SoCal Skorpion For Sale - CHEAP!

I did an old-fashioned spit-take when I saw David Wheeler's recent post on the "Crosley Automobiles... Fun Little Cars page" on Facebook: Crosley Skorpion for sale, $5000.

2015 Orange Blossom Special - Fillmore Spring Meet

Back in the good old days (in this case the mid-eighties) shortly after the West Coast Crosley Club first got going, the powers that be decided to try having two club meets per year - the big meet in September, plus a smaller, more low key meet in the Spring.  Trouble was, there weren't that many members back then, so the Spring Meet never really caught on.  No one remembers exactly when they gave up, but sometime before 1990 we were back to one meet per year.

Twenty-five years later (more or less), we decided to try again.

Denver or Bust: Part 1

So I was buying another Crosley - cue frantic scrambling.

Oops.

I wasn't looking for another car - it just happened.

I've actually been getting rid of stuff.  Over the past couple of years I've come to terms with the fact that I have a pretty small garage, not much other storage and very little free time.  I got rid of my 'extra' Super Sports and sold my '48 station wagon project back to my pal Dean who had bought it from me years ago, then decided he couldn't take it, and then recently decided that he could.   I also sold off the '69 Ford van I used to haul my band around in.

That leaves me with PLENTY of Crosley projects: I still have the '49 convertible, '51 Super Sports and the Fibersport race car.  But, what I didn't have was a Crosley station wagon.

Ebay Watch: Woodland Farm-O-Road

It's unusual to see any Farm-O-Road for sale, given that there were less then 500 made - and it's even rarer to find one 30 miles from home - but that's what happened to me this morning when I spied this Yolo County driver listed on Ebay.

I don't know anything about this particular car - it hasn't been to any of the West Coast meets in the 15 years that I've been going, but it appears to be straight and fairly original.  The seller says it's had one repaint.

Farm-O-Roads were available with all kinds of options, including plows, well drillers, and this car has one of the coolest options: a hydraulic dump bed.

You might have noticed that the dump action grazes the seats... those are stock Crosley seats, but I don't believe they are correct for the Farm-O-Road.  Those appear to be seats from an earlier Crosley (a '46 or '47); by 1950 Crosley had moved to a more square-backed seat.  I'm still not 100% sure that the dump bed would clear the later seats either, but that's a question for the new owner.

Sure looks like a nice car, and I wish I'd had the opportunity to see it up close at some point.  The price is climbing - it's currently at $4,100 with reserve not met and eight days left on the auction!

Crosley TQ Midget for sale in SoCal - $1200

Interesting ad for a Crosley 3/4 Midget Race Car for sale on the LA CL.  Pictures are so bad that the seller must have taken that "How Not to Sell Your Car" class - it looks like the car has been recently painted but who really knows.  Engine does have speed equipment and he claims it's been hotted up with a big cam.

2012 West Coast Crosley Meet: Wow!

Last year I pitched the idea of having the Crosley Club's annual West Coast Meet in the quaint Gold Country town of Sutter Creek.  Liv and I have had a lot of fun daytrips in that area and it didn't take much imagination to picture Crosleys buzzing through those Gold Rush towns and zipping along in the Sierra Nevada foothills.  We put it up to a vote at last year's meet and the club members said 'go for it!'

Ebay Watch: 1951 Crosley Station Wagon

I've been watching this car (listed as  'Crowley'?!) not sell via Craigslist for just about a year now - I don't know whether the owner finally managed to move it or if he's consigned it with this seller.  We'll see if Ebay improves its options.

I think it was listed for about $9-10,000 when I first saw the ads, and then slowly dropped into more reasonable - but still what I would call 'optimistic' - territory at $7000.  It was nice enough that I actually made a trip to Monterey to check it out when I went to Laguna Seca last summer.

Cruikshank the Crosley

"Cruikshank the Crosley" by Andrew McWhiney is probably the single best article about Crosley ownership ever written.  Originally published by Road and Track in their July 1952 issue, "Cruikshank" perfectly captured the absurdity, novelty and charm of Powell Crosley's pint-sized econobox; McWhiney's experiences still rang true when I read them nearly 50 years later.  Ironically, the article was published just about the time Crosley halted production.

Below are some high res scans of the whole original story, along with some other nuggets from the same issue...

Ebay Watch: Ultimate Clown Car?

