspect they would be using the air padded envelopes. My wife buys a lot of stuff through Amazon, and they have been using more and more of those envelopes over the past couple years now. They work well for a lot of things. However they do get rough treatment by postal and delivery service people. Several items shipped this way have arrived damaged. She bough a DVD of an old favorite movie she wanted to see again. The plastic case was badly broken , but fortunately the DVD itself was not harmed and we enjoyed the movie. Hopefully sellers will seriously consider how vulnerable their merchandise is?

I would hope at least most of anything from the Knights could be granted a temporary sanctuary to find time for valuable and needed parts to be found and preserved. Beyond that, I also have a soft spot for the Whippet line of cars. My dad's first car in high school was a Whippet! On the other hand, I am in no place to help out either. I live a little too far away, and am too broke to help out much. Any better information about the cars? Years, models, body styles? Condition? Any cars worth restoring? Any cars that maybe could be made to run and drive mostly as is? 1927/'28 Whippet roadster?

Well I am sure glad that you did share these photos of the Sunset! They never built very many of them, however they produced a good number of them by Western standards. San Jose likes to brag about them being built there, and downplays that they were also built in San Francisco. I had forgotten that this one was a San Francisco built model. It is as far as anyone I know believed to be the only known survivor. There was a rumor that maybe a few pieces of another one still existed about fifty years ago. I was never able to find out who had it or otherwise confirm the rumor. The other "built in San Jose" early car was the "Osen & Hunt" (or Hunt & Osen depending on the source you read?). They built either five or seven automobiles (again depending on the source you read?) between 1899 and 1907. I knew the collector that owned the only remaining one of those. He had had the car for about fifty years himself, and for many years showed it and sometimes drove it at local antique automobile events. That collector passed away almost twenty years ago, and several local historians and collectors made arrangements for the Osen & Hunt car (claimed to be the 1899 model) to be purchased from the estate and donated to the San Jose History Museum. Several longtime friends volunteer there, and one of my longtime best friends is the primary caretaker for the car now. Sorry for the drift. Just so very much interesting history to our beloved antique automobiles!

Why can't I find deals like that when I need one? Some years back, my mother had a late '80s/90ish Oldsmobile four door sedan. It was in beautiful condition looks-wise, but always had problems mechanically. My brother usually managed to keep it running, and every other year for a number of years fought it through the biannual state smog checks (it always failed at least three times before it could pass). Then one night, an "illegal immigrant" in a stolen car ran through a stop sign (blew through at 40+ mph!) and totaled the Oldsmobile. Fortunately, mom and Bill were not hurt. Court ordered restitution from the miscreant, but I don't think a dollar was ever received. Mom's insurance was not adequate (nobody takes my advice!), and we searched for a few months for an affordable cheap car to replace the Olds. All that long bit of garbage to get to what we ended up getting for mom was a 1990ish Buick, I think it was a Park Avenue. Dang that thing was beat! Driver's seat was broken, interior was moisture damaged. The windows leaked, floors rusted out, paint was failing, what a mess. But doggone that thing ran good! Only a few minor mechanical problems in the ten years she drove it! I had to replace one of the double cylinder coil packs when it failed. And a plastic fuel line cracked in a line after the fuel pump. It was a serious fire hazard, and in a line that couldn't be replaced easily. I managed to slip a piece of rubber fuel line over the crack with sealant and hose clamps to stop the leak. It was her last car until she quit driving due to her age (she is still with us!). We ended up junking the car because it was falling apart and we had no good place to keep it. I hated to do it, because it was a good runner. All that to say those Buicks can be good reliable cars! Congratulations, and hope it gives you years of good use and enjoyment.

Thank you again for so many great photos of wonderful automobiles! I especially like the photos of the Sunset automobile. It was built in San Jose California where I grew up and worked for most of my working life. I have known about that car for fifty plus years as the only known real survivor of the Sunset line. An uncle by marriage had family connections to the Sunset automobile back to when they were being built. I always hoped to be able to see the car some day, and have in the past searched for photos online and in club magazines. These are the best pictures of that special car I have ever seen!

