wayne sheldon

He told me he was thinking of putting it on ebay. I told him that as much as I liked the car, I probably wasn't going to be the buyer for it. I then told him that he likely could get more for it on ebay than I would be willing to pay for it. So my guess is that he is moving that direction. I do think it is a pretty good buy and has great potential to be a worthwhile and enjoyable car! I really like the car (although I do wish the interior was a little less RED), and would be proud to show up with it on almost any appropriate vintage car activity! It would be wonderful and get a lot of attention on nickel era tours! There were just a couple things that made it just not the right "fit" for me at this time. Me fitting in was marginal being one of them.

I wouldn't mind having that brass top coil for my 1915! Looks like a pretty decent car for a decent price.

They look just like a hundred such hubcaps I have seen at swap meets over the years. I don't offhand know what years used that style. However, I have seen a few cars with them over the years. I don't see many Essex automobiles. Almost bought one once though.

Okay! I went and looked at this car today! First right up front, The interior in person DOES NOT look as bad in person as it does in these photos! It is still a bit too red, and the material is not the right thing, but it isn't that bad. I don't recognize the material from anything specific. It could be something of a wide wale corduroy or other Bedford type material? The car isn't running right now, but was running a couple years ago, but the gasoline in the tank smells terrible! They had tried to start it, but I doubt they did any harm. It wouldn't fire. There was speculation about valve adjustment being needed (easy to get to on these engines), however I suspect it really needs a good carburetor cleaning (looks like it needs it!). The vacuum tank is there, but bypassed and the carburetor fed by a typical electric pump, filter, and supposedly regulator (I didn't see it but didn't really look either). He said the starter turned it over nicely, however the fellow he bought it from kept the battery, so there isn't one with it now. I couldn't decide about the radiator? Whether it is a re-core or a really nice looking original? However it has been converted to a pressure system, with an overflow tank alongside the engine. I have known people to do that on 1920s automobiles, and sometimes they do help? Love them or hate them, I am just pointing it out. We all know that there are no guarantees with antique automobiles? In spite of not being able to check it out more thoroughly? I got the feeling that it may be brought back more easily than most. Overall, it is an older restoration that looks like it was really sharp a couple decades ago. It still looks good with a few relatively minor dings in the fenders (most look like they could be fixed up real nice in an hour or two (each?). There are some minor issues where these type sedans usually absorb wax around seams (a bit of detailing would make it really sharp!). I of course couldn't actually check out the wood structure. However the body seems really solid and all four doors close like a bank vault! Minor flaws aside, it is a sharp looking car! The front bumper is chrome plated, and not correctly installed. If I got it, I would probably remove the bumper, it is an after-market accessory anyway. I couldn't quickly see what was wrong about the brackets, except that the bumper is way too low, and they may have been for some other car (mounting kits varied a lot!). Maybe flipping some pieces around could make it work better? The downside. I am six foot even, and should lose about thirty pounds. I do fit behind the wheel, however it is a bit tight. The biggest issue would probably be my size twelve gunboats in and out the driver's door (again, doable, but a bit tricky). The 1925 Studebaker standard model two-door sedan (coach, had a much bigger door!) I had years ago had considerably more room in the driver's seat. I am considering it. The fellow seems very nice and is a car guy. He also seems very honest and fair minded. He quickly says he is not a mechanic! And talking with him I suspect he is right? The price is right for the right person. Probably the best bargain I have seen in this gray area (not currently running older restorations) in a few years? I like it! And as I say, I think the price is right. However, I am leaning that it isn't quite the right car for me at this time? (Close but no cigar?) So if someone is interested? Take everything I say with a grain of salt, and seriously consider this one. (And, please, get rid of those tassels on the rear curtains!)

Pinstripe on early cars is a really difficult thing to authenticate. Most manufacturers in the early days hired artist/painters to do the pinstriping. Most pinstripers had their own touches, as well as how much time they would spend on a given car depended upon how busy they were at that time that day. I have a few good friends with one cylinder Cadillacs. About twenty years ago, they were collaborating on the restoration of a couple cars (1905s if I recall correctly?). They were working on two same year and model cars, both with remnants of the original pinstripe, and they had very good photos from a couple previous restorations showing those cars' pinstripes. No two were exactly alike! Even early brass era model T Fords were not consistent. Era photos showing the pinstripes on them tend to be difficult to see much of the striping. Original era factory records indicate things like the hood be striped in a certain way. However, era photos sometimes show things done differently! How the panels of the hood were boxed, whether or not the lower part of the body below the seats were striped or not? Photos and records do not always agree. Pinstripes were a carryover from the grandeur and artistry of the Victorian era. In the early days of the automobile, customers expected it, so manufacturers (even notoriously cheap Henry Ford!) provided it.

