kfle Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 (edited) The 1922 Maxwell was launched as 'The Good Maxwell' after Walter Chrysler joined Maxwell to turn it around in 1920. He essentially took 1921 off and released the new and revised model to modernize the Maxwell after the many issues that they had with the late teens models. This Maxwell was restored in the early 2000's and then purchased at an RM Sotheby's auction shortly after. Car was driven and maintained since that restoration and the primary body(not fenders) were repainted in 2018. The car is in Chester Hunt Red which is an original Maxwell color for this model. The car has the original four cylinder engine and a Mitchell 1000 Over Drive so you can go for a nice and comfortable drive. Car was also converted to 12V and includes turn signals for safety. Overall a great driver that will be unique at any show, tour, or event that you take it to! Clean and Clear title, though it is listed as a 1920 Maxwell, which traces back to the Pennsylvania area. It was definitely titled with the wrong year at some point in history, but the serial number, features, and body match exactly to 1922. Car comes with an original manual, dealer ad book, and dealer spec book as well as documentation going back to early 2000's. I am selling as I don't use this car much and not a lot of time for it. It deserves to be with someone that will use it more and enjoy it! The price is $16,000 and it is in the Detroit area. Message, call, or text if you want more information. Kevin at 269-830-6174 Edited November 12, 2019 by kfle (see edit history) 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve_Mack_CT Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 MrCVS should give this one a long look. Very cool car for very reasonable money. Overdrive to boot! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrcvs Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 Yeah, I love that car! I am dealing with storage issues now (lack of space to store cars). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfle Posted June 19, 2019 Author Share Posted June 19, 2019 46 minutes ago, Steve_Mack_CT said: MrCVS should give this one a long look. Very cool car for very reasonable money. Overdrive to boot! Thanks. It is a good and fun car and I had it at the Henry Ford Old Car Festival last September. It is not perfect, though it has a great look with the wheels and the color! I just don't use this one anymore now that I acquired two more Coles last Winter and I personally don't like cars to just sit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfle Posted June 19, 2019 Author Share Posted June 19, 2019 20 minutes ago, mrcvs said: Yeah, I love that car! I am dealing with storage issues now (lack of space to store cars). Glad you like it. It is bigger than a Model T, but not that big! 🙂 I know what you mean about storage space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve_Mack_CT Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 Yep this car has a lot of eyeball for sure. Is it as roadable as a Model A, Kevin? (Don't get too excited, just sold a T due to that 5 letter "S" word.. 😀 still curious... ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfle Posted June 19, 2019 Author Share Posted June 19, 2019 9 minutes ago, Steve_Mack_CT said: Yep this car has a lot of eyeball for sure. Is it as roadable as a Model A, Kevin? (Don't get too excited, just sold a T due to that 5 letter "S" word.. 😀 still curious... ) Takes a lot to get me excited, so no worries 🙂 It is similar to a model A, though less power. With the Overdrive you can cruise in the 40-45 mph range. I have attached the spec sheet from 1922 and you can see the HP rating. I have never had any challenges with hills or anything at all when I drove it around or to a show, you just need to know your not going to cruise over 45. That's actually about where I cruise at with my Model A as well. There is a bit of a different feel to it though as the Maxwell has the tall narrow tires while the Model A has the wider balloon tires. Not really sure I would say it is worse or anything, just a different feel. If I was going to keep the car, I would also tighten up the steering some as there is a bit of play. Nothing crazy but needs some tuning. Also, another difference is that the Maxwell has only brakes on the rear. They work very good, though you need to make sure you give yourself some room to stop. At some point in the past someone put a Model A carb on it as the Maxwell Stewart carbs were notorious for having problems. It also has an electric fuel pump on it instead of the vacuum tank. When they restored this in the early 2000's and put the Overdrive in, they set the car up to drive and be functional. It is bigger than a Model A which gives the driver and the passengers more room (especially in the back seat) which is nice. Also, with this car you get into lots of conversations at the show or when you take it out as those big disc wheels and style stick out. Also, not many Maxwell's around and you can even join the Chrysler club with it as 22 and up Maxwell's are allowed. The hood ornament is also the early Chrysler wings. There will always be someone who brings up Jack Benny as well. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neil morse Posted June 19, 2019 Share Posted June 19, 2019 1 hour ago, kfle said: There will always be someone who brings up Jack Benny as well. Haha -- I was just going to say, "Time to cue the Jack Benny jokes!" Looks like a fantastic car at a very fair price. Good luck with the sale. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4Hud Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 Nice sporting unit this Maxwell. "The Good Maxwell" is one of my all time favourite advertising lines, a lot of honesty for Maxwell to admit that the prior examples were not good. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne sheldon Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 Mugger, "Your money or your life!" (Silent pause) Mugger, "Well? What is taking so long?" Jack Benny, "I AM THINKING IT OVER!" Beautiful Maxwell! A good friend many years ago had a '22 Maxwell touring car. He loved it, and drove it on many tours for years. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve_Mack_CT Posted June 20, 2019 Share Posted June 20, 2019 Definately some events here in CT area with a prewar focus this one really would be fun to bring. And, none of that worry with unproven and potentially dangerious 4 wheel brakes that started to show up around that time! 😂 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfle Posted July 27, 2019 Author Share Posted July 27, 2019 (edited) I took some videos of the car running, driving, and starting if anyone wants to see them. Kevin Edited July 27, 2019 by kfle (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mercer09 Posted July 28, 2019 Share Posted July 28, 2019 a lot of honesty for Maxwell to admit that the prior examples were not good. my 07 DR is a pretty sturdy machine. Maxwell was in the top three early on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfle Posted July 28, 2019 Author Share Posted July 28, 2019 10 hours ago, mercer09 said: a lot of honesty for Maxwell to admit that the prior examples were not good. my 07 DR is a pretty sturdy machine. Maxwell was in the top three early on. Yes, that is right. The early Maxwell stuff was great. It was the late teens where they started to have problems. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zepher Posted July 29, 2019 Share Posted July 29, 2019 Good luck with the sale, it's a great looking car and it's priced right. My cousin owns a '24 Chrysler Model B Roadster, he's had people tell him it's really a Maxwell. Haha. If your car has the same driving manners as his '24 - minus the front brakes, then it is a great driving car. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hddennis Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 On 7/28/2019 at 7:35 PM, kfle said: Yes, that is right. The early Maxwell stuff was great. It was the late teens where they started to have problems. Just stumbled across this and had to add my 2 cents in defense of the late teens Maxwell's as I own a 1917. Yes, it had a blown rear axle when it came to me and it took the contents of 10 other rear axles to get enough parts to get mine back together. That being said I found out some very interesting facts that help defend the Maxwell. All 10 rear axles had either gone through a catastrophic failure or were about to. One appeared to have blown up and had all new parts put in but the previous failure had cracked the carrier and it failed and sent all those new parts to the junkyard where I found it. I thought I'd hit a home run on this one and set these parts aside to chase others. Meantime I ran across a collector who had studied these a little deeper than I and had done a Rockwell hardness test and discovered the ring gears and possibly the pinions had been over hardened to the point of being brittle. When I checked the gears in the last rear axle I mentioned I found the gears were as new with no miles but were full of hairline spider web like cracks! One really amazing thing in all these rear axles was the amount of broken gear teeth the Hyatt roller bearings were able to digest and turn into a metallic slurry and still keep going! My theory is two fold. First this rear axle has survived well in 1915 and 1916 Maxwell's. The trouble seems to have started in 1917 when Maxwell was under a contract to build 10,000 tanks for the government but it was to be done in secret without public knowledge in the Dayton Plant. Imagine the logistics involved in doing that. Also during this time many men were called to war and they were being replaced by women. Most people think this wasn't done until Rosie The Riveter in WWII but actually it started a generation earlier. The secret tank production and women replacing men put a large portion of Maxwell's workforce in jobs they were not familiar with and caused I believe the gear failure that led to a bad reputation that the Maxwell didn't deserve. The very low survival rate of the wartime Maxwell's I believe bears this out. Another interesting fact is that upon getting the tank contract Maxwell purchased large quantities of material and tooling and when the war ended early the government walked away from the contract and left Maxwell holding the bag! That and the poor reputation must have done wonders for Maxwell's bottom line! Howard Dennis 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne sheldon Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 Hey there HD ! Some interesting points. And I believe you may be onto something. Hardening is a tricky process. If they had inexperienced workers attempting it, It would be easy to over-do it. Unfortunately, a bit on the soft side is usually better than too hard. When gears are too hard, they can crumble like glass in a short while under stressful loads. Sad that the government even then treated some corporations that way. Charles Metz dove into wartime production to support the land that he