Fresh off his Zero comments, Minnesota Crosley nut Fred Syrdal tipped me off to this Ebay listing for a 1951 Crosley sedan formerly owned by world-famous clown Emmett Kelly!

That Was Quick

My wife already knows the routine:  I come down the stairs slowly, shaking my head, looking slightly pale.  I have a distant look in my eyes.  "Does it run?" she asks.

1952 Crosley Super Sedan For Sale

 

BarnFinds.com is a fairly new website that basically cloned the Bring a Trailer model, albeit with a less distinct editorial voice.  Where BaT leans heavily toward driver-friendly sports cars, Barn Finds tends toward immaculately restored oldies with a smattering of exotics.  

What should pop up today but a resto/kustom 1952 Crosley Super Sedan in BRIGHT turquoise. Fit and finish look good in the pics, but the choice of materials on the door panels and seats aren't really to my taste.  I'm half mystified, half fascinated by the front bench seat.  Crosley buckets are easy to find, so this would seem to be an aesthetic choice.  I'd have to see how it works in person to comment, but I kinda like it, at least in theory.  I really wonder how much it restricts access to the rear seat?

 Bad news is that the seller, Exim Cars out of Lexington Kentucky is asking a whopping $10,500 for this baby.  That's about double what comparable cars have sold for recently.  Add in a radio, a full complement of Braje speed equipment, a shed full of spares and a baby food jar full of the original owner's tears and maybe you could get close to that amount.

But then what do I know? I'm a cheapskate - that's probably why I got into Crosleys in the first place.

Is David Carradine's Crosley For Sale?

Just stumbled across this nicely-restored 1950 Hot Shot for sale on Ebay.  It's clean, but the $19.5K asking price is, uh, 'optimistic', even if an unnamed Hollywood star is claimed as the former owner.   Maybe you could hope to get that kinda scrilla if this was James Dean's Hot Shot, but for any lesser star you're probably looking at about half that.... maybe.  Interestingly, the ad is silent on the star's identity, although it does mention that he is dead.  Hmmm...

 Some years ago I read that actor David Carradine (Kung Fu, Kill Bill) was a Crosley fan.  I have no idea where I came across this bit of info, but I do recall finding out that he had bought a Hot Shot for the then astronomical price of $13,000.  OK, that'd still be an incredible price for a Hot Shot today, but it was even MORE incredible back then.  I'd always found it an interesting factoid, and wondered if he would someday drive into the West Coast Meet in his roadster, ready to take all comers in the Funkana. It never happened.

When Carradine met his end a few years back, I (and pretty much everyone else) was a bit surprised - his particular hobby was not one I usually associate with Crosley owners - it turned out that Crosleying was the least of Mr. Carradine's quirks.  If you're not sure what I mean, I'll refer you to google.  In any case, he seemed to suddenly drop off the list of people fellow Crosley owners bragged about.
I'm guessing that this is probably Carradine's car, and the circumspect nature of the info in the ad is due to the lurid nature of the star's death - why else would a seller not list a famous former owner?  Apparently the buyer will get documentation of the star's identity... if this car ever sells.  Sadly, I just can't see a Carradine connection bringing this car to the price they are asking.  There's no speed equipment - or even a radio.  With nicely-restored VCs regularly selling for $7000-$8000, I can't imagine who would spend $19,000 for this car.

Now James Dean's Crosley... that might be worth $19,000.  Dean never 'officially' owned a Crosley, but, according to the late Dick Scanlan, he used to drive one.    The story, as Dick told it to me, was that there was a Hot Shot used to get around the Warner Bros. studio lot.  Dean, being a sports car nut, immediately commandeered it while working on one of his films.  According to Dick, Dean used the Hot Shot as his personal car the whole time he was making the movie, and then turned it back in when the filming was done.  The car went back into regular use on the lot, and then was sold a few years later.

No documentation exists, and no photo of Dean driving a Hot Shot has ever turned up, so the story could well be pure bunk, but Dick Scanlan swore by it, and until the day he died he claimed he had the original interior from James Dean's Crosley in the rafters in his garage.  For all I know, it still might be there.  Find THAT Hot Shot (and prove it) and you'll have your $19,500 car.

The Bogus Lotus

Just a quickie post on a fascinating car I've been watching on ebay all week- the Bogus Lotus!