Underneath that very interesting Babcock body is a 1926/'27 model T Ford chassis.

I often wonder about that myself. I have seen Victorian furniture with remnants of original upholstery in bright reds. However, I have never, out of probably fifty to a hundred nice original automobile interiors I have seen? Never has one been so red. Some really interesting many color stripes I have seen in very high end enclosed cars of the 1910s and early 1920s. A 1925 Stearns Knight a good friend had years ago had one of the most incredible interiors I ever saw! BOLD light and dark brown stripes! Beautiful! Mohair prints, embroidered cords, amazing some of the workmanship and colors that went into some cars. And of course, looking at fabrics after a half century or more of exposure can alter our perception of them. My 1927 Paige's interior (way beyond preservation!) appears a medium brown. However, look behind the handle escutcheons, and a rich burgundy color can be found! I see quite a bit of "bordello red" interiors in restored cars. Frankly, I think that is strictly a modern touch. Usually the fabric is little or nothing like original era fabrics. I have never (yet?) seen anything indicating that sort of red cloth interior in cars of the 1910s or 1920s. When I see something like this? My first thought is to wonder aloud whether "a few cans of spray die would help?"

Okay, Been a long time, but I am supposed to know this a bit better. Color to the eye is a complicated mix of several things, some physical laws, others pure perception. In any sense, it is all an illusion! (Manufactured in the brain.) Mixing colors works TWO ways! I know this from having worked with color video systems. For the life of me right now, I do not recall which is which, and when I tried to google it about a year ago, I got no help whatsoever. Mixing paints, other things, works one way, mixing light works the other way. One is called "color additive" mixing of colors. The other is called "color subtractive" mixing of colors. Most people are familiar with mixing colors with things like paint. Used to be every first grader was taught about this. Mixing colors by light is something mostly known to people dealing with technologies using light to create images. Old style color televisions used red, green, and blue, pixels, controlled by the cathode ray guns to create the full visible spectrum (or at least most of it?). While paints use the three "primary" colors (red, yellow, and blue) to mix the full visible spectrum. In one way, the colors add to each other the colors of the spectrum that is taken away from the full spectrum of white light. While the other adds to what remains after the subtractive method has removed those colors. The bizarre thing is, that one does not actually "see" a color! The eye captures the absence of the color, and the brain interprets that in the visual cortex to create the illusion of "seeing" it. As I am writing this, I am beginning to pull it out of the deep recesses of seminars over thirty years ago. I "think" mixing paints is the color subtractive method, while mixing light (what the eye sees AFTER the paint has removed the specified color!) is the color additive method. (I did get the answer right on the tests after completing the seminars!) When you "see" yellow? The color yellow is actually missing from the light that hits your eye. This is where "perception" come in. Millions of years of evolution have built a system to quickly impart information helpful to survival by creating these images in the brain. We are born with certain levels of ability, and during our first months out in the world, our brains learn how to interpret what our eye "sees". I often wonder what the universe REALLY looks like to the gods? Don't you just love following me down some of these rabbit holes?

Nasty! I cannot offhand recall ever seeing an armature shaft broken that way. It does appear to have been twisted off under heavy load. The crack started forming in the keyway, both the weakest spot and point of greatest shock and stress where the gearset is anchored to the shaft. Spark lever is handy on the steering column for a reason!

I bet it sells quickly! I don't like the color, but otherwise I really like it. I wish it could be me that buys it. If it waits for a bit, it is possible for me?

I am not sure, but I suspect that may be a repurposed cut-off model T coupe body? It actually doesn't look too bad? The rest? I will leave to others.

Yeah, but before the rollback and tractor? It was parked somewhere else! Maybe two or three moves since, but at some point in its past, it was running, and then parked. My dad was a true hoarder. I am bad enough in my own right, but nowhere near as bad as he was. When he passed away (almost twenty years ago now), he had over 200 antique radios that he was planning to restore to like new! He started on a couple of them, but never finished even one. I still have about eight of them. It makes me sick sometimes to think about it. Several cars he had that really deserved better. The worst one was the 1964 Cadillac two door sedan he got in the mid 1980s. This car was so nice. All white exterior, white and black leather interior, beautiful condition. Low mileage, ran wonderfully! He drove it for maybe ten years? Then the transmission failed. Yep. He parked it in the backyard, grass grew up around it, the sprinklers watered it. In some few years, it began to rust out. I tried to talk him into doing SOMETHING with it! But he was adamant, it and about five other cars he was going to restore some day. I did manage to talk him into selling a 1973 (?) Buick convertible with a blown engine (except for the engine a nice enough car he had picked up for about fifty dollars), and a 1950 Chevrolet sedan delivery missing the engine. The 1964 Cadillac and two others (a bit newer) along with a 1968 Chevrolet station wagon sat far too long. Sadly, literally days after he died, I ended up giving them to a wrecker that specialized in vintage General Motors. At least some of the Cadillacs' nice trim probably helped other people make their cars better.

