wayne sheldon

So glad he is recovering so very well! And so quickly. Thanks to Dave for his quick thinking and being there. I hope our Steve M recovers so well from his surgery.

Craig, It very well could be! I have seen a few tail lamps similar to that one, and Gardner I think is one of the cars that I have seen them on. You can see the little space between the the top and bottom lenses, which often had the marque name. I am fairly certain I have seen a couple of those tail lamps with the Gardner name on them over the years.

The model T is a 1924 or 1925 high radiator model. The car front and center we see the back of appears to be a Willys Overland or Whippet from about 1926 through 1928. The coupe in front of the Willys at first glance appears like a model A Ford, but then quickly it is clearly not a Ford. I like the big tube bumpers on it! The wire wheel spare is clearly not Ford, although the relative sizes are similar. (Rim size vs profile size vs hub cap size.)

I just now saw this! It has all already pretty much been said, but I will say it again. Wishing you the best possible outcome and speedy recovery to a better future for you!

The Graham brothers were an American success story! They made a sizeable fortune in glassware manufacturing very early in the twentieth century. They developed an improved automated glass blowing process that made the modern soda pop bottle possible, and made millions making the bottles for numerous soda pop companies. Among those companies, was Coke Cola and their famous hourglass bottle that was nearly unbreakable, and revolutionized the soda pop industry! That famous hourglass shaped bottle debuted late in calendar year 1915, and early versions with the 1915 date on the bottle are prized collectables. I have a couple of them because I have had a few 1915 automobiles over the years. Right about that time (off the top of my head?), the Graham brothers sold the process to (if I recall correctly?) Corning Glass. Looking for new opportunities, they wanted to manufacture automobiles. They had quite a bit of money, however, smarter than most people in their position, decided against going all-in to manufacture automobiles on a grand scale. They saw that a lot of automobile manufacturers starting out were under-funded, and lost more money than they made. They saw a need for more affordable trucks, and designed a "Form-a-Truck" kit that could be adapted easily to fit many available automobiles, offered heavy duty rear axles and wheels, gear reduction, and added chassis framing to accommodate almost any load requirements. Their kits were among the first, and best of such truck conversion kits. While several others targeted the model T Ford almost exclusively, the Graham truck conversions were offered to fit almost any car available. After a couple years, they began selling their trucks completely assembled and ready to go. As 30DodgePanel mentions, they offered trucks on several common automobile chassis. After another short while, The Dodge family saw a benefit to having the Graham Brothers build their trucks using mostly Dodge parts, and sold directly through Dodge dealerships. Now, a lot of this was happening after John and Horace Dodge had passed away. The rest of the Dodge family frankly wasn't all that interested in running an automobile manufacturing company. And, frankly, I suspect they didn't have the knowledge required to do it properly. I am not an expert on this rather convoluted bit of automobile history (30DodgePanel's "can of worms"?). The Dodge family began trying to sell off the Dodge Brothers company. At least one supposed sale fell through after months of working out details. A bit later, Walter P Chrysler came along and worked out a purchase to add Dodge to his Chrysler Corporation. I don't know the details, but I do know that the Graham Brothers had contracts with the Dodge family, and I suspect the Graham Brothers likely had a considerable amount of stock in the company. Whatever the details, the Graham Brothers received a large cash settlement from the Chrysler/Dodge buyout. In 1927, the Graham Brothers bought the Paige Detroit automobile company. They finally had their own automobile manufacturing company! Two and a half years later, the stock market crash. But that is another story.

It might help if you can get two of the proper hub cap wrenches. IF (big if), the hub cap's hex is deep enough and the hub cap wrenches aren't too deep, put both wrenches on 180 degrees apart. Pushing and pulling on two handles will eliminate the angular torque caused by a single wrench being pulled offset. In effect, it twists the hub cap more straight causing it to bind less and often will make the cap turn and come off more easily. Aluminum hub caps can sometimes gall and seize onto steel hubs. A straighter twist can help it to let loose. Proper hub cap wrenches are by far the best way to go on these. The hexagon or octagon on the aluminum is better cradled in a fully surrounding wrench. The soft aluminum crushes very easily with open wrenches or any sort of jaw pliers. Hub caps of that type are getting harder to find and get. You don't want to destroy very many of them. And the one in your picture can probably still be made fairly nice! Some people can get really good at restoring damaged hub caps. But it can be very time consuming to do. (Read that as can be expensive if you pay someone to do it!)

Bob, That is interesting. However, I doubt that it was really a "California" thing. I know that there were local shops that cut louvers into early hoods scattered around the country, as well as some in Australia. The fact that Australian brass era model Ts often had louvered hoods had been discussed on the MTFCA forum several years ago. I would imagine there was at least one shop in Southern California and perhaps they were well known locally.

