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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dave Dta
I have a set of springs from Carlin Manufacturing in Texas. I can't find any info on the company. I saw one reference by Marco talking about them. I was told they are rumble seat springs for 30-31 Model A. The numbers on the springs are: VS-129-HI7 and VS-131-HI7. These are new in the box and if they are for my A I will use them. Can anyone verify the application? Thanks, Dave
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Dave, I am probably a little fuzzy on some of the details of this but this is how I remember most of it. If I am wrong on some of it, maybe someone else can chime in too.
Carlin Mfg was in Beaumont, TX and was owned by Jack Carlin. I am going to guess somewhere in the late 1990s - 2000s, he sold his business to Paul Dominguez who at some point changed the name to Carline adding the 'e' to the end of Jack's last name.
As a kid, I remember going with my dad in the late 60s - early 70s down to the Beaumont/Port Arthur area to visit Arthur Howell (who owned a HVAC sheetmetal shop) and onto Jack's shop. What I don't know/remember is whether Jack worked for Arthur first, -or whether they were just friends but it definitely wasn't a small mom & pop type operation (-or it didn't seem that way to me!) Just guessing, he probably had 15-20 guys working there from what I can remember. When Arthur decided to retire, he sold the seat spring business to Don Snyder and the sheetmetal company to his brother David. Whether Jack copied Arthur's springs I don't know, but I do remember Jack was making them too as I would stand there and watch them being made. Gosh I remember it being hot inside that place! Jack's guys were making Model-A wood kits using a hand jig saw and a hand router, making body splash aprons with a hand brake and many other items that were similar in looks but not real close by what is considered acceptable today. From tools, there was not any over-arm Routers or CNC machines to do production work, nor stamping presses and dies like Antique Auto Sheetmetal has today. By today's standards what I remember was that Jack had very crude manufacturing practices back then (...but then again so did Arthur and Tommy Trailor who owned Specialized) but they were all supplying a need, and most of their merchandise was probably a step above what you could purchase thru JC Whitney or Ricks!
I also know that in the 80s & 90s, they (Carlin's) were manufacturing quite a bit of stuff for Model-As. I also seem to remember there being a fire there because my dad went down and purchased a large load of smoke damaged stuff that was salvaged from the fire. I am going to guess this was in the 1980s? Maybe someone else remembers something about that??