DeWoskin Cars

A Car for All Seasons (Parts I & II)

© Robert "Charlie" Knapp
Wisconsin Packards

I first met Ron Dewoskin and his gorgeous silver 1938 Packard Super Eight Coupe Roadster at a club spring meet held several years ago at Quaker Steak and Lube in Middleton, WI. Ron seemed to be a great car enthusiast, and his Packard was quite imposing, sitting on a 134” wheelbase limousine chassis—red leather interior, rumble seat, golf bag compartment, and all! “Well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” I was told. “Ron’s got lots of toys, but he enjoys them all.” Finally, I contrived to visit Ron in his showroom on a Mother’s Day afternoon!

A little searching through Packard history reminded me that the decade of the 1930s is one of the most interesting for the contrasts it produces—Packard was kept in business by the introduction of its “low cost” 115 and 120 series cars, yet the Packard corporation reputation was made with low-production, custom-bodied senior automobiles, this is spite of a nation-wide economic depression that lasted from 1930 to the run up to WWII. Ironically, in 1937 Packard made the most cars ever in its history, and made the most money in the process! But economic conditions were bottoming out in 1938, and Packard sold about half as many cars compared to the previous year. The Eighteenth series Packards had many innovations such as dual defrosters and sealed beam headlights. By 1938 the styling for all cars, from the 110 to the stately Twelves, had been integrated throughout the entire line. The Twelves were no longer made on 144” chassis; they and the Super Eights shared the 134” chassis, and many body parts were interchangeable! Owners of a 1938 Twelve paid one-third more compared to a Super Eight of that year—but they got the massive twelve cylinder engine and superb interior appointments.

A 1938 Super Eight is easily identified by the five narrow chrome louvers on each side of the hood, thin stainless steel strips on the luggage rack, a racy Vee windshield, and a re-designed front end and instrument panel.

Ron’s cars, and he has several at any one time, enjoy breathing room in a spacious lower level of a commercial building in south Madison. One enters under a hotel-like maroon canopy, but no garish signage confirms the location. The office is comfortably appointed with a large desk, bookshelves, and window ledges wide enough to house dozens of model cars. Another adjoining room emulates a comfortable den with lounge chairs and a large TV. There’s even a kitchen and a lavatory that many a first class restaurant would envy.

After Ron’s ebullient welcome, we fell into ambling conversation about his many vehicles, most of which I had never seen in person, but had only read about. The session turned into a private lesson on the joys, and challenges, of owning classic cars and of our shared automotive history.

C: [looking around] So this is your play area.

R: This is the sitting room with TV where the boys can have Big Lubowsky parties, or football bashes. I have a kitchenette over here... I'm having the time of my life here. We live a mile away, I can play with my cars during the day, and visit with the family at night.

C: [admiring the span of vehicles] This is way too many toys!!! But they’re really pretty.

R: I have only one Packard for you...

C: That's fine... I'm loving what I see here.

R: Yeah, we've had lots of people over to look at the collection. They enjoy all kinds of cars.

C: What a beautiful Buick! [A 1932 Buick 97 Touring Sedan]

R: That car was just filmed last Monday for “Public Enemy” that was shooting in the area. Of course, who knows if it will wind up in the movie itself! They sprayed the car with dust and then the Director insisted that the tires and wheels be painted black, so they did that, too!

C: Are they allowed to do just about anything they wish to a vehicle you're letting them use?

R: If you let them! But I was there, and approved what they did. Of course, if they were using the LaSalle and wanted to do that kind of thing to it, no way!!

C: You said OK, then.

R: They said they would do the minimum to make the car have the look they wanted. They took off the side mounts rather than paint them, too. But the Buick is an old, old restoration, and everything will clean up eventually. The LaSalle is my current "show car" so I'm a lot less flexible with what gets done with it. They called that they would like the LaSalle for shooting in Chicago. But I'm going to need a lot of assurances of what they're going to do to it. If the car is just for “deep background”, get another car. If the car is integral to the scene, it’s right up front, and I can see what's being done to it, then maybe.

