Steering wheels

[jean marc lazzari]

Any idea what that steering wheel is ?

 

I am trying to identify a lot's of parts on my car ... It's currently a speedster made in the 30's constructed around a Studebaker 8 engine from 1931 unknown chassis (Studebaker, STUZ ... ???)  and plenty others parts I have to identify ....

 

Thanks a lot

[keiser31]

That is a pretty cool ride!

[kgreen]

Wow, you've come across a gem.  

 

I would start with a phone call or email to these folks:  http://www.lecarra.com/contactus.shtml

[46 woodie]

Snyders Woodcraft specializes in repair of antique and new wooden steering wheels. Their contact info is 610-759-4276, snyderswoodcraft@gmail.com.

[Hupp36]

Looks like my  1923 Willys  Knight wood  wheel,  I  tried to find  a pic  but  they  are  all  up  north.The  levers  and  metal  part  are  very  close and  could  be  the  same.

[JV Puleo]

I think that is one of the best-designed speedsters I've ever seen... it comes much closer to looking like a real brass-era car than about 90% of them and I'm certain it incorporates quite a few real pre-WWI parts. As to the steering wheel, I suspect most, if not all, came from specialty suppliers and may not be exclusive to any particular make of car. The radiator, for what it's worth, came from a high-end car, if not a Mercer, as shown by it's trunnion mounting on the chassis. This was better, but quite a bit more expensive to make than the usual "two bolts through the front cross-member" that most  medium prices and inexpensive cars used. Whoever built it was not only mechanically talented, but had a very good eye for period details.

 

Were it mine, I'd probably "restore" it ... i.e., try to make it look as if it was built around 1914... a pair of early electric side and head lights and a period set of larger, skinny wire wheels would go a long way to achieving this. Take a look at this Hudson, built in 1921 on a 1913 chassis:

http://theoldmotor.com/?p=68467

 

Your car is much more finished looking, but this is a good example of something that actually was built during the period.

Edited December 10, 2016 by JV Puleo (see edit history)

[nzcarnerd]

I agree that a lot of thought and work has gone into this car.  I wonder if the chassis might be from the same 1931 Studebaker that supplied the engine but with the ends modified extensively to lower the whole thing.

 

The steering wheel is from an earlier era that the rest of it, probably early 1920s.

 

Re what to do with it. Keep the look as it is. Those wheels will be easier to get tyres for.

 

Jean Marc, what is the wheelbase of this car? By that I mean the distance between the front and rear axles.

[jean marc lazzari]

Thanks for all the insights really appreciated.

 

I will measure and publish the chassis and wheelbase that may help identify the chassis.

 

Thanks you veru much

 

JM

[JV Puleo]

That dashboard could be vastly improved with some period instruments...

[Ivan Saxton]

JM, I can tell you a bit more, but need more specific photos to help you work out origins.  Also, what is the wheelbase in inches?  Houdaille two-way hydraulic dampers were used by Mercer from at least 1916, but not exclusively.   Houdailles are shown of the chassis blueprint that Ralph Buckley gave me when I visited him in September 1980. That was for Raceabout frame from 1916 to the end;  though for the small number of Series Six Raceabouts that they must have built to order though they had not intended to offer them, they used Series Five Raceabout frames with fairly improvised cross-members to use the 6 cylinder pushrod OHV Rochester Trego  engine with 3 speed Brown-Lipe gearbox.   The six had 3 point engine mounting, with the gearbox that was almost identical to Pierce Arrow Model 80.   I can give you measurements for the 4 engine mount bolts of my 1918 L-head Sporting if you want to look carefully for filled bolt holes in the chassis side rails.  The clutch on L heads was fully enclosed; and there was a stiff semi-flexible drive shaft to the separate 4 speed gearbox, which was mounted on two cross members.  ( The "semi-flexible" discs of that short drive- shaft were so inflexible that you needed absolute alignment  ----- difficult on a car that was driven a lot for 40 years.)  John Boyle's 1925 6 cyl Raceabout, which had factory 4 wheel brakes,  was built on the used chassis frame of an earlier L-head car, and John Hancox from Queensland described the crossmember and front engine mount as a blacksmith's creation  adequate in function, but perhaps less in elegance.   I haven't been able to get opinions from John, who has been away from his computer and phone for good reasons.  He helped John Boyle to get the car going, and then to help put it together and back on the road  after it was pulled down for re-painting.  And he went again several years ago when Carol needed help to get it going and sell it to advantage for her.  John Boyle was a plumber, and had cleaned the radiator with sodium hydroxide which apparently had not been thoroughly cleaned from the bottom radiator tank, which was leaking badly everywhere because most of the zinc had been dissolved out of the brass  I made a new bottom tank like mine out of the next gauge thich er brass, and that went on the radiator.     I will submit this now and complete my comments later.

[Ivan Saxton]

To resume:   If you took a rear wheel off to get  a side-on photo of the rear of the chassis frame it might indicate whether it is Mercer.  Obviously both front and rear of the frame have been altered, and the rear spring hangars are totally unlike anything T-head.  The fender mounts are early in style to my eye.  The filler caps on the fuel tank look like T-head, but with a level indicator on the side which could indicate L head.  The badge on the Delage-style radiator is off a T-head.   The spare wheel rest arrangement is typical L-head Mercer, and the over-centre locking bit is the same as L-head and Series Six.  I have not seen a wooden rim steering wheel rim on a Mercer.  All I have seen are hard black moulded. What is the steering box like?  You can switch a steering box or steering wheel.  The Rear end of the gearbox almost looks as though there could be a cable operated overdrive or freewheel.  The straight 8 Pierce Arrow engines were cast in the Studebaker foundry on different days with different patterns , of course, for the 9 main bearing  crankshaft of the pierce engine of roughly similar appearance.   ( The alloy mix for Pierce was different for longer durability of bore life.    The sad 1929 Pierce with remnants of a 7 passenger body was one of a small number in the hire-car fleet of Melbourne company.  They were used for carrying Federal politicians back and forth between Melbourne and Canberra, before the day of the airlines.  The man I bought it from told me it was retired by City Motor Services after 400 thousand miles, and he used it for another 130 thousand miles.  The engine was rebored once. Overdrive would be more likely on Pierce than Studebaker , perhaps.

[Hupp36]

Here is  a pic  of a 1923 Willy's  Knight steering wheel of the car  that  I  sold to  a guy  in FL. Its very  close to  whats on  your  speedster.

[lump]

Wow, Hupp36. I can't believe how exactly that Studebaker steering wheel in your photo matches the set-up on my 1923 Model R Hupmobile touring car. Precisely! 

[jean marc lazzari]

 

Thanks for all the insights really appreciated.

 

I will measure and publish the chassis and wheelbase that may help identify the chassis.

 

Thanks you veru much

 

JM