Rusty_OToole

If you mean what I think you mean, forget the Caddy and buy the Chev.

Any auto paint dealer should be able to mix the original color if you give them the name and number. The local dealer will not have the formula but can get it from their paint supplier.

I think some of the Maritime provinces drove on the right until the Dominion standardized on the left, some time in the teens. Could do a web search but frankly I don't care that much.

Indeed, your car was designed for unleaded heavy fuel. This is one of those sidelights of history that intrigue me but I suspect, bore everyone else. Nevertheless here goes. When the first gas engines were designed one of the advantages was to use a cheap fuel that was otherwise being thrown away. In the late 19th century the oil companies sold mainly coal oil or kerosene. There was no market for gasoline except as a cleaning fluid or for a small number of gas stoves and gas lanterns. There was so much surplus gasoline the refiners often were forced to throw it away. They put as much of the low grade gas into the kerosene. Accounts from the late 19th century describe kerosene as having a piercing odor, and kerosene lamps being prone to explode especially if not kept filled up. Gas in those days was a light, high octane, unleaded. I saw one account of an early motorist in 1899 or 1900 who filled the tank on his car which only held about a gallon, but he forgot to put the cap on and when he came back a few days later, the tank was empty. All the fuel had evaporated. This sounds like what we call naptha gas or Coleman fuel today. By the time your 1910 car was built the tables were turned. Gasoline was selling, kerosene was going out of fashion due to electric lights and gas lights. So the refiners made purer kerosene and put the light ends into the gas. By 1908 the gas was getting heavier and oilier, some makers were forced to lower the compression of their engines. After 1913 it was a real problem, this is when the long stroke motor became popular and you saw more and more gadgets for vaporizing fuel such as hot spots in the intake manifold. All to try and make the engines run on the new heavy oily fuel. This kept on until the cracking process was invented to allow making gasoline out of heavier oilier fuels. Also the introduction of leaded gas in the late twenties permitted compression ratios to slowly rise year by year. Your car was built when gas quality was at an all time low. It contained no lead but it did contain a lot of kerosene and heavy or oily material. It just occurred to me, the diesel engine did not become popular until the thirties at the earliest and did not take over in trucks until the sixties. So I bet a lot of what we would now call diesel or heavy fuel, ended up in the lower grades of gas.

It was explained to me that a low compression,long stroke, slow turning engine needs heavy fuel, like kerosene or diesel fuel, to develop full power. High octane gas burns too fast and too hot. The heavier ends burn slower and give more oomph. You need a combination of light and heavy fuel to burn properly. The only function of high octane gas, is to suppress knocking or pinging due to preignition. If the fuel does not knock or preignite, the heavier lower octane will produce more power.

Modern fuel is made for high compression engines and is too high octane for old, low compression engines. It may seem strange to talk about octane being too high. But if you have a low compression engine built to run on low octane fuel, it will run better, cooler, smoother and produce more power. The general rule is the octane should look like the compression ratio. So if you have a new car with 9.2:1 compression you need 92 octane hi test. If you have a minivan with 8.7:1 you need 87 octane regular. Your car probably has about 4 or 4.5:1 compression and needs octane of 45 or 50. Naturally this is not an exact ratio, just a general guide. But if you look up the fuel available in the past, and the compression ratio of the cars of the day, you will find it is pretty close. By the way if it was my car I would not think of trying to improve it. I would put it together as the factory intended. I know you have good intentions but chances are the factory got it right in the first place and your efforts will do more harm than good.

I know a guy who is quite expert, he has been polishing his cars with a power buffer for years. The first thing he always does, is tape off the edges of all panels, seams, and fender edges with masking tape to prevent burning through. If compound is flying around I suggest you use less of it and slow down the buffer. There is no hard and fast rule. I like to squirt the polish on the car and rub the buffer around in it. Others put the polish on the buffing pad.

There is a certain technique required to drive a Fluid Drive correctly. If you try to drive it like a standard it won't work. Then again, it doesn't drive like an automatic either. It is a unique transmission all its own. I have a technique for driving a fluid drive that works very well and makes it practically the same as driving a modern automatic. Right off the bat you need to know that the gearshift is not like a standard. It only has 3 positions. Reverse is toward you and up, low range is straight up, high range is straight down. You should do most of your driving in high range. Low range is for starting on steep hills, pulling thru deep snow, sand or mud or for starting off towing a trailer, etc. Start the engine with the transmission in neutral, the hand brake applied and your foot off the clutch pedal. Let the engine warm up until it will idle at its slowest speed. Depress the clutch pedal shift into gear and release the clutch, all with the handbrake still on. Release the handbrake and drive away like any automatic. When you get up to 15 MPH lift off the gas and wait for the "click-clunk" and step on it again. If you elect to use low range it is the same except you can shift into hi gear (of low range) at 6 MPH. If you then wish to go from low range to high range step on the clutch pedal and move the shift lever down into high range. This is very easy, it is based on the owner's manual recommended technique. You have to drive it more like an automatic, if you drive it like a standard you will hate it. It is not a standard, it is a primitive automatic with a few quirks of its own but with a little understanding your fluid drive or fluid torque drive will work great for you. Give this a try, if it doesn't work come back and ask again. Chances are there is nothing wrong with your transmission but if there is, it is usually easy to fix. The transmission itself is very rugged and trouble free. Most problems are to do with the wiring and controls, which are external, easy to get at and easy to fix.

