wayne sheldon

This is all part of what has held my attention to automotive history for so very long! The many interconnections of ideas and devices, improvements to the motorcar, and the influences on the development of modern society. Fascinating stuff!

I would sure like to meet him some day! I have known his name for quite a few years. A private collector I was privileged to know well for many years had a wonderful collection of early automobiles. I was visiting at his shop one day, and they had been working on one of their horseless carriages they were doing a complete restoration of. I was just hanging around on my lunch break as I often did if I had some time to spare and happened to be in the area, and one of the owners was talking with the fellow managing the restoration. The one of the owners said "I was talking with Varun on the phone, and he suggested we - - - - -". I could tell by the way he said it the respect he had for this fellow, and his suggestion how to solve an issue they were having. I always enjoy his posts here, and am amazed by the obscure automobiles he can recognize and identify.

It could maybe be? They did make a cheaper line. But I doubt that one is a Biflex. Most of their bumpers were the higher quality line, which this one is not. As I said, they did make a cheaper line which I did see in some advertising of theirs some years ago. I have seen other advertising showing bumpers very similar to this one by a few other companies. I have looked at several similar bumpers, including at least one that from memory looked nearly identical, most of them had nothing on them that indicated what company made them. I do recall one from years ago that had a small metal tab (about the size of a nickel) held onto the backside of one of the mounting brackets by one small rivet in its center, that had the manufacturer's name on it! I do not remember the name. Bumpers went through an interesting evolution. They were showing up on some cars by 1910! Most cars still did not have them as standard equipment in 1925. However, by 1929, most automakers had them as standard equipment, and on cars by then and later most bumpers were marque specific. After-market bumpers continued to be made and sold to people with older cars, although most owners of older cars without bumpers couldn't really afford to buy them in the 1930s. The one now suspected as from a Locomobile is a make of bumper that I have seen on many makes of cars, including Buick. A very good friend years ago had a 1926 Buick Master opera coupe with a similar version of that bumper! I did make a comment on the "Bumpers" thread about my not knowing who made these particular bumpers, but I like them. The Biflex type bumper is probably the earlier of the two, likely early to mid 1920s. The Locomobile bumper is likely mid 1920s.

I don't know if you would want to try this or not? But it has worked very well for me for shorter lengths (up to about thirty feet). I didn't like the cloth covered wire I could buy. Most of it was a gauge or two too light (engineering background) for the higher current six volt systems I wanted it for. I also wanted greater flexibility than some of what was available. So I found plastic covered wire that met my demands (modern plastic jacketing is thinner than the old cloth covered rubber was). Then I went to the local Army/Navy store, and bought about a hundred feet of parachute line in a variety of colors. It is a silken tube with five strands of silk string inside it, and it comes in a dozen different colors. I pulled back the outer tube, tied the five strings to a fixed object, and slowly started sliding the outer covering off of the strings. I had to work it slowly, as it would bunch up as I went. It didn't take long at all, and I had a pile of silk strings and a good long silken tube. Then came the hard part. An important point is to smooth and blunt the end of the wire (the multi strand wire ends really like to hang up inside the silken tube). A small flame, lighter or candle maybe? Make a clean cut of the end, then heat the plastic enough so that using your fingers stretch it out over the wire's ends, then burn the plastic to close it off to a taper and round the end. Then, literally foot by foot, slide the silken tube over the wire. It should be a bit loose. I did find that for short lengths, I could manage to separate four inner strings and leave one inside to use as a pull string which made getting the silken tube pulled over the wire easier. The time or two I tried to use one of the five inner strings as a pull alongside the other four, I found they bunched up a bit and didn't help much at all. Part of the problem is that the silken tube is tight enough on the wire that attaching one of the strings to the wire is difficult without making it too large to slide through. I did several pieces around twenty to thirty feet long, and found working the wire through inch by inch didn't really take long at all. A lot of what I did was figure the length I needed, and cut the wire and silken tube about a foot too long. Then cover and finish the wire, then fit and install, wasting about a foot (better than being an inch too short!). After the silken tube has been stuffed with the wire. Secure one end together (I used electrical tape), and tie it to something. Then pull the silken tube snugly the full length, securing the other end. Next, to finish it off, paint the entire length with a heavy coat of shellac. If you use Amber shellac, it will darken the color of the silken tubes, which actually made them look more correct for an antique automobile. That was how I rewired a few of my antique automobiles.

