Tag Archives: Automobile

Part and Parcel: State of the Swap

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http://www.oldcarsweekly.com

Each July the tiny town of Iola, Wis., is invaded by a sea of humanity and old iron. Many in attendance come strictly for the swap meet, which covers about 4,500 spaces.

Old car hobby doing well — at least ‘parts’ of it

By John Gunnell

“Don’t tell me there’s no recovery going on,” said Kurt Kelsey, an Iowa City-based vendor of new-old-stock Pontiac parts. According to Kelsey, his business this year is much better than it has been in a long time. “The phone has been ringing off the hook every day,” he said.

Kelsey’s observation about an up-tick in the market isn’t alone. Positive reports have come from other vendors, parts manufacturers and catalog retailers since late last fall. Despite an unsettled national economy and high unemployment, the old-car parts business seems to be in the midst of a boom.

During a Dynamat seminar at the Hot Rod & Restoration Show in March, company owner Scott Whitaker said one-day shipping of Dynamat automotive insulation products has been impossible to promise lately, because a large increase in orders has outpaced new hiring. “The bump in sales wasn’t expected and caught us off guard,” he said.

In early April, Bob Marx at Marx Parts in Arpin, Wis., came to visit us and he, too, was upbeat about his rising sales. Marx has been growing his inventory of vintage gaskets and rear main seals and is now rebuilding fuel pumps, but he said that new products do not explain all of the growth he is seeing. Like several other industry veterans, Marx pointed to the TV exposure of the Mecum and Barrett-Jackson auctions as a factor that’s helping the hobby grow. “New people are getting involved with old cars,” he said.

“After a winter of inactivity, old cars tend to leak or fail when they are put back on the road,” said Fred Kanter of Kanter Auto Products, who wonders if the business boom might be seasonal. “March, April, May every year, it’s the same thing — spring,” Kanter said. He pointed out that from spring through summer every year, his most popular items are fuel pumps and water pumps. “There’s a lot of factors that affect our business.”

You never know what you’ll see at big swap meets. You might come across a 1958 Edsel Pacer looking for a new home.

Al Suehring of Amherst Junction, Wis., specializes in ring gears and is another vendor who feels that the market is strong. We caught up with him at the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America dinner in Chilton, Wis., and he said that his business from the United States and abroad has been showing noticeable increases lately.

Ray Yager of Classic Industries said the level of growth of reproduction parts sales is “hard to keep up with.” His firm supplies MoPar, 1955-’57 Chevy, Camaro, Firebird, Nova, Impala and Chevy truck parts, and parts sales for these vehicles are moving in a positive direction. Yager thought the company’s 18-month-old MoPar parts catalog may account for some, but not all, of the huge increase in business he’s seeing. At least one vendor who solely deals in Chevrolets is likewise seeing increases in business.

“I’m having a really good year,” said Ron Kellogg of Chevy Tri-Power. “Rather amazing since I’m selling restored multi-carb setups in an era of $5-a-gallon gas prices. I’ve probably sold 25 Tri-Power units — normally a year’s worth — since November 2011.”

Kellogg’s increase proves that car collectors still want high-performance options on their classics.

In addition to new products, increased TV exposure of the hobby and added catalogs, parts suppliers said both the use of the Internet and increased advertising seem to be attracting more customers. Some big companies such as Mid America Motorworks and Eastwood have begun sending daily e-mails to thousands of potential customers. This takes time and money and employees with Internet skills, but their efforts are paying off with increased sales.

Many mom-and-pop operations that can’t afford daily e-marketing efforts are creating websites, Facebook pages, blogs and Twitter accounts to reach the marketplace. Hobby events aimed at professionals — such as the Racing & Performance Expo, the British Motor Trade Association and the SEMA Show — all offer seminars on Internet marketing techniques to these businesses.

As their marketing efforts become more sophisticated, parts sellers are also discovering that they can use print media to drive customers to their websites. Companies that never ran a print ad before are discovering that a clean-looking space ad with the right design and not much text can generate strong client interaction. The right picture of a car can catch the potential customer’s attention and a simple e-mail address or website link is all that’s needed to bring business knocking. A good ad will pay for itself much faster these days.

While an increase in parts sales would suggest that restoration shops and collector car sales are both on the increase, growth in those parts of the hobby isn’t as clear-cut as it is when a part is “checked out” in an online catalog. Collector car dealers such as Colin Comer of Colin’s Classic Auto in Milwaukee and market players such as Joe Bortz are fairly universal in the belief that collector car prices are off 15-20 percent in today’s market. Some restoration shop owners say that they are busier than they’ve ever been, but others say the opposite.

