Kimo

Are you asking about the really old porcelain plates or just painted plates?

Ciao Camilla, Benvenuti nel forum. I think that many vintage Italian cars are among the most beautifully designed ones ever made. There are experts here on non-US cars, but I think that most of the members here specialize in the US marques and you will get the best information on these.

1. Move all of the furniture out of your living room and into your garage. 2. Using your Sawz-all, enlarge the front door opening. 3. Move your car into the living room. 4. Patch up the front door. 5. Move your wife into the garage and tell her it is only for a few months. 6. When spring comes, take the car out, return the furniture and wife and enjoy your car!

The clock is a generic one used in a great many autos, including as an aftermarket addition. What is the serial number on the movement inside? I can give you a date to within a year or two if you can let me know that.

I can never understand why automotive designers with this level of skill and ability are kept out of the design departments of the auto companies today. The cars of today are pale shadows of what these companies used to be able to do.

A large amount of the industrial capacity of the US auto makers was converted to non-auto building such as aircraft and tanks. For just one example, Ford built the B-24 at Willow Run during the war. They also built huge numbers of aircraft engines under a license from Pratt and Whitney.

I hope everything works out for you. Have you started to look around your area for a really well qualified mechanic who knows how to keep these in good running order? Since you and your dad are not shade tree mechanics yourself you will want to be sure to have someone local to whom you can go for those times when it will need some 'doctoring'. Like people, most old cars will need that kind of care more of that than new ones.

When you say 'all original' does this mean the timing belt has never been changed? Or the transmission overhauled or replaced? When you say "a few small rust spots" does that mean two or three the size of a pea or several that are not really too noticeable but that are more serious an in difficult to repair areas? What is the gas mileage - I have seen these giant boats with their giant engines get less than 10 miles per gallon which at today's fuel prices make these things anything but a daily driver. Depending on many factors that would need to be examined, the price may be anywhere from less than $1000 to account for needed repairs, to perhaps as much as $2500 if it really is a creampuff. And these would be assuming you can find an eager buyer for this gas gulper.

Unfortunately you have a car that is too new and common to be considered very collectible, and too old to have much residual value, hence the very modest prices being mentioned. Given the sagging headliner and peeling clearcoat it sounds like this particular one may have some additional substantial issues so even though the mileage is low it sounds like it has not been well cared for. As a result you may be looking at the lower end of the price ranges mentioned, and if there is something substantial needing fixing - timing belt, transmission, wiring harness, noticeable rust, etc. then the sales price could drop to something even more disappointing since these values are for cars that do not need that kind of high cost work. Repairs would be more than for a newer car since original parts will not be very available. My suggestion is the next time you get a note on your windshield offering to buy it that you call them right away and negotiate a deal with your bill of sale saying "as is" and "no returns". Or, if you were to hold onto it for another 20 years or so it would then start to fall into the vintage timeframe by then and the price might start to increase. I wish you the best.

How do you know it is from a WW I truck as opposed to any other truck or vehicle of the day? I see that the lens shows a patent date of 1914 but that was before the US even thought of entering the war (late 1917) and before there was much of a build up in the Army buying equipment (1918). Also, I do not see any military markings on it which I would expect to see given the penchant for the Army marking pretty much everything to show it belonged to them and to deter things from walking away.

Famous people are given stuff everyday by companies that want to get some free advertising. This is an example of that. To me such a car would have little added value from its association with Armstrong as opposed to a car that he personally went out and selected for himself and used as he regular car.

People can do what they like with their own vehicles, but I would have been much more impressed with a company that did an accurate restoration to its original configuration. These pickups can be gorgeous when put back to showroom condition.

There is one other item I found "similar" but the patent was filed for in 1988 and the date of patent is 1990, the term was 14 years but I show no evidence that any maintenance was followed up by the inventor., Even so, mine is different in shape, size, material, and the ergonomics so I believe I can prove how mine is different enough to gain patent. Sounds to me like you may have a serious problem in that someone else already "invented" the widget, or if you are successful in arguing the 'different size, shape, material, and ergonomics then anyone can adjust those minor factors and get around your patent. And you cannot re-patent something that someone else already patented. You can manufacture and market their idea without compensating them if they have let their patent lapse, but you cannot get your own patent on their idea. The second issue with any patents is there are many countries that do not care about patents and will manufacture and sell anything in most any country that they can make a buck on without paying you a cent. If you want to challenge them you will need to hire attorneys and try, repeat try, to stop them through the courts if you can catch them at it. Even if you are successful in one case (doubtful) the same guys can just change the name of their company and go right back at it. Every internet web seller, local flea market and street corner discount shop in most every country is full of this kind of stuff. How many Rolexes would you like - they are only $20 each or 3 for $50. Step right up. My point is that you really do need to find a good patent attorney and have a heart to heart talk with him or her to see what your costs are and whether you would have an honest chance at making good on your idea without your own large staff of corporate attorneys, given the realities of manufacturing and marketing around the world these days. Oh, and that thing about mailing it to yourself? That is a myth. Anyone can mail themselves an envelope either empty or stuffed with a dummy paper and certify it and register it and whatever else they can pay for at the post office and simply leave one side of it unglued. Then they can put anything they want into it after the fact and glue the side up. Then, Bob's your uncle, you have a certified letter with your after the fact idea in it. A patient person can mail themselves such envelopes a couple of times a year and over the years build up a collection of them. Then all they need to do is keep up with new patents that have been issued and pick out some likely profitable ones, make their own drawings of that other person's idea, slip them in an appropriate year's envelope and they now claim to have been the first one with the idea having mailed it to themselves under certified and registered US mail.

