Matt Harwood

I know that a rear wiper was available on '41 Buicks as a dealer-installed option, so I'm guessing '40 would be possible as well. I've seen two sedanettes like mine with rear window wipers, and I think it's extremely cool. I'd love to find one for mine before the paint goes on.

It also says the chassis was constructed of plexiglass, not the body. I understand mistakes, but two in one sentence? Failure journalism.

The dopes who live in the house across the street saw me bring my '29 Cadillac home for the first time and argued with me that it was some kind of replica. When I told them it was legit and nobody was making fake 1929 Cadillac sedans, the moron countered with, "My buddy has two of them made in Korea." OK then, good on him. Enjoy your meth. My favorite question was when I was out driving my father's 1930 Model A Ford roadster and a fellow in a pickup pulled up next to me. He gestured to the famous Model A quail hood ornament and asked, "What is that, some kind of grouse?" Kudos for asking the question, and for reaching for the unusual. I always laugh when I think of that guy and forevermore will the Model A hood ornament be "some kind of grouse" to me.

I agree. On both my '41 when I first got it and my '29 Cadillac, I initially filled them to the top. After some driving, when I shut it down, they puked. Now I leave the coolant level just to the top of the tubes, but most of the upper tank is empty to allow for expansion. No problems with temperature this way, either--it runs at 160 all the time. If it's not blowing steam or pegging the gauge, it's probably not overheating. The puking might just be the cooling system self-adjusting the quantity of coolant it requires. The spike after you shut it off is also normal. Without the water pump moving coolant through the block, the stuff that's still in there continues to absorb heat from the block but doesn't move it to the radiator. The coolant gauge bulb is in the cylinder head, and as the coolant absorbs the heat, it spikes the gauge. This is totally normal--start the car and you should rapidly see it cool off before your eyes as coolant starts to circulate again. You don't need a pressurized system. It cooled in 1939, it will cool today. Pressurized systems are just a band-aid on a problem, not a solution to it. Hope this helps.

Awesome post! I love seeing how brands evolve, toeing the line between keeping ties to their past (brand equity) with moving into the future (expanding their market). It's possibly the toughest part of the marketer's job. I think Ford was the most successful--it hasn't changed much and remains instantly recognizable, yet it remains contemporary. Mazda, on the other hand, just failed--they changed mid-stream and it suggests that they simply decided, "We need a real logo!" at some point in the late 1990s. Thanks for sharing!

I don't know that my price is, but I'm confident I'll know it when I hear it.

Yeah, that's called chandelier bidding, and in most cases it's legal as long as there's a reserve on the car. They're free to run it up to the reserve, but not over it, and if there's a bidder, they're free to bid against him up to that number as well. Personally, I think it reeks of dishonesty, but it is a common practice among all auction houses, even if they won't admit it. You can often tell when it's happening. The auctioneer will call out the initial number to start the bidding, say, "Do I hear $25,000?" That's the cue to the spotters to let them know the reserve number. With no bids at that number, he'll drop to something more accessible, like $5000, and bidding will start. Sometimes there's a real bid, sometimes the auctioneer or the spotter will pretend they saw a hand raised. You can tell when the spotters are faking, because they'll point to someone way in the back, but then stop looking at them and keep sweeping the room for a real bidder. If there were a real bidder, they'd be standing right next to him, goading him on and making sure the auctioneer knew who was bidding. It's pretty obvious at most of the auctions I've been to. It stinks, but if there's a reserve, there's no harm except in perhaps letting the seller think his car is worth more than it is and that there may be an interested party when in fact there is not.

With all due respect, Susan, I have to disagree here. Merely existing for several decades doesn't make a "survivor" in the sense that most collectors are talking about. Yes, it has managed to survive that long, but just like "numbers matching" there's a connotation to the term that implies something more than the dictionary definition of mere continued existence. I don't know if you can trademark the phrase, but when I hear "survivor" attached to an old car, I expect a low mileage, well-maintained piece with mostly original paint, trim, interior, and all its correct mechanical bits. "Original-style" parts don't cut it. For example, we have a 1955 Buick Special for sale (Vintage Motor Cars :: 1955 Buick Special) with just under 17,000 original miles. It has 100% original paint, 100% original interior, the trunk is like new, and the chassis has merely been maintained, including a replacement muffler from back in the '60s. However, the engine compartment has been restored to show condition. I'd call it a survivor simply because it has all its original parts, although I would personally prefer an untouched engine bay as well to truly fit the textbook definition. I like precision in my language, especially when dealing with assets like cars that cost tens of thousands of dollars. Mere existence after some period of time, while certainly satisfying the criteria for survival, doesn't make a car a survivor. It needs to be authentic and highly original in my opinion. I don't mind deteriorated in some ways, as long as it's original equipment.

