Jim Bollman

Bob Cummings drove/flew a Taylor - Aero Car. There were 5 built and 4 still exists including the one Bob used on his show. Here is a brief history.

My Dad was a huge accumulator and I think to some extent, that helped me keep a bit more control but still and collected way to much (finally got rid of the last of his stuff this year and he has been gone 7 years). I have tried to limit myself to 3 or 4 collector cars at a time most of my collecting days so that helps some. The big help for my son in the future is we decided to move 700 miles. When looking at the cost and work to move everything, plus build another building at the new location I downsized to about 1/3 of my previous stash and trying hard not to let it grow much. Have not missed much of what I have gotten rid of accept when I'm putting things together to take to Hershey, not as much to chose from. Thinking I do have room for one more car :-)

This topic quickly turned into a political argument and should be shut down while we are all still friends. Doesn't seem like what should be discussed on an old car forum.

I'll give you $25 or the 1951 plate as is. I have a car it could go on but I would probably just hang it on the wall. The 51 plate is a hard to find and in good condition is more than I'm willing to pay for a license plate.

It would look nice inside with vertical rough sawn. You don't really need the battens, let there be some gaps, you can always put black plastic or tar paper on the purlins so the gaps will show black if you think it will bothers you and you will have a smoother wall to hang things. If you think a clear coat on natural wood is still to dark use a semi transparent white stain on it. Here is one end of my shop with a similar treatment.

I don't do it regularly but early on taught myself to shift without the clutch and it has come in handy a couple of times. The later Crosleys had a cross shaft that the clutch and brake pedal pivot on, the inboard end was held by a bracket attached to the transmission. If the transmission mount is bad it can shift enough for the shaft to drop out, no brakes or clutch. I once drove a friends Crosley several miles back to his house through town with the the shaft dangling. Lucky the Crosey was nicely warmed up when it fell out, so I shut off the ignition when we needed to stop and started in gear and shifted up and down as needed. The owner asked when it fell out and was surprised when I told him. Years later my F250 diesel 6 speed had a spring in the dual clutch break and jam the clutch when I was on my way back from a show pulling my 12 foot enclosed Crosley trailer. Found out when I pulled into a rest stop and tried to stop at around 10pm, 70 miles from home. I was in a pull through so didn't hit anything and got it stopped. I figured at that time of night and with the trailer it would be many hours before I would get home if I called AAA. Decided with almost new batteries and the granny 1st I would try to start in low. It worked and I proceeded on home, shifting as needed. Picked a different route to minimize stops and only had to start in gear a couple of times and only ran one stop sign on a back road close to home. Parked on the side of the road and walked back my 500 foot drive to avoid being trapped. Called AAA in the morning and had the trailer off and back the drive with the tractor before they arrived. Still practice from time to time just in case.

I have had good luck with dryer sheets but I guess some mice like them. I spread sticky traps around the shop in corners and a few spots where a mouse may run or squeeze in, they catch a fair number every year. I gave up on cats years ago, my FarmOroad (see Avatar) seat was the favorite spot for the shop cat to sleep, I found a mouse nest under the seat where he slept every night. I have some old 4 sided (4 traps in one) plastic traps that pull up a wire to strangle the mice when they stick their head in, that I may get out again. One was my grandmothers and she use to pay me 5 cents for every mouse I removed from the trap and re-bated with cheese when I was about 8 years old ( a long time ago). I used hers for a long time in the shop with success and then found a second one at a flea market. Not sure why I switched to sticky traps but they are less mess to dispose of the mice, just foldover and drop into the trash.

Crosley used variation of the same jack from 39-52. The jack I showed I believe was the last variation. Hard to believe but the earlier ones used a round base that was even smaller.

The only thing going for this Crosley jack is the car only weighs around 1200lbs.

Same style jack that the Metropolitan used. I had the slice though happen when I was removing the brakes from the rear. I was 18 and not to bright and was sitting with both legs under the car while pulling the brakes. The Met just slowly settled on my legs, no injury I just couldn't move. Next problem was I was working by myself with parents not expected home for 6+ hours. After a few minutes of telling myself how stupid I was, I grabbed the fender that were trapping my legs and bent it up out of the way and slid out.

How far back does the term Grease Monkey go? Maybe there is a connection.

PS: Mine has CD seats, but I have the right frames just no springs or upholstery installed.

Can't tell from the pictures if your seats are the right frames but the plywood is definitely wrong, and the seat is also wrong. The frame is the CD seat back including the same style springs and the seat is angle iron and a drop in seat bottom that has a plywood base with coil seat springs on top of the plywood, double or triple the thickness of your seat bottom. The passenger seat will have a grab bar on the outboard side. Great progress.

Only so much you can do with a dark photo but I had to try.

From the pictures I don't see any significant body parts from a Crosley. If it has lever shocks it will be a 1946 to early 49 Crosley chassis.

The Octo

Fellow I use to share a spot with found a car he wanted (this was about 20 years ago) for $26K. He had brought $10k with him and was talking to the guys next to us in the Chocolate field, we have been neighbors since the field opened. In less than a minute he had multiple offers to take his personal check for $16k in cash. He ended up giving the guy a downpayment and let him take it home and came out with a trailer a week later and picked it up and gave him the rest of the cash. Lots of cash floating around Hershey.

I think I still have one somewhere too. Bought it at an auction about 50 years ago because I knew I would need it. May have used it once just to see how it worked.

This topic seems to come up every year. I attended a couple of times with my parents in the 60s and in 1971 as an adult. The couple we drove down with in 71 were not in a big hurry and we didn't pull in till almost noon. Vendors were already starting to pull out. We have had a space since 1972 and Saturday has never been a big sales day most years near zero. We always stayed over till Sunday till the year they came around and told us we had to be out by 6am. Then they started pumping porta johns about 4am, the noise and smell were bad enough we got up and packed up and left earlier than 6am. Since we have always had a distance to travel and no place to sleep when packed, we started leaving on Saturday around noon unless weather is bad then we leave Saturday morning.

Got our stickers this week also, our booth has gotten a bit fancier than our first year having a space in 1972. We camped in the back of a 67 Ranchero with bows I made out of 1/2" conduit with a tarp over it. Brand new tarp and it leaked like a sieve, luckily a friend had some plastic which we put over the canvas to get by.

I wasn't suggesting you buy their restored gauges, I thought maybe they sold the parts to restore your own and you could buy a nice ring for your gauges, the rest looks very nice.

Looks like you need a better chrome ring for your gauge set. Service Motors restores these, not sure if they offer restored rings for the DIY restorer.

I went to a discount flooring store and bought linoleum in a large black/white checker pattern. The pattern helps you get your car aligned where you want it and is easy and cheap to replace when it gets nasty. Since my cars tend to leak I keep an incontinent pad in the appropriate place with tape on the corners and just change as needed, usually once a year. I used the paint and sand treatment on the ramp and it has held up well. I just used some leftover house paint and sandblasting sand.

Looks a lot like the speed wrench I bought in the early 70s. Can't remember the last time I used it.