wayne sheldon
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Posts posted by wayne sheldon
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Welcome to the forum!
This week is a bad time to be asking difficult questions. Too many of our best and brightest are busy with Thanksgiving week visits, preparations, and etc. I recommend bumping your query up a few times into next week when many will be back.
What makes this particular carburetor "unusable"? Usually, these type brass carburetors are fairly bulletproof. While many little pieces may be damaged or lost, with a little creativity, almost any piece they may need can usually be made with basic shop tools.
Usually, when we deal with an "unusable" carburetor it is because back in the day, a lot of them were made using a type of "pot-metal" wherein the chemistry wasn't fully understood in the day. And after a couple decades the main body and other critical pieces began to disintegrate due to an incompatibility of metals used in the mix. When that happens, often it will happen to all of a given model of carburetor as all of them were made using a similar metal mix. Often then, nearly all of them after nearly a hundred years have become unusable, and the only reasonable remedy is to find a suitable replacement. Suitable replacements for large displacement engines can be difficult to find.
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I have never owned either one, however, over the years I have known a bunch of people owning and extensively touring late 1910s to mid 1920s Buicks and Dodge Brothers automobiles. Generally speaking, I think the Buick sixes are about ten mph faster than the Four cylinder Dodge Brothers cars. (To be clear, I have never known anyone with one of the last Fast Four Dodges, so cannot comment much on them, though I have heard they are a bit faster than the earlier Dodges?) The Buick fours of the early 1920s are about halfway between the Dodge and Buick sixes. Basically, all the Buick models that era are impressive driving cars relative to the era.
I have driven quite a few cars with two wheel brakes, and personally do not fear them. Pay close attention to everything around you, keep some extra room in front of you (yes, the modern drivers will cut in front of you often, live with it!), KNOW your car's braking limits, and be very careful.
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The front seat bottom cushion appears to be over-padded. But that might help someone a bit for comfort behind the steering wheel.
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Those Wintons were rather large cars! A collector I sort-of knew about twenty years ago had a 1917 seven passenger touring car very similar to that. I saw it out on the road one time. And also stood next to it when I visited his shop on one occasion. He had a nice collection of brass and nickel era cars. One of the most beautiful 1913ish Cadillac opera coupes I ever saw! His collection numbered about thirty cars I would guess, ranging from a 1901 Knox to a couple early 1930s Classics. I recall Lincolns, Cadillacs, Locomobiles, and at least one Stutz. More unusual, I believe he had two Scripps Booth automobiles, one a V8.
It was an interesting collection, and the Winton fit right in!
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As I said, I was never really into boats or boating. However, always trying to learn about almost anything, I have spoken with people that really were into those money pits (a small hole in the water one throws lots of money into I have been told!).
They have told me "port" and "left" both have four letters and end in "t". I was also once told Starboard and right both have more than four letters (makes sense?), and both have an "r" in them. To which I questioned that doesn't "port" also have an "r" in it? And by the way, doesn't "right" also end with a "t"? (I think one of them got mad at me?)
Regardless, the four letters and "t" works well enough that on the rare occasions I need to, I can quickly figure out what someone means. I think?
The green or red I just visualize the right of way.
Of course, one should never count on the other driver to yield the right of way when they are supposed to. Way too many times I have had to avoid a collision when I clearly had the legal right of way.
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1 hour ago, dictator27 said:
How about the Panhard Dynamic or the Tatra 603. Both very individualistic, incredible cars.
Quite a few years ago, I had an opportunity to look over a Tatra (I don't know the model number?), from the early 1950s. I was told it was virtually identical to the late 1930s models.
I have seen a couple Panhard Dynamics over the years. One If I recall correctly was in the former William Harrah collection. Those great European designs of the entire 1930s were fascinating!
