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An Aristocrat at Old Trusty

We attended the annual Old Trusty Antique & Collectors Show a couple of weekends ago and were surprised to see this rare Empire sitting among the classics. Unfortunately, there was no one hovering around it that I could question, so I have no idea where it originated from or how it came to be in Clay Center; I only know it was there and it was amazing.

The Empire Automobile Company was founded in 1909 by a small group of Indianapolis businessmen. Three of these men, Arthur Newby of the National Car Company, Carl Fisher of Prest-O-Lite, and James Allison who later became known for Allison Aircraft, were also involved in the building of a certain famous brick racetrack in that city. On a cold day in December of 1909, the last brick, a gold-plated one, was laid into place, and it was time to prove the new track was a fast one. Many records were broken that day by bigger and more powerful automobiles, but the 4-cylinder Empire did participate in the record setting:

With the founders wanting to focus on the racetrack endeavor, Empire was sold in 1911, went through a reorganization that moved some operations to Pennsylvania, added a 6-cylinder 25-hp Continental engine as an option, and was gone by the time the 1920s rolled around. The Empire at the Old Trusty show looks similar to the drawing featured in this advertisement which provides some detail about the “The Little Aristocrat.”

The upholstery looks original, doesn’t it? Where on earth has this car been?

This was the 41st year for Old Trusty, and it really is a gem of a show with so much to see in terms of antique cars, trucks, tractors, and equipment. Here are photos of a few more things that were part of the show, including a 1966 Plymouth Satellite, a couple of Ford trucks , a canary yellow Model A, a 1912 Excelsior motorcycle, and all manner of military vehicles and engines.

1912 Excelsior

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Saturday Morning Flea Market Haul of Vintage Car Parts & Accessories

Just when you start to worry that all the good car parts have already found their way into the hands of collectors, you have a great morning at the flea market. This is what we walked away with Saturday:

The instrument cluster is from a 1948-1950 Ford truck, and the clock, in beautiful condition, is from a 1937 Lafayette.

The colorful items at the top of the photo are vintage bug deflectors, and the oval underneath them is an early beveled glass window with frame like the one being used as a rear window on this 1907 Regal:

1907 Regal “30” Touring

The Oldsmobile “ringed globe” emblem is also in fantastic condition, and the fog light is a high-quality “Lumidor,” mentioned in this 1949 advertisement:

My husband has banned me from dragging home any more hubcaps, but I still manage to sneak some past him. The set of four Chevy truck caps are full of dents and rust, but hey, some people like them that way, and I also found a decent Mopar red-line cap. The find I was most excited about was the Buick cap, found only on the 1934-1935 Series 40.

You don’t see caps for this stunningly beautiful automobile very often, so I was thrilled to spot it in a pile of parts. The junking season is in full swing in my neighborhood, and we will be hitting the road for the next three weekends to see what else we can find. These are the places and dates in case you want to try your luck:

September 14-16: Highway 36 Treasure Hunt

September 22-24: Nebraska Junk Jaunt

October 6-8: Heritage Highway 136 Trail of Treasures

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The First Chevrolet Impalas

This advertisement for the 1958 Chevrolet, made in conjunction with the Kansas City Auto Show, describes the 17 models available in ’58:

Note that the lineup includes Impala models as part of the Bel Air series:

This marked the first opportunity for a member of the car-buying public to purchase a Chevrolet Impala, but it was not the first time General Motors utilized that particular name. A “dream car” presented at GM’s 1956 Motorama car show was a futuristic five passenger sport sedan that was, believe it or not, called a Corvette Impala.

Like the production Corvette, the Corvette Impala had a fiberglass body. It was almost the same width as a Chevrolet sedan, but four and a half inches longer and six inches lower. The power plant was a 225-hp Super Turbo-Fire V8 with 9.25-to-1 compression ratio, high-lift cam shaft and a four-barrel carb. Being a GM product, it naturally had a Powerglide transmission.

In a departure from the typical more-is-more styling of the 1950s, little chrome was used. It did have a toothy, Corvette-like grille, however.

So, would you have been in the market for this Impala concept car, described as having “fleet, buoyant lines that accent motoring adventure with safety and luxury?” Or do your preferences in motoring adventure run more along these lines?

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Vintage J.C. Whitney Catalogs

Long before online ordering, one catalog that was indispensable to every car guy was the one that came from J.C. Whitney. The roots of the company go all the way back to a Chicago scrap metal yard started in 1915 by Lithuanian immigrant Israel Warshawsky, so this company has been enabling automotive junkies for over one hundred years. This advertisement is from 1927:

By the 1940s the business was using the name J.C. Whitney, and Warshawsky’s son, Roy, took over and expanded the company. I found a newspaper story from the 1970s that said Roy Warshawsky just “made up” the name J.C. Whitney and didn’t even recall why he chose it. The story went on to say that when people would call and ask to speak to the “boss,” meaning J.C. Whitney, the phone operators were known to maintain the illusion by replying, “Mr. Whitney is in Europe.”

I recently got my hands on a 1956 J.C. Whitney catalog, and it was a blast to look through:

As I thumbed through the fragile pages, I saw things that I did not even know were an option such as plaid convertible tops . . . .

. . . and hat racks.

