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John Bloom

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Everything posted by John Bloom

  1. First nice day that I had off in a while. 50 and sunny in Northern Illinois.
  2. They’re everywhere. in the mid teens, it would look cool in someone else’s garage.
  3. I’m not sure either. The write up isn’t helpful, and the database I always use shows both a five passenger and seven passenger Phaeton. In most prewar cars It seems like the seven passenger models with jump seats cause the body to extend further back, and the descending portion of the body is further down the rear wheel arch. That can sometimes give you a clue. There were no side photos provided. I was just kind of in shock that in a Facebook search two of these are for sale the same time, that seems like a statistical anomaly. Price........I have no idea, Anymore, I just ignore asking price. If there’s something you’re interested in, it’s always good to make contact and establish a friendship. I don’t know where these two examples should be priced, but if you want one and they’ve got to sell it, you can probably find a number that works for both parties. AJ, i’m always on the hunt for a steam car for you. I sense your life is too tidy and organized and a steam car project is just the ticket to bring joyful chaos to your sedate, carefully organized days.
  4. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/229733093515619/ Not mine, no write up to speak of...
  5. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/405446415505448/ Not mine, more pics at the link. FB doesn't have a listing for a Stanley Steamer so here it is. Has a replacement boiler from Bourdon Boiler works who also rebuilt the burner. Car has not been driven in many years and is a true barn find. Original interior and exterior. Tires have been replaced. 98% original missing only the clock in the dash and taillite which was broken. I have had this running but not at full pressure. There is a problem getting the main fuel to vaporize. No trades and I have owned this for 25 years. Clear title in Michigan.
  6. This thread leans heavily to our dad's and our old car experience, but the original topic is "what kind of a guy was your dad". My dad was without question my hero. I am a little hesitant to talk about this on a public forum because lots of people didn't have a great father in their life. Those bad memories and scars can run deep. In some way, maybe I feel guilty for how lucky I was. And I was lucky. My dad was one of 8 kids, his dad worked on the assembly line making tires in Akron ohio. They had a two bedroom house. Grandma and Grandpa in one room, six girls in another, and my dad and his brother slept on the enclosed porch. He was a phenomenal athlete and it was that competitiveness and sports that provided a ticket out of some pretty dire stuff. His success with sports in college allowed him to get a degree and become a teacher and coach. After that he began working on his masters degree and PHD at night and became a principal. One year later when a scandal hit the school system, The Board fired the Superintendent and named my dad the "interim Superintendent". He was 29 years old. The youngest Superintendent in the state of Indiana. He was 12 months removed from being a History teacher and coach. He had the good sense when taking over to rely on the Superintendent's office's long time secretary. She was old enough to be his mother and had been in her role for 30 years. She loved my dad and made sure to keep everything going well while he figured out what he'd gotten himself into. Dad gave her praise till the day he died. He told us that the first day he took over she told him "everything will be fine, she would make sure of it". From my dad's stories, she was really running the school system for a couple of years while he learned his role on the fly. He was the hardest worker I ever met. He had memories of poverty so he always kept safety margins in his life financially. He was determined to make sure he took care of his family and he did it very well. We weren't wealthy but had everything we needed. Once that "saver" DNA is in you, it doesn't change. Later in life when he had the means to do whatever he wanted, but he was still frugal and saving.....The only cracks in his financial world view were when grandchildren entered his life.....suddenly he was free flowing with cash like my sister and I had never witnessed before in our lives. We teased him about that relentlessly and he just smiled. Cars....... My dad's frugal nature was well represented when it came to cars. They were a tool. The best, cheapest deal he could find. As a 50 year old Superintendent....first year teachers had cooler cars than him. And I let him know it. At one stretch his car was a Chevy Chevette. He drove that for 6 years.......Impressive to me now because they were terrible cars that often looked clapped out after 2-3 years. My dad passed away two years ago. My appreciation for him grows as I get older. in my younger years when I was car crazy, he laughed about it, but never criticized how I spent my money. As he got older, he became more interested in what I was doing on the car front....... His influence on me was profound. I will spend my lifetime trying to be half the man he was.
  7. Share updates and photos if you can. I remember seeing this listed in various ways and through different venues......In my mind some Alfa guy had it listed about a year ago. I wondered where it went. Great Car.
  8. Hmmmm, something doesn’t seem right here. I don’t claim to be the corvette guru on here but I’ve had (have) a few and follow them, and a numbers matching 62 with presentable paint, bright work and interior would start out at close to double this..... Be diligent if you engage on this......
  9. At our age, I am very sensitive to the fact that some had a difficult childhood. I'm sure everything wasn't rosy for mine, but I have selective memory after all those years. I remember it all being good. Luckily we didn't kill anyone playing with fire and trying things that wouldn't have happened with more adult supervision. Sorry for the hijack AJ......back to Soap Box Derby cars. Kudos to the people who brought that whole concept to the public circa 1934?
