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I’ve never looked at the economics of diesels, and I know that they are considered better tow vehicles. I like gas, as mentioned, for personal reasons…less noisy, not smelly, and so forth.
Here’s an interesting study of total cost of ownership for diesel vehicles, including pickups. A few years old, so would need to be adjusted for current pricing of vehicles and gas, but the interesting point is that MOST vehicles are more economical overall in diesel, but the two exceptions show are Dodge Ram pickups (with comparable cost of ownership gas to diesel) and gas being MORE economical overall for the Ford F-series trucks!
http://www.dieselforum.org/files/dmfile/20130311_CD_UMTRITCOFinalReport_dd2017.pdf
The whole CDL question is widely discussed on the Internet. As long as it’s for personal use, you receive no money for hauling a car nor bringing it somewhere to use for money (i.e. a movie role), and have “not for hire” prominently displayed, you’re OK with your regular license in most states. If you get stopped and are hauling someone else’s car, or if they can prove you’re making money with it, or if the Trooper just doesn’t understand the laws, you may get a ticket.
I agree that the tires are the weak point on any trailer.
That trailer looks great, Ed, assume you have a CDL license to use it? If I read the regulations correctly, combined rated weights of trailer and truck combined over 26,001 pounds requires a CDL.
I have an older 24 foot Haulmark enclosed trailer, 10,000 pound, and it has no trouble holding my ’31 phaeton with room to spare. The phaeton is around 4800 pounds I believe, so you’re not over loading the trailer. I agree the 12,000 pound trailer might be better with 16 inch wheels, the 15 inch on my trailer are fine, but you have to keep on top of inflation, wear, and age of the tires, or you will have blow outs. I carry one of those small ramps in the trailer, so changing a tire is very simple with no jacking required, but it’s still no fun to look in the mirror and see pieces of tire flying around.
You want a trailer with a ramp door, and access door on the middle driver side of the trailer for easy in/out from the car. Marine deep cycle battery, winch, and electric tongue jack sure make life easier.
I worked on some early cars owned by a new car dealer, and he had taken some of the brackets used for tying down new cars to transport rigs, and modified them to fit his ’37 Cord, Packard Darrin, and others. It made tying his cars down in a trailer a snap. Guess you might lose a point at judging if someone noticed them.
As far as tow vehicle, I like the 2006 and back 3/4 ton Suburban with the 454 gas engine, as that was the last year it was offered. I know a lot of people like diesels, I just don’t, for personal reasons, as they do tow well and get better gas mileage. I have a 2001 3/4 ton Suburban that I found 3 years ago with 36,000 miles, 454 and all the goodies on it, bought for a fraction of what new Suburbans are going for, and better for towing. I had salesmen telling me the new engines were “engineered” such that they pull like the older 454, even went and hooked my loaded trailer to one to test, the pull is just not there. You need torque, which the diesel or the older bigger engine gives…..
Talking a little more about the chocolate brown, the car I’m thinking of was owned by the late Rick Carroll at one time, and not sure the attached is the same car, but similar. Just think it’s an interesting color, sporty and sedate at the same time. I still remember his car as being brighter for some reason…
Yes, I agree with Bob….I spent part of this morning looking at fabric samples with a friend, for an early 30’s Chrysler Victoria, matching against the paint. Rainy day, so we did it inside, after choosing some samples I looked up and saw the fluorescent curly light bulbs in his shop.
I turned to him and said we’d have to finish on another, sunny, day, and outside! In the sun is your best bet for looking at colors..
Wish I could find the picture, there was a Packard roadster that belonged to a well known collector in Florida (he died in a car wreck), that was painted with brownish fenders and a body the color of the reddish tiles you see on roofs…I think I have it right, maybe it was other way around, but the car was stunning….I think Harrah had one in his collection done the same way…I need to go back and try to find a picture or two…
Ah, but was the picture of the Hershey bars a clue, possibly brown and silver paint for the car?
Just glad you’re saving this car, whatever color you decide to paint it!
It’s a little harder giving advice when we don’t know what basic colors you’re working with.