loved. It has been suggested that the US government did not pay him what they owed in a timely manor due to his German heritage (not sure about that myself, however it would not surprise me). By the time he did get paid, his company had folded because he was unable to pay his suppliers. How is your '17 Maxwell truck coming along? I haven't seen much about it in some time now. Kevin's '22 touring should be a wonderful car to tour with! I think they had those issues mostly worked out by then, and Walter Chrysler was changing things quickly. I don't know if he has sold it yet or not? But it sure is a nice one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hddennis Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 Hey Wayne, good to hear from you again. Plugging along on my Maxwell, near the end but going over things I rushed and still dealing with some pesky gremlins like an oil leak in front of engine I can't pin down. Howard Dennis 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfle Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 Great points about the late teens Maxwells and yours looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfle Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 15 hours ago, wayne sheldon said: Hey there HD ! Some interesting points. And I believe you may be onto something. Hardening is a tricky process. If they had inexperienced workers attempting it, It would be easy to over-do it. Unfortunately, a bit on the soft side is usually better than too hard. When gears are too hard, they can crumble like glass in a short while under stressful loads. Sad that the government even then treated some corporations that way. Charles Metz dove into wartime production to support the land that he loved. It has been suggested that the US government did not pay him what they owed in a timely manor due to his German heritage (not sure about that myself, however it would not surprise me). By the time he did get paid, his company had folded because he was unable to pay his suppliers. How is your '17 Maxwell truck coming along? I haven't seen much about it in some time now. Kevin's '22 touring should be a wonderful car to tour with! I think they had those issues mostly worked out by then, and Walter Chrysler was changing things quickly. I don't know if he has sold it yet or not? But it sure is a nice one! Thanks and I have not sold it yet, though I have not been very active in selling it either. I took it to a show at the Gilmore car museum and I ended up loaning it to them for display over the winter. I can get it out if someone is interested and buys it and I will keep exercising it while it is there. One of their detail guys gave it a good going through and it is looking real nice! Here is a picture of it right after he finished it. Not the best picture but you get the idea. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hddennis Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 On 6/19/2019 at 5:19 PM, kfle said: If I was going to keep the car, I would also tighten up the steering some as there is a bit of play. If your steering box is the same as mine and it appears to be in your pictures, it has a very neat feature. Drop the pitman arm off the box, rotate 1/4 turn and you have a new gear surface and it's possible to do this 4 times so at least one has to be the tightest as most likely it's never been done. Howard Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cahartley Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 FYI earlier Dodge Brothers cars have the same feature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne sheldon Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Howard, You have done a fine job with that Maxwell truck! It looks right. Kevin, Someone I know on another forum (model T club) was at that Gilmore show, and one of the photos posted I am sure was your car driving down the road! I saw it, and thought it was yours. Don't know if I can find it, but may have to look? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hddennis Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 (edited) Thanks Wayne, you can't believe how much of it was dumb luck. The lower body was dry rotted and I was not a wood worker and hiring it done would have been cost prohibitive. Fellow on the MTFCA forum had a new express body he wasn't using and sold it to me for pennies on the dollar. You can't believe how closely it matched the rotted original. The bows were custom made for me by the fellow who originally made all the wagons in the film "Dancing with Wolves", Hansen Wheel & Wagon Shop in South Dakota. He also supplied much of the hardware for the bows and top fasteners. Howard Dennis Edited September 10, 2019 by hddennis (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wayne sheldon Posted September 11, 2019 Share Posted September 11, 2019 Sometimes if is wonderful how things can fall into place! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfle Posted November 12, 2019 Author Share Posted November 12, 2019 The 22 Maxwell sold on November 7th. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfle Posted December 10, 2019 Author Share Posted December 10, 2019 This document is for Al who gave me a call today. Hopefully you can find the serial number on your 24! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akstraw Posted December 12, 2019 Share Posted December 12, 2019 Glad to hear it found a new home. It looks like a terrific car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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