Category: Wheel Tracks

The Shelburne Museum/VAE Father’s Day Auto Festival Award…..
Most Original (Unrestored ): 1910 Flanders, owned by Vin Cassidy

Vin Cassidy, pictured left, has had the Flanders for a number of years. Wheel Tracks understands that Vin found the chassis and running gear in Massachusetts from Carl Weber. The body was found in Iowa some seven years ago.

Vin and his family own Cassidy Bros. Forge in Rowley, Mass. where they create some of the most amazing work you can fine. Just one example is pictured here. One of the company’s long-time employees is Al Murphy and it is also Wheel Tracks understanding that Al was the main person who put all the Flanders parts and pieces together to make what you see here.

The Flanders Automobile Company was around for only three years, from 1910 to 1913, while 31,514 vehicles were built. The Flanders name comes from Walter E. Flanders (1871–1923) born March 4 in Rutland, Vermont. He was educated in Vermont and left school as a teenager to begin working as a mechanic and machinist. In 1905 he obtained a contract to produce 5,000 crankcases for Henry Ford, which lead him to a production manager job at Ford for two years. Flanders left Ford in 1908 to co-found the E-M-F Company. “E” for Barney Everitt, “M” for William Metzger for “F” for Walter Flanders. EMF autos were built from 1909 to 1912 and during the three years 49,807 vehicles were built.

Flanders died in Newport News, Virginia and is buried at Williamsburg Memorial Park in Williamsburg.

Vin Cassidy’s Flanders has a 4-cylinder L-head engine that produces 20.3 hp and was sold for $750.00 when new. The engine has two main bearings with a splash lubrication system and a 2-speed “progressive “ transmission with cone clutch. The tires are 32X3. It is called a Series 20 Runabout and weighs about 1200 pounds with a wheel base of 100 inches.

The little car was a multi-purpose vehicle, performing duties as a passenger transporter and a delivery vehicle. The body section could be removed and replaced with a slip-on fully enclosed salesman’s body. This made it very practical for all situations.

The picture left is from a 1911 advertisement.

The ad below claims the delivery wagon has a carrying space of 43 by 49 inches and is built by Studebaker. The Studebaker company distributed the Flanders automobile nation wide and eventually purchased the complete Flanders Motorcar Company.

 

 

On the left we have a 1913 Board-track racing Indian motorcycle  – On the right, a 1910 Harley Davidson motorcycle

This beautiful 1913 Indian board-track racing motorcycle is owned by Skip Weeks of Collinsville, Connecticut. He found a few parts of the engine for sale and decided to pass. Then a call came and he was told 95% of the rest of the engine parts had been found and it was more than Skip could say no too. A friend helped him put most of the engine together and Fred Gonet was given the task of the final tweaking. Fred has a restoration shop in Proctorsville, Vermont. Then, Skip found a business in Canada that built reproduction chassis and asked Fred to put it all together… and this is the results.

The neat thing about the machine’s destination is not a board-track but Skip’s living room where Wheel Tracks understands it will join a few other motored antiques. Track racing served as the principle venues for motorcycle racing in America. By 1910, rival companies had started to overtake Indian on the wooden speedways. Oscar Hedstrom who designed the Indian motorcycle in 1900, returned to his drawing board. His goal was to design a new motor capable of regaining the lead for Indian. The result of the engineer’s effort was an overhead-valve design; however this could not withstand the extreme temperatures of a high-speed race. Hedstrom’s solution was to decrease the size of the valves and add more of them. Instead of the usual two valves in each cylinder, Hedstrom calculated that four smaller valves would be better able to dissipate the heat. His theory turned out to be correct, and the overhead-valve configuration also proved to be more efficient.

The Indian 8-valve debuted in 1911 and was immediately successful on the pine-board tracks. In 1920 an Indian 8-valve set an official world record for the mile, achieving a speed of 114.17 mph, and in 1926 an updated version of Hedstrom’s landmark design was clocked at 132 mph, setting another world record, which would remain for the next 11 years. It is not known how many Indian 8-valves were produced, but approximately six are known to have survived.

Wheel Tracks had the great opportunity of having these two motorcycles in one place, on a sunny afternoon and wanted to pass a little about them, on to our VAE members. On the left is a 1910 Harley Davidson motorcycle. This is not a racer, but a beautiful road bike. It is a perfect replica of the original owned by Fred Gonet.

Harley-Davidson, Inc. is an American motorcycle manufacturer, founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1903. In 1910 there were 110 motorcycle brands in the United States and 107 years later, Harleys are still alive and well.

This Harley is a 1910 Harley-Davidson 30ci Model F. It has 28 X2.5 tires with an Eclipse Knockout front hub that allows the tire removal by taking only one nut off. You start the 4hp engine by pedaling with your feet until the engine fires then engage the rear wheel by pushing a hand control forward to tighten the leather belt. The brakes are the normal “coaster type” on the rear wheel.

The new price was $210.00 and you could order one with one-quarter down payment and the balance due on delivery.

 

Is this the same #67 in both pictures?  Ken Gypson’s ‘37 Ford has been around creating history for 81 years and still going strong.  Hal Boardman’s diorama proves the car still inspires…

From VAEer, Hal Boardman …

Two years ago the VAE ventured south to Bennington for a Hemmings cruise-in and a visit to our hosts, Ken and Nancy Gypson, in New York. After morning coffee, juice and muffins-to-die-for, we went out to wander through Ken’s barn. The barn holds a collection of autos, large and small. A must see. Among the full sized cars was a ‘37 Ford 2-door sedan. Ken was in the process of restoring the former round track race car. I took a few pictures and then we hit the road.

A while later the VAE had it’s annual holiday party and I chose an exchange gift of a hot-rod model A Ford 2-door sedan. Walking by Ken’s table he said “glad you got that, you are the only hot-rodder here”. By chance, I happen to see a picture of Ken’s restoration project on line, and I put the two together, the beginning of the diorama idea.

The following year I campaigned for another Hemmings tour, it was a great time and… I needed more pictures of Ken’s garage and his race car restoration project. Once again, we had a great cruise-in, and visit at the Gypson’s. I wonder if Ken noticed my mission of taking pictures of every square inch of his garage. I got more pictures when #67 made it to our August show in Stowe last year and then, my winter project began.

While my ‘39 Ford project sat in the corner of my garage, I spent time working on the smaller project of a 1937 race car. I gathered models and parts saved from my youth and began the diorama. I found an old 49 Ford kit in my collection that provided wheels, tires, trophies and even that small dog you see lying on the floor, in front of the car. As my project started coming together, an artist friend offered to paint the number on the car and the walls to match Ken’s garage. Pam even made a small leather belt, that was used to wrap around the passenger door post, to keep it closed during a race. Thank you Pam.

I hope Ken can find a small space in his vast collection for the diorama. I hope, also, that he enjoys it as much as I have building it.

Some history now of the racing #67, from a story Ken Gypson had written earlier…

In about 1985 my family and I moved to Poestenkill, NY. Just down the road (to my delight anyways) was Wait’s Junkyard. The Waits had a bunch of old stock cars scattered about and a particular ’37 Ford sedan caught my eye. For 2 years I tried to buy the car…no go. In April of ’87 we had an ice storm that knocked down trees and power lines. While I was in the road clearing debris with my chain saw John Wait Sr. asked if he could borrow the saw. I told him he could have the saw if I could buy the stock car. He grunted and left with the saw. Two weeks later I came home from work and there, the ’37 sat in my driveway!

I have been fortunate to be able to get the complete history of #67 from the day it was built. In 1961, Paul Leinbohm paid $50 for the body and chassis from Slovak’s Junkyard in Stuyvesant, NY, and a 1953 Merc engine from Lou Hacker of Rt 20 in Nassau, NY. Before he could drive the car, he was drafted into the army, and sold the car to Paul Visconte of Schodack, NY. Visconte had George Henderson of Niverville, NY, drive it with number 300D at Rt 66 Speedway in Poestenkill, NY.

In 1963, Visconte renumbered the car to 67 (as it is now) and raced it at Victoria Speedway outside of Albany, NY. Ironically, Visconte also ended up in the Army and left the car behind his mother’s house. Gordy Film of Wynantskill, NY, bought the car in 1964 for $300 and raced it at Pinebowl Speedway in Poestenkill, NY, during the ’64 and ’65 seasons. #67 ended up in Wait’s Junkyard across the road from the speedway’s entrance.

 

 

Paul & Barb Wagner’s 1957 Dodge D200

“For 43 years it was our Every-day farm truck. Today it is our car-show truck”

Back in 1967, we decided to purchase a truck to support our small family dairy farm in Methuen, MA. The search led us to a gentleman who had a sewing machine business, and a 1957 Dodge 3/4 ton pick-up with 59,000 miles on the odometer. The truck sold for $1,750 brand new, he was asking $200.00 for it. I countered with $175.00 and drove away with the truck.

It was put into use on the farm immediately. We used it to haul milk, cattle, sawdust, manure, it was a great, all purpose vehicle.

In 1969, my father and I bought a larger dairy farm in Bridport, Vermont. That was 200 miles away from Methuen. The Dodge was a godsend for hauling furniture and farm equipment to Vermont, and then take hay back to Massachusetts to feed our animals there. I would load sixty, forty-pound bales on the truck (2400 lbs.) and drive the 200 miles on ten gallons of gas. Not bad mileage with that kind of a load. Once the move to Vermont was complete, we put 700-800 ‘farm’ miles on the truck each year. The transmission was not right for slow field work so we rode the clutch a lot. After 11 years of this, we had to replace the clutch and when we did that, we put a four speed transmission in. The move from 3-on-the-tree to 4-on-the-floor made it a real farm truck! It was parked in the shop in 2003 when a gale wind came through and knocked the shop down. The shop roof landed in a tree across the road, while the old Dodge just sat there, with only the scratches it had when we parked it there. The truck did its work until 2005 when it would not pass inspection any longer. For the next five years it sat in the machine shed getting dusty. I started it up a couple of times a year to make sure the engine did not seize.

I sold the farm to my son in 2010 and entered semi-retirement. I had talked so much about fixing up the truck, over the years, that my wife, Barb told me there would never be a better time, than now to do it. I guess she had heard it enough….so I did. Little did I know what I was getting myself into.

Three miles south of here, my friend Kevin has a body shop. I pulled everything off the frame. All that was left was the engine, transmission and wheels, which I pulled to Kevin’s with my old John Deere. This had taken me about fifty hours at this point, all my labor and no money. I soon found out this would get reversed! Just finishing the prep work, Kevin had used eighty-five, 100 pound bags of blasting sand.

When I removed the cab from the frame, I found it was set up for both left and right hand drive. There are pop-outs on the floor for the clutch and brake pedals. The dash is the same on both sides. There is an aluminum plate on the right side where I thought was meant for a radio. When I removed it, I found framework for the speedometer and gauges. I considered changing to the right side but then I thought, “Who is going to drive it?”….Not me!, so I left it the way it was.

The next challenge was finding body parts. In 1957, 340,000 Ford pickups were made and GM made 360,00. Dodge made 50,000 pickups that year. So, finding the parts I needed, ended in very short phone calls…no we don’t have any. Then I heard about Desert Valley Auto Parts in Arizona. They had three corpses! My luck had changed, I found the two rear fenders, the right front fender and the grill that I needed. It took three months to get the parts but the wait was worth it. Being a life-long New Englander, I was utterly amazed at the condition… no rust at all! I found two box sides in Rhode Island and used Hickory boards for the floor. I chose not to use oak, as I wanted something with knots, but pine was too soft.

There were two safety problems with vehicles from this period that I wanted to correct with my restoration. The single reservoir master brake cylinder and no seat belts. I went to the ‘68 Dodge split system and had to add a regulator to balance the pressure. Lap seat belts took care of the second problem. The paint color is forest green with two coats of epoxy primer, two coats of filler primer and two coats of enamel. The paint alone was $2000.00…welcome to restoration.

The whole process took ten months to complete. Kevin had 300 hours, I had that many and more, but no charge for me, it’s a LABOR OF LOVE! I kept a notebook of the expenses, even after being told not to because ‘I did not want to know’. The project ended up costing $23,380.00. the high-level break-down was $13,000 in labor, and $10,380 for parts ( I did not rebuild the engine or drive train).

In May of 2014, the steering shaft broke in a restaurant parking lot. The steering wheel was in my hands not attached. I decided it was time for power steering, my age demanded it! Driving is much more enjoyable now. My friend, Ed James, did some research and found the steering system from a ‘79 to ‘86 Toyota pickup would work. I added a pump from an ‘84 Camaro and I was in busi-ness.

The old Dodge gets a lot of attention in parades and car shows. We were at the local soft serve ice cream place when a fella came up and said, “ I bet you think more of this truck, than you do your wife!” I replied, “The only thing I can say, the truck does exactly what I ask it to do.” I always say, there is high tech and there is low tech. My truck is NO TECH!

1957 Dodge D200 Specs:

• Engine, Chrysler 230 cu. In. L-head (flat head) 6 cylinder.
• Horse power, 110
• Wheels, 16 inch split rims-8 lug (750X16)
• Rear-end, 3/4-1 ton set-up for duals
• Present mileage, 111,028

Editor’s notes… Paul told about his daughter slinking down in the seat, out of view of her friends, in the old days when he would leave her off at school. She recently asked if she could possibly get the truck when he made out his will. Thank you Paul for letting us feature your truck and your history with it.