Traditional CLASSICS: 1951 Crosley: Tiny, Financial state Auto | Business

Powell Crosley envisioned a small, light-weight economy motor vehicle not like everything Detroit was manufacturing. In 1951, a 1,370-pound Crosley Tremendous Sedan 2nd experienced a base price of $1,033 and a 26.5-horsepower, 4-cylinder engine.

In the late 1950s, John Van Sickle’s father operated an Amoco provider station in a distant town of Ohio, much from Cincinnati wherever Crosleys had been made. The station’s provider “truck” was an outdated Crosley.

A long time later on, Van Sickle realized he missed the aged Crosley and started wanting for 1 to acquire. Immediately after years of checking out countless disappointing Crosleys, a person working day a junkyard operator in Basking Ridge, N.J., telephoned to ask, “You the man seeking for a Crosley?”

Van Sickle answered in the affirmative. He was advised that the vehicle was a 1951 sedan that was extra or fewer total. “There is a rod as a result of the pan and the leading is smashed down from kids jumping on it,” he was educated. If he desired it, he’d much better hurry. Or else, it was likely to the crusher.

Van Sickle rapidly drove to New Jersey to examine the junkyard Crosley. Exactly where others noticed worn-out junk, Van Sickle saw a diamond in the rough and he was just the guy to restore the sparkle to this gem. The first spare tire was however slung in its cradle under the car or truck.

Soon after acquiring the bedraggled pink Crosley, Van Sickle rented a two-wheel dolly and procured a pair of boat trailer lights, which he hooked up via lengthy wires to the rear of the Crosley to make it lawful when remaining towed residence to Virginia.

Numbers on the vehicle reveal that it was the 26th Crosley created for 1951. The initially buy of small business was to return the 44-cubic-inch L-head 4-cylinder engine to doing work affliction. With that endeavor comprehensive, Van Sickle eradicated the cardboard headliner and restored the roofline to a little something resembling the authentic.

He started to disassemble his 12-foot-long Crosley on its 80-inch wheelbase and eventually had a totally restored 1951 motor vehicle that is now in even greater than it was at first.

In 1951, the Crosley was delivered as a deluxe product with a chrome propeller affixed to the center of the grille. The propeller would spin as the auto was pushed. The auto also had two windshield wipers, a heater, and a suction-cup ashtray. “I just would like I had a chrome suction cup ashtray,” Van Sickle laments.

To the foundation cost have been added extra charges for transportation and the spare tire and tube. Although stripping off the red paint he discovered that his 4-foot-vast motor vehicle remaining the manufacturing unit with May Environmentally friendly paint and Cantor Product wheels.

The 3-pace floor-change guide transmission is non-synchronized. “If you do not double-clutch,” Van Sickle says, “It will leave you.”

At 70 miles for each gallon, the 8-gallon gasoline tank delivers adequate fuel for very well above a assortment of 500 miles. “I have experienced it up to 65 mph,” Van Sickle claims. He did not buy and restore his automobile as a garage ornament. For him, it brings back fond memories. “Wherever I drive it,” he suggests, “it usually would make folks smile.”

— Vern Parker, Motor Matters