1908 Model 10 Buick

A beauty of a 1908 Model 10 Buick Owned by Sandy & Tom Pierce

buick by whitingFor six months I kept noticing an ad for a 1908 Buick in Old Cars Weekly. The ad was only a phone number with no photo, so I looked up the Buick and thought it might be a great project, for someone who did not know much about Brass era cars. The car was still available when I called, so Sandy and I went to see it. It was located in Brockport, New York at the original dealership, that had sold it in 1908 (in those days, the dealer’s name is written in brass and attached to the car, as shown in the photo above… by Whiting). It was red and cute and shoved into a back corner of their garage. We wanted to see if it would start but water went right through the radiator and there was only an old rusty can for the gas tank.

1908 buick model 10We bought it and they transported it to our garage. I figured I could get the parts I needed from JC Whitney or NAPA. Boy was I in for a surprise! Over the next few years I took the car apart, glass blasted and numbered parts and primed them. John Layport built the radiator to exact Buick specs. The engine was rebuilt in Glens Falls. I took out the seats and found pieces of the original red leather upholstery and had the seats recovered in Water-bury by Patti and Phil Tomeny in the correct color. I had it painted the original Buick white by a friend and pinstriped by another. Sandy and I found running board covers and other parts at Chickasha and tires in Tennessee.

tom sandy pierce 1908 buick
Tom & Sandy Pierce

After about five years the car was back together and running. I was so proud of it and still am. Its fun to show because its so cute and stands out among all the big cars and the black cars and the newer cars. People love to talk about it and the Buicks in their family, and are always interested to know more about its history and car history in general. My jaws are happily tired from talking about my horseless carriage after a show.

Editor’s notes… A few days before the car show in Stowe a few of us heard how the Buick had not run for a while and that Tom wanted to take the Model 10 to the show. So, five of us piled into a pickup and headed south to Rochester to give Tom a hand… four enthusiastic theoretical mechanics and one real 100% mechanic (he is sitting on the running board in the picture to the left).

vae 1908 buick model 10
From the left… Gary Fiske, back…Gael Boardman, running board…Dennis Dodd, Tom Pierce, Gary Olney , Wendell Noble

While “theories” were flying through Tom’s garage the real mechanic cleaned the buzz coil connections and made sure the plugs had a healthy spark. The carburetor was found to be loaded with a quarter inch of gunk, so that got cleaned out. Next, some gas was poured into the empty gas tank under the driver’s seat and a fresh battery was hooked up to make the buzz coils do their “buzz” sound.

All that was left was to turn the crank while the “theorists” advised the “cranker” where to place his thumb….. and the little Buick came to life. We did find the cone clutch was stuck but with some jockeying, we were able to get it loose.

We hope you saw the Model 10 Buick at the show in Stowe, it is a beauty!

The Buick Model 10 Specs…
Valve-in-head 4 cylinder engine, cast iron block, 165 cu. in., brake HP=22.5, S.A.E. HP= 34.2. Mechanical valve lifters, Schebler carbu-retor, W.B. 88 inches, tires are 30X3 inches. It has a planetary transmission, 2 for-ward, 1 reverse, cone clutch & shaft drive. The top was an option that cost $10.00. The new price was $900.00 and Buick produced 4002 Model 10s. The Model 10 was the most popular Buick in 1908. Information from “Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942”

My ’65 MGB

My ’65 MGB story started in ’83, when I was 15 years old and was looking for my first car in anticipation of my 16 birthday. My limited funds available meant that I was looking for a deal and I would have to borrow the money to get it. My father has always been a fan of auctions and decided that our best bet was to go that route to get the most bang for the buck. We attended a Cruze Auto Auction in Springfield, MA and came home with the B for a price of $1,500.00. My father spotted me the money at the auction, then co-signed a loan so I could pay him back. I had the better half of a year to get the car ready for my July birthday and did so by primarily washing and sitting in it. I drove the car summers only and found a winter beater every fall that would usually not quite make it through mud season. Upon graduation from high school in ’86, we stiff hitched the B to Melbourne Florida where I attended Florida Institute of Technology and was able to drive year round. Over those 6 years of use I put a transmission, clutch, fuel pump and gas into the car. The mechanic in Fla., who put the fuel pump in, explained to me that the reason the car wanted to shoot off the road, to the right if you let go of the wheel, was due to the dire need for some king pins and other front end work. The estimate was way more than I could afford and I decided to drive my motorcycle to school and used that to get me through the last year.