Phaeton tops in Haartz cloth, for example, are usually either black or tan. Haartz cloth with other colors or woven color combinations have been available, but make things hard to match. They can also make a car look very busy from a color standpoint.
There are a lot of shades of leather, of course. It can be very difficult to match leather to paint color, unless, again, the leather color is a basic one (such as black). Even with black, there are a lot of different textures and shades to deal with. I recently upholstered a 1940 Packard 160 convertible sedan, black with black top, and you’d think black leather would be an easy task…but the owner and I went through about 40 different leather samples before finding something that looked appropriate.
If you want any advice from a trimmer’s standpoint, feel free to email me, but would need to know what you’re working with.
I’m not sure about records, but there are paint sample cards that are out there for Pierce for most years in the 30’s, a factory publication from the Art and Styling department if I remember correctly. I think that one I have states that they had 15,000 paint formulas on file, so am sure by the 30’s that metallic was included.
Ed is correct of course. The other thing to remember is that the metallic paint which was first used in the late 20’s and into the 30’s was NOT the bold metallic that we see on current cars, hot rods, customs, and so forth. It was a very subtle paint, made to highlight, not to overwhelm.
front of pedal car
Nice! Only pedal car I own is a wooden/metal Pierce, not going to restore it though! It’s not near as pretty as yours….
Oops, forgot to mention…the reminder thermometer from Mumma has two long pins on its back, to pin to a fabric sun visor or, I guess if you wanted, a door panel or anywhere there’s fabric. You can see the wicked points sticking out from the bottom in the picture.
I thought the attached may be of interest, since the above discussion included the “reminder” plates for oil and such.
M.L. Mumma (has to be a story behind that name!) was a Studebaker dealer in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, from 1923 until 1939. The dealership was located at 1521-27 4th street, which sounds like the entire block.
Apparently he took on Pierce Arrow cars when the two companies had something in common. Interesting to note that this dealership folded in 1939, a year after Pierce did also.
Note the similarity to the above plates with the three oil/grease/battery bars.
I had this boxed in my pile and forgot I even had it. I am working on memorabilia articles for the magazine and will include this piece in those.
Richard, I understand the concern, and also know that it’s possible to overthink things to a certain degree.
Get them porcelainized black, and there’ll be no need to look back.
Any gray color you’re seeing is 75 years of discoloration, and the intake and exhaust discolor differently due to temperatures they are subjected to…intake maybe 200, exhaust 600 degrees or more.
I have no belief whatsoever that the Pierce engineers debated what shades of gray to make the manifolds…make them black and move on!
I can make you a canvas (or Haartz cloth) cover, given the correct dimensions. The Pierce logo would need to be embroidered or otherwise applied, unless it was a patch that could be sewn into place.
You may have access to a trimmer in your area who could also fabricate it for you, would be a lot better to do on the car if possible.
The Columbia coin is an original, and shows much more detail than our coins. I don’t know of other coins, but would bet there are both more originals and more of the replicated coins out there.
I believe they would have been black originally. The manifold on my 1934 sedan, my first Pierce and a nice original, was a grayish color, but it was very obviously aging and not the original color.
So, my opinion is they were both black and have faded differently, due to difference in operating temperatures.
Note on the Columbia medal the detail of the rim inside the outer bead, with the outer bead representing a tire. The small projection on the non-engraved side, on the rim, is the valve stem for the tire.
Note how much more detailed the Columbia coin is in those respects than our Pierce coins.
I do think that ours were cast from an original, which would cause the loss of detail. Did PAMCC do it? That’s a great theory, as no one so far in the Society remembers any such project.
And, I agree on value, I think ours are curiosities with but small value. The original, if found, would be a different story!
Since I weighed the 1901-1911 medal, I weighed these two 1903 medals too….1 ounce for the unplated one, 1.1 ounce for the plated one…so if that’s 0.1 ounce of gold, there’s some value!!
and here’s back of Columbia medal
Here are pictures of the Columbia coin, which still exists. Not the fact that it appears to be very much gold or gold plated, and the engraving is significantly deeper than the Pierce medals we’re discussing.
I’ve also copied a link to the Internet page, in case pictures don’t work out
