I wanted to create a real post about my Scripps-Booth instead of sandwiching it into posts on some of my other cars...



My car was bought by my grandfather in 1976 and he restored it, but it didn't pass to me. The car left the family when he died in 1992; my grandmother was rather jealous of anything that my grandfather enjoyed, so she wouldn't let a family member buy it. Ironically, that's good for me (except financially since I had to spend my own money for it) because I probably would not have the car if a relative had bought or inherited it. I starting doing research and found the car around 10 years ago, saw it in 2007, and then finally bought it in 2011/2012. I had some information in my other posts, but no coherent story.

The real background is that in 1919 my great grandfather bought a new (not this car) Scripps-Booth, back then this car would have cost $1,500...but an average car was $826, a house: $5,626, an average income: $1,125... My great grandfather would also let his 9 year old son (my grandfather) drive it to school... Apparently that left an impression on my grandfather because he searched for 60 years to find another one just like it, buying it at one of the Barney Pollard auctions. Barney Pollard was one of the few people that kept many cars from the scrap heap, without him a lot of the cars from the 1920s or before would not exist today.



From there my grandfather restored the car, he even wrote a letter to CBS asking them why don't they do a segment on real car guys, not just the ones that buy expensive ones...and CBS did a segment for 60 minutes, interviewing my grandfather with the incomplete SB. He even took Harry Reasoner for a ride in the car, which had no body and gas tank consisting of a 1.5 gallon turpentine tank in the engine bay....

Today it is mostly in the condition he left it when he died in 1992. The buyer at the estate sale was a fan of Scripps-Booth, owning 5% of the remain SB (3-4 out of 50-100 remaining cars, when 20,000+ were originally made). But he let it sit for 20 years in the garage in the Carolinas until I bought it in 2011/2012.

From when my grandfather bought the car from Barney Pollard, 70 (or possibly 7) miles have been put on it. Some issues remain, the steering is not right and the original gas tank was never connected; hence the turpentine can he set as a gravity fed gas tank...

In its day, Scripps-Booth actually had a lot of first:

1. First V8 made in Detroit - in the Bi-Autogo
2. First horn button on the steering wheel
3. First car to come with a spare tire
4. First car to come with electric door locks.

And Scripps-Booth was a car well liked by celebrities; Winston Churchill, the King of Spain, and celebrities owned various models. Despite that, SB was mostly an assembled car, where they would buy major parts (engines and such) from other companies. Their main calling card was their slightly more rounded bodies and German Vee style radiator. I'm not sure they ever made their own engine besides the V8 in the Bi-Autogo.

Earlier cars were more pure, before GM took over and ruined the brand (like GM usually does). My SB is a Six-39, made during the GM years, it is essentially an Oakland 34-B. When mine was made they were phasing out the last of the SB qualities. My car has the German Vee style radiator, but in 1920 they moved to a flat front radiator and the last bit that looked like SB was gone. Kind of sad that after making 20-50,000 cars there are only 50-100 left, interestingly a lot of them are in Australia.

Early SB ads were rather interesting, the one for my car is rather staid.




The engine on my car:

Northway ohv I-6
2900cc/177cid
2-13/16" bore
4-3/4" stroke
Bore to Stroke Ratio = 0.59:1 - take that long stroke British cars...
40hp/18.98 SAE hp - not sure how they measured that...
Marvel-V carburetor
Remy 6 volt starter - Remy was 1/2 of what later became Delco Remy





More to come later.

very nice, i like reading about other cars! also nice to keep it with its family connections!

Interesting history and car. Can't say i have ever seen one here though (the make)

Met a fellow and his wife at Hay, the week after Easter , and they had been through central Australia and then all the way around the coast of Australia in a 1930 something Oakland (4 door ,soft top ,6 cylinder ,disc wheels ) towing a camper . They had not had any problems with the car . Good effort I reckon.
KB

Well, a lot is relative here... There are about 50-100 registered SBs, so more than 2 is a lot...

There are apparently SBs in

Guildford, W.A. AUSTRALIA;
Levin, NEW ZEALAND
Ingle Farm, S.A. AUSTRALIA
Plympton, S.A. Australia



Would love to see something like that, I've never heard of anyone using a car from that era to tow anything.

I've only seen two 1930s era Oakland, both at the same show in 2009.

Similar to my car is the Oakland 34-B (I actually have manuals to both, the Oakland's manual has more information in it).
Even with the Oakland and the flat front radiators, the family resemblance is there. Mine is a little worse for wear, but I'm not a one car guy, so I have to juggle my priorities.

1917 Scripps Booth - I saw this last summer at a random car museum in Missouri last summer.


1916 Scripps Booth


1918 Scripps Booth


A late year 1919 or early 1920 SB:


A 1919 Oakland 34-B:


A 1922 Scripps Booth B-39:

As an engineer, the mechanic bits fascinate me. Especially an OHV engine in 1919. Here's a little comparison of my engine with some similar ones and with some earlier SB engines. Mine is a little worse for wear...but how many people can wrench on their grandfather's car in the exact condition he made it and left it?

The engine in my car (both sides, I don't usually show the left side since it's not as interesting as the exposed pushrods).
Those little pots at the top of the rockers are for oiling the rockers...needless to say the industry switched to more traditional engine designs (F-heads and the like) rather than continue down the OHV path of this one.




The 1918 SB Engine




The 1919 Oakland Engine:



1916 Scripps Booth V8 (made by Ferro):


1917 Scripps Booth I-4 (I believe that is a Chevrolet engine):

love all the family connections and the provenance...

pictures are great too.


thanks

This week I made progress on my car and I got some help from some friends on fixing the steering. The gas tank is next, there's a local shop that restores them.




I've had steering issues since getting the car. Once I turn it to the left, it won't let me turn back. The steering box is really simple, an old worm type. Although I could have taken it apart, repairing it is beyond my abilities so I didn't open it up. Luckily I have some friends with experience in these matters.

It turns out I have 3 problems:

1. Front axle bolts need adjustment so the wheels' turning radius is smaller. Right now the worm gear gets to the end and floats off the end of the worm. This is bad, but #2 makes it worse.



2. The Jacox worm parts need more material to be built up on the ends. Right now they are not the same length on both sides and the old repair is failing. The friend helping me with this says it looks like it was fixed in the 20s or 30s. My grandfather probably never took the box apart; if he had, any repairs probably wouldn't have failed after only the 7-70 miles he put on it.



3. One of the rollers was out of alignment and the internal shaft was even broken.

I'm still behind on getting most of the pictures of the car (the ones not taken by me) scanned; however these were scanned last year. I'm still trying to build up my database since one relative here and there will have a picture that no one else has seen. I do have my grandfather's collection of restoration pictures; I add as I scan them. So these are more for the family history part, mechanical history part, and interesting for the time period...

The original Kirby Scripps Booth (my grandfather or possibly one of his brothers):


My grandparents with my SB in the 1908s; I don't remember for sure, but I believe this is 1985 or 1986 (based on the color of the license plates).


My grandfather with his 2nd car, some kind of Ford, he was about 17 in that picture (so it's probably the first actual car he owned); even still he always considered the SB to be his first car.


Not car related, but still interesting and mechanical. Back in the 30s he took flying lessons, he quit those when he watched his instructor take a joy ride, crash, and then die. I don't think he got back into a plane until the 70s or 80s after that...I don't know what type of plane that is, my guess is a Curtis Jenny, but I don't know (I'm not that big on planes).

more great pictures and love the old family history too.

thanks for the posts


OZ