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It supposedly also indicates "right of way" (although those little jewels my be tough to see in the dark?). With the red jewel on the left/port side, a driver approaching from your left should see the red jewel and know to stop because you are on his right and you have the right of way. The drivers coming from your right/starboard side would have the right of way over you, and you should see their red jewel while they see your green jewel telling them to go as they have the right of way. That all did originate in maritime rules (although I never got involved in boating and actually know little about it).
The 1925 Studebaker I had many years ago had the jewels in the cowl lights.
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As horrible as war is, almost always a lot of businessmen make a bunch of money providing the tools for war for a short time. Then after the war, they have factories and other facilities and no more temporary market to sell to. So it was after the end of the "Great War", long since renamed World War One. In the two to three years that followed, dozens of businessmen fancied themselves to become automobile manufacturers. I am sure that with a little research, one could find a couple dozen names of automobile startup companies building "assembled" cars of mediocre design for less than four years. Some never got past a prototype or two. A few made maybe a thousand cars total. Practically all of them combined are little more than a footnote in history books. Only a very few are actually considered desirable, or really valuable.
Fear of unknown orphans keeps most hobbyists away from even considering owning one of those oddities. The sad part is, that being "assembled" cars means most of the major parts are actually ones used by several other companies! Rear end, transmission, and even the engine may not be commonplace, however, hopefully not all the surviving parts were recently shipped to China? A given Continental Red Seal engine of a given series was practically the same regardless of what car it was in. While not quite the same thing, the Warner Gear T68A-1 transmission that donated the parts needed for my 1927 Paige 6-45 sedan was out of a Jordan!
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1 hour ago, sebastienbuick said:
Do you know why the Edsel was not liked ? I really like the Edsels, I found them very beautiful !
People have been debating and theorizing about that for more than sixty years now! I have never had one, and am not an expert on them. I know they had a number of for the time supposedly advanced features, which some people weren't ready for. However, chief among the suspected reasons was the styling and that large grill center. It was often called a "horse collar" grill due to its resemblance to the horse collars that farmers and teamsters used for draft horses a generation earlier. While there was something imposing in the appearance of that grill, I never thought it looked bad, nor was it so different from the exposed radiators thirty years earlier. About a decade later, Pontiac used a similarly centered grill protrusion on their cars, which was quickly accepted and became the identifying characteristic for the marque.
The car and its overall styling was big and imposing, however, most American cars during the mid and late 1960s were large and imposing.
Some people think the problem was Ford Motor Company's marketing approach. While Ford was a large, solid, and very well established company, they tried to make the Edsel into a "new" and separate entity. New dealerships were established, and they began to compete for sales against themselves! That created a level of distrust to some longtime automobile customers.
The final two years for Edsel, they toned down the styling. Whether that was the real issue or not, it was basically too late to save the new car-line. The Edsel had been, and became synonymous with, an utter failure. The new dealerships had invested great amounts of money, and suddenly had no product to sell. Unable to get franchises for American built automobiles, many of those new dealerships went to selling European automobiles! Which in turn created greater competition for American automobile manufacturers.
The long history of the automobile, and its cultural connections is fascinating. Studebaker, during the 1940s and 1950s, was quite different than most other American automobiles. Their styling was nearly always during those years about a decade ahead of any others. While most of Detroit was building the big imposing automobiles, many with big tailfins and other imposing features, Studebaker was building stylish smaller and more economical cars. Studebaker did have a niche and very loyal following which helped their survival for awhile. But Studebaker's differences and some level of success makes one wonder about how much of a role styling does play in the failure of the Edsel?
But the demise of Studebaker is another subject and debate for another day and thread.
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Oh great. Now my hat won't fit.
Seriously though Terry H, thank you so very much for the kind words.
I am just very passionate about so many things, and history, sociology and the changes that went hand in hand with the changing technologies are among my top interests. Being so passionate about these things makes me want to share what I have spent a lifetime trying to learn.
Again, Thank You!
