One of the truly disconcerting things about doing restoration work is figuring out when to NOT go to the next level of disintegrating the car. The ultimate level is completely taking the car apart to the last little nut & bolt. Once you get going, your vision gets blurred and it seems that everything needs to be freshened up. Oh dear. I fear that I may be on that track. The major precipitating event happened when my Dad & I removed the body of the car on New Years Eve, December 31, 2015. I was somewhat shocked to find that the four bolts that hold the body on were not just loose, they had no nuts on them at all. Clear evidence to me that Philip Dickey (we obtained the car from his son, Steve –my wife Janet’s cousin) had been here already. With our trusty Harbor Freight 2 ton crane, fitted to a 4×4 beam with a wire cable yoke, my Dad, Vince and our housekeeper, Juana Rodriguez balanced the load and slowly jacked up the body.
Single 4×4 beam & wire yoke at the balance point
I then rolled the frame & running gear out from under the suspended body.
Ready to roll out the car from under the levitated body.
Next, I rolled in our previously constructed “body cart”.
Body Cart in place
The body was then on the cart which had casters allowing us to move the body around in the workshop.
Body removed from frame to rest on cart.
We felt we had accomplished a lot and deserved to rest up until next year. Which we did.
Although we believe most all of the parts for the MICHIGAN are all here, we were told by the prior owner, Steve Dickey, that the radiator cap has been missing for years. Something about a motorcycle gang getting in the barn and taking some random stuff. Seriously, I didn’t make that up.
Anyway, that meant that we needed a radiator cap. OK…… so are radiator caps for MICHIGANs easy to find? Can we really figure out what they look like? So, we need to look at photographs of other MICHIGAN automobiles. Ah….. that is easier said than done. Michigan’s are few and far between. And photos of MICHIGANS taken in 1912, or thereabouts are SUPER rare. The MICHIGAN MOTOR CAR COMPANY seemed to like to put high quality drawings or illustrations in their literature. NOT PHOTOGRAPHS. And the illustrations are not very helpful. The illustration below is a drawing from page 17, of the “MICHIGAN AUTOMOBILES 1912” sales brochure. What we see is a plain cap with indentations for fingers. It is difficult to see how tall or short the cap may be. Nor is it possible to determine the material it is made of or its color.
So, over the past several years I’ve tried to see what other Michigan owners have on their cars. So here are a collection of photos that shows what radiator caps are on existing MIGHTY MICHIGAN 40’s. The silliest looking radiator cap is one I found on the internet that is in an Italian registry of current and defunct automobile “mascots” or “marques” (brand logos). This one below incorporates a very fancy Union shield decorated “dog-bone” handle, a Boyce brand “Motometer” thermometer and a ridiculous diving imp or fairy. I believe that this particular conglomeration of stuff is not remotely authentic. The other photos I’ve collected of radiator caps are not nearly so extravagant (or silly).
The earliest is from Loren & Louise Cuthbert’s 1911 MICHIGAN, car number 1001, It has a set of wings, a Boyce Motometer and a flip top cap.
The next is from Mike & Nancy Howard’s 1912 Model K, car number 3477. This has a simple cap painted black and a Boyce Motometer. The cap shows no finger notches, as depicted in the MICHIGAN AUTOMOBILES 1912 brochure.
I received photos of the car once owned by Jim & Loretta Cesari, car number – unknown (now owned by ???). The cap does have the finger notches, and also a Boyce Motometer showing one of several “MICHIGAN” logos that appears in sales literature. The cap is brass and so is the radiator shell and much of the car’s trim which does not seem to be consistent with contemporaneous sales materials claiming the cars had more expensive white nickel mountings and trim.
This last photo is from an R&M Auction promotion in 2008, of the sale of a 1913 MICHIGAN Model R, the most expensive and last of the MICHIGAN cars ever produced. Car number – 5881, purchased in Iowa by Dr. Art Burrichter in 1992 and later restored by Silver Dollar Restoration in Tampa FL. This radiator cap is simple, painted black and has the finger notches that show up in the literature. The car sold for $154,000. It is unknown if the radiator shell was originally nickel plate or this was a later addition.