And transportation to the event, and insurance, and... In my business, I see a lot of the same cars over and over at auctions. A guy won't get what he wants at one auction, he'll consign it at the next, it'll bid to within $5000 of the previous high bid, and he'll take it home again. After 3 or 4 tries, I usually see the seller cut it loose, often for considerably less than the high bid at that first auction. It seems to reinforce something I've long believed: the first offer is generally the best offer. When the car starts to get "old" on the market, people don't get serious about the purchase, figuring that they won't get it anyway and the seller has unrealistic expectations. I deal with that every single day. With something as high-profile as this (and a Futurliner is not an "impulse buy"), anyone who wants one is already well aware of its existence, condition, location, and asking price. You're not going to get some sucker at the auction who decides at the last minute that, "Hey, that would be fun!" and keeps his hand up until it crosses $2.5 million. That guy likely already bid on it during that Ebay auction. Am I cynical? Maybe...

I've had very good luck with Thomas Sunday Transport (Enclosed Automobile Transportation Enclosed Car Shipping Enclosed Car Transport) and have used them many times in my business. They're usually not the cheapest, but when I did use the cheapest guy to ship a car, he lowered the elevator in his truck on the roof of a 1929 Packard and punctured the fabric insert and creased the sheetmetal. Sunday makes no such mistakes, and it's worth the extra few bucks. And always ship enclosed on a restored car. Open transport is tempting because it's often much cheaper, but your car is going to get beat up, dirty, etc. We sold a 100-point car to a gentleman overseas, and a friend of his arranged shipping. It was open transport, in February, from PA to New Jersey. Needless to say, the car did not arrive in Europe in 100-point condition after letting the road salt work on it for a few weeks in the cargo hold of a ship...

Shifting gears is simply a matter of matching the speed of the gears on the driven [engine] side of the transmission with the gears on the output side [wheels]. In the early days, double-clutching did this, decoupling the gears from the engine, then re-engaging the clutch in neutral to speed them up to the speed of the wheels, then clutching again to put them into contact. As long as all the parts are spinning at the same speed, it all fits together nicely. Synchronizers do this automatically, speeding up the gearset to match the speed of the wheels, hence no clashing (in fact, my 1929 Cadillac is the first car to have synchronizers in the transmission and they work rather well). Skilled drivers are able to do this by practice, and even with synchronizers, it's important to match revs to avoid wear and tear. Today, most heavy truck drivers do not use the clutch to do anything other than get the truck rolling from a stop--after that, all shifts are made by matching revs and without the clutch. Next time you drive a manual transmission car, try shifting without the clutch. The key is not allowing either the engine to drive the wheels nor the wheels to drive the engine; you can't simply lift off the throttle entirely, but find a speed at which there's no load on the transmission. You'll have to go slowly and don't force it, but eventually you'll find an engine speed that matches road speed and the shifter slips effortlessly into gear with no clutch necessary. Freewheeling is essentially like a clutch, but instead of decoupling the engine from the transmission, it decouples the wheels from the transmission. The net effect is the same, and it's easier to match revs and make a clean shift. In short, you're simply moving the clutch from in front of the transmission to behind it, but it all works the same when it comes to shifting. Hope this helps.

As cool as these are, I think they are a perfect case study in one sale not making a trend. That Futurliner that sold for $4.5 million a few years ago was a fluke, but like the $150,000 Amphicars, everyone who has one now feels as if they're sitting on a goldmine. To be honest, I think they should have taken the half-mil and run. As someone said, it takes a special collector with the right space and a lot of money (this one still needs a lot of work) to want to buy this. I'm guessing the one guy with all those resources already bought his for $4.5 million. More than one of these seems to have come on the market since that big sale, and they've all flopped, at least in relative terms. They're worth half a million, probably even a little more, but the one sale was an anomaly, not a baseline as everyone who owns one seems to be assuming.

I believe they're all the same for all series and models. I've been looking for one myself for a while. Not so easy to find in good condition. Plenty with broken tips or bad pitting, but clean ones are as rare as 3-dollar bills.

Restorer32, that's an awesome story! What was the car?!?

