Old Cars is turning 50. In honor of 50 years of the privilege of bringing the old cars hobby to our valued and faithful readers, Old Cars will revisit 50 of our past featured cars in 50 days, to commemorate the half-century of Old Cars. Here’s to fifty more years of Old Cars!

 DAY THIRTY-SIX: 1923 Reo Speedwagon

Dave Marshall went to go help a man see if he could get his 1923 Reo Speedwagon running. Marshall already owned two Reos and the man didn’t really want to keep the truck. In hindsight, the rest is predictable.

“Yeah, I went up to see it, and it sounded like he just wanted to get it running,” recalled Marshall, a resident of Wichita, Kan. “I liked it, but I didn’t have room for it … but he wanted to get rid of it and said he didn’t have any use for it.”

“He sort of intimated that he was trying to sell it for a while and nobody was interested… He said he needed the money more than the truck, and I guess he was confident I’d take care of it. It was like adopting a child: ‘Here, it’s yours.’ He just wanted it to go to a good home.”

All things considered, the 1923 1 1/4 –ton Reo had led a fortunate and relatively pampered life for a working truck. It had served from 1923 until the late 1940s as a grain truck, working only during harvest season. It remained clean and well kept year-round, apparently resting a lot more than it worked.

 To learn more about Marshall’s Speedwagon <CLICK HERE>

CHECK OUT DAY THIRTY-FIVE OF 50 CARS IN 50 DAYS, CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF OLD CARS HERE

– 50 days of cars celebrating 50 years of Old Cars is brought to you by our friends over at Camaro Central, Modine and sonicbidder.com.  If you are looking for parts for your classic Camaro, HVAC for your garage or a place to sell your classic car, check out these trustworthy establishments.

Check out these fine friends of Old Cars

Camaro Central offers thousands of products from only the best manufacturers representing the highest quality in restoration and restyling components available. They are the source for all your classic Camaro car needs. Their goal at Camaro Central is to give their customers the best buying experience possible. 

Camaro Central 1967-2020 Camaro Restoration Parts Source
3329 Colonel Road
Richmond, KY 40475
Monday-Friday 9am-5pm EST, Saturday 9am-2pm EST
www.camarocentral.com
Local and outside the USA: 1-859-408-2000
Fax: 1-859-408-2007
– After normal business hours please email : info@camarocentral.com

With over 100 years of experience, Modine is one of the most trusted names in the HVAC manufacturing industry. No matter what your heating and air conditioning need is, their mission is to ensure that they provide you with the right solution.

Modine serves a variety of markets, providing residential unit and patio heaters, commercial rooftop HVAC systems, classroom HVAC, and more. Along with these heating and cooling systems, their Hot Dawg® unit heater remains one of the top-selling unit heaters in the world. The Hot Dawg® unit heater is the perfect solution for keeping your garage or shop warm and comfortable. Visit www.modinehvac.com to find out more.

Modine Headquarters
1500 De Koven Ave.
 Racine WI 53403-2552
www.modinehvac.com
1-800-828-HEAT (4328)

SonicBidder.com brings proven buying power to a world stage. The unique action experience consolidates the thrill of live auctions with an exhilarating 4-D sensory experience that keeps customers delighted as they participate in sales.

SonicBidder.com’s global automotive auctions bring thousands of bidders and millions of dollars in buying power to your event, internationally. Your sell will reach an audience at home and all over the world!

Visit www.sonicbidder.com to find your buyer today!

If you like stories like these and other classic car features, check out Old Cars magazine. CLICK HERE to subscribe.

Want a taste of Old Cars magazine first? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter and get a FREE complimentary digital issue download of our print magazine.

*As an Amazon Associate, Old Cars earns from qualifying purchases.