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57 minutes ago, dictator27 said:
I think it is obvious that the design of the Peugeot 202 and 302 was influenced by the Chrysler Airflow. Unlike the Airflow which met with strong sales resistance, the 202 in particular was enthusiastically accepted by the French motoring public, lasting until 1948. I think European car buyers were more willing to embrace cars which were unconventional in their design.
American automobile buyers have always been fussy that way. Hence the short run of that particular series of 1929 Buicks. Something as minor as a slight bulge below the beltline chased away the buying public, causing Buick to redesign the series to the previous more straight sides. Ford's Edsel in the 1950s was another example of American buyer's reluctance to some styling changes. The Edsel was a very good car, ahead of its time in many ways, but most Americans simply would not accept it. The Chrysler's "Airflow" is another well known automobile well ahead of its time that most people that could even afford one would not buy one.
While my primary interests in historic automobiles has always been in earlier automobiles (1900 through the mid 1920s), I have always been attracted to the European automobiles of the 1930s with their sleek designs. So many incredible marques with aerodynamic designs that just exude elegance!
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Nice! The Ajax may be somewhat rare? But at least it isn't one of the three I have seen show up repeatedly over the past eight years! I don't care for the color, however, otherwise it looks like a pretty nice car at a fair price!
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10 hours ago, bob staehle said:
Not a 1918 at least 1920 model 4
My thought exactly!
Funny how often when a car doesn't match up to what a person has been told, it becomes a "prototype" or "preproduction" car? Don't they ever think that maybe someone fifty years ago guessed wrong?
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A lot of people in the past half century have put water pumps on model Ts for no reason other than they didn't believe it could work well that way. Many people even when the cars were new, had the same doubt, and like snake oil would buy them because some huckster told them to.
Modern cars use them mostly because the modern engines produce a lot more horsepower, and rev at much higher speeds. Manufacturers figure that force cooling via water pump and thermostat is cheaper than a radiator large enough to radiate as much heat as the modern engine produces.
Thermal syphon is an amazing concept. No thermostat is required. The harder you push the car, the faster you go, the more heat the engine produces, and the faster the water flows! If everything is working properly, the engine automatically runs up close to optimum operating temperature regardless of weather or speed (except not of course below freezing when a winter-front is required).
Where a water pump "sometimes" helps a little bit, is if the radiator has aged badly, and no longer conducts heat out of the water quickly enough. Even then any help from adding a water pump is minimal at best.
Water pumps often push the water too fast causing the water to push out the overflow tube, in turn causing the water level to get too low and result in boiling over. Either that, or under certain conditions of speed and weather, the water pumps will restrict the flow to slower than the thermal syphon would do and again can cause overheating of the engine.
Water pumps were very popular accessories late in the model T era, especially during the 1930s. Radiators were getting older, corrosion was reducing their efficiency on the outside while years of dirty water was reducing their efficiency on the inside. A lot of people fell for the salesman's talk of the magic cure of a water pump. So, original era water pumps are quite common today. They usually, even then, didn't really help much.
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Often, that middle area had the car's marque name in it. I don't know if this one is a marque factory offering or just after-market. Either way, a sheet metal piece could be made using simple tools to put behind the glass, or milk glass could be painted on the inside for a good effect. I have seen several like that where people made them one way or the other.
Great looking lamp!
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Thank you Xander W. Due to the the many fond memories I have from my "too modern" Reo so many years ago, I do enjoy seeing Reos from that era. This one is the smaller version Flying Cloud, sometimes called the "Mate" as apposed to the Flying Cloud Master I had. The Mate was also a fine car, comparable to the smaller Buick of the time.
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Thank you sebastienbuick for so many wonderful photos of truly interesting automobiles! I of course really enjoy seeing the earlier prewar cars. The several photos of late 1920s or early 1930s delivery trucks near the beginning of this thread were particularly interesting. They got me to wondering what such commercial vehicles were usually called in France? Some of the global English speaking world call a "truck" (the American word) a "lorry" in much of the rest of the English speaking world. Most Americans are not familiar with the term "lorry", however after so many postings on forums from English speaking countries around the world the term has become almost natural to me. So now I find myself wondering what such vehicles would be called in France?
