Jump to content

The Wandering White Thread - A Custom 1915 Rare White Finds A Good Home In Florida


Recommended Posts

I’m not sure I would want to do 50 in the truck, and my 16V4 with 72 hp is a handful at that speed, and must weigh about 1/2 to 3/4 of a ton less.........enjoy these..... Mike......you need to find a White truck in its original shipping crate........

A9171F83-F6B3-4779-971D-FC4170A1DE62.png

2AE8421F-7975-4661-8858-B0EEA6DC6C26.png

609C04B0-F904-4BF1-9A99-4FBC04671444.jpeg

BFB137C7-66E9-4986-A029-A095824ED59C.png

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

When you start looking at all the WWI stuff White made for the war effort......you get a sense of how prolific and adaptable they were to making anything they wanted ........rather easily. 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeh Ed ive read that white built around 18000 trucks for use in WW1, the french were big users of white and the british army purchased quiet a number too as well as the russians, 

yes its just a dream to think you could find one in a crate like the picture, still the hunt is a part of the fun isnt it, 

thanks for the pictures.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are one lucky (hard working, intelligent too bad your not good looking you would have had the grand slam!) guy to be able to have that much fun working!  The roads look like a ball to drive. It’s a beautiful area made better by great looking cars. I’m sure there are two running as well as they look. 
dave s 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, blastermike said:

Yeh Ed ive read that white built around 18000 trucks for use in WW1, the french were big users of white and the british army purchased quiet a number too as well as the russians, 

yes its just a dream to think you could find one in a crate like the picture, still the hunt is a part of the fun isnt it, 

thanks for the pictures.

Nicked this low res ad. Just like the scale with the people. 843957F4-E4CD-4EC3-B212-A63C6EE56A0A.jpeg.215337b62f6ebb044ecb85b9fcebee3d.jpeg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Grimy said:

Do I have to come down there and teach Ed how to double-clutch without grinding?


George, come on down and try it..........it’s a difficult car to shift.......especially when the oil is cold. We can have a contest and the looser buys lunch..........a Pierce shifts fifty times easier........

  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Grimy said:

Do I have to come down there and teach Ed how to double-clutch without grinding?

 

George,  go read the comment section on my "500K" test drive video.   They are awesome!   The Europeans are not happy with a dumb American trying to drive their cars.  It is hard for me to argue with them.

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, SC38DLS said:

AJ you know Ed had a roll of twenties in his pocket. He just doesn’t keep them in his wallet that’s where the moths live. He’s no dummy. 
 


Yes, he left his fishing rod at home. No way to get that wallet out of those long pockets.

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, SC38DLS said:

AJ you know Ed had a roll of twenties in his pocket. He just doesn’t keep them in his wallet that’s where the moths live. He’s no dummy. 
 


 

All my money is tied up up in cash! 😎

  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hans Bjorkman
8 months ago (edited)
What a faith for one of the nicest cars in the world. Ending up in a country where no one knows how to use a gearshift. Poor car!  I own the original sales folder for this car in mint condition, that’s the first step I hope to get the car to match up the folder in the future. 😂

 

Folke Andresen

I see it that way too. Probably the driver mistook the Mercedes Benz 500k for a picup! The cubic capacity may be identical, but that was all. You should let the engine warm up first. Shifting wasn't his forte either. You shift with feeling and give the transmission the necessary time. He probably only drives automatic.
The automobile is of course a dream!

 


jjeffery worboys
It doesn't seem that you are at one with the car.

 

 

20 hours ago, alsancle said:

read the comment section on my "500K" test drive video.

 

Edited by mike6024 (see edit history)
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Austin Clark had a model 15 White and loved White trucks and cars. Also his White coupe that I believe Mark Smith now owns.