The post 50 cars in 50 days, celebrating 50 years of Old Cars: Day Thirty-Six appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Oklahomans are a determined, tough bunch, and John Lewis was no exception. Growing up during the 1930s John saw first-hand how it took determination and shear will to survive. His Momma worked hard and saved what she could while raising John and his siblings. Money was tight and hard work was valued. John learned these valuable lessons, which helped him become successful in his future life. Having only a 4th grade education, John was determined to make something of himself. He joined the Navy in 1943 as a teenager and took pride that he was one of the youngest submariners in the submarine U.S.S. Pintado. He took pride in his years in the Navy and was proud of their missions during WWII, sinking many Japanese ships. After John’s service in the Navy he worked as a fireman and an electrician. It was as an electrician that he learned his trade and started Industrial Electric, a thriving business in Lawton, Oklahoma.

With his business thriving, it allowed him to buy the vintage cars and trucks that he saw and loved as a kid. The Brass Era, pre-war cars and trucks were his favorite, especially fire trucks. Being a fireman, he had a fondness for old fire trucks because they represented saving lives and helping people.

John married Jane after an introduction from their daughter. John Kept his wife Jane’s calendar book full of traveling all over the U.S. for rare trucks and cars. They would bring home their treasures, and John and his mechanic, Raymond Jet, would bring them back to life. It brought John great joy to see something that time had forgotten brought back to life instead of gathering dust or discarded.

John was good at getting people, especially his family, to do things. He would call up the kids and grandkids after a trip on the road gathering trucks and cars and put them to work washing and helping him fix his new finds. Everybody was involved in his love of cars and trucks. He also raised cattle and owned several farms. John was full of life and he made sure everyone had fun, especially while working with his collection. Soon the collection out grew the garage at his home and he built a museum where they are currently housed. Over 100 at a time, he would have them arranged and set up with his other collections of saddles, Indian artifacts, fossils and various collectibles. John would have barbecues for his customers and host special functions at the museum. The museum was never officially open to the public, but John would show people by appointment.

Being a fireman, John loved the old firetrucks and there are many in his collection. The collection has everything from an early horse drawn fire cart, 1915 White fire truck, to a 1946 American LaFrance ladder truck. Most all are restored back to original condition. John’s collection is unique and eclectic; it even has an eerie collection of hearses. The hearse collection ranges from an ornate 1888 Sayers & Scoville horse drawn hearse to a rare 1928 Henney hearse with fake bodies included. John was always up for a joke and made people laugh. John wanted to make sure everyone always had a good time.

The collection is mostly comprised of pre-war Brass and Nickel era cars and trucks. A 1927 Rolls Royce Phantom II Landaulet coach as well as other limos are waiting to go back into service. A 1914 Ford Model T Speedster is beautifully restored and looks like it’s ready for the Great Race. There is an assortment of White, Mack, Dodge Brothers, Packard, REO Speedwagon, and International C-Cab trucks and deliveries plus a rare 1925 Mack truck with airplane engine testing equipment installed. For parades, John has an assortment of coupes, sedans, and touring cars, including a 1914 Studebaker among others.

John was always hunting for rare trucks and cars and one of his favorites and biggest challenge was procuring a 1925 White Bus. The 1925 White Bus is decked out in yellow with yellowstone lettering.

One of the other rarities in the collection is a 1910 Knox truck. The truck appears original, aside from the replacement 1950’s HEMI engine and theater seats added to the bed. That must have been a wild ride.

John’s collection grew until he became sick and realized he wasn’t going to have a lot of time. He didn’t want to burden his family with the enormous collection he built and sold the collection, in its entirety, to a couple of men in Lawton, Oklahoma. John’s wife Jane said, “It was hard to let go, but it was also a blessing not to have to figure out what to do with all those rare trucks and cars, and other collections.”

Now it’s your chance to get one of these rare pieces of American history. This is just one of several auctions that will liquidate this enormous collection.

