Matt Harwood

Trust your independent tech. I think your hunch is partially correct and the dealer is either trying to get you to buy a new car or at least get you to buy some expensive repairs. My wife had a wheel bearing go bad in my Cadillac CTS wagon while she was traveling in Canada, and while the wheel bearing had to be repaired ($1100! Yowch!), they also tacked on a bunch of unnecessary stuff and said they would refuse to let her leave in the car because it was so unsafe to drive. When I got on the phone and asked them to explain what was so unsafe, they said the tires were bad (they were two years old), the brakes were shot, and the exhaust was leaking into the cabin. They said they weren't even confident that the car would make it home and they were very afraid for her safety. Total BS. I'm still driving the car today on those same brakes and exhaust, and just replaced the tires last spring. With many European and Japanese cars, it will behoove you to find a local shop who is familiar with those makes. You might find their work is just as good and their prices are half as much. When I found an Audi tech who could work on my allroad, I was overjoyed and probably saved thousands over the years. The only item I might encourage you to investigate is the timing belt, which can be dicey because they fail all at once without warning. Audi used to say 100,000 miles or 7 years for a timing belt, then revised it a few years ago to 70-80,000 miles and 5 years. It's the kind of thing that you don't ever think about and doesn't give any warning, but if it goes, it typically takes the entire engine with it. Although $1000 can't really be considered cheap insurance, a timing belt is nevertheless cheap insurance. Even if you don't hit the mileage, if you hit the age, it might be time to investigate having it changed. It's rubber like your tires, so it won't last forever no matter how little you drive.

When I was a kid we used to tour with Paul Tusek who had a 1913 Lozier 7-passenger touring that was as big as a garage. When I was 10, I could stand up in the back of that car with the top up. He used to hammer that thing down the road at like 60 MPH. That was one of those amazing road locomotives that make brass cars so spectacular. Paul died a few years ago and I always wondered what happened to the car. It had to be quite valuable, although I don't really know what kind of number such a thing would bring just because I'm not sure what model it was--all I know is that it was ENORMOUS. I believe he bought it from Richard Shreve if that's any help. Does anyone know the car or where it went?

*SOLD* This is a relatively unusual little Model A. I haven't seen many early sport coupes like this, so it's kind of a neat find. It's an early production Model A with a few of the early features, including the red rubber steering wheel, center-mounted parking brake, and drum taillight. It was restored in the '80s and has plenty of tour miles on it, but the engine is more recently rebuilt and it features a Lloyd Young overdrive that makes it a pleasant 55-60 MPH cruiser. I like the unusual chicle and copra drab colors, which were the same as my father's Model A roadster that I grew up in, so maybe that's why it appeals to me. The trim is still nickel, so it has a soft shine that could probably be brought up a notch with some elbow grease and the top (which does not fold) is in very good shape. I don't know if green leatherette was on the menu in 1928, but it looks rather handsome inside the coupe and beyond the overdrive controls and add-on turn signals, it's completely stock and everything works. Dual sidemounts, accessory manifold heater, trunk, and moto-meter. The engine starts easily and runs great with no smoke or odd noises. The extra wiring on the steering column is for the turn signals and on-board battery charger. It shifts nicely, the overdrive works like mine does so it'll take a little familiarization, and the steering and brakes feel right. I'm not in love with the whitewalls, but they're in good shape and this is one car that would really look dynamite with blackwalls. Asking price is a very reasonable $19,900. Model As are still a great place to start!

Wow, that's really a nice Model A for a reasonable price!

Actually, the most amusing thing is driving this with my 10-year-old son. Everyone at red lights does a double-take when the see a little kid over there where the driver should be. This thing is more fun to drive than it should be just because of the oddity factor. It also works rather well as a truck--the bed is as big as the bed on a full-sized pickup. Every time I look at it, it makes me smile. Isn't that what an old car is supposed to do?