C: You need those assurances, for sure!

R: Two weeks ago, they had the Brewster here in Madison, around the square, and they had me move it three times. I wound up sitting for fourteen hours!!! It's a good thing I didn't have a rope handy—I would have hanged myself.

C: Your cars are really cool!

R: Did you see my 1932 Juvenile Race Car?? It's rated with a “juvenile” at 10mph, but I just drove it around and could only get 7mph. It’s got a ½ hp Briggs and Stratton engine. There were only 22 built. [Ron starts it up and putt-putts around -- see above photo!]

C: [Looking at movie poster of the film “Tucker”] What people must have thought about these cars when they were first introduced and the many new features they had!! They look modern today!

R: Can I tell you a story? In 1948 I was 10 years old and lived in mid-north Chicago one block off Lincoln Park. In the summer, I would play in the park with my buddies. One day, a squall line came in over the lake—lightening, everything turned black, and so we headed for home, running my one block home as fast as anything, and right there, I see four space ships!! I get home and told my Dad that I just saw four space ships... Dad wasn't impressed. It wasn't until my twenties that I realized I had seen four Tuckers, which were made in Chicago... and it wasn't the three headlights that got me, it was the six exhaust pipes in the rear! I knew what space ships looked like because I went to the Flash Gordon movies and saw Buster Crabb flying in his space ship—it looked just like the Tuckers I saw on the street!!

C: I saw my first Tucker several years ago, green, up at Iola.

R: If you want to see another one, come to the Masterpiece Car Show in Milwaukee on August 23rd and 24th!

C: So, let's look at this beautiful Packard.

R: I just had the rumble seat open because the car was just used in a local wedding.

C: Let me get some pictures with it open before you close it! What a gorgeous convertible. I’m reminded of several classics that were sold at the auction associated with the Pebble Beach documentary I saw recently. Do you purchase your cars at auction?

R: Auction is no way to buy vintage cars! I’ve noticed that many of the guys who buy cars at inflated prices “know what they're doing.” They’re car guys!! I went to an R&M Auction in Scottsdate two years ago because there was a ‘53 Buick Skylark in the auction; I had sold mine about five years ago, foolishly. I went to look at it. It was a decent car, but it needed a lot! Some of the things on the car were wrong. I was with two restorers who have done Skylarks in the past. I said, “let's compare notes.” We all agreed that it was a $60,000 car. It needed another twenty to thirty thousand to make it right. But it was bought for $148,000 by a guy who knows these cars, but a year prior had sold a Pontiac concept car for very large dollars. So emotion overruled good sense.

C: It tickles me to see guys several years younger than I am paying huge amounts for late 1960s and early 1970s muscle cars (the kind they wanted then but couldn't afford). Now they're paying six figures for very nice original examples. One car at the auction was clearly labeled as a “repli-car” – a nice way of saying “fake.” But it wouldn't sell at $50,000.

R: If I wanted a muscle car, which I don't, I would want one to drive. So matching numbers and build sheets don’t mean much to me. For example, when I bought the Packard, it was at the Auburn spring auction six or seven years ago, but it had gone through before I got there. It didn’t bring “the price.” I saw the car sitting there. I was there with a bunch of guys for a couple of hours, so I wrote the lot number and the price I would be willing to pay on the back of my business card and left it with an auction representative, and we left. Seventy miles down the road they called me and said “you can have the car.”

C: “Be careful what you wish for.”

R: But, in doing some research on the car, it had been in a museum in British Columbia for over 25 years. I called and talked to the curator. He offered me a V-12 chassis for $6,000. Ironically, if you put a V-12 in this Packard and get the correct hubcaps, it can pass as a Twelve. That’s it. But I wasn't interested, because I drive my cars, and also because the cost of repairing a V-12 engine is enormous!