  10. AJ, thanks for starting this thread a few years ago. A good read this morning with my first cup of coffee. It is Nostalgic for me and in keeping with a conversation we had last night with some close friends who came over for dinner. After food and a couple bottles of wine, we spent 30 minutes talking about how lucky we were growing up in a middle class neighborhood with parents who loved us and were responsible. I am so thankful for that and don't want to take it for granted. This thread on Soap Box Derby has me wanting to do it today......and I'm 59. We never did anything this organized or official, but prior to discovering girls and getting our license, we were "builders". It was always something........Cars made from wood with no engine, an assortment of Minibikes and gocarts (store bought and home made), Dams of creeks to build a pond with dreams to have the "best fishing spot in town", Treehouses, so many of them, in our yards (or the neighboring 50acre woods)...no parental help, no one to explain the limits of a Cantilever design (leading to a collapse from 15 feet up and a broken arm for my buddy), Ramps at the edge of the Lake so you could ride your bike as fast as you could down the driveway, keep going down the hill to the lake, hit the ramp and get 10-12 feet of vertical air and maybe 25 feet out into the water when you and bike splashed down in water over your head...... Before girls and cars, we woke up everyday when there wasn't school and started on the next hairbrained scheme we had cooked up the night before. We did all this crazy stuff because no one stopped us or told us not to. Fishing, football/basketball/baseball in the neighborhood, and Building crazy stuff. That was our youth. It was the best. I still remember the first buddy in our group telling us that he liked a girl in our class and started doing stuff with her instead of hanging with us. We thought he was crazy.........until one by one, we followed his lead and that magic season came to and end. I see periodically a Soap Box Derby car for sale, I've thought about picking one up with good aesthetics for garage art, but kind of feel bad doing that since I didn't ever build or race one. This thread is a great read for the kid in me....in all of us.
  11. I did post this in the Graham/Paige section about a week ago when I saw the price cut in half. If anyone is interested there are some comments over in that thread that may be helpful. I like the lines of the car. It would look great at a “friends” garage.
  12. I bought a rebuild kit from Dennis @dl456on this forum, check with him, friendly and helpful.
  13. Love it, I used to see those Truly Nolen cars scattered all around Tucson.
  14. A handsome looking car, share more pics if you get it. I like all true coupes of the prewar era, and Buicks seem to give a great value in style and engineering up and down their line.
  15. Dentists...........we are curious tinkerers who are foolish enough to take on projects that more stable/sane people know to stay away from. When you're trying to unload a problem item that you think might be difficult to get rid of, mention it in passing at your dental apt.......you never know......
  16. Now we're talking, this interesting car has had its price reduced from 50K to 25K. Body by Griswold? Once on the Harrah collection. I don't know about 25K, but at that price it might stir some interest and contact could be made with the seller. The more I look at it, the more I like the lines of this sedan. @Grimy and others.... Anyone have room for this? https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/336447039004470/
  17. They have a "quirkey look", kind of like a few others where the designer didn't feel any need to be constrained to what is normal (think Triumph Stag, Jensen Healey, Citroen, Avanti, ......)
  18. These things are super cool! I’ve seen a couple of them that were high-quality restorations and they would be a blast to own. Not sure about this project but they don’t come around often so if you want one, this is probably worth checking out.
  19. That’s a cool car, I like it. I don’t know anybody that loves the classic era that wouldn’t enjoy having this car in the garage. Standard bodies of closed cars from this era, even on great platforms, seem to struggle to achieve a price like this, but what do I know, they only need one person to be the buyer.
  20. I seem to have had a lot of these type cars. It is a wonderful things that people have different preferences, styling, performance, brand loyalty, this is why we have so many choices, people are different. I really like series 1 MGB’s (loved mine)..... more than a TR4???..... maybe not. More than a TR6?.....I think so. More than a 914....not sure. ( I had one of those and love them but that is apples to oranges, they are a different animal). The one that trumps all of these cars in my opinion, and I’ve had 2 of them, is the 66-74 Alfa Spider. The Duetto, soft tails are a much higher price point, but a 1970, with the squared tail, double overhead cam four-cylinder with fuel injection or side draft webers....... I like to think of them as a poor man’s four-cylinder Ferrari. now nobody go out and buy one until I find one for myself first. That would be some thing I would keep for the long-haul. I never should’ve sold the last one I had. poor dental student is what led to that. This TR4 says no regrets to me.
  21. I like it. Very similar to this, which is the visual standard that I find myself measuring other town cars against.
  22. Good summary and perspective. It really is a ton of British roadster charm for 8K or less. Lately I’ve seen people asking this much for rubber bumper MG midgets. if it runs well and there are no surprises after looking at the underneath side of the car, surely this will move quickly.
  23. I have never driven a T. There is no excuse for that, I find them growing on me. Give us updates and pics (engine, interior, etc) when you can.
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