The Curved Dash Oldsmobile appears to be an early model R, likely a 1901 or 1902. I can see the sharp corner at the rear of the rear deck, along with the wire wheels. I can't tell for sure, but it looks like it may not have brake drums on the rear wheels. The CDO looks to be a few years old at the time the picture was taken. The other car, stripped for racing perhaps? The radiator looks like what Oldsmobile was using along about 1906 into the early 1910s. I wonder what the event was? There are a lot of people both in the stands and standing around the track, more than I would expect for some sort of "then and now" comparison between the fast new model and the then archaic early model. Maybe this was a before the race exhibition? Certainly an interesting couple of photos.

Wonderful stuff! Thank you for the photos. It is pretty high on my bucket list to get there for the OCF some day.

I am not sure, but I suspect the "pickup" began life as another taxicab. It appears to be the front half of a cab body, and the back of it looks somewhat unfinished with a too large window. Why I hesitate to be sure, is that "Yellow" did build trucks and busses as well as cabs. The box is a factory built one, quite similar to what Ford began offering in 1924 for the TT truck, and Dodge had been using for their "screensides" for nearly a decade by then. Similar steel boxes were commercially available and could have been purchased by anyone including Yellow, or a later owner. Interesting pickup regardless. And I love that taxicab!

That is the nice thing about really liking model T Fords! They can be restored on the cheap. No harm. No foul.

For whatever it is worth? A close friend many years ago had a 1927 Oldsmobile four-door sedan. I know that it was the first model Oldsmobile to use the new three layer chrome plating system. If I recall correctly, it was the first GM model to do so, and one of the first models of any major manufacturer of automobiles to use the new chrome process. There had been a very few companies a few years earlier that tried chrome plating, but the earlier process result was that it flaked away after about a year. I guess I am one of the many that know a little bit about a couple years of prewar Oldsmobiles? (I know a lot more about Curved Dash Oldsmobiles and a bit about other brass era Oldsmobiles.)

Now, THAT is funny!

If they're the ones I remember? My dad hated them! California had a flirtation with annual and/or random inspections. There were two of the dumb things, one for each headlamp, and yes they sat against the three flat tabs on the headlamp bulb. The problem with the design was, that they had an alignment sight between the right and the left which ASSUMED (you KNOW how that word is spelled!) that both headlamps were perfectly placed at the factory and that NOTHING had ever happened to the car to alter their placement. He had a company purchased car that later became his, and although there were no known accidents or issues, every single time he would get forced into a "state inspection", they would screw up his headlamps due some extremely minor misalignment between the fenders. They of course were "experts" doing what they were trained to do! Most times, no amount of explaining the geometry would keep them from screwing up the aim. And that evening, he would have to once again park the car on a level spot facing a wall and take his headlamp beams out of the gutter where the aiming boxes always put them.

That looks better! Thanks nz.

I usually don't comment about people's prices much. But criminy! Only about four times what it is worth? I know a bunch of people around Hayward area, my old stomping grounds! Thankfully, I do not recognize the car or the guy. (Hopefully I don't get any nasty calls about my comments?)

Wow. Thank you.

Photo was likely flipped at some point. Buick automobiles that era (as with most American cars that era) were mostly right side driven. There were some cars that offered left side driven, but before 1910, they were mostly the exceptions. Most American manufacturers were switching to left side driven by 1914, however a few stuck with right side driven until after 1920. Also, windshields were optional on most cars prior to about 1908, and many cars for even several years thereafter.

History needs to be understood in the context of its time. It is the way it was in those days. An automobile, any automobile, a car or a truck, was such a huge improvement over the horse-drawn conveyances that came before that a minor inconvenience like sliding across the seat to get in or out simply wasn't a bother. Most people today do not understand that because they have gotten so used to instant and easy everything, that any minor inconvenience is considered a major offense. Ford, between 1912 and 1925, built literally millions of touring cars and runabout/roadsters that didn't have a door on the driver's position in the car! The earliest model Ts beginning in 1908 had no enclosure for the front seat at all. No door on the right or the left front seat. Getting in and out with the tight fit around the steering wheel and the brake lever made it common for the driver to cross over and get in and out on the passenger's side. So when they began enclosing the front seat area, most body styles got no door on the driver's position. There were exceptions, some sedans, coupes, Canadian built model Ts (a whole another subject!). And Ford was far from the only one to do so. Hundreds of other marques and models of the 1910s also produced countless hundreds of thousands of automobiles with no door for the driver. Just the way it was.