John_Mereness
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Posts posted by John_Mereness
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Please take and post photos !!!
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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.
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How did you come out ?
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I have had countless people tell me that if you want quality built car then buy a Pierce Arrow.
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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."
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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.
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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).
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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
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On 12/24/2022 at 2:45 PM, GARY F said:
I would say white.
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
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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.
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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.
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On 12/23/2022 at 3:19 PM, charlespetty said:
From a glass plate negative in my archives.
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.
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3 minutes ago, West Peterson said:
Just an opinion, of course. There are just as many of us who strongly believe that less is so much more.
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.
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On 12/6/2022 at 10:28 PM, 32buick67 said:
Since the Thin Man was mentioned, I feel its important to include Myrna Loy...
For anyone who watched the Thin Man this Christmas
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On 12/20/2022 at 4:55 PM, 30DodgePanel said:
Ambassador bridge opening
Love the matching 1930 Cadillac 350 Series Town Cars
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For those who watched "It's a Wonderful Life" over Christmas.
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3 minutes ago, John_Mereness said:
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).
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
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On 12/23/2022 at 9:40 AM, 30DodgePanel said:
Hoping to see a period glass negative look at this Brewster Marlborough Town Car if anyone has one. I searched this thread for it but had no luck locating it. Chassis S123PR according to Pinterest
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).
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13 minutes ago, alsancle said:
https://www.prewarcar.com/411558-1930-rolls-royce-phantom-i-regent-dhc-by-brewster
1930 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Regent DHC by Brewster
Chassis S470MR is a late production Phantom I with Brewster Regent drophead coupe coachwork
A striking, comfortable and practical touring car
With the emergence of America as the largest potential marketplace for Rolls-Royce cars, and to avoid substantial import taxes, Rolls-Royce set up a new factory in Springfield Massachusetts. The first Springfield produced Rolls-Royces were completed in 1921 and were exact duplications of the Derby built cars. However, to suit the local market, subtle changes (and often improvements) were soon introduced.
The American marketplace was quite different to that of Europe and Great Britain. Buyers were not content to wait weeks or months for coach built bodies to be produced, preferring to purchase cars directly from a showroom, being ready to go or requiring only minor customisation. To satisfy this appetite, Rolls-Royce created several standard designs, usually named after English towns. It is due to this standardisation and advanced American build techniques, that the quality of coachwork offered on Springfield built cars was extremely high. Brewster, one of America’s finest coachbuilders, was purchased by Rolls-Royce allowing greater supply control.
Production of ‘the new Phantom’ (latterly to become known as the Phantom I) commenced in 1925, but not in Springfield until 1926. This was partly due to the alterations needed to suit the local market, many of which were innovative features such as the handle operated Bijur chassis lubrication system, carburettor air cleaner and thermostatically controlled radiator shutters.
Chassis S470MR is a late production Phantom I, originally produced as left-hand drive with a three-speed gearbox and servo assisted brakes. It incorporates all the features of the later cars. Originally built with more formal coachwork, it received its Brewster Regent drophead coupe body in 1935. The Regent coachwork by Brewster was not officially offered as an option for new cars, but was intended to update outdated cars, likely following cars being sold back to Rolls-Royce to aid their resale. A total of twenty-one Phantom I’s received these highly attractive bodies which make for a striking, comfortable and practical touring car.
Thinking the wheels have been converted to drop center - probably a decent idea
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On 12/2/2022 at 12:11 AM, jdome said:
I'm a fan of wide WW on some cars, large or small. The black car is a 35 Cadillac Fleetwood V12. 146 in WB. Bought it when I was 18 and it had ugly all black truck tires on it with deep tread-yes it looked like a Nazi staff car. The car has wire wheels but it came with all 6 optional disc wheel covers. There's a lot of black there. It needs ww to brighten it up.
The orange car is a circa 1940 amusement park ride. Bought it at Hershey about 20 years ago. It seats 4 kids and originally had 4 steering wheels. Several of these cars were attached to a merry-go-round platform. The body is all metal. I guess you would call it a rest-0-mod. I had to build a steerable chassis for it and powered it with the gizzards from a 1970 GE Elec-Trak lawn tractor. The tractors are 36 volt made up of 6-6v golf cart batteries that won't fit in the body so I used 3 deep cycle 12v RV batteries. 2 just fit behind the rear seat and one under front seat. Motor is under the car mounted to the transaxle. By some dumb luck, I happen to stumble on the vintage chrome wire scooter wheels and new WWW tires at Hershey. Hood ornament is 37 Chevy. The ham posing in the back seat is my son when he was about 8. He picked the colors, not my choice. He is married now and they are expecting their first child. We will soon have to dig his car out of storage, dust it off, and put in some fresh batteries for the next generation.
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.
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On 11/24/2022 at 5:23 PM, wayne sheldon said:
Beautiful Packard Twin Six! Yes, that is a car I could go crazy over!
Almost twenty years ago, I went on a Nickel Age Touring Club tour with my then 1915/'16 Studebaker touring car. An old friend was there, one of the last club tours he went on. He sadly went in a modern car due to his rapidly failing health. His daughter's boyfriend drove his just completed Packard Twin Six roadster on the tour. It was a 1917 if I recall correctly. An extremely impressive automobile!
A Packard high point for engineering matched to quality
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On 11/24/2022 at 10:47 AM, edinmass said:
That early Packard ran like the wind. It was fabulous.
Drove a Packard 4-48 a couple of times - your own personal locomotice
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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.
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5 hours ago, alsancle said:
John, I think you are right. Goes against my aesthetics, but it does stand out, and people ask about it. I’ll leave it on.
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.
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Restoration things that as a novice I hadn't given much thought
in General Discussion
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Nice to have really well working guages and everything on a dash be "just so"