I wasn't really looking for a car when my '29 Cadillac showed up on my radar. As a collector car broker, I was called to help liquidate the estate of a collector. The collector's son was not really interested in cars and offered us 5 or 6 cars to try to sell. Among them was the '29 Cadillac, sitting in an unheated garage for the past 8 or 9 years since his father's passing. He didn't know if it ran, admitted that the transmission popped out of second gear, and it was truly filthy. Our initial plan was to haul it to our shop, get it running, and see what happened. Instead, I found myself saying, "I'll take it," without even knowing if it ran. A new battery, a rebuilt carburetor, and some clean spark plugs and it fired right up. A massive transmission rebuild was also required, but now it runs beautifully and has cleaned up extremely well. It doesn't look like a 35-year-old restoration, but maybe 8-10. And I am proud when people call it "Wayne's car" because he was such a well-liked guy here in NE Ohio. I wasn't actively looking, but the right car at the right price came along and I decided I was tired of sitting on the sidelines in a hobby that also provides me with my income. To be honest, buying this particular old car was one of the best decisions I've ever made--I couldn't be happier with it and look forward to many happy years behind the wheel.

Seeing as I've had more than a handful of PMs and E-mails asking about the final turn of the overdrive in my '29 Cadillac, I thought I'd post here so it can help anyone who has some interest. To summarize the story up to this point, I bought a 1929 Cadillac a few months ago and had Lloyd Young in Columbus, OH (614-837-7832) install a Borg-Warner overdrive unit in the center of the torque tube (photos of the installation are in my online photo gallery at http://forums.aaca.org/members/matt-harwood/albums/ and I’ll add to it once I take more photos of the completed installation). The overdrive provides a 30% reduction in engine speed, and I figure that my car with 4.75 gears and 32-inch tires will be turning about 2000 RPM at 60 MPH, which is all I wanted. I don't care about more top speed, I care about not being a rolling speed bump and keeping the engine alive and healthy. 55-60 MPH is plenty, believe me. The system consists of the overdrive unit and on-board solenoid, a second frame-mounted constant duty solenoid that acts as a relay to fire the overdrive solenoid, a pushbutton switch inside the passenger compartment to activate it (it also has a light that indicates when the OD is active), and a micro-switch on the clutch pedal to kick it out of OD when I depress the clutch. There's also a cable that controls the freewheeling feature, which is mandatory with the OD. Some guys put theirs on the dash, but I hid mine down low just ahead of the front seat so that I can throw a hat or something over it to hide it completely at shows. Not that difficult to reach it, and once it's engaged, you leave it alone until you park or get into the hills so it's not a big deal. I had some teething problems that amounted to a refusal to engage under certain conditions. It would either engage halfway or not at all, and sometimes would completely disconnect the engine from the rear end as if I were in neutral. It was frustrating. I first addressed the ground. Essentially, grounding the overdrive solenoid is what engages it, so I made sure the grounds were all clean and solid, and upgraded to a 10 gauge wire to connect the overdrive solenoid to the constant duty solenoid, since it needs about 30 amps to fire (it maintains OD with about 1.5 amps, however). No change. Dang. My next thought was that the freewheeling cable was too long. Not only did internal friction make it very difficult to push or pull because of the long, circuitous route it took to the OD unit, but it was perhaps not fully engaging or disengaging the freewheeling because of all the play in the cable. So I shortened it from about 10 feet to less than 3 and ran it straight to the overdrive. It's slightly more visible under the car now that it’s not hidden inside the frame, but works effortlessly and seems to have cured many of the problems. I should have done it this way from the start. The final issue is heat. The way the Cadillac is currently set up, the solenoid on the OD is very close to the muffler. The OD works flawlessly when it is cool, say when I first start driving in the morning, but after sitting in stop-and-go traffic or on hot days or in hilly country, it would refuse to engage about 30% of the time. Definitely heat-related. So I wrapped the muffler and exhaust pipes with Thermo-Tec insulation, which seems to have alleviated some of the heat-soak issues, but heat from the OD itself still sometimes causes the solenoid to struggle. However, I’m down to about 10% of the time it refuses to engage, and if I keep trying, it eventually relents and gives me OD. Since the exhaust system currently on the car is pretty well rotted out anyway, I'm going to have a new system made over the winter that moves the muffler away from the OD. Lloyd is going to send me a new solenoid, and there are two sizes—a 4.5-inch one and a 3.25 inch one. I have the longer one now, but the shorter one will give me more clearance and hopefully stay cooler. I may also fabricate some cooling fins and tack weld them to the outside of the solenoid, but we'll see how the shorty unit works first. He also suggested that there are three different solenoids available, and I probably got one that works on both 6 and 12 volts, which is the known to be the weakest of the bunch. The 6V only, 3.25-inch replacement (I’ll have it this week) should completely cure the problem. Now, with all that said, the overdrive absolutely TRANSFORMS the car. Like all old cars, it gets kind of busy-sounding at, say, 45 MPH without OD. And while I've seen 50 MPH or so without OD, that's about as fast as I'd like to push it, and certainly not for any extended period of time. With the overdrive engaged, however, the car is whisper quiet, and happily hums along at 55 MPH without breaking a sweat. The speedometer says 35 MPH when I'm closer to 50, so imagine how well your vintage car runs at 35 MPH (35 is probably the sweet spot, no?). The Cadillac stays cool, the fan isn't roaring, the generator is still charging at 10 amps, the bearings aren't being pounded to mush by those long rods, and it keeps up with traffic easily. There's plenty of power once it's up to speed, and I rarely find myself taking it out of overdrive for hills. Usually only a stop sign or red light will force me to drop out of OD. In overdrive, freewheeling is engaged, but it does not freewheel in OD, eliminating one of my biggest issues—that feeling of rolling out of control in neutral. In OD, it coasts down with engine braking as it should. It actually pulls pretty cleanly from about 15-20 MPH in OD, although it's leisurely until you hit about 30-35 MPH (actual, not indicated). Operation is simple. Push in the plunger to activate freewheeling, accelerate normally to about 30 MPH, press the button (and make sure the light comes on), then lift off the throttle. You‘ll feel it drop into OD like an automatic transmission shift, the engine gets really quiet, and you keep accelerating. That’s all there is to it. To drop out of OD, just depress the clutch and it clicks off. Interestingly, you can make the 1-2 and 2-3 and even 3-2 shifts without the clutch when freewheeling is activated, which is nice for clutch wear, and it shifts a lot more smoothly without any driveline lash. But as I said, the downside is that when you’re out of OD and have freewheeling activated, there’s no engine braking. If you need engine braking, just lightly apply some throttle and pull the plunger out and it returns to fully engaged with plenty of engine braking. If any of this is confusing, let me know because it was confusing to me until I actually started using it, then it made perfect sense. To make a long story longer, the overdrive makes the car vastly more user-friendly on the road. It's easy to use, and the difference it makes in comfort, performance, and longevity cannot be overstated. I was on 225-mile tour two weeks ago, and it easily kept up with a 1948 Cadillac running at 50-55 MPH through some rolling hills here in Ohio, never went above 165 degrees on a 93-degree day, the battery stayed charged, and it was comfortable rather than tiring. Fuel economy is still awful, but not quite as awful as it was before (perhaps 15 MPG on the open road with the overdrive engaged). I spent about $2300 on the overdrive from Lloyd, and probably another $200 or so in miscellaneous wires, brackets, screws, and fittings, plus about $150 for the exhaust wrap. I'm not counting the money I paid to remove and install the differential/torque tube/transmission since all that stuff was out anyway for a transmission rebuild, but that was probably a truly massive PITA job. In summary, it was WORTH EVERY PENNY, even with the frustration and early teething problems. I hope this helps someone else considering an overdrive. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again, and am seriously considering sending my '41 Buick's torque tube down to Lloyd to get one while I can (he's about 90 years old). Imagine what it could do with 200 horsepower behind it and a set of 3.90 gears in the Buick!

