Franconia, N.H.

This old REO has been in our family for about 75 Years. It is a 1923 Speedwagon with a Foamite Childs fire apparatus body and a Northern Rotary fire pump. The original owners were the Randolph Vermont fire department. The old photo (below) was sent to us from the current Randolph Village Fire Chief, Jay Collete. This photo was taken in downtown Randolph in the later 1920s or later ’30s. Grandfather Ed Mckenzie purchased the fire truck in the late 1930s. The family owned Mckenzie’s Inn in Franconia, N.H., located in the White Mountains. Ed bought the truck to water the golf course at the Inn. They would put ½ gallon of gas in the truck start it up and leave it, pumping water out of the river. When the truck ran out of gas it would stop watering the golf course. The truck has been stored in a barn ever since and used for parades.

The truck runs good, but needs exhaust work and a water pump resealing. It starts and idles good; drives and stops fine. It is all original and complete. We don’t know about the pump. We haven’t tried to pump water for a while, but it’s all there. The body has only surface rust, no holes anywhere. All of the wood is good, except for one running board. We fixed one flat tire and the wheel came apart easily, wood spoke wheels are very clean.

We are looking for a new home for the truck.

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By Phil Hall

For 2012, 21st Century Orphans will take over the feature tent and display areas to the south of the F+W Media building for the July 12-15 event in Iola, Wis. But what in the world are the 21st Century Orphans that are being celebrated as the theme of the 40th Annual Iola Old Car Show and Swap Meet?

Each year, the Wisconsin Chapter of the Society of Automotive Historians picks a theme that is aimed at attracting the interest of participants. This year, the brands of domestic vehicles that went out of production in this young century were chosen: Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Mercury. Saturn and Hummer also were casualties, but their time in the marketplace put them beyond the 1982 cutoff year for displaying feature vehicles.

Automotive history has been deeply paved with orphan brands, abandoned by their builders, sometime after as little as one example had been constructed.

A few orphan-producing eras stand out. Early in the 20th century, successes greatly outnumbered failures. As the major manufacturers grew, lesser financed nameplates could not compete. The Great Depression of the 1930s was a large orphan producer, particularly for luxury brands. Then, as the “Big Three” flexed their marketing muscles, several independent brands checked out in the 1950s.

That brings us to the 21st century, where only domestic “Big Three” brands of passenger cars were mass marketed. Instead of independents, the “Big Three” faced strong import competition which, at times, captured over half of the new vehicle market.

However, each shutdown was for a different reason.

First to go was Plymouth, which dated back to the 1928 introduction of the 1929 models from Chrysler Corp. Chrysler later fell under the control of Daimler-Benz, which increasingly called the shots from Germany. DaimlerChrysler didn’t see the need for the low-priced Plymouth brand when it had Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep nameplates to market. It killed off various Plymouth models until the 2001 Neon was the last to go.

As Plymouth was entering history that year, General Motors decided to ax its oldest brand, Oldsmobile, which had been around since 1897, well before GM was born. Oldsmobile’s problem was different. Its Cutlass intermediates had been hugely successful in the 1970s and early 1980s and attracted a lot of dealers to sell them. When Cutlass and other Oldsmobile sales cooled down in the later 1980s and 1990s, it left a lot of dealers that sold very few cars.

It was decided the least painful way out of the problem was to do something nobody thought GM would ever do: kill Olds.

To its credit, as production wound down, special-edition final models were offered to the Olds faithful and collectors. Finally, the 2004 Alero was the last standing with much of the final model year production being absorbed by rental car fleets.

Pontiac, which started as a replacement for Oakland in 1926, joined its fellow division on death row, but this time it was not especially GM’s decision. With the federal government in charge and bankruptcy looming, orders were given to cut more brands. Pontiac, which lacked the Chinese connection of Buick, drew the short straw, along with Saturn and eventually Hummer.

Pontiac production ended in 2009 with the G6 staying around the longest to fulfill a rental car order. The Vibe was the only Pontiac to carry a 2010 model year, but it left early.
That brings us to Mercury, the last to depart thus far. Mercury dates back to 1938 when the first 1939 Ford Mercury models were produced. (The Ford tag was quickly dropped.) It was pushed by Henry Ford’s son Edsel to cover the gap between Ford and luxury Lincoln.

