oldcarfudd

If you decide that repainting it to a color you like is inappropriate for this car, don't buy the car. If you don't like the color now, you'll come to positively loathe it the longer you own it.

That guy's legs would go so far forward, there'd be room for only a single-cylinder engine!

1953. I had just turned 17 and had a brand new driver's license. My folks had rented a cottage at Candlewood Lake in CT for the summer. One of the summer residents was a Dr. O'Brien, who had just bought a new Jaguar XK120M. He let me drive it. He also had a K Lincoln convertible sedan, and he let me drive that, too. The hook was set. Thank you, Dr. O'Brien!

Do you want it with or without its other problems?

Alsancle - While Dave has had (I believe) good service from his piston valves, I don't know of anyone else who has attempted the conversion. That said, most of us like to drive steam (and gasoline) cars mostly as they were. Dave is more like an old-time speedster or hotrod builder who uses a steam car as his platform rather than, for instance, a '32 Ford. He has the skill to do it. But he pays homage to the source of his inspiration; his MA license plate is FE FO. Dave - I also have wondered why diesel isn't used more. It would certainly be easier to find than good kerosene (at least in northern NJ), and more convenient than trekking 5-gallon jugs to a friendly airport for Jet A (as I do), or mixing gas and diesel (as many do). One of my neighbors is a home heating oil distributor; I asked him about it, and he very emphatically said not to use diesel. Again, Dave Nergaard is the consummate tinkerer; most of us want something that works without having to reinvent the wheel.

Alsancle - Dave Nergaard is sort of a mad scientist, and his car is atypical in every way. He has spent years inventing gadgetry for it. He drives it everywhere, but not necessarily dependably. I believe his trouble on this trip was diesel fuel in his water, or the other way 'round. He also runs straight diesel fuel, which most of us wouldn't think to try because the stuff is so hard to vaporize. Several years ago I rode with him on one day of a steam tour, and it was a fun and interesting day, but it wasn't like any other day with a steam car. Someone recently described a steam tour like this: "25 functioning steam cars and their owners get together for a week. At the end of the week, 5 of the cars still work. All the cars get taken home and worked on. A year later it happens again."

Dave - The water isn't the fuel; it's just a transfer mechanism to get the energy from the fuel (gasoline, kerosene, various mixtures of gasoline and diesel, depending on how your car is set up), via steam, to the engine where the energy is put to use. It's a very inefficient use of fuel, even by the standards of the day. My 1911 Stanley gets about 9 miles to a gallon of kerosene; my comparably-sized 1912 Buick gets about 15 miles to a gallon of gasoline. Alsancle - Water tanks vary all over the place. My 10-horse Stanley has a 28-gallon water tank; if I fill it to the brim, it'll be bone dry in 35 miles. Most of the bigger 20-horse cars carried about 45 gallons, which gave them about 45 miles; the heavier cars used the water faster. Most of the condensing cars carried 24 gallons. The condensers really can't keep up with the amount of steam being used, especially in the 90+ degree weather we had early in the week. Those cars used the water stops, too! Glenn - Minerals and mosquito eggs in the water aren't a problem. At the end of any but the shortest days of running, we blow down the boilers. That is,we use the steam in the top of the boiler to blow the water in the bottom of the boiler, together with its accumulated crud that doesn't turn to steam and boil away, out into the open air. We start the next day's run with a fresh supply of water. If you steam-siphon water out of a river or lake, you must be careful not to suck up mud or sand into your water tank; if that stuff gets into your pumps and check valves, you're in for no end of grief. I'm told that a bigger problem for condensing cars is oil. The pistons and valves on a Stanley are lubricated by injecting steam-cylinder oil into the high pressure steam as it leaves the boiler on its way to the engine. On a non-condensing car, the spent oil exhausts onto the road; back in the day, it helped to keep the dust down. On a condensing car, it exhausts into the condenser, to no one's pleasure (or so I'm told).

Waiting in line to add a few miles of range! Joan and I just had our 1911 Stanley at a steam car tour in Massachusetts. Great people, fun roads. We even got to drive a few laps on a road race course, and climbed Dead Horse Hill in Worcester. Daily runs were on the order of 45 to 80 miles. Steam tours have designated water stops, where there's a hose available. Most hoses don't put out huge flows of water, and most Stanleys' water consumption is about a mile a gallon. So the waits started to look like those at electric car charging stations on a holiday weekend! Fortunately, no one on the tour was in anything resembling a hurry.

Not the same plane. The one in the first picture had a prop spinner. The latest post is a Ford Tri-Motor, but which of two versions, I don't know.

I think Mel Draper in Ohio (see gossips post above) is associated with Noah Stutzman. I sent Stanley wheels to Mel, but Stutzman did the work. And what beautiful work it was!

Hardship scars people for life. There was a woman in our ski club, born in Germany in the Nazi years, who wound up in East Germany when the war ended. She escaped to the west, but spent days in hiding with no food. To this day, she never goes ANYWHERE without some food in her handbag - just in case.

It's interesting how the catalog illustrators drew the cars with tiny people. The Flanders was a Model T-size car, but the people are so small that they're looking through the lower half of the windshield. Baloney!

The rear spokes seem designed for brake drums and/or chain drive sprockets, though the vehicle has neither.

There's a '37 Cadillac convertible for sale in NJ on the HCCA website. I know the seller, but I'm not familiar with this car. 1937 Cadillac Convertible Coupe Click photo to enlarge 1937 Cadillac Convertible Coupe Model 60, V8. Sidemounts rumble seat and because of the sidemounts it has a trunk First year for the 346 cu in final flat head. Last year for the floorshift I have owned it for 49 years. Redone in the 60's from a rust free original car, no rust ever! Still presentable Powerful driver, runs great. $37,000 OBO. Contact me for more pictures, information or to come and drive the car. Located in northern NJ Contact: Click to email Manfred Rein Mahwah, NJ (201) 327-7621 Ad posted: 06-13-2021

Check out the N Y Times website, nytimes.com. There's a long, and sad, and funny, article about Yugo. Steve is prominently quoted, and was the paper's Quotation of the Day in the pint edition.