wayne sheldon

The chassis mounting brackets on the back of the engine are for a wider frame. So the engine was most likely out of a larger car. But I do not recognize the maker at this point, although I know I have seen that exhaust manifold on something before?

I have been wondering about this myself. Part of my engineering background, coupled with some of the electrical expertise we were known for had us dealing with fire marshals and other official agencies after fires. Part of my own philosophy from very young has been "understanding leads to prevention". I have been known to become a bit of a pest in the aftermath of accidents and/or fires even when I was not involved in them in any way. This particular loss is quite sad. The car was a special custom built future-visionary show piece. While maybe not particularly important in the grand scheme of things, it did hold a special place in automotive history. It may have never been "my thing", but I am still saddened by its destruction. When I first heard of this fire, I wondered if the car was an electric car. However, being a 1979 I guess that it wasn't. Unoccupied car's fires usually are caused by electrical problems. And it follows that electric automobiles have a much greater potential for starting fires than do ICE cars.

That is a very famous car. The "brothers" who were very close and worked together built it as a gag for their automobile repair business, and actually drove it to and from work. Your left, you can see the brake drums on the rear end, and the wishbone you note is on your right. I believe the chassis was lengthened some.

The ad says the car is in Arizona, the ad text says the car is in Minnesota. The map in the ad says the car is in Arizona? Sounds like someone is lost and maybe it is me?

I have been a film buff for a very long time, and enjoy both "good" and "B grade" Sci Fi as well as historic and classic films (love the silent era most of all!). But somehow, I sort of lost interest in the whole "Star Wars" thing. Never heard of the Kessel Run until now. Yikes! Star Trek made a mistake with the "parsec" thing way back, and got raked over the coals for it. Enough modern weird stuff drift! Back to prewar classics!

A "parsec" is a measure of distance, not time. Sorry, just my engineering and physics me inside. "Rumor was that this machine made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs." was still a good joke!

What Staver says! I know some 1928 Buicks used twenty inch rims. A 5.50 - 20 might work just fine. But you will need to accurately measure your car's rims to be sure. Measure the bottom diameter inside the rim where the tire's bead sits. Measure across in a few places to be certain the rim is not bent egg shaped. Most American cars after the 1910s will have rim sizes in inches even. Manufacturer rated sizes of tires are not always accurate. But the actual "rim" size pretty much has to be accurate. It is the outer diameter of the tire on which manufacturers fudge the measurements.

Harmonics can drive one absolutely crazy! They can and often do the weirdest things. Working for three decades in communications systems contracting, I worked on underground construction as well as Radio Frequency electro magnetic field effects and fault finding. A very wide range of harmonics and frequency phenomenon. One time, while running an industrial air compressor (used in underground construction), I noticed a loose nut on a long bolt holding the side paneling in place. The running RPM was fluctuating slightly, and the nut for a couple minutes ran up and down the bolt again and again and again. A slight burr on the end of the bolt kept the nut from flying off for a short while, as it kept going down and up over and over again. Simply due to loose throttle linkage allowing the RPM to vary which changed the harmonic value and in turn the direction it would spin the nut. After a couple minutes, the nut had hit the burr enough times that it pushed past and literally flew off the end of the bolt. A truly bizarre sight I will remember for the rest of my days. And one of dozens of stories I sometimes tell about the weird affects of harmonics.

Hey there Jeff P! I have never had a Dodge of any year. But I have known at least a dozen people that have/had 1910s or 1920s four cylinder Dodge automobiles. The general opinion I gather is that the Dodge is only slightly slower on the open road than a good model T Ford (lower gear ratio). However, every one of those people love their Dodges and loved driving them almost anywhere. Does that help?

That looks like a 1960s replacement tire. Those were still available at Sears and Montgomery Wards as well as regular tire shops. They were a "one size fits all" replacement. Basically a 4.50 - 21, but it would physically fit onto any smaller 21 inch rim and was the "recommended" replacement in spit of being too small for the larger cars. Tires, clothing, philosophy, "one size fits all" doesn't actually fit anyone properly. They were actually fairly good tires, and were great on model A and model T Fords that had 21 inch rims. I still have a couple of them from the late 1960s. In fact, one of them is doing temporary roll-around duty on one of my model Ts right now.

