wayne sheldon

When I was little, we spent part of the summer and harvest at my grandparent's ranch outside Modesto California. He had about ninety acres of peach orchards, of several varieties. I know one of the varieties was Elbertas. He must have really liked those. His face always lit up when he talked about the Elbertas.

Matching the paint would be the worst part of fixing that fender! I think I could have it straightened in under two hours. Rig a jack between the fender well and the front edge, and push the fender forward (stretch it slightly). Then hammer and dolly block the wrinkles out of it. The bulge will fall right back in to where it belongs.

Hey there swab! Do you happen to know either of those two people named at the bottom of that flyer? I wouldn't call him a "close" friend, however I have known Linus Tremaine for many years as a friend of a good friend. I have met and talked with Linus quite a few times over the years, and been on a few tours that he has also been on. He is younger than most in this part (nickel era!) of the hobby, but I don't hold that against anyone. He is very passionate about era camping with the vintage cars and vintage camping equipment. He lived much of his life in California, eventually leaving it for greener pastures where he could better enjoy his antique automobiles (something I really should do!). For several years before covid, he was personally hosting an antique automobile camping trip in California. A few of my closest best friends attended some of those camping trips. (I was unable to do so at that time.) I have seen a lot of photographs taken on some of those trips. They would be great fun! I suspect you would enjoy it. I did some auto camping with my first model T speedster and the model T club many years ago. It was wonderful silly fun! I guess someone would have be a bit "nuts" to do such a thing. However, preferring to drive nearly hundred year old cars in itself is a bit crazy. On the other hand? How can anyone truly appreciate modern conveniences if they haven't really experienced the ways of many years ago? Participating in "era authentic" activities is just another way to get in touch with history. Getting in touch with history in these ways makes it more personal, and one gains a greater understanding which in turn adds to the understanding of many other aspects of history. Era auto camping I see as not being much different than backpacking into the wilderness, a hobby many thousands of people enjoy (including my eldest son!). The point is to experience camping in the way it used to be, instead of in a big trailer with all the modern conveniences. But that is my silly opinion.

Several of the ones I have seen that also operated a vacuum windshield wiper motor used a special "T" fitting where the vacuum from the engine's intake manifold entered the top of the vacuum tank. The majority of the flow elbowed down into the vacuum tank, with a smaller inlet going straight through back toward the firewall and over and up to pull the windshield wiper motor. Several others, including my 1927 Paige 6-45 (a largely un-messed with original car) had that special "T" fitting mounted on the intake manifold itself. If I recall correctly, the 1929 Reo I had oh so many years ago also had the "T" fitting on the intake manifold.

An interesting detail in the booklet posted by hddennis, on its last page shown, the parts pictures shows a top casting with the riveted in place metal (brass if I recall correctly?) name plate on that cover/top piece. Such top pieces are actually quite rare. I have one (a damaged one), but have only seen a handful of them out of the hundreds of vacuum tanks I have seen at swap meets or private stashes I have seen in over fifty years. I do not know what the significance of that style name plate is. Is it especially early? Or only a few specific models? Nearly all the rest of them have the Stewart name and other information simply die cast onto that top piece. Cars using the Stewart vacuum fuel delivery system are another fun element in the antique automobile world! A Rube Goldberg sort of device that did a fine job on millions of automobiles over more than fifteen years before improvements in materials technology developed to the point of making the mechanical fuel pump practical and reliable. Mechanical fuel pumps had been experimented with before 1920, however, no material then known was reliable enough for the diaphragm to be practical. Gear, piston, or impeller, pumps for gasoline had lubrication and leakage issues making them unreliable and often a serious fire danger. More than a hundred years later, many Stewart vacuum pumps still work amazingly well! I really like driving cars with one.

I am pretty sure they are gone now, my brother had them and I think sold them to help mom many years ago. But we had a lot of old RDs including most from the latter half of the 1940s. Very likely I read that one fifty or so years ago. In those days, they were stapled fold over magazines, with pastel different colored covers. I might even recognize it?

