1931 Roadster For Sale

[alsancle]

Jeff,  he never says the model so you need to tell us.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201676599387

 

Sporting it's original factory Straight 8 this is a fully restored to concours quality motorcar. Classified as a 'full classic' by the Classic car Club of America. Prior to my purchase, this wonderful car was in the same family for many decades and very well cared for. Extremely reliable and very powerful yet wisper quiet. This is a wonderful driving car. Mechanically it needs absolutely nothing, just enjoy. The paint job is near flawless.The chrome is excellent, and the operation of the lights, roadlamps and fender lights; as well as the horn and speedometer all work they way they should. No leaks and positively no rust. It has a fully trimmed leather rumble seat and factory golf club door. The Trico wiper motor was just rebuilt and works great. It has new actual Mohair carpet. I've owned over 100 pre-war classics and I've never seen a pair of headlights this big [13" diameter] No top. Even the running board rubbers are new. And yes, the door panels are leather as well. Some of the photos I took earlier in the year do not show the twin ivory pin stripe I had professionally done last most. This added accent really makes the paint job 'pop' and follows the raised reveal the entire length of the car.  This was a very expensive car in its day. No disappointments here.  You'll never see another one, because like I said, there is only one.

4155 lbs.    $2095 price new       125" wheel base     

Continental L-Head 322 cubic inch Engine

Tom Griffith   608-212-8774  Madison/Wisconsin

[Matt Harwood]

"No disappointments"

 

Well, except for that whole "no top" thing. I can't even imagine where you'll find one of those...

[alsancle]

39 minutes ago, Matt Harwood said:

"No disappointments"

 

Well, except for that whole "no top" thing. I can't even imagine where you'll find one of those...

 

Do you find the missing top odd?  I wonder where it went.  He never mentions that it is an original body to the chassis and that would be my first question.

[Matt Harwood]

I'm never quite sure what to make of that. Is the body a fake? Unlikely--nobody's faking Peerless convertible coupes. More likely is that it was removed and misplaced and nobody could find a replacement, so everyone keeps buying the car thinking it won't be a big deal or they can adapt one from another car. Then they fail at that and pass it along. A new top could be made and I know there are skilled people who can do it (Restorer32 comes to mind), but at what cost? You probably have to discount the car more than the cost of the top to get it sold, so I guess there's some financial incentive to follow-through. But no top on an obscure car with only one or two examples is very disheartening.

[Restorer32]

Yep, yep. We could fabricate a top for it if one exists that we could photo and measure or better yet use for patterns. Figure $5000-$7500 not including canvas. We could also invent a top for it if necessary. Wonder if it was originally a coupe?

[Restorer32]

I suspect it was originally a coupe. Look at the one pic. Looks like a door hinge way up at the top of the driver's door.

[Matt Harwood]

6 minutes ago, Restorer32 said:

I suspect it was originally a coupe. Look at the one pic. Looks like a door hinge way up at the top of the driver's door.

 

Bingo!

[Restorer32]

Well then we can make a coupe top for it...lol.

 

[alsancle]

Same car in Hemmings: https://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/cars-for-sale/peerless/master-eight/1876313.html

 

That ad says Master 8 for the model.

 

Here is a coupe.

 

 

[alsancle]

Note the difference in belt line.  Also,  I see references to the red car as a 30 and not a 31.

[jeff_a]

8 hours ago, alsancle said:

Jeff,  he never says the model so you need to tell us.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201676599387

 

Sporting it's original factory Straight 8 this is a fully restored to concours quality motorcar. Classified as a 'full classic' by the Classic car Club of America. Prior to my purchase, this wonderful car was in the same family for many decades and very well cared for. Extremely reliable and very powerful yet wisper quiet. This is a wonderful driving car. Mechanically it needs absolutely nothing, just enjoy. The paint job is near flawless.The chrome is excellent, and the operation of the lights, roadlamps and fender lights; as well as the horn and speedometer all work they way they should. No leaks and positively no rust. It has a fully trimmed leather rumble seat and factory golf club door. The Trico wiper motor was just rebuilt and works great. It has new actual Mohair carpet. I've owned over 100 pre-war classics and I've never seen a pair of headlights this big [13" diameter] No top. Even the running board rubbers are new. And yes, the door panels are leather as well. Some of the photos I took earlier in the year do not show the twin ivory pin stripe I had professionally done last most. This added accent really makes the paint job 'pop' and follows the raised reveal the entire length of the car.  This was a very expensive car in its day. No disappointments here.  You'll never see another one, because like I said, there is only one.

