Matt Harwood

Absolutely worth $14,500--I would have bought it for that. $50,000 as listed in the eBay auction? That's the LOL.

LOL @ $14,500 eighteen months ago.

Wow, good call, Frank. I never saw the movie so I never recognized it. I wonder if it was built just for that movie?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1935-Lincoln-Town-Car/163539976140?hash=item2613bdffcc:g:3ucAAOSwBPRcVOLV:rk:5:pf:1 Does anyone know what this is supposed to be or who built it? Movie prop? European bodywork on a Lincoln K chassis? Faux Nazi staff car? Lots of haphazard work and odd controls throughout (Model A steering wheel, metric gauges with tach, window cranks without windows). Not quite sure what to make of it, but it sure is homely...

Looks to be a standard 4-door sedan, which would be a Fisher body. If I had to guess, I would say it's a V8, Series 355-C, but as Spinneyhill says, the V8s and the V12s were almost identical. I don't know how to tell them apart if you can't read the grille badges or the hubcap emblems.

When they start putting ersatz fiberglass Ferrari bodies on Duesenberg chassis, let me know and we'll redefine terms.

Yes, Amerikanski, please send many dollars for barn find. Much nice cars! Too good to tell about here. Call with credit card numbers and I will tell all!

No. A rebody is not a replica. This: Is not the same as this:

Remember that replicas are not created to satisfy an enthusiast market. They're created to satisfy someone who doesn't know anything about cars who just wants something that looks vaguely like something he might have seen once in a magazine. And it's cheaper, that's an important factor. The typical replica buyer wouldn't know a real one from a replica if you parked one of each on each of his legs. Most of the public is the same way--if it has stand-up headlights and curved fenders, it's close enough. Once you learn anything about cars, you quickly realize that replicas are fool's gold: worthless, easily identified, and disappointing every time.

I bet it is considerably rougher than the photos and description would imply.

Lincoln Town Car just not quite grotesque enough? Need overhangs like Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water? Are right angles your favorite angles? Do you like cars that look like they're trying to kiss you? Is brown just about the prettiest color ever? Are other cars' hood ornaments just not sufficiently deadly for your tastes? Looking for a car that combines the very best of Plymouth and AMC styling? The all-new 1980 Duesenberg is the answer!

Stop goofing off on the internet and get back to work, Keiser. Jeez.

The market wants what the market wants. The 1965 GS seems to carry about a 30% premium over the standard Rivs. Low production (about 10% of the total) and the suggestion of more performance (whether there's actually notably more is irrelevant) will drive collectors to want those cars and to pay a premium for them. Same reason the SJ Duesenbergs command a premium over the "standard" Js and Super Eight Packards are more valuable than Standard Eight Packards. Driving experience not notably different, but the difference in price is substantial just because of what it is. I suspect that's not a surprise to any of us here. As to whether these cars are common enough to be growing on trees, I think they are plentiful but with a caveat: truly exceptional cars are not. A lot of Rivs have technically "survived" but a majority of them are still just used cars, maybe even used up cars. Restoring one is astronomically expensive and good, clean, original, low-mileage cars are uncommon, as they are with all makes and models. If you want an exceptional Riv, be prepared to search and be prepared to spend a premium. If you want one in a specific color or with particular options, well, then it'll get that much harder. Again, I doubt this is news to any of the experienced hobbyists here. For example, I sold this one: for about twice as much as this one: Why? The yellow one was a '65 and it was in far better condition. The white car had needs, the yellow car did not. The white car had a lot of miles, the yellow car had very few. Even though the white car had working A/C and the yellow car had no A/C, the yellow '65 was still far more marketable and desirable--I had guys fighting over it @ $40,000. If the yellow car had been a GS, I bet I could have gotten four, maybe even five times as much as the white car. The Riviera has arrived. If you have one, ride the wave and enjoy your car paying you back for using it. If you always wanted one, well, they're not going to get cheaper so buy one now. And if you're like me and always wanted one but figured that you'd be able to pick one up when the mood hit you, well, get used to not owning one. I should have kept that yellow one, but I wanted one with A/C. Now I'm probably priced out of the market unless I want to give up one of my other cars. A tough decision because a good Riv is a very special car.