Hey there Bob! I spend quite a lot of time studying era photos. And it always amazes me the details I will catch later that I had missed previously. I recall knowing that car has one-piece spindles, and therefore likely a very early chassis. However it also has the short hub with taper axles that began in 1911. It is possible, some were built that way, that the chassis could have had the earlier spindles with the later rear axles. Both changes were made in the first half of 1911 model year, and the crossover times for both have some chassis with one but not the other. In addition, the car has a later rear/front fender with the stiffening bead across the middle that began very late in 1912 or early model year 1913. Looking very closely under the front front fender, I "think" it is a 1910 or earlier front fender. I always wonder when a car/chassis was converted to a speedster. In most cases, era photos don't give solid clues for when the conversion was done. In this case, the photo does offer some clue to the timeline of the photo, that California porcelain plate was used from 1916 through 1919. They had changeable emblems to designate the year, the bear indicates 1916. The relatively low number (for California!) also indicates a 1916 issuance. However, we still don't know how long the car had been a speedster by 1916. What I had not noticed before was an interesting detail about the hood. I had noticed it had louvers, and automatically thought it to be a 1915 hood (I see that fairly often in brass era speedsters). However, my posting it here caused me to look it over again (I just cannot help myself!). And the louver positions and spacing is wrong for the 1915 hood! Close looking at the side hinge also suggests that the hood is a 1912 or earlier hood with louvers! Whether it is an after-market manufactured hood with louvers, or a Ford factory issued hood to which louvers were added? I don't know. Part of what makes it interesting to me, is that I have an original hood like that one! A 1912 or earlier with side hinges full length that will not fit my 1915, with louvers not placed like the 1915 hoods. I have over the years seen advertisements for louvered hoods for earlier model Ts in this country. And such hoods were quite popular in Australia at the time. I have only spotted a few such hoods in American era photographs, and discovered I had one when it wouldn't fit my 1915.

I sometimes say that I have "restored" a few model Ts starting from less. Although I am not sure that the word "restore" is totally accurate, since about eighty percent of the finished car is bitsa other cars! But that is part of the fun of a model T! The parts are so available, that one can get everything one needs to put a model T back on the road!

That is a nice looking speedster! And, for the most part, fairly correct looking for its era. Most brass era speedsters were run fenderless! However, not all of them were. Note one in a garage still needing some work completed has common model T front and rear fenders, while another era full fendered speedster actually has standard front fenders on all four corners!

Fifty years ago, I had several friends really into model As. Through them I met a fellow that had a model A mail truck. It was at that time considered to be one of the rarest and most valuable cars in the local model A club! Funny how fads like that come and go. I did get a kick out of seeing this one being advertised.

While true, a lot of people have not found that section. Putting this in General Discussion in effect highlights that and hopefully now, they can look for it and enjoy it. I check it occasionally, and enjoy it often. Some of the humor I don't care for, and some of it may not truly belong in an "Antique" automobile forum. But that is maybe an opinion, and I am sure others appreciate some of what others do not. So I certainly would not complain about anything I have seen in there. Check it out! Enjoy it! Whether this gets merged in? Or left here to sink out of sight? It has served a purpose.

Typical modern model T speedster. It is not true to any proper original era. I often refer to model T speedsters as one of the longest running automobile sub-hobbies in the world! The first ones were being built by 1908 as prototype model T chassis with simple speedster type bodies to test drive and improve chassis designs. After the model T hit the market in late calendar 1908, two custom factory built model Ts ran in a race from New York to Seattle Washington. By 1910, many dealers and even Ford owners were beginning to build their own speedsters, dealers used them to showcase the car's abilities in local events. Model T Fords have been built into speedsters in every calendar year since then! The real "speedster era" began during the brass era and continued into and through the mid 1920s. Real era "speedsters" were built to look like the racing cars or custom type sports cars of their era. So brass era and late 1910s "real speedsters would be crude and open, as were the racing cars of that era, or look something like a Mercer or Stutz Bearcat of the brass era. Real "speedsters" of the 1920s would be more enclosed, and resemble the racing cars or sports cars of the 1920s. Years ago (I have since misplaced it), I made a list of nearly fifty companies that built and sold bodies or speedster kits for model Ts and other cars. Most of them were in business before 1922. By 1926, there were only a handful left. For many reasons, the true "speedster era" had come to an end. There were (as said) many reasons for that, many of them sociological. However, there were always a few people that kept building cars that could be called a speedster. The "Go-Jobs" that eventually became "hot rods" started out somewhat like speedsters. And model T racing continued to be popular until well after World War Two! Many young men coming of age during the war couldn't get a real car at that time, so they sometimes ended up with model Ts that hadn't been in use for some years. And more than a few of those young men cut them down into speedster in order to have a little "flash"! Many years ago I spoke with a lot of those men. I miss those days of this hobby. I enjoyed speaking with people that had been there and done that. Although the true "speedster era" had come to an end, there were still hundreds of people building such cars almost every year. It just wasn't the many thousands of people that built them and drove them during the "speedster era". After the war, our hobby got going in much bigger numbers than it had had before the war! And some of the incoming hobbyists were beginning to build speedsters. Here is where I sometimes get myself in trouble. I have "restored" six speedsters over my years in this hobby. And although I don't really consider myself a "purist" in the hobby in general (although I do come close to that?), I am somewhat of a "purist" when it comes to speedsters! All my speedsters have come pretty close to being "era correct", and that is how I think they should be done if they are to be considered "Antique" automobiles. The OP car is in a mid 1910s style, with a mid 1920s chassis. The wheels are 1925 or later, and to my eye, doesn't look much like any of the 480 original era speedster photos I have stored on my computer.