The German word for (English) "school" is "schule", pronounced "shoo-lah". Hence why the English word uses a "ch" making a hard "k" sound. English is considered one of the hardest Western languages to learn because it was formed from nearly a dozen other languages. Beyond the many Anglic origins including Celtic and Welsh, as well as Roman and Norman conquerors, The English language adopted and modified numerous words from all the other Western languages. The English language contains roughly two to three times as many words as most other Western languages. So while the "ch" from German remained, The "U" became "oo", and the "ah" sound was dropped. Translated, "schulwagon" literally means "school wagon" or school car.

Kroil is amazing stuff! My dad bought a gallon of the stuff when it was largely unknown almost forty years ago. I think he paid about twenty dollars for it then. I still have the can and about a quarter of it left over (he passed away almost twenty years ago). It still works where most products won't. However, there are some places it may not get through, and head bolts is one of those places. Another surprisingly good penetrant is older type brake fluid. I being a cheapskate and wanting to hoard what really old new stuff I have left, I use some bled out of a 1960s car many years ago. I kept a small bottle of the used stuff (clearly marked as "Used" just for use as penetrating fluid. It has allowed removal of a few things even Kroil alone didn't do the trick. Of course perhaps the remaining Kroil mixed with the brake fluid may be what did the trick?

I think Matt's assessment here is pretty much right on! I do think for several reasons that that particular cap does belong with that particular car. I also feel that keeping the mascot ornament ON the car at all times is unrealistic. Using it on the car some times, for certain shows or maybe even just sitting in your own building is the right thing to do. However, other times, some shows where you may prefer to show the car as it was often shown when new, or simple local drives or even a lot of local club events, the mascot should be left home on its special place on the shelf. I of course do not know the whole situation, however I tend to feel that keeping the mascot cap on the car part of the time, and basically near or with the car most of the rest of the time, basically fulfills your personal obligation to keeping the cap on the car. I mean, realistically, "all" the time isn't realistic. How would one add water to the radiator? Or, how about during the time the car was being serviced and sorting and detailing done? Just a few more thoughts from silly me.

It runs (or "goes") like a turpentine cat! Turpentine on a cat's tail feels like it is burning, and the cat just keeps running as fast as it can to get away from it. Quite cruel actually, and I love cats. So no demonstrations please.

I agree that they basically all appear to be rim bolts that fit through the steel felloe to hold the rim on it. There are several different styles, lengths and thread counts all mixed together. Likely a half dozen or more different ones, so they fit about a half dozen different vehicles. A few of the longer ones, and course thread ones, are likely for some truck. I had a bunch of truck ones salvaged from my grandfather's shop fifty years ago. I found some of them I could cut back and rethread to fit a car I was restoring at the time. So even the truck ones may have some value. A few of those I think may fit Jaxon steel disc wheels of the late 1920s. But that is from memory from a car I restored twenty years ago.

A lot of early Otto engines were used to power mechanical looms used in the textile industry. They made it possible to build factories that previously needed the "perfect" river to be run by water wheel. The Otto engine also had an advantage in that it was easier to regulate the speed than was a water wheel. D Dave, Interesting aside about the evolution of valves!

Two people. One with a box end wrench pulling hard. The other with a big punch or half inch (about?) steel rod maybe six inches long tapping down lightly with a heavy (medium weight?) hammer. Sometimes the repeated shocks and vibrations will help shake the seizing rust loose enough to get it started. Sometimes that doesn't work. An idea I have toyed with, but never done? Part of the problem here is that the bolt has had decades for moisture to ingress and rust to develop and bind the threads and bolt shank. Often, the bolt head has squeezed and bonded somewhat to the head casting. This makes it difficult, and sometimes impossible for the penetrating oil to get inside enough to flow down through the head and reach the threads were it is needed. What about using an electric drill, and the smallest drill bit you can chuck into it. Drill in close and barely downward from the side of the bolt head's hex, only about 3/16 of an inch. While they may be close, usually head bolts are not tight in the head. That small hole would allow penetrating oil to get inside to where the limited space between the head and head bolts would then allow the penetrating oil to flow down to where it is needed. The small dimple left on the surface of the head would actually be harmless, and hidden under the bolts put in when the head is reinstalled. If one were to drill too far, the bolt shank could be nicked and the bolt would have a potential fracture start and need to be replaced. I have considered trying this several times myself. However, so far, every time I have considered it, the bolts began coming loose by standard practices.

