What a deal! “Buy my house and Iwill throw in my1925 Maxwell. I will throw in a free car if you buy my house.“
It sounded like a pretty good deal at the time. Buy a house on five acres, next to a golf course, only ten minutes away from the airport in Burlington. And get a free car! I am kind of a car buff anyway, so we agreed.
Carla and I adopted a 1974 MGB convertible ten years ago. We were living in Reno, Nevada and the MG was for sale in South Carolina, just a ways from a friend of mine. I asked my friend to test drive the car for me and he said it was a gem. I have wondered ever since what I had done to my friend to make him turn on me. The car was not a “GEM”, but in time I will make it one.
Anyway, back to the current question. The car I inherited with our new home is a 1925 Maxwell, 4-door sedan. It has been garage parked for 43 years. Being “garage parked” is usually a good sign on “Chasing Classic Cars.”
Apparently the garages on that show are free of mice. My garage was not so lucky. Mice had consumed three quarters of the roof and both the front and back seats.
“Not a problem!”, said my new car guru friend, Wendell Noble. “There is a chance if we put some fresh gas in it and get a new battery, this beauty might start right up!”
First “Not a Problem!”… When I reached down to pull the distributor cap, it crumbled into dust. This was my first introduction to pot metal.
Second “Not a Problem!”……. 1925 Maxwell distributors, distributor caps, and distributor castings do not fall off the parts tree. Fred Gonet and Wendell have been invaluable at finding replacement parts.
Nothing happens now until we get together and install our version of a rebuilt distributor. Gary will provide the pictures. We will keep you posted.
Maxwell was an American automobile manufacturer from 1904 to 1925 when Chrysler purchased the company. Maxwell production began under the name Maxwell-Briscoe Company of N. Tarrytown, New York.
The company was named after founder Jonathan Maxwell who earlier worked for Oldsmobile, and Benjamin Briscoe, an auto industry pioneer. For a time, Maxwell was considered one of the three top automobile firms in America, along with General Motors and Ford.
There are many years where the production numbers are unavailable. Ten cars were produced the first year in 1904.
Well over 860,000 Maxwells were produced through 1925.
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