Last year I purchased a 1913 Salesman’s Book which contains only illustrations on heavy fabric backed paper. The illustration below is in the book and shows what the front of the car as it would have been in 1913. Of all the caps I’ve got pictures of, the 1913 Model R seems to be the most original in appearance. Someday I may even find one. By the way the size of the cap is 18 threads per inch and 2.06 inches for the minor diameter on the threads.
Because I haven’t been able to find a radiator cap (the radiator is made by the CANDLER company of Detroit), I’ve put my very modest lathe experience to the test on a solid block of aluminum. (Sort of looks like nickel trim.) Because I don’t have a milling machine, I dispensed with the finger notches. Don’t ask how many hours it took. Because I needed lathe practice — I made two caps. So if one goes missing – I’ve got a spare!
Here’s a photo with the new cap on the radiator — a model very similar to the Candler Model — the Candler Special “King” — (I’ll attach the brochure for Candler Radiator Company in the Nuts & Bolts section.) NOTE — our radiator is NOT BRASS. NOT NICKEL. Just painted black. No insignia. No medallions. No name.
In browsing old automobile publications, I came across this ad in a 1911 “Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal. It looks VERY much like our transmission, but shows a hump on the casting below and to the left of the circular observation hatch that our transmission is missing. The hump could be the difference between the transmission depicted in the ad for a 30-35 H.P. car and our 40 H.P. car. We will have to investigate this to see if there are any references to a “Type A” or “Type C” transmission in any of the literature. There are no identifying marks on the casting to indicate who may have manufactured the transmission, and the ad seems to show that it was something NOT sourced from other manufacturers, unlike most of the other parts that were assembled into our car.
A photo of a 1912 MICHIGAN Model K, (car number: 3477) owned by Mike Howard of Scotts, Michigan shows a transmission with the hump shown in the ad. Also of note is that his hand brake and shifter are different from ours.
Mike & Nancy Howard’s car #3477
Our car (car number: 3531), shown below, also has a leather cone clutch whereas car number 3477, above has a multiple disk clutch — one of several equipment variations available on MICHIGAN motor cars.
Our car #3531 – Note: clutch is removed in this photo, allowing view of inside mating surface of fly wheel.
I had never heard of such a thing until we first saw this car in Steve Dickey’s barn in Hebron, Indiana in 2011. Apparently, they were not very popular. My guess is that 1912 & 1913 were huge transition years for automobile technology — the very slow adoption of anything “NEW” by Ford Motor Company notwithstanding. Other car companies were innovating furiously. The “self-starter” was one such area.
Most cars had either carbide generators or Prest-O-Lite tanks for acetylene to light the headlights. Some cars, such as the MICHIGAN had electric lights in 1910 and then stepped backwards and reintroduced acetylene headlamps. Might acetylene headlamps have been cheaper? Maybe electric lighting was less reliable because of poor batteries or generators? The answers to those questions will require some research. Whatever the reasons, the MICHIGAN advertising offered both electric and acetylene starters. I know of at least one other 1912 Model K, like ours that had an acetylene starter.
Here is an advertisement (above) from a 1912 automobile journal that promotes the PREST-O-STARTER, sold by the Prest-O-Light company, later to become the Union Carbide company. If you observe other cars from this era, you will see that MANY have Prest-O-Lite tanks strapped horizontally to their running boards. These tanks were for lighting headlights — NOT for starters. These tanks were an improvement over the calcium carbide and water drip “acetylene generators” that even earlier cars had on their running boards. Prest-O-Lite tanks were sold from general stores, gas stations, hardware stores the same way we currently swap empty and buy full propane tanks for our gas BBQs. Prest-O-Lite had what they thought was a “captive” audience for folks with older cars that didn’t have starters, but did have acetylene headlights. I am told that Prest-O-Lite tanks could be obtained everywhere, so travelers didn’t have to worry about refilling them.
