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Old 05-01-2021, 11:17 PM   #1
vern hodgson
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Default How many miles?

Just curious, how many miles do think your A has travelled since it rolled off the assembly line? Cars certainly would not have annual mileage as we have today, and certainly as the years rolled by mileage would have been less and less.
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Old 05-02-2021, 01:51 AM   #2
Bill G
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Default Re: How many miles?

Absolutely no clue. The Speedo had about 6500 on it when I got it 4 years ago and it spent 2 years being rebuilt so with 2 years of actual driving, I’ve put on about 5k since. The car was well used, so maybe 206500 if the speedo is original to the car. Wild guess. (W.A.G.)
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Old 05-02-2021, 07:02 AM   #3
WHN
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Default Re: How many miles?

75,000 miles since being built in 1929.

Car was in storage after WWII until 1981. I have driven it just under 4,000 miles since than.

Not every owner has to put a lot of mileage on their car to enjoy it. I take it out 8 or 9 times a year and one car show. Have my rocker in the garage and just enjoy looking at it.
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Old 05-02-2021, 07:28 AM   #4
Dean Lemoine
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Default Re: How many miles?

Mine now has 4200 miles since the completion of it’s restoration last summer. It had no speedometer when I bought it, so I have no idea about the total mileage
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Old 05-02-2021, 02:50 PM   #5
Russ B
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Default Re: How many miles?

My cabriolet has been in the family since new. It was my grandmother’s sole transportation for over 25 years. When I got the car in 1958-59,my uncle said it had over 200,000 miles on it then. When I rebuilt it starting about 10 years ago, I replaced the front crossmember which had been cracked and welded, and also had numerous stress cracks on the sides. The fenders had many stress cracks that were welded up. It is easy for me to believe that the car has well over 200,000 miles on it.

In the last 60+ years I have had it, probably an additional 10k miles have been added to it. I really don’t know. I drove it a lot while I was in high school as my only car, 1962-1964, but afterwards, it sat until about 10 years ago. After I got it running again, I kept it in ‘shakedown mode’ for several years as an excuse to keep driving it. Now it is all pretty again, and I have only added another 2k miles since.

Last edited by Russ B; 05-02-2021 at 03:09 PM. Reason: More info
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Old 05-02-2021, 07:54 PM   #6
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Default Re: How many miles?

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I’m the second owner of my Tudor. It had about 12k miles when I bought it in 1961. I’ve put about an average of 1000 miles since rhen, with two engine rebuilds, so maybe 60,000 miles total. I was only 16 when I bought it, never expected to own it for 50 years. Didn’t think to keep records on it till about 20 years ago.
But sadly, as I get closer to the edge, I have come to accept the reality that it isn’t important and really nobody cares!
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Old 05-02-2021, 08:11 PM   #7
Model A Ron
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Default Re: How many miles?

That a hard one to say unless you have history and or documentation. My guess is that many of the good un-restored cars may have less miles than the cars that were done.
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Old 05-02-2021, 08:32 PM   #8
vern hodgson
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Default Re: How many miles?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Russ B View Post
My cabriolet has been in the family since new. It was my grandmother’s sole transportation for over 25 years. When I got the car in 1958-59,my uncle said it had over 200,000 miles on it then. When I rebuilt it starting about 10 years ago, I replaced the front crossmember which had been cracked and welded, and also had numerous stress cracks on the sides. The fenders had many stress cracks that were welded up. It is easy for me to believe that the car has well over 200,000 miles on it.

In the last 60+ years I have had it, probably an additional 10k miles have been added to it. I really don’t know. I drove it a lot while I was in high school as my only car, 1962-1964, but afterwards, it sat until about 10 years ago. After I got it running again, I kept it in ‘shakedown mode’ for several years as an excuse to keep driving it. Now it is all pretty again, and I have only added another 2k miles since.
That is what I thought, I would venture to say a good number of cars never came near rolling over 999,000. Modern cars rarely do that and we do much more incidental driving than in those days, I believe.after the first twenty or so years they probably did a lot of sitting. Any comments?
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Old 05-02-2021, 08:58 PM   #9
mass A man
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Default Re: How many miles?

Don't know how many engine swaps were done over the years, but I found that the driver's steel running board had all the tops of the little diamond points worn right through, in the exact placement of my left foot as I get in and out the truck. Hmmm... How many times would it take to have a rubber/leather sole wear steel clean through? Rust had no bearing on this original steel running board.
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Old 05-02-2021, 09:24 PM   #10
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Default Re: How many miles?

if you look at unrestored speedometers on Ebay most of them will show 40K to 60K
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Old 05-03-2021, 02:21 AM   #11
vern hodgson
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Default Re: How many miles?

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Originally Posted by mass A man View Post
Don't know how many engine swaps were done over the years, but I found that the driver's steel running board had all the tops of the little diamond points worn right through, in the exact placement of my left foot as I get in and out the truck. Hmmm... How many times would it take to have a rubber/leather sole wear steel clean through? Rust had no bearing on this original steel running board.
Environment with lots of dirt.
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Old 05-03-2021, 02:23 AM   #12
vern hodgson
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Default Re: How many miles?

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if you look at unrestored speedometers on Ebay most of them will show 40K to 60K

Good point. How many miles could a new engine expect to get?
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Old 05-03-2021, 11:55 AM   #13
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Default Re: How many miles?

I have no reason to believe that my odometer is incorrect. The patina matches the rest of the unrestored car, and the seal on the back appears to be undisturbed. Even the cable looks original. It reads a little over 86,000.

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Old 05-03-2021, 12:39 PM   #14
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Default Re: How many miles?

Speedo in my unrestored Town Sedan shows 95.3K. The speedo works, appears unrestored and I have no reason to doubt that it is not correct. The rest of the car appears consistent with this mileage. It has a replacement engine (obvious restamp) installed before I got the car.

Speedo in my restored pickup shows 79.6K. Records from the guy who restored it showed 78K in 1980. The numbers on the odometer are quite faded and appear unrestored. So 78K (or maybe 178K?) in 50 years. I have not compared the engine number against the frame number, but the engine is good compression, original bore, and no lip on the cylinder walls. It may be a replacement, I just don't know.

On both cars, the important thing is that the engine numbers match the title VIN. So I'm not inclined to do any engine swapping.

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Old 05-03-2021, 05:36 PM   #15
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Default Re: How many miles?

I know exactly how many miles are on my truck because I have the lineage from the first owner all-the-way to myself(the fourth owner). The car had the original speedometer in it with 54,936 when I bought it in July of 2005. The odometer has 76,285 now, and that's the total miles on my 1930 CCPU to date.
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Old 05-04-2021, 09:09 PM   #16
clo2jim
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Default Re: How many miles?

Miles since new in 1930


1930 Canadian Roadster - 62,566


1930 Original US Town Sedan - 30,323
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