I couldn't be happier with the Borg-Warner overdrive Lloyd Young installed in my Cadillac's torque tube. 614-837-7832. He's just outside of Columbus, OH. It's a 30% overdrive, and now that I have the teething problems sorted out, I'm very pleased with its operation. Like you, I thought it sounded awfully busy at 45-50 MPH, but with the overdrive, it just whispers along at 50-55 almost effortlessly. It also keeps the stock rear ratio, so it accelerates strongly and still climbs hills in 3rd. If 100% authenticity isn't your concern, I think an overdrive is the smarter choice. It preserves the original acceleration characteristics, gives a greater reduction in cruising RPM, and costs about the same as a set of custom rear gears. I'll make a separate post that goes into more detail, but I'm a big fan of the overdrive. Cost was about $2300, not counting the cost of removing and installing the torque tube in the car. Mine is mounted in the center of the torque tube to clear the radius rods for the rear axle. On your open drive car, perhaps he can mount it to the rear differential housing. Make a new driveshaft and you can return it to stock easily, and you can install it in your driveway yourself. Although now that I'm looking at it, I'm wondering if that would be possible--it looks like your pinion bearing housing doesn't have anything to bolt the overdrive to. Maybe mount it on a subframe and use two driveshafts or create a new pinion bearing housing with a second flange to which you can bolt the overdrive? Suddenly we're talking a lot of extra fabrication, I don't know. However, it absolutely TRANSFORMED the car, and I'm a big fan. Hope this helps.