VanDerBrink Auctions, LLC will sell the John Lewis Collection on October 21st, 2017 at 9:30 at the museum at 816 SE 1st, ST. – Lawton, Oklahoma. The entire collection will be sold NO RESERVE, to the highest bidder. This will be your chance to get one of these rare pre-war trucks and cars. A preview will be held Friday October 20th with a social and barbeque that evening for bidders. If you can’t come to the auction, on-line bidding will be available. In addition to the trucks and cars there will be memorabilia, collectibles, parts and other items. There is even a water mine and bear trap along with approx. 80 rare, vintage trucks, fire trucks, buses and cars. Make your plans to attend the John Lewis Collection Auction. For more info, online bidding, catalog, and other great auctions Call VanDerBrink Auctions 605-201-7005 or www.vanderbrinkauctions.com . See you at this Amazing Auction!

The post The John Lewis Collection Auction appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

By Brian Earnest

Dave Marshall probably should have seen it coming.

A man who was pretty much a stranger — “somebody who knew somebody who knew me,” Marshall jokes — called him out of the blue and asked Marshall to come and look at a truck. The truck just happened to be an old Reo Speedwagon, and Marshall just happened to own two Reos of his own.

The truck’s owner didn’t know how to get the truck running, and he really didn’t want to keep it. The Reo belonged to his late grandfather, who died before he finished restoring the truck. The truck was mostly done, but the grandson had no real attachment to the Reo and he hoped Marshall would warm up to the old rig after he got to see it and work on it.

“Yeah, I went up to see it, and it sounded like he just wanted to get it running,” recalled Marshall, a resident of Wichita, Kan. “I liked it, but I didn’t have room for it … but he wanted to get rid of it and said he didn’t have any use for it.

“He sort of intimated that he was trying to sell it for a while and nobody was interested… He said he needed the money more than the truck, and I guess he was confident I’d take care of it. It was like adopting a child: ‘Here, it’s yours.’ He just wanted it to go to a good home.”

All things considered, the 1923 1 1/4 –ton Reo had led a fortunate and relatively pampered life for a working truck. It had served from 1923 until the late 1940s as a grain truck, working only during harvest season. It remained clean and well kept year-round, apparently resting a lot more than it worked.

“It was always a Kansas truck,” Marshall said. “It was in mid-central Kansas and it had worked on a farm as a grain hauler. Most of the grain trucks don’t get many miles on them. They’d only use it one harvest a year and then park it. They didn’t use them much because they didn’t want to get them too dirty with grease and stuff. You don’t want to pollute the grain.”

The truck stayed in service until about 1946. “That was when they got a new one,” Marshall noted. “The only reason it was used for so long was you couldn’t get trucks during World War II, and so they had to keep using it, even though it was a little small for a grain truck.”

When the Reo was finally retired, it sat untouched for nearly four decades before the previous owner rescued it in the 1980s. “The common practice was they’d park the truck and keep them in reserve, but I don’t think they ever used this one,” Marshall said. The second owner spent several years restoring the Speedwagon, fixing up the cab and interior, sprucing up the original wood bed and giving the truck a lovely, and period correct, green and black paint job with black and red accents.

“The grandfather re-did the wood around the cab, and he prettied it up,” Marshall noted. “Otherwise, it’s pretty original. It appears to me that he did a very nice job … It would appear that the engine and drive train, he didn’t have to do anything to it. It’s still got, I guess you could say, some worn-out truck attributes.”

Sadly, the previous owner apparently never got to enjoy much time behind the wheel before he died, and the truck was stashed away in a barn for another 20-some years before Marshall became its third owner. “When I first went up to take a look at it, they had it back in a barn and had a tarpaulin over it,” Marshall said. “I was expecting an old piece of junk, and it looked bad. It had been sitting and it had some cobwebs, but it didn’t have any mice in it or anything … It had a hand crank and the engine would turn over, so that was good, but the oil was all gone out of it, the water was gone out of it, the tires were flat and all that.

“I made a list of all things we’d need to get it running … Eventually we had to take the carburetor off and I took it home and got it cleaned it up and I got a fuel kit and got it to working … After that, we put a battery on it and damned if it didn’t start! It’s gravity feed, and it started and it sounded pretty good.”

