29 Chandler

This year Southern California got some much needed rain, but mother nature was kind enough to provide a small window for the Holiday Motor Excursion to take place. With just light sprinkles about 100 cars or so showed up in the early morning hours to gather at the park before the 1932 and earlier cars headed off on what for most was a rain shortened tour. Most of us all made it to the important coffee and doughnut stop that marks the halfway point for the tour. Here are a few pictures from today's event.

Eric I too use 600w in the rear axel on my Chandler, same for the transmission. Thanks for sharing the pictures, I'll use them as a reference when I get into the rear wheel bearings.

Took our Chandler out to see the holiday lights in the neighborhood, what a great way to see the decorations!

The Eastwood Family started the Holiday Motor Excursion almost 7 decades ago. Here is the brief history of the event written by one of the sons, Peter Eastwood: History written for the 40th HME in 1995 December 25th in Southern California is, more often than not, sunny and clear. It was on one of those Christmas days back in the early 1950’s when the seed was planted that eventually grew into the Holiday Motor Excursion. In Pasadena that Christmas morning, Doug and June Eastwood suggested to their five children, after opening their presents, “Let’s go to Uncle Warwick and Aunt Millie’s to see what (cousins) Joyce and Elaine got.” It did not take long for Richard, Sharon, Jean, Peter, and David to squeeze into Dad’s Model T Ford for the ride over there. After the cousins compared gifts, Warwick’s 1905 Buick was cranked up and a short trip around the corner took the families to Bill and Lola Collier’s house for a look at Nancy’s presents. This prompted Bill to take out his 1910 Maxwell and the three families went for a short ride. It only took a year or two for the spontaneous Christmas Day itinerary to expand and visits were made to the homes of John Walgamott, Bob Coombes, Louis Cook, Dick Mendelson, and other Pasadena area Horseless Carriage Club friends. The sight of a small caravan of antique cars crisscrossing Pasadena only hours after Santa had been there was always greeted with cheers from the neighborhood residents. Before long, club members from outside the area were feeling left out. The explanation that the Eastwoods were just out having some fun and that it really wasn’t an organized club event was not what they wanted to hear. It was at this time in the mid 1950’s when families in their antique cars started showing up at Doug or Warwick’s house on Christmas morning, not wanting to miss out on “the fun.” Over the years, homemade cookies had to be supplemented with store bought doughnuts and the first of several 100-cup coffee pots were put into service. Sometime in the late 60’s the event date was changed to the weekend between the holidays and the departure point was moved to the Pancake House located between Doug’s and Warwick’s homes. As the event grew in popularity, the Model T Club and other clubs with newer cars joined in. In the late 80‘s, to maintain the flavor of early day motoring and to keep the event to a manageable size, participants were invited to bring vehicles built before 1933. Over the years the H.M.E. has been fortunate to be invited to visit many wonderful family homes, collections, and business in the area. Many visits have been made to the Dean Hensley, Burton Burton, and Don Ricardo Collections, just to name a few. Somewhere along the line the H.M.E. was adopted as a Horseless Carriage Club of Southern California event but the Eastwood family still handles all the event planning. For over 30 years Warwick and Millie hosted the desert stop at their home at the events conclusion. In 1994 they decided to take it easy and Gary and Sheryl Hunter eagerly volunteered to take over and host the party at their home in nearby Arcadia. The popularity of the event can be gauged by the 450 nametags and 150 copies of driving instructions given out last year—not to mention 30 dozen doughnuts, 400 cups of coffee and 200 cups of orange juice. We hope everyone enjoys it as much as we do. Happy Holidays and Happy Motoring! Peter Eastwood for: Douglas and Doris Eastwood Warwick and Millie Eastwood and the entire Eastwood Family And if you still want to see more please clink on this link to our club's website: http://www.socalhcca.com/holiday-motor-excursion

This "guy" in the Dusey keeps coming every year in a different car 🙂

And a few from 2017

And a few from year earlier years

A few from 2018

A few from 2019

Last set from 2021

More from 2021

Photos as requested from 2021

For those of you looking for something to do New Year's Eve morning and will be in Southern California on the 31st, make your way out to Arcadia CA for the 66th annual Holiday Motor Excursion. One of the largest gatherings of pre war cars on the West Coast. Hope to see you there, I'll be with our 1914 Chandler Model 15.

We braved the 50F weather before dawn this morning to take our old Chandler out to the local Cars and Coffee where she drew quite a bit of attention. Supposed be close to 80F here this afternoon, sorry guys!

To all who have kept this forum alive this year. May you all drive your Chandler/Cleveland cars in 2023!

This does not quite count for factory built, but it's close. My best guess is that it was built 1915-1916.

You've got my vote for Thread of the year. Thank you for sharing this wonderful story. Indeed it seems you were the right person at the right time. We are all so fortunate that you also have the time and attention to detail to provide us "the rest of the story".

Peter I would say if it is running good now you are least close to having the timing dialed in. Once you have a running/driving car you'll be able to get it out on the road and be able to manually adjust the advance while you drive and be able to notice a difference in small adjustments.

Peter I am happy with the set up that Harold did on our car I the 1960's. Adding the coil makes it so the mag is now just a distributor, seems like its worked well for over 60 years now with the same coil. You are correct there was no coil originally. The down side of using the coil is that when the battery is weak the spark is weak, not an issue with the original set up.

Peter I have the same set up. There is a condenser originally mounted on the bottom of the magneto. I also added a modern condenser close to the points which in my case were added in the 1960's up under the dash.