*SOLD* This is a fun little hauler that you just don't see every day. No, it's not some home-built custom job, but rather an Australian-built 1950 Chevrolet Coupe Utility, and yes, that's how it came from the factory. Apparently Australian farmers like to be able to work during the week and drive their pickups to church on Sunday, so these early El Caminos became a staple on Australian roads. Most automakers built some version of this car/truck, although not in vast numbers; only about 2300 1950 Chevrolet Utes were built. This one has registration papers from Victoria Provence as recently as 2006, so it came to the US sometime after that, landing in California and then coming east about four years ago. Obviously, all that desert was kind to the sheetmetal, and it was repainted in California sometime around 2010. The color isn't exciting, but this was apparently the only choice available for the Ute, so there it is. The tonneau was factory-installed, not an add-on, and the wood floor in the bed is likewise correct although likely nicer than new. The interior is a mirror image of American Chevys, with a brown vinyl seat cover, standard gauges over on the right, and simple door panels. Yes, it takes a little familiarization to handle shifting with your left hand on the right side of the car, but to be honest, the hardest thing to get used to is looking to the left to find the rear-view mirror--I never broke that particular habit. Mechanically it is identical to US 1950 Chevrolets, including the Stovebolt Six under the hood. It's rebuilt, runs great, and reasonably well detailed. No modifications save for conversion to 12 volts, but they used a generator so it's all but invisible. Sadly, the radio doesn't work, likely because of that conversion. The transmission is the same and uses a clever linkage to shift gears and actuate the clutch, and steering, suspension, and brakes feel exactly the same as the '52 Chevy Bel Air I had sitting next to it. Blackwall radials on steelies look right for the hard-working little Ute. I promise you'll have the only one at any show, and it really is fun to drive and show, especially when people see you sitting on the "wrong" side of the car. Comes with clean Ohio title, no issues with registration in any state. Asking a very reasonable $24,900 and it's ready to enjoy. Thanks for looking!

I always dig the "could have beens" like this, especially wagons.

Very, very common scam. I have maybe 9 or 10 fake certified checks on my desk from guys running this scam. It's fun to take their money and listen to them howl and whine about the rebate they're owed and how they're going to call the police and sue me and put me out of business. I usually just say, "OK." Nothing ever happens. It's all bogus. Not much to be done about it other than being smart and don't refund any money even if he uses FedEx to send you a really genuine certified check with a lot of zeros on it. And as a reminder, Western Union is ALWAYS a scam. ALWAYS. If it's too good to be true, it is. Be smart out there, boys.

The showroom is a little more crowded today. Remember that even if you can fit them in, you need to get them out. Right now, we have to take cars outside to get some of them. That's a problem I always wanted to avoid and we did for a while. But this is what 110 cars in 20,000 square feet looks like as I was walking out the door this evening.

LOL. Actually, that was a group that calls themselves ROMEO: Retired Old Men Eating Out. They came to see us before lunch. We get all kinds of groups like that. Retirement homes, clubs, civic organizations. Everyone likes looking at cars. Maybe we should charge for admission?

