Locomobile

I think we agreed to disagree 😀

On the list of statements you'll never hear, that's right up there with ''hand me that piano'' 😁 Early 70's olds 88 was one of the best cars ever built by ANY one. Unstoppable luxury tank. I had one, we drove it for years. It was old when we got it and we put a bunch of miles on with very few minor repairs. -Ron

A car doesn't need to be owned to know it's worthiness. Working on them everyday and seeing the same customers come through the door repeatedly is a good indicator. Mid 60's through late 70's, some US carmakers (some foreign too) put out some inferior quality compared to vehicles coming out of Asia. We hated to see them come and still not fond of them, the fact is they were doing a better job. We had to get better to compete and we did and now do. Everyone builds good cars nowadays in my opinion. They have to. -Ron

NO! 😁

Restoring 120 year old cars with very limited available information regarding their originality other than photographs, there comes a point in the research which results in many hours of digging and staying vigilant, that you find yourself in the state of ''analysis-paralysis'' and the project stalls. At some point you just have to take what you know and proceed. These very early vehicles - some, not all were probably as close to perfection as ever came out of a US auto builder. Their workforce was primarily highly skilled furniture makers, machinists etc immigrants from Europe working for next to nothing. Labor hours were likely not much of a consideration. As labor increased they hired more people. That factory business model didn't last long as wages increased and retail prices dropped. That was the end of a crew of men spending countless hours hand polishing and paying close attention to every detail. I work with a lot of these very early parts and often astonished at the level of craftsmanship. (often, not always ) Ron

Was that one of the excellent four bangers that upon losing the timing belt would bend all the valves and knock holes in pistons?

That was at the height of the camping craze, so some were likely sold. Vans at that time were in very high demand, ten years prior, ya couldn't give one away. Ron

No comment 😐

Oh yeah, it's very prevelant. As is Sapele which is African mahogany I think. Philippine mahogany is the one thats very rare now. Sapele is the replacement, not as good but close. As I wrote initially just seal whatever you use with west system or cuprinol. Up this thread, the yachtsman had the best suggestion, smiths penetrating epoxy saturation with west system over the top. Be forewarned, that Smiths is some nasty smelling stuff. Ash or poplar and west system 😁 Ron

If it looks like beech - a light colored wood, it could likely be bleached out poplar, if it's very light, my guess would be poplar. If you have a surviving piece, cut deep into it with a chisel or pocket knife, if it has a slight green hue, poplar. Keep in mind, you're going to take far better care of that than it ever had, and it's lasted this long. I'd use poplar or ash entirely. If I was showing off I'd use Honduras mahogany in the very bottom.😀 All three are very easy to work, poplar being the easiest. -Ron

When asked the how much question, I just answer, I really don't have any idea. And I really don't, I don't think about what it's worth. I just try to enjoy it. To me, it's a bit of a rude question. I don't walk in someone's house and ''hey, whats a house like this worth?''. I had a guy that got visibly irritated because I wouldn't put a number on it and finally I just rattled off some ridiculous price and he nodded and walked off. To me it's a show, not a sale, and money shouldn't be a part of it. I'm always polite and just casually change the subject. Generally at big shows I'll have three or four asking questions at the same. The little steamer is just so unusual, I understand their curiosity. Luckily I have a buddy that knows all about it and we take turns. At Concours we have placards they make up for us so that answers a lot of questions people have. I'm going to make up one for other shows too. I enjoy talking with people and explaining the car, giving rides and letting people sit on it and get their picture taken. I've given a few old guys rides, it's a good feeling when they say that was an experience they'll never forget. It's a lot of fun. Although one time I let some people put their son on it for a picture, they took his picture, his dad helped him down, I was talking to the dad with the car behind me, looked around and there were about three kids to climb on at the same time. I stopped them. The parents were like oblivious. Looking forward to doing shows again -Ron

I was being complimentary, he actually didn't complete a somersault. 😀 That's inaccurate, we make technological advancements all the time. Just in the last 20 years we've made many in the field of medicine, robotics, communication, power generation, nuclear and manufacturing. I think if one studies what's really happening in science and technology, Musk becomes a lot less impressive and his ideas a bit more ridiculous. Unfortunately, many people only know whats trending in social media. At one time new science discoveries were reported and celebrated because the public was interested and understood their importance, that's all changed. When I was growing up a rocket launch, speed records, records of any type were a big deal. Every kid knew who Chuck Yeager, John Glenn and Neil Armstrong was, Not now. Musk has everyone's ear so it seems like he's the only one doing anything.

