post #9 looks to be from the mid to late 60's by the look of the 2 door ht in the background. Was car built in the late 40's maybe?
I have a crosley front and rear axle both I'll be putting in the local CL - unless one of you folks need them. PM me if you're interested.
A friend had several Crosleys. A pickup, a delivery, three or more open top sedans and more. The pic's are of modified Crosley engines in sports racing cars. Some of those engines were fabricated, not cast. Pretty light that way. One of the pic's (maybe 2) is of a Panhard et Lev***ier engine. It is around 1000-1100cc 2 cylinder opposed. These hauled and sounded *****in.
I've been wanting to build one if these for a while, 'cept mine would be restored outside and run a turbo'ed Wenkel, 5 speed, and locking diff with sticky tires! What!? Admit it, how much fun would a little sleeper like that be?
Probably not in that racer but the original Panhard cars had brackets welded to the exhaust pipes which were used as the motor mounts. Mounting engines useing the exhaust - only the French...
The Batto Trucking Crosley is the coolest car I have ever seen. I love the stance and the proportions. Quite possibly something similar will be my next build. I know where there's a reasonably intact Mini-wagon just waiting to be dropped on a funny car frame
I want to say that the early Crosley engines were made out of brazed together sheetmetal and would corrode badly and destroy themselves. The later cast-iron Hot Shot engine is a SOHC jobber that uses 45 degree spur gears and a vertical shaft to operate the cam on top of the head. Plus, the Hot Shot was the 1st car here in the state's to have front disc brakes! They as well as Stude were quite ahead of their time back then. pdq67
the cobra engines (brazed sheet stampings) were of the same layout as the later cast iron engines. only significant thing that changed was the material they were made of. it has been postulated that a modern engine designed the same way would be possibly have a better corrosion resistance due to modern coolants. I'm sure with modern cad/cam design of engines much of the advantage is now lost though.
I saw four more Crosleys yesterday in Owensville Oh at the Pumpkin Run car show. I took pics of one of them so far. It has had some serious mods done with it.
I've got a workshop manual with heaps of stuff on Crosleys in it(as well as basically every other 50s American car), like technical specs, torque specs for all the bolts, how to remove this ect. If anyone needs it I should be able to scan it and put it on here. Thanks Hayden
This one was also running at B-Ville this year. They were having a blast. Could'nt quite get over 100mph, but man...they are determined.
I'm not sure I'd agree with the "restore" comment - the world's best restored Crosley don't hardly bring $5k !! ROD IT !! They were a popular drag car in the early 50's because they were so light. All you will use is the body - and probably not the floor. Here are some pictures of mine - just bought it as a body - with no floor !! Buick 215 Aluminum V8 powered. Or, if you don't want the work - just buy mine for 10K !!
I remember as a small kid, some family on the other side of the block had a Crosley. Painted some light color I remember. They always ran it down the alley to their small frame garage and shut the doors. Kinda mysterious I thought. Even then it seemed a bit "odd" probably because of the size compared to my dad's '55 Pontiac and Chevy trucks. My dad explained what it was and I always wanted my own Crosley ....
That wagon looks pretty cool- if it's a later '49 or a '50 it'll have disc brakes. If it's one of the first 50 '49s produced it'll still have cable brakes... that's what my '49 Croslwy convertible has. And, Crosley-nerd-alert: those low dome hubcaps are the originals- the later repops have a higher center.
After automobile production halted the Crosley lived on in many other guises. The engines were used for over 25 years or so in generators/welders/trailer truck cooling units/and ultimately in boats as the Bearcat series engines. The transmissions were used in Kuboda garden tractors, the rearends in Cushman Trucksters.
Damn you had me all excited it might be the Little Giant! If anyone here happens to know of the Little Giants where abouts please see this link http://www.stillrunnin.com/magazine/sr5/71-72 Crosleys are cool little cars, I've grown to like them even more after my year long campaigne rescueing one on a pole from the county here in VA. (we won) finally.
For years I've felt that front-end profile of the pre-War Crosleys resembled Powel Crosley, Jr. in profile. For info on Crosley autos: crosleybook.blogspot.com crosleyautoclub.com --Mike
The Jalopy Journal