C: This Packard is pretty as it sits!

R: Yes, indeed; in fact, this Packard is my wife's least unfavorite car!

C: So, how many years have you been collecting cars?

R: Thirty years, off and on. I don't think of myself as a collector—I have some fun cars that I love to drive, and I do!! The collectors of this world amass vehicles, but not to drive.

C: Like Jay Leno?? No, he does drive his cars, as you can see from his “Leno’s Garage” on the web.

R: That is so much fun!! You know, he is an interesting guy, and very accessible to the car enthusiast. A year ago January I was in L.A. at the Classic Car Club annual meeting, and they have a judging meet then. I was standing by the cars after the judging was over, and I just felt something behind me (I didn't hear anything). I turned around to see Jay Leno coming in with a 1925 Doble steam car (which is silent). Half the people there had never even heard of a Doble let alone seen one, but I had judged this very car at an Illinois meet several years previously! As he was driving by, I asked him if he had bought the car from a lady in Illinois, and he said “Yeah!” He stops the car, gets out, and we're chatting about the car, drawing a large crowd in the process. He opens the hood, and there’s this huge boiler, asbestos, and pipes, and he starts telling the people about the car. He said, “You know, on a cool day like today you can go about 350 miles on a tank of water.” Somebody asked, “Well, what kind of water do you use?” Jay says, without batting an eye, “Oh, Avion racing water.” He stays around for about 45 minutes, leaves, and then comes back an hour later with a Duesenberg.

C: I remember reading an article about the Doble. I think it cost some king's ransom when new, like $20,000!

R: Yeah, that's what I remember. It weighs some 7000lbs! And Murphy built the coachwork!

C: As I check out your cars, half the time I'm not sure I know what I'm looking at.

R: Right now, you're seeing a 1936 Cadillac and a 1937 Cadillac—Town Cabriolet and Formal Sedan.

C: This is when Fleetwood really did some phenomenal work!!

R: I had a V-12 in the same body style as the Town Cabriolet, but I sold it because I wanted an eight. When I bought this car, it was the only one known. And then a few years ago, a guy calls me after he found one in a barn and was thinking of restoring it. OK, so now there are two. Remember the actor Jack Pallance who just passed away recently? When his estate was sold, he had one! So now we know of three. The color is a dark purple.

C: When you consider how many of these beautiful cars were cut up for scrap in WWII, and also those that sat around in salvage yards and used car lots after the war. They sat and languished. And a lucky few were saved by those in the classic car hobby.

R: This is a car that I normally wouldn't have here... a local Jaguar dealer called me a year ago and asked if I would be interested in a 1919 Willis Overland Touring car. I know what that is... it's a “Laurel and Hardy” car. I said, "I don't think so", but I asked, “where is it?” We have it here on our showroom floor; it was recently traded for a new Jag!! I went to take a look at it, and it's cute, but I don't want to spend any money on it, so I swapped him a ‘51 Chevy pickup truck I had that I might drive once a year.

C: This is the most unusual thing I've seen...

R: You see how difficult it would be to get in? Especially for Ollie? But he would fit if there’s a moveable steering wheel! And then you get in and the steering wheel locks back into position. Now I'll do something I can't do with the garage door open [honks horn, which sounds like someone stepping on a duck]. If I do, the local water birds will fly into the garage! Top speed: 35mph in 1919.

C: Who would want to go faster in 1919?

R: I was lucky to be at Amelia Island this year and be a part of a 30-mile tour in a 1909 Thomas
Flyer--we were doing 75mph!

C: My word!!! But I'm not familiar with that car.

R: Unbelievable! It was a great, huge touring car... in 1906 or 1907 there was an “Around the World” race and the Thomas Flyer won. In fact, at Amelia Island, they had the very Thomas Flyer that won the race over four other machines. But they also had fourteen Thomas Flyers as a sort of "reunion." That was a thrill.

