prewar40

IraT asks good questions, (What's the layout for this small factory? What machines do they have? In what order is each car assembled? What tools are used to assemble the cars?) I wish I had a lot of good answers. It's not for lack of effort, not much was published about the Gardner Motor Company factory. But I'll give you an idea of how the factory progressed and how it started. Gardner started by building buggies in 1892 and moved to St Louis in 1897 where he built a large factory. In 1915 he invested $1,000,000 to upgrade the plant in order to assemble Chevrolets. Much of the money spent was for equipment, he would also build the bodies which required a lot of wood in those days. I don't know if he had a hydraulic press for the body parts or if that was shipped to him from Flint. In late 1919 he was building Gardner cars, with the parts shipped in from various suppliers. He had his own engineers that required many of the suppliers to provide parts under a Gardner design. An example is Lycoming engines were different in Gardner than what Lycoming supplied to other car manufacturers. The factory did have an assembly line which was 'L' shaped. The paint and upholstery shop were separate from the factory. There were a number of quality inspections during production, and testing of both the engine and a test run of the car. From a photo of Central Manufacturing they built the body and the body wood and sent the body ready to be painted and then installed. In 1922 they had 510 employees and built 9,000 cars, for 1928 about 3,500 cars and I don't have an employee count for that year. I do have some articles I'll send you about the factory. The factory photo is from 1928, placed next to the river and rail lines to make shipping more economical; in fact that was the reason to move to St. Louis in 1897.

We are headed to Hershey from St. Paul, but do not have room. We just picked up a literature collection to deliver to the AACA Library. I will send out an email to the Chapter presidents and Region Board. Perhaps, someone will know of a person heading to Hershey.

It looks like the first car with the rumble seat door was the 1925 Auburn. This is a 1926 model at the ACD museum

The earliest side door rumble seat I know of is the 1926 Gardner roadster. Seems like a good idea to me. Anyone know of one in 1925 or earlier?

I sent a PM as I know someone in St Louis that may be interested in your engine.

You want at least one side to have a perforated edge, if it does not have that he printed it at home. All checks cashiers or otherwise have that. It still could be bogus but that is difficult to forge.

My stuck clutch was in climate controlled storage. Temp 55 and humidity at 55 or less. I have a dehumidifier set to 55 but our winters are even more dry.

Terry here's something you might find interesting Geeting Auto Oct 15, 1914 - Feb 28, 1991 In business over 75 years. I'll send you a PM on the documentation.

I just had my clutch fixed because of that problem. I store my car on blocks in the winter and start it about once a month. I was told by the restorer that in addition to that I need to work the clutch a few times and let the wheels spin. He is really smart so I'll be doing that from now on.

Well now that you know about Gardner you must want one. Right? Well in the near future one will be on the market an eight cyl, Imperial sedan, 1926. It's been sitting 2 or 3 years so it has the fuel issues. It is in Texas but still 300 miles from Springtown. I will probably list it on the for sale page in about 10 days. You can PM if interested. Picture from a 1926 auto show. Warning these are rare.

Wonderful comments - Got some answers The museum in Oshawa is a great place to visit if your near Oshawa. The 1926 Landau Roadster was one of 3 Gardner cars at a Milwaukee show a few years ago. This was in another magazine about 2015 at that time his Duesenberg was in his car barn and the Gardner was in his family room. I gave him documentation that by 1925 you could order any color you wanted for a fee. There were those that thought the color wasn't factory. I do know about the 1928 Roadster and hope to have it out by April or May or.....

Good memory!! Ken owned the brown 1930 roadster from at least the early 50's. He passed in 1992 and the his cars were sold at auction. A picture of that roadster on on my 'where are they now' page. Unrestored and mint with about 24,000 miles. The other car a 1923 coupe is now in Michigan.

The Bill Oexle Roadster is listed on my for sale page - Link: GardnerMotorCars So far I know of 152 Gardner cars, but those in the link of the first post are the ones I have pictures for but don't know where they are. In the last month I found one in England and two in Australia -- Search goes on. And yes it's a spark plug wrench the only tool with the GARDNER name.

March 17th will be the 100th birthday of the Gardner Motor Company. This date used to be known as St Patrick's Day. To celebrate the club is trying to locate 11 cars, we have the pictures. Please contact me if you know where any of these are located. rdg105@comcast.net Link to pictures page: MISSING

All 4 fenders for 1927 - 1928 Gardner very good condition. Details and pictures at: http://gardnermotorcars.com/fs-fenders.html Located in Oklahoma