This was initially listed as a Miller Special, but from the mumblings from the west coast Hmod community, and my own eyes, I'm gonna guess that Don Miller didn't build this baby.

 For one thing, Hmod guru Joe Puckett didn't cite the car as a Miller when he included it in his Big Men Little Cars book, which the seller helpfully photographed.   That's not definitive - Puckett made some goofs in the book -  but I think Puckett and pals would have known if this car had Miller lineage.

 But really, who cares? It's pretty amazing, whoever built it, and the restoration is stunning.  I'm curious why they chose to paint the tops of the fenders gold, but that's a small detail.  Really the car is very tastefully done, and the copious amounts of detail shots the seller added late truly show off the finish and the little things, like the sealed bottom and the hundreds of holes drilled for lightness. 

The car is currently at just over $13,000 with two and a half days to go.  Reserve is already met, so this one's gonna end up in somebody's stocking this year!

2010 West Coast Crosley Club Meet

 

The 2010 West Coast Crosley Club Meet has come and gone.  The meet was last weekend (September 11-12) in Buellton, just north of Santa Barbara.  We had about a dozen cars show up this year.  That's a bit low for turnout, but the members more than made up for it with quality- the Crosleys on hand included some of the nicest cars in the country. 

Heading that list was the latest issue from club treasurer Ronnie Bauman's garage: an immaculate 1947 coupe.  Bauman has taken the Crosley resto-biz up at least a couple notches with a series of incredible builds. He always starts with solid cars (cars that most would consider 'finished'!) and then makes everything better than new.  He'll spend more on paint and body than most people would have into the entire restoration, and the engines are always fully dressed with period speed equipment.   

 

The end results are stunning.  He's decided that this one had to go up for sale - this is the kind of car I could see going for ridiculous $ at Barrett Jackson.

 

Another car that was new to the meet was Charles Latty's two-tone CC.  Latty lives in tiny Pacific Grove, California- also home to founding club member Mike Bainter.. meaning that Pacific Grove probably has more Crosleys per capita than any city in the state! 

 

Not new to the meet, but still a fresh sight, Fred and Robin Dunner finished a beautiful resto of the Hot Shot they picked up at last year's meet.  The car was nice, if a little tired, when they bought it- now it looks brand new.  The long straight sides on the roadsters can be very wavy... but not on this one.  They kept the clean, custom filled-seam look that the car has had for most of its life.

I contributed another rarely-seen, if not so minty, car to the gathering.  I ended up buying a 'parts' Super Sport at the Sacramento meet a few years ago when Ed Scanlan made me an offer I couldn't refuse.  I already had a '51 SS in boxes and I thought that having one to reference wouldn't be a bad idea since it'd been nearly a decade since I took the other one apart.  truth is that I haven't done anything but move this thing around since I bought it, so I knew it needed to go.  I also realized that I had spares of a lot of the parts that were missing when I bought it, so I added an engine, transmission, radiator, etc to make it an almost complete car.  Apparently I priced it just right because it sold before I even got it off the trailer!

There were plenty of other great cars- Mike and Nancy Bainter brought their 4000 original mile '51 coupe - it looks, runs and drives pretty much like new!  I remember when this car went up for sale about 6 years ago - I thought momentarily about buying it, but immediately realized that it had to go to someone with a better garage than me.  Mike keeps this baby in a fully-climate controlled environment! 

Mike and Robin Stoner brought their funkana-dominating Farm O Road, but had some low-power issues this time out.  The collected Crosley brain trust tinkered with the timing, but no immediate solution appeared.  Even engine guru Lee Osborn (in the passenger seat) was at a loss.  Maybe it was just me, but it seemed like the F-o-R smoked even more than usual, so it may be time for new motor. I asked Mike about it and he doesn't remember where he got the motor that's been in it all these years- just that he dropped it in, fired it up, and off they went!

The West Coast Club has an active racing contingent, including Osborn.  As usual, he brought his 1955 Shannon Special, the same car with which he's been eating Porsches and, lately, even a Jaguar C Type!  I've been trying to catch one of Lee's races for 5 years and I've still never seen him on the track!  I've already got my calendar checked for the Hmod reunion race on October 2, so i'll finally get to see this car in action!