In spite of being a half a continent away, I have known his name and his reputation for about forty years or more. He and Stan Howe who passed away about two years ago were the top two carburetor guys in the model T and horseless carriage world. Russel Potter was beyond well known, and had many hundreds of personal friends in the hobby. To say "he will be missed" is a huge understatement. He was an active club member, one who stepped up and donated a great deal of time and money to the hobby he loved. I have often heard that he was a great family man also. I am pretty sure I had met him a couple times at national meets. I wish I had had a chance to know him better.

It is possible that these two photos were the same car, in spite of numerous differences. The mural backgrounds make it most likely that this is a photo booth car. It could have even been a dummy with no engine anymore. Many photographers made a good living traveling the countryside with a running car, a camera, and multiple backdrops. They would go from town to town, set up a temporary stand someplace, and for a few days make some bucks taking pictures of people in his car. Whole communities of people that had never ridden in a car might show up to get their picture in one! Other photographers might have a dummy car, usually one that had a blown engine not worth repairing, and they would strip a lot of the heavy stuff off of it, and ship it by railroad from town to town. The stripped car would be light and easy to move about. Most such photographers would set up at county fairs whenever they could make the connections. It could easily be that the car has a couple options for rear seat for different numbers of people wanting in the picture. A photographer might use a car for several years, change details, remove lamps, touch up the paint or change colors. He might use the car for traveling for a few years, then when the car became unreliable, set up a studio somewhere and keep it as a set-piece for customers to choose. Photos like these are rather common, most of us have probably seen more of them than we think, and just not realized the photo was a setup? As many era photos as I have looked at over the years, I have probably seen at least fifty such photos! I have about a dozen of them on my computer. Just another little tidbit of automotive history.

Mounted the way this one is, it appears to be an after-market speedometer, or even may have been only an odometer, something also commonly available in those days. I can't tell for certain, but it appears that whatever it is may be mounted where the body meets the firewall. Factory installed speedometers were almost always mounted on the firewall itself in those days. In those days, the way cars were assembled, being mounted on the firewall before the body was installed simplified the installation. Mounted up high and in the corner that way is more likely an afterthought, and therefore likely an after-market accessory. I am not sure just when speedometers became available, but I have seen advertising for them from around 1906. Even most high end marques offered them only as an option for several years. Some automakers began making the speedometer standard equipment about 1910. One would need to research each make individually to know whether speedometers were or were not available from the factory for a given car or year model during the 1910s. Interesting to note and compare, Ford's model T did not include a speedometer its first year introduced late in 1908 as a 1909 model. They were of course available after-market. However, in spite of the Ford being a low price yet quality leader, for 1910 model year, the speedometer became standard equipment on the model T! It remined as such for a few years until a funny thing happened. Roughly five different companies produced speedometers for Ford, but as Ford's production kept increasing faster than had ever before been seen in the automobile world, All those companies could not keep up with the Ford factory's demands! In 1914 and early 1915, the speedometer was considered "standard equipment" on a new Ford, however, a customer could save $5 by agreeing to a "speedometer delete". By the end of 1915, Ford dropped the speedometer as standard equipment, and passed the savings on to the customers as he kept dropping the price of his cars while improvements in production kept making them cheaper to build. Ford left the cars without a speedometer through the end of model T production in 1927. After-market sellers made a good business of providing speedometers for some Ford owners for more than a decade.

Now, THAT is a disappearing hard top automobile that I would love to have! Thank you John E G for posting this.

Nice to see a wonderful update! Thank you.

