Working on the transmission

With the car back from Auburn, I'm now going to try and address the only thing I didn't like about the whole festival - the car struggled to get into 4th, never gave me 1st, and rarely gave me reverse!

As I studied the forums and the club literature it became very clear that the transmissions on these cars were not as 'debugged' as they could have been.

However, given that the transmission in my car is 70+ years old, I am more than willing to cut it a bit of slack.

Here's a great line from a 1984 booklet on the Cord transmission by Sid Ayers:

"After 24 years experience in driving these cars I'm convinced that the only real problem

with the gear box is that it was not Idiot-proof, and that 90% of the catastrophies occuring

within the unit were caused by DRIVER abuse thru ignorance and/or stupidity.

Probably the No. I cause of gear failures were due to downshifting into the wrong gear

while at speed, including low gear!

The mere fact that there was no mechanical connection between the drivers hand and the

inner workings of the transmission was an invitation for troubles."

Needless to say, I'm sure I haven't helped the transmission..

When I took the front cover off and began testing the logic of the transmission (remember, it's an electric shift - see one of my earlier posts on the gear selector), I noticed that the arm on the cross shifter had nearly an inch and a half of "play"

The arm is held onto the shaft by a Woodruf key and in normal operation there should be no movement at all. What I really noticed was that this play made 4th and 1st gears really tough to 'get' to, much less get out of.

Here's the amazing thing - I called J.K. Howell Cord Parts of Wellington Kansas (J.K. was a true Cord scholar and a bit of a character according to what I've read - he passed away in 2007) - and they not only had the part for $35 (! cheap !), but they had a cross shifter shaft , seals, and bushing 'kit' for $70! The parts are on their way.

I'll post some pictures of the transmission cross shifter as I work on it.

We've just returned from the 54th Annual ACD Club Reunion in Auburn. 10231 S was there, was judged, and was in the parade.

I am absolutely thrilled that we won a 2nd in class award for the car - not bad for it's first time out!

The judging consisted of two major parts - the first being 'In Motion' where I had to pull up to the judging stand and then:

• Turn off the car
• Work the parking brake
• Turn on/off the lights
• Apply the brake
• Honk the horn
• Start the car (this was a great part - the car runs so quietly, one judge asked me twice to start the motor!)
• Put the car into first, pull away, then shift into second.

The second part was the actual interior/exterior/mechanical judging. Generally the judges don't like the owners hanging around, so I looked at the other amazing cars in Eckhart Park.

This is me trying to sound like I know anything about Auburns to my sister and brother-in-law (Katy and Mark Cripe of Columbus, Ohio)

I thought I saw at least 22 Auburn Speedsters of the 16 made...

Here's the car (and me) on the Friday night before the judging - one of the great 'unofficial' parts of the Reunion is to take the cars down to 9th and Jackson, park them and walk around downtown Auburn. Once you come up 9th, anything goes, car-wise. Street-rods, classics, muscle-cars, you name it - it's there. I don't think it broke up until after 2am this year. I, however, left around 9 pm to take the car and polish it back at the shop.

Here's Mark figuring out why I was so glad to have him and his family stay at our house over the weekend. It's probably about midnight when this was taken, and I'm polishing the fence on the driver side. Once we polished the car, even at night it simply glowed.

Here's the whole family, after the judging and before the parade. Given the company around me, I hoped they wouldn't ask me to leave the park! There were some truly beautiful cars there.

I was especially glad to see Pat and Joe's Cadet Gray Westchester there. When I first met them, I saw 'the Gray car' and right then knew that they were far crazier than me! However, the Westchester looks great and it is a real testament to the Leahy's ability with these cars.

This last one is the man himself, Pat Leahy, and me after the car won a 2nd in class. Pat is truly gifted when it comes to working on and understanding what makes these cars go. I'm holding the award, but it really belongs to him.

It is a beautiful thing

Yes, the picture at the left and top is 10231 S, finished! I took this picture at my house this last weekend. I've got a bunch of pictures to post, so I'm organizing them into groups. The first will be the body shop pictures, the second the engine, third the interior, and fourth the exterior.

Sheryl and I took the car to the Auburn Spring Warm-up in Auburn, Indiana this past weekend. It was like a cotillion for the car - 10231 S was the only Cord there, and in my mind, she was the prettiest girl at the ball. From the moment we pulled in, car-jaded ACD members watched and then came up to the car, with questions.

I really want to write a few words about the ACD club here. It's an amazingly eclectic group, held together by these cars. I thought we would be the youngest people there, but I was wrong - I also thought it would be very wealthy people, given how much it costs to buy and maintain these cars, but I was wrong again as well. I felt welcomed, and putting a Cord back on the road (even if it was Pat that did all the work), got me street cred right off the bat.