Kip Fjeld and Don Baldocchi will also be running at the Hmod reunion, Kip with the Miller special pictured here, Don with the '53 Nardi he's been tearing up tracks with for a couple of decades.  Kip inherited this car from Hmod great Joe Puckett who got Kip into racing when he was still a teenager!  Kip also scored the buy of the day, picking up an NOS steel stroker crank for probably less than a standard steel crank would go for!
 I didn't get any good pics of the swap meet area- but there was more stuff for sale this year than at any meet I've been to.  You can see incoming club pres Rick Alexander picking up some Crosley magazines from retiring president David Brodsky.  David also sold off a big batch of hop up stuff including the Braje pan, cam cover and exhaust manifold you can see on the table.  Rick brought a Uhaul trailer full of stuff including an intact tin block motor assembly along with a mountain of other stuff.  I picked up an extra speedo, some magazines and a neat license place topper from a Minnesota Crosley dealership!

And beyond the actual swap meet vendors, we had several folks show up with motors! Don Rausch showed up with a truckbed full of V Drive and generator motors (pictured above with Ronnie Bauman), and a young microcar collector from LA yanked ANOTHER V Drive motor out of his trunk a few minutes later!  I'd never seen a V drive motor until Saturday and suddenly I'm looking at three of them!

Longtime club member Gary Loomer brought a matched Crofton and Cushman. he's trying to break up the set- the Datsun-powered Crofton is currently for sale.  if you think a Datsun powered Crofton is unusual, that's nothing... Gary used to have the world's only racing Skorpion!

When the time came for the Funkana, Pat Askren let me be the co pilot in his very-correct CC sedan.  We were fighting a wounded clutch but still managed to take second place!

over half the cars at the meet ran in the Funkana, and the post-competition photo underscores what a nice batch of cars were there.  

Since the meet is so close to Santa Barbara, my sister and her family drove the 45 minutes up for a visit.  I don't get to visit them all that often, so it was a real treat!  best of all was the chance to meet my new grand nephew Cash!  Here he is risking tetanus in my Super Sport.

After the meet I loaded the SS back up (the new owner wanted to pick it up from my house later) and I got a good round of heckling over my trailer.  Yes, its a tiny, rickety POS, but I still managed to haul Frank Bell's wagon all over creation on it last year, and the SS parts car was very secure this year.  Hey, what do you want from a $50 trailer?  
They're just jealous. 
It just so happens that the light is about perfect when we get together for the club Banquet.  I'm usually the last one seated because I'm out shooting pics of all the cars at 'magic hour.'  Above is the 4000 mile coupe.

This is Ardell Johnson's incredible CD wagon.  That interior is original from the factory.. he just touched up the seats with vinyl paint about 20 years ago.  We had a great conversation at dinner about legendary Crosley racer Harry Eyerly who was from Ardell's home town, Salem, Oregon.

 
Here's longtime club member Gary Cochrane's sweet convert.  That custom wood job has been on the car since at least 1956!Just as I was finishing up my shots I noticed other people taking pictures too... and then I realized that one of them had hopped into David Brosky's 'vert to pose for her boyfriend!  This really underscores how differently people perceive Crosleys... can you imagine a stranger hopping into any other restored vintage car and not thinking they were going to get a punch in the snoot?!

The banquet was fun as always, even though we ended on a bit of melancholy note... David Brodsky founded the West Coast club over 25 years ago, and has been elected and reelected President ever since.  He announced that he wanted to step down a couple of years ago and he made it official on Saturday.  He and his wife Aileen have done an amazing job of keeping the club going - and fun - for more than a quarter of a century.  I'm sure Rick Alexander and Ronnie Bauman will do a great job, but it will be strange to think of David not being at the head of the table.  The Crosley Club is one of the only organizations I've ever belonged to, and is by far the one I'm most attached to. Much of that is thanks to David and Aileen, and I can't thank them enough for everything.

At dinner Shirley Bell reminded me that she had brought some of her late husband Frank's Crosley t shirts for me- we're about the same size and she thought I might like them.  That was really sweet, and I'm honored to fly the flag - I honestly can't remember seeing Frank wearing a t shirt that didn't have a Crosley logo on it!  After the dinner I had a beer with Rick Alexander and former TBT designer Mike Blackburn who offered me the spare bed in his hotel room.  I had spent Friday night cuddling with the Crosley motor in the back of the pickup, so a bed and a shower sounded pretty darn good.  And the next day he absolutely refused to let me chip in for the room.

As always: Crosley people; they're the best.