The whole right hand and left hand driven thing can get really tricky. Between many nations, cultural backgrounds, traditions, and a hundred conflicting reasons the driver's position has been all over the place for well over a hundred years now. The two excellent photos that Varun C posted in this case add to the confusion. One, the similar car with no front doors may be a year earlier, or simply a slightly different model, but appears to be right hand side driven, and the radiator script appears to be correctly oriented indicating that the car is in fact right hand side driven. The car show display photo on the other hand shows two apparently left side driven cars in the clearly marked, flagged by pennants, and correctly oriented Firestone Columbus display. The US built automobiles mostly began as right side driven in the early days, with numerous notable exceptions. Autocar about 1902 and for a few years, offered cars either right side or left side driven, with either steering wheel or tiller type steering. The Sears Autobuggy hit the market in 1908 as a left side driven tiller steered high wheeler. Ford somewhat lead the way toward left side driven with the model T hitting the market also late in 1908. Other automakers were following suit soon after. Around 1910 to 1912 quite few marques were switching to the left side of the car. By 1915, most US built cars were left side driven. Of general interest, is that in the US, there never was a law requiring one side or the other. The OP photo could go either way. I haven't spotted anything in it to determine if the photo is oriented correctly or not? Thank you again Varun C for identifying so many of these cars in photos! You are the master.

Edison plugs numbers 13 and 14 are desirable to model T Ford owners due to the close friendship between Thomas Edison and Henry Ford. Both numbers fit the model T, the 13 is a dual electrode while the 14 is a singe electrode. They came in many slight variations and matching up a set of four is not easy. Other numbers fit other cars, and although more rare, are not nearly as desirable.

Birds of a feather. I love driving wooden wheels and two-wheel mechanical brakes! Properly maintained and appropriately driven, they are a wonderful experience and something I will always want to be doing. Antique automobiles, whether from the 1950s or the 1910s, need respect and appreciation for their capabilities and their limitations. They need to be handled with some care that they can be broken and should not be abused.

I just do not "get" the whole fear of no power brakes or no power steering? I know, I learned to drive that way. I probably had 20,000 miles under my belt before I owned a car or truck with either one. Same with a clutch. Floor shift or column shift, no problem. I was sixteen the first time I limped home a manual shift car with a locked up blown clutch! Mom was driving when it blew, and I said don't worry, I can manage it. Put it in first gear and hit the starter. Shifted clutchless until I got it home and shut it off in the driveway. MOST cars, and even most smaller trucks, drive fine without power steering or brakes as long as the brakes and steering are in proper maintained condition! Parallel parking can be a bear, but I never had any problem with that either, even without power steering.

I don't actively collect spark plugs, and have never seriously studied them. But I do know that all four of those are somewhat desirable. The picture doesn't show it well, but the first one with the dark insulation looks very similar to a couple early ones that I happen to have. I believe the ones I have, the insulator is a stack of mica discs, one of them was broken when it came to me, so I got a pretty good look at it. Not very common, somewhere in all my stuff, I think I have four or five of them in two different sizes. In my years in this hobby I think I have seen maybe a dozen others. A spark plug collector I spoke with years ago said these were not known for being reliable in use. Might be part of why they are seldom seen?

Thank you.

I keep checking back hoping someone has a better picture of the car and posts it? I don't know if they ever had a Duesenberg themselves or not. I have read a few times that they never got paid a lot for all the films they made. I am not sure how much truth there is to that story?

Thank you 30D-P- for finding and posting those photos! They really show what the climber's belts are for. My dad had worked "high line" power systems (high voltage) for many years before getting into communications systems. I worked up on poles a little bit over the years, but never got that good at climbing with the spurs. My dad at six foot four inches and a bit shy of 300 pounds (a BIG fellow!) could go up and down poles like a squirrel! I never got that good at them myself. I however did spend many hundreds (maybe thousands even?) of hours up on towers with the belt.

A Paige! Probably a 6-65 or 6-70 model, either 1926 or 1927. Note the three color combination. Black upper body and fenders and aprons, Probably a medium dark green beltline and hood top, over the lighter lower body color which was likely a greenish off-white or cream color. I have seen a couple original paint Paige sedans that combination. Paige was early with the sportier light colored cars in the mid 1920s. Even at that, most of their sales were the more traditional darker colors. Unusual "dog" sitting on the cowl?

An era photo with white wall tires!

