START THE CAR PARTY!!!

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I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

I spoke to my engine guy a few days ago and he told me about his personal tradition he has for body off restoration clients. I thought you all would enjoy hearing about it.

Once he has set the egine, radiator, tranny, wiring etc.. he calls the entire restoration crew to his shop for a “Car starting party”. The crew gathers around, with a few refreshments and food, and starts the car for the first time. (In the 29’s case, 60+ years). My entire crew of restoration guys are like this. They all love my car and take care of it as if it was their child. It is absolutely amazing to watch them work and protect the car at all times.

I will video and photograph this event. Question: Does this site support a video upload???????

Im sure we are still a few months away from this but I thought people would get a kick out of this mechanics personal tradition. I think its awesome!

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Just upload it to youtube and post a link. We also make movies of the first start up of an engine. The last one we did was a Pierce 12 and it hadn’t run since before the war!

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Sounds like a great way to reward the hard work that has been done and a good way to motivate further work on the car.

A vid posted to youtube would be great.

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In 1994 or ’95 I had the first test drive with my Pierce. I invited some friends (in case I had to push the car back…) for the happening and afterward we had a garage party with good food and beverages…

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Oivind,

Were 1952 Packard convertibles still a common sight on roads in Norway in the mid-1990’s? Most of them had disappeared here by the early ’60’s.

Stu Blair

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I bought my first Pierce, an 840 sedan 1934, in 1979, the same year I believe I joined both the PAS and the CCCA.

A year or so later, had the engine rebuilt (by Tom Lester’s shop) in a crate, a restored frame and running gear, and a body in primer, sitting in my warehouse. One Saturday morning about 9 am, a good friend stopped by, he was heavy into Mustangs even then. He glanced at the frame, the body on sawhorses, the engine in the crate, and asked “why isn’t it together”….and told me to go get a forklift (this was at my cotton gin/cattle feed business my brother and I owned) to get the engine in the frame….and at 4 pm that afternoon, we had it together, running, body on frame, and drove it around the yard!

That was a great day.

The car was sold at one of the first “The Auction” in Las Vegas in the 80’s. I think it now lives somewhere in Alabama, it’s gray with maroon fenders and belt moulding (and yes, if I had it to do over again it would have been all gray, just like it was originally).

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All your stories are outstanding! Olivind, I love all the leather racing caps. That must have been one of the most fun Pierce Arrow rides ever.

Dave, What a friend!!!! That test drive around the yard was also one of the great tours of the decade.

Bringing back a piece of Rolling art combined with the connection you build with your car as it slowly comes back to life is something you cant explain.

Thanks for the wonderful stories. Any more? Any horror stories on that first fireing?

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P.S. The DMV just sent me the official authorization for the use of my orignal 1929 liscense plates

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“Any horror stories on that first firing?”

I knew a fellow who bought a 1-cylinder Brush in baskets. After putting the running gear together he set the engine in place and got ready to fire it up. He didn’t have a clue as to how much oil he should put in, but any engine he’d ever worked with always took at least 4 to 6 quarts so he put in 5. With his wife watching, he gave it a crank, and it caught right away. Even with all the spare time he had once the divorce was final it still took him 6 months to get all the oil off the interior walls of the garage.

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Your 1929 133 is equal to a ’29 B’ just as the plates declare!

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Like the Brush story, although sad about the spare time…

In 1976 I bought an original 1910 Hupmobile, did an amateur restoration, and going along with the thinking of the time, figured the engine was “good enough” since it seemed to have compression and turned over smoothly.

I had a two door garage facing the street, coincidently my parents drove up the driveway just as I was starting it for the first time and running out of the garage because of all the smoke bellowing up……Dad got out of his car yelling “Do I need to call the fire department”….no, I just had to hold my breath and go hit the kill switch.

Dad offered to pay for new rings and pistons, and I took him up on it!!

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Bill,

Neat fact to know about the plates. It was fate!

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FYI: Richard, Minnesota plates where either A or B plates. All Minnesota plates started with A or B. A plates where for cars under 2,000 lbs. and B plates where for cars over 2,000 lbs. Glad you have the proper B plate and not the A plate for your car. Jim

ps. There where other plates in Minn. D for Dealer, X for Truck, etc.

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Rick,

Now you can get the plates refinished to perfection.

See my other post for the info / address of the license plate refinish master.

Peter

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Here’s a cut and paste link to a You Tube video of a the first firing in 100 years of a 1910 Fiat race car known as “The Beast of Turin” Be sure to have the sound on, link here and enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TV2l6TOuGA

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Tony and Pat,

That was outstanding. I found myself with a huge smile on my face when it kicked over.

I was curious about the crank. It seem to be wound up and then released. Is that how they worked?

Rick

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I think what they did was crank the engine (with spark turned off) to compression on one of the cylinders, you can see him pulling hard against compression and then feeling the piston “go over the top”. The driver then turned on ignition and the spark to that cylinder fired, starting the car.

Many early cars will “start themselves” occasionally, if the engine stops in the right position with one cylinder somewhere just past top dead center, and you turn on ignition and advance the spark.

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Stu Blair,

No, only restored after war Packards on the roads in the 90’s. The Packard belongs to one of my friends – the one with the leather racing caps far left.

Richard Leroy,

I also got the permission to use the original plates which the car received in 1930 – C-161. For the test drive I just painted them myself on some piece of wood. The originally was casted in aluminium as I have today. The blue badgeon the plate the owner of the car received when he had paid the road fee for the year. The blue color was for 1930 – there was a new color every year.

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