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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….

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My early Christmas present was that P-A wagon you found, thanks again!

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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….

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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….

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Excellent! Merry Christmas to all! And a wonderful 2015!

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Wow, great progress! Thanks for update….

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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….

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Also, in that article I reference Mr. Paulman contacting the Wright brothers, here’s a copy of that correspondence.

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Very cool, you could have stolen! Great that you have the history of a wonderful car….

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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!!

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interior 2

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interior 1

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Here’s a picture, and I’ll post some interior pics too…I remember it being much “whiter”” in person….”

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second picture

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last picture

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second picture

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I agree with Mr. Rolapp, we all know a restoration can be done to someone’s personal taste, but the result isn’t always well received. When I worked at White Post restorations, a Pierce club sedan came in for restoration. I left before it was finished, the owner had it painted all white. Yes, white was available then, but it doesn’t look good on a car that early. The restoration was excellent, and should have been for the $270K it cost (owner published that number when he sold it), but car was not “correct”. Phil Marshall owned it for a while, got quite a bargain when it sold at auction I believe.

So, what we’re saying, even using non-metallic, and even using colors available then, color choice can affect both how the car is viewed and, at some point, value. If you paint the car, for example, red with white fenders and blue interior and top (which would be acceptable for a bright pedal car to grab a kids attention!), then car won’t get the respect that it deserves from the Pierce group.

And of course you’re free to add any accessories you want, it’s my personal opinion that less is more on a Pierce.

Again, thank you for posting the restoration progress, it’s one of the most “visible” restorations we’ve seen and very interesting, particularly the comparative lightning speed at which you seem to be progressing. But, since it is so visible, expect to have varied reactions if you have chosen an oddball color combination.

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The “dirt and crud” in the gas tank was just the bad, dried up, old gas that was in the tank when it was set up. As many of you have, I’ve seen this repeatedly, most recently in a ’27 Dodge cabriolet that I just pulled out of a basement, car beautifully preserved from a 1960’s restoration, but the gas tank 1/3 full of crud. It’s just old gas.

You’re moving fast on this restoration, quick progress! Thanks for postings, you’ve really livened up the PA forums!

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I haven’t tried it, but there’s a lot of discussion on other forums about using Fastenal to ship items long distances. You bring item to their store, they ship warehouse to warehouse. If you go to their website, it’s under “3PL”, for Third Party Logistics. The forums have discussed shipping such items as axles for a couple hundred dollars across country.

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Greg, this is the Miss Helen that came out of the Bill Pettit collection, correct? I first saw the car when I walked into a clear span warehouse, with 100 or so cars in it, jammed fender to fender. It was like walking into the old Harrah’s collection, so much to see that one glanced over such wonderful cars as Miss Helen. He also had a ’17 r so touring, but I just couldn’t afford it.

While we were there, a friend bought a beautiful original 1910 Reo for short money…Bill offered me the 1910 Stanley behind it, 10HP but wonderful original car, $40K….this was a few years back for sure, but in retrospect, what a bargain…

He also had that strange purple last Duesenberg, ’38 I think, with the funny grill sides on the hood…what a sight…..

Glad you were able to end up with Miss Helen!!

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