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was sitting int he parking lot of our Church last weekend. I had never heard of them. The owner was there and told us all about it and about cords generally. These things are amazing. Very advanced for their time, beautiful cars. Anyone know much about them? They appear to be expensive ($150k). Are they difficult to restore if you can find a beater?
was sitting int he parking lot of our Church last weekend. I had never heard of them. The owner was there and told us all about it and about cords generally. These things are amazing. Very advanced for their time, beautiful cars. Anyone know much about them? They appear to be expensive ($150k). Are they difficult to restore if you can find a beater?
Very expensive to restore and there aren't very many "beater" Cords around as every single one was purchased by a wealthy individual. These aren't vehicles you'll ever find in a barn in Iowa, very few were ever made and even fewer exist today.
$150K is on the lower end of what a nicely restored Cord will bring.
Restoring a "barn found" Cord would be dauntingly expensive. Jay Leno would probably hesitate to take on such a project - and as rich, experienced car guys go, he's about as good as it gets.
I saw a poorly done Cord awhile back, (amongst other issues) the Lycoming engine block had been cracked, probably by freezing, and a cosmetically poor weld was applied over that. To weld an engine block really properly you have to heat the bare block up to about a dull red temperature, then weld it with a nickel rod (arc weld) and then slowly cool. A big charcoal fire outside in a pit can work for this, seems a bit "hillbilly" but like the Fastest Indian guy casting pistons in a hole in the ground, it actually works pretty well. You are not likely to find a good Cord block at the local U-Pick yard. Thus the Corvette engine swap, I would guess.
I have heard that the transmissions are finicky too.
Some of these cars suffered severe neglect and abuse in the 40's when they were just an old car, a big thirsty old car in an age of rationed gas.
Merc, that orange street rod picture for some reason looks to me like a miniature rather than a real car.
I got to do some very minor mechanical/electrical wiring work on a 810 Cord that was getting a full frame-off restoration back in the 1980's ... which had been reasonably well kept and garage stored all it's life in SoCal. Even then, I recall the tab on the resto was over $200,000 ... and that didn't include the cost of buying the car at auction. The car left the shop on an enclosed trailer and probably hasn't seen the light of day since .... the owner had a 30 car garage built below his house where he stored his toys apart from his daily driver garage. I was allowed in once to get a RR suspension working and could only see the outlines of most of the cars under car covers ... other than the RR's (and Bentley's) that were reasonably identifiable, I spotted a Kissell. The rest? I couldn't tell, but they were obviously large bespoke cars of the 30's and 40's. Rumored he had a Doble, but if he did, I didn't see it ... sure would have liked to have peeked at that.
As said at one point these were just older cars. To say none sat in a barn or became a beater would be to say that every one should still exist minus ones totaled in a wreck.
There is a museum for Auburns, Cords and Deusenbergs (ACD) in Auburn, IN(they designed and manufactured the Auburn car in the town, and possibly the Cords also). They have a huge car auction every year on Labor Day weekend, and a festival and a parade where the only cars are ACDs and the owners dress in period 1920s attire and drive their cars thru town in the parade. They also have an ACD Club with national members. These 3 auto makes were produced around the same time and are all pricey. Here is a link to the ACD Club http://www.acdclub.org/
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