The 626 was the bottom of the line Packard in 1929. 6 = Sixth Series, 26 = 126 inch wheelbase. I'm sure others will have experience with this and will offer more insight. I suspect that many of the mechanical parts are fairly readily available, but trim pieces are virtual unobtainium. Things like door handles, garnish moldings, dashboard parts, headlight lenses, etc. will be tough to come by. The engine is the a 320 cubic inch straight-8 that was used throughout the '30s and parts availability is pretty good, although carburetors are prone to cracking--there are new reproductions of the Detroit Lubricator being made but they are horrifically expensive ($3500?). A lot of the difficulty in finding parts will also depend on body style--626 sedans are relatively plentiful while something like a convertible coupe will be a lot tougher to source parts. If you're looking at a car like this, I would recommend judging it by completeness as much as by condition.

*SOLD* What a pretty little car! To me, this is how a Model A should look: simple, clean, dignified, not over-dressed. The restoration is 30 years old (it has a 1988 Senior National First Prize badge on it) but it looks more like 5 or 6 years old. It's quite authentic, wearing Kewanee and Elkpoint Green with traditional black fenders, and there's a wonderful shine that looks right on a '30s car. The fellow from whom I got it bought it years ago for his wife to use, but she did not drive it much so it has mostly shelf wear, not road wear, which is probably why it's held up so well. There's are some minor paint issues on the top of the hood, but I'm not even sure how to identify it--it's not checking or cracking or micro-blisters, just some marks in the finish that are almost impossible to photograph. But that's how nice the car is--the only real flaws are tough to find. There's a correct light green pinstripe, nice stainless trim, and a single taillight out back. The accessory grille guard and Boyce moto-meter are the lone pieces of dress-up, but both are a good idea on a car that you're going to want to drive. The interior looks virtually new and it's beautifully trimmed. I don't know if it's a kit or Lebaron-Bonney or an expert trimmer, but it looks great. The seats are firm and comfortable, there's a proper rubber mat on the floor, and since this is a late '30, a round speedometer instrument panel. The controls are familiar with zero modifications or "upgrades" that you often find on Model As. Even the silk shade for the rear window is right. The engine should look familiar to us all, and like the rest of the car, it appears to have been done by the book. Zenith carb, flat copper plug leads, two-blade fan, and a generator to make electricity. The water pump seems to be a newer leakless unit, but things like the hose clamps, wiring, and other little parts are correct. There are a few minor signs of use, but nothing you couldn't erase with some detailing. It starts easily, idles at about 400 RPM, and moves the little sedan like you'd expect. No chatter in the clutch and the brakes are effective with no pulling. Black wheels and blackwall tires are the right choice. Simple is good. This is how Model As are supposed to be. Its show days are over, but this is a superior tour car that you will be proud to own and drive. And it is very reasonably priced at $19,900, so you can get in and enjoy without worries. Model As are still awesome!

You know what's completely awesome? Our shop's proximity to Summit Racing. I can order a part early in the morning, and 7 times out of 10 it shows up that afternoon. Or if I order it the night before or over the weekend, it's there first thing the next morning. No charge, no expensive overnight shipping, nothing. Need something? Bam! It's there. I ordered these mounting studs at like 10:30 SUNDAY NIGHT. 10 AM Monday morning, they're in my hand. Awesome! Nothing exciting about the studs themselves, of course. They fit, although the longer ones are a touch too long and the short ones are a touch too short, but neither really affects their function. Meh, I can tweak how far I screw the studs into the manifold--a little Lok-Tite and they'll stay put. New studs for the carburetors. I'll use lock washers to secure the carburetors. Note the phenolic spacers to protect the carbs from heat (which will be a non-issue with the exhaust manifolds decoupled from the intake) I was also thinking about the throttle linkage. I have some aftermarket linkage parts that will work, but they look... aftermarket. I was thinking I could use some threaded rod to make it work instead and somehow incorporate the original linkage into the assembly to keep it looking as stock as possible. Original dual carb throttle linkages are next to impossible to find and I don't really want to cut up a good one, so maybe I'll try to find something that might work from a single carb car. I'll figure it out.

