29 Chandler

In th cars for sale section we are selling our 1914 sedan sitting on a 1920 Chandler Chassis. Hate to part with it, but our newest acquisition now takes priority and the spot in the garage.

This sedan body was made by the Willoughby Company of Utica, New York around 1914 for some of the better known “non-classic” makes including Nash, Studebaker, and Chandler. According to a dealer promoting this sedan “The bodies were built to order by the Willoughby Company, considered among the best custom body builders of the country,” and that “cost was not taken into consideration.” This is probably the last of the Willoughby sedans of this type left. The body sits on a 1920 Chandler chassis, which includes all suspension and brake components, driveline from the transmission back. Wood frame surrounded by an all aluminum body. With this project you be able to tour year-round, out of the elements. New lower price.... Asking $4,500 OBO. Located in Southern California

Hello Marie, Your dad will be missed. I am sorry we are not closer and we did not get a chance to meet in person. We really wanted to attend the Chandler party you hosted years ago. I can imagine you have your hands full settling the estate. After so many years in the hobby there must be so much to go through. Hopefully you have help. Hopefully the cars will go to a good home and the new owners will take as much care with them as your father did.

Yes, I live a block or two away from his house. He was a great man. I met him several years ago after we purchased our 1929 Chandler sedan with its Westinghouse vacuum booster system on the mechanical brakes. My father-in-law knew of him as a reader of his magazine, Skinned Knuckles. He helped us learn more about the brake booster and did a series of articles on the restoration of the booster that he took on so he could show others how it was done. He will be missed by many and I regret that both my father-in-law and Bill are no longer around to share in the discovery of this old sedan.

Thanks for your comments Wayne. The other side of the body has two doors and is the only way to access the front bench (fold down) seat. It makes it a pretty unique three door body. At this point we are just documenting what we have while we finish building a 1914 Ford Model T speedster that is our son's junior project on high school. He is in the "Math and Science Academy" at the local high school and will be the first to build a car for his junior project! Once that car is done I hope to have more room in the garage to get working on the sedan.

Let me know if you find another, I will want to compare.

Thanks for sharing that picture. In the time since starting this thread I learned that the 1913 body is different and I believe also right hand drive. I now believe that Willoghby made bodies for several makes of cars and possibly changed the interior appointments to meet the requests of the manufactures. It would appear that the same body was fitted to both Studebakers and Chandlers. So the more I learn about the sedans produced for other makes the more I will learn about the body I have which I believe was originally on a 1914 Chandler chassis. Thanks for all your help in learning more about what Studebaker had to offer in 1914.

If it were me I would pull the pan and clean it out from there and continue to use non-detegernt oil in it.

I found this on Coachbuilt.com: "After his graduation from Hamilton College in 1909, Willoughby's son Francis Daniel (aka Fritz) Willoughby (b.1887-1955) was first apprenticed to several competitors and upon his return took over the plant, eventually assuming the presidency upon the death of his father in 1913. The next year, Willoughby secured an order from Studebaker for more than 1,000 bodies – its largest order ever and its first million dollar contract. To make the order, the company had to rent outside space and double its workforce from 150 to 300 employees. In 1914, a skilled laborer’s hourly wage ranged from 50 cents to 85 cents an hour, putting Willoughby’s weekly payroll at over $10,000 per week." So this body may be one of the thousand built.

Thank you studeq. In 1914 Chandler did the same thing and by luck also worked with Willoughby. So it is intirely possible that this body may have been put on either a Studebaker or a Chandler in 1914. If you run across any other 1914 sedan pictures please share them.

Its been quite a while since I made this post and there has not been much response from the Studebaker community. I can only guess there are not many sedans from this ears out there. I really would like to hear from some early Studebaker experts out there to help me confirm or deny that this is a Studebaker body. Any help you can offer is very much appreciated.

I have seen that picture. My body has much more wood trim on it and the windows are much different. Thanks for the input though.

