Period images to relieve some of the stress

[J.H.Boland]

9 hours ago, plymouthcranbrook said:

I like bugs. As long as I don’t have to own or drive one that is.

I have mostly fond memories of my '58 VW. Scraping the frost off the inside of the windshield while driving was not really fun. The sliding sunroof would stick open sometimes when it rained. Said sunroof was open the day I was bombing down a back road and scared the crap out of a flock of birds. Like Edinmass said, it was my first transportation, and the freedom I felt driving it was priceless.

[8E45E]

30 minutes ago, hook said:

A Volkswagen, the most successful air cooled car in the world, is no less a historical vehicle than any Mercedes or Autocar. Whether you like them or not, history is history and facts are facts.

And it kept a lot of Germans employed at a very turbulent time in its history.  It was only supposed to be a 'make work' project started by the British in the former 'U.K. Zone' that was established in Germany immediately after the war.

 

Craig

[edinmass]

2 hours ago, hook said:

A Volkswagen, the most successful air cooled car in the world, is no less a historical vehicle than any Mercedes or Autocar. Whether you like them or not, history is history and facts are facts.

 

11 hours ago, edinmass said:

To be fair, a Bug is an important vehicle in automotive history, and many people had them as a first car, and have fond memories of them. I recently drove one for the first time in 40 years......it was actually fun, until I got to the end of the street........slowly.

 

 

Hook, did you miss the post right after I was busting on the Bug? And with prices early and restored cars bring.....they are certainly a collectiable car.

 

PS- I own a Ford T, from 1915. I'm perfectly ok with "everyman" cars. And slow ones also!

Edited May 17, 2021 by edinmass (see edit history)

[alsancle]

A beetle is the opposite of everything I'm interested in.   A mass produced under powered economy car.   BUT...   I saw a very very early restored example at Hershey that I thought was as cool as can be. 

I would take a very nice early example.

 

Btw,  I posted the picture because it was a period image,  and it had a dog in the back seat.

[alsancle]

If you are wondering why Ed only turns left.   This is him in his first car learning to drive.

[alsancle]

[hook]

46 minutes ago, 8E45E said:

And it kept a lot of Germans employed at a very turbulent time in its history.  It was only supposed to be a 'make work' project started by the British in the former 'U.K. Zone' that was established in Germany immediately after the war.

 

Craig

Craig, I think you need to read a little more history on the Volkswagen that was started back in the early 30's. 

[Walt G]

12 hours ago, Walt G said:

 Wild guess on my part but could it be a taxicab - perhaps Luxor?  Spotlight is there to see street signs or house numbers. Note the large design painted on the rear door that says "hire cab" to me.

I guessed correctly! old brain still works sometimes. We are all used to thinking taxi's are /were just 7 passenger sedans that were equipped to accommodate paying passengers with perhaps a sliding division window, fee meter, and in earlier versions such as this the front seat only half there to have a place for the driver and the other empty area for a suitcase. But "town car" like taxi's were very popular in the pre 1929 era.

[alsancle]

2 minutes ago, hook said:

Craig, I think you need to read a little more history on the Volkswagen that was started back in the early 30's. 

 

Correct.  First beetle was built prior to WWII.   German Democrat Socialistic Party's "Peoples Car".

 

From 1938:

 

 

[hook]

10 minutes ago, alsancle said:

A beetle is the opposite of everything I'm interested in.   A mass produced under powered economy car.   BUT...   I saw a very very early restored example at Hershey that I thought was as cool as can be. 

I would take a very nice early example.

 

Btw,  I posted the picture because it was a period image,  and it had a dog in the back seat.

Yes, it was underpowered. But so were a lot of other cars. Have you ever driven a Mercedes 240D and tried to merge onto a freeway while reciting the Lords prayer?

[alsancle]

2 minutes ago, hook said:

Yes, it was underpowered. But so were a lot of other cars. Have you ever driven a Mercedes 240D and tried to merge onto a freeway while reciting the Lords prayer?

 

Most think of a prewar Mercedes and the monster S, SS, 770 and 540K comes to mind.   95% of all Mercedes production was small 6 and 4 banger cars for the masses.

[8E45E]

1 minute ago, hook said:

Craig, I think you need to read a little more history on the Volkswagen that was started back in the early 30's. 

