A by the sea

From 1957 I have a bill of sale for a Maxwell 1909 Touring Car with engine #2962. At the time it was bought by Harry Niehaus. I would like to see if I can get this to the current owner of the car. Thanks

My parents used to sell at car shows. They stopped in the early 90's. I have a bill of sale for a Clement Baird (clearly a mis-spelling) dated 1951 from a Fox Chase Garage. In 1963 a Mr. Schieffelin from Whitehouse Station, NJ was trying to identify the model. There are no serial numbers on the documents. I guess there are not very many of these cars around and I would like to try and re-unite these documents with the car. A little update, I searched on the name in the letter. The guy is dead and apparently played with antique cars. He restored a Stanley Steamer in 1961 https://www.conceptcarz.com/profile/7648,8863/1909-stanley-steamer-model-r.aspx

I have more then a foot stack of Antique Automobile magazines going from recent to a while ago. I think the 80's or 90's. Looking for someone to pick up very near Atlantic City, NJ. Cheap, look at it and tell me what you will pay. I am tired of tripping over them, but cant put them in recycle.

I have a about 1.5 feet of the AACA magazine which I do not need. Mostly recent in the last few decades, but some go back to the 1970's. Pick up only in Northfield, NJ which is near Atlantic City. Please email me at 68c@comcast.net

First off, I am 6' 6" and I got into a 28 roadster pickup and almost got stuck in it. They are small. Slant window bodies are more roomy for those who are taller. Second off. Is the car truly restored? Keep in mind that the Model A from the factory could do 60 MPH all day long and feel comfortable running that fast. YES, even on the crappy lack of paved roads in the day. They were considered extremely reliable which is the reason why you read about people in the day hopping in their A and driving all over the country. Ford was able to build a car to do this through extreme (like race car standards today) precision machining and balancing. This is lost to most people today and the mechanicals are rebuilt with the attitude it is just an old car. So If you are looking at a car for $33K it dam well ought to be jump in and run highway speeds all day long and not have any modern 'upgrades'. If you are being told the car is only good for 45 MPH then it is likely not safe at 30. I can tell you it is not cheap or simple restoring the chassis to factory specifications. But what can I know as all the A's in my family have been stock and driven 60+ MPH.

No quick fix. First determine if they are original Fords. They should have the adjuster in the top of the center shaft. Next, are the shafts loose, will they move up and down? Loose shafts are much more complicated to fix involving machine work. Some of the seals that have been made for the center shaft are not very good. There is a somewhat pricey rebuild kit that has good seals. Of course you will have to get the covers off and that is not always trivial. I suggest going to the A board on Fordbarn.com and search the archives and do not be afraid to ask questions there.

NO one is cheap with plating. What do you need plated and what is the correct plating for the part? Not all parts are chrome. Some places may not do a process that is important for the proper look. Many of the pre 1940's plating was done with a dull nickel and buffed before chrome. So backsides of bumpers would have a dull look. Do you need the parts to function, like top irons much function when done? Are they flat parts that you want to remain flat after plating, not wavy (think hand sanded to shape= more labor)? Keep in mind many shops are oriented to making parts look pretty, not form and function. My expensive experience with Paul's. I called several times and after talking to the lead guy explaining the work I wanted done, I sent them my parts with 8 pages of directions. By directions I mean how the parts must work together when done like the hinges for my top must fit together when done. Well I got the parts back and it was clear none of the directions were even looked at as the hinges could not fit together. Areas that were to be left rough castings were ground down to where the countersunk screws were above the surface. The very expensive and hard to find in good shape top irons were ground so thin at the edges it looked like a decorative sword. I was willing to pay Paul's for hand done work and thought I made it pretty clear in my notes and telephone conversation that was what I wanted. Now I will say they did their best to make my parts workable. I had to send them parts back twice and they wasted a couple of very rare top parts that I was lucky enough to have a workable spare to have them plate. The parts are workable, but they do not look correct. Frankford Plating in the Philadelphia area is slow and expensive. I have seen some of their work and they appear to have good attention to detail. My brother has had some work done by them and was pleased, but it was slow and expensive. They operate 3 nickel plate tanks to handle the correct type of plating depending on when the parts would have been made. Librandi does not have dull nickel tank and was rude with me when I asked at Hershey a few years ago. I ask if he had the dull nickel tank and said no and then told be he would not want my business go away. I do not know what kind of work he does. When considering others comments on plating you have to keep in mind my idea of a good plating job will be vastly different they your idea of a good plating. My final words- Good Luck with your plating.

