Dug out one of America's first automobile's my 1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile. This car has been stored for years, time to get it out and she if she still operates.
I would like to sincerely thank the 100,000 viewers who watched in the month of February 2024. You have helped our family through a medical issue. 🙏🏻 not financially but my wife enjoyed the comments and number of views. Took her mind off the pain. She has since had back surgery and is doing very well thanks all. This is not a political channel keep your politics to your self. I will delete anything political.
I am having a big problem with my car as of late, I was in a terrible accident where I was forced off the road on a curve just after crossing a creek bridge. Since that I have rebuilt my car, But for some reason my chain keeps jumping on the Transmission sprocker mounted on a 1949 Ford Transmission. Can that be caused because of the tighners between the axels are not intune with each other.My wheels measure the same between each Hun Center on both sides.This is a Great problem as of late.
Finally, a vehicle worth driving. Unlike most people, I never liked modern cars.. they're ugly, fast and dangerous in some cases. But automobiles back then were outstanding! My great grandfather owned a Packard Twin Six from 1921. I still have it in my shed and sometimes I take it out for a ride. I take absolute care of it in the name of my great grandfather.
From a documentary on the Packard motor cars it had said that Packard was the first automobile to have a steering wheel instead of the joy stick as I call them .
Too few people know that the Curved Dash Olds was the ORIGIINAL mass produced low priced car for the average man, NOT the Ford Model T. Thanks for showing this!
It's no wonder the first car owners had engineers on staff, garages with apartments for the engineers, and many times drivers to operate these cars for them. It took a rich man to own a car AND keep it running back then.
The very first cars were purchased to transition from horses, so the "mechanical men" that some automotive enthusiasts had on hand were largely stablehands who were adapting their skills to automobiles. Nobody hired a staff and gave them housing to simply maintain a car; they were already there. Horsecarriage maintenance and livery upkeep were not far removed from the horseless carriage.
At least 65 years ago when I was just little one, I got to ride in an original 1903 Olds just like this one. I remembered watching the owner add oil to the crank case. I remember how going down the road at 20 or so seemed so fast. Stuck with me to this day. Thanks for the memory reminder.
To think that that car was already ancient back then in 1960 when you got that ride. And this particular example will still be perfectly drivable in another century, if looked after right. I doubt there will be any 2003 cars running in 2124.
Let's just pause for a moment to consider what a big deal this was in 1901. Back then, you could have a great time taking your girl out for a ride with a horse-drawn surrey , but this was the Koenigsegg of its time; on a whole different level. Imagine a time when this clanky contraption melted faces (and lifted petticoats). It's mind-blowing. Thanks for sharing this!
Depends on the sect. Many use motor vehicles for work. I know some who use cell phones but can't have them in the house. One man told me that, in his community, they could use them for necessary communications outside of the house (in the barn) but they had to be black. He may have been pulling my leg about the color but his was black.
With such a car, George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5. Earl of Carnarvon had a accident, in the year 1903, near Bad Schwalbach/Germany, Bad Schwalbach is around 80 km far away from Frankfurt/M. He crashed so bad, that he was injured the rest of his life and so his doctor advised to spent the Winter months in a warm climate. He choose Egypt, became interested in the history and so financed Howard Carter on his archological campaign. They found the grave of Tutanchamun. So if the Lord Carnarvon had not a car accident with such a car, he would never financed the digging of the grave of Tutanchamun!
Well your video shows just what a person had to do just to start a vehicle in those days and what a person had to do to drive a vehicle in those early days. There was quite a bit of oiling and maintenance to be done on a vehicle at the time. I have also viewed the maintenance required on a railroad locomotive, and there is quite the chore oiling up that piece of machinery. Now more than one hundred twenty three years later we can just go out and start our vehicles and the maintenance is not near as involved. One had to really be diligent on vehicle maintenance back then.
Just think, back then they checked oil, air in tires, all moving parts, coolant level plus the things you went thru just to drive across town. And only charged $0.10 cents to tune it up .
Yes. Now they want $200 to hook up the computer which does their job to tell you a sensor is bad. Then it’s 500. more to fix it. Ford had it right easy to repair and the average farmer could work on it.
It always has fascinated me that someone can keep old machines working, sometimes without manuals on how to guide them. And sometimes just from hand me down knowledge. Thank you for keeping history alive.
It's difficult today to imagine just how "incredible" all this was in 1901. A moving carriage, rolling along by itself, without horses, ropes, cables, etc. This was like magic! Great video, thanks!