I have a few thoughts, having actually tried this myself once before. About 20 years ago, my father and I put together what I called "the Car Guy Consortium" to do just what you propose--to purchase a warehouse/garage expressly for the storage of collector vehicles. We got about eight guys together and we formed a corporation (CGC, Inc.). That corporation (i.e. the shareholders) purchased a 15,000 square foot warehouse in a near west-side suburb of Cleveland. The corporation was billed for heat and electricity, and paid the taxes and mortgage. The guys in the Consortium had an agreement to pay their share of the bills on a per-vehicle basis (i.e. the guy with two cars paid twice as much as the guy with one car). Because the membership changed, the monthly would change too. If someone else bought a new car, their payment went up, your payment went down. If someone else joined, everyone's payment went down. But if you bought a new car, your payment went up (though it didn't necessarily double because the "pie" was still the same size). Dig? It worked fine for about 18 months. Then people started using this storage facility as a workshop. Guys would turn the heat up when they were there (we usually kept it at about 55 degrees in the winter). They'd bring tools and run the electricity bills up. Some guys wanted out for a variety of reasons, and the others would have to shoulder the costs until someone could be found to take that person's place. When two guys left in one month, everyone else's payment went up by almost $600--that's a big nut to ask the others to carry all at once. Sometimes guys would forget or come up short that month, and this was always the first place they looked to "skip" a payment. It was hard to "force" anyone to pay, and if they had a bad month, sometimes the others had to pick up the slack. That made people bitter and led to some friendships ending. And as Joe points out, insurance became an issue once we switched from simple storage to doing work on-premises, even if it was guys working on their own cars. It's significant jump from store keeper's insurance (storage) to garage keeper's insurance (fixing and driving) to dealership insurance (storing, fixing, driving, and strangers driving). Of course, you can see where this is going. One guy turned off the heat on his way out the door and the place froze, breaking pipes and damaging some cars. After that, it didn't take long to fall apart because it became 1) too expensive and 2) unbalanced when some owners felt that others were taking advantage by working on their cars in the shop and risking everyone else's cars in the process. We sold the warehouse (at a pretty significant loss, I might add) and disbanded the Car Guy Consortium after about four years. Nobody could agree on the right way to do it, only that whatever we proposed wouldn't work for a variety of reasons. Friendships ended. This is what leads me to believe that there's a reason why these "garage condo" facilities cater exclusively to the wealthy and all the others are just U-Stor-It type businesses that will store anything, not just cars. We use our dealership for car club meetings, seminars, open houses, tour stops, and other hobby-related functions all the time. But we are first and foremost a dealership and we sell the cars that are on display. Our showroom is open to the public, and we do host groups and visitors. We have storage, but that's up the road at our old facility and not part of the main showroom. I don't know how it would work without the dealership footing the bills--the storage facility doesn't pay for itself, we're only using it because we're stuck in a lease and need to put the space to work to cover some of the cost. And if you're thinking of just taking in some cars on consignment because it's easy or it legitimizes the business or you think it'll be a money maker, guess again. If you can't devote full time and then some to selling cars, don't bother. This is a job, not a hobby for me, and I work 12-15 hours a day at it, 6-7 days a week. We spend $10,000/month just in advertising to give you an idea of how much it requires to be competitive. Parking a few cars inside a building and hoping that someone wanders in off the street and buys them is not a viable business model. You might also have concerns from the people renting space from you that the place is open to the public. Most people understand that as a dealership, we have to let people in to see the cars, but the guys who rent storage from us do not have the same expectation. They don't want their cars messed with and most of them are under cover and parked nose-in to be close to the outlets for battery tenders. It isn't really conducive to display. Remember that you're going to need to secure the building to keep other people's property safe and you're going to have to be on call for them whenever they want to get in to see their cars or get them out, unless you give everyone a key and a pass-code for the security system--at that point, it stops being secure storage. And honestly, 3200 square feet isn't that big--you're not going to get many cars in there unless you pack them really tight, and when you do that, nobody's going to want to squeeze through to look around. Add in the facilities you will want for club meetings and other functions, and, well, I bet you run out of "comfortable" space at about the 15 or 20 car mark. I plan 140 square feet per car (7x20) in the showroom, which gives them enough spacing for people to move between them (which they will, whether you want them to or not, and if they're too close together, they're going to break stuff and hide it). Our first shop was 7000 square feet of warehouse/showroom plus 1000 square feet of office. We had 35-40 cars in there, packed as tightly as we could while still being able to move them around and use our photo studio. We now have 25,000 square feet and it works a lot better, although moving cars around is still a bit of a challenge. You'll make a guess as to how many you can fit, you'll draw a layout, and you'll still be short. They take up more space than you think. And if you're adding meeting areas or places that people can hang out, then take that off your car storage. Hell, we park cars in the lobby because we're packed tight! If you can find a way to make it profitable, great. But merely owning a building and putting cars in it won't be enough to make it someplace that people will pay you to be, either as customers for storage, car sellers, or guests looking for something to do. You should also bear in mind that the people looking for storage aren't typically people who own interesting cars. You will likely end up with a display area full of late-model SUVs and V6 Mustangs, which is basically what is in our storage facility right now. You're not the first to have this idea, but perhaps you'll be the first to figure out how to do it profitably. If so, you will make a fortune franchising it. If not, you'll join the rest of us who've tried and only have a hole in our wallets to show for it. Good luck!

