Bob Roller
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Posts posted by Bob Roller
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The food prices seem absurd but then it's a short term thing and if I were coming to this event I wouldn't
grumble too much.I went to Hershey in the Fall of 1989 and it was a captive market as far as food vendors were
concerned. I think they were all one outfit scattered over the ground and identical prices says I'm right.
Here in Huntington WV we have a family owned eatery close by and they have what many think are expensive
sandwiches but the quality is always there and these prices keep it from becoming a "hangout" for low life
types that are plaguing parking lots now.We were once threatened by two of these punks and I asked them if they had
a pre-need burial plan and I told them I was armed.I always am with either a 45 Colt or a 38 Super and have no
patience with those who won't learn to work or are on drugs.
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Cadillac Carl,
I owned a 1937 Series 85 V12 sedan and drove it for a couple of years. Back then 1956 and 57 I could
go to the Cadillac dealer and get parts for it.I think I did buy a water pump and a radiator hose with a
thermostat built into it.Also had a beautiful 1956 sedan,bought it in 1968 for $325 from the Dodge
dealer and used it for about a year.It was not as comfortable as the 1955 Packard Patrician I bought
in 1959 but had a transmission that worked.That Ultramatic sullied Packard's reputation for quality
in a big way. Ford's Lincoln cars at one time used GM Hydramatics with no loss of prestige and did
so until they developed their own self shifters.
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On 8/16/2018 at 9:24 PM, 1937hd45 said:
If the Jim Hoe "Sports Car" was bought today would it be restored or preserved as a race car? Bob
Possibly it MIGHT be saved as a hot rod based on the "J" engine. There are at least
two of these,one called Geronimo and another that I recently saw in a video with Jay Leno
as a passenger.I think at one time J113 was made into some kind of a hot rod by a man
with the name of Hoyle but I can't be positive about this one.Does anyone know how much
a complete and running "J" engine is selling for today? I have heard of $100,000 rebuilds
which seems preposterous. That's $12,000+per cylinder or someone proving Barnum was right.
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On 8/13/2018 at 5:23 PM, Bhigdog said:
I was 17 when it came out. Every red blooded guy was a car guy including me. There wasn't a car I didn't like or least didn't hate (Henry-J excepted). My dad was a Studebaker man so that kind of made me a bit of an outlier. All that said, I remember seeing my first Edsel and thinking "WTF". And that was before "WTF" was a everyday term. What exactly were they thinking? Anyone know?...............Bob
I bought a 1960 Studebaker Lark with the small V8 in 1961 and I think it was a successful
attempt to build a complete car for $20 in parts and labor.
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7 hours ago, jeff_a said:
I've seen J214 at the Reynolds-Alberta Museum, the star of their 250-car collection. Chris Summers said that before it was restored it looked like a truck had driven over it, twice. It's a little on the rococo side, but was built for someone who designed opulent theaters.
Doesn't Mr.Aaron still have a Duesenberg with a repro body and the engine from Jim Hoe's old hot rod,(J183)?
That Wolfington Tourer was a fine representation of one man's idea as to what he wanted in a handcrafted automobile.
When I saw it in 1953 I thought it should have been a parts car and because we got it started there was a rebuildable engine.
I am glad it wasn't pieced away like so many others.
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On 8/13/2018 at 4:38 PM, Xander Wildeisen said:
$10,000 for a custom body, and all the workers/suppliers/factory all made money/earned a living. And you can drop $10,000 now at the chrome shop for your 1948 Windsor
I think it was in 1979 when German Chancellor Helmut Kohl told Jimmy Carter he didn't understand
any country that would let its money go to hell the way America has and that Carter should pay very
close attention to what happened in Germany when inflation destroyed the currency in Germany.
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On 8/14/2018 at 9:01 AM, Xander Wildeisen said:
Is that how the steering wheels got on the other side on some cars?
Driving on the wrong side of the road was accommodated by putting the steering wheel
on the right side. I did examine closely J159 at Auburn years ago,a Barker bodied
limo with American influence. It was original.unrestored but still looked and sounded good.
It was a RHD Duesenberg and I think only about 5 were made.
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On 8/13/2018 at 8:15 AM, mercer09 said:
I must have gotten some mis information off the net
J581 isnt the Cagney Duesenberg- this is the car
which J is this and where is it?
According to Ray Wolff's notes J581 was new in 1932 as a Dietrich conv.sedan.
After that it's a hodge podge and a scramble and possibly partially burned.
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On 8/14/2018 at 1:35 AM, cahartley said:
Here's part (most?) of the reason why.
At the 1932 $18.18 it would only take 1000 weeks to buy a new Duesenberg.
I remember a friend telling me that in 1932 he bought $5 worth of groceries from
Forrest Burdettes corner store and had to call someone to come and get him with a car.
I can remember if we had $10,000 in the bank we were doing REALLY well.
In 1950 I was 15 and rode a Brahma Bull in a county fair and won a crisp new $100
bill and gave it to my mother who used it wisely for a long time. I resent very much
the great counterfeiting scheme foisted off on all of us by the government and in
closing I will say thos."The last time an industrial nation tried to print "its way out
of debt it got Adolf Hitler and all of his crazy ideas.