One of my longtime best friends (passed away too young about ten years ago), had a 1929 model A town sedan with quite a few accessories on it. One was an original "baby Lincoln" leaping greyhound. A few years later he sold the model A and bought a nice 1925 Lincoln seven passenger sedan! It had the bigger Lincoln leaping greyhound. I rode (and sometimes drove) many miles following those dogs. Being that I favor earlier cars, I am more accustomed to dogbones or sometimes wings and Motometers on the front of cars. They do tend to attract the eye, but I like them there. I also tend to follow the era norms. Many types of mascots were being offered by 1920. Diving women (usually wearing a swimsuit in the earlier ones!) were popular as well as birds, dogs and other animals. Fraternal organizations began much earlier and continued on until radiator caps were hidden under the hood. Such mascots were part of the history of our automobiles. As such, I love them, both on the car and on a shelf to be seen. But I also love the look of the cars with plain radiator caps. For my 1927 Paige 6-45 sedan, I have both an original Paige standard radiator cap, which in itself is a bit fancy with a wreath around it and a small adornment in the center, as well as an original same cap with the adornment removed and optional "Paige" labeled Boyce Motometer. I also have an original era nickel plated brass dogbone cap that is a perfect fit with another "Paige" labeled Boyce Motometer. It is all in beautiful original condition. But somehow I don't care for the look of the dogbone cap on the Paige. Decisions, decisions, if I ever get the Paige done. Ruminations. I don't know if that helps any with your decision.

John S, You are welcome. I am sure there were others, but the only two I know for certain that offered leather or imitation leather interiors as an option in production coupes and sedans during the 1920s were Dodge and Franklin. I have personally seen several Dodges with their original imitation leather interiors, both coupes and sedans. Three or four of them were in quite nice original condition. A few were badly weathered and the fabric backing of the imitation leather was showing in many places. m-mman, There is a lot of difference between a four cylinder Dodge Brothers and Henry's model T. The Dodge has considerably more power, but weighs about fifty percent more. The Ford has higher gearing in the rear end, and is light enough that the engine can handle it, giving it a considerably higher top and/or cruising speed. It also benefits from the lighter weight climbing hills, or on muddy or sandy roads. The Dodge engine is more over-built, and can survive greater abuse. Both cars were built using good materials, and had advantages over most cars in their price class. Both in their time were built to be practical, more than stylish. There is a "video" floating around the internet, taken from a film shot in the 1920s showing a Dodge sedan being driven around some of the worst most muddy roads anyone has ever attempted to drive on. It is incredible to watch. At one point the car is actually rolled over in the mud! Then righted, and continued on. (The film speed wasn't properly corrected on the video, so in most versions it appears in fast motion!) Early to mid 1920s dodge had typical two wheel brakes on the rear wheels. Properly adjusted, they should work well. Ford's service brake in the transmission can be a bit squirrely, however they generally work fine once one gets used to them. Generally speaking, the Dodge's brakes are better. I would guess the interior of the Dodge may be a bit bigger? But I haven't actually spent much time inside 1920s era Dodge cars. The Dodges were good tough cars back in their day, and still loved and enjoyed by a lot of people still today. Much like the model T is.