I should point out that this is not necessarily a scam, per se. I don't much like the methodology he's using by soliciting guys selling their cars on Hemmings and eBay, but my services are also $199. For that, I take care of the sale of the car, advertising, photography, logistics, title work, and I'm definitely not scamming anyone. Of course, the cars come to my facility, I have a copy of the title with data that matches the car and the owner, the numbers line up, and I'm authorized to sell the car without secondary negotiations with the seller. That's essentially what $199 buys you at my shop. Drop it off, give me $199, and collect a check a few weeks later if everything goes well. There are other dealers/brokers on this board who do much the same thing and they are well-respected. Not necessarily a scam. That said, I don't solicit sellers to consign their cars, but there are plenty of outfits who do. There are also plenty of consignment dealers who will consign your car without having ever seen it (in fact, one of the largest Full Classic car brokers in the business sells almost all of his cars without ever having seen or touched them himself). There are guys who buy ads in bulk and just take your photos and description and spread them around the internet, which I think is of dubious value, but there's no shortage of those fellows. I think not having first-hand knowledge of a car can cause all sorts of headaches for buyer, seller, and dealer, but it's certainly not unique or scammy. I won't personally sell a car I haven't seen, touched, and driven, but then again, I don't have complaints or call-backs on the cars I sell. That's for purely selfish reasons--I just don't want to deal with irate buyers. I don't know the details of this particular person, but I did just want to point out that having professional [sic] assistance selling your car isn't necessarily a bad thing nor an unsavory practice that should always be suspect.

Here's a similar '24 opera coupe I had a few years ago and I thought it looked rather handsome on blackwalls.

Note that this car does not have overdrive. Not an Amos Minter restoration, Don, but every bit as nice. I just can't stop looking at this car. Someone spent money all out of proportion to what it is to make it almost perfect (and you know that's not a word I throw around lightly).

I have never seen the movies, but my 13-year-old son informs me that "Edward Cullen" is the vampire that sparkles in the "Twilight" vampire movies.

That's a big negatory on the titanium bolts, good buddy. Close, but no cigar The problem here is that the head takes a 7/16 wrench while the others took a 3/8. That extra 1/16 was just enough to make it impossible to fit a wrench in there. The bolt I need for this application simply does not exist and I have spent more than $40 just on bolts to prove it. So I figured I'd try Spinnyhill's suggestion of making a sleeve of sorts to move the head of a longer bolt to the outside of the header tube. Unfortunately, after going to the metal store and buying some 3/8 thin-wall round tubing and some longer stainless bolts, I realized that if there's no clearance for a bolt head, there's no clearance for a tube, and with the intake in place, no place for the bolt head. Great idea, but it sadly won't work. Another $30 wasted. Dang. That left just one option: beat the hell out of the tube with a hammer. So I did. And eventually there was enough clearance to tighten that titanium bolt using an open-ended 7/16 wrench. I think I might do a little more hammering just to make it a little easier to install the whole thing (remember, I'm doing this mock-up on an engine on a stand; it's going to be ten times harder to do this inside the engine bay). Ultimately I was able to make it fit and install all the hardware, spacers, gaskets, and various other parts in their correct places. Finally able to mount all the manifolds and secure them using the hardware that I'll be using in the final installation. I made some notes to help me get it right when installing it inside the car because I discovered the order of operations is critical to making it all fit. I also wanted to mock up the carburetors just to make sure they fit properly and to work on details like the extra stove pipe for the rear carburetor's choke as well as determining what hardware I'll need to mount both carburetors on the intake manifold. As you'll recall, I plan to use two front carburetors and run them in parallel rather than sequentially. That means a different linkage, provisions for two choke mechanisms, and making a few other changes that I'll show below. Fortunately, I have a large cache of spare 1941 Buick parts, including this rather scruffy dual carb setup from a small series engine. I bought it to install on my '41 Super convertible, but I [very regrettably] sold that car a few months ago so I don't really need it. I figured I'd scavenge a few parts from it, including the front carb (a Stromberg like the Limited) and the flapper valve that lives under the rear carburetor. I used a second Stromberg I already had sitting on the shelf so I have two front carbs for my mock-up, I removed the long mounting studs for the air cleaner assembly, plus the air cleaner assembly itself (they're identical for large and small series). I have about a half-dozen air cleaners, but this one was sitting there already so I used it even though it's pretty rusty. '41 Buick guys will note that this air cleaner does not have provisions for the PCV tube from the valve cover to the air cleaner, suggesting that it's from a late production car. Spare dual carb setup donated its flapper valve for the rear carb. Pretty rusty inside and the flapper is frozen, but that doesn't matter for my purposes. I also cribbed the long mounting studs for the air cleaner assembly and the front carburetor just for mock-up purposes. Just a small digression to show how the stove pipe for the choke is configured on the original manifolds. You may recall when I was first fabricating the headers that I added a second stove pipe to feed exhaust heat to the rear carb. This is what it looks like on the original. I may re-use the stove pipe itself, although I have two new ones that I bought from CARS so that might be the better choice. Note that the stove pipe passes through the manifold and doesn't actually send exhaust gasses into the choke mechanism, just heated air. My setup should do roughly the same thing. My chokes might be a little slower to react, but it shouldn't be a problem. I threw the flapper valve in the sandblast cabinet to clean it up a bit, then removed the throttle plates and shaft. With the stock setup, the rear carb only comes online during large throttle openings, which pulls the flapper valve open--in this way, the rear carb stays offline until needed (it doesn't have an idle circuit or a choke). My setup will have both carburetors flowing all the time so there's no need for the flapper. However, the rear carb sits higher than the front (the engine slopes downward towards the rear) so keeping the housing as a spacer ensures everything lines up correctly once it's mounted on the engine. My only concern is how to close up the shaft holes. I don't want to braze them since this is just a pot-metal casting and I don't want to put too much heat into it. I'm thinking maybe some epoxy putty, although I worry about it coming loose and getting sucked into the engine. Any suggestions? Then I mounted all the various parts on the intake manifold. I have new phenolic spacers from Bob's Automobilia, new gaskets, and I'll get some new mounting studs for the carburetors. I'll probably re-use the long air cleaner studs that are already on the Limited since they're in far better shape than these, but they make it easy to mock everything up. I ran out of time today but I'll get the stove pipes in place and maybe mock up the linkage, although it'll probably be easier to do it in the car. I'll also remove the starter switch from both carbs since my car doesn't use the foot pedal starter system (I had it hooked up but found that the car starts almost instantly with the throttle closed so I went back to a push-button under the dash). I may keep the front one in place just in case, but we'll see how much room there is for the stove pipe. It should technically fit like stock. I'll decide later. I guess with the intake manifold, carbs, and air cleaner all in place, the deformed header tube won't be terribly noticeable. I can live with it. Next steps will be mocking up the chokes, gathering the carburetor mounting studs and other hardware that I need, and rebuilding one of these spare Strombergs to act as the rear carb. Then we take the car apart, install it all under the hood, and start fabricating the exhaust system. I'm going to use stainless just because I don't want to do it again. I've also decided to use 2.25-inch tubing rather than 2.5-inch simply for clearance purposes--I don't think this particular engine flows enough air volume that it will matter and it's still a significant step up over the stock 2-inch exhaust system (in fact, the step from 2.0 to 2.25 inches provides more flow improvement than the step from 2.25 to 2.5). I'll have to measure how much room I have under there for a GIANT muffler to keep it nice and quiet, then have that custom made by one of the big exhaust shops. I'll use an original-style round muffler, just the biggest one that will fit. And then I'll be done with this project. I'm sure it will be just that easy, right? LOL!

