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Beautiful, both!! That’s a very handsome car, and a lovely lady….
Wow, other Ed, you must have been typing the very second I was replying to the OTHER Ed!
Remember, Ed M., it’s IN TRANSIT to me, it can’t grow roots at your place!!
Thanks, Ed, I’ve always wanted a Motorette, but think they’re out of my price range right now. I started pursuing this Pierce engine almost a year ago, and finally was able to acquire it….not the holy grail, but a rare piece of history.
Ed has verified it’s a 1903, although the serial number doesn’t seem to match the current records on this site for 6 cylinder engines….
Interesting “trunk””! Wish they’d posted some interior shots……”
You also may wish to check with Arias, they have beautiful (and functional!) stuff….
Good progress, Richard!
I would make one comment, it appears from some of the other items in the pictures that this is a “regular” body and paint shop, that is, one that doesn’t exclusively do early cars.
I had a friend who ran such a shop, mainly did insurance work on newer cars. He painted some fenders for me, and I didn’t explain to him that parts of the UNDERSIDE of the fenders were very visible. As a result, the outside of the parts were great, but there were some rough spots underneath that were visible and not very good looking in the finished product.
Just make sure your guy understands, under the hood, the outer sides of the sidemount wells, and so forth, all need to be nice too…
Can’t wait to see the finished product!
There is a “webbing”, or heavy woven material, that goes between the body sills and the frame, and of course there may be some shims that help align the body so the doors fit correctly (for an open car such as yours).
Then there’s welting, which goes between the rear fenders and the body, and between the front fenders and the front of the splash aprons. This is merely vinyl material sewn around a round core. The comment that puzzles me is “needs a few miles”, as there is actually not that much welting needed.
The running boards, where they meet fenders and splash aprons, normally have trim pieces at the mating points, not welting.
I have some early 30’s color cards for Pierce, and while I haven’t measured the stripes shown, they are VERY narrow. Striping was an accent, not a focal point, so the 3/64 sounds right. It took me about 3 years to find a person who could stripe my ’31, as I wanted it done narrow and by hand (no taping involved). I don’t think it’s quite that narrow, but it’s close…
Well, at least they kept the face of the Pierce, if not the soul. If you’re referring to “is it a first” restomod, no, there are numerous Pierce cars out there with newer running gear.
I hate to see this done, at least this was done with some taste, and from the description, saved a rotted rusty car from the junkyard.
Many auction sites extend the auction if there’s a bid in the last minute or so. Thus, if someone bid with 10 seconds to go, trying to “snipe”, the auction gets extended for 5 minutes, so someone else can bid…it would be much more like a real auction.
I seem to remember the early days of Ebay, people would bid during the course of the auction, an item would meet a certain price level and seem to stay there until the end.
The sniping at the last second is hard to combat, as Greg says, you can put in a healthy bid, but at the last second someone just puts in a crazy number and it’s a little over yours and you’ve lost it.
Ed, understood…the problem is that the old gas can leave a residue behind as it changes/evaporates/goes bad. So, what happens is it seems all the old gas is out of the tank, when in reality there’s a coating of sorts on the bottom of the tank…in the old days we called this varnish, as that what it appears like when it “cures”.
So, I’m not the expert here, but if you had some old gas in the tank, and now you’re having valve sticking problems, I’d sure think about dropping the tank and getting a local radiator shop to clean it out, if you have one. Luckily we still have an old time radiator shop here that’s been taken over from older gentleman by his nephew.
You’d be amazed at what can hide at the bottom of a gas tank…
The last car that did that to me (stuck intake valves) was due to old gas. Car ran fine, got nice and heated up for the first time in years (thought all the old gas was out of tank, but there was some small amount left, put fresh gas on top of it and must have dissolved the old stuff). Next day, went to start car, valves had gummed up….so first thing I’d do is check your fuel supply. The gas these days doesn’t last like it used to, even the non-ethanol variety…
What? It’s done already? It hasn’t been 7 years yet! (that’s how long he took on one engine I don’t want to think too much about!)….great news! If you go to get the engine, I know where there’s a Rat Fink waiting for you….
A couple of cars should have met reserve by now, such as the Franklin, although the bid of 19,999.99 seems a little suspicious to me, as if it were shill bid to that and reserve is 20K. I’d think the 28K for the Pierce, as it sits, is getting close to all the money, but that’s just opinion. An interesting selection of cars, a high hopes seller, marginal condition/quality of restoration….it’ll be interesting to follow more…
Sure, I’d buy one…but discounted heavily for color and interior choices (I liked the Auburn until I saw the interior), and as nice a building as they are in, and as desirable as they are, figure the balance of the “restorations” are marginal at best. Collector had good taste in selection of marques, poor taste in other areas…..
Model 41, I believe, and could bring good money, museum cars are a crap shoot, great that they were indoors so long, but misery on the mechanicals…..
Wow, nice find! That’s a neat brass tag, it’s so interesting that they used a permanent type tag instead of paper…
Brillman, right down the road from me in Virginia, is also a good source for early style wire and fittings….
Good advice, Ed, and it applies to any old car, from early Model T to Pierce and so forth….I walked Hershey one year with a fellow really in the know on early cars, and it was an eye opener, the number of early brass cars that were re-bodied and/or downright replicated….and the problem is that, as time goes by, fake becomes real as knowledge of history is lost..
Great project! Just to be nit picky, those hardness markings on the bolts wouldn’t have been there originally, and the heads and nuts would probably be “heavy”, which is higher than new ones. I’m putting together a 1910 Buick, and the hardest part is finding good heavy bolts and nuts.
Thus, don’t throw the old ones away!
I’m really enjoying this thread, really didn’t know what a “Fleet Wagon” was! Nice!
