pmhowe

On Saturday, 23 Sept. the Western North Carolina British Car club held its annual meet “Autumn in the Mountains” at the Mills River Brewing Company, in Mills River, NC. It featuredd British and European cars and motorcycles. Here’s one link to some pictures: https://aprpca.org/356B/index.php/news/1000-bcc-wnc-autumn-in-the-mountains-car-show-230924 I have included some I took of cars or car features (e.g. The Aston Martin's rear seats) that especially interested me.

Look at them in black and white. Hudsons were very nice cars. Then look at them in color, again. Then cry.

What a great picture! It shows, better than almost any I have seen, the importance and prestige and pleasure associated with the automobile during the Great Depression. Here is a shiny, upscale model car, proudly shown in front of a home that desperately needs a coat of paint and might need some roof work. Behind the home is a dry prairie background, with an old tractor that doesn’t appear to be getting much use. I’m probably reading too much into the picture, but I am just in the process of reading David M Kennedy’s book “Freedom from Fear, a History of the American People during the Depression and WW II”. I’m humbled, learning what our parents, grand parents, etc. had to go through to survive and thrive in those times. Perhaps that’s why - although I love to see the top of the line classics that were so avidly collected in the 1950s and 1960s - I find it more thrilling to see examples of the cars that most people, including my dad and granddad drove during the Great Depression.

XK140 roadster. Beautiful car. Years ago, I had a 1956 XK140 drophead coupe. I loved that car. I put almost 90,000 miles on it. At the time, I was a bachelor, living in MD, but dating a girl in Connecticut. The Jag was great for long trips. I had to rebuild the engine once, due to my own negligence: The weather had turned cold, but I had neglected to have adequate antifreeze in the radiator. As a result, one night the water turned to slush in the radiator. The following day was very cold. The next evening, I drove the car from Baltimore to Philadelphia (almost). With slush in the radiator, the engine overheated to the point where it stopped. I retrieved the car the next day and drove it without issue for several weeks. Then, one day, for reasons not relevant to the discussion here, I got rambunctious and wound the engine up to just under the redline. Should have been no problem. However, the overheating apparently weakened an exhaust valve, which broke, destroying the piston in the front cylinder. Hence the rebuild. I remember the engine as having lots of torque. Third gear was a delight. The Moss gearbox has a reputation for being very slow, which it is. However, I found that, at certain rpm, shifts could be made smoothly as fast as I could. At those rpms, the gearbox wasn't limiting, it was me. Fun, fun car. I miss it.

I think it is pretty obvious: It started out at 120 1/2", and is now 118 3/4" because someone left it in the dryer on high heat too long. We old car lovers have to be very careful in our restorations.

Thought about commenting on that, and decided to wait and see who first picked up on it. Thanks, Jack for being the first. Neither of us caused the marks. I have to admit, I am not sufficiently knowledgeable to state that the marks were clearly someone in a hurry to leave, or someone who had to make a panic stop. Can you tell from the marks?

My neighbors and I took our cars for a 30 mile drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We went from Banner Elk, NC to Little Switzerland and back. Here are a few pictures. The wall shown in the second picture is appropriate for our club; it was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.

As mentioned, it's a ladder jack. Brought back a memory: In college, I worked briefly one summer for a fly-by-night painting contractor. On my third day, I was assigned to a crew to paint trim on a Victorian two story house with a Mansard roof. There was a re-entrant corner setup with a ladder on one wall and a ladder on the other, with ladder jacks and a pair of 2 x 8s to stand on. The problem was that the platform moves in two directions with that configuration. With another painter on the boards, it is awful wiggly. I was so scared I had to hold on to the wall with my left hand and try to paint with my right. I suspect the house still has gouge marks from where I tried to hold on.

Both the 1928 and 1929 models were handsome cars. The only detraction in looks (in my opinion) was the width of the fenders. The F-head engine is interesting. The valves in the head are actually lubricated by manually-filled oilers (visible on the top of the valve cover). Each day, one would fill the oilers before progressing on one's daily driving routine. The clutch is interesting, also. If I recall correctly, it had two plates, running in oil, with cork inserts. It was very smooth to operate, and I never had any trouble with it. On this car, the engine picture shows that the carburetor heating tube is blanked off. It is just as well - the cars run very well without them. For looks, I used a lead pipe to replace the missing one. I used lead 1) because I had a piece and 2) because it was easy to bend. However, it was just for looks, and no air flowed. I had my car when I was sixteen. It had a three speed crash box transmission. I learned how to shift it but - now - I need to go back for retraining. Like many quality cars of the 1920s, it had an oil reservoir gauge that was made up of a cork float on a long wire with a red cap on the end. One observed the position of the cap in a glass cylinder on the side of the engine. As a kid, I thought that was really neat. This is a nice car. I wish I had the resources to put it in my garage. I hope one of our colleagues on this site buys it. Phil

"There were Exceptions". Duly noted. For example, the 1935 Cadillac had a positive ground. Just makes more fun for us folks trying to put things back together correctly. I wonder why Cadillac Motors liked positive ground. Phil

Lahti, I am not in the market for a car, now. But, after following your thread on the Nash, I would be thrilled to buy a car that you restored, at a price you thought fair. Your thread on the Nash restoration is one of the very best I have read, and I seek it out when I get in the glums about my own work. I hope you restore another car, and I want to follow each step. Phil

Those are fun cars to drive. I think it is a steal at that price, and someone (other than me) should jump on it.