That is so cool! Over 120 years old, and it still runs. It's literally a rolling piece of history. I know that things were 'built to last' once. But I had't realized until I actually saw this moving, just how much that still applies to machines THAT old. I'm amazed by how simple it is - not even a steering wheel as we know it today. But there was a time when this would have been the latest technology and probably a huge status symbol too.
Inspiring to watch. Back then it was such a huge leap from the house and carriage. Way faster and more compact. I wish I could live back then and experience that sensation
My great-great grandmother said the most wonderful thing she ever saw was a car like that going up a steep hill without being pulled by horses. It seemed like magic to everybody in the small village. They had never seen a car before.
My great-grandpa was a pea farmer in rural Idaho. One day, a motorist broke down (overheat, total engine loss) right outside the farm. Great-grandpa got his first car for the cost of supper, room and board, and a wagon ride to the train station for the motorist. He took to motor out of the car, cut holes in the firewall for horse reigns, and hooked up a singletree to the front bumper. Now the family was riding in style. A horse-drawn car, totally enclosed from the weather. Grandma said they felt pretty fancy going to church in their car. Much better than the old farm buckboard wagon.
It looks like it feels faster because you're not sealed into a cabin, or even tucked behind a windscreen. I'd be too worried about loose gravel or sudden stops to drive one! 😅
Buggies were right hand drive so cars naturally followed however, Ford was one of the first ones to come out with left-hand drive because it was safer to exit on the curbside and everybody was in a hurry to pass. They also couldn’t see around the buggy driving from the right side. Yes everyone was in a hurry then to.
The definitive 'horseless carriage'. It must have been excitingly fast in 1901. I love the one beat per telegraph pole, as my father used to say. Wonderful to see. 😊
In 1901 my great grandfather was painting curved dash Olds'. With a brush, not a sprayer. Had to get the consistency of the paint just right plus be an artist with the brush. He later taught one of his dons in law how to do it and Grampa repainted his 1960 F100 that way. It had been used by a prior owner carrying a camper for hunting and the sides were badly scratched up. When he sold it nearly 30 years later, the buyer was really skeptical that it had been painted so long before and with a brush. His trick for getting it smooth was thin it just right with the right thinner and his trick for durability was mixing porch enamel in with automotive enamel. The paint still looked quite good after all those years, in spite of never being garaged.
Nice..... And very true if you have a collection of anything that is supposed to run in some way, you should use them. Growing up in the 1970-1980's it was so frustrating with the model trains. The new stuff, Lionel MPC many considered junk and the older stuff Lionel 1969 and back was considered the good stuff, but if you had the "good stuff" and ran them the collectors hated that, and the true collectors never ran their trains. Well I'm now 61 and that trend had changed, There are a lot more train runners and the Lionel MPC stuff has more value now to many and still run pretty good too, and the 1969 and old many run them as well.
That right arm and shoulder sure got a workout. I had to chuckle at the sight of the two fire extinguishers wisely kept near by. What kind of ignition did the motor have? Spark plug or hot bulb? On second thought, a hot bulb would have been much more work. Total loss oiling?
Call me insane call me a blasphemer I don't care I want one of these cars but I don't want the hassle of the engine I just want to put a simple little 48 volt electric drive trade in it keep the same 20 25 mile an hour speed and just use it as a little tiny neighborhood electric vehicle go to the post office go to the grocery store go to McDonald's whatever I live in a small rural town in New Mexico this would be perfect just for putt putting around town in style I just love the look of these old buggy style converted cars when we first started making cars in the country They just have such a cool look
There were a lot of reproductions made in the 60s and the 70s you could do that with and have a lot of fun. Love New Mexico been to Clovis Portalis, Roswell, Santa Fe, and Pecos mountains. Thx for watching.
Great Video, you mentioned driving across country, I bought this back in 2010 American Road: The Story of an Epic Transcontinental Journey at the Dawn of the Motor Age Paperback - May 1, 2003 On July 7, 1919, a cavalcade of sixty-nine military motor vehicles set off from the White House on an epic journey. Their goal was California, and ahead of them lay 3,250 miles of mud and rock. Sixty-two days later they arrived in San Francisco, having averaged just five miles an hour.
half an [edited] hour later, "starts right up!" XD early vehicles were a trip and I would absolutely love to argue with one for two hours just to have a stupid sunday afternoon drive :D
When driving a car required more steps than preparing a five course meal. This was an amazing history lesson...Cumbustion engines pretty much still boil down to a spark, a cylinder, and a piston compressing the fuel/air mixture, but its mind-blowing to see a car from the dawn of the Automobile and how much has changed over the past 120+ years.
