wayne sheldon

I am with you on this! I am serious. Language matters. The history behind everything is important. Growing up in California, and for most of my life, 99 percent of the time I heard it pronounce with "ease". When my interest in history stumbled onto the proper enunciation, I changed, almost immediately! If people do not care about saying things correctly? What should they care about?

The Julian has been a longtime favorite of mine. It was one of my brother's favorite cars of all time. By coincidence, I went to see the remains of Bill Harrah's collection in Reno at the National Automotive Museum just a few weeks ago. I was a bit bothered by the Julian's absence from display. Seeing its photos here now explains why it wasn't there for me to see it. I guess I will just have to go back to see the collection again? 🙂 THANK YOU so very much to all of you posting photos and comments about this year's Pebble! It truly has become the "Best of the Best" collector car Concourse in the world! And a special remembrance to Lorin Tryon and Jack Passey. Two people I was blessed to know, among the hundreds of people that made Pebble Beach what it is today!

Unfortunately, there were two McFarlan automobiles with the dummy landau irons on the wrong way. This picture with the black on black doesn't show as well. However, I zoomed in close and made sure. Yes they are on wrong. So the Owen Magnetic wasn't the only car there with landau bars on wrong. However, one can argue that the Owen Magnetic is a more egregious error since they are live irons, meaning the top folds down, and the irons extend in the wrong direction. And I did notice the Owen Magnetic's bars before I read the mention of it by West Peterson. Maybe I need to do something about this landau bars OCD thing?

My apologies. I do have a bit of a bug about this. However, I hope they (the owners or restoration specialists) have irrefutable proof that those dummy landau bars were originally mounted that way? Otherwise, they are on the wrong way. With fixed tops, the dummy bars don't actually hurt anything being either upside down, or on the wrong sides (or both?). And, the simple fact is that I HAVE seen a couple original era photos showing cars with them installed the "wrong" way. Sometimes people make mistakes, then as well as now. But for every era photo I have seen with dummy bars mounted incorrectly? I have probably seen a hundred photos and pictures in sales brochures showing them the "right" way! It wasn't a mistake made often back in their day. Today however, it is a very common mistake! People then knew the purpose of such irons, and they knew which way they were supposed to be. People today do not understand that. They carelessly put them on any old which way. Pictures are taken, and shared across the 'net'. Other people do not understand them, and just copy someone else's mistake instead of doing the proper research. It could be possible the irons were installed wrong originally? If so, I would agree with installing them how they were way back when. But I would also like to see the original photos as evidence.

I have never been the type to seek center stage attention. So when this thread was first started, my initial reaction (to myself) was that I had only been in a couple parades with my first model T speedster I had restored, as part of the local model T club's entry in the parade (supporting the club and the hobby). That speedster, like one of Mark G's model Ts, had an auxiliary transmission giving it a very low parade gear. I wasn't crazy enough (sorry guys!) to get out of the car while it idled along, but I did stand up in it several times and look at the crowds! (Did I say I didn't seek center stage attention????) Then as the hours went by, and I checked to see other people's postings? I suddenly remembered I had (almost forty years ago!) gotten the Livermore Heritage Guild's 1917 model T fire truck running for them for the first time in decades. And I drove that in a Livermore Rodeo parade for them. Thinking about the Livermore parade, I suddenly recalled I also drove dignitaries in my 1925 series 80 Pierce Arrow for one of their parades some years later! Then I remembered that when we moved out of Livermore to Humboldt county, I joined the local HCCA group there. Our first year there, I drove our 1915 Studebaker in Ferndale's Christmas parade as part of the club's entry! I also one time, as a favor to one of my best friends, drove the Dryer's model T ice cream truck in a large local parade! My eldest son (about five at the time!) rode with me in a child's size striped ice cream man coveralls! (Best restored, best running/driving model T I ever drove!) So I guess I have driven in more parades than I thought I had. Most were my cars, but a few times driving other people's cars. I never had a really bad experience in one. A few hot days I needed to work the car carefully to avoid overheating. I even shut the engine off, feigned trying to start it, then pushed for a hundred feet (the whole while clowning a bit) (did I say I didn't like seeking center stage attention?).

