seeking info on Dr. Art Burritcher, AACA member

[edinmass]

He also had an ad in every Hemmings in the 80’s. Not sure about the 70’s.

[alsancle]

On 11/29/2022 at 10:55 PM, PFindlay said:

Thanks.  I knew we should have kept all those old C & P mags from our dad's place.

I went through 72 and 73 and he was not advertising in Cars and Parts that early.

[Borough Essex]

Running a private business and advertising/taking calls on his employer's phone line in his employer's time tells us all we need to know about him.

[PFindlay]

6 hours ago, alsancle said:

I went through 72 and 73 and he was not advertising in Cars and Parts that early.

Thanks for taking a look for me.

Peter

[Kornkurt]

Maybe I got the last laugh on him.  Somewhere in the middle 80s i sold him a 1936 Massey Harris Challenger farm tractor.  He came and looked at it and bought it.  He still had a family farm near Monticello, Iowa and it was a tractor like his dad had back in the 30's.  It was a pretty good tractor.

[edinmass]

We should have a tractor thread………..

[John_Mereness]

We looked at a few cars from him - he always had decent original cars that had their fair share of problems.   

We looked at plenty of cars from Leo Gephart too - usually much more shiny and had their fair share of problems. 

 

Bottom line - really difficult to keep up woth a Pre-WWII car and most have a lot of problems, the next owner fixes a lot of problems, they sit just a tad too long or are are driven one mile too far and develop more problems, and ... - sorta an endless circle of care needed.  

[edinmass]

John, If you buy a 100 point Pebble first in class winner  and drive it off the field……it still needs 50k worth of work to be a reliable driver and totally sorted.

[kevin1221]

13 minutes ago, John_Mereness said:

We looked at a few cars from him - he always had decent original cars that had their fair share of problems.   

We looked at plenty of cars from Leo Gephart too - usually much more shiny and had their fair share of problems. 

 

Bottom line - really difficult to keep up woth a Pre-WWII car and most have a lot of problems, the next owner fixes a lot of problems, they sit just a tad too long or are are driven one mile too far and develop more problems, and ... - sorta an endless circle of care needed.  

I remember going to Leo Gepharts facility in Dayton Ohio in the late 70s. Lots of pre-war cars. I always enjoyed looking at his cars, even thought I had very little knowledge of that era vehicle. I attended my first collect car auction at his facility in the late 70s. I believe Leo eventually moved to the Phoenix area.

 

I also remember many ads from Art in Hemmings in the early 80s.

 

Kevin

 

Kevin

 

 

 

[ericmac]

On 11/28/2022 at 7:09 AM, John_S_in_Penna said:

This is an aside, but accurate:

I understand he was a Ph. D., but not a medical doctor.

One must not use the term "Dr." socially if he is a Ph. D.

He would be a "Mister."

Actually, in the world of psychology those of us with a Ph.D. are indeed referred to as "Dr." both professionally and socially. After more years of college and an exceptionally rigorous postdoctoral internship in comparison to a medical doctor, a dentist or a nuclear physicist, I think we've earned it. On the contrary,  most of my casual acquaintances are surprised that I have a doctorate as I prefer to be called simply "Eric." Now...back to cars.

[1937hd45]

10 hours ago, edinmass said:

We should have a tractor thread………..

Steel tread or rubber tread? 

[Jim Mead]

At the risk of bucking the trend, I still own my first Brass car, a 1910 Hupmobile Model 20.  As described, dead original except for once painted fenders and gas tank. Never apart. Runs like a scared cat. Bought of Dr. Art when I was young and $8000 was a lot of money. No regrets. 
Later, I sold him a Reo Model J (?) truck. 4 cylinder, hard rubber tire. He paid my advertised asking price without complaint when others balked. Maybe we’ll meet in Hell…..

[edinmass]

Jim……back then it was common for dealers to have a shopping list for deep pocket collectors. They worked on a straight cost plus commission basis. Thus the more they paid, the more they made. I can think of at least s half dozen who were moving a bunch of iron that way. 

[60FlatTop]

22 hours ago, edinmass said:

it still needs 50k worth of work to be a reliable driver and totally sorted.

Add up all the receipts from that freshly restored car and if you are lucky you are 90% of the way into a reliable driver.

 

Imagine tossing the keys to your wife and sending her up to the corner for a gallon of milk.

 

"Don't worry about the clutch, Dear. The Startix will start it right up."

[edinmass]

It’s the clutch chatter that always bothers me. I’m absolutely flabbergasted at what gets sent down the road from many total restorations. 

[60FlatTop]

8 minutes ago, edinmass said:

I’m absolutely flabbergasted at what gets sent down the road from many total restorations. 

Not me. I did a lot of work on restored and original cars during the 1990's. I didn't do restoration, just made restored cars steer, start, and stop. There was a lot of work.

 

A high percentage of the cars had been disassemble, cleaned, painted, and reassembled. The rebuilt major components were there but the attention to deep detail was lacking.

 

There are a lot of marque mechanics. They "know" the things that go wrong with their specific make. And they may hang out the shingle for universal work. Depending on the person that may or may not work. I look at it like the van lettered with "Plumbing, heating, air conditioning, roofing, gutters". Back in the '80s there were a lot of parachuting executives with the idea that a skilled manager could manage anything. It doesn't take much to find that mindset.

 

My life's experience wraps up the source of problems in "Someone didn't know what they were selling to someone who didn't know what they were buying". And you can get a doctorate in that.

 

On clutch chatter, I used to say I could crack walnut shells with my '48 Packard.  Sadly, very few knew all the things that meant.