*SOLD* Look, this isn't an amazing car. But it's a very good car and I have to admit that every time I look at it in the showroom, I say to myself, "That's really a nice car." It has lived its entire life in Florida, so it's not rusty or wrecked, and it shows just 67,193 original miles. It was repainted in its original Glacier Blue about 10 years ago and it still looks great--nice shine, good bodywork underneath, and the bold color is rather appealing with the white leather interior. It's a 350 car, so it runs well and isn't a gas hog, and I doubt you'll notice the difference in performance over the 455 unless you drive around with your foot on the floor. The interior is all original and in very good shape and everything works: cold A/C, windows power up and down, doors lock, gauges all working. The only thing that isn't working is the original radio, but that's because there's an AM/FM/CD stereo head unit hidden in the glove box. Nice. The white power top goes up and down easily and has a glass rear window, although it does have a split seam in the usual spot just behind the left rear window. Not serious, but they all eventually split that seam. The weather seals on the windshield A-pillar are a bit shredded but we ordered new ones and will install them once they're off backorder, and the heater core is bypassed, which, in combination with the brand new one in the trunk, makes me assume it's buggered. I'll also assume that you guys are experienced and savvy enough to understand the difference between rust and rot--the undercarriage has surface rust in some areas but no rot or holes in the floors, mostly thanks to a life in Florida. Runs and drives great, there's a newer exhaust system, and the Buick Road Wheels always look great. Like I said, not perfect, not totally amazing, but with a little TLC, it could be and even as a driver, it needs no excuses. A lot of top-down luxury cruiser for only $16,900. Thanks for reading!

SOLD! Thank you!

I regret selling this one just about every single day, especially now that this accursed Lincoln has taken its place...

What have I done wrong?

If someone shows up with money in hand willing to buy the car, take whatever he's offering and run. Cars of this vintage are very tough to sell in good condition, projects are far, far more difficult. Add in the fact that it's a sedan and has apparently already had someone chipping away at it (which means there's potential work just to get it back to zero--do I see wafer board in the top structure?), and it's going to be a tough sale under the best of conditions. He will not get ripped off because the car's value is such that it's only worth what the one or two guys who might want it are willing to pay, and he's going to have to spend some money advertising it nationally or globally to find those guys. This isn't a situation where some neighborhood guy will walk by and fall in love or an ad in the local paper will find an eager new owner. He needs to balance what he thinks it's worth against the fact that you can buy a restored, ready-to-drive '20s Cadillac sedan for less than it will cost to rebuild this car's engine. I don't mean to sound negative, but it's important to the hobby that artificially inflated values and unrealistic expectations not perpetuate themselves and prevent cars from getting into the hands of people who will care for them. If someone offers more than a handful of Benjamins, TAKE IT.

Please, before you break any bones, make sure you have the right guy. If he can steal your money, doesn't it make sense for him to also steal someone else's identity to do it? Someone stole my identity and created all kinds of mischief in my name--I still get pulled over by cops looking for me (him) for three or four DUIs that happened 20 years ago, the state of Arizona has tried to sue me for a guard rail he took out, and there's a warrant out for my arrest somewhere in Oregon. You think it's hard to be someone else, especially on the internet? It's really not. You got taken by a very common scam and the leads to pursue will vanish like a fart in the wind. It's OK, it happens to the best of us. Also remember that physically harming someone, even someone who stole from you, isn't legal either. Don't be the worse guy and wreck your life to get revenge--especially now that you've put threats in writing here on a message board. I know it stings, but it will hurt like hell from inside a jail cell. If you really think you've found him, pursue it with the authorities (who will probably blow you off because this is a very common crime) or an attorney. Please, take some time to cool off before you do anything that you'll regret. I understand, I'm a genuine hothead with a dangerous temper, and it's gotten me in trouble before. When I'm not a 9-foot-tall green rage monster, I understand that discretion is the better part of valor. I promise that future 34studepres will appreciate present 34studepres being cool about this.