It has been my experience that giving a buyer all the information and photos up front saves a lot of time and aggravation from the tire-kickers, curiosity seekers, and photo collectors that inevitably show up. It's always my goal to have the only question someone asks be, "How soon can I have it?" You'll quickly tire of E-mails that say, "Can I see photos of the engine and interior?" especially when those guys see the photos and then vanish forever. Holding back and hoping for someone to contact you is probably going to be frustrating because you'll have 50-60 non-buyers to wade through to find your buyer. Don't assume that you can "reel them in" once you start a conversation. Most potential suitors are nothing more than dreamers or, if this were eBay, what I call "sport bidders." They talk a good game, but ultimately their pockets are turned out and they just wanted to see how desperate you are. Good luck, I love the 120s. I think they're the best-driving of all Packards.

Just as a side note, synthetic oils do not erode seals. Synthetic oil molecules are smaller than conventional oil molecules and will therefore find their way into openings through which conventional oil molecules won't fit. Switching back to conventional oil will probably reduce or stop the leak if it wasn't there before the switch to synthetic. This is why synthetic oil works better as a lubricant but this can be a side-effect on older cars with tired gaskets. The synthetic oil is not hurting your seals and gaskets. A common myth, but a myth nonetheless. PS: A transmission shop telling you that changing the fluid will destroy your transmission is probably trying to tell you they don't want to do the job. That is also 100% BS. If old fluid isn't damaging the transmission, new fluid won't, either. What, like the old fluid is so thick and solid that it's the only thing holding it all together? Bah. Hope this helps.

Already asked and answered elsewhere. Those are my photos and description on a car that I sold to an overseas buyer seven or eight years ago. It's bogus. Coincidentally, I found an auction for a 1941 Lincoln limousine that also uses my photos and description as a "you might also be interested in..." link. Reported both auctions.