4155 lbs.    $2095 price new       125" wheel base     

Continental L-Head 322 cubic inch Engine

Tom Griffith   608-212-8774  Madison/Wisconsin

On the road right now --- more later. Just saw this. It's a '31 Master Eight and I saw it in person at the 2013 Gathering at Gilmore dual event. 

 

 

[thegreendragon]

18 hours ago, jeff_a said:

 

 

18 hours ago, jeff_a said:

 

There have been many questions about this car over the years----Stan Knight who owned the car several years ago had the car listed as a 1931 convertible coupe.  I have seen this car and did some research on it.   What gives it away is the dip in the body behind the door. There is only one Peerless model shown in ads with this---it's a 1930 Master Cabriolet.  Notice all the coupes body line was straight here. This is NOT a cut down coupe!!! This car originally had a fold down top with landau bars---in fact the landau bar brackets are on the body.   All it needs is a top and it wouldn't take much to alter a top to fit.

RHL  Historian--Peerless Motor Car Club

[Restorer32]

Then it's a real shame no one ever fabricated a top for it. The unusual 3rd door hinge fooled me. I hope someone buys it. We would enjoy building a cabriolet top for it. Are there no others of this year and body style extant?

[34studepres]

The car for sale is MINE. For those of you questioning whether it was a Coupe with the top cut off. You're wrong. It has the factory 4 speed transmission making it a CABRIOLET. I'm just missing the top bows. The give-a-away is the depression in the body behind the door.

I would consider reasonable offers or possible trades plus cash to serious buyers.  tom griffith/madison wisc.   608-212-8774  Feel free to call me.

[jeff_a]

If you go to the thread "Peerless photo on ebay", at the present on the 8th page of results for the Peerless Forum overall, there's an old photo of  a Master 8, or Mod. B, Cabriolet that alsancle posted on July 5th, 2008. 

[alsancle]

Thanks Jeff.  This is the photo I posted a while back.

 

[Restorer32]

That's enough proof for me but you can't blame us for being skeptical. Beautiful car. In my mind I have already modified a '31 Packard Conv Coupe top to fit and look correct.

[alsancle]

It is a neat car but it needs the top.   Maybe Jeff can fill us in but I assume Peerless was buying their bodies from someone,  Budd perhaps?  In which case there should be a top that can be copied from another car.

[jeff_a]

Nice to see all the discussion by Richard, Jeff from PA, Matt, A.J., and the owner. I saw the Peerless at The Gilmore show and tour in 2013 and it had quite a presence. Plus it did a hundred miles of touring in SW Michigan.

 

Re: the "obscure and only 1 or 2 examples" comment by Matt. O.K., it's obscure to the general public types, but at least you didn't call it "a forgotten make" like the Glidden Revival guys did in the 1954 tour booklet when a 1911 Model 32 raceabout showed up*. My count on the 1930-1932 straight-8 Peerless Master Eights is 12 still in existence...out of around 30 remaining Standard, Master, and Custom Eights.**

 

It's a little more difficult to sort out the 1930s Peerlesses than, say, a Ford or a GM of the period. When looking at Peerless Master 8s, you sometimes find them with the 30-louver hood sides, 6 groups of 5, as in alsancle's photo he added to the conversation. That is the same layout as the Standard Eight. Some of them have the same 4 hinged hood side doors the Custom 8s have. I think the factory photo above shows the car when first introduced. One thing that's unusual is the vertical windshield -- but that's what Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky had in mind, so who am I to critique it. 

 

Sorry to not get to this sooner. When I was in Manhattan, Kansas 2 days ago this thread first came up and I was in the Kansas State University Library with an expired parking meter so I couldn't answer at length. I'm on kind of a re-union trip for a couple of schools I went to, plus seeing relatives and tracking down a Mod. 8-125.

 

*I plan to take a look at this Raceabout on my way back to Idaho. Who would drive to a remote town in the Colorado Rockies to look at an '11 Peerless Raceabout w/ a 648 c.i.d.motor? Me. Also on the trail of another rare beast of the straight-eight variety in remotest northern Missouri.