If any of those names are real and the individual(s) involved can be found within the US, I'd be shocked. You fell for one of the most common scams in use, one which preys on our hobby to an absurd degree, but probably targets other hobbies as well. The most important thing to remember is Western Union = SCAM. 99.999% of the time. Here's an article I wrote last year that may help (sorry about the format, but the forum doesn't accept PDFs anymore):

Earl Greenberg and his son, Jeff, at Certified Auto Electric here in Cleveland do all my starters and generators. Recently they've done a '35 Auburn generator, a '35 Lincoln generator, a teens Cadillac starter/generator, and a starter for a '30 Cadillac for me. First-rate work, reasonably priced, and right the first time. https://6vto12v.com/ Talk to Earl, he really knows his stuff!

Why not? If the truck is rated to carry the weight of a car and the deck is strong enough to support it and there are tie-downs strong enough to secure it, I don't see why it wouldn't work. There are plenty of roll-backs based on similar chassis that seem to work just fine.

If it's braced right, you should have zero flex. Can you show us a picture? It's probably OK if it's on the frame and sitting at proper alignment. Some minor flexing of an unreinforced convertible body, even on the frame, is normal, but the bracing should eliminate that last little bit.

The frame is the most structurally important part of the car and if you're doing panel alignment and other bodywork with the body off the frame but the body isn't braced, it's not going to fit when you put it back on the frame. So yes, body flex when the body is off the frame is normal, and probably a lot of it, but "normal" doesn't mean "everything is fine" in this case. If the body is off the frame and you've been welding and patching and crawling around inside the tub without reinforcing the body, it's going to be tough to get it all to fit back together. If that's the case, stop what you're doing, buy some new body mounts, reinstall the body on the frame, secure it properly, and then either reinforce the tub or finish your bodywork while it's on the frame. This is critical to making it fit back together. If you've done a lot of panel welding like floors and/or quarters, you might have to cut some of it out and do it again to make it sit on the frame again. Every car is different, every situation is different, but pulling a convertible off a frame without reinforcements can be a problem that only reveals itself after you've spent big money on paint, chrome, and labor. Fix it now while you can. If the body is still on the frame, then I think you should see minimal flex, but it may still flex a little. My 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible had doors that moved around noticeably when I drove and I could feel the door wiggling if the windows were up and I pressed my fingers against the weatherstripping. Some flex is normal, but to do bodywork, I still think you should reinforce the body to ensure it is as solid and well-aligned as possible. This really matters--we had a really nice '60s convertible with a fresh frame-off restoration, It obviously had a lot of sheetmetal work but the restoration photos showed a body off the chassis on a rotisserie but without any bracing. There's no way that sucker could ever be straight. The gaps on the finished car were HORRIBLE, the top of the doors were more than 1/2 inch while the bottoms were less than 1/8. The trunk lid had a gap big enough to run your fingers through. And the side moldings never lined up from panel to panel, with the passenger's side door-to-quarter trim being off nearly 3/8-inch. That's really noticeable. Big money spent on the car, a very worthy car, but in the end, it was just a mess that was worth pennies on the dollar because to be right, it needed another frame-off restoration. Here's a well-braced convertible body ready to be restored:

Nothing wrong with babbit bearings, especially in a low-stress engine like a Model T. Are you looking at a specific car and it has bad bearings, or are you just generally wondering in case you'll need them in the future? I do not personally think it's worth the effort to convert to insert bearings on a car like a Model T and for rebuilds there are specialists who can handle a Model T engine with their eyes closed. Properly maintained, babbit isn't any less durable or higher maintenance than insert bearings, which were mostly designed to make assembly and service in the field easier, not because they were necessarily more durable. There are also companies that will ship you a fresh crate motor for your Model T, so if you're ever worried about a rebuild, that's a convenient alternative. In most cases, it takes quite a bit of machine work to fit insert bearings into an older engine, so the cost often evens out during a full rebuild. In short, don't fear the babbit. If the bearings are good, even if they're babbit, then enjoy the car without worrying that they're fragile. If it needs to be rebuilt, then you might have a choice to make, but babbit has worked for more than a century and the cost is not that great when the engine is being rebuilt by someone familiar with Model Ts. In the Model T's case, there's no reason to reinvent that particular wheel. If you have more questions, I'm sure others can give you more specific answers. Good luck!

I've had a lot of cars pass through my hands, but I can count on two or three fingers those that have been finer than this 1955 Packard Clipper Constellation. Someone spent deep into the six-figure range to turn this Packard into a $50,000 car, and regardless of what the book says it's worth, quality like this is always worth more. A lot of people settle for "good enough" and that's OK, but if you're a guy who only buys the best, then this car will satisfy you on every possible level. The restoration is comprehensive and extraordinary, right down to the NOS fabric they used which was unique to the Constellation model. I found one nick in the paint behind the driver's front wheel that's about the size of pinhead, but otherwise the paint and bodywork are unmarked. Note that the two-tone treatment even extends into the door jambs and onto the underbody. There's easily $20,000 worth of chrome and stainless work on the car. Inside, everything works including the radio and power seat, and the upholstery is unmarked. The 352 cubic inch V8 engine is fully rebuilt and runs superbly with a nice V8 burble from the dual exhaust. Engine bay is fully detailed, although most of you will quickly spot the modern alternator, aluminum radiator, and twin electric fans (hence the alternator), which were installed because the car hails from Louisiana where it obviously gets hot. Otherwise, it is completely stock. The 2-speed automatic shifts crisply and it cruises effortlessly at 65 MPH. The chrome wire wheels are new, with the car being featured in the wheel manufacturer's website and catalog, and the wide whitewall radials are new. Price is $49,900, which may seem like a lot for a Clipper, but on the other hand, when have you ever seen a car this nice. I always advise people to buy the best car they can afford, and this is easily the best of its kind and it is better than 99% of the collector cars out there. This is one of those times when paying more gets you more. Not even Packard made them this nice!

I believe my block is going to the same guy to whom you were referred. Tom Laferriere is arranging the work and his stitcher is in New England (a fellow named Frank), so I have to assume they're the same person. Tom says he's the best in the business, but I'm not qualified to say. I'm pulling the engine out of the car, but Tom is picking it up and taking it to the stitcher, so I don't have shipping costs to worry about. For what it's worth, I spoke at length with Matt at Matt's Metal Stitching in Hamburg, NY, and I was extremely impressed with his knowledge and work. If I were doing this particular repair on my own, I'd go to him largely because of proximity, but he appears to do first-rate work. Check out some of the photos on his website, they're extremely impressive. He and I corresponded about my Lincoln's problems and he was confident that he could fix it no matter how big a patch was required. But since Tom is handling the repairs, I'm trusting him to take it to a guy he believes in to get it done right. Here's Matt's website: https://mattscastironrepair.com/ Frankly, I think metal stitching looks like black magic, but everyone swears that it works and works better than welding in most cases. For a fully assembled engine like mine, it's really the only solution and I think I would trust it more than welding on a bare block. I'd be worried about spending all that time and money reassembling an engine only to have a weld give way. Cast iron, particularly old cast iron that's full of impurities and contaminants just from decades of use, can be extremely tricky to weld. I've never had experience welding something like a block, but I have had manifolds done and only two out of six actually held up in use. That alone would make me nervous about welding a block into which I'm about to pour a bunch of expensive machine work and parts.