Roger Garnett

Bring out your Brush! Puttering Around Princeton Tour (NJ) August 25-29,2024 One cylinder tour, sponsored by the Tri-State Region H.C.C.A. and the CDO Club. Hotel on 370 acre conference campus - $159 rate including breakfast. Short tour days on back roads. Week activities include welcome barbeque dinner and several lunches. Visits include: - NJ Grounds for Sculpture - Large model train layout - State police museum, featuring a display of all the evidence from the Lindberg trial - Lavender and alpaca farm - Nationally famous Steve Bobinsky antique auto restoration facility Contact: Louise & Bob Nunnink / 973-839-6057 / nunninkl@gmail.com

If you don't have the ability to get to national tours, regional groups are here too! Find your own region close to home, or some other members near you. In the Finger Lakes region, we run 1 and 2 day tours on weekends, in various parts of New York State. Drive your car!

First - If you're looking for a financial investment, forget it. A brass car will probably maintain it's value +/- some. And inflation may wipe out any rise in price. That's not what you're here for. If you want investment, go talk to a investment broker. Second - What car, what kind? Something you enjoy. Find your local HCCA folks or other brass touring folks, and go for a ride. Hitch a seat on tour - many people have spare seats in a touring car, and some need a navigator for any car. HCCA and others are about touring, not showing so much. Get familiar with some of the cars and people out there. Third - Big car, little car? 1, 2, 4 or more cylinders? 10, 20, 30, 40 HP? Most tours are for 4 cylinder cars, as there are more of them and they can go a little faster / further. While many 1-2 cylinder cars can't keep up on a 4 cylinder tour, some can. And we sometimes have a Curved Dash Olds along, who start early and stop less, and have a good time. There are also separate 1-2 cylinder tours, which are great fun for those cars. Fourth - How are your skills? These cars do require regular maintenance and fiddling. You need to be ready to do that, or pay someone to do it. Certainly more than post-war cars. Some finding or making parts, it's all part of the hobby. Fifth - Within the brass genre there's a wide range of cars. Early cars are less refined, later are more production based, and start to have amenities like electric lights and starters. Mid-era cars are brassy, pretty, and all over the ball park on mechanical designs and layout. Model T Fords are abundant, if you are worried about parts and documentation. Roger

Announcing the Maxwell Motor Company forum, a sub-group of the Maxwell-Briscoe email / web group. This is the official Maxwell Club forum for Maxwell Motor Company cars, produced from 1913-1925, when Walter Flanders took over the original Maxwell-Briscoe company. This is the place for discussion of 1913-1925 Maxwell's, and includes searchable message history, storage for files (manuals, brochures, drawings, etc), and photos, plus additional features. It is a subgroup of the Maxwell-Briscoe Owners group. Better than Facebook- you can actually find information previously posted! As a sub-group, one first has to join the Maxwell-Briscoe group at https://maxwellbriscoeowners.groups.io/g/main Note that you MUST respond to the subscription confirmation email with your name, location, and Maxwell Cars owned in order to complete your subscription. Once you join the Maxwell-Briscoe group, you can apply to join the Maxwell Motor Co group at https://maxwellbriscoeowners.groups.io/g/MaxwellMotorCompany

Location sure would help.

The BBC tour was ended by the organizers last fall. The ABC tour has been organized to replace it, and is on the calendar. This has been covered in the Gazette and HCCA news emails.

April 21-27 2024 Snappers Brass & Gas AACA Spring Tour, Thomasville, Ga. Enjoy one of the nicest small towns in south Georgia with its brick streets, fine restaurants and beautiful homes. Visit the Pebble Hill Plantation, Zebulon Theater, Georgia Agricultural Museum, Tallahassee Auto Museum, and more. Tour is for brass era cars, 1915 and earlier. Final registration due by March 15. Contact: Ed & Pam Prince 229-327-1765 momasipia@hotmail.com https://www.snappersbrassandgas.com/

Yes, they are out there, and you may be early -not late. 1 & 2 tours do vary by area and from year to year. There are sometimes a national 1 & 2 (se the Gazette and HCCA web site), and often regional 1 & 2's. Tours for 2024 calendar are not all published yet, and regional tours may only be listed in a regional newsletter or email. Some are annual, some are bi-annual, others are not on a regular schedule. The New London to New Brighton is a great choice, and the only national, annual tour - and it's run as an independent event. There is also the annual Lansing to Dearborn, which is run by the Midwest Brass & Gas HCCA region) , and the Snappers Brass & Gas (AACA region). https://www.snappersbrassandgas.com/ Also check VMCCA, they have some 1 & 2 tours as well.

The 1910-11 REO brakes are pretty poor compared to later cars. The brake band lining material is important - "Green grabber" is a modern material that is recommended, as long as your drums are in good shape. Your local industrial brake relining shop may stock it, or it can be ordered. https://catalog.rowlandcompany.com/item/friction-materials/woven-brake-lining-materials/4280 (BTW, it's flat brake pads on disk brakes, curved shoes on modern drum brakes, flexible linings on brass era brakes and some industrial equipment) It's possible to fit hydraulic brakes, but it's a big $$$$ job. You might get additional info on this in the REOFour email group - https://groups.io/g/REOfour Roger

Peter - A comment on the member and car search -It's fast, but it returns all names / cars to the viewer first thing, causing a lot more data transfer than desired, and slows performance a lot on a slow connection. Just displaying the search box, and only returning the desired data would be more efficient. Hopefully it will be possible to clean up some of the inconsistent data errors, like having both AB and Alberta in the address records, and 3 different versions of Abbot Detroit, and 3 of REO (REO, Reo, R E O) in the drop down list.

Peter - how much longer until we will be able to see a members cars again in the directory?

Matt - I don't have a Brush, but you'll find a bunch of owners on the Facebook Brush group, and the Brush Owners Registry has some reference info for members. https://www.facebook.com/groups/191925051574530 https://brushownersregister.com/ Roger

That's pretty lousy! Was it a "Brush" engine? If so, what was it used in? The 1909 Oakland Model 20 has a 2 cylinder engine, designed by Brush. Check it out! Looks like a Brush! https://www.bonhams.com/auction/28770/lot/521/1909-oakland-model-20-2-cylinder-touring-chassis-no-1627-engine-no-397/

I think that will be a REO single cylinder truck, 1910-1914. I'll post this in the EarlyREO group mail list...

You'll find good help in the EarllyREO group for 1 & 2 cylinder REO's. Sign up at https://groups.io/g/EarlyREO