It may have been originally sold as a "battery eliminator" for era radios. Nearly all radios before about 1928 were originally multiple battery powered. Different circuits for tuner and amplifiers and some tube's grid and plate requirements needed different voltages and current requirements. They hadn't quite figured out how to build a simple power supply to provide isolated voltages for the various circuits from a single AC power source. Most radios of the 1920s used two or three different batteries, often referred to as the "A" battery and the "B" battery. Sometimes there was more than one "B" battery. One of the batteries had a bad habit of draining out fairly quickly. Sometimes a battery eliminator would be purchased to run that circuit leaving the lesser current demanding circuits on their batteries which didn't require replacement so often. As the old radios aged out, a lot of six volt "battery eliminators" became battery chargers for the family car.

1922 or 1923 ford model T center-door sedan. The was the tail end, one of the last several thousand of an even then archaic body style. Mostly everyone else had switched to the more common four-door or typical two door type body before 1920. But Henry Ford held onto the old style a couple more years. And what little detail identifies this one as one of those last two years? Look closely, to your left of the top door hinge, is a little white spot behind the glass. That white spot is a small lever that latches the window in its desired position. The window surrounds have a bunch of little notches that the latch snaps into to hold the window at the desired level. There should be another lever at the back of that window, however apparently lighting or shadows are hiding it from view. The door window is all the way up, however, the front side window is down a bit over halfway. In spite of dirty windows and poor lighting, both the two latches can be seen on this window about four inches up from the bottom of the window frame. The rear side windows for 1922/'23 continued to use the strap and pin method of raising and lowering the window. The "strap and pin" method was used on all six side windows of Ford's center-door sedans from their 1915 model year introduction though 1921.

It appears they all have a pin or small badge on their left lapel. Perhaps a fraternity pin?

Ouch, that one hurts. The price is very right if the car and sale are legitimate. If I had the money to spare, I would consider taking a chance on it in spite of the shipping cost. But I don't, so oh well. Dodge, before the improved "Fast Four", were not fast cars relative to their day. But relative to most nickel era cars, they weren't terrible either. An interesting factoid about these. Dodge was one of the few 1920s manufacturers of cars that offered closed body styles with an "imitation leather" interior! Basically, the era imitation leather was an early formulation of what we today would call vinyl or "Naugahyde" (which actually was invented about 1914!). (Note, "Naugahyde" is also a trademark name.) So while a black Naugahyde interior is a huge turnoff for people like myself in most era closed cars, Dodge sedans and coupes I find it acceptable because it is essentially like the cars were when they were new! (As long as the installation is close to correct?) Dodge had the option then for a cloth interior or imitation leather interior in their business coupes and business sedans. From what I can see in the couple of photographs, the interior is not perfect, but it looks okay (for what I can see, the door panels I am not so sure about?).

I have an ugly old canvas bag I carry around swap meets. In it I keep samples of a few items I would like to find for the 1927 Paige 6-45, and a research binder for the circa 1900 gasoline carriage including photographs and copies of 1890s "Horseless Age" pages pertaining to it. One of the parts I carry is a very nice nickel plated brass dogbone radiator cap that happens to be the reverse (internal/external) thread for the Paige. If I find a radiator cap that I would like better than the couple I have, it will tell me quickly whether it will fit or not. Model T parts I pretty much know everything I need or don't need. Sometimes I make a short list of items I need to especially look for because otherwise I often get too distracted. Small items I buy while walking around go into the bag for easy carrying. If I get something large enough that I need to take it to the car, I empty out the other little goodies I got so to not carry the weight and to have room for more!

Many old era (and maybe even newer ones?) speedometer cables are bi-directional twisted spring steel wires wound into a kind of wire rope inside of a wire rope. This creates bi-directional strength and flexibility. When they begin to get kinky like that, it often is an indication that some of the small spring steel wires are beginning to fail and/or break. It probably won't seriously harm the speedometer if it breaks while running down the highway, although there is a slim chance that it could. As Rusty_OToole says, if the speedometer becomes or is jumpy, it likely means the cable is near ready to break. At that point it may be wise to disconnect it at the transmission end. Although be aware of possible ingresses of contaminants to the transmission. I have seen speedometer cables breaking destroy the cable's housing/cable. Hence why it is wise to disconnect if it becomes jumpy or noisy. I am sure it has happened, but I have never seen one damage the speedometer itself.