This truck has been all apart and put back to together. I put it at a late 60's to early 70's 'restoration' on likely a nice body to start with which was 40 years ago. So 40 years ago a restoration was done on a 40 year old car- think about it so now it may seem like a survivor. Odds are real high it was not built back to factory. You are likely to find it was built with a minimum of new parts and probably does not drive as it should. If it has 4 working shocks then try to run it 55 MPH. It should stop well and be happy and comfortable at 55 to 60 MPH. I think you will find 45 is pushing it. The $15,000 price is way out of line. If all things lined up well the most I could see would be $8000 as I have seen pickups sell for that kind of money in the same or worse shape. In reality, you are looking at $8000 to $12000 worth of mechanical work to make it a reliable truck that will go 60 MPH with all factory parts. Dollar wise $4000 to $6000 with the $6000 if the truck sheet metal, frame and such were all obvious nice rust free original parts quickly going down to the $4000 mark. Bonus points if they can prove they used all NOS engine parts that might have been found more easily in the past.

Ahhh All the 'modern upgrades'. To me all I see on that sheet tell me that the owner has no clue on what it takes to properly build a the Model A, but he did have lots of extra cash. Hopefully the car will be reliable, most of what was done to the car is not field repairable when it fails so the car will have to be towed back. If the car was sort of done right then with all that it has it would run 60+ MPH comfortably!!!!!!!!! It should not be darting about hard to hold on the road. It should not feel like you are lucky to stop (please be careful as they are drum brakes, not the disk brakes you are used to). If the guy has reservations about letting you run above 45 MPH then move on to another car. It is clear the car is not built right at that point and you may spend a lot of money making it right. From the factory the original A's were capable and were driving 60 MPH. The dealers demonstrated this and those of us who know how to rebuild a car properly back to factory drive that way. The original model A was very reliable and even more so today with a few minor items like modern condensers, modern batteries, and modern tires. Ya I sound kind of negative, but that is from long term experience. People do all these 'modern upgrades' because they do not understand how to properly rebuild the original parts. Drive the car and do not baby it. For the bucks this guy has spent it can take it. If it seems to be fine then you have to figure out if it is a good value to you. I do not know what the guy is asking, but with $17k into it I am guessing he wants a bunch more. There are better deals out there, but you have to take the time to look. You could very easily come away losing money as what this car truly sell for might really be much less in the future. Not to mention that you could get stuck with lots of repair bills if the car was done wrong. Just because lots of new stuff was installed on the car that does not mean it was done right. I know of more than one guy spending top buck at a professional shop only to spend another $8k in making the car safe and reliable to drive. It is your money, you have to decide how much you are comfortable in risking. It would be very wise getting someone that knows how to build the A to run 60 MPH to come with you to inspect the car.

Bernie Johnson was a steeple painter. He painted stuff up high. He had a bunch of old cars and was working on building his own house. While on the roof he took one step too many backwards and fell off. He was paralyzed from the neck down. This medical problem caused some family troubles. They were divorced a long time ago so I do not know what she might know about the car. I saw his wife like 2 or 3 years ago at a local meet in Northfield. They were active members in the Jersey Cape region AACA, she might be a member now. I have not done anything with the club in almost 10 years so I do not know who is still involved. My parents were friends of theirs at the time and that is how I know some details.

You still have the original wiring so you know what gauge wire to use. Something to understand. The fuses protect the wire and are sized for the amount of current the particular gauge and insulation of wire can handle without smoking. The fuses are not sized for the current draw of the devices on the wire. The wire is sized to the needs of the devices and the fuse sized to the wire. So what I am getting at, you need to be sure you replace the existing wire with the same gauge or thicker wire for proper protection.

Shoot you can run a properly restored Model A at 60 to 65 MPH - if you properly restored it to factory. That is how I drive em. So you are worried about running your modern iron at 50?????? Dude if it is not comfy running that fast then I would question how good it was restored. So many do not really restore their cars to factory specs in the drive line. I have even seen $150,000 cars that looked pretty anywhere you looked on top- the bottom still had 70 years of dirt hanging off- with paint on it!!! Our 1939 Ford with a little 60 HP was happy all day long wound out at 60+ MPH. It hated parades.