Thank you. People just need to know and accept their own limitations. It doesn't mean they are stupid, or worthless. Just that they cannot relate to what end of the screwdriver does what. Or they need to stay away from stepstools. I used to stand near the top of a six foot ladder and swing it around to face the other direction! I often climbed up hundred foot and higher towers to fix equipment failures without safety equipment! I could do it. And I could do it safely! (Point of fact, carrying the safety equipment all the time just because it might be needed wore it out and it could become unsafe for when it was needed, once in awhile climbing the tower was unexpectedly needed, the safety equipment although a wise choice was not really needed by someone that knew what he was doing up there.) Whenever working up the tower was expected, I took and used (still have!) the safety belts and etc. Among the few really good things in my life, was that between the antique automobile hobby, and the work in cutting edge communications systems, I met a lot of really incredible people! Believe me, there are a lot of truly brilliant people out there that cannot tie their shoes! I spent many hours with real rocket scientists, and even met a few brain surgeons. I had to find and repair some equipment tampering done by a physicist teaching at Stanford University! Ever try to tell a world class physicist that he doesn't know what he is doing?

Some people should not be allowed to ever touch a tool of any kind! If you don't like sad stories? Read no further. Growing up grade school and middle school. About a block and a half from my house, was a typical young family. The eldest daughter was my age, and in my classes several times over the years. Her sister was about two years younger (a bit younger than my brother), and her brother a few years younger than that (about the age of my sister. Her dad, was a high level engineer for one of the big electronic and computer companies (I don't think it was IBM?). He was well known in the neighborhood for being clueless about tools or anything mechanical. People would be walking down the street and pass their house shaking their heads as he tried to mow the lawn! His attempts to do anything to their car were almost always followed by a tow truck taking their car to a garage! I saw that happen several times. One day, the wife and kids went to the store, leaving dad at home. They got home, the daughter my age was first in the front door while mom and sister gathered grocery bags. He had tried to change a light bulb. Used a small step stool, fell off and hit his head. The girl was never the same after that. It isn't necessarily a bad thing? But some people just do not have that connection to the universe. DD, if you think that tale is too dark, let me know and I'll replace it with something less.

About forty years ago, one of the Endurance Runs I went on? At the end of the day, the clubs sent about six modern cars to search around many miles of back roads for a missing car! A couple other people had seen him miss a turn, and he hadn't been seen since. He finally found his way to his house just about sundown. This was before cell phones, so some of the searchers didn't show back up for another hour or two! The guy couldn't follow directions hardly at all, and did the same thing a couple years later. That time, the club just waited for him to show up. Which he did a couple hours later.

Looks like a lovely couple! Best wishes to you both!

23 Skidoo! History? Or legend?

We do not want to discourage newcomers here. However, something like this belongs under the "Horseless Carriage" heading, or general "Parts For Sale". In those areas, people looking for pre-1916 parts might find them. In the CCCA Classic car area they are less likely to be seen by people needing Flanders pieces. Good luck! Link to Horseless Carriage section; https://forums.aaca.org/forum/24-horseless-carriages-pre-1916/ Link to general Parts For Sale; https://forums.aaca.org/forum/145-parts-for-sale/

This one has been for sale for awhile, and shared here a few times now. It used to look worse, but the fellow I guess keeps working on it and raising the price to cover it? I don't know how he manages that. Auburn automobiles from the 1930s are notorious for a well known hobbyist collector back around WW2 that bought out the Auburn company inventory. He made quite a business of providing parts for surviving Auburns, and accounts for so many of them on the road today. Among that inventory, I guess were a number of engines. So it was common back in the 1950s and 1960s to buy rebuilt replacement engines for them. That is a double-edge sword. Many more Auburns exist today because of that (and in better shape than they would have been?), however, a lot of them do not have their actual original engines. Many, maybe even most, are basically correct engines however. Today, along with muscle cars and Duesenbergs, I am sure whether the engine is the true original or not should affect the value. However, the issue is so common that one with an exchanged engine will have a lot of company!