No question it was, and production of "The Peoples' Car' was barely underway when the hostilities started, and then the Wolfsburg factory started making military vehicles.  Naturally, it was a target, and the factory was in shambles by the end of the second world war.  If you studied the history of immediate postwar Germany, you would have read about the chaos that country was in, and the role the four countries (US, France, UK, USSR) took into getting the economy moving again.  Volkswagen was in the British Zone, and getting the factory rebuilt and the Beetle into production in an amazingly short period of time was one of their most notable efforts in assisting Germany back on the road to recovery.

 

Craig

[alsancle]

It is going to be 75 degrees,  bright blue skies and low humidity here in the People's Republic today.     But seeing this picture caused shudders to run through me.

 

Crappy partial snow in the winter circa 1950s.   This is NY but you get the idea.

[alsancle]

While I'm busting on Ed...

 

Here he is with his first restoration project.

[SC38dls]

On 5/17/2021 at 8:40 AM, alsancle said:

While I'm busting on Ed...

 

Here he is with his first restoration project.

Made it easy for him to get under that car besides not having far to go if he dropped a wrench. This must  be the reason he knows what he is doing and can probably fix any car he works on, he’s been doing it a very long time! 

Edited May 22, 2021 by SC38DLS (see edit history)

[edinmass]

I would like to point out, the first car I ever worked on ever............was a 1931 Cadillac Fleetwood open car. It's when I caught the disease. So far, no cure has worked. 

[34LaSalleClubSedan]

1 hour ago, alsancle said:

 

Correct.  First beetle was built prior to WWII.   German Democrat Socialistic Party's "Peoples Car".

 

From 1938:

 

 

Looks like the German's must have liked the design of the 1934 Chrysler/DeSoto Airflow coupes

[hook]

30 minutes ago, 34LaSalleClubSedan said:

Looks like the German's must have liked the design of the 1934 Chrysler/DeSoto Airflow coupes

Ferdinand Porsche came to the United States in the thirties as a guest of Henry Ford and went home with a complete set of Lincoln Zephyr prototype plans. The Lincoln plans looked very much like the front of the Chrysler Air Flow and it had the engine in the rear. When the Chrysler design fell flat the whole new Zephyr idea was scrapped and a conventional Lincoln design was adopted. Porsche invited Henry to Germany to help him set up production but Henry declined.

[Pilgrim65]

3 hours ago, 8E45E said:

And it kept a lot of Germans employed at a very turbulent time in its history.  It was only supposed to be a 'make work' project started by the British in the former 'U.K. Zone' that was established in Germany immediately after the war.

 

Craig

That’s interesting , I was told originally beetles were made pre war, something about Adolf wanting a cheap people’s car 

[twin6]

[hook]

Check out the following website for a little tidbit on the Lincoln Zephyr / Volkswagen connection. www.industrialdesignhistory.com/taxonomy/term/298

[58L-Y8]

1933 Continental Ace

Automotive history is littered with short-lived, obscure makes and models that still deserve recognition for their place in that panorama, one such is Continental Motor Corporation's 1933 Continental Ace.  Borne out of the need to survive and recover some of the debts owed by the failing DeVaux Motors, itself sprung from Billy Durant's failing Durant Motors, Continental teamed with Hayes Body Company, DeVaux other major creditor, to field a line of low and lower-middle priced cars   The first image is their advertisement in the Motor magazine, January 1933, enlisting dealers to sign-up.

The Continental Ace was their top-line offering in sedan, Deluxe sedan and coupe styles, priced $745, $816 and $725 respectively.  Up against such heady competition as the Chrysler CO Six, Oldsmobile F-Series Six, Nash Big Six Series 1120 and Hudson Super Six Series E, all better established with wide-spread dealership availability, only 651 Aces sold for 1933.   It would not return for 1934 when only the Beacon continued.   Although Continental was well-known as an engine builder and Hayes Bodies were utilized by dozens of carmakers, neither was known as a complete car builder.   It was the nadir of the Depression, a chancy proposition to take a flyer on a new start-up make.

As might be expected, period images of the Continental Ace are rare.  Fortunately, Mr. Phil Rolffs posted the second image in the "What is it" form.  He graciously granted permission to include it in this brief Continental Ace exploration and provided the following background.

 

" It was taken at my grandmother's house on West Lake in Portage Michigan.  Her name was Clara Rolffs.  I believe that the young lady in the photo is my mother's younger sister, and my aunt,  Edith McManus.  (Later her married name became Moretti).  She was from New York City, as was my mother.  (But I'm not 100% sure that it's my Aunt Edith.  Just reasonably sure)!