The chassis is confirmed as being 1920 Chandler, but the style of the body is at least five years older. I even have a picture of it from 1921 with the same body on the same chassis. Seems like no work was done to it since then, at least nothing to improve its condition until we got it this year and have cleaned it up and now want to figure just exactly what we have. I did find a number stamped into a floor board and then found that number printed on a piece of paper that was labeled "Body No.". Most of the numbers I found stamped on the wood match the numbers that can be seen on whats left of the body number tag. It is made of paper and just barely survived that last 100 years. It even has what looks like the year of the body written on it "10-29- ". The year part is missing!!! Looking back at the calendar it could have been 1914 and landed during the work week.

Yes the body is all aluminum. It looks very much like pictures of a 1913 Studebaker sedan, maybe there were others with the same body. In 1914 Chandler came out with a sedan body from Willobghy, but I have yet to see pictures of one.

I cannot find any name plates on it. It sits on a 1920 Chandler chassis, but the body is older.

I am just wondering if there are any 1913 or 1914 Studebaker sedans out there? I have a sedan body sitting on a 1920 Chandler chassis that I believe is from 1914, but I am not sure of the maker of the body. Internet searches for a body that looks like mine come close to one from Studebaker. Are there any actual cars left or pictures of these cars that you can post? Here is a picture of my sedan body and a picture of the 1914 Studebaker sedan I found on the Internet:

For those interested I found a good article on the origins of the sedan body style on the Hemmings site: http://www.hemmings.com/hcc/stories/2010/08/01/hmn_feature13.html My sedan looks very similar to the 1913 Studebaker sedan shown in this article except that the three door hinges that are very prominent on my body are absent on the Stude.

Here is a picture of what the closed cars looked like for Chandler in 1915, a very different look. I think this is a Springfield body on the sedan.

So here are some photos of the sedan. The black and white photo is about what it might have looked like in 1914, the body is very similar. The next photo is our car sitting on the 1920 Chandler frame that it has now in 1921. The color photo is of the car today. Back in the 20's the car was reportedly used as a traveling car for a Starrett salesman here on the west coast. That might explain the disc wheels and the addition of a second gas tank in the cowl.

I am looking for more information on Willoughby bodies from the teens. There is a lot of information about this body builder on coachbuilt.com, but that is one of the only sources I have found so far. We recently acquired what we believe is a Chandler Willoughby sedan from 1914. From what I understand this was the only year that Chandler contracted with Willoughby for their closed car body, the next year they purchased from Springfield. I am looking for pictures of any other Willoughby sedan bodies from the period to help me positively identify the body. In it's current state their are no maker's tags anywhere that I can find. I have found and number stamped into one of the floor boards and was very fortunate to find a paper body number tag hidden all there years behind one of the rear wooden supports. It has the the body number written on it in pencil and what looks like the date of manufacture above the body number. The date is legible for the month and day, but not the year, that part of the paper tag is gone. The date corresponds to a weekday in 1914 so I feel pretty good about the year. Thanks in advance for any information that adds any more to the history of this body.

Thanks guys you have given me hope. The body is from a 1914 Chandler sedan with what we think is a Willoubghy body. This is possibly the last one left as Chandler only contracted with Willoubghy for 1914. In the end I want to do it right as there is only one pattern to go from, what is left on this car. Before we get to this stage the body (wood and aluminum will need to be rebuilt). Its a long term and costly project, but one I fell worth saving. Here is a picture of the body today. We just brought it home about a month ago.

Here is a sample of some material on a door. The rest of the car is missing a lot, but I can probably find good samples of what is needed for the other areas. Most of it was all cloth.

Where does one find vintage fabric to restore an interior of a 1914 Sedan? Our car is a Chandler so the common suppliers that cater to Fords is just not going to work if we hope to match the original material. Am I asking for the impossible?

Thanks go to our friend and Chandler Historian Roger for the quick answer to the puzzle: Both badges were used on the Model 17 Chandler. The one on the right for the radiator and the one on the left on the pressed steel hubcap. "

I just found an old Chandler badge at a swap meet this weekend. It looks to be the same vintage as the radiator badge on the left in the photo. The one on the right might be off a hub cap, not sure. Any ideas about the year on these two?