Restoring Dad's 1913 White 30 & need parts for a 1914 Roadster

[Guest Chris_Becker]

Hello all and Happy New Year,

I am new here.The above pictures are of my dad and mom with our 1913 white in 1976 at the Lloyd Center show. I grew up around this car but have never heard it run.

A bunch of friends and I have been working on my dad's 1913 White touring for him. We have a bunch of left over spare parts that we would like to build a 1914 White Roadster. We have so far acquired a front axle, spring packs (front and rear), a 1914 overdrive transmission (cast iron case for GAF 30), 1914 engine (cast iron crankcase for a GAF 30) and various small parts.

<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="color: #FF0000"><span style="font-style: italic">We are in need of a chassis, rear axle, steering column, and radiator. Any help in locating these parts would be greatly appreciated.

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My dad bought his White in 1971, when he sold his high school graduation gift from my grandparents (a 1909 Brush runabout). Our car was a runner before dad accidentally cracked the block in 1977. Wasn't really his fault. You see dad had his restoration business going at that time and he had just fired up a 1923 Stanley Steamer that day for a customer that they were restoring, and sub zero temps where forecast for our area. The Stanley had a full boiler and water tank and the front building where his business is non heated. We have two buildings, one non heated and the back one where our cars are stored is heated and insulated, so a decision was made to drain the water out of our White's radiator and pushed it over to front building (non heated) and put the customers Stanley in our heated back building (customers come first right!?) Next morning he came down and discovered the block on our White with several LARGE cracks in the block. In there haste they for got to drain the water out the block and the water froze there by cracking the water jacket (luckily). I am glad it was taken off the road though, as we have serious accident damage from a wreck our White sustained back in the early days of it's life.

Our White had a serious accident back in the early days of it's life as we have found brazed repairs on the chassis, rear axle, steering column, right side brake hardware, front axle, transmission and also the engine. Must have got hit pretty hard as the frame was out of square to the left (hit hard on the right front near the front axle looks like it was t-boned) by about 2.5". We had the frame straightened at the local community college, by some of their students on their frame machine.

I have been using my vacation time over Christmas and have got a lot done on our '13. We have had the frame straightened by a local community college and is painted now. Yesterday I spent all day painting and buffing drive shaft, steering column, u joints, u joint caps, brake rods, emergency brake handle and stick shift handle. Now I have freshly painted parts all over the shop waiting to go on the chassis. We also have the 2 rear wheels sanded and ready to go in the paint booth for final paint.We have gone through and mounted the transmission, rear axle, steering box, rebuilt the radiator, starter/generator, and are now getting ready to put together the engine.

Our paint color and scheme is more like Fridged Aire green, you know 1970's puke green color from the appliances of the day, at least that is how my mom and wife view the color. The car will be painted this what we call "Pope-Hartford" (color matched to the Pope-Hartford in Harrah's AKA National Automobile Museum in Reno Nevada) Green with olive drab moldings with bright orange pin striping. Both dad and I run on a really tight budget so we are buffing all the bright work the best we can but will not be replating any thing as the cost of plating keeps rising and we can't afford it and most of it is excellent shape. What is worn through to the brass will be buffed to a mirror shine. The original leather interior is in very good condition, might have to some minor repair but we will be using it as is.

On Saturday we are going to pull the engine out of the hole and start assessing what is needed. Believe it or not we found a source for the big roller main bearings, which can be still bought off the shelf here in Portland from the local commercial bearing supplier. On our 1913 the only things that we will change is putting 1/4 inch taller aluminum pistons in instead of the stock cast iron pistons and a slightly hotter cam as ours is just starting to go flat in our 1913, so it will have to be taken out and be reground anyway. We will do the same thing when we rebuild the 1914 engine. These modifications were done on a friends 1914 touring car back in the late 60's and then in the early 70's on his 1914 roadster. These two car where the fastest ones in the club (HACO). Dad (Bill Becker) and Stan Jones laid out tour from Portland to the Oregon coast (Cannon Beach Area), on there way home they were clocked in Stan's roadster at almost 80 MPH on US Highway 26 by a log trucker who had followed them for quite distance till they pulled off a gas station in North Plains! So I guess you might say we will be hot rodding it some what!!

Well you know the rest of the story on where our White is now. Hopefully we can get it restored and running in the next couple of years. We also ended up getting the same little '09 Brush back in 2003 from the same guy that purchased it from my dad in 1971.

Thanks so much and any leads would be awesome.

Chris Becker

[blastermike]

hi chris, i dont know much about the early white cars, but the gearbox looks the same as what the 3/4 1 1/2 ton and 2 ton white trucks had, but the crankcase for these trucks were aluminium not cast iron, maybe some of the truck parts are interchangeable? just a guess, i'm trying to restore the larger 5 ton white truck which had a bigger engine and was chaindrive, looking for the same pieces as you, radiator, steering, etc, good luck with your project, mike.

[odyssey]

Hi Chris -

Nice project and good story. I am in need of a White Starter/generator - the big huge box made by ENTZ. IF you have any leads, I would appreciate it. If I run across any of your needed chassis parts during my search , I'll let you know.

Tom Rasmussen