1965 mg bThe front right tire was worn down to threads on the outer half and the king pins didn’t get any better after stiff hitching the car back to Vermont after graduation in ’90. Lacking money and having student loan debt, I decided to park the B in my parents barn and get a year round car to get me through till I could afford to fix the “fun car”. The Volvo 240DL wagon was the first in a long line of B replacement cars over the course of the next 26 years. During those years I worked, had a daughter, got married, had two sons, and the B got buried by “stuff” in the barn, so completely you could just see bits and pieces poking out. As fate would have it, one of my sons likes to tinker and thought the MG was worth unearthing and fixing up. At the same time his sister was looking for a senior project to complete her high school requirements. She said that it needed to be something she knew little about, but had an interest in learning. She definitely knew nothing about working on cars and didn’t really know what she was getting into, but decided to get the B back on the road, that is if I financed the restoration. That’s where it all started, pulling the car out of its cocoon on July 9th, 2016. My son was a little miffed that he wasn’t going to be able to do the work, but Aiyanna eventually found that some help would be a good thing and relaxed her “I have to do it all with no help” stance. The car was pressure washed and pulled into a shed on my property normally occupied by my tractor. The next step was to find a mentor for A.J. to work with, senior project rules dictate that the mentor cannot be family. That’s a great rule and one that probably saved her from not graduating. I have moderate mechanical skills at best and get easily frustrated when trying to “teach”.

1965 mg b restorationMy first instructions were to pour some Marvel oil down each plug hole, to which my daughter replied,”well, where is the twisty thingy to take those things out?”. After googling “MG people in VT”, Aiyanna found the name of our savior and mentor, David Sander. This saint of a man is the chairman of The New England MG “T” Register, Ltd., President of the VT Auto Enthusiast Club , and willing to give his time freely to a stranger who is interested in fixing a B, in need of a lot of help. In late September Dave came up and met the car, we were there, too. By December we had gotten new tires on the car so it would roll and we got it into it’s garage, a 10×20 tent with a pallet/plywood floor.After Christmas, Dave began a series of weekly visits on Thursday afternoons and the part buying frenzy began. By ground hogs day I was whipping out my Moss Motors customer number so fast it was catching the customer service reps by surprise. We have made a lot of progress and are on the cusp of starting the car for the first time. It currently has all new brakes, radiator, oil cooler, king pins, fuel pump, steering wheel, turn signal switch, slave cylinder, points, condenser, voltage regulator, rotor, tires, water pump, thermostat and housing, door handle, rebuilt master cylinders for the clutch and brakes, also many hours of loving attention. The car is smiling and so am I thinking of my kids driving my first car. Coming soon…

Editor’s note…The running engine has the sweetest sound you could ever hear!

Walk a Mile in My Shoes / Everyone has a Story

Having worked in medicine for 50 years, I have had many opportunities to listen to patient’s stories concerning their health, family, friends, the town, the State and the Federal government. Some have a lot of incite and some not so much, but we listen and many times I am so taken back by what I am hearing. Some of the stories are just horror stories, others are sweet, loving things that have happened to them, but later you realize that for the most part almost every story helped form this person. I must say that some-times you say to yourself, ‘how did they get this far?’. Where I am trying to head is to not form a judgement on a person from how they act or talk or what you hear about them. We have no idea that the lady who cut in line with not a glance or apology, has just got-ten a report of a serious health problem or the rude person who cuts you off and steals your parking space has just been laid off from their job. There are a million reasons why people do or say what they do, rough day, rough morning, bad report card, forgot your wallet, left late, break down and on and on and on.

I have been talking about the negative but you do run into some positive people. The negative occasions you remember, and these are where I would like you to give them a break. I was reminded of this when a group got together recently and while passing through a certain village, remembered the time they were having lunch and this “mad woman” came in the establishment ‘spitting fire’, obviously something they had never seen before or since. I would gather they would not want to see this again! I would have loved to have been there, to hear all the reasons they could give, why this poor distressed woman finally seemed to be on the edge or maybe a little over.

She had lived this event for weeks, made meals, and chased grandchildren and was left behind because someone else was late and she had to ‘fix it’ and then catch up in an area she wasn’t familiar with and maybe, just maybe she had the wrong instructions, but don’t think she hasn’t thought a million times if ‘he’ said it, she must be wrong. So, if you were there, cut her a break and forget it. Remember the other times when she is the only woman to show up and smiles and acts like she is enjoying herself. If you weren’t there, let that little lady cut in front and just smile and realize she probably must get that milk home to her loving children. Of course I am also open to the fact, the little lady can spot a sucker when she sees one!

In closing
, if I were that ‘witchy’ woman which I want you to know for sure that I’m not or wasn’t, of course I wasn’t even there, was I? If I was, you’d remember, wouldn’t you? Oh! Just walk a mile in my shoes!!