A few years ago my wife car had its interstate battery get weak. It was only 10 years old. I replaced it with a 8 year old interstate that tested good. That battery finally died recently at 10 years. It is not likely I will have this car for 8 more years so I will not be able to report when the new interstate fails. My brothers 31 Model A has between 6 and 8 years on an Optima. That replaced the Interstate he got off the bad pile at Interstate which was 6 to 8 years old when it failed. He runs the original gen with a diode cut out. The charge rate is turned up some because he runs direct replacement halogen head light bulbs (the ones made in Australia). People who 'upgrade' to an alternator might be surprised to find out some single wire alternators draw current when the engine is off.

Fuses protect the thinnest gauge wire on the circuit from getting hot enough to cause a fire. Note that the fuse is not necessarily based on the current rating of the device at the end of the wire. So you are protecting the wire not the device. Keep in mind that the type of wire insulation and length of wire matters as you are trying to keep the wire from getting hot enough to start a fire. A little google searching will yield the chart of fuse or breaker to wire size. And Yes many guys are picking fuses by the wrong criteria for use in their cars.

The pins to hold the shifter forks are generally reusable if removed carefully. They just need to be good enough to not go back through the hole when you upset the end.

I would wander over to fordbarn.com for a better discussion on you shift tower. If you pull up on the shifter you can reset it back between the forks. The broken part is just a cover of the shifter position slide rail. You want to get a new shifter tower just because the part can rust up and make shifting hard. The tower should be cheap to buy as there are many of them. It is likely a local A guy would give you one. It is even more likely a local guy could set up a good tower for a low cost or free. Rebuilding the tower is not hard. Though some people like to make it quite a project. You need to look at the ball that would go between the shifter forks. That gets worn square. You can weld it up and grind it back to shape without much effort. The trick is getting the spring retainer off the shifter. Vince A Website shift tool There are two books that can walk you though some of what you need to know. They are called Model A Shop manuals. One is by Jim Schlid and the other is by Levoy (I think). Both are missing details. Schlid has factory drawings so you know original sizes and Levoy has more detail drawings.

Lots of wrong info on oils out there. Oil has more than one purpose. Of course it lubricates. BUT it protects the engine. Various additives prevent the build up of nasty chemicals and protect the babbitt metals. Detergents take the very fine particles and keep them in suspension so they drain out. With most straight non-detergent oils you are not getting the protection of the additives. You want to prevent the nasty chemicals. About that change it every 500 miles. NOT. Modern oils are good for much longer intervals both in time or miles. My brother has had thousands of engines apart and he has never seen one fail be cause of old oil. Odds are much better that your engine is assembled wrong and will fail because of the incorrect assembly (sorry, but this is more true than you want it to be). Frequent oil changes are also not good for the environment or your wallet. But a quality oil with additives and detergent and leave it in for a while.

Lots of Model A's look factory original but were restored at some point so long ago that they look original. You need to get someone who knows to inspect the car. A true 18,000 mile untouched car could pull in some decent cash because there is a premium on nice true low mile original cars. I could see the value of such a car going over $20,000 even in this poor market. An unrestored or incorrect older restoration tudor (a very common body style) that moves under its own power but is not a special low mile original car would be in the $4000 to $8000 range with around $5000 being a more normal price. You need to get over to fordbarn.com and seek professional help with the evaluation. Post a bunch of good pictures to start. If it is a true original car you will quickly get some offline conversations by interested parties.

Depends on the car an how well it was restored back to factory. The Model A from the factory was fairly vibration free with 4 working shocks and brakes that worked. A lot of the A's I see are not very well restored and quite a chore to drive. When you have half a turn of play on the wheel, brakes that barely work, and an engine that vibrates your pants off then 10 miles might be a limit. We did about 300 miles a day for a 900 mile trip in my brothers fairly stock coupe that is well restored. We were running 55 to 65 MPH most of the time when we drove to Wisconsin for the World Meet in 1986. His car is not safe to drive over 25 MPH without the factory shocks on the car.