Should I? Or should I not? Just looking at the photos again, overall it is decent looking, however appears to be a mediocre restoration. The interior is not correctly done, and some things hanging loose under the dash. I don't know if the color is correct or not for that year/model Hudson, however I don't think it is a great choice (although my general opinion is that IF it is an original color for that car, an original color is always the correct choice!). The rumble seat lid doesn't appear to fit properly. Which in turn makes me question whether the rumble seat is original to the car or not? Over the years , a lot of people have installed rumble seats in coupes that originally had a trunk there. They did not always do the job correctly. One should should inspect such a car closely before agreeing to a price or purchasing it. If a person is not somewhat familiar with similar cars, one should take a trustworthy friend that is familiar with such cars to help assessing whether a car is properly done or not. Those series of Hudsons were great cars in their era, and make excellent tour cars today IF they are well done and properly maintained.

The wire wheels and hubs along with associated pieces are more than half the value of what is there.

So many wonderful automobiles! A few in darkish gray color.

While I sometimes do have a bizarre sense of humor? That is a bit too ghoulish for my tastes. In this hobby, one often runs into automobiles with serious accidents as part of their history. One may sometimes wonder whether deaths may have occurred with some cars. I will admit that one of the antique automobiles I restored years ago was one such car. I did wonder whether anyone had died in that car or not. It was a 1921 model T Ford chassis with an original era after-market boat-tail roadster body on it. Real original era model T boat-tail roadsters are highly desirable in the model T world, but this one when I got it was about as bad as they came. When I first saw it in a private collection that was selling off some project cars, I thought fully a quarter of the body was missing, and not worthwhile restoring. However, I thought about it a bit, and decided that I might be able to make the missing section. I went back to look more closely and discovered that what I thought was missing was actually smashed inside the other side of the body! The price was right, so I bought it. Several model T friends came by the house and with only one exception, they all said "Yeah it is a real original boat-tail roadster, but that -- cannot be restored!" In addition to one rear quarter being smashed and shoved entirely into the other side, the rest of the body was twisted, crooked with one side nearly six inches behind the other side, cowl laid partially over, and the remaining part of the windshield frame had clearly been driven into the ground with considerable force. The damage done would have required a relatively high speed collision, the car being flipped around and striking several objects. After which, someone stripped the car of anything of value But I did restore it. I wish I still had it. I sold it when we bought our first house. I did often wonder if anybody was killed in that wreck? But I really liked the car.

Is the radiator a cellular or honeycomb type? Cellular type (including honeycomb) radiators are notorious for developing scale inside over years of use with dirty or hard water. They can be very difficult even practically impossible to clean. However, there is a heated and circulated "Evaporust" method of cleaning them that has had remarkable results! I am lousy with searching websites, but edinmass went to great lengths a few years back to chronicle in detail the process with great results. Several people have duplicated his method with similar results. It is of course very possible that the engine itself is your problem. Do have any history for the engine? If I recall correctly, 1927 Whippets were only four cylinder models, and a six was added to the line in 1928. Both fours and sixes were continued until the Whippet was rolled back into the struggling Willys. Carburetion and/or ignition issues or adjustments can cause overheating of the engine. Head gasket failures or cracked blocks or heads can also result in overheating. The worst overheating I ever had in an antique automobile was a model T Ford with a crack in one of the combustion domes in the head. Good luck and welcome to the forum for antique automobiles! WE hope you stick around and become a regular here.

I knew you were understating a tease of sorts, but WOW! What a gorgeous automobile! (For a modern car?) Congratulations on the Best in Class? And ramair, what an incredible Packard that is! I thought for a moment it might be one a longtime good friend has? But he never was all that much into the "show" part of the hobby, and hasn't been showing at Pebble much lately. We drove his to lunch one day about twenty years ago. How about some better pictures of the whole car?