I am not certain, however my first impression at first glance was Chalmers. In the recession that followed the end of World War One, both Maxwell and Chalmers were in financial trouble, and suffering from the post war changes in engineering and marketing. Being neighbors, they went through a series of mergers and reorganizations in effect becoming one company. The added confusion didn't help them any, and along came Walter P Chrysler who had helped save Willys if I recall correctly. Most people remember that Maxwell was the foundation for the Chrysler Corporation, but most forget that Chalmers was also a part of that deal. As such, Chalmers was also a forerunner of Chrysler. Somehow, as I sit here typing, my brain is sorting through a few very old memories. I seem to recall when this advertisement was (then) current, reading that the brass era car was a Chalmers. But I could be wrong.

What a wonderful story! My grandmother loved music, and tried to teach all the grandchildren some appreciation for it. Among other things, she played the mandolin, and that was one of her favorite songs. Back onto topic, many years ago I saved a small radio cabinet from the late 1920s that had been gutted. I hid a cassette player and speaker in it to play my roaring '20s music at car shows and picnics. All my "collector" cars predate automobile radios being practical, so I never really had an incentive to trick out anything in the cars themselves.

Do you sing "In My Merry Oldsmobile" while driving your merry Oldsmobile?

I wonder how well it rides on those "all metal white wall tires"? Sorry. I have bitten my typing fingers a hundred times about things like that! I just HAD to let it out once.

A long time ago, I knew a couple people that had reflectors chrome plated because silvering was expensive and chrome wasn't. They looked great in the daylight. Lousy in the dark! (Poor reflective characteristics!) Personally, so far, all my antiques had (or I was able to get) reflectors that were nice enough to use the original (?) silvering. If needed in the future, I would probably go with the Uvira. For whatever it is worth to anyone. I pretty much agree with Flivverking on this. And David C (trimacar), I completely agree with your reasoning!

Actually, the first Chevrolets sold were fairly large six cylinder powerhouse touring cars! Followed I "think" by the "Royal Mail" roadster (a four cylinder fine machine) before they went really small in about 1915. An aside, That first six cylinder was a flathead engine! And if I recall correctly, the only Chevrolets for a very long time that did not have overhead valves. All that is off the top of my head. I think I have seen two of the early sixes in museums. I never knew anybody that had one. So I don't have any first hand knowledge of their performance.

The Ford "H" headlight lenses were introduced on the model T in late 1921, so would not be actually correct for a 1912 model T. However, IF they have been on it since the 1940s (?) they would be a big part of the car's history! If that is the case? Maybe the lenses should remain as a testimony to the car's past.

Those pre-fender headlamp Pierce Arrow big cars were quite impressive! I know a collector that has a few of those, including an early "Great Arrow" (1907 if I recall correctly?). He also has an early fenderlamp 1913 with the riveted headlamps (beautiful car!). Another longtime good friend bought a 1912 Pierce Arrow roadster some years ago that had a decent 1950s restoration in a not great color. The car was owned by a well known collector and famous on HCCA tours in the 1960s. The car was needing some attention, so they did a full re-restoration in a better color. Now it is really impressive!

Oh no. That is way too nice for my place! Way nicer than our main bathroom, and almost as big! Seriously, the bathroom here is a bit small, nice enough, just small.

Thank you Craig! I always enjoy your insights.

I keep threatening to put in an outhouse here! We get thirty to forty inches of rain most years where we live. We put up with the mud, wet leaves, cleaning the inside of the car and the carpets. The state keeps telling us WE have to cut back on OUR water usage because ninety percent of the people in the state live where they get fifteen inches or less rainfall! WE have almost no landscaping, I rarely wash my car. I do like clean clothes and dishes. About the only place left to cut back is to use a stinky outhouse to eliminate flushing.

Oh I hope whoever is taking on that Chevrolet can bring it all the way back to like new or better!