Category: Wheel Tracks

“It is way too nice to put in my car, I am going to make a coffee table out of it…..” The words of engine owner, Bill Fagan, after seeing Fred Gonet’s beautiful work. Fred’s business is G&G Restoration of Proctorsville, Vermont. Many years are needed to reach this level of restoration ability and Fred has them.

According to “The American Cars” standard catalog, Cadillac’s engine numbers ranged from 91005 to 99999 in 1914. Does this mean Cadillac made 8,994 of these pieces of art that year? Bill Fagan’s engine number is 99618.

The engine is an in-line, Vertical L-head engine with cast iron cylinders and copper water jackets. Displacement is 366 cu. inches and produces 40 to 50 brake HP. The publication also notes that 1914 was the last 4-cylinder engine that Cadillac produced in the next 67 years. The company went to the 70 HP V-8 in 1915.

Bill Fagan’s plan is to take the car to Fred Gonet’s Proctorsville shop in March to have the engine installed. Here is Bill’s “barn find” story…

A friend of mine in NH has the exact same Phaeton, being the rarer Sport model 4 passenger body, as opposed to the larger 5 passenger body with 2 jump seats in the back.

The story is, my friend was working with the Boy Scouts on a Soap Box Derby with another guy, got to talking about old cars and the guy said his father died and left him a very low mileage ‘14 Cadillac. It was in the barn and had not run since the mid ‘50’s when they tried to start it and burned up the rear main bearing. The father had bought the car in the late ‘30’s from the original owner in Maine and drove it all through the ‘40’s until the early ‘50’s when he got involved in Sports Cars, so the Caddy was parked in the barn and there it languished until 2006 when my friend struck a deal for it and some parts.

On a Brass Era Frostbite Tour in Mass. a few days later, my friend told me he had just run across this “barn find” ‘14 Caddy, and was I interested? Needless to say I was and drove to his place in NH the day after the tour and made the deal. Because the car sat in the barn with a damp floor, the fenders, splash aprons and wheel rims were quite rusty and had to be repainted. The body and upholstery are original and in excellent condition. I’ve gone through the running gear and the frame, painted them and the wheels and Nickel plated all the bright work.

Ten years ago I had pulled the engine, dismantled it and cleaned all the parts and painted where needed. After this 10 year hiatus, I brought everything to Fred and he started to work his magic, as I tried to remember what I had and had not done! The heads had to be removed from the jugs with a special high torque tool my friend made up and Fred modified. New valves and guides had to be made down in Mass. and the heads remachined. Fred pulled the copper jackets off the jugs, pounded out the dents and buffed them. Its a very delicate operation. 100 years of rust and sediment gets trapped in there and is the cause for these copper clad jugs to overheat, a notorious Cadillac problem.

Most owners are too nervous to try and pull the copper jackets off. Fred made up a jig to hold the iron ring that holds the copper jackets in place. The ring has to be heated up with a torch and slid down over the copper jacket. You have only one chance to get it right before it cools and contacts around the base of the copper. You will inevitably damage the copper jack-et trying to get it back off if you mess up! I had gotten new Arias Aluminum Pistons made 10 years ago, but got side tracked on other projects, so everything had come to a stand still. At this juncture, I am waiting for new tires and tubes back ordered from Coker, then I can get the car to Fred and hopefully get it on the road this Summer.

Fred Gonet told about the other items that he needed to do, to get the engine ‘sorted’. Part of the engine was together but he needed to be sure all tolerances were correct, so everything was disassembled. Once the copper jackets were removed, he used heat to anneal the metal and then hammered out the dents, then smoothed and polished them to what you see in the pictures.

The old coil was unusable so he re-engineered a motorcycle coil to fit into the factory assembly.

New plug wire ends were built to factory specs, the distributor was completely gone-through, all lower end bearings were re-shimmed and the timing was setup. Interestingly, the oil pan is built with two compartments but only one has a drain plug for removing the old oil. With Fred’s “modern touch” the ’14 engine now has two drain plugs and also oil-level plugs installed for both compartments.

Surprising to many is the size of the cone-clutch. It can be seen in the picture to the left. The disc that you can see has an angled edge (cone shape) with a matching disc/cone outside of it. As the two cones are pressed together, the material in-between allows smooth vehicle movement. Originally leather was used, in this case a Kevlar material is used.

Some, have heard how drivers of these old cars have felt a weird jump while driving down the highway. When they look back “there is a snake in the middle of the road!”

The “snake” is the leather material that was kicked out by an unhappy automobile.

The 1906 Orient Buckboard continues to make history in its quiet way.  Pictured here is the Orient introducing itself to the school children of Island Pond in May of 2015. Sorry, but Wheel Tracks has no name for the pretty young lady, seated. Left is the Orient’s engine being restored today in a machine shop in East Fairfield. Will we see the Orient under its own power in 2020? 

Indeed, the 1906 Orient Buckboard  continues to make history in its quiet way. 

It was July, 2010, Gary Olney’s Orient Buckboard made its way to Wheel Tracks. At the time the Buckboard had a lonely corner of a rented barn in Derby, Vermont. There was a visit to a small car show in Island Pond, the front page pictures a young lady sitting in the vehicle’s 114 year old seat.

Today, the Orient has a place of honor at Gary and Nancy’s home in Derby Line. The tires are still flat but there is a plan! The engine has been removed and sits in Dennis Dodd’s shop in East Fairfield. There is a plan to get it run-ning, on the shop stand, then the rest of the vehicle will be retrieved to reinstall the engine. From there, the other small problems will be tackled and the Orient will have a new life of car shows and short parades. 

The engine has a carburetor but most of its innards are missing. Dennis will be making new valves since it is impossible to find factory valves, also a cracked exhaust valve seat needs to be addressed. He has found the ignition timer is still in good condition and has it set for running. The bottom end and the cylinder/piston also seems to be in working order so he has decided to go after the other items that need attention. That attention will cover the exhaust routing, new gaskets, possibly the valve sleeves and what has already been mentioned. He says the hardest task is to follow Mr. Olney’s instructions and leave the engine’s patina as is. We all love to make things look brand-new, but Gary’s hope is the Orient will basically look the same when the restoration is complete. 

Dennis has also found the engine is a late 1905 model. It is most likely the original engine, it is just that the factory had probably not made the switch to the newer engine when they sold this vehicle. Most manufacturers of the time added changes throughout the year and was not into today’s New-Model-Year mentality of today. 

This is a part of the Wheel Tracks story from 2010….. 

There are some mysteries we have been unable to find answers to but isn’t that exactly how it should be? 

This Orient Buckboard was built by the Waltham Manufacturing Company on Rumford Avenue in Waltham, Mass. Thanks to Bill Sherk’s article in ’Old Autos’, a publication printed in Bothwell Ontario, a few of the mysteries have been solved. The auto…with it’s Massachusetts number plate…… made it’s way from Waltham to Antigonish Nova Scotia when a jeweler purchased it (date unknown). The story goes that the jeweler would often turn to swearing as he turned the crank because the car was so hard to start. 

At some point the jeweler made arrangements to store the Orient Buckboard and a 1912 Studebaker in an area barn owned by the grandfather of Mr. Gordon Penny. When the Studebaker was removed it is said the Orient was left as payment for storage. When Gordon was 14 years old in 1945 he found the Orient in his grandfathers barn, the Massachusetts plate was still attached. He pulled the Orient out and got it running. 

The story continues……..in the early 1950s Gordon sold the Orient, in running condition, to Mr. Harry Olney of Springfield, Vermont. 

Mr. Gordon still resides in Antigonish, Nova Scotia and when he was interviewed by Bill Sherk he said he thought the Orient was now in Maine someplace. Well, guess what, the Orient resides in Derby, Vermont and is owned by Harry Olney’s son Gary… the Orient still has it’s Mass.1908 plate #0237K. 

There were about 2500 Orient Buckboards built and it is estimated 57 exists today, of which 45 are in the United States. The 1906 Orient was sold new for $440 and was the first to have what is called Friction Drive, a wheel and disc that allows an infinite variation of speeds forward and reverse also allowing for much less vibration when driving. Top speed is 35 MPH and if you want to enter a race, special ’racing’ sprockets can be installed to reach up to 40MPH. The engine produces 4 horsepower and is air cooled. The car weight is 525 pounds with a wheelbase of 80 inches. The wheel track is 42 inches but can be changed to 56 inches which would allow it to fit into the ‘standard wagon tread’. 

Gene and Gina Wescott gets a visit from Hemmings. Hemmings wanted all the details on the Wescott’s Beautiful 1930 Packard Standard Eight. 

Gene and Gina Wescott’s Packard looks a little different in one of its former lives. She is pictured here in 1996 when the couple purchased her from the estate of Dr. Carlos Otis. The Doctor practiced for many years in Townshend, VT. and was the founder of Grace Cottage Hospital in Townshend. 

Max Brand was an auto appraiser and a friend of the Wescott’s through “The Yesteryear Car Club”. Max let Gene know about the upcoming Packard sale and that began the next chapter in the life of this wonderful car. 

One of Gene’s first tasks was to remove the original lacquer paint and after many hours using paint stripper and sand blasting, the task was complete. The beautiful paint job you see on the front page was done by Eric Lanning of King Ferry, New York. 

Many of us know the Packard’s upholsterer, and that is Dick Hurd of Springfield, VT. Many additional hours have been spent during the last 24 years to bring the Packard into its current life, witnessed by the picture on our front page. 

Then along came “Hemmings Classic Car” magazine! 

“Hemmings Motor News Concours d’Elegance” began in 2003 in Lake George, NY. The Wescott’s thought it would be fun to enter their Packard for the 2018 gathering and that was when Hemmings first heard about the car. As Gene said, the car could never compete with the “big boys” in a competition from all over the nation like this but, they did get the Reliable Carriers Award Classic Trophy that August. The three day event was a lot of fun for Gene and Gina. 

In 2019, Hemmings Classic Car Magazine contacted the Wescott’s and asked if they could feature the 1930 Packard in the magazine. Their photographer, Dave Conwill arrived on October 4th for the three hour photo shoot and the rest is history. You can find the Packard story on page 44 of the January 2020 issue. One of Gene’s comments about the photo shoot was how Dave Conwill didn’t mind getting dirty. The very low shots that you see, were taken with the photographer lying in the dirt road on his stomach to get that ‘magic shot’! 

This 1930 Seventh Series Packard Standard Eight 7-33 Phaeton. 

7-33 means the 7th series Packard on a 133 inch wheelbase. 

The Hemmings story, very interesting, compares the car with all of the other comparable cars of that year, that were competitors. The story also does a great job placing the Packard into the great 1930 stock market crash. According to “ The Standard Catalog of American Cars” the company had built over 41,000 cars in 1928 and another 43,000 in 1929. The 1930 production showed the affects of the crash with only 28,000 built. 

The 733 came in ten different body styles from the roadster to the limo. The engine produces 90 HP and the car weighs about 3900 pounds. The Wescott’s have put 3000 to 4000 miles on it and Gene says it loves to travel 40 to 45 MPH. They have basically done nothing to the engine. It is believed some engine work was done back when the doctor had it and it still climbs the hills like a champ today. 

One interesting call has come from California because of the Hemmings story. The gent who called had moved West in 1951 and told about his dad being the bookkeeper for the Packard dealership in the Burlington area while he was growing up. He had a chance to drive many of the Packard’s from this 7-33’s period. He remembered a local musician traveling to Rutland for a concert in his Packard phaeton. His memory of the musician driving up to the concert hall and retrieving his huge base instrument from the car’s back seat stays with him today. We VAEers are lucky, as we will be seeing the Packard in many of our upcoming events. Now that we know a bit of its history, we will be looking a little closer at her beautiful lines. 

Henry Ford made about One Thousand Model F Fords in 1905 & 1906. It is understood, maybe, thirty-five remain in the world. Two Model F Fords can be found in Bill Erskine’s barn. Bill is pictured testing the cornering abilities of this Model F!

It was over thirty years ago that Bill Erskine found his Model F Ford in Western New York, in a town named Angelica and not far from where he grew up. But, the Model F was not the focus of his attention then. The gent who owned the Ford also had a 1903 Rambler and an International High Wheeler that caught his eye.

So, in normal “Bill Erskine fashion”, he made a deal with the old-gent owner of the Model F. Bill would restore the Model F to running condition in exchange for the other two vehicles. The gent agreed to the exchange, BUT, Bill could only take pieces of the Ford at a time, never the whole vehicle. Bill went home with the Model F engine that day, while the Rambler and the International waited for him to complete his deal.

Some time later, Bill returned the engine. It was restored, after many hours, and boxed very nicely in a wooden crate. He went home next, with the frame. Shortly , after beginning the frame work, Bill had a call from the NY police, it was found that someone had stolen the Rambler.

So, all work on the Ford stopped and in exchange for the work he had completed to date (plus some cash), Bill came home with the International High Wheeler and a 1916 Franklin.

Some twenty years later, Bill was visiting his family (not far from Angelica, NY) and decided to stop by a junk yard in the area. Guess what he found in the junk yard… you guessed it… he found the stolen 1903 Rambler! The Rambler was later purchased by someone (not Bill) from the junk yard and a settlement was made with the original owner.

Now, fast forward 27 years. Bill had stopped by a few times over the years, hoping to make a deal on the old gent’s Model F, but besides a nice conversation, he always went away empty handed… until three years ago. A deal was finally made and Bill became the proud owner of the ‘05 Ford. The engine was still in the crate that he had made for it but the body had deteriorated to the extent that it was unusable. A lot was missing and what was left could only be used as a pattern.

Bill made body patterns after taking many measurements from a Model F at the Ford museum. He then combined his measurements with two partial sets of patterns he had borrowed from people in Texas and Ohio and started building the wood body. About 120 hours of work in his wood shop produced his first body. It is important to note ’his first body’ because someone in the Midwest had heard about the project and Bill agreed to build a body for him also. The second body is what you see on the front page. When the gent who wanted to buy the body changed his mind, Bill decided to continue, and build a frame for the second Model F, and close to 100 hours of work later, the steel work was completed. That is what you see him sitting at on the front page. He has found a second engine and most of the parts needed for a complete 2nd vehicle.

Maybe the model F count is now 37, because of Bill Erskine’s creativity!

His plan is to use the first body for the original frame and engine. He hopes to sell the second Model F Ford to help lesson the amount he has invested in the two projects. There might even be a Model F for sale in his Hershey space next October. Some of us will need to travel South next Fall to find out!