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Eureka! Spaulding Automobile headed home at last

GRINNELL HERALD REGISTER • February 3, 2005

A 1913 Spaulding touring car will return home to Grinnell later this month. Well, 60 percent of a Spaulding motor car, to be precise. It is in pieces and will require extensive restoration which could cost $75,000. But to representatives of the Iowa Transportation Museum, the long-sought Spaulding – more complete than any known to exist – is purely “priceless.”
 
   “It will be the centerpiece of whatever collection we acquire over the years,” says John Swanson, executive director of the facility planned for the once-flourishing Spaulding manufacturing site at Fourth Ave. and Spring St. “It has so much to do with the story of Spaulding in Grinnell, and automotive and transportation history as it relates to Iowa.”

    The Spaulding Company, which in its heyday at the turn of the last century produced 10,000 buggies a year and was Poweshiek County’s largest employer, manufactured just 1,481 automobiles from 1910 to 1916. Extensive research has failed to locate a model more complete than this one, contained in a set of boxes which, for the time being, will be placed in secure storage here under Vernon “Pinkie” VanWyk’s care.

    “We have about 60 percent of the original vehicle including chassis, engine, drive train, a set of wheels, a pair of doors, and other miscellaneous parts,” Swanson said. “The body, fenders and most of the interior will need to be fabricated. We hope that additional parts will be discovered as we begin work on it.”

A POWER PLANT IN COLORADO

The Spaulding’s current owner, George Gagle of Joplin, Mo., acquired the vehicle in the 1980s. “It had ended up in Colorado and at some point was made into a wrecker,” Gagle said. “Later it was converted to a stationary power plant, which is probably why the metal-clad wood body is missing.”

    Swanson said it was not uncommon for old automobiles to be jacked up and have their engines harnessed to operate a sawmill, pump water, or perform other power applications. Over the years since his acquisition of the machine, Gagle was able to add half of the current collection of parts by networking with other vintage car collectors and attending swap meets. Gagle had intended to restore the vehicle himself, and when he changed his mind the ITM team – which had expressed its interest to him – stepped in to take over the task.

    Swanson said the first order of business is to develop an inventory of the parts needed, then put the word out to other enthusiasts and collectors that the search is on. “My understanding is that the most difficult part that remains to be found is the Gray & Davis starter, which is very rare,” Swanson noted. “1913 was the first year the Spaulding – and no doubt many other cars – came with a self-starter, so that’s going to take some work to find that.” Swanson explained that many cars of the Spaulding era were “assembled cars,” a common practice in the pre-World War I day in which the manufacturer might only design and fabricate the chassis and body and then source other parts from various suppliers – Timken axles, Rushmore headlamps, Prest-O-Lite tanks, Gray & Davis starters – to complete the vehicle.

    Many different cars of the period, therefore, contained the same parts and Swanson says it is considered acceptable to find correct parts from multiple sources when authentically restoring such vehicles.

THE SEARCH FOR PARTS

The ITM team hopes that spreading the word about the Spaulding restoration will turn up some – or many – of the needed parts. Grinnellian Chuck Brooke has agreed to be the local point person on the parts hunt, and anyone with appropriate pieces to offer should call him at 236-4766. Swanson says, at this point, photographs and literature are almost as important as missing parts “because the more of those we’ve got, the more accurately we can re-create parts not to be found anywhere” which will have to be fabricated from scratch. He said restoration jobs of this magnitude often take two to three years, “because it takes that long to source what else you need, fabricate what’s missing, assemble it all, and finish the trim and final details. This will be a fully operational Spaulding when we’re done. We’re committed to that.”

    ITM Board President Gerry Schnepf of Des Moines echoed the sentiment. “Bringing home the Spaulding has been a dream of ours since the day we learned of its existence. Its historic significance to the site and to our mission make it virtually priceless. It will most likely take a couple of years to complete its restoration, but by then we will have a place to properly display it. And from time to time, we intend to drive it in parades and other special events across the state.”

    Swanson says in 1913 Spaulding manufactured two models: a touring car, with front and back seats, and a roadster “more stripped down and sporty, more like what we think of as a convertible today.” Either model could be equipped with one of two engines – the Spaulding 30 or the Spaulding 40, with the numbers roughly corresponding to horsepower. “To my knowledge, what we have is a Spaulding 30 motor, and we’re reasonably sure this would be the touring car,” Swanson said of the restoration project.

    In looks and attributes, the Spaulding was said to compare favorably to the Cadillac and other upscale cars of the time. Legend has it that Henry Ford once tried to buy the company, but Henry Spaulding refused. The concern went out of business in the 1920s.

1913 SPAULDING AUTOMOBILE PARTS AND COMPONENTS ACQUIRED
Frame/chassis
Engine (Buda)
Transmission
Front axle
Rear axle and differential-complete
Drive shaft/U-joints
Rear springs
Front springs with incorrect main leaf
New old stock steering column/steering wheel
Drag link
Pitman arm
Schebler carburetor Type S
Eisman magneto and coil w/switch
Muffler, radiator and shell
Hood
4 doors (2 right and 2 left)
4 wheels and 5 demountable rims plus hardware
and clamps (Baker)
1 Detroit demountable rim plus some clamps
(correct rim for the car)
2 nice correct headlights plus forks
Taillight
Horn
Stewart speedometer
Gray and Davis amp gauge
1 casting of a Spaulding rear hub cap for
making new caps
Spaulding diamond emblem (original)
Spaulding literature compiled over many years
New casting of Grinnell license Plate topper
Some seat springs
Windshield
Clear Missouri title
Possibly other miscellaneous parts


Spaulding Center for Transportation and the Iowa Transportation Museum