[This is the centennial year of that race (2008)! It was sponsored by the NEW YORK TIMES and LA MATIN (a Paris newspaper). The torturous New York to Paris Race route was NYC, Albany, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Valdez Alaska, Japan, Vladivostok, Omsk, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin and finally Paris. The Thomas Flyer Team covered three continents and over 22,000 miles in 169 days. The feat has never been equaled. They still hold the world record nearly 100 years later! Visit www.thegreatautorace.com for more details!]

C: [Looking at a 1979 VWBug convertible] I had a 1969 Bug this color--I always called it Robin’s Egg Blue.

R: I did too, but its correct name is Florida Blue.

C: I see it has a Kharman badge on the side.

R: They all did! The sedans destined to become convertibles were taken to the Kharman factory for the conversion. In a similar fashion, the VW Camper Bus behind you is a “Westfalia” because that was the name of the company that did the modifications to a standard VW bus to create this iconic camper of the 1960s.

C: I remember these campers well! I even had a similar luggage rack on my ‘69 Bug.

R: I’m the second owner of this vehicle. It is all-original, including the Westfalia luggage rack which has never been refinished. The curtains are all original, as are the fittings inside the camper. The ride is pretty “bouncy” and the driving position is creepy with little to no protection sitting back of the steering wheel.

C: This Bug brings back a lot of memories!

R: I love to drive it! I love the sound of it, the driving position, everything. It’s such fun!

C: This has to be close to end for the Bug, right?

R: Yeah, 1979 was the last year for the convertibles. VW continued making sedans in Mexico and Brazil, but this was it for the ragtop. Now, here's another vehicle that started off as a Beetle. The guy who invented the Dune Buggy, Bruce Meyers, wanted to build a similar car for street use. They were called the Meyers Manx and were manufactured in kit form to be built on a VW frame. Meyer's company made ten Manx (but sold a few hundred kits). This one was made for Malcolm Bricklin (who went on to greater fame!). This is the nicest Manx in existence--there have been numerous magazine articles written about it. And this is my Crosley Hotshot Supersport! This was customized when new—it is one of a kind. A very fun car! I have new tires and wheels for it, but I can't get them balanced! It's a hoot to drive--four speed and no synchromesh.

C: Speaking of tires, did you ever see Jay Leno’s bit on getting his tires shaved?

R: Oh yeah, I've had tires shaved. You have to... they come out of the molds with so much variation. I asked the last guy who shaved my tires “don't you think people would have complained about this when these tires were new?” No, he said. The roads were terrible and so, generally, were car suspensions. We’re just so used to smooth roads and great suspensions that we notice tires that aren’t round!

And this is another Dune Buggy from another company... it's not fiberglass, but all metal. It's called a Tempe, and it's very rare. There probably aren't more than a couple of dozen of them left.

C: Wow.

R: I had a ‘64 Porsche for many years that I traded for the Tempe (plus a check, luckily!). But I was tired of the Porsche—you had to fall into it and call AAA to get out of it. It was a nice car, but I always found the Bug more fun to drive.

C: My only problem with our Bug was long trips—driving from Oklahoma to California and back around Christmas, 1969, for example, took us a couple of days to stop buzzing.

R: You know, the Bug suspensions were greatly improved in the 1970s with the Super Beetle. I wouldn't have any problem driving long distances with all the improvements they made.

The car you're looking at is totally original--paint, leather, chrome, the works. [1941 Super Deluxe Ford convertible]

C: You want me to believe that, right???

R: It’s a great story. I get a call from a friend of mine a year ago December who asked if I would be interested in a ‘41 Ford convertible with 6400 miles. I said sure, but I think it’s totally bogus. He had bought it from the original owner who lived in Sister Bay!!! She had to go into assisted living, and he had a vacation home next to hers. I asked if I could evaluate the car, and he lives only a short distance away. I see the car for the first time, and I was astounded. So I look at the car carefully, and I hear the whole story again. I asked if I could take it for a drive. He says “take it for the weekend.” I’m driving down the highway at 65mph, it’s running great, no squeaks or rattles. How is that possible??