I have a replica that we built from a layout blue print purchased from the Oldsmobile museum in Lansing Michigan. With nothing in front of you 20 miles per hour can seem like way too fast, I can't imagine 30.
Looking at what it took to get it running... yeah, no wonder automobiles weren't common for another decade and a half. I mean, I get that it hadn't been run for 10 years before this, but still... And about driving it to California... there were precisely zero people who had done that at the time this specific car was produced-the first trans-continental drive across North America was in 1903, and that was west to east.
To be honest I wish there were hurdles on modern cars. Remind people that what they are doing is operating a machine and if they don't care for their machine it is going to fail. People would become mechanically inclined out of necessity. Then I wouldn't have to re-sell their mowers that got tossed out over a dirty carburetor. Convenience makes people soft and stupid.
Having seen other original Curve Dash Oldsmobile 's run in person is a thing to behold. It is truly amazing what was considered the first mass production American automobile. I have a 1958 Merry Olds full size replica of a 1901, which is much less complicated and maintenance, but still requires much oiling to operate. It functions very much the same with two forward speeds and one reverse and will clip along at close to thirty miles an hour. Thank you for an informative and interesting video.
Wow, really impressive work to restore, maintain and operate a 120 year old car! I have never seen one this old start up and run before! Thanks for your effort to make this video.
This is so cool! I got to see a few Curved Dashes at the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum last Summer. It's so cool seeing one operating (and what goes into doing that). Thanks for the video!
Not exactly a low Matinance Vehicle ! in the 1980s i drove a older MGB and it was in. Constant Service and Maintenance but fairly reliable a Freind of mine Sister had one also hers was Constantly Broken Down and in the Shop one day she asked me about oiling the Carburetors as her Mechanic told her the last time it broke down that’s all it needed i realized she had no idea where the Carbs were so i told her. she gave me a puzzled look and asked how do i open the Hood ? i knew right then , that’s probably why hers is always in the Garage getting fixed LOL this Olds is funny you took half of it apart to access the points you needed to Service just to start it ! and this is a Vehicle Theoretically are supposed to start from the Seat !
This incredible machine must have caused quite the stir in rural and urban America. A horseless carriage of all things. They could have drawn crowds for miles around just to watch it pass by.
I drove mine on a Round Trip from Redding, California all the way to Missouri and spent a week in North West Missouri and then on the Branson, Missouri to the Son's of the Pioneers and Luther Nally's for an appearance then all the way back to Redding California traveling many of the Old Roads inclusing Route 66, I traveled through several major Cities on the Interstate and people excorted me instead of complained and made some very large Donations to the American Fallen Warriors along the way. I even had Admiral's and an Air Force geeneral escourt me plus the C. H. P. and the Idaho Highway Patrol on major Interstates with Honor and not one complaints. I was welcome in every place I traveled except here in the town I live in. Redding, California.
ACTUALLY SINCE MY GRANDFATHER WAS BORN IN 1869.....HE COULD HAVE DRIVEN ONE LIKE THIS....I DO KNOW THAT HE DROVE A COLUMBIA HORSELESS CARRIAGE IN 1902 .
It does not seem to be hit and miss, I was wondering what was making most of the mechanical noises? It does not seem to be exhaust noises. Cool video!, it goes much faster than I would have thought. I have a Fairbanks Morse engine that has a metal plate over the intake that causes higher vacuum for the carburetor, and it makes a sound like zzzt,,zzzt..zzzt. while idling.
The very old cars look so much like what they were called horseless carts or buggies . The attention they got was unreal 123 years ago. Only the ultra rich could have this toy.
The first person that ever rode in one of these other than the designers/engineers mind must have been blown. It's a laughable bit of tech now, but then... Wow.
Well the prior owners. Keep it inside and out of the weather. I have it in a climate controlled barn also. Rain and high humidity are a cars worst enemy. Thx for watching.
1901 2024 123 years well maitained olds mobile cars are wonderfully manufactured up to now these cars strong and wonderfully designed i appreciate your true effort of taking care of this unforgettable but you need one helper too
These are so elegant human-sized vehicles. My grandfather had an automobile in 1904 of model Reo. He used to be driving horse carts before that as a local "taxi" in his city. Then he bought the car which was the first one in that city ever. He started to drive taxi till 1946 when he retired while having numerous other cars along the line.
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