[Dr K]

I wondered about repainting rather than "patina" but I think the currently-visible paint is far from original.

[Hurricane]

YouTube

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[smdubovsky]

Cool!

I vote leave as orig as possible. Don't over restore. Replace the wrong (and previously replaced) boards. I'd prob paint as there is so little left, likely not orig anyway as you noted, and you want to stop any further deterioration. The guy who fixed Steve's(?) caddy window could make new fenders. I haven't talked to him in a long while so not sure if he still takes on that kind of work. His name is Bill Gibson and lives just north of me.

[86911TLCAB]

the other option would be to upgrade the suspension, swap in a bigger engine, put some larger tbars on it, some HD lighting, decent stereo with a boom box, turbo toe rods...am i missing anything...smile...

[Dr K]

Wouldn't take much to upgrade the suspension. The suspension on the car is literally "the flexibility of the wood boards."

[Trak Ratt]

Originally Posted by smdubovsky

Cool!

I vote leave as orig as possible. Don't over restore. Replace the wrong (and previously replaced) boards. I'd prob paint as there is so little left, likely not orig anyway as you noted, and you want to stop any further deterioration. The guy who fixed Steve's(?) caddy window could make new fenders. I haven't talked to him in a long while so not sure if he still takes on that kind of work. His name is Bill Gibson and lives just north of me.

Id try and gather as much info on the year and model you have before deciding. From the little I've seen there were differences. Especially after the company was would and they switched to just electric.

[B r i a n]

Nice, my vote is to add the the 5th wheel powered by a boxster engine

[Vicegrip]

Lot of changes over the years it was made. from how it was propelled to who was making it and where.

Considering that there are plenty of clean original examples and this machine and this one has little original paint, is missing two fenders, two lights, the horn and some of the wood I vote full resto. You are not erasing notable history with this one. its value is in smiles given to the rider and those it zips past.

If it were mine. Find, make or have fenders made. Find the headlights and horn or repros as close to looking original and reproduce all the wood. All of it as close to 100% same as original in size and species. All so it matches up well. Bundle the old wood and stuff it in a corner just in case. Strip all the paint off of everything else, sand fill and repaint to look new. Cool little oddity that is easy to keep up.

[Dr K]

I've found out a bit more. From the serial number it's likely a 1927. There is a guy near Allentown, PA who has SEVEN of them and is willing to help me both with what needs to be done and helping me source the missing parts. Much is not original so nothing to copy to get it right. I first need to find out if the motor is original.

I appreciate all the advice (as always).

BTW, the vast majority of these were the 1925-1927 ones and are more similar to one another. Having an early 5th wheel (or one of the very unusual later 5th wheel cars) would be more valuable, but a post on an antique car board suggested that many (most?) of the electric survivors are in museums. There's a 5th wheel car in the collection at Kykuit, the Rockefeller home in the Hudson Valley (the collection is just that they never got rid of a car, so it's all the cars they ever owned that were there...). A 5th wheel car would be very cool, and quick a bit quicker, too.

[Ranger]

Here is the one in the Simeone Foundation:

[IMG][/IMG]