Greetings from a new member

Robert, as I am sure you have noticed, Pierce open cars can be quite expensive. Pierce open cars from 1929 and 1930 come up for sale once in a while. By 1931, open cars get much more scarce. From 32 and later, they seldom change hands. Many times they are spoken for years in advance. Then when you start talking a V-12, it can be a budget buster. A 32 V-12 sold at the Hershey auction in October for 407 thousand. It had quite a bit wrong with it, incorrect and missing parts, and it was a 35 year old restoration with 55 thousand miles on it. Recently a 34 V-12 needing a fair amount of work sold for over 500 K. An eight can be bought for less, but they also seldom change hands. I don’t post this to discourage you, but just as a bit of information where they are trading at now. There is a very nice 29 for sale on cape cod in the 140’s. Also, there are several fake or cut down cars out there. One currently for sale by a dealer. You should hire someone who know’s Pierce cars before you purchase ANY open car. Welcome to the club. See you in Buffalo. Ed

Hello Robert, welcome to the PAS. Hang on, you will be getting a lot of info over the next few days.

When I first owned a Pierce and wanted to learn about the cars, what I found was that I needed to drive quite a few different model year cars to appreciate the differences, and from this experience, I learned why a very nice ’29 roadster can sell for ‘only’ $140K, but a ’32, V12 roadster [very rare, only a handful built] can bring $407K !

And how a ’33,’34, ’35 and later convertible coupe or convertible sedan can bring $300K and up.

Since you are familiar with the cars of the 50’s and 60’s, you might need to drive a car from the late ’20’s and early 30’s, in order to appreciate the major differences in driving an early car, compared to a later car from the ’50’s. . There was a rapid increase in sophistication of the cars from ’25 through ’36. The driving experience changed [improved] accordingly. A ’29 while it has an 8 cylinder engine, it still drives and shifts much like a mid ’20’s car. The cars improved until a ’33 is a very polished and sophisticated car, and a real pleasure to drive.

The steering system improved with different steering gear boxes, different steering geometry and different tires. Steering went from a two handed firm grip on the wheel to a comfortable one handed grip.

The transmissions changed from a pure ‘crash box’ with straight-cut gears, which means that all ratios had a whine or gear noise except for direct or top gear. Then transmissions had angle-cut and herringbone-cut gears, which made for at least one intermediate gear ratio being quiet, in addition to top gear.

Next came Free Wheeling, which allowed for silent shifting, but had no engine braking when freewheeling is in use. Then came synchromesh on 2nd and 3rd [top] gear. This made the transmission much like most transmissions from the ’50’s and later. They are much easier to drive for most people than an early transmission.

The engines became much more ‘automatic’, they needed much less driver interaction than the earlier engines.

Prior to ’29, the carburetors had mixture adjustment from the driver’s seat. These adjustments were not cut and dry. You had to know when, why and how much to change the fuel mixture.

From ’29 on, the carburetors had fixed jets, and had fairly sophisticated air-correction jetting, so any mixture changes were either automatic, or done by a mechanic for significant altitude changes.

The bodies and interiors got wider too, and some driver’s seat adjustment was available from ’33 on, to accommodate a tall driver. Roadsters became Convertible Coupes, with roll-up windows instead of side curtains.

Engines from ’33 had hydraulic valve lifters, which eliminated the need for periodic valve adjustments. Downdraft carburetors also started in ’33.

Brakes improved all through the years. The ’33-’35 brakes were Stewart Warner servo power brakes, probably the most powerful power-assisted manually actuated brakes ever.

Hope this information helps, and starts you on the path of educating yourself about the differences and nuances of the 8 and 12 cylinder Pierces.

Please note: there are quite a few of my opinions mixed in with the factual info above. So there certainly will be differing opinions from other PAS members.. What you can look forward to, is forming your own opinions !!

Greg Long

Greg,

Thank you very much for that excellent description of Pierce driveability. Having only had the chance to drive Series 33/36s, it gave me a better sense of the changes.

Hello Robert,

Welcome to PAS!

If you’re in the vicinity of Scottsdale, AZ on Saturday, January 17th, you may want to check out lot #143, a 1933 LeBaron Twelve convertible sedan.

Good luck with your “hunt” and perhaps we’ll meet you this coming July in Buffalo – Stu Blair, Cincinnati, Ohio

http://www.goodingco.com/vehicle/1933-pierce-arrow-1247-lebaron-convertible-sedan/

Hello Robert.

I looked closely at the ’29 roadster for sale on Hemmings classifieds. It appears to be a VERY nice car.

My ’29 roadster is a driver, a 50 year-old restoration that still passes a ’20 foot’ test..

This blue ’29 for sale is cheap at $135K, I don’t think a person could restore a driving, complete roadster with paint, chassis, engine, interior, chrome etc for much less than the asking price. So, the car is almost ‘free’.

I have both a ’29 roadster and a ’33 836 Club Sedan, and from driving those and a few other Pierces owned by other PAS members, have formed my opinions and had my experience with these model year cars.

Greg Long

Who doesn’t go for canary yellow on that ’35 show car convertible? It

would sure give my garage a sunny disposition. Welcome to our

association of dreamers, Mr. Brown, where the past is in our future.

I think this is the car of which Ed is speaking (Hershey).

So, to be clear, the gray/black roadster (V12) shown in the last picture is a fake?