John_Mereness

Nice to have really well working guages and everything on a dash be "just so"

Please take and post photos !!!

Post a photo - you will be surprised the number of people that may recognize (especially if they have a similar car). All results are posted in AACA publications as well.

How did you come out ?

I have had countless people tell me that if you want quality built car then buy a Pierce Arrow.

One of the more respected AACA members I have known swore by Chrysler Imperials - "there are virtually none as they were such a good car that people drove them into the ground."

One of the most toured cars in our local AACA was a 1935 Buick 50 Series - went for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles.

Your 1934 Auburn Series 850 will be a very nice experience as far as comparability to a "modern" automobile - they are not expensive cars in luxury field (more of a Buick range of car in the GM realm), though they offer good quality, nice Horsepower, good mechanical design leaning toward progresssive, nice transmission gearing, Columbia two speed axel, Ross steering, aircraft tube shocks, and cost reductions removed cumbersome weight which allows for exceptionally nice handling. And, the Convertible Sedans are all steel body construction (albeit the Cabriolet is quite dashing).

No offense, though my 80 year old mom will say: "The cool kids did not drive Nash's, Hudson's, Kaiser's, Dodge's, Plymouth's, Packard's, and/or ..." And what did she drive in the late 50's and early 60's: 1947 Cadillac Sedanette in black with red wheel rims // and then moved on to Austin Healey's

White is probably one of the harder colors to match (right up there with silver and the million shades of black). Sidenote to a contested topic: And then you can paint your pre WWII car or .. white to take a huge beating on its price and sale-abillity

Bummer Steve ! Well, if it is any help, I put a set of Allard disk wheels in the corner and have no clue what their outcome will be, though happy to play navigator between you and their owner. P.S. I hold the record on hardware in a back - it pushed a million in costs back in 1983, and then you know I broke the top 6 inches in 1984 to blow wires shards all through me and need a rework (all I recall the second time was qucikly making it to the phone to call for help) - 1 full year of recovery each time and now can no longer play the piano.

Just a funny story: Perhaps 5 years ago, I was smacked in the head by a very nice gentleman (who I had known for years and he always has my permission to smack me) when I was rusty at "behind the wheel" of a Buick to not be able to figure out how to engage the starter. Sidenote: I will still lean to what you have done with the White and the Buick over what happened to say that 30's Packard Coupe Roadster pictured on this page - I have restored far too many cars that while needing it we never drove prior to restoration to find them very short lived in the garage post restoration (to be blunt pretty much hated the way they drove) matched to life happens fast and there are always other fish to fry - rule of thumb with solid unrestored stuff is that if the project cannot be handled in a weekend then .... (ie. keep it together and upgrade over time). I guess there is a thrill in trying to restore something, but I can take you on the endless garage tour of failed projects one after the next, day after day and week after week = so you want to recreate a wheel that took thousands of people to create in the first place. Today's project was a new bezel for an ignition switch - you would think an easy project, but nooooooooooooooooo.

This particular SK was the first 1920's/1930's car my dad looked to purchase in late 1960's/very early 1970's - Dave Bell, the President of the WOKR was one of dad's first employees and was daily driving a 1929 Stearns Knight 6 Cylinder Coupe.

Yes, but the problem is that 99.9% of the Stearns Knight cars have not seen the light of day on a show field (or anywhere in the general public for that matter) in 30 plus years so blending them into the woodwork is just not going to cut the grade at this point.

For anyone who watched the Thin Man this Christmas

Love the matching 1930 Cadillac 350 Series Town Cars

For those who watched "It's a Wonderful Life" over Christmas.

This is the Spreckles car - largely in same condition today as when in photos (glad I took the time to index terms so that it was internet searchable) - about page 184-ish

John De Campi arranged for me to buy this car some time back (1990's) and I backed off as it was an early cylinder head replacement and had considerable mileage on it post replacement (ie John thought it ripe for its next mechanical restoration even though it did everything it was supposed to do at time). Several months later it went up for sale in RROC. Price at time was $48,500. As far as I am aware it is the same as my prior RR PI in that there has never been a factory photo of the car surface. Colors were Blue and Black. Burried in the pages here is a late 1930's photo of the Spreckles car with the applied canework when it was owned by Pacific Auto Rentals and now in the Nethercutt collection (a pretty fantastic example).

Thinking the wheels have been converted to drop center - probably a decent idea

Friends had a 35 Sedan and I sent their wheel disk covers out and had them plated - made a very stylish difference in the car.

A Packard high point for engineering matched to quality

Drove a Packard 4-48 a couple of times - your own personal locomotice

We looked at a few cars from him - he always had decent original cars that had their fair share of problems. We looked at plenty of cars from Leo Gephart too - usually much more shiny and had their fair share of problems. Bottom line - really difficult to keep up woth a Pre-WWII car and most have a lot of problems, the next owner fixes a lot of problems, they sit just a tad too long or are are driven one mile too far and develop more problems, and ... - sorta an endless circle of care needed.

Good choice !!! Goal is to get as many out of dusty garages as possible and for you to not be one of the "just the three" people running one around to events. They are great cars and need to be more popular. Basically, "Plane Jane" does not cut it.