Better Beaters - Building Cars and Daily Drivers

 Question of the Day?

On, those mysterious and desirable vintage cars.
photo source: filmnoir.net

How does an antique car fit in Today? For my "lifestyle?" That's what any potential buyer has to decide for themselves. And those are the hard questions that I'm asking myself. After all, If I really want a certain car I might have to let one or two go. 

I find this car to be very attractive.
photos source: CL

I've been doing a lot of thinking about a '40 LaSalle that I saw offered for sale on CL. 

I finally went to check it out, as I've been fantasizing about how I would like to buy the car, if everything could be worked out on my end. But first, I had to see it in person. It is advertised as a good running car, and the photos show that it is in good overall cosmetic shape, all the trim is in place, with a good interior. It needs the little things squared away, but it is far from a project. I don't want to get bogged down in a big project anymore. Well, I don't want to get bogged down in any project anymore.

So I made an appointment to check out the car, which is located over 50 miles away. 

The seller was a very nice younger guy (40's is young to me!) who showed up with his teenage son. The car was located in a storage facility. The seller had removed the battery and was keeping it charged up. The car retains the six volt system.

The car looked pretty good. It definitely made a good first impression.

Not a pleat to be seen. But it was nice.

The paint was dull,  but it's hard to tell if it can be polished out when it is so dusty. The respray wasn't particularly a high quality job, but I'll bet that it can be improved. The obvious flaw is where gas dripped down from the cap and damaged the paint pretty badly. The chrome could use some cleaning and shining, but overall it would look good with a little TLC. The interior had been restored sometime in the past. The seats and door panels were done in a blue /gray herringbone tweed, the headliner looks really good and blue carpeting covers the floor. Cars of this vintage had very plain upholstery, just flat, smooth, expanses of fabric. The dash also needs to be shined up. However it appears that all the chrome trim is present. 

Kind of a minimalist dash design, but it looks nice.
That big box is the heater. 

The car is straight and complete.  The engine still retains it's original oil bath air cleaner. I like that it is all original and unmodified. It started up and ran quite well, no trace of smoke on start up or after the test run. No major oil leaking, just a minor drip or two, and there didn't seem to be much rust underneath. It has a spare tire and jack. The wipers, radio, and heater are inoperative at this time.

There are a lot of questions when thinking of buying an old car. The usual things like the condition, price, storage, etc. But there are even more considerations when the car is a really old car, an antique.

This car is much older than any car that I've ever experienced, or considered, well except my '22 Dodge hot rod project, and that didn't turn out so well.

This is a car that is primarily going to be a "showpiece" as that will be it's primary purpose. It will be usable for occasional drives on a nice day under favorable conditions. I could take it to Cars and Coffee events and other shows. It certainly won't be used as a daily driver. 

I've got several modern day daily drivers, so that is not a problem.

It looks a lot like a Cadillac Sixty Special, at least to me. 

So once you buy it, you've now got a large car that needs to find a home in your garage most of the time. The car needs to be able to fit in my garage. It is at least a foot shorter than my departed '56 Cadillac, but a couple of inches longer than my Navigator.   

My Riviera is 208 inches long, two inches shorter than the La Salle, and it fits okay. The Flex is the same, or an inch lower in height, but 8 inches shorter in length. I think that it should fit okay, but I'll probably have to move my tool boxes. 

My major question is: How suitable will this car be, to be driven in traffic? How well does it perform, and how "safe" is it.

But there are even more questions when considering a really old car, an antique. This particular car wasn't equipped with any seat belts, which was surprising, as most old cars will usually have them added by now.

The seller volunteered to take the car on the freeway to demonstrate how well it runs. No, No! I told him, please do not get on the freeway! I'm not going to ride at freeway speeds in traffic in a car without even lap belts! 

Can the car keep up with modern traffic? Slow cars can become a hazard.

La Salles are equipped with a slightly smaller version of the Cadillac V8 and were considered sprightly performers in their day. The transmission is a synchromesh three speed that was favored by Hot Rodders. They bolted them to their flathead V8s. I've read a couple of reviews, one that was written in the 1990's that indicated that the car could easily maintain a 70 mph. cruising speed. The synchromesh transmission makes it easy to shift. 

The Hydramatic transmission first became available in 1940, but I would prefer a  car with a three speed. Like this one.