Mercury’s time in the saddle was threatened when sales dwindled in the 2000s and offerings were little more than spiffier trim on a Ford. When CEO Alan Mulally came over from Boeing to run Ford, he saw little sense to keep the slow-selling Mercury brand, something Ford family descendents were unable to do.

The death of Mercury was announced in mid 2010 and it was to be swift. By year’s end, there were no more Mercury automobiles or SUVs. Models were axed without fanfare, but for reasons unknown, 2011 versions were announced. The final Mercury built was the Grand Marquis, which was produced into the 2011 calendar year, but not because of any special recognition. Rather, a snowstorm held up the parts needed to complete the last few cars.

Each of our newly christened orphan brands have loyal followings and a huge number of significant models which are cherished by their owners. The entries for the Iola Old Car Show feature area have been massive. Listing significant examples from each nameplate would fill too much space, and why read about them when you can see them at the show?
Also, as an attendee, you likely had experiences of some sort with one or maybe all four marques. All body styles, trucks and even some imports carried these brand names. You, your family, relatives and neighbors likely made them a part of your memory bank. Now the time is here to see them, talk to the owners and share your experiences.

Though the featured four carry the orphan status, it does not mean any decrease in popularity in the collector field. Being so new, many are still in daily driver use and will be for some time to come.

To learn more about the 2012 Iola Old Car Show, visit www.iolaoldcarshow.com.

Fans of these 21st-century orphans can learn more here:

• The Standard Catalog of Oldsmobile 1897-1997, the ultimate reference guide for Oldsmobile fans and auto historians, is back with updated collector pricing through 2004 models!
• Find Mercury info with the Mercury 1961-1975 Standard Statistics Download.
• Plymouth pricing and data can be found in our Standard Catalog of Chrysler 1914-2000.
• The Standard Catalog of Pontiac 1926-2002, the ultimate reference guide for Pontiac fans and auto historians, is back with updated collector pricing through 2005 models!

The post 21st Century Orphans find home at Iola 2012 appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Brian Grams has had a lot of cars come and go from the Volo Auto Museum collection over the years. Movie cars, TV star cars, celebrity cars … he’s seen a little of everything as the director of the well-known museum/collection/dealer located about 50 miles west of Chicago.

But even Grams admits that few cars he has dealt with have had a story quite as fun, juicy and noteworthy as the 1969 “General Lee” Dodge Charger that serves as one of the museum fleet’s biggest attractions. The General Lee, of course, was the four-wheeled star that was driven hard and put away dirty by redneck cousins Bo and Luke Duke in the iconic “Dukes of Hazzard” series that ran from 1979 to 1985. The car — well, there were actually about 256 “Generals” that were driven and wrecked on film in the series — became a main character on the show, rivaled in popularity perhaps only by Daisy Duke’s short shorts.

Few cars have ever been more recognizable than the Dukes’ Charger. So how did one of the coveted authentic Chargers actually built for the show avoid winding up as property of the Warner Brothers studios, eventually disappear for more than two decades, then show up again as an authentic, unrestored TV prop with huge collector appeal?

As far as Grams is concerned, it’s the “barn find factor,” along with the way that WB was hoodwinked out of the car, that make the Volo Museum’s General Lee one of the most original, collectible and interesting of the remaining ’69 General Lee Chargers.

“When we saw the car advertised, we really didn’t know what the car was all about,” Grams admitted. “For us, it had all the Warner Brothers paperwork, and that’s all we cared about. There was a three-ring binder filled with tons of stuff about the car. It has bills of sale and all kinds of other documentation. But then we started into it and finding out more, and people were saying, ‘Oh, you’ve got THAT car?’ That car disappeared, and we were wondering what happened to it.’”

As with any good story, the tale of the Volo’s General Lee took a couple of unlikely turns. Originally, there were three General Lees built for the show, which in the beginning was filmed in Georgia. The cars were painted orange and given a NASCAR style “01” on the doors with a Confederate flag on the roof. It wasn’t long before five more cars were built to keep up with the carnage during the Georgia filming. When the series moved to California for filming after the first season, Don Schisler, who worked as a transportation coordinator on the show as one of the men responsible for getting cars ready for the cameras, somehow talked the studio into selling him one of the leftover cars that hadn’t yet been used onscreen.