From all of the indications we have seen and all the comments we’ve heard, it appears the old-car parts niche is improving for 2012 and this trend will presumably filter down to other parts of the hobby. The hobby is changing in many ways, and the wise businessmen in it are getting more sophisticated as the market grows.

Sources mentioned

Kurt Kelsey
NOS Pontiac parts
641-648-9086

Dynamat
automotive insulation products
www.dynamat.com
513-860-5094

Marx Parts
vintage gaskets
www.marxparts.com
715-652-2405

Kanter Auto Products
mechanical components
www.kanter.com
800-526-1096

Al Suehring
ring gears
715-677-3809

Classic Industries
restoration parts
www.classicindustries.com
714-847-6887

Ron Kellogg
most tri-power units
www.chevytripower.com

Joe Bortz
vintage vehicle sales
www.takeyourcartoauction.com
847-668-2004

Mid America Motorworks
Corvette and VW restoration parts
www.mamotorworks.com
866-350-4543

Eastwood
restoration equipment
www.eastwood.com
800-343-9353

Colin’s Classic Auto
vintage vehicle sales
www.colinsclassicauto.com
414-964-3747

Car Show in – Rothrist, Switzerland

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Remember a few post ago that covered MOPAR’s in Sweden? (Short Link:  http://wp.me/pKHNM-174)  I wrote how interesting it was to see US sheet metal in other countries.

Well check out this car show in Rothrist, Switzerland.  This is from Andres Palomares who lives in Bern, Switzerland.  There are some great examples of US car history in this show.

Switzerland is beautiful and visited Interlaken several times while living in Europe.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Wide-Body – The Pike Challenger

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I wanted to share this link because I was surprised at what Tom Pike does to some of the cars he modifies.  We are talking 6-8 inches to a Challenger!!!!

http://tommypikecustoms.com/

Here are some highlights:

First that do it all in metal – no fiberglass

– they cut the front fenders and quarter panels from the top body line down and remove the factory sheet metal

– they add patch panels with thousands of welds

– they re-attach the factory fuel door and add a longer filler neck

– for this particular car they shaved the door handles and blacked out the turn signals and side markers

To this car they added 10 1/2″ wide tires in the front and 13″ wide tires in the rear!!  They also lowered the car with Hotchkis suspension with coilover shocks.

It’s beautiful:

Tommy Pike’s Customs

WOW!!!

Oh… and the wheel are custom-made by MHT Luxury Alloys.  The wheels are 3 piece and took 3 months to create.

WOW.

Thanks for reading

Tim

Parking Lot Spotlight – 1957 Chevy

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Another classic spotted in my local supermarket (does anyone actually use the word ‘supermarket” any more?).

This 1957 Chevy has all the chrome you might want.  It appears to have fairly new paint.  I love the wrap around windows and the exhaust exiting the rear bumper. (If I could figure out how to make that happen with my Mustang I would!!)

Of course I couldn’t hang around in the parking lot waiting for the owner, but would have loved to see the engine compartment.

You can tell the ’57’s a mile away.

Love bumper chrome and the wrap around windshield. Oh…that’s my grocery cart in the background.

Paint looked flawless on this car. Not labeled as a Bel Air or Impala and clearly not a ‘plan jane’ One Fifty.

Love the exhaust exit location on these cars!!

Chevy‘s standard engine for these cars was the 6 cylinder. The V8’s were considered a separate series and not an option.  Chevy produced over 1.5 million cars in 1957, second only to Ford.

Have a really cool parking lot find?    Drop me a note and we get it posted up.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Wrecked Radiator Part I

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Picked this up on http://www.corvetteonline.com and thought I’d share this.

I remember as a kid taking an old radiator and make a design in the fins with a screw driver.  Yes…very artistic…I was.

by on March 13, 2012

Cars have come a long way from their roots as steam-powered horse carriages, but the internal combustion engine will always have an Achilles heel; overheating. It doesn’t matter how old your car is, all cars are susceptible to overheating, especially out on the race track where they can run at wide-open throttle for a long, long time. Nobody likes to see that temperature gauge start creeping up, as it could indicate any number of engine issues from a leaky radiator to a blown head gasket.

For such a simple-yet-integral part of an engine, there seems to be a million and one things that can go wrong with a radiator.