Not even a 1926 or 1927! I "think" it is a 1929 or 1930, right hand drive export model with a typical "South of the border" replacement interior. The ad says it is a four cylinder, but no pictures of the motor. I wasn't sure that Whippet still had a four that late, but Kimes and Clark indicates they had a four until the end of production of the Whippet line.

Oh, that top! The local boat shop that never ever saw a 1920s car must have done that?

The color "photograph" wood-graining was very common in the 1940s and for a few decades thereafter on nice but not top quality furniture including console radios and early high end television sets. It always seemed odd to me that fake wood-graining was printed on actual wood (often a medium grade plywood, but sometimes a type of particle board). Through much of the 1950s, my dad was part owner of the second dedicated television store sales and service in the Southern San Francisco Bay Area. Along time ago, he would lament the "drop in quality" manufacturing products and point out the "photographic" wood graining on television sets. I remember seeing a few brand new tv sets in stores growing up and looking at the identical graining on sometimes three tv sets in a row. Similar photographic graining was used on automobiles in the postwar years also. Having been made aware of it by my dad, I remember once seeing a couple "tin woodies" station wagons when I was a kid, and pointing out that the graining on them was identical right down to the printed knots in the same spots. I don't know when the technology to photograph and print on shaped metal was initially developed, or improved to the point it became common practice on manufactured products? I suspect the basic technology would have been available somewhat before the second World War? However, I believe its use did not become commonplace until the postwar years. I wish it was in much better condition. However, my 1927 Paige 6-45 sedan had beautiful wood-graining on the dash and interior and door trim. If I can ever get back to seriously working on the car, I will need to hope I can get good enough at wood-graining to make it at least decent enough. Like most cars of the pre-depression era, it appears to have all been painted in stages by hand. In the late 1910s into the mid 1920s, a lot of automobiles had wooden dashes with some sort of material (often top material or some sort of imitation leather?) over the wood. A lot of people restoring such cars will nicely finish the wood with some sort of "natural" finish, and leave the material off. A well done wood-graining can look very nice in antique automobiles. And it is how a lot of them were done originally.

Several similar concoctions might work? Or not. Try one, then maybe another. Sometimes one will work, and others may not. Both flow characteristics and chemical interactions vary and affect which will or won't work from one car to another. Allowing the concoction to sit for several days also might help. One serious caution however. While various thinned penetrative oils might free up the rings? And running the engine might help speed up the process in freeing the rings? Do not run the engine long or hard with too little real oil in it. Those thinned concoctions do not cushion and protect the bearings enough. Operating temperatures will help. Putting warm, then hot water into the radiator and engine can raise the engines temperature to near operating range without damaging bearings, then the vibration and motion of idling the engine for a few minutes might be enough to free up the rings. If the first cycle doesn't do it? Try again, and maybe even again again. On the other hand? Sometimes the only thing that might do the trick is a complete teardown. If the rings do free up a bit, and compression gets better but not all the way up? An old trick is to blow some Bon Ami sink cleanser through the intake while running. Bon Ami is a very fine abrasive sink cleanser, and can break down the cylinder glazing once the rings have freed up. Bon Ami is a good friend.

Nah. That is my idea of a limousine! When I first saw those photos yesterday, they reminded me of a 1915 Pierce Arrow limousine that a good friend used to have. Incredible automobile, very original and known history. Famous family, and famous child was driven to school in the car by the chauffer even years later. The car had a Cinderella "pumpkin" coach look to it.

Excellent advice!

"Torpedo away!" Four porthole no less?

I like it! It looks like it would probably clean up nicely. But at that price (and for the smaller four Buick), I would think it should already be cleaned up fairly well and running enough to basically assess the mechanical condition? I wish I could afford to pursue it.

A long time ago, a very good friend had a model A right hand driven touring car. He had fun with it! His longtime girl friend would sit in the left seat and then lay back and take a nap on long tours! People looking at the cars going by would see her and think the driver fell asleep. He used to threaten to hang a fake steering wheel off the dash in front of her.