Name this car....

[ramarren]

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Yes, most cars of that era, be they Italian, German, British, whatever, were built with so little consideration to metal preparation, anti-corrosion measures, and weather proofing it was a travesty.  It is as if the manufacturers just didn't think it was worth bothering about. I saw a Ferrari crumple in half from rust, countless Jaguars so badly rotted the rear suspension arms pulled the mounts off the chassis tub, and Alfas, FIATs, BMWs and even Mercedes with most of the exterior and flooring rusted away ... only five years old! ... when I lived in New York. They simply couldn't survive the roads being salted in winter and the lack of maintenance that were the US norm. (Lots of American cars rusted out then too, but not as quickly or as completely...) 

Probably poor metals available, and certainly zero attention to corrosion resistance until past the middle '70s. Sad. 

My Fulvia was first sold in California in 1967 and spent from '81 to 2002 sitting on a concrete lot in Los Angeles because the engine had a problem and the guy who bought it took iit apart and left it like that. He sold it to the guy I bought it from in Chicago, who never took it out on a rainy day, kept it in a heated garage, and rebuilt it to the 75% level. I bought it from him, have finished the restoration and such, and keep it in a dry garage. After all this time, it needed some minor corrosion repair to the back of the front inner fenders and forward part of the rocker panels in 2023 or so. The rest of its chassis and metal work is completely solid ... I work to keep it that way. It feels tight and solid, all of a piece, like a new car.

G

[ramarren]

BTW: this thread is having problems. I can't use the "like" button, and it seems every time I go to post something to it, it does nothing, then I have to go back to the editor and try again. It brings up my last post in full, and accepts the "Submit Reply" command the second time. ????

G

[wlaidlaw]

I was told that one of the reasons Italian steel from the 50s and 60s was so bad, was that Italy had no native sources of significant amounts of iron ore, neither did it have large quantities of coal or oil. This meant that a high percentage of the content of newly made steel was made from remelted scrap. Now this is fine if it sits for hours in a reverberatory furnace when all the impurities will get burnt off and the scrap raw steel will be wholly integrated with the pig iron to make homogeneous steel. This requires large qualities of gas made from coal and in Italy, this was just too expensive so the process was cut short. The end result is that their steel sheet has a high percentage of impurities called inclusions. These act like a microscopic voltaic battery and lead to rusting from the inside out. I bought what I thought was a new Fiat X1/9. It had holes rusted all the way through the bodywork within 6 months and I had to get my solicitor to write to FIAT to demand they buy it back. We traced the true history of the car, from parts manufacturing dates etc and on running the VIN through the Italian system, we found it had been built as a left hand drive car two years earlier and FIAT admitted it had been stored on grass at an airfield, before going back to Bertone to be converted to RHD. They grudgingly agreed to buy it back at purchase price and I bought a Saab 99 Turbo. 

Wilson

[stuny]

In the US, up until perhaps the '70s, corrosion was the new car salesman's best friend.  They could easily talk new buyers into spending extra for dealer installed undercoating, which helped.

In the '70s I bought a 1969 912 Targa with some hidden corrosion, but not the dreaded rusting from rainwater running down the stainless-steel Targa hoop into the floor pan directly below.  The easiest test for an advanced case of corrosion there was to put a jack directly below it, raise the jack, and see if the car sagged on either side.

My '69 124 Sport Coupe (bought new in Santa Barbara) never had rust problems in North Dakota nor the US Northeast, but the red paint did fade quite a bit.

[pippy]

On 11/3/2025 at 3:36 PM, ramarren said:

BTW: this thread is having problems. I can't use the "like" button, and it seems every time I go to post something to it, it does nothing, then I have to go back to the editor and try again. It brings up my last post in full, and accepts the "Submit Reply" command the second time. ????

G

Hello Godfrey.

I'm not sure if you are only having issues within this sub-forum but, in either case, the LUF Admin. team might like to hear about it? The Forum changed servers(? or something major!) a short while ago and there have been many members who have experienced a range of problems since the site was refreshed.

Here is a link which might be useful;

https://www.l-camera-forum.com/topic/392755-continuing-server-problems-on-the-forum-merged/page/18/#comments

Philip.

Edited Tuesday at 07:07 PM by pippy

[ramarren]

Thanks Philip! I hadn't seen that thread ... I submitted a post there. Let's see what response is made.

G

[stuny]

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Let's try this one.  All the usuals, please:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[wlaidlaw]

1926 Daimler 45HP "Star of India"

Wilson

[stuny]

Not a Daimler, but you're close with the vintage.  The mystery car is from 1929.

[wlaidlaw]

Lets then try Daimler's sister make of Lanchester. Given the RH gearchange and plethora of instruments, maybe a 30HP straight eight. I know it isn't a Rolls Royce or a Bentley as the steering wheel is wrong but fairly certain it is an upmarket British make. Too late for a Leyland (last car 1923) or Napier (last car 1925) and it is too early for the large engined Lagonda and Alvis cars and under American influence, Vauxhall for their larger cars (20/60, Silent 80) had moved to central gear changes, as had most mainland European marques (Delage, Alfa Romeo, Delahaye etc). That does not really leave many other upmarket British cars. There were failures like the Humber Pullman and Hillman Straight Eights (both favoured by my grandfather), that tended to end up as taxis or funeral transport. 

Wilson

[stuny]

Wilson -

As always, I'm awed by the breadth and depth of your car knowledge, but no cigar.  Another marque.

[stuny]

Now let's see some of the outside:

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[wlaidlaw]

A Duesenberg SJ ?

Wilson

[stuny]

Not a Duesy.  Let's add another crop:

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

[wlaidlaw]

1929 Hispano Suiza H6B?

Wilson

Edited 5 hours ago by wlaidlaw