Once he got it home, Marshall did some timing work on the Reo and “re-did the ignition system so it ran steady. The water pump was leaking and the generator was not working. It ran, but it was used up and it was due for some work. It had the original radiator. I took it to a local radiator guy that cleaned it out… It was full of mud, which you would expect, but it runs good now!”

The wood wheels and wood bed appeared to be original, as did the body, fenders and running boards. During its working days, the Speedwagon was fitted with 3-foot-tall sideboards and a wooden gate on the bed. Marshall still has those original pieces, but dresses the Reo more as a pickup these days.

Having a mostly original 1923 Reo truck certainly gives Marshall a conversation piece at hobby events. Such vehicles aren’t plentiful today, and the Reo Speedwagon is more associated with the rock band of the same name than a defunct automaker. At one time, however, Reo was a thriving venture, rising to No. 5 on the list of most prolific truck builders in the country in the late 1920s. The company began in 1908 after Ransom E. Olds had departed from Olds Motor Works, the company he had started in 1899. He used his initials to name his new venture: the Reo Motor Car company. The company kept that name until 1939, when it became Reo Motors. The company was eventually bought out by White Motor Co. in 1957.

Reo jumped into the truck business in 1909, producing what were considered to be solid, well-built, durable trucks. The company made ¾-ton, 1-ton and larger trucks in a myriad of body styles — pickups, open and closed Express, canopy trucks, tow and fire rigs, panel trucks, dump beds, flat beds, bottle trucks, “bungalow” campers and other configurations.

With features like shaft drive, pneumatic tires and electric lights and starter, the 1923 Reo Speedwagon had all the right features for the era — and it also came with a six-cylinder “T6” engine, which was a key selling point. The 50 hp the six cylinders turned out was not particularly spectacular, in fact, it was less than the company’s four-cylinder power plant, but the torque and smooth operation were a definite step up. “It runs nice,” Marshall said. “Most of these trucks had four-cylinders. They only started using sixes [extensively] in 1924, so this was a very early six-cylinder installation. It actually has less hp than the four-cylinder, but the four-cylinder is not nearly as smooth.”

That doesn’t mean the trucks are swift, however. Far from it. With a three-speed manual, they were meant for slow-moving work, particularly in low gear. “These are geared so low, you can crawl faster than this can go in first gear,” Marshall laughed. “But it will pull anything. You can pull a tractor-trailer with it. It only has brakes on the rear wheels, but it has pretty big brakes so it actually stops pretty good.”

Two of Marshall’s favorite quirks with the truck are found inside. The first is what he calls his “anti-theft” device. “I didn’t notice this about it until I started looking close, but at the base of the gear shift is little ring loop that you could put a lock through and couldn’t put into gear.”

The other oddity — the location of the gas tank — has taken some getting used to. “It’s in front of the steering wheel immediately in front of the driver,” he said. “It’s a little intimidating if you think about it.”

Being claustrophobic isn’t really an option for Reo Speedwagon owners, either. The bench seat inside the tiny cab is fixed, and head and legroom is in short supply for somebody Marshall’s size. “[The original owners] must have been a whole lot smaller than we are!” he said. “I’m 6-4 and it’s tight to get in and out. When I slide in, I have to slide in sideways.”

That hasn’t kept Marshall from enjoying Sunday drives and occasional cruises with his car buddies, however. As long as the cruising speed doesn’t climb above 35 mph, he’s just fine in his Speedwagon. “I have two other Reos — a 1909 two-cylinder chain drive, and a 1912 the Fifth,” said Marshall, who also owns a 1916 Model T Ford. “[The Speedwagon] is more of our winter driver because it has glass and a cab on it. All the other ones are open cars.”

Of course, anybody who owns a Reo Speedwagon gets to explain that, yes, there really was such a vehicle, and it was important enough to name a rock band after. “Yeah, a lot of people come up and want to know about the name,” Marshall concluded. “The kids all think the band came first!”

_______

Got a car you’d like us to feature as our “Car of the Week“? We want to hear from you! E-mail us and tell us all about it.

The post Car of the Week: 1923 Reo Speedwagon appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.