21raceabout

Don't have a model number for the Flechter (Fletcher) carb used on Type 35's but attached is some info from various Mercer sales catalog and price lists...Says is a 1-3/4" (SAE flange) bore. The guy who would know for sure is Fred Hoch at Schaeffer & Long in Magnolia NJ.

Old Iron Works - Came across an advertisement recently in a Dec 1920 edition of Vanity Fair magazine from The Perfection Heater and Manufacturing Co of Cleveland Ohio. It lists Mercer as one of 45 car manufacturers who have installed Perfection Heaters as standard equipment. Has some small pictures of various heater models, which take advantage of exhaust heat, at the bottom of the ad. Hopefully you can use this to further investigate. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=msu.31293008425120&view=1up&seq=396&q1=perfection heater

The 11th annual Mercer Associates meeting will take place at the Hershey Fall Meet on Wednesday, October 5th, at 2pm in the Red Field spaces RWM/RWN 21-26. This is the same location we have used the last few years. As in the past, the meeting is an informal gathering for owners of Mercer automobiles and honorary members of the Mercer Associates. Looking forward to catching up with all of you on the news from the past year.

Looking for a set of machining drawings for the Series 5 intake manifold (aluminum casting with flange provision for cross-over pipe heat/exhaust down pipe). I need to finish a repro raw casting that was made some 10-15yrs ago by the same owner who had the repro engine block cast for his car. Thinking that machining drawings must have been made up (or the original factory drawings) to facilitate finish machining of the repro intake for his car. Thanks in advance for any leads.

Strangest thing we saw in the chocolate field south on Wednesday was one of those Amazon trucks driving through with a very confused looking driver trying to make a delivery.

Fred Hoch runs the Schaeffer & Long restoration shop in Magnolia NJ. Fred was mentored early in his career by the great Mercer restorer Ralph Buckley. Many Mercer cars on the road today would not be running without Fred's help and advice.

The 10th annual Mercer Associates meeting will take place at Hershey Fall Meet on Thursday, October 7th, at 3pm in the Red Field spaces RWM/RWN 21-26. This is the same location as our 2019 get together. As in the past, the meeting is an informal gathering for owners of Mercer automobiles and honorary members of the Mercer Associates. Looking forward to catching up with all of you on the news from the past year.

Some other museums in the Northeast: Collings Foundation American Heritage Museum in Hudson MA (north of I-90, just east of I-495) has an interesting collection of antique autos including some large classics, military armor including US/British/German/Russian WWI thru Gulf war, and some aircraft. Wright Museum of WWII in Wolfeboro NH (north side of Lake Winnipesaukee). Motorland a.k.a Maine Classic Car Museum in Arundel Maine, (Rte 1, next town north of K'Bunk) I would check the open hours on their websites before showing up. Enjoy your trip.

This was Sam Bailey's L-head Raceabout. I don't think that is Sam behind the wheel in this photo. Based on the wood fence and tree tree line in the background, the photo was taken at the VMCCA annual meet at Framingham MA on September 20, 1941, just a few months before Pearl Harbor. I have similar photos of this car (along with comments) from this event that were given to me by the late Smith Hempstone Oliver. My records don't go back far enough to identify the S/N of this car to figure out where it is today. However, the fact that it did survive to 1941 suggests that it is probably still around today (now restored with full fenders). I will check with some other Mercer cognoscenti to see if they have any further info. Based on details in the photo, including number of louvres in the hood, height of the radiator, plain "Mercer" script in the radiator badge, style of hood latch, composite steering wheel and forked headlight mounts, I would venture to say that this is a 1918 Series 4 car. (Of course any of those parts may have been swapped with an earlier/later model car.) There are only 2 original Series 4 Raceabouts in existence today, one in CA and the other in TN.

The 1915 C-25 uses a common pilot ring (P/N 10E830) for both intake and exhaust manifolds per the factory parts list. I suspect that the root cause of the exhaust manifold distortion is a metallurgical phenomena called creep. Creep is caused by mechanical and/or thermally induced stress (load) in the presence of elevated temperature (reduced strength). The stress could be caused by the difference in thermal expansion of the hot exhaust manifold vs the relatively cooler cylinder heads or exhaust system. It could also be caused by residual (internal) stresses in the exhaust manifold caused by differential solidification ("freezing") of the liquid iron during the casting process. It is unlikely the exhaust manifold went through a stress relief heat treat cycle back in the day given the state of metallurgical science at the time (e.g. fatigue cracks/fractures attributed to "crystallization"). Even today exhaust manifolds produced by some manufacturers have significant distortion issues such that they cannot be re-installed without creating oblong holes for the attachment studs.

Olson's Gaskets has repro pilot rings.

