21raceabout

Stan's spot is OBN-14/15/16. Will include an open forum like last year, to give everyone an opportunity to tell a story, share some learning, ask some questions, restoration updates, the Pebble Beach event, or whatever. Can even talk about Stutzes if you'd like; only money, politics and religion off limits.

Fellow Mercer Owners - Last year at the fall Hershey meet we had a nice informal get-together of the Mercer Associates. We will be doing the same this year; Thursday afternoon at 5 at Stan Smith's spot in the Orange field (will confirm the spot number shortly). Would be great to hear the latest from everyone, especially to meet and greet the new owners that have joined our ranks. Please spread the word to any of the owners who are not regulars to this forum.

The late George Button, who lived in Florida had ring and pinion gears made about 10-15 years ago. If you can send me a PM I could tell you who acquired his car and potentially parts including some of those gears.

JCROW - I believe the attached picture is your car back in the 40's. Unfortunately the original photo is very small 2x3" so hard to pick out details. The picture of the two 21 Raceabouts in 2009 from Stude8 was another reunion of sorts; the last time that S/N 14730 and 15810 were parked next to each other was in 1940 when 14730 was owned by the late Hemp Oliver. He published the 1940 photos of the two cars in a 1957 edition of Road and Track. Sounds like you are doing a top notch restoration of your car. I hope to be able to see it again someday.

SRB = Standard Roller Bearing Company of Philadephia PA. They had the license to make Rudge-Whitworth wire wheels in US for Mercer and other high end cars.

There will be an informal gathering of Mercer Associates this year at Hershey at Stan's spot in the Orange field OBN 14-17 5PM Thursday, rain date (heaven forbid!) 5PM Friday. It will be a chance for all the owners to catch up on the news of the past year, share stories and tips. Hope to see the marque historian there too.<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

There will be an informal gathering of Mercer Associates this year at Hershey at Stan's spot in the Orange field OBN 14-17 5PM Thursday, rain date (heaven forbid!) 5PM Friday. It will be a chance for all the owners to catch up on the news of the past year, share stories and tips. Hope to see the marque historian there too.

Howard - The upholstery is all leather. The seat sides and backs are one piece for both seats, and is held in place by the snaps on the top edge of the body (outside}. Is plain and filled with padding, no special pleats. If you see a picture of an L-head Raceabout you will see the snaps from the outside. The cushions are also simple without any pleating. The cushions are held in place by an angle iron strip on the front edge. The cushions are basically held in place by the padding on the back of the seat pushing against the cushion forward against the angle iron. The angle iron is only about 1/2" high and screwed into the floor boards. Top? Any top on a Raceabout is aftermarket. Real sports cars have no doors, no top, 300 cubic inches and 4 on the floor! If you would like photos let me know.

What are you looking for in terms of details or are you looking to make an (exact) replica? The body is made of wood and sheet metal (no surprize there). The firewall is wood, 3 pieces. The floor is also made of multiple pieces of 1" thick wood, I think is ash. The floor is soild under the seats but only covers the frame rails forward of that. (Has a rabbet on sides to accept the removable floor boards.) There is a wooden hoop (probably steam bent but could be formed with glued up strips) just forward of the dash the reinforces the cowl. There is a ~1.5" diameter horizontal metal pipe (iron plumbing) that is attached to the wooden hoop with special aluminum castings on each end. These castings have a flat surface on the aft sides that serve as bolting surfaces for the walnut dashboard. The sheet metal is 3 peices; the cowl to the vertical strip (half round metal) that would be the front edge of the doors (although does not have actual doors). the second and third pieces start at the vertical strip on each side of the body and wrap around to form the seat backs on each side, There is a piece of wood more or less vertical that fills in the acute corner where the sheet metal meets between the two seats. The seats are staggered so the driver has elbow room on the inside. There are angle iron brackets on the inside of the seats and on the back side of the firewall where it meets the floor. Is this what your were looking for?

TM- Sporting top is 8 feet long and 51" wide, so would have to have been cut down lengthwise in half. I would guess that your top is off some other car and was adapted to fit.

TM - What are the rough dimensions? Sporting/Touring tops are very long, basically 1/2 the length of the entire car. I can check against the two Sportings over at my friends place this weekend if you would like. There were some Raceabouts that were fitted with tops (although I agree with Hemp that these were aftermarket not factory), usually mounted on the gas tank support. See if you have any holes in that piece below the forward side of the tank drilled through the aluminum into the hardwood corner pieces.