About the time your car was produced, the oil companies came out with 10W30 detergent oil. Chances are it has never used anything else. Do not use good ol' straight 30 oil. That is bullshit from guys who do not know what they were talking about. The factory did not recommend it and you should not use it. Today's oil is lacking certain high pressure additives necessary for high performance OHV pushrod engines. This does not confront your car, as it has a low performance flathead engine. If the oil pressure is on the low side or if you want to be extra safe Rotella 15W40 is a good choice. For the Fluid Drive unit and the semi auto transmission, you need TDH Tractor fluid, ISO32 grade. You can pick it up at Walmart, farm supply stores or auto parts stores. A gallon for $10 bucks a lifetime supply. TDH stands for transmission, differential and hydraulic. It is good for both transmission and fluid drive unit. There are some long threads from around 2008 laying out the correct operating and maintainance for your transmission and Fluid Drive unit. It is a very rugged and reliable transmission and not hard to drive, however it has some unusual characteristics. Do a search on the Chrysler and Dodge boards for Fluid Drive. Repair manuals, an excellent investment. They turn up on Ebay and at automotive flea markets. The best are the factory manuals used by dealers back in the day. Every dealer had one and there are still quite a few around. Usual price, $35 to $50. There are also smaller reproduction manuals around $20 that are not as complete. Other things to be aware of, your car has wheel bolts instead of nuts and LEFT HAND THREADS on the left side, in other words the nuts turn in the "wrong" direction. This has caused a lot of headaches for those not in the know. The electrical system is 6 volt POSITIVE ground, the battery goes in "backwards". Generally they are a well made, reliable car built for years of hard wear. But they do require more frequent maintenance than new cars, as oil changes, grease jobs, and tuneups. Fortunately they are very simple and the upkeep is not very difficult or expensive. You are very smart to get a manual and learn to work on the car yourself. Would suggest you start by going thru the car and doing a thorough cleaning inside and out. Do not throw away any funny looking bits of metal or rubber, they will turn out to be important parts that it will take you 2 years to replace if you throw them out. You can throw away the dried out ballpoint pens and old cigarette packs lol. Sometimes you find new parts in the trunk, an important clue to what may be wrong with the car.

Well he looks hard boiled.

No doubt you have to use your common sense. I was not suggesting a Harley Davidson and a Mitchel car are the same. But if the oiling system works on the same principal then experience of one may throw some light on the other. If the car owner has no experience of total loss oiling he may need some reassurance that the system works well if you operate it correctly. Would also suggest that in 1910 cars were something new and not many people knew how to operate them. Therefore, the manufacturer was obliged to make the operation as simple as possible. The oiling is probably simple to manage once you know how it is done.

It may take several days hand work to bring back the finish but once it is done it is easy to keep it nice. On my motorcycles I used to use Pledge and a soft cloth once a week, it kept the finish in perfect condition and took only a few minutes once it was polished and waxed to perfection. That was in the seventies, since then Honda came out with their own spray polish that does the same thing.

The corn starch will remove wax residue and eliminate swirls in the final wax finish especially noticeable on black cars. Another way to do it is fill a cotton sock with corn starch and rub the car.

It should be easy to tell how many miles it has. If it is over 100,000 the drivers seat will be worn, pedal pads worn out, steering feel loose, drivers door hinges loose etc. Also under the hood you will see many OEM parts have been replaced. If it is under 30,000 miles it will be almost like a new car. It is possible but not likely, I recently bought a 1966 Dodge Coronet sedan at an auction for $400, it only has 34,000 miles as attested by its condition and the way it runs, also by papers found with the car (old repair bills etc) and confirmed by the original owner's grandson. O ya look in the trunk, if it is really low miles the trunk mat should be intact and the original spare tire in place. Value $2000 to $3500 depending on condition and mileage.

Are you sure it is an original Chrysler tube? If someone installed the wrong tube at some time there could be your problem. The hole size and position were carefully worked out by the engineers after extensive tests.

