Durant Mike

Yep, we are fortunate that in Florida a number of stations have non-ethanol gas for us to use. WAWA, SPEADWAY and others all have non-ethanol and some have octane choices too.

I guess another question I have is can any machine shop restore and rebuild an engine with Babbitt bearings without destroying the original ones My engine was not running when I got the car so I have no way of knowing how it ran. I know machine shops do various processes to get the engine back to tip top shape, such as boiling the block, honing the cylinders etc but will this process destroy the original babbitt? Or can they do all the work and just put the old crank back in and be good to go?

Well today was a frustrating day for me. About six month ago I called around the Central Florida area to have my 1928 Continental 15L engine rebuilt out of my 1928 Durant. Well all the machine shops in Orlando responded that they wouldn't touch it and many had never worked on any engine older than the 60's. Contacted a restoration shop and they recommended a machine shop in Tampa. Called the guy and spoke with him and he said sure he could do it and has done older engines for the restoration shop before. Drove over an hour and 45 minutes to take the engine to the guy and he looked it over and said " Oh that has Babbitt bearings and I don't do them. Told me there was only one shop in the Tampa area that he knew of that could do that. So I called them and wasn't impressed by the help I wanted to drive over there since I had my engine with me and had already traveled a long way. Well they said they couldn't see me today, but maybe tomorrow. I sure wasn't going to drive back. Later in the conversation they told me that the guy who could do Babbitt had had a heart attach and they didn't know when he'd be back. They were not aware of anyone around that could do it. So I drove back to Orlando and put my engine back in my garage. Does anyone know of anyplace in the Southeast, especially Florida, Georgia or the Carolina area that can work on my engine and replace the Babbitt. Someone that has worked on the older engines and has a good reputation. Certainly do not want to trust my engine to someone that isn't experienced. Any leads would be appreciated.

Congrats on the large number of posts. You've been very helpful to many many members and have contributed much to the conversations. You even helped me with my 1928 Durant tail light if you remember. She's all fixed up and ready to put on the car when I finish it.

Thanks Steve for the reply. I'm strongly considering it and will look at them more closely next year when I go to Hershey again. They are in a barn about an hour from there. Got to finish my other two cars first though.

Recently I came across a friend who had two 1941 Oldsmobile 4 door sedans, not sure of the model, but has the straight 8 engine in it. Never saw one before and I was amazed at the size of the car. Both cars had plush back seats with a fold down center arm rest. Both were in fairly good condition and didn't appear to have any rot and have been sitting in a garage for a number of years. Both are in primer and one has the engine out for the rebuild before the owner passed away. One has the Hydramatic the other 3 on the tree. It looks like the Hydramatic transmission car has the original interior in pretty good shape. It looks like it would be a great car to drive on tours, plenty of room and very comfortable and with the straight 8 would be able to do highway speeds. I'm not familiar with Oldsmobiles of this age. I probably could get one for a decent price, but is there anyone that works on these transmissions anymore. Also you don't see many of these out there, Parts hard to come by? The car with the Hydramatic has all the chrome and trim pieces in good shape and in a box. What's the pro's and con's of restoring or ownership?

Matt, glad to hear you did OK, although still frustrating, it could have been much much worse as we see in news clips further up the road from you guys in Jacksonville and New Bern. Glad the cars are OK too!

Hey it can be done and I say go for it too! I'm restoring both my Durant and my 1971 Triumph TR6 at the same time. Durant is in the garage, the Triumph is currently at the body shop getting new sheet metal. I do just that, I work on the Durant, then switch over to the Triumph part. Durant parts on one side of the garage, Triumph on the other and never the twain shall meet as they say.

Matt I hope you all weather the storm up there in Wilmington and your cars make it through alright.

If you have a Tractor Supply store, which is a chain of stores throughout the U.S. around you, they sell a product that is petroleum based in 5 gallon cans called PSC1000. I bought two for my parts washer and it works great. I've cleaned up my transmission parts and it does a real nice job. Sells here for around $38 for 5 gallons.

My two cents on this idea of real chrome/nickel vs painted or powder coated chrome. My opinion if you going to restore a car at all, do it right as it came from the factory. If the cost of chroming or nickel is too much for you, and I understand that some people are restoring cars on fixed incomes or on shoe strings, then just save up for that piece you need. You don't have to have it all done at once and can save up to get that piece done right. I hate to look at an old car and then see modern wiring, disk brakes when there were none originally and changed electrical form 6 volt to 12. When I look at an antique car I want to see originality, as it was the way it left the factory, which the AACA judges look for. Chroming is expensive, due to the labor intensiveness and EPA regulations etc. But you can shop around and get estimates which vary greatly. Recently I sent detailed photographs out to get the radiator shell of my car re-nickled. These estimates varied by as much as $2,000 from the lowest to highest. There is a local company not to far from me and he was the highest, the lowest was a well known national company we all see advertised in the car magazines. Since we always say we are caretakers of these cars, passing them on to future generations, then we owe it to them to have it done the way it would have been back then. So people can see the difference in the techniques and material used then and now a piece of history.

