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).
Greg, I’ve been inside both Packard and Pierce engines, 8’s, as many of us have been, and you are absolutely 100% correct. I don’t understand why Packard had all that monkey motion assembly, when there were so much simpler and better alternatives.
Packard had some great styling, but I’ll take Pierce mechanicals any day…
My ’38 Super 8 drives like a dream! Easy to steer, smooth shifting. A lot of the earlier ones suffer from being worn out in the front end, when the restorer thinks everything is “good enough”….the later 120’s are great cars although not Full Classics…..
What year/model/body are you looking at, Ed?
Agree on the pinstripes, they can really accent a car. My personal preference is fairly thin stripes (if you ever look at original striping it is rarely wide), and in my opinion it must be done freehand with a brush. No roller wheel, no tape. If there are imperfections doing it by hand, that is all the more character to the car, and with a good striper they are small if any….my Pierce was pinstriped by an artist who lives south of me, he’s literally blind in one eye, and has to use a loupe and a strong light, with his face almost touching the metal, to pinstripe…scary, but he did (and does) beautiful work….
That ’35 Pierce coupe with the rear mounted spare used to be mine, it’s more of a cream color than the picture shows…the picture makes it look almost white..man, miss that car!!
Merry Christmas, beautiful picture….and those were the original colors on my ’31 phaeton, green body with khaki fenders, and green upholstery with tan top….
My early Christmas present was that P-A wagon you found, thanks again!
Yes, Greg, I agree that I like the “button” style..it takes patience to shift with the gnashing of teeth, though, as you say, and the lower the speed you shift the better. I don’t mind it, but you can sure see people behind you having to hit the brake, thinking you’re accelerating faster than you are….
And, if you’re real good and/or real careful, you can shift into 2nd and 3rd without using the clutch on the ’31 transmission, into free wheel gearing. The “non” free wheel is just pushing the shift lever further into the gear shift pattern.
I can tell you on my ’31 I use the non-freewheeling mode, free wheel is a little scary, particularly in our rolling hills….
Excellent! Merry Christmas to all! And a wonderful 2015!
Wow, great progress! Thanks for update….
I have the same transmission in my ’31, and seem to remember when we had it apart that it looks the same….I believe that it’s correct as is….
Also, in that article I reference Mr. Paulman contacting the Wright brothers, here’s a copy of that correspondence.
Very cool, you could have stolen! Great that you have the history of a wonderful car….
Nice car, George, and I agree it works a little better on that car. Didn’t mean to offend anyone, just personal opinion that normally, white on an early car isn’t attractive to me.
But, thanks goodness we don’t all have the same tastes, life would be dull!!
interior 2
interior 1
Here’s a picture, and I’ll post some interior pics too…I remember it being much “whiter”” in person….”
second picture
last picture