So close, and yet so far. Thanks all for sharing photos and discussions!

It wasn't with Evap-o-rust. However, a temporary engine I used in one of my model Ts surprised me on a club tour about thirty years ago. It was a tired old engine I was using while playing with the car, and while rebuilding the proper engine for the car. It ran cool as long as I didn't push it too fast (blow-by heated the crankcase!). The club was being leisurely, and the car was staying really cool. Then suddenly the temperature went through the roof! A quick pull-over and inspection found the block nearly dry, and a trail of rusty water leading to a tiny hole in the block. Closer examination showed a casting flaw in the iron water jacket! I waited a bit to allow the engine to cool, then poked some debris out of the hole, which went clear through the casting into the water jacket. Being somewhat clean and very dry by then, I forced some five minute J B Weld (there is that dirty word again!) into the hole. Waited about ten more minutes, filled with water and headed on to the picnic lunch stop, arriving a few minutes late. The engine served me well for another year until I put in the right engine I had been working on. It was a simple, previously undiscovered flaw in the casting that decided to open up, probably when a small fleck of rust shook loose. Better to find such things in the comfort of one's shop than maybe alone miles from nowhere. When I was poking at the hole with a piece of bailing wire (every model T should carry a couple feet of bailing wire!), I pulled out a grain of white sand. It had probably been there since the block was cast in the 1920s!

Is someone in Virginia going to need to wipe off his keyboard when he sees the pictures of that 1922 Haynes? So many incredible automobiles! And a look at how that other one percent lives! Thanks guys for sharing the photos!

It is probably the same stuff I saw about thirty-five years ago. We were doing cutting edge communications systems, including installing some of the first commercial satellite dishes (four meter/thirteen foot!) for the first commercial cable television satellite in orbit, before it was activated. We participated in the early ground receiving tests when it was first lit up. Those tests went on for about six months as transmissions were fine tuned before actual commercial broadcasts began! Among the many seminars we attended (and we taught sessions at some of them!), was a discussion of this miracle metal. Speculation at the time was that it would be used for future satellites to deploy solar panels. In theory, even in the cold of space, solar heat (about eighteen hours per day for a geosynchronous satellite?) would absorb enough heat to unfold the framework and deploy solar panels on Mylar. I wonder if they ever actually did that?

Mostly cars of the 1910s and 1920s, with a few cars of the early 1930s. They thread onto the hub in place of the threaded hubcap, then apply pressure via the screw, and a few careful whacks with a medium size hammer will hopefully knock the hub loose. You hope. Care mist be taken. Too much pressure from the center screw has been known to pull the threads right off the hub! And too much whacking or too heavy a hammer has been known to destroy the end of the axle. They don't work on some wire wheel hubs. And you MUST have the proper size and thread count hub puller for whatever car you are working on. They are generally for cars with tapered rear axles, which hubs sometimes become quite stuck onto. Not for many cars with full floating rear axles.

Looks heavy on Mercedes Benz! I wonder how many are there? I like the Lozier, but not the chassis color on it. So many incredible great classics! I think I saw a Delehaye in the background?

Due to the punitive road taxes based upon horsepower or displacement, cyclecars and therefore cyclecar racing remained very popular in Europe and the British Empire well into the early 1930s! The things were like go-carts on steroids with a motorcycle engine! What amazes me about this car is the apparent lack of engineering. Difficult to climb in or out of with that steering tower in the way. There were several simpler and lighter methods of steering than this. Working with that steering wheel as it is looks like it would have been difficult, and likely it would not handle very well. Some of the control cables and arms do not appear to be well thought out? Great photo though!

