Rusty_OToole

Short answer: neither of them. You do not give us much to go on but from the question I deduce that you are new to old cars and do not have a lot of mechanical savvy. Therefore I suggest you buy a Chevrolet, preferably a 1955 56 or 57 model or newer. Chevrolet has far and away the best and cheapest parts availability and there are mechanics from coast to coast who can fix them in their sleep.

Electrical supply stores have it. Electricians still use it in some applications.

He was on his way home from his girlfriend's.

Have you thought of an anti stall dashpot as used on many GM cars with 4 barrel carbs from the fifties thru the seventies?

Years ago I read a book from 1903 that was all about the latest inventions - the Morgenthaler linotype machine, a solar powered steam engine on an ostrich farm in California, and a car that ran on liquid air. Ordinary air will turn to a liquid if compressed to a high enough pressure, around 600PSI and will stay in a liquid state if kept cold. The liquid air car was "fueled" from a compressor station and kept its fuel in a Dewar flask or Thermos. The air was released through a steam engine. The car seems to have run successfully but did not put the gas, electric and steam car out of business. Liquid Air - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia There is still a Liquid Air company in the welding gas business. Wonder if this is how they got their start.

Lucas P100 headlamps, optional extras on prewar Rolls Royce, Bentley and other luxury cars. Standard equipment on postwar Austin Sheerline. Austin specified these very expensive headlights in an attempt to put their flagship car in a class with Rolls, Bentley and Daimler. http://www.classiccar.co.nz/articles/austin-and-the-razors-edge-austine-sheerline-187

In one 1948 movie a brand new Lincoln Continental convertible goes over a cliff and magically turns into a 1942 Ford with a continental kit and the roof sawed off.

In the old days it was common to remove shims and scrape bearings as part of an overhaul. You could return a worn bearing to factory clearance this way without the trouble and expense of rebabbiting the bearings. Maybe you don't have to do this today because of better oils, filters, less dusty roads, and lower annual mileages. But if the bearing does wear what will you do?

Engine appears to be the Beverley 22/90HP straight eight OHC model. A web search didn't turn up much information, this is the best I found, a report on the sale of a Beverley Barnes chassis with the same engine. Note the connection to the airship company. Lot Details

It is nothing new. In a 1947 Thin Man movie I notice Nick and Nora leave the house in a 1947 DeSoto taxicab, followed by stock shots of a 1936 DeSoto taxi going up the street, then they arrive at their destination in the 47 taxi.

I was impressed by the movie and especially by the choice of cars. A Chrysler would have been the kind of car Miss Daisy would drive. When it was wrecked and needed to be replaced on short notice a Hudson would be a natural choice for a long forgotten reason. From 1945 to 1949 new cars were in short supply and to get one, required a long wait on the dealer's list or a payoff of some kind. But Hudson had plenty of cars for immediate delivery by 1948. So it would be the one make of car you could buy off the lot in 1948. Cadillac of course was the leading make of luxury car in the fifties and sixties. It is quite correct that Miss Daisy never owned a Ford, Mercury or Lincoln, in those days many Jews held a grudge against Henry Ford for his anti Semitic opinions. Rather unfairly as he repudiated those views in 1927, issued a public apology, shut down the Dearborn Independent and burned a large and costly library of anti Semitic books.

The Burney was a fantastically advanced design for the late twenties. But proved to be somewhat impractical. The long straight eight or straight six hanging out the back made it somewhat tail happy in high speed corners and the suspension design did not help. Later rear engine cars were more refined and tamed the eccentric handling to some degree but could not eliminate oversteer entirely.

I am not joking or jesting. For years I have been listening to unthinking people repeating the old GM propaganda lies about the "Airflop" . The idea that the Airflow was a failure is a flat out lie. This is what got me thinking about the Cadillac V16, among other classics. Much as it pains me to say, the ultra luxury V16 and V12 and OHC straight eights like Duesenberg and Stutz, were put out of business by such prosaic mass produced cars as the Buick 90, Chrysler Imperial, Cadillac V8 and Lincoln Zephyr. The ultra luxury jobs cost a lot more in first cost, gas mileage, tires, and general upkeep. But did not offer very much more in the way of performance, comfort or interior room. At least not enough to tempt very many people. The luxury car of the forties, fifties and sixties turned out to be a more or less conventional mass produced eight cylinder car with automatic trans, air conditioning and power accessories. Not a 12 or 16 cylinder monster the size of a fire engine. The Airflow was actually the first of the breed and set the trend all the others followed. There was a lot more to the Airflow design than the streamlined body.