The reason for Prest-O-Lite getting into the starter business seems apparent, if one assumes that a better self-starter wouldn’t be invented – and headlights would continue to use acetylene. (Electric headlights and electric starters were both in their infancy in 1912). Many of the cars on the road in 1912 had only one means of starting — hand cranking. The Prest-O-Starter could be retrofitted into any automobile that had priming cups. A schematic of how this starter worked is extracted from Dyke’s Automobile and Gasoline Engine Encyclopedia 1915-1916 Ed. below.
I keep asking around to see if anyone in the antique auto groups knows anyone with an acetylene starter on their car(s) and if anyone has seen one used. The best answer I’ve gotten so far is “Yes, I’ve heard of them.” Nobody seems to have a car with one and absolutely no one has seen one work. A few who have heard of an acetylene starter claim that they are “very dangerous” and that “some guy somewhere, sometime blew up his car”. Of this, I am extremely skeptical. It’s all 3rd hand hogwash as far as I can tell. I’ll keep looking and keep restoring, with the intent to some day start the car on acetylene. These are, after all, internal combustion engines – that run on…. Ladies & Gentlemen, hold on to your hats —— EXPLODING air & gasoline vapor.
Here are some pictures of the actual device that is in our car- click on photo to enlarge.
Firewall side
Here is what it looks like on the dashboard side.
Here is what the Prest-O-Starter pump looks like disassembled:
On February 1, 2014, I decided to attack the muffler and see how bad it was rusted out. There were lacy parts of the outer metal that led me to believe that it was all going to crumble apart. WRONG. Other than the outer covering, the thing was in remarkably good shape for 102 years of age. No part of the muffler showed any signs of being previously messed with. Bolts and nuts were rusted together. When I say that I decided to “attack the muffler” this is really not completely true. If you see lots of seriously chunky frozen rust on things, you need to sneak up on it. My weapon of choice is Aero Kroil. I’ve tried the other stuff, Liquid Wrench, PB Blaster, WD-40 and several others. Eh…… they don’t do the job. Kroil is great stuff. But you need to give it time for the best results. That means maybe waiting a week before using a wrench – with a squirt or three more during the week. I was truly amazed that once the bolts started to wiggle a bit, with further applications of Kroil, everything came apart as it should. Bingo. Kroil’s pricy stuff, but worth it if you can avoid shearing off rusted nuts and the stream of lamentations (o.k. – curses) that typically follows.
Good photo of the car, showing engine, exhaust pipe and muffler
This is what the muffler looked like when it came off the car. Outside tube is partially rusted away.
This is the muffler disassembled as much as I could. It’s a distinctive series of concentric tubes.
All cleaned up and ready for re-assembly with new outer tube.
After looking at the way the muffler was constructed, I knew that there had to be a patent (the only readable portion of anything on the muffler was “Patent Pending”) and perhaps some advertising in contemporary publications – circa 1911 or 1912. And I was right!
OLDBERG Patent
It took several hours of searching, but there were a few contemporary ads for our muffler AND the exhaust cut-out too.
When you find this stuff in Google Books, it’s pretty much like an Easter Egg Hunt — only better.
Today I got to test what it is like to drive Southern California freeways in the rain. It had been a while since I did this and I stupidly thought I needed a “booster shot”. Aaaah! So. Cal is filled with idiots that don’t know what it is to slow down- even in driving rain with low visibility. The reason for the journey was to deliver both my “leather cone clutch” and our rare BRIGGS magneto to experts that both live and work in Orange, California. The clutch (photo below) went to Mr. Bob Knaak (who has repaired hundreds of these clutches over the years) for a tune up on the little spring things that go around the perimeter of the clutch and push the leather out a bit. If the leather gives out, that may get replaced too.
The “spring things” sit underneath the leather and the screw part goes through a little hole on the inside of the outside edge of the aluminum clutch plate. You can see some of these that aren’t broken in the photo above. They have hex nuts on the ends of the screws for adjustment.
The “spring things” are shown in the photo below — after being pried out from under the leather. More about how these function etc. in the Leather Cone Clutch section of this website.