A good mechanic always starts by checking the simple stuff first, so for the purposes of this article we will focus on diagnosing a busted radiator. Much of what we discuss here can be applied to a broad spectrum of motorsports, as well as non-racing endeavors. When it comes to pushing an engine to its absolute limit though, there are few events as demanding or brutal as circle track racing.The Common Cause Of Corrosion Is You

The obvious first step to diagnosing a busted radiator is a visual check, inspecting for leaky hoses, loose fittings, and so on. Sometimes finding a leak requires running the engine; other times it can be done by just looking under the car. Checking and tightening all the connections is a great first step, but a leaky radiator is usually just a symptom of a deeper problem, and diagnosing why your radiator is leaking is a job best left to the experts.

That’s why we turned to Jason Danley of Speedway Motors to fill us in on some of the most common issues when it comes to diagnosing a damaged radiator. “The biggest things with radiators are internal corrosion and leaks, damaged fins and a clogged radiator,” says Jason.

Radiator damage can take on many forms, though the two most obvious issues are corrosion and bent fins.

“On passenger cars the biggest issue with radiators is that people don’t change their coolant enough, or at all. What it will do is actually corrode the inside of the radiator, blocking passages and restricting the water, preventing the radiator from passing water through the passages to cool it. I’ve actually seen that corrosion break loose from the radiator and spread to the water pump, intakes, and even the engine block,” says Jason.

If the corrosion goes unchecked, it can even eat away at parts of the radiator and cause small holes that will only get bigger over time. These small holes can be difficult to find via visual inspection, so Jason recommends using a pressure checker. “Auto parts usually have these, and you just put it in the place of a radiator cap and make sure your cooling system is holding the pressure it is designed for,” says Jason. “The pressure depends on the car and the radiator manufacturer, though it is common for radiators to hold between 10 and 12 PSI.” Again though, that number depends on the specific radiator.

Depending on the age of your car and the condition of the radiator, corrosion may or may not necessitate a replacement radiator. If you want to keep your radiator in good condition though, the simple thing to do is replace the coolant every now and then. “The general rule of thumb is to change it every two years at least,” explains Jason. “If you’re putting a lot of miles on whatever you’re driving, you’ll want to do it more often.”If you do find yourself with a leaky radiator caused by corrosion, you may consider using one of the many magical fluids claiming to stop leaks. “Those will work on pinholes on a radiator, or something like that,” says Jason. “The big thing with that is every time you change the fluid, you have are going to lose that stop leak, so you have to reapply it. And if you use too much, it cold plug up the system, preventing water from flowing through the radiator.” As we’ll see later, it is also important to ensure that you’re not causing a chemical reaction with whatever additive you put into your radiator.

Bent and busted fins like these can causing serious cooling issues.

Gorgeous ˜Wood Vehicles 1948 – Part II

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In this part we are picking up with Chrysler.

For 1948 Chrysler had the Town and Country (yes…even way back then) model with wood panels, it even came in a woody-vert (vert short for convertible).

It also came in a coupe/sedan.

Love the roof rack!!!

The wooden frame was white ash (adding structural rigidity to the doors and deck lid), fitted with interlocking miters.  Mahogany veneer plywood filled the spaces within the frames.

Now that is craftsmanship!!!!

The engine was the Spitfire Straight Eight with 323.5 cubic-inch displacement and 135 horsepower coupled to a fluid drive transmission.

135 HP

The convertible was the most favored of the Town and Country line with 8,368 sold. In 1948, the price tag showed $3,395.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Gorgeous ˜Wood Vehicles 1948 – Part I

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I got this idea from our friend Joe in Florida.  Thanks, Joe,  for the pictures and the reminder of some these great iconic cars.

I’ve always admired the workmanship that went in to the older cars that had wood components and have always disliked the simulating wood on cars with plastic molding and contact paper stuck on the horrible quality 1970’s and 1980’s station wagons was supposed to be a retro look (but only at 15 feet away) and cool (well as cool a station wagon was back then). I recall working in my father’s body shop and how much “fun” it was to put that contact paper back on Ford station wagon. In this mini series “Gorgeous “Wood Vehicles”  I’m going to pick a year and toss you a few facts about the cars that came ‘in wood’.

Wood was used a lot in the auto industry, from all wood wheels to just the spokes to entire frames and interiors (like dash boards and steering wheels).  Some of the best uses known uses were on the outside and truck beds.  They were often referred to as ‘Woodies” either correctly or incorrectly, be most of us know that the term relates to cars with real wood on the outside.  These are the cars I’m going to look in this series.  For no particular reason, other than this was the first picture Joe sent, I’m starting with the year 1948.

