So, Dad has a Pierce Arrow parts car..

The old man is a restorer. Period. He's done a couple of Pierce Arrows and the other day he asked my uncle to haul the parts car to the scrap yard. Uncle held him off by telling him they wouldn't take it without a title (which of course he doesn't have for that one). I grew up playing on that thing and probably broke more precious parts off it than I care to think about.
I'm pretty sure it was a 4 dour sedan that was shortened into a pickup, as was pretty common. The body was aluminum, at least some of it. What is there is the rolling chassis, fenders, cowl, doors, back body panel, the homemade pickup box, the bottom half of the engine (no cylinders) and some other bits. Pretty sure its a '26, just because that's what the one is that it was scavenged for is. It's heavy as all get out and not really "hot rod" type material (that said, I won't pick up my toys and leave forever if this gets deleted as OT).
What I'm considering is reassembling it in the style of it's second life- a truck. That way it will get saved, plus I will have a pretty darn nifty pickup. I don't have it in me to restore something like this back to factory. Dad is old and thinks it's not worth restoring. The engine, I would say is shot. Maybe there's something there that a Pierce guy could use. Rods, crank whatever but I can't see me bringing it to life, ever. So I'll have to find a mill that is slightly more available. Maybe a Jimmy 6 or something along those lines. Inline 6 or possibly 8 cylinder.
Sound interesting to anyone? I'll snap a couple pics tomorrow and show off the pile of stuff

 

Heck yeah, let's see it!

 

Do it

 

let's see it

 

It'll be the only Pierce Arrow hot rod at the cruise in.

 

are you asking permission to turn this into a hot rod?
what are you waiting for, do it!

 

There cool. It would be worth doing something with it. Here is a roadster sitting in a storage lot. Not much left of it, but I would hate to see it crushed.

 

sounds fun, do it....

 

What are you waiting for!

 

Yep Ghost. That's what I think too.
Dig that golf bag door on the side of that roadster.

I just formulated this plan tonite so I guess I'm waiting for daylight - Kinda glad it didn't get trounced

 

Well ..... it is .... a start !!!!

 

Get up early so your dad don't head for the bone yard first.

 

Sounds like a good basis for a speedster. Possibly with a big flathead straight six out of a truck or bus, or a straight eight Packard or Buick. I mention those specifically because they are the most common, being used in cars up to the early fifties.

 

No shit huh Older. Pops isn't in very good health so I should be able to yard it out of there before he gets too frisky with it.
Rusty good ideas for the mill there. Thanks.
I'm not confident enough to scratch build a speedster body but it'd be cool for sure. Maybe after the first go round I can start pecking away at something like that.
Dad has told me about a lot of neat old luxury cars that were turned into trucks (his stories always end with somebody rescuing it and even one that found the original back half of their car after it had been lopped off 50+ years earlier).

 

Build it.

 

Pierce Arrows were well-built cars in their day. Would make a unique street rod if you follow through with your plan - one of a kind - and besides, it would get the restorers all upset!

 

Ironic.. I just watched "Boys of Bonneville" last night which is about Ab Jenkins, who started land-speed racing in a Pierce-Arrow in the '30's.

Whoever said Pierce-Arrows can't be hot rods certainly doesn't know of Ab Jenkins.

Do it!

 

I think it's a great idea!

Show us some pics!

Sam

 

Amen. The story of Jenkins and the train race is one of my favorites. The co-pilot throwing out bags of flower at the crossings, and the passenger just about being beat to death in the back... if that ain't hot rodding, I don't know what is.

 

There were a lot of big "Classic" cars that saw a second life as trucks and Tow Trucks, you need to save that one. Back in the 1960 many of these trucks were restored back to original passenger cars, and that bit of Yankee Ingenuity was lost. Good to see you think this needs to be saved. Every once in a while something like this shows up on TheOldMotor.com. Good luck with the project, please post photos. Bob

 

The older I get, the more I like the off-the-wall, nobody-else-has-it kinda thing!! There's a guy on the HAMB who is building a speedster out of a '23 Seagrave fire truck chassis! Talk about HEAVY DUTY, he's got the Seagrave engine running, 1000 cubes and built a boat-tail rear!! I like the idea of a straight 8, they are common, man, what's holding you up?? Like ghost said, get there early!! Have fun!!

 

That Seagrave speedster build is; "Giant Speedster project", check it out, it's kinda like a 70 foot P.T. boat on wheels!!

 

Yep,Pierce Arrow tow truck.

 

Sounds like a great show. Back in the 30s Pierce Arrow was a real millionaire's limousine type of car not known for hot performance. But it was a fooler from way back. Jenkins averaged 117 for 24 hours with a mildly modified V12 chassis.

To put this in perspective, at the time England's finest car was the Rolls Royce. They warned their customers not to run the car wide open for more than 5 minutes at a time for fear of blowing the engine. A Rolls was the kind of car a Pierce Arrow owner might have for a second car.

Germany's finest luxury car was the Grosser Mercedes, supercharged straight eight. It had a top speed of just over 100MPH, with the supercharger engaged. But they warned their customers not to run wide open for more than 2 minutes with the supercharger engaged, and as it took about a minute to gain the last few MPH to top the 100, this speed was more or less useless.

A Pierce Arrow could have towed them faster than they were capable of going on their own, and kept it up for 24 hours and be ready for more.

It took a supercharged OHC straight eight Duesenberg to beat the Pierce Arrow record, but it was all it could do. The Duesy must have been stretched to its limits because the next year Jenkins came back with the same Duesy, repowered with a Curtis Conqueror airplane engine.

So, the Pierce may have looked like Queen Mary's bus but they had the speed and the stamina too.

 

Not much left of it? It's all there! All it needs is a 302 GMC and a '32 Ford commercial grille shell and it's a hot rod! Super neat! I would pursue that one if I were you.

 

Do it! I've got a pair of roadster quarters from a big off brand with the golf club door - could be they are Pierce?

Steve

 

Under Slung - maybe?

 

It's not quite as tidy as the one ramblur posted a pic of, but here's the stuff, right where dad dragged it to. He bought it because it had the original wooden spoke wheels, his car had these steelies on it. He thinks those are ford wheels. Looks like the truck had a better cowl cause the good car was yellow. Both doors are here. The bottom of the rear section maybe got used as a patch cause its trimmed off. I see the cylinders are there- thought they were gone..

 

One at a time I guess

 

'Nother un