It's about time the ladies got some love! My hat is off to each one who faithfully reads the directions on tour, diagnoses strange engine noises, polishes metal trim, and sits behind an old car in the sweltering sun at car shows smiling at visitors. Kudos to every one of them who lets us work in the garage until midnight, spend money on foolish things instead of practical things, and does her best to share our enthusiasm when we finally get that old heap running right, even though she perhaps can't discern a difference. A big thank you to every one who rides on the back of a motorcycle, sits in the passenger seat, and patiently listens to hours and hours of talk about numbers, tools, and other esoteric things, and always calls it fun. And if you're one of those rare, special creatures with her own passion for the hobby, who likes to get dirty, and knows which end of a wrench to grab, well, will you marry me? Thank you ladies--you not only make it all possible, you make it wonderful.

I love old photos like this, and this one in particular drives home how quickly cars were evolving back then. Today, automakers don't update the models very often and people don't really notice. Even a 10 year old car today looks more or less like everything else on the road. But a 10 year old car in 1937 REALLY stood out. And unless that lady is 7 feet tall, that's probably not a Lincoln, although that was my initial impression as well. Thanks for sharing.

Agreed! An excellent event and a great idea, even if to just give young people the idea that these cars are not unreliable death traps, or that they can't be functional as-is without big block Chevys under the hood. I've stopped at my local AutoZone twice in the Cadillac over the past few weeks and two separate young guys working there have said something akin to, "How do you keep that thing on the road? I'd put a crate motor in it and be done." Perhaps putting them behind the wheel would change their minds as this event probably did.

I thought the overdrive was a rare option, with only like 800 out of the 9000 140s produced receiving it. On the other hand, I'm seeing virtually every car out there has overdrive, so perhaps it's not so rare after all. I don't know what else that switch could be for. I believe the toggle under the dash is for the fog lights, however. I have a Heritage Certificate on order, but it takes some time to get it. I'll just crawl underneath the car next time I'm over there and see for myself. Here's the car in question (oh so pretty!): Thanks for all the information! PS: West, this is DEFINITELY a car that could do without whitewalls. Too much flash!

Is either of these switches the one? I can't go out to look at the car since it's at the warehouse on the other side of town, so I can't say if it's marked "Overdrive." Thanks so much for the quick feedback!

Is anyone familiar with the operation of the optional electric overdrive on a Jaguar XK140? We have one for sale, and there is some speculation that it has overdrive, but I can't for the life of me figure out how it works. There's a toggle switch under the dash that looks kind of authentic, and a push/pull knob up on the firewall that looks like the one I just installed in my Cadillac, but I don't want to start trying to make it work without knowing for sure. I could make a very expensive mistake. Does anyone know how to positively identify a car with overdrive and how it operates? Thanks!

I second everything Keiser31 says, except that before pulling the trigger on the Model A, think about how you'd want to use the car and what appeals to you. Yes, if you're looking for an early car experience, the Model A is ideal--I love driving my father's and have enjoyed it since I was a young kid. But if having a finished car that cruises at merely 35-40 MPH isn't what you're looking for, pick a Model A equivalent from a different era, say a Ford or Chevy from the '40s or '50s, or even an early Mustang coupe, which is still an affordable choice. I think the key is not to pick something unusual or complex. An early orphan make or something like a suicide-door Lincoln Continental or a Ford retractable would be first-time restoration suicide. If it's your first time, get something that was mass-produced and still popular today. As Keiser says, that makes the parts search much easier and knowledge is vast. Good luck and welcome to the greatest hobby on earth!

I don't think you're in any danger of being sued for libel for asking the police to follow up on this. A crime was committed, they are investigating it, you're neither the victim nor the perpetrator, merely a witness who has come forward with new information. If witnesses were able to be sued for coming forward, our entire justice system would collapse. Please to to the police, give them this new information, and have them do what they can with it. That way you've done your best to help your friend and perhaps some good will come of it. At worst, the collector you spoke to will tell them, "I don't know anything about anything," which is likely, but it's a police problem at that point, not yours. Even if he thinks you turned him in, what's he going to do about it? You aren't accusing him and they aren't going to arrest him, they just went to get ask for some information. His reputation hasn't been harmed, and if anything he's merely been outed as a jerk who allowed a crime to go unpunished to satisfy his own greed. I'd call that a nice bonus. Please make the call!