**source: Known Peerless Automobiles In Existence

Edited September 28, 2016 by jeff_a (see edit history)

[model8125]

The owner must contact Classic Car Club Of America to have the car recognized as a Classic. Only the 1930-1931 Peerless Custom models are recognized and not the Master models. The 1929 8-125 model was put on the list only after my request about 6 years ago.

[alsancle]

Is the only difference between a Master and a Custom wheelbase or is there more to it?

[jeff_a]

model8125,

   You are probably correct on the CCCA model designations. However, the green 1931 Master 8 Sport Coupe in the photo in Post #9 above{Gord Linkletter's of Ontario} was driven on the 2012 CCCA CAR-a-van in the Pacific NW. I think he's a member and the car's a CCCA Classic. Also, a fellow named William Backer had 2 1932 Peerlesses accepted as Full Classics by them when he owned them. One was a Master(Deluxe Master 8, but that's splitting hairs) and one was a Custom. Maybe individual applications were made for these two.

 

alsancle, 

   There's a HP difference: 115 for Master and 120 for Custom. Ralph Cartonio told me the Master has a potmetal 1-bbl. carb and the Custom has a brass duplex carb, both by Schebler. The Customs cost more, of course. Production was 1,219 for the Masters, 555 for the Customs, and 2,003 for the Standards. All straight 8s.

   Wisconsin Peerless owner Timothy Dickson tells me the intake manifolds were different  for the Master and Custom engines.

Edited December 2, 2016 by jeff_a (see edit history)

[jeff_a]

6 hours ago, alsancle said:

It is a neat car but it needs the top.   Maybe Jeff can fill us in but I assume Peerless was buying their bodies from someone,  Budd perhaps?  In which case there should be a top that can be copied from another car.

   

   Hayes of Detroit made at least 90% of the bodies for the 1930, 1931, and 1932 Peerless Eights, I'd gather. One of 42 companies known to supply bodies to Peerless over the years. There was a variant announced in 1930 of Weymann-bodied Peerlesses, and I've seen pictures of a couple of Weymann Custom Eights when new. The Standard Catalog shows a Peerless limo by Budd, but it was a 1923.

Edited September 28, 2016 by jeff_a (see edit history)

[carbking]

The Master used a Schebler single barrel UX-61 which was either zinc alloy or aluminum (I don't have one to look at, and both metals were used for the type U). The very best thing one can say about the Schebler U is that it is easily replaced!

 

the Custom used a Schebler 1 1/4 inch duplex (two-barrel) carb SX-422. Again, don't have one to look at, but most of the Schebler duplex carbs were cast iron. A very few were brass, but most (not all) of the brass ones were for marine use.

 

Since I don't have any to look at, certainly not going to argue about the type of metal. I will comment that 9 out of 10 Schebler duplex carbs that have been sent to us for restoration were the wrong carb. Lots of swap meet vendors with the axiom "what do you want it to fit?". Unlike many carbs of this period, both the Schebler U series and the Schebler S series are very easy to identify; as the identification number is stamped (not a raised casting number) into the body of the carburetor. Unfortunately, most look at the casting numbers which will be prefixed "UV" or "SV". The identification number will be prefixed with an "UX" or "SX".

 

Jon.

Edited September 28, 2016 by carbking (see edit history)

[34studepres]

I've lowered the price to $115,000.   tom griffith    608-212-8774

[thegreendragon]

Peerless models for 1930:  Standard 8---85 hp---118 wb---3 speed trans.----------Master 8---115 hp---125 wb---3 speed trans.----Deluxe Master 8---115 hp---125 wb---4 speed trans.

Custom 8---120 hp---138 wb---4 speed trans. --------All models had the Continental engines---the Standard and Master models had 4 pass. cabriolets and only the Deluxe Master 8 had the 2 passenger cabriolet----they didn't make the Custom 8 with cabriolet body.  The 1931 models are listed the same as 1930 with minor changes. The cabriolet could have been available in 1931 I just don't have any ads that show it.   RHL

[34studepres]

I've sold the car.  Going to Missouri to one of the nations largest private collections.      tom griffith