C: Yes, how is that possible? Even with 6400 miles on it, we are talking about 65+ years and the ravages of time.

R: I bring it back here (it’s a Saturday), and I call my restorer friend in Rockford. I tell him to come up here to look at a car I'm considering buying... it’s a ‘41 Ford convertible with 6450 miles on it. “Impossible” he says. “Just get up here”, I insist. “It's Saturday!” he says. But he comes up to look at the car. Now this guy restores cars for Pebble Beach. He gets underneath with a flashlight (I had already gone over the car with a magnet). After a half hour he says “if you don't buy this car, I will. Not a single nut or bolt has been turned. I’ve looked at every place on this car where dirt could accumulate, but there's no evidence of any!”

C: It sounds promising.

R: There's an oil change sticker on the front windshield dated 1989 for a shop in Sister Bay. It’s likely the place still exists. I call and ask if anyone is still there that worked there in 1989. Did they know about Sara and her ’41 Ford? On the other end, the guy answers “Of course. Every year in late summer she would call us out to her house to get the car ready for winter. She had a heated garage. We put the car up on blocks and take the battery to the shop for the winter. Come spring when she determined that winter was over, we had to go back and reverse the process—reinstall the fully charged battery, take the car off the blocks, drive it to the shop for an oil change and return it to her for her use in the summer.”

C: It still happens, doesn’t it, right here close to home.

R: You can see the original glass, and the rubber surrounds are as hard as a rock. But everything else on the car is original, except for the fender skirts that I had made (they were optional in ‘41), and I put Smitty Mufflers on it for the correct effect. I had the engine detailed (new hoses, fluids, wires, etc.). These are the original factory spotlights. The fog lights work. And I added seatbelts, of course.

C: How she took care of that vehicle! It puts most of us to shame.

** article concluded **

R: 1941 Cadillac Four Door Converitible--the last year for the four door convertible format by Cadillac. It's also the first year for hydramatic. I love driving this car--the first year I had this car I put 5000 miles on it! I took it on tour in the Rockies and the Tetons and around Lake Superior and through Canada. Now, another true story: the guy who ordered this car wanted a color that Cadillac didn't offer that year--Berkshire Green. I have a copy of the build sheet that I bought from the factory...

C: You can buy those??

R: Yep, $50 and it's yours. Handwritten, right across it, "Special Order, Berkshire Green. $10"

C: This car has never been restored... it's got a 25 year old paint job; the seats were done about then, too. But the door panels, the bright work, they are original. The body's never been off the frame. The only rattle in the car is this [tweeking a passenger door lock plunger]. And someday I'm gonna fix it!!

R: You're going to write about my rattle?

C: No, I'm going to mention how you're going to fix it.

R: I'm going to take that apart, put a piece of tape around it, and you'll never be the wiser.

C: I saw a beautiful Packard at the 1999 Warren Ohio Centennial show, a 1934 Model 1101, convertible body by Glaser, dark blue and silver with three windshield wipers.

R: I know the car; that's Andy Simo's, who just sold it recently for $235,000.

C: What reminded me was that there were leather thumbwheels at the window rail that sinched the window tightly against the door frame so it wouldn't rattle. It was cool!

R: Here we have a 1953 Cadillac convterible with Dagmar bullets on the bumpers!

C: Who wouldn't want that???

R: You remember Dagmar, right? It's a great car, but in 1953 the Hydromatic factory burned down, and so 18,600 Cadillacs were produced with Dynaflow transmissions. There's nothing wrong with those transmissions, but because they don't shift, I'm always waiting for the gear change that never comes!

C: I was going to give you a snide remark about how you must go through a case of chrome polish a year with all this brightwork on your cars!