Some years ago a friend was restoring a Stutz DV32 for a client (which later got a 400/400 perfect score at a CCCA national meet). He sent the radiator cloisonne emblem to what was supposed to be a "professional" emblem restoration shop here in New England. They ruined it. The emblem was returned highly distorted and unusable; was clearly overheated or constrained when in the oven. I don't think they were in business very long. My takeaway was that it is possible to damage an emblem. If I were to try it at home I think I would use some sort of instrumentation to ensure temperatures are known, research temperatures are required, determine creep strength of backing material (copper, brass or bronze?) which may govern how the emblem should be supported in the oven, and finally develop the process on a less valuable piece.

Ikew - Meant to attach this...

Hi Ikew, Ed Schillo was the Mercer agent in Chicago who likely sold your Sporting to Mr. Hertzman. Are you showing anything at the AACA Spring Nationals?

Restoration Specialties in PA (www.restorationspecialties.com) also sells Tee rubber seals by the foot.

Not a Buick but I suspect windshield might work the same way. To open for ventilation, the top and bottom panels rotate clockwise as viewed from the driver's side of car; in other words the bottom edges of both panels rotate forward like a venetian blind. The "h" shaped rubber seal between the top of the bottom panel and the bottom of the top panel is fitted to the top edge of the bottom panel with the lip (tall portion of the "h") towards the back. This makes sense in the event of accident that the passengers have whatever protection the rubber seal strip might provide instead of striking the edge of the glass (yes, this car has been retro-fitted with modern laminate glass). There is a handle on bottom center of the lower panel on the aft side. There is also rubber seal along the very bottom to seal against the body, which wouldn't seal if bottom panel rotated counter-clockwise.

Clearly wasting my time.

Get yourself a copy of the book "Mercer Magic" by Clifford Zink published in 2015 by the Roebling Museum. This book is by far the most accurate and complete history of the Mercer automobile. The book was thoroughly researched with the help of Tim Kuser (Mercer historian and grandson of the company treasurer) and Fred Hoch. Yes, Mercer did use Continental and Beaver engines - but only in the first few years of production cars. They used their own proprietary engine for the Type 35 Raceabouts, and Type 45 racers where they had so much racing success.

I believe the original post said the car was owned by an individual who lived in Ohio. I don't see any other posts "below this one" discussing California...? In any case, neither chassis S/N 1287 nor engine S/N 1287 show up as a survivor in the roster.

There is an (intern)national roster of Mercer cars/owners kept by a member of the Mercer Associates. The list is not made public out of respect for the privacy of the owners. In 1954 there were 106 cars identified; the current list has just over 140 cars. I don't know when your grandfather sold his car, but I checked and his name does not show up in any of the lists. In order to see if his car survived you really need to know it's chassis/engine serial number or possibly have the names of subsequent owners. You might check with the AACA library to see if they have 1920/21 registration lists for Ohio as they have for some other states. These lists often have the license plate number, owner name and address and engine or chassis serial number.

Terry - As requested attached are 3 views of BAKER rim wedges from a 1915 Buick C-25. Note the faint "W" and "M" on either side of the bolt slot below the "BAKER" text. Paint is modern, color when found was rust. Regards;

Bryan - Unfortunately, your offer came a little too late for me. I know folks may hold their nose, but at the time I didn't think I had any other option to get my next-to-the-barn basket case running again. It turned out that the shell for the C-25 and E-35 are outwardly the same size and style (other than the radiator itself is separable from the shell in later model). I had LA Radiator works here in Maine swap the outlet manifolds and another friend welded up the rivet holes in the sides of the E-35 shell and attach a couple long fender bolts the bottom of the shell so as to mount it like a C-25. So my car now has what looks like a C-25 shell (no brackets) with the later removable core. I got the car running this summer with the help of Mark, Larry and Terry (parts) and I am very pleased with the performance of the radiator (no sign of overheating). At this point if anyone has a C-25 radiator they are willing to part with, I know a gentleman in Texas who needs one.

Heat. I recall heating up similar flange on C-25 gearbox with the puller already in place. Puller not super tight to avoid damage as strength of flange material goes down with temperature. Will likely have to replace felt seal when finished.

It's not a Mercer Series 5 part...

I can't begin to imagine the tremendous pressure that the Hershey Region and the National HQ office have been under in these trying times. I applaud the courage they have demonstrated to make the tough decisions that they had to make. It must be very frustrating to have to operate in such a fluid situation with so many unknowns. Having said that, I had a few less critical, secondary items I thought could be addressed at some point. The events insert with the Antique Automobile magazine that arrived this week is still offering flea market spots for the 2020 fall meet..."Apply now"... potentially confusing. I would suggest some (interim) status info on the Hershey meet is needed in the next issue of the magazine as not all of our colleagues use the internet or forums. Finally, for those of us who have already paid to renew our Hershey flea market spots back in the spring, I have not heard anything about refunds or if the payment will be automatically applied to 2021 (which I would be perfectly OK with). These comments are only intended as suggestions to potentially help improve communications. Having organized a few local car shows myself, I remain in awe of the organizational and logistical effort that must be behind the Hershey Fall meet that agets even better with every passing year. Thank you.