Also, about what year would the "202" and "302" Peugeot automobiles have been? I really like the look of those. And the similarity in look of the green Simca is interesting to me. Any relation?
The 1929 Buick is an unusual model, not often seen even here in America. When that particular style first hit the market early for 1929 (well before the stock market crash), it wasn't accepted by most of the automobile buying public. The slight bulge below the beltline just didn't look right to many people, and several disparaging remarks became common for them. By mid 1929, Buick went back to the more straight earlier style which remained through 1932 when they and most of the American automobile companies began more streamlined styling overall (a bit behind some of European styling).
Again, from me along with many others here, Thank You so much for sharing the collector automobile hobby with us a half a world away! It is so wonderful for us to see it. (As well as the beautiful architecture!)
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I am about ninety-eight percent certain I know that car! It has been almost forty-five years since I have seen it, but it belonged to a very good friend of mine.
A 1925 Stearns Knight oval window brougham is what they called it.
I would love to see more photos of the car, to be sure it is the same one. The one I knew had an incredibly beautiful interior, I believe it was original. Overall, the car had had a good quality cosmetic restoration outside, but like most, had several minor, or not so minor, issues. The visor needed repair when he bought it, and the front bumper was too small. I had a Studebaker with a slightly wider but otherwise identical BiFlex bumper on it, so we traded bumpers which was an improvement for both cars. He had the bumper he got from me re-plated in nickel. However, the plating shop LOST the clamp medallions for it! I had an almost identical BiFlex bumper that was badly bent (apparent collision damage), but the clamp/medallions were in good condition. So I gave him those clamp, medallions to replace the ones the plater had lost. I still have the rest of the bent bumper in my junk pile! I figure if I want to use it on a lesser car, I could easily make good clamps and straighten the bumper. But I have never had an appropriate car that I wanted a bumper for, so there it sits buried in my junk pile.
The engine had some issues common to Knight engines, and my friend had it rebuilt by another mutual friend that had previously rebuilt a couple other Knight engines. Once he was done with the engine, there were no more problems from the engine as long as my friend had it, and he drove it quite a bit after that.
I rode in it a number of times. Great riding car, but low geared then. If it had an overdrive or higher gear ratio installed? It would be a great car for nickel era.
It is one of about a dozen cars I have known in the past that I occasionally search for on the web, hoping to see a photo of it. I have seen photos of a few other Stearns Knight oval window broughams, but all different years or colors, and usually slightly different body details.
I hope it is the same one. It is always nice to see memorable cars decades later, still in nice shape.
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I just have to say, I really like what m-mman said! He really explained well the era perception of leather versus "imitation" leather versus cloth for automobile interiors.
Traveling businessmen and salesmen spent a lot of time in their business cars going from place to place to show their offerings. Many thousands of miles were put on those cars with boxes, usually made of wood with sharp corners, sitting on the seats. People in those days had not yet become so used to comfort that they had to have a plush soft cloth seat for themselves (although the plush comfortable automobiles of that era went a long way to further that desire for constant comfort). The more durable interiors saved money and improved profitability for businessmen on the move.
I think the most comfortable seats I have ever sat upon were the properly redone or original automobile interiors of enclosed cars from the 1920s! One of the other "not mine" cars shared has been both criticized and defended for having modern seats replacing the original front seats. Comments defending the replacement made remarks to the effect of greater comfort for the people in the car. My immediate reaction to myself was "have you ever sat on the correct seats of that era?"
I should add, that in the case of that particular car, the front passenger seat was a folding jump seat, and therefore the comfort comment may be appropriate for that one seat. However, I have personally sat in the driver's seat of a couple nearly identical cars! NO modern era automobile I have ever sat in comes close to the comfort of that seat! The rear seat is even nicer.