I also got to visit Mr. Carl Bloom who is known as a magneto expert and has an amazing shop filled with all sorts of meters, gauges and sundry electronic stuff. Not quite like Dr. Frankenstein’s lab— but impressive nevertheless. Carl has done many magneto repairs but my BRIGGS will be a first for him. The magneto is essentially a generator with a distributor or commutator on the end to distribute the spark to the spark plugs. Ours needed to be checked out and tuned up so that when I get ready to start the Michigan, it is sparking in all the right places with sufficient juice. I look forward to getting word back from both gentlemen on their progress towards returning these parts of the Michigan to proper working order.
The Briggs Magneto ignition and coil box (no keys — just a big switch):
This is the LEFT side of the BUDA motor for the car. The front bottom of the photo shows from left to right the following items: oil pump, water pump, magneto. Above that running along the top of the engine are four little cups with levers. These are priming cups for putting a little gasoline directly into the cylinders prior to trying to start the engine.The far right wooden box holds the ignition wiring and coils.
Click on the photo to enlarge.
This is the RIGHT side of the BUDA motor for the car. At the bottom left you see the steering column going right by the very hard to see carburetor. Above that is the exhaust manifold (it hides the intake manifold in this photo). Next up you see a series of eight circles with notches in them. These are called “valve chamber plugs” in the MICHIGAN parts list for 1912. This engine does not have a “head” that bolts on top of the cylinder block. I am told that this type of engine is called a “jug” engine. Each valve chamber plug has another hole in the center and in this photo has either a spark plug or an acetylene injector.
Click on the photo to enlarge.
Okay. What the heck is an acetylene injector? Good question. Until I first saw this car in 2011, I had never heard of such a thing. Apparently, in 1910, 1911 & 1912 car companies were experimenting with ways to start cars without having to crank them by hand. There are many stories about broken arms, or worse related to crank starting cars and having the ignition set in the wrong position resulting in dangerous kick-backs. Moreover, who wants to be in front of a car that may jump forward and run over you? Or, cranking out in the rain or snow?
During this particular period there were many different technologies that were tried for starting motors. These included, wind-up springs, compressed air, electric motors and acetylene. This car has the fairly rare acetylene starter manufactured by Prest-O-Lite, called the Prest-O-Starter. I’ll post more about this starter later.We know which starter style won the competition ……. and it wasn’t acetylene. Thanks to the innovators at Cadillac, we all use electric starters these days….. and have done since 1912.
One of our first stops on the return to California was just West of St. Louis, Missouri to see John Fleck (in the blue shirt on the right), Grandson of Michael Fleck. John said he remembered playing on the Michigan when it was stored in a garage in Hobart, but he never saw it running. We hope to be able to give John a ride sometime in the future.
We didn’t slow down on our trip West, except for a brief stop outside of Shawnee, Oklahoma to visit the Citizen Potawatomi headquarters. Here Tori and I are parked in the lot across from the Cultural Center (below).
Both Tori and I are tribal members through my Mom’s side of the family.
We also stopped in Amarillo, Texas for a boot shopping adventure — and to tighten the tie-down straps for the Michigan. Tori needed some boots to complete her Southern California surfer chic wardrobe. Clearly they protect the toes much better than flip-flops.
On July 9, 2013 we picked up “the big long trailer” in Cresco, Iowa and set out for Hobart Indiana. Michael Fleck, the original owner of the Michigan had lived in Hobart when the car was purchased in 1912. We had moved it there for temporary storage in a barn on Janet’s family’s farm back on September 18, 2011.
On July 11, 2013 we uncovered the Michigan, cleared out some of the mothballs placed in it to keep out the rats, racoons and possums and pushed it out of storage for loading into the trailer. In this picture (above) Kyle White helps me (Craig) push the Michigan towards the trailer.
Here, Victoria Correll and Kyle White pose with the car. Victoria (Tori) is a Great Great Granddaughter and Kyle is a Great Great Great Grandson of Michael Fleck.
Janet Correll is helping guide the Michigan on to the trailer ramp before we used a come-along and chain to ratchet the 3000+ pound car into the trailer.