Also have a magazine ad from the Automobile Trade Journal for the Valentine Company which boasts that they made paints and varnish for Mercer. I have some books on painting and color varnishing cars of that era. This was often done by brush painting or dipping, but you will probably use lacquer (not as durable) or modern urethane. Avoid paints that are intentionally formulated to "orange peel" to hide flaws in the body or enamels that can't be buffed.

TM - Per sales catalogs, 22-70 through early Series 5 Raceabouts were yellow, gray, blue or gun-metal (egg shell finish). This would have been body, fenders and frame. Later Hare's Motors catalog offered Raceabout only in Robin's Egg Blue, with black frame and fenders. The other models (Runabout, Sporting, Touring, Limo) also came in other colors like Thistle Green, Goldern Brown & Maroon. Our car was originally painted (I think) a bluish-green with red leather upholstery. This suggests to me that the factory also accepted special orders as these were not advertised colors. Our car was subsequently painted red, dark blue, black then cream. Is currently yellow. The correct shade of yellow is a hot topic amongst Mercer folk, other than to say every owner will claim theirs is the correct shade. Stan has an old fender with some remnants of yellow paint he says matches Penn DOT yellow. Fred has told me a darker shade is more correct. There are some original color adverts for the Sporting and Touring which show the gray as being rather light and the blue as dark, almost navy blue. The gun-metal is a darker gray with a tinge of blue.

TM - Glad to hear that the IMS still has the photo service and best of all you found the CC Smith special. Might be the only photo of the car still extant. Did Stan send you a copy of the '59 L-head owners manual? If so, check the page numbers to make sure is complete... some copies are missing one page ( I have complete set if you still need it).

And don't forget to oil the new felt seals liberally upon reassembly, otherwise a dry seal will work like sand paper on your shaft.

McMaster-Carr's on line catalog has felt that can be used for oil seals.

TM- Another thought, you might contact the Indianapolis Speedway directly. As of ~10 years ago they still sold copies of the photos of any individual car that qualified (maybe entered?) for every race at pretty reasonable prices. I don't know if they still have this service but worth trying - maybe they have a photo of the Carl Smith car. If he really made the racing car out of a Sporting or Touring car, it is probably not your chassis as Raceabout chassis have a shallower frame web height.

TM - No confusion about Hemp. It was clear from your father and from Hemp himself that he was a family friend not blood relative. His letters containing his recollections of earlier times are a fascinating read. Also his photos taken in the 30's and 40's are fabulous. In regards to the block, I was wondering if you can see if the extra holes and internal manifold plumbing for the 2 carbs look to be part of the casting, or result of some skilled welding or brazing (i.e. modifications to the casting). Finally, it may have been Jack Libaire's late father who knew your grandfather. Regards;

I have seen a set of rods that was lightened like this installed in a 1921 Sporting. Looked a bit more carefully made than those in the photos but still a little scary.

TM - Yes your (great?) Uncle "Hempy" owned our car for a short time in 1940, purchasing it for $25 from a Mrs. Bascom in CT , only to turn around and sell it for $50 a few months later to D. Cameron Peck. I corresponded with Hemp for several years before his passing. Studying the Mercer roster, I concluded that is really a '21 not '22 as it is one of three consecutive S/N 1921 cars that survive.

Have never see such a thing described in sales booklets or parts manual. I remember your father describing it to me - Would love to see picture(s) of it. Twin inlets on the driver's side?

Dykes manuals are a great "how to" reference for cars of that era. Do you have a copy of the 1959 L-head repair manual?

Having visited your car several times while it was still up here, I would suggest you get it running mechanically and then enjoy driving it for a while. That should give you the desire to keep it running should you decide to do a more complete restoration in the future. Even L-heads were stripped of fenders, splash guards & running boards in order to be raced so you could just drive it that way while working out the mechanicals. I hope your father passed along my message to stop by to talk Mercer and compare notes next time you are in state. P.S. I know a highly skilled aerospace welder (including cast aluminum) with extensive experience fixing antique car parts if you need that service.

I am looking for info anyone might have on the 1928 Decoration (Memorial) Day races at the Atlantic City board track. The feature was won by Ralph DePalma. Our Mercer was raced by Mr. Kimbark Howell to second place in one of the support races. Would really appreciate copys (will pay the costs) for anything related to that event.

"Board Track Guts, Gold & Glory" by Dick Whallen c.1990 Kutztown Publishing is the finest book on the topic; includes location and history of all the major tracks, construction techniques, race results and hundreds of photos.