When you look at the pile of parts, you can tell that much has already been done. But then you look at the other pile and, as Restoration Supervisor Pat Brooks notes, “Once the individual parts are done, the reassembly goes quite quickly.”
Funding from an Iowa Historic Preservation grant plus individual sponsorship of many components is bringing back the only known-to-exist Spaulding automobile. The project is being sponsored by the Iowa Transportation Museum, under development in Grinnell.
Motor vehicles from pre-World War I era, especially those made by the smaller manufacturers were often built from many random parts with little concern for standardization other than their final appearance. For example, side-by-side bolts might be of different lengths or thread gauge, so disassembly must be done with a high degree of documentation and keeping the correct parts together.
Currently the brass radiator is being completely rebuilt in Maine (the closest vendor) and the wood-spoke wheels are being remade by specialists in California. However everything else is being done in Iowa. Jack O’Neel, a member of Early Wheels of Iowa has been especially helpful sourcing hard-to-find fasteners and seeing that other com-ponents are correctly restored. To date, the carburetor, fuel and water pumps plus several other brass and aluminum subassemblies have been returned to their original functioning state.
Dale Benskin of Marshalltown is overseeing the rebuild of the 4-cylinder Buda engine. Upon opening it up it was discovered that it had been rebuilt once before due to a thrown connecting rod. We’ll be kind to the unknown mechanic, but his repairs ultimately led to some badly scored cylinder walls. However the good news is that there is enough metal to “bore-out” the block and then install oversized pistons. When done, the car will be in running condition, suitable for parades and other limited uses. We won’t push it to 84 mph as was done during the “World Record River-to-River” race against the Rock Island fast mail train in November of 1913.