But how good are the brakes? I had concerns about my '70 Mustang's stopping ability.

Well, they are what they are. Unless disc brakes are added. The addition of radial tires could help in stopping and roadability.

Of course, occupant safety is a big concern. Lap belts are easy to add, and are a necessary addition. Laminated glass was adopted by all American cars in 1937, but it's not the tempered glass familiar to modern drivers. That breaks into crumbles. You can still get cut by the crumbles, but there aren't any jagged shards. The windshield is laminated but not tempered. This will break into shards, but they should hopefully remain attached to the main windshield. If the occupant hits the glass, they will likely receive some serious lacerations. Lap belts should prevent that. The steering column is not collapsible, so any impact will be absorbed by the driver's chest. How secure are the door latches? I know that improvements were made in the mid 1950's. The general rule is "the more modern the car, the safer it is."

Lighting will be poor, not only the headlamps which are sealed beam, but the brightness and visibility of the stop lamps. As mentioned, the car did not come equipped with turn signals! There are still aftermarket kits available to add them. 

So far none of this sounds very promising for the poor LaSalle. But the minimal use that is expected should reduce my exposure to hazards. 

This company had been around for a long time.

I also wondered about the parts availability of mechanical, tune up, and routine wear items like brake shoes. Things looked pretty good. I checked the Kanter website and found brake parts; including hoses, master and wheel cylinders. There were starters, generators, water pumps, and more. The parts ranged in price from 175.00 to 250.00, not cheap, but manageable, and more importantly, available. I don't want to end up with parts availability like my old '51 Jaguar. Parts made of unobtainium!

I bought my current Riviera primarily to use for club activities, and to take to informal shows. That is the use that the LaSalle would see. But the Riviera is a fully modern car with a very stout structure, three way seat belts, dual airbags and four wheel disc brakes with ABS. It doesn't get much better than that. The car is fully suitable for modern traffic conditions. 

My Wife asked me why I would even want a car like this. Good question. It's not something that I would get a lot of use out of. Another valid point. It's also not really cheap. True, but I will pay for it out of my money. After looking at old cars for some time, the price seems more than fair, if not a bargain.

So why do I want this car? Well, I've never had a real antique, it's just a different thing. At my age there isn't that much more time available to try new things.

The fatal attraction of "the Noir Car."
photo source:filmnoir.net

I also really like the way the car looks, a lot like a Cadillac Sixty Special, one of my favorite vintage cars. I'll admit that I think of it as a "Noir Car" something that would be right at home in a '40's detective story. Maybe I've read too many Raymond Chandler novels! Am I trying to channel my inner Philip Marlowe?

Gotta admit they are cool!
photo source: film noir.net

This is an actual Sixty Special. Not too different.
photo source: auto24.com

Of course all of these failings compared to a modern car aren't really the point. An antique is an antique because it is old, and an earlier example of the continuing evolutionary design of the automobile. That is part of the attraction of antique cars, they are tangible demonstrations of automotive development. The La Salle was GM's glamour car of it's era. Kind of like the early Buick Rivieras. The styling was advanced for the time, considering that this is a "Pre War" car. It features independent front suspension, when even the vaunted Lincoln Continental was still carrying a front beam axle and a flat windshield. It featured the best V8 engine of the time, combined with a fully synchronized transmission. It was clearly an advanced car for it's era.

The other factors affecting my decision are clearly up to me, and my efforts. First, I don't currently have the room to store the car properly because I've got too many cars. Second, I don't have all the cash available to just buy the car outright. I would need to sell at least one car, That would help with both the finances as well as the space issue. I could borrow some money and arrange financing for the purchase. As in every transaction, the interests of the seller and the buyer overlap.  The space where they converge will determine the sale. The car has been offered for sale for several months, it wasn't quickly snatched up. It was just currently re-listed on CL. I don't know how many serious buyers he might have lined up and interested, trying to get their stars to align. I'm kind of leaving things up to fate. Though I will be trying to sell the '96 Mustang.

I hadn't really seriously considered all these issues before, probably because I've never been that interested in such an old car. Most of my attention has been focused on vehicles from the 1950's and much newer. 

I know that this all sounds like just more blah, blah, blah, but this discussion has been taking place in my mind, in real time for the last couple of weeks.

 

More on this topic to follow.

Who knows what the road ahead holds!
photo source: poeschloncars.com