Steve Wozniak Co founder of Apple, true genius and early on cheerleader of Tesla, now says ''Musk is a conman'' and ''don't believe anything Musk says''. The monies Tesla received in Federal grants and carbon credits were never loans and never repaid, Grants are essentially free money, like Solyndra getting 500 million and closing up shop 3 months later.. I'm sure with the recent changes, Musk is dreaming up more wild claims and oiling the hinge on his pocketbook right now. As one auto writer put it: Musk lives like he's in an episode of Star Trek, where all the futuristic gadgets are real, but he always ignores the boring part, how to make them actually work.

I remember it well, Ford and others were giving rebates for people to get their rust issues repaired. Wasn't it determined that cheap Chinese steel was the culprit, too much iron, not enough carbon, vanadium, manganese etc.? That's about the same time some guy drove his new car up on the apron at world headquarters and burned it, right in front of Ford management. Those early 70's LTD's were grenades. -Ron

That was a real good car

Those are rather unusual issues. overall in the early 70's, GM full sized cars had it together and were producing some very good vehicles, early 70's Oldsmobile's were like tanks, unstoppable ones. Buicks too rolling 200k without a major repair. Yeah the chintzy plastic parts failed, but use of plastics on cars was still in it's infancy. Overall GM was building very good full size cars and trucks. Everyone's cars rusted back then especially in salty roads areas, Ziebart was the only defense and it was only as good as the guy applying it. Unfortunately many cars only received a bunch of holes in their bodies with yellow plugs and very little or no rustproofing. A good indicator of the quality of the job was overspray all over everything meant they did it right. -Ron

It blew up when it hit the ground in a massive explosion. Although, in the world we live in now that could be considered successful. Not too many years ago, Tesla was dead on the vine and the Feds stepped in and flopped open the checkbook. There is no way to total the amount of money Tesla has received from the US taxpayers, it's many Billions, 5 Billion in one chunk, many more in buyer subsidies, carbon credits etc. Hey, I'm all for someone bringing a new product to market and making a fortune, good for them, it's what makes this country what it is or was. How about doing it fairly like the other thousands of businesses that tried and were successful or failed? The Federal government has absolutely no business GIVING the taxpayers money away to private businesses. 200,000 restaurants have went under since last spring, where was their federal help? If these people want to sport around in their Tesla believing their saving the world, hey great, how about doing it on their dime, not mine. Ron

Oh that guy was an encyclopedia of how to's for efficiency and profits. Unfortunately that results in speeding production, cutting corners and cheaper materials. end result is lower quality product, but it's better than going out of business. There is an old saying that runs through the old big three but applies to any manufacturing business "Cheaper, better, faster, pick two of those, you cannot have all three".

I used it for board and batten siding on a country lake house I built eons ago. I never put any sealer on it as I wanted it to gray out, nobody wants to live in a yellow-greenish house. Vertically installed planks held up great for about 10 years and then we put vinyl siding over it, and they are still ok as far as I know. Horizontal planks like floorboards on the front porch rotted out rather quickly and I replaced them with salt treated. A car body I just restored with poplar sides is 120 years old and the poplar sides were in very good shape. Had torepair one area around the sightglass holes but other wise very good. Ron

The west system, if mixed, applied- used properly it remains flexible for many years and moves with the wood. All these expensive $200k reproduction hackercrafts etc are built that way, multi directional layers of wood laminated with epoxy. Many of these hulls run in salt water which is the most adverse conditions. Ron

Sorry to ruffle any feathers, but I'd like to add Lincoln Continental 1964 up to near the end of the run, last few years were good. Ford had no business trying to build a cheap high-end luxury car while ultra minimizing production cost. Thats not how expensive luxury cars are built, they're expensive because high cost and close attention goes in to them. Pretty much all of their mid-60's up to late 70's when Iacocca left, all of their cars were not so great. Radiators, starters were junk, automatics jumping into reverse from park, poor paint process causing rust issues in as little as one year, hoods flying open, all the big 8's burned an excessive amount of oil right out of the factory. That 390 Windsor was a boat anchor, great big oil burning V-8 with the power of an in line 6. All the Cleveland engines were very good and thats about all they had that was good through those years. Ron

Thanks for this info. Poplar in that width is difficult to source. Great discussion on wood for car bodies, lots of great info here. Ron

Beats me, they were all mostly junk from what I remember. The omni, horizon, aries and reliant were called ''K cars'' by the casual observer. They were Iacocca's Chrysler Hail Mary pass and it was successful. The German 1.7 engine was great, the following year they came out with their own 2.2 which was not so great. About that same time they cheapened the H out of the veritable old slant 6 and 318/360, crankshafts were snapping and a myriad of other new issues. That 60's 70's Era slant 6 in my opining is one of the best engines that was ever produced. Pre-Iacocca no one had a better drive train than Chrysler. Ron

The first year, the 'Horrible-izon'' used the 1.7? volkswagen engine, that was a good little car. About that same time they had the Mitsubishi Colt, that thing was bulletproof.

That's a cracker as the Scots say. Lucas refrigerators are why they drink warm beer over there 😀