“He was kind of sly about it,” Grams said. “He told them it was a parts car. He didn’t tell them it was a restored car that was turned into a General Lee and it was ready to go. He told them it was a leftover parts car.

“Well, Schisler and his son, John, they didn’t like all the attention the car was getting down there at the time. They lived in Georgia, and they’d have people coming to their house looking for Bo and Luke. Eventually, they didn’t want anything to do with the car, so they sold it to another guy in 1981.”

The story goes that the Charger developed engine problems — or had them before the sale — and the new owner wound up parking and storing it. Only 1,500 miles were put on the Charger from the time Schisler had it and when the Volo Museum bought the car in 2008. As near as Grams can tell, the car hadn’t been changed at all since its days waiting to get on screen, outside of an engine rebuild.

Almost all of the Chargers prepared for the show were pieced together hastily using whatever means necessary. The studio bought up used Chargers — either ’68s or ’69s — slapped some orange paint and decals on them, installed roll bars, antennas and CB radios, and painted the interiors tan, if necessary. The Volo Museum’s Charger was spared the spray paint can interior, because it had been ordered with a tan interior originally.

The Volo Museum’s car is also apparently the only authentic General Lee with original hand-painted graphics. “There was a gentleman, Larry West, he was the one handpainting all the graphics on the cars, and as far as anybody knows, this is the only car that has original Larry West graphics on it,” Grams said.

“Also, being one of the early cars, the push bar on the front of the car is very narrow. The push bar is pretty much useless. When they went into filming in California, they were much wider and actually usable.”

The car also has a tie to “Lee 1,” the first General Lee used in the famous opening jump scene. That car was eventually pulled from a junk yard and restored after it had been destroyed during filming, but part of its roll bar wound up in the Volo Museum’s car. “There is some chain link in the roll cage, and it matches Lee 1,” said Grams. “There is a guy in Indiana that owns Lee 1. That car was originally trashed junk and he went through a total restoration process with that car. Well, he didn’t know we had this car, and he came here because he heard the roll bar from our car was originally from his car. Sure enough, you can see where roll bar was cut in half and matched the roll bar from his car.

“They had originally scraped that car off the road and left it for dead. They used anything they could salvage off those cars.”

When the series finally died in 1985, Warner Brothers auctioned off 17 leftover General Lees to car collectors, with some strings attached. The Volo Museum wound up with one of those coveted original 17 cars, but that arrangement didn’t work out and the museum sent that General Lee down the road. “We’ve had General Lees here, and we are always trying to upgrade,” Grams said. “We bought one of the original 17 surviving cars and paid well over $100,000 for it, and if it wasn’t one of original General Lees it would have been an 800-dollar parts car. It was just trashed, junk.

“We put it on display, but we got a phone call saying you can’t display that car. When Warner Brothers let the cars go, there was a contract against profiting from the car … Guys could only use them for personal use … We had to sell it because we couldn’t use it for display.

“This time, we feel like we have the right car.”

Grams noted that not only does the museum’s “General” appeal to the masses who simply remember it from their youth and have fond memories of the show, but it also gets the attention of movie car buffs and General Lee Charger fanatics who appreciate the car’s provenance and original “studio” condition. “Yeah, the General Lee, just to the general public, it always draws a crowd,” he said. “This one in particular has drawn the interest of the ‘thoroughbreds’ because of its history. The average guy walking in just remembers it from the TV series, but people that are really into the authenticity, they’re the ones that really appreciate the car for what it is.”

Grams admits that initially the car didn’t excite him all that much. It hadn’t gotten any actual air time on the “Dukes” series, and that seemed to work against its “star car” appeal. Still, the fact that it was the “car that got away” makes it a noteworthy piece of history.

“When we first bought it, we underestimated the car’s significance,” he concluded. “In our opinion, yeah it was owned by Warner Brothers, but it was never actually used on the TV series, so that was a little turn-off to us. But on the flip side, the guy got it from Warner Brothers and how he got it … This one was actually built by Warner Brothers and was supposed to be used on the series, but this guy was sly and told a few fibs and was able to get it away from them. Because he did that, that’s how the car survived.”

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The post Car of the Week: 1969 ‘General Lee’ Charger appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.