A major reason for using wood was the shortage of raw materials and labor issues for producing steel/sheet metal. This was the case in 1948, just a few years after the end of World War II.

Nearly all of the major producer had models that had external wood components.  This 1948 Chevy was one.

1948 Chevy.

This is the two door Fleetwood Aerosedan, but Chevy also made an 8 passenger station wagon the Model 2109 Fleetmaster. This year’s model set the record for Chevrolet woody production with 10,171 wagons built. Both Cantrell and Iona built bodies to fill the demand for the last Chevrolet wagon with structural wood.  The 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster Station Wagon was the last true woody (structured wood) from Chevrolet.  What type of wood was used?  Ash the wood used for the structural base, while mahogany was used for the panels. Leatherette was stretched over a wood frame to provide the roof. Approximately 10,171 were built between February 1948 and January 1949.

Most of these cars were powered by the Chevy Straight 6, 216 CID engine.

The 1948 Straight 6 216 engine (The 235 was very similar).

Engine specs:

Bore and stoke 3.5 x 3.75 (in); Displacement 216.5 (CID); Compression 6.50:1; Max Brake Horsepower 90 @ 3300 RPM; Max Torque 174 Lbs.ft. @ 1200 RPM

 

 

 

1948 Packard

Packard was another manufacturer that produced woodies.  They released their Twenty-Second Series cars. They were Packard’s first totally new models were since before World War II.   The wood used was northern birch for the frame and maple panels.  This was purely for looks, because the overall structure was braced by the metal body shell which actually was modified from the Standard Sedan Body, only the upper rear quarters which were removed from the sedan body used the wood as actual bracing. On the door sides and window frames the regular sheet metal was cut away in order to allow the wood to be inlaid, rather than just bolted on top.  These were powered by the Packard’s L-head straight 8.

Some engine specs:

Bore x stroke 3.50 x 3.75 (in.); Displacement 288.64(cid); Horsepower 130 @ 3,600 rpm; Torque 226(lb-ft) @ 2,000 rpm; Compression ratio 7.0:1; Main bearings 5; Lubrication full-pressure; Carburetor Carter 2-bbl
automatic Choke;  mechanical Fuel pump

 

We have Chrysler’s, and Pontiac’s 1948 woodies as well as a Bentley woody and Willys coming up next in this series.

Thanks for reading

Tim

Parking Lot Spot Light 1939 Ford Coupe

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Well  I’m beginning to think that my local grocery store is really a car show 7 days a week!!!

Case in point is this ’39 Ford coupe I saw over the weekend.

Great Hub Caps, Great Paint.

You’ve got to love that split rear window.

Pretty stout looking tail pipes.

Besides the tail pipes I’m liking the chevron tail lights.

1939 brought hydraulic brakes to the Fords for that year.   Ford produced 487,031 cars that year, coming in second to Chevy.

Love the rolling fenders and the dog dish hup caps with the V8 log pressed into the centers.

Love the grill and the V8 and Ford badges.

You can't tell from my 'most excellent' photos, but there is a huge difference in the width of the rear vs. the front.

The V8 engine was the Flathead, which was originally developed in 1932.  For 1939 the flathead was the V8-91A, compression increased to 6.15:1, power rose to 90 hp.

This is a great looking car.

Thanks for reading.

Tim

Selling Cars Part 1

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I love combing through ads for selling cars.  Every now and then you read some really good ones.

1.  ” 1960 Plymouth Fury donor car. Seems to be complete including chrome and emblems. Glass not broken. No bullet holes. Frame and floor pans rusted through. Guaranteed NOT to run. Absolutely as-is. Will help load; no hurry to move. Strip what you want and leave the rest if desired. No title. Worth ~$400 for scrap iron.”

2.   “I HAVE NO INTERIOR AND MOTOR IS ALL THERE BUT STUCK.”

3.  “…have to get rid of all my rides but a bike and my work truck.  I don’t know a lot about older cars like this besides that it runs and drives good and seems like a good deal to me.”

4.  “I purchased this car in late 2010 as a project car for my son and am now selling it due to his lack of fulfilling his obligations in order to keep it…..OH SNAP!!!”

Thanks for reading.

Tim

1955 Ford Sunliner


1957 Aston Martin – Restoration

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I ran across this on Classic Recollections. I’m not a Aston guy, but this DB Mark III is pretty nice. The owner did a lot of work on this thing. Nicely done! Oh, but cleaning those wire wheels…..ya killin’ me!!

Thanks for reading

Tim

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