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On 8/13/2018 at 12:00 PM, Steve_Mack_CT said:
Wow, $8 to $10k for a custom body, about 3 times what I thought was typical. One really paid for all that craftsmanship to be sure!!
Craftsmanship has never been cheap. If "CHEEP" is wanted get a carton of baby chickens.
There is no record of James Cagney ever owning a Duesenberg of any kind.
Chassis price on the "J"started at $8500,went to $9500 and the SJ was more by about
$2500 THEN the cost of coach work could be anything.
Earlier I mentioned seeing J214 when it was a derelict and I found a little brochure given to me
by Mr.Aaron,the last owner I know of. Altogether this car had had 20 owners. The original owner,
Mr.Eberson kept it for about 2 years.
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On 8/13/2018 at 5:07 PM, John_S_in_Penna said:
Before its introduction, The Edsel car was promoted
more heavily than probably anything else. Reviewers
liked it at first, but when it came out on September 4, 1957,
sales were far below expectations. As everyone knows,
its styling was unusual. Some examples had quality problems.
If you were around at that time, what did you think of
the Edsel? Whether you owned one or not, what were your
impressions of the publicity, the car's looks, its quality,
the jokes made about it, and so on? Did you go to see it
in the showrooms? Did your neighbor have one?
I recently read the book The Edsel Affair by Gayle Warnock.
One benefit of having long experience is that you may
have had experiences that others can only read about.
Let's record the impressions and the stories for posterity!
I was about 22 and seeing the rust under the doors on cars still on display in the show room.
Quality control was not a consideration by ANY maker in those days and it took a while for the
Japanese to give Detroit the bloody nose it so richly deserved but they finally got the message.
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Correction to my post on J214. Another man had started the restoration in 1974 I think. He contacted me
after I talked to Ray Wolff about it and Ray told him I had some information on it.The Canadian did finish
the restoration.This car has had a number of owners and according to the Wolff notes it may have been sold new to
a woman and bodied as a limo. It survives today as a very interesting example of one man's idea of a custom made car.
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On 8/6/2018 at 8:45 PM, 1937hd45 said:
Ok, I had to Google J 214, unique, one of a kind, and fortunately out of my price range. Bob
I saw J214 early in 1953 right after Melvin Clemens bought it. Half the body was gone,
the fenders were said to be from a Sayer&Scoville ambulance and a rear wheel was welded to the brake
drum and was said to be from a Stutz. We did get it to start and it smoked like a volcano with a lot
of main bearing rumble at first. It had been used to power a water drilling outfit years ago.
A Canadian I think it was had the restoration done or had it completed and once the odd moulding was
taken into consideration I thought it was a fine car with beautiful oak wood work.I THINK the Canadian
donated it to a Museum in Canada.
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That Mercedes looks mean enough to eat barbed wire. There was a 500K here in Huntington WV in the early
1960's that was said to belong to some Third Reich big shot that skipped to Switzerland to evade the very
angry Russians.The guy that owned it got into trouble on some Federal complaint and I was never able to
find out which of Nazis the original owner was.I hope the Russians did catch up with him no matter who he was.
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3 hours ago, edinmass said:
I have always been fascinated by some old guy who walks up to a car I’m working on or driving and raps his knuckles on the fender to check to see if the seven figure 100 point cars’ fender is going to dent or fall off. Just once I want to say.......congratulations on your purchase, please hand over the money! I bet the look on their face would be interesting. I’m sure if I went out to the parking lot one Sunday morning and put my hot coffee on his hood, he would blow a gasket. Maybe I’ll just leave a half full beer can on his lawn mower.........that will pxxs him off also!
Edinmass,
MANY years ago I saw a cartoon in Road&Track that showed an old woman in Paris France that
had set up a fish market on the hood of a Bentley and she was drawing back her hand with a large fish like a bat
to wallop the chauffer who was obviously irate about the whole situation.
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2 hours ago, Xander Wildeisen said:
I have never had an old guy tap on a car. I have had one say "it's about time you know what is going on" I had another person say " it will be interesting to see what you do" And another one said "you just keep going don't you" and another one said "nobody wants to see you go through this". Some not so old guys said " if you want to build cars for our kids, then things can happen" I had a retired police officer stand in my shop and say " their going to make a star out of you, you just need to find an angle" That was a strange thing to say at the time. One would think that a person would receive recognition for what they did, and uncovered. My guess is, it was said so a person would go off and think up some dumb a*s idea as to why you should be special. Side track a person, so others can take credit for what was done. I heard a law suit might becoming, I would think when people go on a fact finding mission, to find answers to what happened. Some interesting things might start to surface. I had a retired elected sheriff tell me I should call the FBI and the ACLU for my own safety. The ACLU in Idaho is a P.O. Box. That one made me laugh, there is no calling the ACLU in Idaho. Maybe enough time will go by, where statute of limitations will pass, and an honest story will be told. That seems to be the reason some people get away with crap. They get saved from what should happen to them, because of who they are. Well if there is no penalty hanging over their head, maybe the truth can come out. No pizza eating to this story Bernie, but there are some greasy fingers. Speaking of fingers, maybe we can have a conservation about pointing fingers. Looks like a nice day to go for a drive in the Hudson.
