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1929 Silver Anniversary Buick

I found this radiator emblem when I was out junking the other day:

It’s not in the best condition, one end is broken off, but I brought it home anyway because it belongs on a 1929 Buick and you just don’t see them for sale very often.  It would have been on the front of a car like this gorgeous example:

1929 Buick featured at the Classic Car Collection in Kearney.

The ’29 Buick was the Silver Anniversary Buick and, according to the Standard Catalog of American Cars, was the first completely styled by the GM Art and Colour Department.  Incredibly, it was offered in more than 40 color combinations!  The paint colors available had exotic names such as Venetian Blue, Boulevard Maroon and Chermonte Cream.  Fifteen different shades of green were included in the mix with monikers like Scaraba, Pinehurst, Boise and Asheville.

Apparently, GM took this color selection very seriously.  A newspaper article from 1929 stated that, “The choice of colors is not a hit or miss proposition.  When a selection is made it is the result of a careful research that embraces the fashion salons of Europe . . . . . The pleasing harmonies on canvas by famous painters are another source of color ideas.  Even the wings of butterflies, the scintillating hues of rubies, emeralds, sapphires and other precious stones furnish the General Motors artists and the Buick engineers ideas on color tones and combinations that are finally transferred to Buick and Marquette cars.”

This article appeared on October 19, 1929, just days before the stock market crash that contributed to the Great Depression.   Sales soon plummeted, and Buick went from focusing on the “fashion salons of Europe” and “the wings of butterflies” to mere survival.

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Mystery Light

You know how you sometimes have to buy a whole box of stuff to get that one thing you want at an auction?  That often happens to me, and the result is a whole lot of research to figure out what I have.  Several years ago, I bought one of those boxes, and this light was at the bottom of it:

I had no idea what it was, but it was marked with a part number so at least I had a starting point.  Thanks to an ebay seller in Great Britain, I was finally able to confirm that this light was original to . . . . .  a B-24 Liberator bomber!  How it ended up in a box of old car parts, I have no idea.

My British purchase was a B-24 parts manual.  According to that manual, each part begins with “32” followed by a letter such as “W” for “Wing”.  My light is marked with “32E-1242-2”, and I found it in the Electrical section where it is identified as “lamp assy”.  I also found this picture on the internet:

Photo credit: Wikimedia.org

The B-24 was a heavy bomber that  measured 110 feet from wingtip to wingtip and 67 feet 4 inches from nose to tail.  It had four 1200 hp air-cooled engines and could fly 300 mph and 3000 miles non-stop.  Why is all this being included on an American car history blog?  It actually fits right in because there is a good possibility that my light was manufactured by none other than Henry Ford.  The famed Ford Motor Company assembly line rolled out B-24s from 1942 to 1945.  There is a short film that can be watched here called “The Story of Willow Run” and it goes into detail about this Ford Motor Company contribution to the war effort.

Willow Run was located in Michigan,  west of Detroit near Ypsilanti.  There, Ford built a massive aircraft plant that included an 11-acre warehouse with enough material to build 1,000 B-24s at any one time.  The plant had a production force of as many as 42,000 employees and included a school with hundreds of instructors to teach them how to build the bombers.  Fifty thousand workers graduated from this school and learned to manufacture and assemble the 1,225,000 parts that went into building each B-24.  This specialized force was able to turn out a new bomber at the astonishing rate of one every 55 minutes! There were four other plants that built B-24s, but nearly half of the 18,493 produced were built at Willow Run.

President Roosevelt’s cavalcades, with his auto in lead, passes long line of powerful, 4-motored army bombers at the Ford Willow Run (Mich.) bomber assembly plant. Five of the ever-alert secret service men who guard the President are seen riding bumpers of his auto. (Official navy photo.) (NEA Telephoto.)

Maybe it isn’t surprising that this light was purchased at a rural Nebraska auction since my state was home to a total of 12 WWII army airfields that were used to train the pilots and crews of fighters and bombers.  Nebraska was chosen for a number of reasons including reliable rail transportation, inexpensive land and excellent conditions for flying, year-round.

I haven’t yet decided how to display my light, but I am going to keep it.  I think it is an excellent reminder of the Greatest Generation and what it was able to accomplish.

