- Home
- About Us
- Join/Renew
- Member Benefits
- Member Pages
- Log In
- Help
- Museum Store
Hi Jim, sadly what you are dealing with is very common. Most cars have little mileage on them because they are not reliable. Most of the time it’s because the owners refuse to correctly fix problems. Many restorations end up being partial cosmetic repairs. Once properly serviced and sorted, which can take a long time, turn into lots of work, and a strain on ones check book, the car should offer endless hours of enjoyment. My 32 series 54 drives great, and I’m sure you will be happy with yours. It’s a great body style. Post more photos please, and a few of the entire car would be fun also. My best, Ed
Use the phone, it will be much faster.
It’s a weird diameter, I made on a few years ago from a Home Depot shower rod for a driver……..looked ok.
John Cislak has just advertised he is making modern replicas.
Most modern shops steam clean the parts with soap and water in a sealed high pressure washer that looks a lot like a modern dishwasher with an oil and dirt separator. Then the parts go into a oven at four hundred degrees for about ten hours to bun off all residue and turn everything to ash, then they just blow off the parts with air. Works good. And no hazardous waste.
Good turn key late series cars usually sell quite fast. It can be time consuming and very expensive to sort and troubleshoot a poorly restored or incorrectly serviced car. Your best value of dollars spent is buying the best thing you can find, it’s less expensive in the long run.
Yes it sold. It’s in Connecticut.
1929 Pierce used ads advertising safety glass. I think it was the first year for any company to use it.
It’s a Seagrave engine, the S is not Seagrave, it for the South Bend foundry at Studebaker. Best guess, 1942 small pumper engine used at many small US government installations.
Yes, it was a very good deal.
Yes, I will be at Saint Louis! I’m trying to get the schedule back to “normal” so I can regularly attend the meet. With a bit of luck John and I will be bringing two or three cars this year, depending on hat we get finished. Ed
It’s an interesting car, the body and interior were restored a while back, but the entire drive line and chassis were not, and there was a rod knock, so the plan was to open up the motor, hope a simple fix was at hand, effect the repair, and have a nice driving restored Pierce. Motor needed to come out, and then the clean up started. It justt seemed easier to do it right, and if you know John, he doesn’t take short cuts when restoring cars. Ask him for a ride in it at Saint Louis in June. He plans on having it there if possible, time will tell!
Great car, and a very fair price if your looking for a project. I would clean it up and use it as it is. Great year and body style, hard to beat.
Photos would help. Sure sounds like a seagrave motor. Unless you doing a Pebble Beach restoration the motor change won’t hurt the value of the car. For many the bigger motor will be a plus. I would be sure to use correct year engine accessories as they will be very noticeable if incorrect of off a fire truck. Probably less than ten percent of collectors would even realize the swap over. I would stamp the block with a correct year number on the motor, as that would be the biggest give away of the change. I would make an effort to get the correct size numbers, as often they are incorrect and that always draws attention.
Gasket set is Olsens Gaskets, a club member. They will only have the head and exhaust manifold gaskets, you make all the rest. Rings, well that depends on pistons- who made them and correct size. It can be very time consuming to find rings, people with experience can spend twenty hours sourcing them. Consider a modern new piston, the pistons and rings are much better for oil consumption and sealing, and in the end a much better job. Expect to pay 125 to 150 per piston with rings and pins. Babbitt is a matter of choice, I used it twenty five years ago, today I would only use inserts. Machine the rod is about the same as pouring Babbitt, but you need someone with experience and must cut the crank to the correct new undersized. Camshafts are the hardest part to find for a twelve, they are different EVERY year, bit all interchange from 33 onwards. You must replace cam bearings or you WILL have problems. They are difficult to do. Clutch plates are not to hard to deal with IF you have a rebuidable core. Most cores are no longer rebuidable from past experience. If not done correctly and MATCHED to the flywheel, you WILL have problems. I have seen a huge increase in bad clutch jobs lately, as most of the old time,guys familiar with the double disk are no longer around. Correct coils are hard to find, and expensive to rewind, unless you have a show around modern replacements are fine. John Cislak may have a camshaft. Don’t forget to test yours lifters, it’s best to have a few spares when building the engine.
Short note, if your engine guy isn’t familiar and able to handle this by himself, he probably isn’t quailified to do the job. Timing chain and gears as well as oil pump should be done also. Along with valves and guides. Good luck, take your time, these motors can be challenging.
1929 has weights, 1930 does not, 1931 does, 1932 does not, 1933 has them. And you wonder why Pierce went out of business. Not all cranks interchange. Putting in a late model crank will take you from 366 to 385 CID.
I’m good with it.
Yes, It’s Craig’s car. Runs and drives very well. It is an eight.
Many times, a wife will ask, how many Pierce Arrow’s do you need. The answer is simple, just one more………..
Great truck, thanks for posting.