I have absolutely no relation to the following website, but I thought it might provide you with at least one set of data. These prices seem to be asking rather than actual selling so you may want to factor that in. Also, I am not sure how many Edsel collectors there are out there - some of course, but they are not like many other cars of the era in terms of high demand and high selling prices for fully restored examples. http://www.edsel.com/pages/for_sale.htm

Dude, you found my toupe! I've been looking all over for it.

Doing a 30 second websearch, I found this example of a reasonably well restored 1935 Airstream for sale (I have nothing to do with this car or advertisement) with an asking price of $17,500. That means that you can likely bargain it down to $15,000 or perhaps a bit more depending on how good a haggler you are. http://www.carsforsale.com/used_cars_for_sale/1935_Chrysler_Airstream_187050438 It really depends on the condition of the engine in your car, as well as all of the steel including floor pans, other mechanicals such as suspension, brakes, fuel tank, drive shaft, wiring harness, interior (seats, side panels, dashboard, instruments) etc. etc. but my first thought is that the cost to take your project car up to such a comparable 'decent driver but not trophy winning' condition would likely be a fair bit more than that amount. It might be worth more for whatever parts can be found on it that are in good useable condition.

Hmmm. Duesenberg was a really high end company in their day and while I do not know one way or the other about this particular sign I really doubt that they would have provided something so crude as this to one of their dealers to display, or even that one of their dealerships would have had this thing made up for themselves. It seems to be just a collection of old lettering from changeable sign that someone has put together. Unless someone can show a period photo of a Duesenberg dealership with a sign like this I am not ready to drink the Kool-Aid on this one.

It is not chrome. It is a paint made with silver nitrate that if applied correctly can look very shiney and be kind of like chrome. At least until it begins to oxidize which will happen in a few weeks. It is basically the same thing as the silvering they put on the back of mirrors. The way to stop the rapid oxidation in a couple of weeks is to paint a coat of clear coat on top. As soon as you get a nick or scratch in the clear coat you get the rapid oxidation at the exposed area and it gets under the edges and spreads. Electro plating puts a relatively thick layer of real chrome on your parts. You can polish it the metal layer and it will last for many decades with minimal care.

Red Crown and Polarine were two of the brand names used by Standard Oil Company. 1920s is possible, but so is 1930s. It is possible that this could have been mounted on a salesman's truck but my thought it that is a bit unlikely unless you can see a period photo of one so mounted. The reason I think it unlikely is trucks of the day were not really smooth riding vehicles given their construction and the less than perfectly smooth roads. If this had samples of oil and grease on the shelves inside they would get really scrambled in the first 10 minutes of driving. My thought is that is may more likely have been used in a gas station. Gas stations of the day were given or sold all kinds of displays and such that featured prominent advertising of the products, very much like today. As for the price, value is what someone is willing to pay. If I came across this at a flea market and saw the price of $1,500 I would walk right on by and not even try to negotiate a better price because for me I would think that the dealer would be insulted if I offered what I think it is worth to add to my collection of petroliana. But that is only my opinion.

Some appraisers charge by the value of the appraisal they give and so they have a very strong incentive to dramatically inflate their appraisals. Also, I assume he was giving you an insurance appraisal which are typically about twice what the market value would be. However even at that amount it is way out of line. One would need to begin to take this car apart to see exactly what it is going to need for restoration, but my guess is that it should be worth about $5,000 at most and less if there are some really serious issues going on, given the value it will have in fully restored condition. As the others have mentioned, rarity has little value unless it is matched with desirability and demand.

If you can get some good closeups of the instruments, both the front and the dataplates on the back I might be able to narrow down the year they were made. Also, try shining a light obliquely across the dials and look really, really closely. Sometimes they have their data printed in black ink on top of the black face of the gauge - near the middle area. As you mention, these kinds of gauges were pretty much one size fits most aircraft of the late 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and even more recently. In the meantime, when doing research I encourage you to use Occam's razor - - - when you have several possible explanations, the most likely is the simplest one. Using this, since there is no information from a very wide range of very knowledgeable people who know a great deal about land speed cars, combined with this having a small engine that would not have been able to make it go very fast, it would seem unlikely that it was an actual land speed car and is more likely a backyard project of an enthusiast or maybe something for show like a movie prop. Of course further research may come up with something much more interesting and such research can be a lot of fun. I hope it does turn up some specific information, but until it does the best place to start is to assume the simplest explanation. It is hard to tell in the photos about the condition of the rust and corrosion. Is it just surface or has much of the metal and other parts been eaten away to the point of there being too little metal to restore? Have you tried a couple of lesser parts or less visible areas to see how much metal is left under the rust/corrosion to see if it could be restored without having to hand-make a very large number of parts and sections?

Thanks! I see that one of these is from what might be considered to be a muscle car? The fifth is from a 1964 Ford Galaxy 500XL 2 door fastback with a 390HP V-8 with a 4 barrel carburetor. It was painted Silver Smoke Grey with a black interior. I wish I had the car to go with the plate.

Many thanks! I think I get it now. You guys are great.

I want to thank you very much for these links, but I think that maybe I am not using them correctly as my data plate numbers do not seem to line up with any of the choices, or in some cases there are so many choices that I do not know which ones are the correct ones. Could someone please look at one or two of the sets of numbers from my data plates I have provided in my original posting and using one of these linked pages come up with a decoding so I can see how to do it? Maybe I am just not seeing things right. Thank you for your kindness in helping me. Kimo

Thanks, John!