nearchoclatetown

I did see them. But mostly I was looking at the illegal stainless steel pipe.

Matt, any idea what the four digit number is for that is stamped into the seat frame?

Keller has a copy of an ad for a Truck Builder that says the kits could be used on 40 named vehicles PLUS others. Then he talks about a Speed Truck having 22.5 hp and thermo syphon cooling UNTIL they realized DB was a better powerplant. The only car listed in the 40 that had thermo syphon that I know of was Ford. I sure wish we could find a dated brochure, ad, or newspaper article about the agreement with DB.

Notice it's not a DB engine. Thermo syphon radiator, two unit starter/generator, and 6 volt.

All the pictures of the front of a Speed Truck seem to show a hand crank, as if it is a permanent thing. The starter crank on my Light Repair Truck is permanent. Strange design

I'm thinking white walls don't belong on most DBs but there sure seems to be a lot of them when the cars were fairly new. DBs were a utilitarian car not a showboat. The narrow ones are the ones that puzzle me. I have not seem ads for them back then and MOST seem to be double, both inside and outside. I wonder who made them.

Narrow white walls.

Not only are they Speed Trucks, but isn't that a narrow white wall tire on the far left? Or are they really Speed Trucks? Look at the cowl shape. Doesn't it look like the radiator hose goes to the center of the head, not the front like a DB. Oh man, more questions then answers.

I just read several pages of Keller's book. The Monarch governor was used on GB trucks, at least on Speed Trucks according to Keller.

I think you are right Tom. It may have been to strengthen the frame and change wheelbase. Missed you at Hershey this year.

Confusing! It still sounds like the customer had to purchase the #7 chassis from DB, have it shipped to GB to be built. Doesn't it? The truck reprint talks of Haynes seeing so many component orders to GB and that is what prompted the agreement. But it doesn't specify an exact date for that. Or is that the April date?

I think you will find the Disteel wheels are Speed Truck. The Speed Truck used ugly looking disc wheels. The later disc wheels are Michelin, made by Budd.

I just looked at he DB/GB truck reprint from the DBC store. It claims the GB exclusive contract happened in April 1921. SO I think the first letter you show is for the Speed trucks. JB said no known survivors exist and I do not know of any being found since. BTW, that GB/DB logo is pretty clever, have not seen that before that I remember. Michael Keller's book on DB/GB trucks is quoted and referred to. Now I guess I need to go to the library tomorrow as I don't have it.

Cool beans.

My buddy's that had a body shop used a foot rule wrapped in sand paper to block in an X pattern like you are doing. Lots of patience needed. It will pay off.

As your pictures show the Speed Truck and GB truck were separate vehicles. Didn't we see an overlap of dates in some of your literature before? I am sure there is no literature in the DBC collection about the Speed truck to get any ideas from. I don't ever remember seeing any trucks labeled as Speed trucks in any of the sales contracts either. It seems odd they would have built both at the same time but I think they did.

David, are you thinking the Dec. 3 letter is about the GB Speed Truck?

Here is something I found recently. The first doesn't have a year but I am guessing it's 1922. Notice the date of the second. They hadn't built a car yet.

You are right. According to the Matheson website I THINK it was a brother. Point is they were all well connected back then.

As to your first piece about bodies Matheson was a top executive while working for DB so he easily could have been a sub contractor. He had, at one time, had his own car then worked for Ford.

So many of your original cars show light colored paint. That is why I asked if you had choices when new.

Ok, in the US zinc coating is called galvanizing. You used the good stuff. We had a local company coat hand rails at work. The pieces are dipped in boiling zinc which was hot enough it warped some of the hand rails. As I said, according to other companies most old cars used cadium or cadmium depending how you spell it. It's kind of a difference in English like aluminum or aluminium. Also, DBs did NOT get primer under the finish color from the factory. According to factory video available from the DBC store the bodies were shipped from Budd in Phila. Pa. to Detroit, Mich. bare by train ,then assembled and washed with gasoline and painted with garden hoses over open vats of paint on the conveyor. The excess ran back into the vat.

Matt, it is odd that you would have galvanized the rims. Good for you as that will last forever. MOST old cars in the US had cadmium plated rims. Several years ago someone had their '16 rims zinc plated and had the car at Hershey for the show. They were dinged by the judges for incorrect plating. A DBC member who just happens to be a chemical engineer took scrapings from an NOS DB rim and had it analyzed. It was ZINC. But AACA would not accept the proof because it wasn't from DB factory. They told him the rims were wrong and he should have just painted them with aluminum paint because they would accept that because zinc is so expensive here in the US. Also, just curious was there official colors for Aussie DBs? Here ALL DBs were black except for special bodies that were blue until about 1925. The Aussie '23 a neighbor had was yellow with blue fenders and appeared to be that way for ever. I see the car you are working on appears to be light color since way back. Any lists of colors you could have chosen back when new?

Mark it in your book, I missed the 1927 date.

yup