First born, if your car is set up properly you will not miss power steering. First you have to have the front end checked out and worn parts replaced as necessary. Then, get a good alignment job. You will find the car transformed. If it is still too hard to steer, pump up the tires to 32 pounds. If it is still too hard to steer, add a steering damper and have the alignment redone to give the minimum possible caster. You will be amazed how nice your car drives if everything is to factory new spec. O and don't forget the shock absorbers, on your Buick they are a lever action type that needs to be filled with oil but should not need to be replaced. When your car was new old men and ladies drove them, the steering was easy unless the car was at a dead stop.

There should be a hand pump somewhere in the system, there usually is. Starting with the oil tank or reservoir full, and the crankcase empty give it a pump to fill the crankcase. You can check the standpipes as above to see how much oil it takes to replenish the crankcase. Regulate the drip feed as necessary. I was told that there should be little or no smoke under normal driving but if you open the throttle suddenly there should be a puff of smoke as you take off. Under hard driving, such as climbing a long hill or high speed you can give the motor an extra half pump every 10 miles. Every thousand miles drain the crankcase and replenish with the hand pump. This was what I was told to do on a Harley Davidson motorcycle with a similar system. It had an oil feed pump which had to be adjusted to feed the right amount of oil, but no return pump. Excess oil burned off past the rings or dripped out a hole to lube the drive chain.

I recommend you DO NOT use any kind of power buffer. Even in the hands of an expert they can burn through a paint job in seconds. If your car has the original paint it is thin enough to begin with. The gentlest thing to use would be your favorite brand of car wax and a soft rag Wash the car by hand using warm water and car wash soap. Polish the paint by hand. When you have done the whole car, go over it again. Keep doing this as long as the finish keeps coming up. I once did this on an old Renault with red paint so badly oxidised it looked like primer. Every time I went over it, the finish came up more. In the end I polished it 9 times. That old dull paint looked like brand new. It was so slick I could toss a clean rag on the roof and it would slide the length of the roof, down the windshield across the hood and onto the ground. All I used was some leftover Turtle Wax and Rain Dance I had lying around. If you want to be a little more aggressive go to an auto supply store that sells bodywork supplies and buy a bottle of fine rubbing compound, the finest they sell. Use it to GENTLY remove the dead paint before you start polishing. Give the car 4 coats of wax and it will look great.

The power characteristics of any engine can be altered by retiming the camshaft. Advancing the cam improves low speed cylinder filling and therefore low speed power, retarding the cam does the opposite. By retiming the cam it is possible to "rock" the torque curve about its midpoint. Here is one method that requires only a compression gauge and a means of adjusting the timing. For modern engines there are offset keys available for those that use a key, and offset bushings for those that use a pin to locate the cam. You will need to find a method to advance and retard your cam a degree or 2 at a time. Then, do a compression test. The adjustment that gives the highest compression reading will give the best low speed torque. Incidentally this is the first time I heard of a brass era car lacking in low speed torque. Most of them will idle down in high gear to a walking pace or slower, and pick up speed without complaint. You might try adding 25% kerosene to the gas for more oomph.

Who's the 20 minute egg behind the wheel?

If the oddo works the cable must be working. That means something is wrong with the speedo mechanism. It will probably have to come out and go to a specialist for repair.

There are radiator flushing compounds made for this. A little lye in water will cut grease if you can't find anything better.

Chrysler was one of the best speed cars of its time. They had considerable vogue in Europe. A Chrysler won a Grand Prix race at Spa I believe, and placed in the money at Le Mans in 1928 or 29. A Rothschild in his autobiography, remembers a khaki colored Chrysler roadster he had in the twenties, he remembered it as being a fast reliable car and a lot of fun. He drove it from Paris to the Riviera among other places.

Chrysler in those days named their cars by the top speed. So the 75 model had a top speed of 75 MPH or 120 KMHr. This was very fast for a 1920s passenger car. When new your car would have been capable of fast travel, sustained speeds of 100 KMHr or more as long as you like. As for today, who knows? You would not expect an athlete or dancer of 1929 to be capable of the same feats as when they were young. What I am trying to say is driving on the Autobahn at 65 MPH for hours at a time is out of the question. It might be technically possible, if you took the car completely to pieces and made sure every part was in perfect condition. But you would not be happy driving an open car of that age, at that speed for very long. Although I am sure some young bloods of the roaring twenties tried it. You will be much happier on normal roads, at speeds of 50 MPH or less.

Will not affect the clutch but may prevent the transmission from shifting automatically. The shift is done by a hydraulic mechanism, if there is not enough oil to fill the pump, the mechanism will not work. I hate to say this but if the adjustment did not help, and if it still does not work correctly after driving for a short time, it may be necessary to renew the clutch.