Everybody has to make these decisions for themselves. What they want, what they can afford or handle the care and maintenance of? For me? I want a few cars, different cars, for differing activities and clubs or tours. And I want mostly cars earlier than the model A Ford. One of my longtime best friends (sadly passed away too young a few years ago) wanted one antique automobile. One great car! He toyed with the idea of adding a model T also, but quickly decided that his one 1925 Lincoln seven passenger sedan was the one car he really wanted, and he kept that one car most of his adult life once he bought it. On the other hand, over the years I have known several collectors that wanted a whole bunch of cars all similar! I knew a fellow that owned almost twenty model A Fords! No model Ts, and almost nothing else except his modern car and truck. I also knew someone that had a bunch of Edsels, another with half a dozen Corvairs. Although a bit newer than I like? I find model A Fords very attractive. I get tempted from time to time to seriously consider buying one myself. I have also always been a bit fond of mid to late 1930s Packards. I see the two as both very usable and drivable antique automobiles, and still quite different. I think they are a wonderful pair! Of course, you have to do what is best for you!

I find it very interesting! Thank you for the update.

I don't know about BSA. However, doors on the side of the crankcase were common before about the mid 1910s. My first one second glance at the first picture made me think of Ford's N/R/S series cars. It took that one second for my brain to kick in and notice the exhaust manifold was all wrong and even on the wrong side. Not Ford. Then my brain looked further, and realized the flywheel is enclosed in an early style bell housing! It may also have had a clutch on it in its distant past. Those details eliminate most American marques before about 1910. Many American marques had the flywheel out in the open well into the mid and late 1910s. Some even well into the 1920s. I have been allowed to play with a few two cylinder Maxwell automobiles. They were one of the first American marques to enclose the transmission and clutches. However i have never been close to the mechanics of one of their early four cylinder models. So I don't recognize those. Just a thought? Difficult to tell from the photos. That engine might be rebuildable?

The smaller one was an after-market item. Pines was one of a couple common manufacturers of similar items, and made a wide variety of sizes and shapes. They even made a few that were offered as factory options on a few cars. If I recall correctly, Essex may have offered them in the early 1920s, and possibly Hudson as well. They even made specific versions for cars like Buick with distinctive radiator shapes. Some mid to late 1910s Maxwell cars had a "widow's peak on their radiator shells. I once saw a winterfront made especially for Maxwell with a dip top center to fit against the Maxwell's widow's peak! This one? 19 inch wide should fit any model T pretty well, however 20 inch tall may be a bit too much even for the tallest model T radiators used from 1924 through 1927. I think it would work okay, just cover a bit of the top shell and/or bottom valence/apron? It should also work well on a dozen other makes, including some Overland and Chevrolet models. With an October 1931 patent date on it, it would be a later version. Although they didn't look much different in the late 1910s and the 1920s. I think these were manufactured into the mid and even maybe late 1930s. However, by then, most cars had thermostats, which pretty much made winterfronts unnecessary. Of course,many people were still driving their old cars during the 1930s, and many of them may have needed a winterfront?

Henry Ford experimented with plastics for steering wheels and coil boxes in the mid 1910s. The less than one year 1917 only plastic coils were a result of that experimentation. They failed due to warping and swelling issues, and Ford went back to wooden coils for the remaining duration of the model T. Those plastic coils failed so badly that they are somewhat rare today, but I have one as a curiosity (it was in a box of model T stuff I bought a pickup truck load of years ago). About 1919, Ford did go to a plastic composite steering wheel rim that worked well for many years! Henry's experimental department continued to work with plastics, and if I recall correctly, built a mostly plastic car during the mid to late 1930s (purely experimental!). Fiberglas per se may have been originally developed during the World War 2. However, the idea of fabric bodies coated in heavy paint goes way back to the early days of the automobile! Weymann was famous for theirs. They were were very high quality, lightweight, and quiet (virtually rattle and squeak free!). MOST early airplanes around the world used lightweight cloth painted with a binder or "dope" to both strengthen and protect it. Many airplanes continued to use doped cloth well into a few mere decades ago. Numerous companies and individuals since well before WW2 experimented with different materials for both the cloth and the fillers. Determining what specifically the materials are may help to date the car?