R: No, I don't. I rarely even wax these cars--maybe I'll glaze four cars this year, and the rest will be dusted or washed if necessary. I use a product called Liquid Luster.

C: Did I hear "washed"?

R: I drive these cars regularly, some every week, summer and winter, weather permitting. It's good for them, and me!!!

C: You have way too many to drive, Ron.

R: Yeah, and you haven't mentioned by Carosell.

C: I see that... and you could pull them with many of these!!

R: The answer to your unasked question is "It was Saturday, it was snowing, and I was on eBay!" I told my wife that I just bought a Carosell. She said "Whatever for?" I said "For the grandkids." But, she said, you'll never put them on it. So I told her to come over and take a look when I finally got it in here. She loved it, because she saw all the things she could do to decorate the thing--paint the ponies, the moldings, etc.

C: See you made a friend!!! All you had to do was buy a Carosell.

C: This LaSalle of yours here, how fabulous a car.

R: Yeah, and I've got two racoon coats in the back, too.

C: The workmanship in these wind wings is fabulous! And moveable Pilot Rays! Few cars have side moving headlights even today.

C: Now what about this Brewster?

R: It is one of 135 built. There are only 39 of them left in the world. The producers of "Public Enemies" wanted this car on the square. I'm out on location two weeks ago at 6am, and there's another one! He didn't know about me, and I didn't know about him. And he's from Stevens Point! So there are two of us in this state! But we're parked on the square for fourteen hours. Parked.

C: Well, I guess that's the "movie biz."

R: I was in Columbus last Monday with the '32 Buick. I watched Johnny Depp and three other guys get out of the car, Johnny gives a woman a hug and kiss, and they walk fifteen feet into a house. That was the scene! Five and a half hours to do that scene, thirty times! But that's Michael Mann for you, the director! He's a UW-Madison graduate, you know.

C: Where were these Brewsters made?

R: Long Island. Brewster was Rolls Royce's (Springfield, MA) coachbuilder. When RR ceased operation, Brewster tried to go it alone. They bought 135 Ford Chassis and stretched them out; from the cowl back it's identical to the Brewster-bodied Rolls, but Ford parts are a lot cheaper than those for Rolls-Royce! I got a brake light switch last week for my '36 Cadillac from Car Quest (they had to overnight it, though).

C: Let's spend just a bit more time on the Packard, just to be sure of the details.

R: It's a super 8 coupe roadster, all the standard goodies--front Trippe running lights, a radio antenna, a radio head (dials, etc.) so when I first got the car I asked my guy who does restorations to get the radio working. He said "There is no radio!" My guess is that it was removed some time ago.

C: These straight eights are so much more interesting to listen to than a radio, anyway!

R: They are so smooth!

C: Yes, they are... but I need pictures of hood ornaments to keep our editor happy!

R: I just saw him last week at the Cars on State show.

C: Heck, I missed it (again)!

R: The first year I had the LaSalle in the Cars on State show and it won Best in Show! But before I impress you, the judges were Bret Bielman, Barry Albarez and three tatooed ladies from the Roller Derby! They thought the car was great, especially the back seat! This year they wanted the Brewster, which is by far a more interesting and rarer car, and nuthin!

C: Well, you do what you can.

R: Have you been to the Botham Winery show? That's a really classy show in August. A couple of years ago I took the Town Car. The lady who awards the trophies, her Dad is deceased, but was a great sports car fan; awards are given in his memory. She always tears up at the awards ceremony. She explains how he loved sports cars, raced them, restored them, how he loved MGs and Porsches, blah, blah, blah. After ten minutes she announces that the Memorial Award goes to my 1936 Cadillac Town Car! Do you realize that on the way home it handled way better than on trip to the show, now that I know I'm driving a "sports car." Sometimes car shows can be a little strange.

C: Well, we're getting towards the end of my time here... I said 3:30pm, and it's getting close.

R: You know, you're right! I wear watches from the 30s too, and they keep great time, but you have to remember to wind them every few hours!