If I point ONE finger at you or anyone, I will still have THREE pointing back at me.
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On 8/5/2018 at 11:12 PM, ericmac said:
Ed's comments are spot on from whrre I sit. When I started this thread I never dreamed we would get so much information. I have enjoyed every minute of this discussion. Personally, I hope the car goes to one of the collectors who intend to drive the wheels off the car. Me? If I had the funds would buy it and drive it daily for a while as one local collector did with all of his Dueseys when he first bought them. He didn't even put collector plates on them. He mounted standard issue plates as nd drove the cars to work. It was a beautiful thing.
I doubt if Fred Duesenberg and E.L.Cord had any other ideas for these cars except to drive them
and if they become a source of worry and angst like so many have then sell them.In 1973 there
was a National Car Show here in Huntington WV and my wife and me and two small boys,Rob and Eric,
our sons.Eric was just starting to walk but was in a stroller.A black Rolls-Royce pulled in and we went
over to look at it. Eric reached over like he was going touch the fender and the driver screamed at him
and said "If that kid touches this car I'll break his arm". I told him in no polite terms he would be the
center of attention in the ER or the feature attraction at a three ring funeral if he harmed that baby or
tried to. THAT was an extreme instance but a word of advice. DON'T threaten an infant,it's dangerous.
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This one is J242 and was said not have any spare tires to make it lighter.
Maybe true,maybe not.
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On 8/3/2018 at 6:59 PM, alsancle said:
Matt, that is the original body. Ed is correct and most Dusenberg guys are aware of the car.
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1 hour ago, 1937hd45 said:
Steve, Is that the J that came out of Rhode Island and still had the trailer hitch on it? The 250F Maserati and trailer sold years ago. Bob
I like this one a lot.Good looking and roll up windows plus 4 passengers.
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How many of those sold in Europe survived the Second "World"War??** Randy Ema who
has more than a passing knowledge about the number of Duesenberg engines not
in a car. Is there any record of how many were sold in Europe.E.Z.Sadovitch appears
to be the biggest seller of these cars in Europe.
** Switzerland stayed out of the war for two reasons and maybe three. One was that
the citizens were heavily armed and ready,The Nazis used them as their bankers
for all looting they did during the war. After they threw the Vatican out 900 years
ago they have avoided conflicts of all kinds.
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Mr.Bartlett,
That is a beautiful car and certainly a major upgrade over what is has been in the past.
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1 hour ago, jrbartlett said:
J315 was rebodied by the Chicago Duesenberg factory branch in 1935 with a Dietrich coupe body from a Lincoln. That body stayed on it until the 1970s when it was removed and reinstalled on a Lincoln. Meanwhile a new dual-cowl phaeton in the style of a Murphey vee-rear-windshield was built for the Duesenberg by a couple of Harrah's craftsmen, or so I've been told. I've owned the car since 2011. See photo, which is from 2014 or '15. A couple other of these bodies were also built in recent decades. Originally there was only one such body on the long-wheelbase chassis, and several on short-wheelbase chassis. My car is the long wheelbase.
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On 7/23/2018 at 7:56 AM, Steve_Mack_CT said:
I thought I read somewhere where Duesenberg did exercise some level of control with coachbuilders, requiring the grille on most units with the exception of a couple of cars near the end of the run, but our experts here could perhaps confirm that. That said, not all coachwork is attractive for sure, even on the best Classics.
Fred Roe's book shows J315 when new, a Rollston Limo and I believe I could
walk thru bothe rea doors while wearing a hat. The Next Rollston this lady bought
was good looking and I think it may have been an SJ. I think J315 was rebodied later
with something from a Chrysler,maybe a coupe.
Cooper Duesenberg at auction
in General Discussion
Posted
I had an uncle years ago who said he had NO drinking problems because he drank,got drunk,
fell down,passed out.............NO problem. The real story was he was a brilliant man who had a
sense of humor that could make a dog laugh and could build furniture,paint a house or fix
a car. In 1953 when I was immersed in the Duesenbergs and servicing English cars, I pulled
up in front of our house in J528 and the uncle,Chandler Taylor was on the porch and he came
off the porch and saw that little gold eagle on the radiator shell and asked me where it came
from. It was then owned by Harry Schulzinger of Cincinnati,Ohio.
I told him we were going to rebuild the engine and he told me of a race he got into with what
could have been an SJ coming out of Chicago in 1938. He was on an Indian motorcycle and
the car passed him and he saw the pipes coming out of the hood and the car started winding up
and Chandler was running behind it and at 100 MPH he decided to pass it and pulled out to
do so. The driver of the car then hit high gear and the run was over.I remember telling him that
the 100MPH in second indicated to me it WAS a supercharged Duesenberg.
The alcoholism killed him at age 66 in 1978.