Can't find a whole lot on the net worth looking at. A family friend in northern MN was at my grandparents the other day, and he says "Yeah, I tried to pull that old car out of the woods and it fell apart on me!" He and the gp's are laughing, but my ears perk up. I ask "What kind of old car?" "I dunno...it's just a pile of sheet metal now. It was all wood inside." I ask if there were any names, markings, etc. on it at all. His wife says "The engine says "Overland" on it". I ask if it's a pickup? She says "no, it's a car. Well, was a car. The frame and everything is still there, but the spokes were wood and they are rotten." To make an otherwise longer story shorter, I was told that they would take me out there to take a look at it next time I am up, and I can have it if I want it even though they found it hilarious when I mentioned building what was wood out of steel to rebuild it. lol I don't know anything about overlands, but from what I gather, they didn't make a lot of cars, and if it's wood chasis'd I'd assume mid to late 20's. Could this possibly be anything cool? NOTE: I haven't seen it yet, but you know I'll take pics.
I have only seen a few, but none of them had wooden chassis to my knowledge. Here is mine, its the front half of a 1925 Overland touring. I believe they were the same at least in 24-26.
Do you know if the original mills said "Overland" on them? That's the only brand detail that i was given. Unless it's something else that someone swapped an overland engine into.
This may be what you have found. This is an original ad in The Saturday Evening Post September 14, 1918. Sorry I dont have a scanner.
Willys made cars and trucks. They made the Kight which was their heavy car, had a slide valve engine. they also made the Overland which was their light car, and led to replaced by the Whippet. I believe the Overland name was also applied to the small jeep based wagons and Panel trucks mid 40 to mid 50's. The Overlands were discontinued from 1907 to 1926.
The ad above your post shows overland selling cars in 1918. How were they selling cars if they were discontinued? I'm getting confused here.
This is a good Willys site , lots of info. http://clubs.hemmings.com/clubsites/wokr/gallery/gallery.htm
Could be. I'll know more this weekend. I'm heading up and will go out and look around / take some pics.
Willys bought the Overland company and changed the name to Willys Overland. Overland was part of the Standard Wheel Co. The Knight of the Willys Knight came from Charles Knight who designed the weird sleeve valve engine that Willys used from 1914-1933. I think I read that in order to use his design Willys had to add Knight's name to the product. There was a Sterns Knight car also that shared the same engine design. Wooden wheels probably means teens or twenties.
>>"none of them had wooden chassis to my knowledge."<< Unless were talking circa pre-1900 here, I think some people confuse a wood-framed body with a wood frame/chassis merely from speaking imprecisely. Were there ANY wood-chassis'd cars built after 1910 ? 1900 ??
Sounds to me like the wood spoke wheels rotted, and when he tried to yank it out, they split from the chassis and he couldn't get anywhere with it. The body on my 31 is just sheetmetal formed over and nailed onto a wooden frame, I would imagine model As are the same way, but I've never really looked one over. The chassis itself is metal. I would agree that 'Overland' was probably on the radiator, not the engine. My 31 sleeve valve has no script on it that I can recall.
The only Model A's that were sheetmetal nailed to a wooden frame were Fordors, Convertible Sedans, and Cabriolets. All other Model A's used metal to support the body. They only really used wood to tac the upolstry too. Thats why you see a lot more Model A's compared to Chevys of the same time period still out there. Sorry for going off the topic but just thought you should know.
Okay, so here's the pics of the car. Turns out its an Overland Knight. I would guess teens. I have a lot of photos of numbers. If anyone knows where I could cross reference them (engine, tranny, torque tube, etc.) please speak up!
Okay, self correction. It's a model 91 touring car. Appears to be a 1920-1925. I'm going off the shape of the cowl, the shape of the drop at the doors, the posts for the window having gone through the cowl, etc. Any thoughts?
Pics were posted. I want to give the guy some money for it.... a fair price. He's a friend of the family, so I figure I should. Anyone have any info on where I can find out what a project like this would be worth? In honesty, I'd like to cut it and turn it into a modified. The back half is rough. I wouldn't probably use the frame and engine and stuff....... So with that in mind, help me figure out what it's worth.
I suppose it ran when they parked it.. let me know if you need help lifting the frame over those trees
It's worth scrap plus $100 for the fact that it's a cool old car. It's not a highly desirable model. Replacement parts are not available for it "off the shelf" It's not particularly rare. It's not very popular It's just cool old junk. Not worth anyhing but scrap to anyone but us group of old car freaks. .............On the other hand, after you invest 5000 hours worth of labor, and $20,000 worth of coin to make it into a bitching ride.........
Are you kidding? Look at that crazy front and rear suspension setup! That, my friend, is the kind of KOOL that only is found once in a while, if it is savable I'd bag the whole shooting match, less tree insert at rear, and see what could be done to use that suspension on your rod...or another one, imagine if you will a single seat racecar with hand-formed track nose and tapered tail and a nice 4banger with dual carbs and a 4-speed?
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