A. Ballard 35R

Gary, I imagine that you saw that Bob's Studebaker Indy car just hammered at $1,000,000 (before buyer's premium). No idea who the new owner is but interesting to think that you and I saw that car here in NH just two Sundays ago.

Your comment about getting a bonded title is excellent. You don't need additional costs and wasted time if you think you will have a problem with any family member. Flackmaster's suggestion about looking at comparable Packard convertibles makes a lot of sense, especially if other cars have clean titles.

Chuck, great to meet you yesterday and see your magnificent Pierce. Congratulations on the well deserved awards.

Do you have any Ford or Mopar enemies ??

Interesting car but not a Mercer.

Earl, hope that your surgery was successful and the your recovery is going well.

I never questioned his honesty, simply asked what his mileage claim was based on. For example, car originally purchased by relative who used it sparing and put it in storage and has extensive paperwork. Four pictures of a very rusted car is not a claim of original mileage, sorry. Perhaps the car was stored in an old animal barn where the ammonia fumes did a job on everything.

The 3B's came out in May of 1962 with final production in October 1962. Commission numbers with a TSF prefix were the TR3A engine (1991 cc) and the ones with a TCF prefix had the larger TR4 engine. Both had the TR4 all synchromesh transmission. This information is from a Moss catalog and I believe is correct.

Hardtop looks like the only salvageable part on the TR3A. An overdrive transmission would have some value and it could be determined by the commission number. The ''58 cars usually have a five digit number and would be TSxxxxxL, the L denoting left hand drive. If an overdrive was original equipment there would be an O after the L.

Sure looks like 28,000 hard driving miles or the storage conditions were less than ideal. What is the basis for your low mileage claim?

What's the asking price?

Don't forget in 1946 early AACA member George Green of Lambertville NJ drove his 1904 curved dash Oldsmobile to 30 states plus Canada and Mexico. Mr. "Curved Dash Olds" as he was known drove 269 miles in one day - not bad for a vehicle that at best could do 40 MPH.

The 1905 Packard that I used to drive 85 miles to Hershey has a distributor and dry cells. It was often possible to restart the car by pushing the contact and moving the spark controls rapidly from full retard to full advance. Once when this method didn't work I went to start by cranking but had not reset the spark - broken wrist number one. It was not possible on the cars I was around to start by cranking with the spark fully retarded since some decent spark was necessary. The trick was finding the sweet spot so that there would be enough spark to start but not enough to kick back. Got it too advanced once and voila - broken wrist number two. This happened with the Bosch DU4 without an impulse coupling. These wonderful devices have a spring which releases and spins the mag armature at a fast speed before the piston reaches TDC. Result is strong spark without spinning engine. Also, compression releases were quite common on larger engine cars and even on an early two cylinder Knox. The purpose was strictly for easier starting and the the release handles were usually right under the radiator where they could be reached by the person cranking the car.

What do you mean by RIGHT electrical components? A car without an impulse mag MUST be spun in order to generate a strong enough spark. I owned such a car foe over 40 years and the original mag was not impulse. The following years had impulse mags. Forgot to mention in my earlier post that some large engine brass cars had compression releases which obviously made cranking much easier.

Quarter of a turn with an impulse mag or distributor, others might require spinning. Proper spark position very important - too much advance and it will kick back. This advice comes from someone who has broken his wrist twice.