Nice! It may be a bit modern for my main interests, but I have always had a soft spot for Packards of the late 1930s into 1941. Big or small, those years Packards I like them all!

I don't know early Reos really well? I don't know whether they did or not build an "L" head design four cylinder? Their first fours maybe???? However MOST early Reo fours were of the "F" head design, with one series of valves over the cylinder, and the other series of valves alongside the cylinder. Reo continued with the "F" head design into their earlier sixes in the mid 1920s. They went to a flathead ("L" head design) for the Flying Cloud series beginning about 1927 (I don't offhand recall exactly and need to go to the store now!)

Now, back to the incredible Franklin automobile and their most wonderful annual Trek! I want to see a lot more pictures!

Sounds like an interesting and sad fellow. Vintage glassware was quite collectable thirty to fifty years ago. My wife and I collected depression era Cameo or "Dancing Girl" also often called "Ballerina", manufactured by Hocking Glass. We paid some fairly high prices for a few moderately rare desirable pieces. We even bought a pitcher to display with our common cups in spite of its being cracked because flawless pitchers were way beyond our budget in those days! As I commented, my parents collected hundreds of pieces of American Fostoria crystal. About twenty to twenty five years ago, the bottom fell out of those as collectibles. Apparently too many elder collectors passed on with their collections flooding the market with both rare and common pieces. After my dad passed on about twenty years ago, my mother and brother tried selling most of their collection to supplement their finances, and sadly couldn't get even half of what had been paid for items ten to fifteen years earlier. My wife lost interest in the Cameo. It dropped so badly in price we just boxed up most of what we had and buried it in the storage shed. Once in awhile, we look at pieces on eBay. If I wanted to, today I could buy a flawless Cameo pitcher for about a third of what we paid for the cracked one thirty years ago! We paid about sixty dollars (best buy we ever saw in those days!) for a nice pair of Cameo candlesticks thirty-five years ago. I recently saw a couple pair for about twenty dollars per pair. Collect what you like and wish to enjoy!. If prices later go through the roof and you win the lottery? So much the better. But don't count on collectibles for your retirement account!

A couple pieces of crystal glassware on the shelf above is American Fostoria. My parents had hundreds of pieces of it!

I don't believe there is a formal club specifically for them. However there were a couple Facebook groups dedicated to them (but I do not do Facebook!). There is a Metz subsection on this forum: https://forums.aaca.org/forum/101-metz/ It is way down in the marque alphabetical list. Metz has quite a following, including connections to a Waltham Massachusetts museum which hosts Metz gatherings most years for some time now. Too many Metz automobiles do not get the attention they deserve. If properly sorted, they make wonderful and reliable tour cars for horseless carriage and other early car meets. I have known a couple people that toured extensively in Metz automobiles. Enjoy!

While the black wall tires may look better to some of us (including me?), I notice that the car show photo and newspaper clippings on page one all show whitewalls! However we all know that the manufacturers dressed up the cars and made them flashier to attract potential buyers. But as I look at so many era photographs, and see so few whitewalls in those photographs? Black walls just look more natural to me, as well as not detracting as much from the car itself!

Quite a few automobiles did that back then due to the poor fuel quality of the day. The vaporized fuel passing through the warm block helped vaporize it further and fire better when ignited. Dodge Brothers did that on their early cars well into the 1920s. I know that engine is not a 1920s Dodge, however, I am not a Dodge expert at all. It does resemble the Dodge engine somewhat. And I don't know if Dodge used an aluminum crankcase on their earliest engines or not? I know they were iron crankcases fairly early by the late 1910s. A magneto mount can be seen in the photos, and the earliest Dodges did use a magneto. All that said, I would not expect it to be Dodge, although it might be a possibility.