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My model T makes that easy! They have a lever conveniently located just below the steering wheel.
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I believe all Buick enclosed body styles used mohair for the interiors. 1928, most sedans had a printed pattern on the mohair which I haven't seen in a restoration ever. However, there are quite a few Buicks that year with very nice original interiors. My dad had a 1928 Buick Master seven passenger sedan in poor condition a long time ago. He never did anything with it, and the interior was not in good condition, but the pattern was still very obvious. He also had a 1928 standard sedan in even worse condition (they came as a set) which also had a similar pattern. Since then I have seen several 1928 Buicks with very nice original interiors. All with that pattern in the mohair. I do not know how many other years had the patterned upholstery, earlier or later I just don't know.
I have seen a few franklin automobiles with leather interiors, and Dodge offered "business" coupes and sedans with imitation leather (imitation nauga?) through most of the 1920s. I have seen more than a dozen Dodges with more or less intact original imitation leather interiors.
A surprising number of high end Classics in the 1920s and early 1930s did offer the option, however it appears to have been done rarely. Not a whole lot of other manufacturers seemed to offer that option on enclosed cars. And if they did, it was mostly just the business coupes. Trucks of course are another matter. Most of them were imitation leather for whatever little upholstery they had.
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20 hours ago, 28StutzCabriolet said:
Landau bars are upside down. Whoever restored it is not paying attention.
I believe you are half right! They are folded forward cradled next to the folded top as you want them. If mounted upside down, they fold out to the rear away from the top so that you can hit your face on the hinge when climbing into the rumble seat! Even fold landau irons (or even dummy irons for non-folding tops) have a right, and a left, an up, and a down. There are four possible ways to mount them (not counting the more obvious inside out which if you added that make eight possible ways to mount them?), and only one way is the right way! If I am not being dyslexic, I believe they are on the wrong sides.
You are right in that the arc is the wrong way. Good eye!
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11 hours ago, Rata Road said:
I prefer the roof down which means the rear seat occupant is getting strangled...hmmm mother in law?
The factory offered MIL roadsters had the same problem, maybe not quite as badly, some years the rear body went farther past the frame than other years.
11 hours ago, Rata Road said:But I like the snake idea, we don't have snakes in New Zealand but perhaps I buy a flute and tell people there is a Cobra in there!
I didn't realize New Zealand didn't have snakes? Nearby Australia I hear has plenty to spare? Other than Antarctica, I thought Ireland was the only place with no snakes.
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I am curious about why compare the Nash to a Packard? While the top of the line Nash might be considered comparable to the bottom of the line Packard six, the eight cylinder Packard is generally perceived as more of a luxury car. Drivability of the top of the line Nash might be very similar to the Packard Eight, however reasons for ownership are more about perceptions and the name.
Comparing Nash and Buick is more apples to apples, as both are high side of the middle range automobile markets. Even the standard eight in a Packard is a step up.
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Really old trucks
in General Discussion
Posted
Again (from another thread), this is a bad week to be expecting answers. Too many of our best and brightest members are off visiting families or making preparations for Thanksgiving and the traditional go crazy shopping days after.
There are quite a few regular members here that have restored antique trucks in the past, or are restoring them now. One fellow just began restoring a 1929/'30 Fargo truck! He is quite exited about it!
A few regulars on here have faithfully restored World War One era trucks. One a Maxwell, another a Kissel.
A couple of very good friends of mine many years ago had (1925 about?) Mack Bulldog trucks. One of them I occasionally mention stories about when he had it. It was a three axle with the rare (for the time) pneumatic tires option (that good friend sadly passed away a few years ago). The other friend's Mack was a longer chassis but only two axle, and had an incredible wooden rigging on it for well digging! He is still around, and living in the Pacific Northwest. I understand he still has that truck.