But what were you driving? (Looks British, from the mirror placement.) And, whatever it is, I envy you the drive.

Hi Dave, Sorry to be so slow in responding. I just saw your post. I am not sure if you are asking ’38DodgeMel or me to respond. If I am the one, please send me a private message. (I’m hearing impaired and have an especially tough time dealing with my iPhone.) I will be happy to help anyway I can. Phil

Mark, I looked through the Cadillac & LaSalle Club's authenticity manual for Cadillacs 1930 through 1935, hoping that it would be the correct one for 1935 V8s. No such luck. In fact, apparently you can rule out the cap being appropriate for Cadillac V8s of any of those years. Phil

I haven't found it to be a problem. When I am driving a pre-WW2 car or driving my Morgan (which looks like a pre-war car) I find that the cars are sufficiently unusual that people are especially attentive. So most other drivers are very courteous and attentive. Unfortunately, there are still those who are caught up on cell phones or otherwise engaged. I try to watch out for them. In any case, I try to make all my actions cautious, deliberate and predictable - except of course, when I am on a small country lane and I am driving a three ton pre-war car and an oncoming BMW sports car thinks he owns the road. Phil

John, Was that what you needed, or do you need something else? Phil

I’m thinking it was a slip of the typewriter when you said you are old at 60. I was working on a reply when I saw 31Buick96S’ reply. I think his approach is a good one. If you are lucky enough to have some local car clubs, I would go to them, and check them out. If you find/have one you like, you might even alert some of the more thoughtful members what you are up to. Then take him with you to the club of his/your choice. Then find the car - yours, since it is your investment - over time and according to your judgement it can become his. Then have at it. If the two of you have a car to fix up, restore, love, whatever, having the club support makes the quest easier. For all the reasons you already know. Of course, I’m not in your shoes, and don’t know all the facts, so those are just my best suggestions. But, clearly, you have big shoes, so success is highly likely. Best wishes. Phil

I agree with you; that is a lovely, lovely car.

As drwatson says, the date on the chassis plate is part of the name of the company, not the date of manufacture. The original Bentley Motors, Ltd. entered receivership in 1931. Rolls Royce ended up buying the assets. Rolls Royce formed a private subsidiary company called “Bentley Motors (1931) Ltd." to capitalize on the name and goodwill associated with the old company. Note that the address of the old Bentley Motors, 16 Conduit St, London was also retained, even though the car chassis were manufactured in Derby. There are numerous good books detailing the history of Bentley cars and the takeover by Rolls Royce. One of the best is “Bentley, Cricklewood to Crewe” by Michael Frostick.

From Mossmotors.com: Since you have the carbs apart, you will probably want to purchase a rebuilt kit, which I think Moss sells.

Actually, yes. It was built in 1963 and was despatched to Canada on May 7th of that year to Metro Motors, of Windsor, Ontario. I bought it used (in the US) in the late 1960s and kept it and drove it for twenty years, first as my sole means of transportation and then as a weekend driver. It was a fun car, and I miss it. However, with increasing age, I wanted a more docile, luxurious car with greater creature comforts. So I sold the Super Sport and bought a Morgan drophead coupe, which has such niceties as bolt in windows with real glass and a top that is easy to erect when it rains. It’s a fun car, too - but it is not a Super Sport! And, to get the thread back on track, the drophead coupe has dual Zenith-Stromberg 175 CD carburetors which are actually quite flexible, but nothing special.

The Weber 42 DCOE 8 is a side draft carburetor developed for the Maserati 3500 GT. Morgan Motors also used it on their Plus Four Super Sport. It is a fairly rare carburetor. The carburetor is well built and very flexible. On the Morgan TR 3 or TR 4 engine, there is one carburetor throat per cylinder. With an aggressive cam, they are a real pain to synchronize using a vacuum gauge or a Unisyn gauge. There is just too much jumping about. I found I could do better just by ear and a hose. Once calibrated and synchronized, however, the car goes like scoot. One can buy kits containing different jets, and tune the engine to specific conditions. I took advantage of that when I took my car from sea level to 8000’ in Colorado.

A not-badly-molested Derby drophead coupe is a rare find. It should not be considered a potential scrap heap. I second Hursst's recommendation: The owner should contact the RR Foundation and get some help in assessing its value. While I mentioned "not-badly-molested" above, I am appalled that someone would have drilled holes in the Bentley's cast aluminum bulkhead to provide a place for ground wires.

This is a 4 ¼ L Derby Bentley. It was originally sold to William K. Laughlin in the USA in March, 1937. (Stanley Sedgewick, “All the Pre-War Bentleys - As New”). You can distinguish the 4.25 L models from the earlier 3.5 L models by the length of the flash suppressor (looks like a crude air cleaner on top of the engine). The 3.5 L models had a shorter tube. Phil