Interestingly, I met a judge there who was like a walking reference source for the 812 Cord, yet he doesn't own one. I met another guy who owns several Auburns, yet I doubt he knows much more mechanically than how to open the hood on one.

These guys are quite philosophic about these cars and their relationship to them. I had one guy ask me if I was the owner of the car. I responded that I was the current caretaker. This was the right thing to say. I certainly can't see ever selling the car, and it has outlasted it's previous owners, so chances are good that it will outlast me!

Since this is a blog, it's time for me to pontificate a bit - It's such a shame that so many of these cars have become artifacts - cars in shape, but museum displays in terms of functionality.


If a car isn't run and driven, it's a simple matter of time before the people that own the car stop knowing *how* to keep it running. I know that even driving the car around the block will cost it points in a judging, but if you think about it, never driving it makes winning awards the only real satisfaction. I have to say, driving home after the meet in the evening with just Sheryl with me, was wonderful. The car is timeless.

And to boot, it didn't break down!

Heading to the paint shop

As you can see here, the car is in Pat's trailer, headed for the paint shop. This picture was taken in March. Ever's Body shop, in New Haven, will do the finish sanding, prepping, and painting.

One of the great things about this was that Ever's wouldn't give me a date for when the car would be done!

At first, I didn't like this at all. My life seems constantly driven by deadlines, tasks, and appointments. I have to commit to people and projects every day - why couldn't they?

And then it became clear to me. The only thing I would be happy with is a beautiful finish - something I could enter into the judging and hope to do well, maybe even win.

There was no sense in holding the paint shop to a set date when, in order to meet the date, they might have to skip an area, sand something once instead of twice, and hurry to get the car back to me. What's the point in that? The car's 72 years old and I've waited my whole adult life to get one. Ever's knew me better than I knew myself when it came to this car.

In the 3 months that followed, Evers ended up completely block sanding the entire car THREE times. The more they looked, the more they found things that were good, but not great. I'm trying to get the pictures they took online so you can see them as well.

Completion of bodywork

It's been quite a while since I've posted, but the work has certainly not stopped. To the left you can see the primed front fenders, fence, and hood prior to leaving for the paint shop.

Thankfully, we were able to completely save both fenders, something I wasn't sure could happen, as beat up as they were. Pat is truly a craftsman and most importantly, he knows what the fender should look like.

Here's a picture of the front, head-on. Most people believe that the Cord 810/812 ultimate design is the front of the car, both from a aesthetic and technical standpoint. The retractable headlights, the coffin nose, the grill integrated into the hood all make for a beautiful design. The front wheel drive and Lycoming V8 complete the technical tour-de-force that the Cord represents.

Fenders and Transmission cover

If you look down a post or two, you'll see the work that started on the transmission cover for the Cord. Outside of the bumpers, this piece of bodywork really took the brunt of the hit. Joe had spent a couple hours trying to rebuild the metal to some sort of semblance to the orginal size and shape, but it just seemed like too much damage had occurred.


The change in plans were pretty simple - cut out the damaged metal, weld in new metal, then form the cover to the original design.






This past week Pat began to take the weld-in work that Joe did and form the cover. The results are amazing, as usual. The flat spot on the peak of the cover is where the Cord emblem will go.




Lastly, the fenders on the Cord are truly incredible examples of 1930's metal stamping and fabrication. The design of the beautifully flowing lines have been eludicated far more eloquently than I could do, but the the compound concave and convex curves of the fenders are one of the reasons some restorers decide to replace steel fenders with fiberglass copies -- getting the angles and shape right can be maddening.

But I had Pat -- As you can see for the picture of the transmission cover, and the picture of the front end, he has perfectly restored these fenders to their original fit. The finish is next.

At this point we are ahead of schedule. Hopefully we will get the car to the bodyshop by early March.

Rough bodywork continues

Pat has repaired the damage to the c-pillar on the passenger side, the gash to the front and rear door pillar, and the right front fender.


He used a hydraulic jack, and particularly medeval looking piece of persuasion that helps bend or pull the damaged metal back into its original position.

I understand that it saves a tremendous amount of hammering. I was not present for this and I'm glad - I think I would have passed out!

I think that one of the trickier bits of work will be getting the doors to align straight. These cars were handbuilt and the gap between door and body seems to vary widely as I look at different models.

Pat said that many restorers will spend countless hours and create a much flusher gap than ever came from the factory -- a 'better than new' scenario.

A coat of primer will make this fender look whole again. It's amazing the number of compound curves on this car. Even the headlight cover is complex.

These covers are aluminum, and the driver side one actually shattered -- Pat sent it to an aluminum welder and we should have it back this week.