I am not really into 1950s cars, however I like it the way it is. As previously said, Ramblers were not used as hearses, and most people would not think of it looking like one. Even if it isn't nearly a hundred years old, I think it would be a shame to repaint one still that nice. However I have always been in favor of preserving decent original cars and restoring cars that really need it, regardless of age. A good paint job costs close to the same amount regardless of how bad or good the car looks before going down that road. Body repair is a different issue. If a car looks pretty decent, a person rarely ever gets back more than a very small amount of the cost of the repaint. Parts should not be too difficult for that car. There are some critical pieces for later AMCs that in some states make it very difficult to pass required smog checks. My son ended up junking an AMC Eagle wagon because certain parts could not be had.

That lineup of model Ts two posts up is very interesting. They appear to all be either late 1909s or 1910s based on the Ford script on the radiators which were only used by the factory those two years, and the low radiator necks. The "bill" on the front fenders eliminate most of early and mid 1909 as most of those had no "bill". 1909 and early 1910, the top, windshield, and headlamps were optional equipment. Interesting that all of them are fully equipped. That might indicate that the cars may be mid 1910s. Down at the far end of that line? Is a 1908 Ford model S Roadster. It was a one year only model, and the only model in the N/R/S lineup that had a cowl behind the firewall.

The Cartercar was a different thing. Byron Carter was an automotive engineer. His design was a vast improvement over all other friction drive ideas. He countered the offset balances inherent in basic friction drive systems using a "boxed set" of driving and driven wheels. This created a much more positive transfer of power without the stresses created by most friction drive systems. Byron Carter was a minor partner and engineer for the Jackson Automobile company. When the other partners refused to use his design on Jackson's cars, he sold his interest in them and started his own automobile manufacturing company to build the Cartercar. His design worked very well, and the cars were selling quickly, proving themselves all over the country! Sadly, Byron Carter died from a tragic accident before he had a real chance to truly make his mark in the industry. General Motors partially out of respect, partially out of pity, bought the Cartercar company from Byron Carter's family. GM continued to build the cars for a few years, and did advertise them somewhat. However, GM had already invested a bunch of money and owned many patents for conventional clutch and sliding gear technologies. So the Cartercar was allowed to quietly slip away after a few years, and there facilities folded into other GM marques. Byron Carter himself was a visionary! Had he not sadly died so young, there is a very good chance that a significant percentage of automobiles manufactured by the late 1910s and possibly for decades longer would have used his friction drive transmission. His death also pushed forward the development of the electric starter for gasoline automobiles.

Sorry M-V, I don't know how many posts or points are needed before he can use the Personal Messages here, but I think he is still short of it. Les M, As to the cast iron versus aluminum drive flywheel? I don't know the actual best answer, but I do know that a good friend a long time ago had a cast iron drive flywheel and it worked great! He loved to be challenged to climbing stairs or very steep driveways by other antique automobile people. I don't think he ever lost a bet. I went to a locally held AACA event about fifty years ago, he was there. The car show was held on the football field of a large high school. It was a typical football field set down from the surrounding area with bleachers along both sides. The only way in or out for the cars was an about eight to ten foot high roughly forty degree climb! That was there for tractors to go in and out for field maintenance. All the other cars took an about four mph run at the slope, and at that, many required a bit of a push to get over the top by club members standing ready to give a final shove. Someone had made a substantial bet with him that the little friction drive Metz couldn't make it from a dead stop, and then squirted oil all over the drive disc! He pulled up, pushing the front wheels to where the steepest angle began (most resistance to starting out!). Paused until everyone was satisfied with his starting point, then shot up the incline over and out like it wasn't there!