You frequently see vintage bug deflectors for sale online and at swap meets, and there were many variations of these listed in the catalog:

There was also a variety of ways to achieve the look of white wall tires without actually shelling out the dough, including the rings seen below and a paint kit called White Wall Wonder.

It looks like vintage J.C. Whitney catalogs are currently going for $10-30 apiece online, so it might be time to drag yours out the attic!

1936 Plymouth

1965 Lincoln

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Chevrolet Knee Action in the 1930s

We just picked up two fabulous 1930s Chevrolet dashes:

These would be correct for a 1933 Chevrolet Master or a 1934-1935 Chevrolet Standard, and this was an interesting time for General Motors as 1934 was the year the company introduced a new feature marketed under the colorful name of “Knee Action.” This revolutionary new design feature was a much-needed independent front suspension. The ride quality in early automobiles suffered because stiff front springs transmitted road shocks to the frame causing the front end to rise and fall. The consequent rise and fall at the rear of the car made backseat riding uncomfortable as passengers were jostled with each bump in the road. General Motor’s new Knee Action design allowed the front wheels to move up and down with the irregularities of the road without imparting the shock to the frame and passengers.

This diagram and accompanying explanation were part of a 1934 advertisement:

It appears an entire advertising campaign was built around this new feature. Here are a few more:

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The “Big Three” and “Little Three” Car Companies of 1954

I found this blurb in a 1954 newspaper:

If you’ve been watching the automobile news, you know that there are now only six passenger car manufacturers in the U.S. – the “big three” and the “little three.”

So, can you name the six surviving car companies of 1954?

The Big Three are easy to identify:

Ford

General Motors

1954 Chevy Corvette

1954 Chevy Bel Air

Chrysler

Recalling the Little Three is more problematic as there was a lot going on in the way of mergers and acquisitions. In no particular order, they are:

Studebaker-Packard – Detroit’s Packard Motor Car Company bought Indiana-based Studebaker in 1954 and became Studebaker-Packard.

1954 Studebaker Station Wagon

1954 Packard Clipper Super Touring Sedan

Kaiser-Willys – Kaiser-Frazer had started up after WWII, riding high on the post-war boom. The company struggled in the early 1950s after a series of missteps, and the Frazer name was dropped. In 1953, Kaiser purchased Willys-Overland and, in 1954, the companies merged into Willys Motors, Inc.

1954 Kaiser Darrin

1954 Kaiser

1954 Willys M38A1

American Motors – AMC was formed in 1954 when the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation merged with Hudson.

1954 Hudson Hornet with Twin H-Power

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4th of July Recap: A Boat for Sale, A Boat Back from a Watery Grave, and A Hubcap with a Historical Pedigree

We spent Independence Day in Nebraska’s 4th of July City, Seward, where the festivities always include a car show.

’47 Chevy Stylemaster

’57 Ford Fairlane 500

The line-up included a nice firecracker-red 1960 Buick with a “For Sale” sign in the window.

Seward is home to the Nebraska National Guard Museum, and that is where we saw a WWII Higgins Boat with an incredible backstory. It was revealed by receding waters in drought-stricken Lake Shasta in Northern California in 2021, and you can see video of that here. The Higgins boat, or Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP) boat, played such a vital role that President Eisenhower described inventor Andrew Jackson Higgins as “the man that won the war for us.” There are less than twenty known to survive, so this was an incredible find, and I am so appreciative of everyone who played a role in its rescue.

Finally, Seward is home to a terrific antique store called Antiques on 34, and I found this amazing hubcap there:

It is in beautiful condition and looks like an old replacement cap for a 1941 Ford. This is what the cap looks like next to an original ’41.

I assume the replacement cap was made by Lyon, but I have not been able to confirm that fact. Lyon made lots of wheel covers, both original and replacement, but there is not a comprehensive source for identifying these Lyon products that I am aware of. This particular ’41 replacement cap is special because the same type of cap was used on Regg Schlemmer’s famous ’27 Roadster. The Hot Rod Foundation has a photo of that roadster posted here.

If this roadster seems familiar to you, it is likely because it appeared on the very first cover of Hot Rod Magazine in January of 1948. I recently purchased a reprint in hopes that there would be a good photo of my hub cap (there was not), but I had fun reading it anyway. Finally, in case you are wondering if your January 1948 issue of HRM is an original or a reprint, MotorTrend has a good explanation posted here.

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A Trio of Nash Twin-Ignition Advertisements

The Nash Twin-Ignition motor was first introduced in June of 1928 for the company’s OHV engines, and I really like this 1929 Nash advertisement for its drawing and description of that particular innovation:

For 1930, Nash introduced its first eight, an OHV straight-eight with Twin-Ignition. With engine displacement of 298.6ci, it developed 100 bhp at 3200 rpm and was advertised as making 80 miles an hour in just three blocks:

The final one is from 1928, and it makes an airplane comparison by invoking the historic flights of Lindbergh, Goebel, and Byrd:

1930 Nash

Photo credit:
Greg Gjerdingen from Willmar, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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Firestone Non-Skid and Other Interesting Treads from the Early 1900s

This is another picture of the Fawick Flyer discussed in a recent post. These Firestone tires with “NON-SKID” embossed in the tread are reproduced today, but these advertisements for the originals were published in 1913:

While looking for information on the original Firestones, I found many early advertisements for different brands of tires with interesting treads. Here are just a few: