Went to a customer's shop/garage yesterday to stripe a 3/4 scale replica of a 1903 Curved Dash Oldsmobile. Walking in the door the first thing to catch my eye sitting on a work bench was this little gem. After the striping was done(pics are on my Pinhead Lounge page) I asked about this fascinating little item. As the story goes: The owner/builder is a gentleman named Bob Small who worked as a product engineer for Oldsmobile in Lansing Michigan for over 40 years. Before going to work for Olds,he attended General Motors Institute(GMI) and one of the criteria for graduation was to submit a project built by yourself. The pictured item was the result. Briefly Bob machined from a block of aluminum an engine block;oil pan,and intake manifold to which he made up a crankshaft and attached EIGHT modified model airplane engine cylinders and heads.I'm not really sure what was used for a carburetor(and neglected to ask)but the pulley on the flywheel end was used to spin the engine over to start it. Fuel was standard model airplane fuel (40% nitro)and had glow plug ignition. Bob said it ran great until the crankshaft broke at the rear main bearing at about 10,000 rpm. He never bothered to repair it as other interests prevailed(marriage;his job;and drag racing). The Curved Dash Olds was produced by a separate company in the 1950's or 60's(called Autique)and was less than a success. The company went belly up and apparently offered Oldsmobile the remaining cars of which Bob purchased this one. He ran it for years and then gave it to his daughter when he gave up automobiles. A few years ago he decided to get back into cars and retrieved the Olds from a barn where his daughter had parked it years before. It needed quite a bit of restoration and so he embarked on that. The original Kohler 7 1/2 hp engine was shot so rather than rebuild it he decided to get a more modern one having an alternator and modern ignition. New headlight buckets were spun from brass and will house halogen headlights and the original lantern style taillamps will be fitted with LED lamps. But the engine was much more fascinating than the car. I subtly hinted that it would look really at home in the New Era 1/4 scale Corvette sitting in my shop but I doubt that it going to happen.Anyway hope you enjoy the pictures of a fascinating bit of automotive history.
I tried to find plans for the curved dash Olds a few years ago. They were published in the 70's I think but I couldn't find a set. A guy wanted me to build him one but without a car to copy from or detailed plans I wouldn't take it on.
Still in pieces.Here are a couple pics of the one I did yesterday and a real one I did about a month ago.
GREAT work, that real one is a 1904, that was the year they put the large brakes on them. Looks like some time was spent getting the correct strip pattern researched, car should look great all assembled. Bob
Bob: That is interesting;the customer was told it was an '03.All I know from speaking with him is there were a bunch of options for the car. Supposedly there were THREE different wheels available: The wire spoke(possibly made by Buffalo Wire Wheels);the artillery wheels shown and a variant of that called a staggered spoke pattern. Those looked like American 12 spokes made of wood. As for the striping the owner had many pictures of original cars along with drawings of where the striping was supposed to go. Unfortunately all the cars were different;not only the striping but various parts on the cars. We basically combined elements of the cars to get a workable design.
I'm sure the cars had running changes so the big brakes may have been avalible in '03 as well. Did you keep track of your time on that job, and think of the guy that applied the original stripes only to get another as soon as he was done? I'll find a photo of a 1912 Ford plant stripper with an unending rack of wheels for him to do. Again great work on your part. Bob
As a matter of fact I did; nearly 13 hours! I have that pic of the guy striping the wheels;I think it was the lead picture on the Pinstripers Page 2 website. I had it up there once but may have changed it for the one of the guy striping Harley-Davidson motorcycle tanks. I remember reading somewhere that when they were striping Model A Fords they had a striper on each side of the assembly line which probably accounted for the fact that the stripes sometimes varied a bit in width.Not sure which one got to do the rear. In the 1970's I worked at a Mercedes-Benz dealer that also sold Rolls-Royce cars and I tried to find out what they used for the gold paint on their striping(or coach lines as they refer to them).They were a bit reluctant to tell me but I did manage to find out what BMW used on their motorcycles and obtained some.It was actually 3 parts:bronze powder; bronzing liquid(clear)and a special reducer. Smelled a lot like lacquer thinner and the paint dried very rapidly.Mixing the powder and the clear was a trick and it had to be constantly reduced and the brush cleaned frequently but it covered extremely well. It also recommended putting a couple drops of castor oil in the paint to slow the drying time but not too much or it wouldn't dry at all. The gold I used on the Olds is 1-Shot Metallic Gold and it brushes out and covers very well. Must be a new formula as all their metallics seem to cover much better than the old stuff.
The owner was trying to get it together for a show at Greenfield Village this month(I think).He is from Northwest Ohio so I'm not sure where he is planning to show it. The last car I did for him was a 1930 Ford Model A panel delivery(a restoration).He has about a dozen other cars as I recall.
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