March 2016 Volume 9, Number 3
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Cadillac & LaSalle Club Northwest Ohio Region News March 2016 Volume 9, Number 3 NORTHWEST OHIO REGION In this issue… Officers, Board Members .................................... 2 A rare Cadillac adorns our cover.......................... 2 President’s Message.............................................. 3 Magnificent convertibles more than dinosaurs. 4–5 Activities Report; Trivia—by George! ................. 6 Minutes and Treasurer’s Report........................... 7 A Phoenix from Sedan, Part III.......................8–9 e Editor’s Inbox............................................. 10 Ed Welburn exudes love: four-door convertible . 11 CLC/NWO monthly meeting …more than dinosaurs (from page 5)................ 12 Cadillac convertible sedans at Gilmore.............. 13 Saturday, March 12, 1:30 e 7th Annual CLC Picnic.............................. 14 Uncle John’s Pancake House e reference desk ..............................................15 3131 Secor Road (near Central Avenue) Classified plus stuff that fits no place else .......... 16 Toledo 2016 Great Lakes Inter-regional Meet .......... 17–18 CLC/NWO Region A rare Cadillac adorns our cover 2016–2017 Elected Officers and Board Members by Elden Smith President/Director.............................William Shepherd 1941 Cadillac Series 6229D Convertible Sedan 8310 Garden Road Maumee OH 43537 OVEN INTO THIS ISSUE are references 567-277-6215 [email protected] Wto convertible four-door sedans. Cadillac V.P./Activities Director........................ George Louthan last produced such a car in 1941. It was the 1321 East Beverly Hills Drive Series 6229D Convertible. e entire production Toledo OH 43614 419-754-4454 run was only 400 cars. is 5-passenger vehicle [email protected] weighed 4,230 pounds. e 346 cid (5.7 liters) Secretary............................................... Philip Compton engine developed 150 horsepower—a real 0475 TR 30 Ada OH 45810 heavyweight in 1941. e factory (base) price 419-634-9582 was $1,965. For those who would like to read [email protected] about these Cadillacs in greater detail, consult Treasurer ...........................................Andrew Shepherd 8310 Garden Road the Standard Catalogue of Cadillac, 1903–2000 Maumee OH 43537 and Legacy of Leadership, Volume two. 419-349-5692 [email protected] Sean Szymkowski’s January 20 article in GM Membership Chair ...............................Robert W. Stahl Authority (http://gmauthority.com/) prompted 8991 East Mulberry Road Blissfield MI 49228 this concentration on “phaetons.” Quotes from 517-486-4818 portions of Road and Track’s interview with [email protected] Ed Welburn about the future of the four-door News Editor............................................... Elden Smith 4541 Gilhouse Road convertible led to additional online research. e Toledo OH 43623 GM Authority article and my commentary are in 419-754-3923 the Inbox overflow on page 11. [email protected] Member at Large ...............................Kenneth Dorotiak Other convertibles—not all Cadillacs—found 8354 Jackman Road Temperance MI 48182 their way into the editorial. Ford products, other 734-847-3470 General Motors makes, a Mopar, an Overland, [email protected] and a Packard crept into the mix. Member at Large ........................................Tom Tapp Below: a 1937 LaSalle Series 5780 four-door convertible 2550 Eastmoreland Oregon OH 43616 419-346-3573 [email protected] APRIL 13-16, 2016 CLC/NWOHIO REGION NEWS 2 MARCH 2016 CLC/NWOHIO REGION NEWS 3 MARCH 2016 President’s Message by William Shepherd F YOU MISSED THE CLC/NWO SOCIAL GATHERING in IJanuary, you missed something good. e food was excellent and the fellowship superb. e menu upgrade and the door prizes were an added bonus. Katie and I arrived a bit later than everyone else. Finding a place to park was next to impossible, so we made our own parking spot. e Harbor Inn and Pub was a place I have never been before, but judging by the crowd inside, everyone else from near and far knew about it. anks again to Alan and Vicki Haas for putting together this excellent event. Winter weather has settled in on northwest Ohio. February’s meeting at Uncle John’s Pancake House saw weather that we are more used to in that venue. One decision at the meeting was to use the logo created by George Louthan for the upcoming Inter Regional. at logo will appear on event registration forms, and hopefully on clothing that attendees to the event can purchase. I recently watched the 2016 edition of the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction that was broadcast on Discovery Channel and Velocity Channel. e cars that appealed most to these well-heeled buyers were what we would classify as modified cars, or resto-mods. It seems people with the money to do so are interested only in the artistry of the old car’s body and interior, and have no interest in the underlying mechanicals that are less than equal to the best of modern day engineering. It’s