There were huge amounts of trucks/truck parts ( just about all pre WWII and most 1930 or earlier) at the L.I. Auto Museum . There was a big steel building that Austin called the truck barn at the back of the main museum building. Rims, springs, a whole wall about 25 feet high by 30 or 40 feet long that had 12 x 12 inch shelves/bins for parts - magnetos, carburetors, you name it. I recall clearing a path to get to stuff many time in that building. It has "tenants" .....Raccoons lived in some of the bins higher up and we had to warn people looking for parts perched on a ladder ( that came off a WWII era fire truck that was in there as well) NOT to just reach up and in a bin as you may find you will become a meal for a resident in that space back in far enough you couldn't see him. That is not a joke!   There was also a Pierce Arrow 5 ton truck parked in the weeds near that truck barn, had a smallish tree growing up through the center. No body on it, or fenders but nearly complete from what I recall. Sat out for decades. Fortunately the steering wheel to the truck was removed and placed up inside the museum in the loft area above the cars and no one knew it. Long after the truck chassis was sold I located the steering wheel while looking for some other parts and bought the steering wheel and restored it and it is sitting about 10 feet away from where I am typing this . A great memory of the "Iron Range Days" as Austin used to call his open house at the museum (by invitation) to buy parts. I have way to many memories and stories concerning cars, trucks, parts etc of the pre 1930 era and the L.I. Auto Museum.

  • Like 6
  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Mike, to many stories, and I sometimes think - so Gosden you actually did that , bought that, knew this or that guy  etc. But at the time I never thought about it, it was just something that we did and was happening - you figured everyone would do the same. No computers then to let everyone know what you did every second of the day , no social media. We were just old car guys.........................some of us still are. Still working on "projects" of things/parts we acquired decades ago because we thought they were "cool".  My current project is trying to get 100+ years of tarnish ( patina???!!!! 🙄) off a circa 1917 Locomobile radiator /shell combination , but it seems now that it weighs more when I have to pick it up to move it then when I bought it because it looked "cool" 45 years ago.

Walt

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, alsancle said:

Keep reading.

 

Some of those comments are hilarious. 

 

P.S. I didn't know it was a U.S. delivery car. Nice.  Still cuts a little too close to home for me, but a lot better than if it had a more common past.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

trying to translate some of those foreign comments

 

Kは、コンプレッションで最後のほうの音はその音ですね。本当に牛の鳴き声そっくりですね初めて聞きました。ありがとうございます❣

 

 

K is compression, and the last note is that note. It really looks like a cow barking, isn't it? I heard it for the first time. Thank you ❣

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, the Duesenberg with a wiped out clutch, on the way to the shop to be fixed. Funny thing, someone sent me a Long clutch from England to rebuild recently , after four shops couldn’t get it right. And, as I remember.......just last week you asked me how to adjust a clutch on the V-12 Packard........and it’s still having problems? 🤔 I can shift any car totally silent if I wish to make the effort..........fact is most times, I’m just pounding it in. Doesn’t hurt a thing. Shall we have a contest shifting a PII and see who can make totally silent gear changes? I actually have someone coming down to get lessons from me on a PII next week......after all, I taught them on the tour this week to silently shift their Model J. 

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My great friend and mentor the late Joe Star of Roslyn, NY had an AJS PII town car ( bought new by the Gardiner family of the island with the same name at the NE end of long island) and he could shift that with no clashing /grinding etc.   Joe also was the one when I had my Derham bodied Franklin victoria brougham saw the broken die cast zinc window crank handle on the drivers side ( hardware was not standard factory issue but by an 'unknown' manufacturer used by Derham so I just couldn't get a "normal" Franklin -general uses handle.) Joe looked at it , went to his Brewster bodied PII , unscrewed the window crank from his door , came back and screwed it into the door on my car and rolled the bloody window down!  Turns out that Brewster and Derham and a majority of other coach builders all used McFarland Co,. of NY City to supply interior hardware . Brewster used the cast bronze version of the same handle. The zinc cast handles were great when new but after 45/50 years the composition of zinc would deteriorate and the handles would crumble. More useless information to cloud your brains.................

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, edinmass said:

Walt..........lesson there was, only buy a Rolls!

I had a Springfield Phantom I Trouville Town car for a decade and it was mechanically perfect - but at just over 6 feet tall I was in denial for 10 years that it was comfortable to drive, my legs were/are just to long. Had the same issue with a 37 Packard Super 8 limousine, lovely car but I didn't fit; and I like to drive my cars for hours on end.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Roadside service on a fantastic car with the smallest of issues..........two minutes and back to 100 percent. And a roadside stop in the same town as the banjo player in Deliverance. That store was their version of a Super Walmart. A Tennessee landmark!  Where the men are men and the sheep are scared! Why the smile? Drive a Model J for a week and you will have it too!

 

 

 

 

4C4DB6B6-8F4A-4E43-BAAB-6C1F09A11FAC.jpeg

963C2709-0E93-4760-8C9E-EC11EFF25CF6.jpeg

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Somethings can’t be communicated unless you actually experienced them.........Driving a Model J on the Blue Ridge Parkway.........burning fuel at 3.6 mpg and banging the gears up and down through the switchbacks.......a sensation never duplicated in any other machine.......and for just a short time, all is right in the world......

1C17F487-999F-46F6-8A34-142CCD9C54CB.jpeg

19A75F86-A0A0-4C6E-882A-37CDA23A014A.jpeg

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, alsancle said:

So we all know Ed has about 10k miles driving Duesenbergs.  There is a video of  him in there driving one of the cars and the commenters are skewing his shifting.


 

I think I’m at 15k plus now.........just saying. 😏

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/20/2021 at 3:16 AM, edinmass said:

I’m not sure I would want to do 50 in the truck, and my 16V4 with 72 hp is a handful at that speed, and must weigh about 1/2 to 3/4 of a ton less.........enjoy these..... Mike......you need to find a White truck in its original shipping crate........

A9171F83-F6B3-4779-971D-FC4170A1DE62.png

2AE8421F-7975-4661-8858-B0EEA6DC6C26.png

609C04B0-F904-4BF1-9A99-4FBC04671444.jpeg

BFB137C7-66E9-4986-A029-A095824ED59C.png

These are White machine gun cars with the 45 HP   GEC motors.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting first world problem this morning. I didn’t notice it during the week but I bruised my leg resting it against a Duesenberg front door handle. Driving the car to breakfast this morning, and it’s very irritating. I guess we shouldn’t complain when driving a Model J. I’ll learn to live with it……….

 

And we got some famous Palm Beach rain this morning............they have wheels, drive them!

Edited by edinmass (see edit history)
  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 10/23/2021 at 11:41 AM, edinmass said:

Roadside service on a fantastic car with the smallest of issues..........two minutes and back to 100 percent. And a roadside stop in the same town as the banjo player in Deliverance. That store was their version of a Super Walmart. A Tennessee landmark!  Where the men are men and the sheep are scared! Why the smile? Drive a Model J for a week and you will have it too!

963C2709-0E93-4760-8C9E-EC11EFF25CF6.jpeg

 

Being down south in the Carolinas I would really expect to see an RC & a Moon Pie. Not a Diet Coke & another snack.

  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had an interesting conversation today with the great grandson of Rollin White.........who owns a bunch of White steam and gas cars...........he agrees with the 30hp chassis ID. Also, he schooled me in White car and truck axels, hubs, drums, ect..........talk about getting information from the horses mouth! He agreed it’s some kind of strange special..........he has NEVER seen ANY White gas car with a pressurized fuel tank, and all the other items I listed as unique seem to fit with some sort of test platform. Even the casting date on the engine is in a different location to the production engines. I’m hoping that a lighter chassis makes stopping, steering, and driving easier......and with it about 1/2 the mass of the big 17..........it should go like hell.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ed, why worry about brakes when you “drive it like you stole it”?  I had a Honda S2000 and took it to the dealers for its 40,000 mile check up. The service manager  was amazed it still had the factory brake pads and they looked like they were in good shape. He asked me how I did that with that many miles on them. My answer “simple, I don’t use them” then I turned and walked out, when I looked back he still had a shocked look on his face. 
“Drive it like you stole it”. A great motto 

dave s 

Edited by SC38DLS (see edit history)
  • Like 1
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Trulyvintage changed the title to The 1917 White That Probably Is A 1915 White - The New Caretaker - White Truck Discussion - It Started With A Minute Video On Facebook ….

This Journey started with a one minute video

that I posted on Facebook about

a vehicle

I was picking up in Pennsylvania.

 

Ed Minnie happened to see it and 

reached out to me ….

 

It has evolved … so I changed the title.

 

Thank You to my good friend

Skip Seaton at Skip’s Restorations in New Salem, PA

who is responsible for everything that has followed …..

 

The Journey Continues ….

 

 

Jim

Edited by Trulyvintage (see edit history)
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...