One of long term members with great knowledge suggested "hydraulic hose or straight radiator hose (NAPA) don't use heater hose, it has no reinforcement. So you might see what NAPA has. It needs to be reinforced so it will not twist as it gets old.

Just Dave All the Durant/Devaux owners at the Durant club don't use regular radiator hose to drive this. You need a stiffer hydrolic hose that will not twist when spinning. I'll get in touch with one of my Devaux people and see what they use.

Ace Hardware is also carrying Craftsman tools. Glad to see the brand go on.

Aussie Cowboy; Jump over to the Durant Automobile Club web site at www.durantmotors.com and feel free to post there. You don't have to be a member to post and this club serves Durant, Flint, Devaux, Locomobile (1922-1929) Frontenac, Continental, Mason trucks all the vehicles associated with or made from Durant Motors cars or parts. Good group of people, very helpful.

Hey Dave, don't know if you are a member yet, but the Durant Motors Automobile Club (www.durantmotors.org) covers that marque and has members that own a number of Devaux's. Norman Devaux ran the GM facility in California under Billy Durant and later ran Durant's Oakland assembly plant. After the demise of Durant Motors he started his own car company with Colonel Hall. If you haven't already, jump over to the Durant club site and check it out. If you need any help or assistance with parts, feel free to post on that site and your likely to find them. The club puts out an excellent quarterly magazine and is truly a car club family.

Rusty & Nickel Roadster it's a long story but the painter has a restoration shop that does mostly muscle cars. He has a full blast service and he's done many of my parts for me. He had a guy that would take apart his differentials, corvettes, mustangs, etc and repair when needed and put them back together after blasting and painting. Unfortunetely this guy retired and moved out of the area leaving this job just not put back together. If you look at my listing, you will see I'm the President of the Durant Car Club and have posted on their forum also. I was trying to get some opinions on from others. I will try to find out what type of differential this is, and the only input I received from club members was that there was no gasket between the two halves of the differential, they were just bolted together tightly. Thanks for the input, I'll just figure it out.

Just watched the new YouTube Edd China's video. I like it and hope that some television company will pick it up soon. Velocity are you listening? We don't need anymore chopped and hot rod shows on TV.

Any pointers about putting back together my 1928 Durant differential. The guy that painted it took it all apart to paint the outside and gave it back to me in pieces. There is no manual on this thing? I know I have to put the front shims back as they came but I find no gasket between the two rear halves. I would think it would leak, but someone told me just put a thin layer of form a gasket and bolt it together. Any other things I should be careful about?

I saw the very same show and although I was happy they saved the house and a piece of history, I was not happy with them moving the house across the lake. Seems the family that owned it sold out to developers instead of keeping the historic house at it's original historic location. I guess money talks1

Matt I read your article and it really makes sense for our older cars to be seen. Great for the tail lights etc. For my TR6 I've just purchased all new LED's for the tail, turn and dash lights. I'll install a ballast resister for it so the turn signals flash. I ordered the tail and turn signals from superbright LED's and the dash lights from a British company. In today's traffic you need all the light you can get!

One of our club members in the Durant Motors Automobile Club had a distributor housing manufactured for our 1928/1929 cars done with the 3D process. Came out perfect and was an exact fit. Price was not that expensive and it was done by a company in Washington State that makes aeronautical and space parts to high specifications. Great for making parts you just can't seem to find anymore if you have the one prototype.

I say repaint it the original colors!

I need new brake springs for my 28 Durant bendix 3 shoe brakes. Any idea of a supplier? I haven't checked with the modern parts stores but I know what I'm going to get. "what year car is it"? " A what, that' s not in our computer". Oh for the days when the old parts store people knew their parts instead of having to go to a computer to look it up. I long for the day when you could hear 28 Durant, oh that's the same part as a 47 Chevy.

A Sell Make sure you tell the owner to jump over to the Durant Motors Automobile Club web site at www.durantmotors.com and check it out. If you need parts or advise on something this is the place to go. They can join up by clicking a button on the left of the site. Club is a great family club, friendly and the club magazine is worth the membership dues, published quarterly.