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Throwback Thursday: Grille Edition

This gorgeous sea-green 1947 Chevrolet graced us with an appearance at a local car show this summer:

1947 Chevy

Chevrolet did not have a true post-war car until 1949, so this ’47 is very similar to those produced in 1942, 1946 and 1948.  They all have good-looking grilles, and just look how this one shines:

1947 Chevy Grille

The grille used in 1948 was very similar to  1947’s with the main difference being a piece of center moulding.  The following diagrams are taken from the 1953 edition of Motor’s Flat Rate & Parts Manual:

Motor’s Flat Rate Diagram
Motor’s Flat Rate Diagram

I always pick up these old manuals when I see them because they contain a wealth of helpful knowledge, but I also like looking at them for the nostalgia value.  Just imagine, in 1953, you could purchase one of these very substantial grilles AND a bumper for around a hundred bucks!

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Willys Aero

When most people hear “Willys,”  they understandably think of jeeps, but Willys first manufactured passenger cars.  In fact, during the early 1900s, Willys was second only to Ford in production of automobiles.  In the midst of the roaring twenties, Willys produced over 200,000 units in 1925 alone.   Willys encountered financial problems during the depression but was saved by World War II’s demand for jeeps.  After the war, the company, led by Ward Canaday, again wanted to try its hand at passenger cars and finally achieved this goal with the Aero in 1952.

The Willys Aero is a great-looking car with small fins and elements of airplane design like a cockpit-style dash and split windshield, aerodynamic lines and this airplane hood ornament:

Below the hood ornament there is a large “W” embedded in the grille:

The car featured a uni-body construction with a low center of gravity and a 108” wheel base.  Considered a light car at 2562 pounds, it weighed hundreds of pounds less than a Ford or Chevy.  It would also run 500 miles on one 18-gallon tank of gas!  The car didn’t sacrifice power, however, with a 90 hp Hurricane 6 F-head engine under the hood.  In January, 1952, Popular Science Monthly featured “The Story of the New Aero Willys,” and asserted that “Its six-cylinder engine develops more horsepower per cubic inch of piston displacement than that of any other U.S. car, regardless of price.”  The magazine further extolled the virtues of the Aero by saying that it cruised beautifully at 75 mph and that both the engine and transmission demonstrated “excellent smoothness.”

In 1952, the Willys was available in the Aero-Lark, the Aero-Wing and the Aero-Ace.  In 1953, the Aero-Wing was replaced by the Aero-Falcon and a hardtop coupe, the Aero-Eagle, was added to the line-up.  When asked about the choice of the name “Aero,” Canaday replied that “it’s the nearest thing to flying you’ll find on the highway.”

The Aero was only manufactured for four years.  Willys was purchased by Kaiser in 1953, and Henry Kaiser made the decision to focus on jeeps a couple of years later.  It was another example of a car ahead of its time, and one more that’s being added to the list of cars I’d like to own!

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Nebraska Junk Jaunt 2018

If you are able to schedule a “junk vacation” (junk-ation?) this month, head to Nebraska for the 15th annual Junk Jaunt.  The Junk Jaunt is 500 miles of garage sales and purveyors of all kinds of antiques and junk, over 700 vendors in all.

There are several must-shop hot-spots along the way, and one of the best is the village of Cairo, which is pronounced KAIR-oh, like the syrup.     Most of Cairo is covered with vendors, including main street, the ball field, the Community Center and a large field next to the Lutheran Church.  To find all things gas, oil and automotive, just look for this DT Vintage sign in the “Big Ass” Shed north of the ball field.

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1958 Chevrolet Impala

Everyone loves a ’57 Chevy, but I always preferred the lower and meaner ’58.  The 1958s represented a complete design change featuring dual headlamps, triple tail lamps, flared rear fenders and a wraparound windshield.  The sales brochure called it “Sculpturamic” which must be the Latin term for smoking hot.  These Chevy’s were bigger and lower than the 1957s and sported an X-type frame for support.  The Level Air Suspension System was an option and, best of all, so was the new 348 Turbo-Thrust V8.  Offered in 3 series, the Bel Air, the Biscayne and the Delray, the ’58 Chevy Impalas really were “all-new” for 1958, and they were also first class:

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Packard Hood Ornaments

These Packard hood ornaments are among the most beautiful ever produced, but don’t call them “swans,” at least not around any Packard aficionados.  This Packard mascot was originally called a pelican and was based on the Packard family crest.  There seems to be considerable disagreement on the specifics, but somewhere along the line Packard began referring to the design as a “cormorant.”  No matter what you call it, there is no denying that it is one gorgeous bird.