Looks almost identical to my dad's utility pole climber's safety belt. There is another belt, a toolbelt that goes around the climber's waist. It has two larger cast loops, one on each hip, which those hooks latch into. One usually climbs the pole with the safety belt hanging on one side, then when one has reached the wires or connections needing service, loops the safety belt around the pole with the end hooks one on each side. Than one can lean back against the belt and do the required work. The belts are usually used with climbing spurs. Spurs are steel frame brackets that go under your shoe and up the side of your lower leg. They have attached belts and buckles to hold them tightly onto one's leg. Pole climber's and tree climber's spurs differ in the size and placement of the sharp spur itself. Tree climber's spurs are longer, and mount onto the steel frame slightly above the ankle. Pole climber's spurs are shorter and mounted onto the frame alongside the ankle. Tree climber's spurs have to be longer and in turn mounted higher because the spur has to poke through the thickness of the tree's bark to dig securely into the tree's solid wood, necessary for the climber's safety. I imagine similar belts were used for many specialized purposes

Definitely art! I too have done a few total re-wood a body restorations. However, none of the ones I did were quite as complicated or nicely done as what 31LaSalle and PFitz showed. My 1915 model T runabout in process,

It is the only one with that particular incorrect upholstery job in that color?

Interesting legends, but not fact. I don't recall offhand what year it was? However, Maxwell had a basically all-steel body beginning about 1907 on their inexpensive little two-cylinder runabout. Which is why so many of those survive still. The first year for Ford to use mostly all steel bodies was the 1926 model year, nearly twenty years later! Not exactly leading the way? The Dodge Brothers, former partners of Henry Ford, after they left the partnership to form their own automobile producing company, began using mostly all steel open car bodies in the late 1910s. Still nearly ten years before Ford. Certainly, the deterioration of wooden framing lead to the early demise of millions of automobiles. However, other factors including changing technologies and styles, and the rough roads and dusty conditions, generally rendered most automobiles of that era worn out and obsolete long before the bodies fell apart. As for the "carpenter's union" thing?, I never heard that one before.

I always found the friendly rivalry between Stutz and Mercer interesting. As a longtime hobbyist that has been privileged to personally know sever major collectors over the years, I have managed to sit in on discussions by owners of both marques. I have been up close, worked on sat in rode in (even drove a couple?) of both companies. They are kind of like "apples and oranges" as era sports and racing cars go. The Stutz is more the true muscle car of its era, a rather large and very powerful "sports" car! Whereas the Mercer is a medium size sports car, with only about two-thirds the horsepower as the Stutz, but also only about two-thirds the weight. If handling was important for a race? The Mercer had an advantage. If raw power was needed? The Stutz could blow away the competition! (I didn't make that stuff up myself? That is what owners of the cars have told me!) While the Stutz was bigger, leaner, and meaner? The Mercer had a bit more "flash", with more brightwork (earlier models usually in brass and sometimes lots of it!), giving a bit more "style"! All this to point out that the Middleby appears to be even smaller than the Mercer, itself considerably smaller than the Stutz. The Middleby is a rarely heard of car, I am not sure I have ever heard of one, and that does not happen often for me. I am fairly sure I have never seen one myself. The Middleby is significant in its own special way.

Again, TT trucks before about December of 1925 (and some possibly later into early calendar 1926?) only had the official serial number on the engine block! Before that, there would not have been a serial number on the frame anywhere from the factory. Some states encouraged switching to "frame" numbers even by the early 1920s, so in some cases, numbers might be found on the chassis put there by the state, or local constabulary, or even a local repair shop (rules were loose in those days?). In those cases, the numbers could be put ANYWHERE! California was one such state that tried to push chassis numbers very early, and over the years I have seen (and had!) several frames with numbers located in a bunch of different places, always somewhere on the front half of the frame. For 1926/'27 models with factory stamped serial numbers on the frame? Remove (if there are any?) the front floorboards. See the brake handle and clutch cross shaft (if it is there? Or find where it was?). The factory serial number (IF it has one?) should be on the top of the frame rail, within inches (sometimes directly over!) the brake cross shaft below it. It could be on either the right or the left frame rail. The ten millionth model T was produced almost two years before the serial number was added to the frame, so original serial numbers (on USA built Ts) should be eight digits long. Water and dirt could often settle into that area, often obscuring the stamping, and sometimes eroding it away. Scrape the area somewhat clean. maybe use some medium grade sandpaper on it to help it show up (if it is there?).