I don't know who this car belonged to.  Pretty sure it wasn't my dad's car.  We had some fairly well-to-do relatives in Detroit who visited often in the summer.  My bet is it belonged to one of them.  Probably the same guy shot the photo.  It's a 5 by 7 print.  I'm sure this wasn't taken with a Kodak Brownie, and that's the only type of camera my folks might have had at that time."

Thanks to Mr. Rolffs for sharing this rare photographic evidence of a car rarely encountered in its day and virtually extinct now.   Survival rate is likely only four-to-six cars.  The third image is a period promotion item.
 

Quote

 

 

[8E45E]

19 hours ago, Pilgrim65 said:

That’s interesting , I was told originally beetles were made pre war, something about Adolf wanting a cheap people’s car 

Yep, it was Adolph's baby; a car that was affordable for the common folk (hence, People's Car), that was capable of doing 62 miles an hour on his other pet project, the Autobahn, all day without self-destructing.  

 

With the leader of the project dead, his mistress dead and all the development team of the People's Car who were part of that former government either in prison or dead  before the war had ended, there was obviously a valid reason to rebuild the factory and continue production of it; mass unemployment being the main factor.  What was rather amazing is how it never received the negative impact the Swastika earned after the war for being a 'reminder' of that era in German history; and most likely, because it hadn't fully established itself as an icon like it did in the postwar years.   

 

Craig

Edited May 18, 2021 by 8E45E (see edit history)

[1912Staver]

22 hours ago, alsancle said:

 

I swapped some emails with him a couple of months ago.  I guess he got tired of some of the posters.

 

Can you tell us more ? He had some very interesting cars, but many were badly deteriorated by decades of bad storage. And his prices while not totally out of this world , were often a bit on the steep side once condition was considered. 

I really didn't understand his attitude. It's rare . It's way too hard to take good photo's . That's my price. Pay or get lost. I am a really busy man , just don't have time to waste on $5,000 - $10,000 cars. If it does not sell it goes back into the shed for a few more decades.

 Just seemed to be a really strange way to sell project cars.

But this hobby does seem to have its share of eccentrics .

 

  

Edited May 17, 2021 by 1912Staver (see edit history)

[edinmass]

5 hours ago, twin6 said:

Currently owned by a very good friend of mine. Fast as hell. Two stroke.

[alsancle]

2 hours ago, 1912Staver said:

 

Can you tell us more ? He had some very interesting cars, but many were badly deteriorated by decades of bad storage. And his prices while not totally out of this world , were often a bit on the steep side once condition was considered. 

I really didn't understand his attitude. It's rare . It's way too hard to take good photo's . That's my price. Pay or get lost. I am a really busy man , just don't have time to waste on $5,000 - $10,000 cars. If it does not sell it goes back into the shed for a few more decades.

 Just seemed to be a really strange way to sell project cars.

But this hobby does seem to have its share of eccentrics .

 

I went back and looked.  I mischaracterized his email.   He has gotten busy with other projects right now and hasn't had time for the forum.    I expect/hope he will return at some point.

 

[Dave Gelinas (XP-300)]

1930 Ford Model A: Murray Bodied Deluxe Town Sedan

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by Dave Gelinas (XP-300) (see edit history)

[Dave Gelinas (XP-300)]

[Dave Gelinas (XP-300)]

[Dave Gelinas (XP-300)]

[Dave Gelinas (XP-300)]

On 5/31/2020 at 2:04 PM, John_Mereness said:

From the movie "Foreign Correspondent".

Edited May 18, 2021 by Dave Gelinas (XP-300) (see edit history)

[plymouthcranbrook]

 First traffic light; NYC, 5th Ave and 34th St

 

 

 

New York, 1949. The Trans-Lux theater on Broadway in Times Square.

 

September 1939. "Accident on U.S. Highway 65 near Iowa Falls, Iowa

 

 

[alsancle]

I could go a number of ways with the wise cracks,  but decided it was just a cute picture.

[twin6]

16 hours ago, edinmass said:

Currently owned by a very good friend of mine. Fast as hell. Two stroke.

Mr. Stutz?  I saw that car on a tour in Mass. years ago.  Is it the only survivor?

[edinmass]

Yes......it's on display at the museum in Springfield.

[Matt Harwood]

Looks like these two images were taken at roughly the same location. Amazing how much things changed in a very short period of time, since both appear to be late 1940s.

 

 

[twin6]

[twin6]

An Overland in Illinois.  How many makes of car had the oval filler neck on the radiator, which I have always understood was to more easily allow adding water with a bucket?

[hddennis]

1913 and some early 1914 Maxwell's had this feature.

 

Howard Dennis

[alsancle]