enough to make a purist cringe. It makes one wonder what will happen to our meticulously restored and maintained classic cars when the typical auction buyer of today or the future takes over the cars of our hobby. To add insult to injury, examples of restored back to original classic cars went for modest sums— only exceptionally rare or desirable coach-built examples escaped that fate. Part of the problem might be an increasing lack of skilled mechanics properly versed in the specifics of our old cars’ systems. Last summer, we took one of our cars to a large local dealership for a complete detailing. We were thrilled with the end result. e next cruise- in type show we attended, the car took best of show. We later learned from insiders at the dealership that the detailers, perfectionists in their craft, did NORTHWEST OHIO REGION the car twice and were themselves unhappy with their work. e problem was CLC/NWO monthly meeting that for all the skills they possess, they had simply not worked with lacquer paint before. is will increasingly be a problem as more existing cars use Saturday, March 12, 1:30 base coat-clear coat painting. Authenticity may become a thing of the past. Uncle John’s Pancake House I’ll see you on the Cadillac road. 3131 Secor Road Toledo CLC/NWOHIO REGION NEWS 2 MARCH 2016 CLC/NWOHIO REGION NEWS 3 MARCH 2016 Magnificent convertible sedans are more than dinosaurs by Elden Smith ONVERTIBLES HAVE LONG EVOKED AN IMAGE of Cluxury. Hollywood in the 1930s through the 1940s might claim partial responsibility for that illusion. To point out the obvious, Cadillac convertibles held a dominant place in movies during those decades. Chrome-laden decadence was what moviegoers sought in musical and romantic productions. Illusions of wealth and power were part of the popular expectation. Heroes and heroines needed cars and homes that reflected these. Open-top cars continue to cost more than their closed-body siblings. Convertibles possess that certain “something” that closed-body cars never quite achieve. Four-door convertibles suggest luxury even more than convertible coupes, but they are (so far) relics of a bygone era. Nevertheless, these magnificent sedans are March’s subjects. Clearly, the initial comment must be that the earliest cars all had open tops—and most had no doors to speak of. Convertibles seem to have evolved from the horse drawn phaeton. ese vehicles had no glass side 1915 Overland Model 81 windows, but they might have had a removable side fabric protective material. A folding roof frame covered with fabric grew to be typical. (e 1915 Overland on the left was not considered a convertible.) e first closed-body concept car was the 1905 Cadillac Osceola. Built for Cadillac founder Henry Leland, its features included a tilt steering wheel. An Osceola-type car became a public offering in both single and four-cylinder models in 1906, and was advertised as “e Ideal Physician’s Car, e Ideal Shopping Car, and e Ideal Opera Car.” Despite the advertising, open cars continued to enjoy popularity. e 1907 Cadillac Model M Touring Car is one example. [Some writers suggest that Henry Ford opposed closed cars for safety reasons. His concern was that auto glass—common window glass in early vehicles—shattered easily. In 1919, Ford solved the problem of flying debris with a new technology from France called glass 1905 Cadillac Osceola laminating. Windshields made using this process were two layers of glass with a cellulose inner layer. is inner layer held the glass together when it fractured. is was the first victory for the closed- body car. Protection from the weather and warmth soon followed as further justifications for the majority of vintage cars.] e demographics of modern convertibles * reveal that California and Florida, due to their climates, have the greatest number of drop-top buyers. Major cities like New York and Chicago also have a large number of top-down drivers despite their harsh winters. Affluence remains a major factor in statistics about those who buy new convertibles. Chicago 1907 Cadillac Model M Touring Car and New York have many wealthy, well-educated people. ese buyers tend to shop for brands that offer removable hardtops. * http://thegarage.jalopnik.com/study-says-convertible-buyers-are-wealthy-and-well-educ-1609316220 CLC/NWOHIO REGION NEWS 4 MARCH 2016 CLC/NWOHIO REGION NEWS 5 MARCH 2016 …more than dinosaurs Owners of convertible collector cars are entities unto themselves. Some of us have always loved convertibles. Others, like me, have come into the convertible “fold” late in life. A hasty search of CLC/NWO member’s cars seems to indicate that the most frequently owned convertibles among us are the Eldorado, Series 62, and DeVille. Only one person in the NWO Region owns a convertible four-door sedan— Phil Compton. If there are others, please correct the record. A rapid look at Ebay reveals only a few Cadillac convertible four-doors for sale. Here is a short list from February 19. • 1941 Series 62 convertible sedan, Copake Falls, NY, $125,000.