For me the problem has always been my family. They are a thoroughly screwed up bunch, needy, demanding, expensive and very complicated. Until recent years, what got me through it were the half dozen or more restorations I basically completed by spending ONE HOUR, nearly EVERY DAY working on them. Those single hours didn't cheat anyone out of anything! And they kept me involved, and feeling that I did accomplish something. I also usually had a car I could drive and enjoy or tour with from time to time. A similar idea could work for you? Set yourself a rough time to begin, and spend that one hour. The chosen task can vary based upon how you feel. I often have what I refer to as "basket weaving" projects. Things I really would like to use on one of my cars, but are in terrible condition, and not really necessary to getting it running. Currently, I am working on the much more rare early 1915 fenders for my early 1915 model T runabout. I have the more common later 1915 fenders, I had restored them several years ago before I found the rare early ones. If I were to finish a few things needed before running the car? I could use the later 1915 fenders, in fact two of them are already installed and ready for driving! But I want the earlier ones. Things have been extremely stressful lately. So I need the distraction, and working on something I want but do not really need seems to work for me. I have a couple nice accessory steering wheels for model Ts hanging in the garage that I restored a few years ago when I needed a distraction. I find a special satisfaction in bringing desirable parts back from the brink of returning to the soil. But that is me. You need to find what works for you in the short term. Whether it is bodywork or mechanics? Even fixing up the interior? I find occasionally changing priorities helps. But that ONE HOUR per DAY is the key. Not enough to really hurt, and the accomplishments though maybe small add up. Before long, the car looks better, and you will likely feel better about it. Regardless, ENJOY what you do! You have earned that right.

I bet George would be a great navigator! I think he has that solid type of mindset. I was thinking of joking that you and I could do a GAR type Run, but we would have to fight over who drove and who got us lost? Besides, SOMEONE has pay for the danged thing!

Metallic attachment to fins or tubes shouldn't adversely affect the cooling efficiency, much. In some cases, it may even bond tubes and fins (but do not expect much?) and improve cooling efficiency. On the flip side, the chemicals involved could loosen the bonds between tubes and fins, adversely affecting the cooling efficiency. Clear as mud yet? Electroplating generally doesn't like to attach inside the labyrinth of tubes fins or honeycombs. The electrolytic effects prefer "path of least resistance", also often the shortest path. So a bright effect may adhere to the outer surfaces. However the inner areas will likely not receive much. Warning, I am not technically an expert here by any sense of the word. However, I have done a fair amount of experimentation with electrolytic rust removal (a reverse process), some home plating (and planning to do more!), and worked in the field of electromagnetic field effect phenomenon. (A fancy phrase for radio frequency and other electromagnetic interference problems! I had to locate the sources, and find a fix for them!))

Be certain of the model!!! For some odd reason, Chrysler automobiles of the 1920s are often misidentified. Chrysler offered a wide range of models during the 1920s, as many as four distinctively different series cars under the Chrysler badge in a single year! There is a HUGE difference between the various models. Somehow, over the recent half century, a lot of people became convinced they had one model Chrysler (usually one of the top line models!), when what they actually had was one of the lesser models. Value of the cars, availability of parts, speed and handling, are all very different across the lines.

Sounds like you have the situation well under control. Most people do not know this, even in the model T Ford world! It is rarely ever discussed, almost never found in books, or even original sales literature. Many years ago, I did see original copies of sales literature that mentioned it. I also saw a few original radiators showing it in good condition. I actually owned one original oil sidelamp! During the latter half of the "brass era" for the model T Ford, Ford had an option to nickel plate most of the brass trim! I do not know if the cars left the factory that way, or were retrofitted by the dealers (that would be my guess?). It may even be that the dealers worked with local plating shops to do that as an after-market addition. I have seen a couple era photographs of then new cars that appear to be nickel radiators. A bit over forty years ago, I met a fellow and saw the car he had meticulously restored that way. He claimed it had been that way originally, and had copies of original sales literature to back it up! It was beautifully restored, and quite striking to look at. As I recall, I think it was either a 1913 or 1914. I really liked the look of it! Reading your question makes me wonder what you are working on?

I doubt that it is NOS. It shows exposure to weather, shaded by having been in a shell ("grill" in modern parlance?). So it was likely on a car at some time. Still, it looks very nice, and may have been reworked by an old-school radiator shop (read that as better than most shops today!) It really should be gotten to someone that can use it on a car, or even keep it as a spare for an early car they drive! So I thank you for making that effort! I do have a longtime friend interested in early Pontiacs, he is located in San Jose, California. I don't believe he has one of that year however.