Appears to be a DeDion style tricycle converted to 4 wheels by the addition of dual front wheels, with machine gun and armor. Probably the most popular motor vehicle of the late 19th century was the French DeDion Bouton tricycle. It was widely copied and the DeDion motor was used in many other makes of motorcycle and light car.

If you have the old seats the horse hair stuffing can be reused. Old upholstery shops used to have a machine to comb it out and fluff it up.

That is a Burney Streamline. It was designed by Sir Dennistoun Burney after he completed work on the R100 airship for Vickers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streamline_Cars The complete story of the R100 and R101 airship were given in a book called R100, also sold under the title Slide Rule. The book was written by Nevil Shute whose day job was engineer on the R100.

The V16 is a valuable collector's item and so is a stuffed Dodo bird. Neither survives today. The Chrysler Airflow is a completely different story. It was both a commercial success and a technical success. Walter Chrysler wanted to bring out something sensational to celebrate the 10 anniversary of the Chrysler car. His engineering team came up with the Airflow. It was brought out as a premium model at a premium price, alongside the more conventional Airstream. The Airflow sold well given its high price and avante garde design. It sold a far higher percentage of Chrysler sales than the V12 and V16 combined did of Cadillac sales. It was also a technical success in that it was copied by practically every car manufacturer in the world. The Airflow was in production from 1934 to 1937. Look at the typical 1933 and 1934 (pre Airflow) car. Then look at the typical 1938 (after the Airflow). Every car in America by that time followed the Airflow silhouette with bulkier fenders. There were also direct copies made in England, France, Sweden and Japan and possibly other places as well. It was luxury cars like the Airflow that made the V16 Cadillac obsolete. They offered nearly the same room, quiet, comfortable ride, and performance in a smaller cheaper mass produced package.

What is the compression? What is the oil pressure? If your motor has 100,000 miles on it and has never been rebuilt it is overdue for a rebuild. It is very unlikely to be a timing chain. Before you have a heart attack all the parts are available and the motor is one of the easiest to rebuild for someone who knows how. Here is a good source of motor parts. The Power Wagon uses the same motor as your car. Vintage Power Wagons-- Your Source for Dodge Power Wagon Parts and Trucks! -- civilian military m 37, m-37 wc Dodge Power Wagon

Another good place is Vintage Power Wagons. They cater to Dodge Power Wagons which use the same motor as your DeSoto. Vintage Power Wagons-- Your Source for Dodge Power Wagon Parts and Trucks! -- civilian military m 37, m-37 wc Dodge Power Wagon Last time I looked they had stock size pistons for your motor for $65 a set (cheap). They have all the parts you need.

It was a sales failure because it sold less than 1/10th as many as they intended to sell. It was a dead end in the sense that it was not widely copied and started no trends. Within a few years such huge hand made luxury cars were made obsolete by much smaller, but still large 8 cylinder mass produced cars that offered practically as much room, comfort and performance in a smaller package. In other words luxury car design developed along completely different lines, leaving the V16 Cadillac to die out like the Dodo birds. The car itself was magnificent.

Not hedging their bets at all. Walter Chrysler wanted something sensational to celebrate Chrysler's 10th anniversary. His designers came up with the Airflow, the most modern car in the world and one that sold for a premium over the conventional models. It was too avante garde and too expensive to appeal to a broad market but it did make a statement. It was not meant to replace the conventional car in 1934 although it did eventually. By the time Airflow production ended 4 years later every car on the market was more or less a copy of the Airflow, with bulkier fenders. Compare the silhouette of any 1933 car (pre Airflow) and its 1938 (post Airflow) counterpart to the Airflow and you will see what I mean. The unconventional had become conventional as the public grew to prefer the Airflow look. DeSoto was Chrysler's experimental make. Look at the barrel nosed 1932 or the Spanish influenced late 20s models or even the 1942 with disappearing headlights. DeSoto was meant to appeal to those who wanted something different and a little daring in style. The Airflow filled the bill. It was not meant to be a high volume bread and butter car, they had Plymouth and Dodge for that.

The Cadillac V16, one of the great flopperoos of all time. When they announced it they said production would be limited to 5000 units the first year. What a laugh. They produced that pig for 10 years and never sold 5000 units the whole time. A magnificent looking car but it was a technical dead end as well as a sales disaster.

Ha ha ha the last time this subject came up I called Stoddard Solvent "deodorized kerosene" and caught h*ll for it.

It's about 99% Stoddard solvent which is next thing to Varsol. To me it is the most useless overhyped product on the market. I keep a can around for when I want to spray something with Varsol but don't expect it to do very much good or stay on more than a day.

The forties Chryslers had the high mounted brake lights, they didn't have the low ones. So they win the prize.