Randy Shore's 1935 Auburn S/C Phaeton

Maurice,

The Auburn was delivered to North Carolina where my grandparents lived. Remember the Black photo was taken in 1971 an I purchased it 1997, thats 26 years of which 15 years the car never left the garage after his death. Overall the car was in Great Shape, the leather seats were a bit dry an a few cracks/chips in paint. Once the motor was out an the process of changing the sterring was underway it felt like a run away train.

The color change was the help of my two kids an many photos taken at the Auburn Reunions.

I wonder if your Dad remembers if the Headlight Buckets were orginal?
I'll be looking for a pair one of these days!

-randy

Hi Randy,

After talking to my Dad again and telling him about your restoration, he said he couldn't remember if the car went to Detroit or Cleveland, so it must have been Detroit. He then thinks it went from there to either Virginia or Pennsylvania. I see your location is Pennsylvania, so I'd say this is actually the same car.

By the way, he wonders why the car needed a restoration? Also, why did you change the car from its original color combination? In the '71 photo, it looks like the car was still very nice. Had it deteriorated since then?

Even if it was showing a little wear, there's no substitute for a nice, unrestored, original car. It looks like you did a nice job, though. I'll be looking for it the first time it shows up at Auburn.

-Maurice

Maurice,
I went back an read a letter dated December 1971 that my
Grandfather received from the owner, a Mr. Jerry Erickson
from Detroit Michigan. In the letter he talks about the car only
having 18k original miles, so I'd say this is the same car that your father
remembers.
randy

This Auburn sure looks like the one my Dad had when I was about 9 years old. I'll bet it's the same one.

In 1962, my Dad (Don Randall) spotted the Auburn on a used car lot in Lansing, Michigan and bought it for $950. It was black with red wheels, supercharged, with right-hand drive, tan top and tan interior. It was a nice clean original that did not need a restoration. It didn't even need to be painted. The original paint was very nice. It only had 15,000 miles.

He took it to Auburn that year and tried to sell it. He wanted $1250 for it and figured he could make a quick $300 on it. He had a number of people looking at it, but everyone wanted to chisel him on the price. It didn't sell.

I remember riding home in that car. Since my Dad also had the '36 Cord at Auburn that year, a friend of the family drove the car home and I rode with him. It seemed odd riding in the front seat on the left side.

So, the car went back home. He decided to raise the price to $1500. Someone called him who had seen it at Auburn and asked if he'd still take $1250 for it. He said "No, that was last week, it's $1500 now".

A few months went by and it still didn't sell. He raised the price to $1700 and got a call on it. The guy wanted to buy it but he complained about the right-hand drive. He said it would cost him $100 to switch it over. (Imagine that!)

It still didn't sell so he raised the price to $1800 and figured if someone wanted it at that price, he'd pay $100 to get it switched to left-hand drive.

Someone was interested in the car at $1800 and bought it He didn't care that it was right-hand drive. This was sometime in 1963. He can't remember the name of the person who bought it, but he seems to think it went to someone in Cleveland.

Now my Dad says he never should have sold the car. Isn't that the way it usually goes?

-Maurice

This Auburn was purchased by my Grandfather-Buddy Higgins in 1971,past ACD member. After his death in 1982 the car set until 1997 at that point i was able to purchase from my Grandmother. The Auburn was in Great shape just as it was when i was a kid..except the engine had a stuck cylinder. The black photo shows the orginal picture sent to my Grandfather before purchase.



One thing lead to another an before I knew it the car was completely disassembled.




At this point I converted back to lefthand drive,body stripped,engine sent out to John Forsyth for overhaul.





Remaining To-Do-List: Interior and Top, misc




Engine #GH4492 My hope is to drive in the Auburn Parade Someday!.

Randy Shore