Other Packard-related posts:

Packard Hood Ornaments by Year – 1940s

Packard Hood Ornaments by Year – 1950s

1934 Packard

1937 Packard

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American Ingenuity

I have been reading a book about Henry Ford called I Invented the Modern Age by Richard Snow.  In it, Snow makes the point that, at the same time that Ford was building his first automobile, there were many men in many garages around the country attempting the same feat and, incredibly, each of those men was operating in a vacuum.  Snow quotes Ford as saying, “I had to work from the ground up – that is, although I knew a number of people were working on horseless carriages, I could not know what they were doing.”

It is a testament to American ingenuity that so many were successful in creating a working automobile, and I recently discovered there was one such man right in my home town.  His name was T. H. Bolte, and he was a machinist and bicycle builder in Kearney, Nebraska.  He completed his automobile in the summer of 1900 after working on it for approximately a year and a half.  With the exception of the engine, he had to create everything, down to the last gear, by hand.  When he started building the automobile, he had never seen one in person.

Bolte’s machine weighed about 650 pounds and used a double gearing, one on each side.  It initially had a 2 hp gasoline engine that could only go 10 mph.  Happily, the local paper published this photo so we know what it looked like:

 

Bolte continued to sell bicycles and began selling automobiles as well.  This is one of his ads:

He later went into the cement business and improved, patented and sold cement mixers.  Bolte was also serving on the city council in 1904 when they passed an ordinance making it illegal to drive any vehicle other than a bicycle or tricycle within the city at a greater rate of speed than 12 mph.  The punishment for violating this ordinance was arrest and fine of not more than $100 or imprisonment not to exceed 30 days!  Every councilman voted in favor of the ordinance except for Bolte who said it “would make lawbreakers of the people.”

Bolte was absolutely correct in voting against it, but another little blurb that was published in 1901 further explains his stance.  His 2 hp engine had given out and he had replaced it with a 4 hp engine capable of making a speed of 15 mph.  Bolte was definitely my kind of guy.

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With a V8 Here and a V8 There . . . . A Guide to Early Ford Hub Caps

Identifying early Ford hubcaps can be difficult due to the many “V8” variants.  This is a little guide I put together for myself that covers Ford cars 1932-48.  Please note that I have not included the locking spare tire hub caps or the spiders (because, sadly, I don’t possess any.)    Hope it helps!

 

1932

1932, 1933 4-cylinder

1933

1934

1935

1936 (V8 is recessed)

1937 (V8 is raised)

1938 Standard

1938 Deluxe

1939 Standard

1939 Deluxe

1940 Standard

1940 Deluxe

1941

1942

 

1946

1947-1948

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The Least Expensive Date You Ever Had

A few years ago my husband brought home a box of hood ornaments for my anniversary present (he knows me so well)!   Among them was this streamlined beauty:

This gorgeous gal originally flew on the hood of a Nash, and she is autographed by George Petty, the artist that designed her:

George Petty was the original American pin-up girl artist.  Petty’s career shifted into high gear after he went to work for a brand-new magazine called Esquire in 1933.  The Petty Girl became the standard in advertising and was also overwhelmingly popular with American servicemen during WWII.   Hundreds of American bombers featured a Petty Girl on the fuselage including the renowned Memphis Belle, the first bomber to return to the United States after completing 25 missions over Europe.   Ernie Pyle, famed war correspondent, wrote from Tunisia in 1943 that “Petty’s drawing of his famous girl stretched out on her stomach musing about something is tacked up in hundreds of soldier billets in North Africa.”

My hood ornament was designed for the 1950 Airflyte according to this piece from the Late Fall 1949 issue of Nash Airflyte Magazine:

It reads:  “This new Nash Flying Lady was created especially for the 1950 Airflyte (both Ambassador and Statesman models) by the famous George Petty of Petty Girl renown.  Her wide wings and soft contours, finished in heavy chrome, will add a distinctive note to your car.  You can get this stunning ornament (for any Nash Airflyte model) from your Nash dealer – she’ll be the least expensive date you ever had!”

This hood ornament was used again in 1951.  This excerpt appeared in the 1951 Nash Accessories brochure:

Petty went on to design another hood ornament for Nash, and his designs stand out even among the other beautiful and aerodynamic hood ornaments of the 1950s.   What a glorious time period it was in American automobile history, one filled with style, class and individuality.

 

1950 Nash

1951 Nash