Last year I wanted some nuts and bolts from a major Ford nut and bolt vender. I go to his booth and find the usual display, ask for the parts. To my surprise the owner tells me he will not sell me anything at the show!! Seems if he sells anything then he has to do a major tax filing in the state of PA. Kind of out of his budget as that is not a trivial matter as he lives a few states away. Dennis Carpenter also is not selling any products in PA. He has a huge set up, but you have to call up on the phone and have the parts shipped to your house. I had noticed that a few other large vendors just were not showing up. So if you are going intending to buy stuff from a non PA corporation you might call them first to find out if they can sell you anything while you are there. PA residents might want to contact their legislature and tell them how they are loosing money by scaring away a significant money maker for the Lancaster PA region. The problem has to do with collecting state tax. You need a license to collect the state tax in PA. Collecting state tax without the license is a major crime. Previously, Hershey region had an agreement to allow the companies collect the tax without needed to get a fancy corporate license. The Tax office decided something was not right and changed the policy. The corporate venders do not mind doing the PA tax thing, but they can not afford to accounting to required to play the sales tax game PA wants them to play. Steve may want to add the current situation since the above is based on what I learned last year. The only reason I bring this up is so people going to Hershey are not surprised when they can not buy parts from some venders. We all like saving shipping by picking up big things and that may not work for some.

You must get the dark spots out of the bottoms of the pits or they can come back even under paint. Keep in mind the chemical treatments such as por15 or other quick coatings do nothing to really to rust with spare O2 in the bottom of the pit. Sand blasting or electrolytic rust removal will get all the rust. You then want to consider SPI epoxy paint direct to metal. The epoxy will seal the rust form getting to the moisture and give a very strong bond to the metal. SPI paint has a fairly long recoat window and it is recommended to put polyester filler direct to the epoxy during the recoat window. Then do a basic level and then filling primer (see SPI paints) to get fully level. It is important to read all the tech sheets for the products that you are using.

For $12k I would expect a car with decent paint and interior. It should run and stop confidently. Typically restored cars are lacking in correct mechanical restoration. It is important to understand the Model A ford was designed to run 60 MPH, stop excellent (for 4 wheel drum brakes and skinny tires), get around 20+ MPG. A restored to factory specs (not show car) will run 55+ MPH all day long no problem. You would expect 50,000 miles out of the babbitt bearings running it this way. Your biggest issues should be greasing the grease points and oiling the oil points regularly. Anyone who tells you the A is a 45 MPH car has never driven a properly restored Model A. Back to your problem. The market if off, that fordor would probably only sell for around $5000 on ebay (just a guess cause there would be many details to consider). When shopping you need to ask important questions. When looking at cars you can get suckered into some pretty bad deals if you do not know what you are getting into. I have seen 'professionally' restored cars that needed $8000 worth of mechanical work to make the car safe at 45 MPH and able to go more then 5 miles from your house. Take your time to learn about the car and the values before you buy.

First you must get your car running properly on 6 volts to make sure you are not masking a bad connection that will get worse with 12 volts. Yes I said worse. A little resistance with more voltage will cause more heat and cause the connection to go bad faster. The ballast resister goes anywheres on the wire attached to the coil. I am glad you are supporting the industry by converting to 12 volts. You just spent a lot of money to help the economy. Then when have to replace the alternator you get to spend even more money. Those delco alt are a mechanics dream. Quick to replace and they failed more often then the generators they replaced. My brother has made a lot of money replacing them over the years. Keep a belt on hand as the small diameter pulley is too tight a radius for the belt and they fail faster. If you tighten the belt as tight as it needs to be to actually give a full charge rate then you will need a new water pump. Most just leave the belt so loose it can barely put out much current and only once you get it above a certain rpm first. Some of the regulators on the one wire alt will constantly drain the battery so be sure to spend some more money on a battery cut off. Oh the cheap ones that mount on the battery will usually just melt with the starting current. Or you can just put a properly rebuilt gen in place and remember to oil it once in a while for the next 50 or 60 years. Why do you want to change over to 12 volts. Brighter headlights are best obtained by using original headlamp parts and the halogen bulbs made in Australia, not India.

A more important question. Are the shoes arched to the same diameter of the drums? This is more important as you will not get 100% shoe to drum contact if the radius of the shoes is different then the drum radius. Ya, they can wear in, but on the antique car driven little this may take years.

Value depends on condition. You need to take them apart and check for usefulness as people seek out these parts to actually use them on their A and T. Together people have to buy them at a price they will not get hurt if there is a problem. Apart and checked for common problems their value will increase. Keep in mind there is a strong possibility these are not in a car for a reason, like they stopped working right. The values run in the thousands of dollars for the heads and hundreds for the manifolds. If you have a Ford flathead engine with the Ardun overhead valve set up then you would talk in the tens of thousands. I do not have a clue on exact values. It is best to connect with some experts and have experts take them apart.