Behind the Scenes: Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum

hello my name is sam great and i'm the curator here at the auburn corps duesberg automobile museum and we're in today our collection and conservation center before we get started with our tour of the place here we'll just wait 30 seconds or so let some more people trickle in so thank you guys very much for joining us here yet again today uh thank you again to head concourse for inviting us to do this live event here and to offer you guys a more behind the scenes look at what we do as the museum how we take care of our cars preserve them and display them and more so without further ado i think we'll go ahead and start so this building was built for the museum in 2013 and it was used or built specifically for our collection uh volunteers that we call the pit group who help work on our cars they're an all volunteer group that have been around for since the 90s at least and they help us keep the cars in running shape getting ready for shows getting them ready for display and they bring with them a large set of knowledge and expertise which helps us as we work through auburn's cords duesenbergs and more cars the 10s 20s and 30s specifically so the room we're in right now is our education area where we have school groups car club events it's it's also where we start on monday mornings when we have our pit crew here we start off with coffee and donuts and also kind of doubles as an extra workspace for us as well as you see here we have a 1930 packard here in the showroom area kind of you see as you go by at night time when it's lit up next to it here we have a duesenberg chassis that we are working on we've been doing some fitting with the firewall we have a model j engine that's on display in the museum right now that we have fitted with this chassis and it's a slow work in progress acquiring parts fitting parts make sure everything works properly with the idea of having a good duesberg model j chassis to show people what was underneath the cars what engineering and technology there was that you normally wouldn't see with a body on the car example of the duesberg engine is right here we have a duesenberg model j engine head dual overhead valves straight eight eight cylinders very advanced for its time the engine produced 265 horsepower and with this head we've been working on just to rebuild make sure everything's good with it uh rebuild if if we absolutely need to and it'll go back in a duesenberg once we're satisfied with it it also has four valves per cylinder two intake and two exhaust so very advanced engine for its time especially for a passenger car as we head here into our main room we have three garage bays here where we work on our cars two of the bays have lifts in front of each car lift is a workstation with its own separate set of tools and that makes it so that if we have a car that we're working on all the parts and the tools and everything information that we have with the car that is being worked on it stays with that car with that workstation with that base so nothing gets mixed up here in the conservation center we only work on museum owned cars we don't work on loan cars or anybody else's so everything in here is being worked on for display purposes to go to car shows or concourse events such as hilton head or get ready for other events that the museum is partaking in so we'll do some minor restoration work we'll able to re rebuild carburetors work on engines we've done an engine rebuild some preservation restoration work with like paint and such basically whatever we can try to do to help keep our cars looking good and a good running shape at the same time so in our first bay right here we have a 1979 international harvester scout it's a scout ssv prototype from 1979 it was one of only a few that were built and this was one that we were getting around to get ready to go to the international harvester homecoming which takes place at the plant in new haven indiana of the few prototypes that were built embodied this was the nicest of those that remain most of them were used for crash testing aside from it's all fiberglass body you can tell it's a prototype because things just don't quite fit right seams are a little bit larger than you would expect out of a finished product but it's essentially a scout two chassis frame but with the prototype ssb scout body on it i'll come over here and i will open the door go ahead and get a look on the inside and as it's a prototype it has no roll down windows except for just a little moon roof there so it gets kind of stuffy in there pretty quickly when you're driving it around it's a manual or automatic transmission with this scout it was donated to the museum in the early 1980s and it hadn't been started or driven really since this year when we were getting it around for harpster homecoming festival so we're looking to get it running keep it in good running shape and use it at least yearly to go to the harpster festival over here up on our lift we have a 1935 auburn sedan this is one of what we call our education cars in that this is one that will take to school groups local car shows take on some car tours etc one that will allow general visitors kids to get inside see what it's like to sit in there the kids really like rolling the windows up and down instead of pushing a button that's always fun to watch them figure that out and this is one as an education car we keep running year round specifically and out here ready to go whenever we may need it and this is probably one of our best and most well-known cars as we take it to a lot of events so this is a good running car we just do the usual general maintenance things like make sure the fluids stay fresh make sure everything works on it electrically and it's one that we can just take out whenever we need to go to car show cruising etc having it up here on the lift too also makes it nice to look underneath the car as well give you guys a view typically that wouldn't be seen they got your oil pan there it's an x member frame that was a patented design by the auburn mobile company starting at 1929 it's got four wheel hydraulic brakes three speed manual top speed for these cars back in the day was around 100 miles per hour but i wouldn't do that today it's just a very sturdy a very reliable car and one that is well used and enjoyed by the museum next to us here is a 1923 buick it was the first year for their single overhead cam straight six engine which you see here this is one that was not been running conditions since the mid 1980s it was donated to the museum last year where he made the decision that because of its openness it would make a really good education car something different than just an auburn or a cord for example so we're slowly working to get this back in good running shape in good order well we have started the engine a couple times but as you do that you'll find problems along the way so it's just chasing things down one problem at a time and it's one that we hope in the very near future to have out on the road as a good education car and an educational tool it's a three-speed manual about 55 horsepower and just reiterates a 1923 buick all right and then back here it's a 1931 auburn sedan this was the one that we recently did an engine rebuild on a new new pistons new valves new rings rebuilt the carburetor rebuilt the starter clean the generator new spark plugs new wiring for the distributor this is all another one of our education cars and it's one that we have had out of service for a while while this engine rebuild was being done so it's one that we're really looking forward to getting back out in the road getting kids inside to enjoy it once again and we're getting close we've had some water pump issues which is why you don't see the cooling fan in the front currently but we're getting there we're getting pretty close we've had it running recently and it's done great so we're looking forward to getting this back out on the road yet again this 31 auburn 31 was the most successful model year for the auburn selling over 33 000 cars making it the 13th largest seller of automobiles in the united states for that year which was pretty amazing for a small company here in auburn indiana it's a straight eight engine produces about 95 98 95 horsepower three speed manual and as is it's a good cruiser at 45 55 miles per hour it's got wooden artillery wheels which was an option back then most cars at that time were going with the wire wheels and sometime in the 1970s a vinyl top was put on it but the car in the interior remains by and large original all right and then one of the last areas we'll go in through there is our paint booth but it's kind of dirty right now so we'll avoid that but we have the opportunity and the availability to do some paint repair in our shop here if we need to parts washer mineral spirits gets oil and grease and stuff off while not affecting the material underneath very useful for cleaning carburetors and other car parts that are dirty dusty oily etcetera in here we have a transmission lift parts to put drain oil gas coolant etc then in here we have just a small little machining room with sandblaster lathe drill press bench grinder it's where we have our air compressor to operate the lifts so we're able to do some machining repair and manufacturing here but there are some limitations to what we can do but by and large for what we typically need to do we are able to do it here which is a bonus for this collection and for our volunteers so that is a whirlwind tour of our collection conservation center cars come in and out all the time we work on auburn's cords and duesenbergs and anything else that might be in our museum collection even something as unique as a 79 international scout and i think we'll just take a few minutes here to see if we have any pressing questions how many museum ready cars do you work on each year all right question how many museum-ready cars do we work on each year well each year before the next upcoming year we try to plan out uh what concours events are going to what shows we're going to what cars will be needed for that show by and large with some exceptions most cars will just bring out put in fresh fluids oil gas coolant start it up make sure everything's fine and they're typically good to go sometimes there might be a little leakage here and there but that's common with 20s and 30s automobiles so with decent planning we probably would go through 10 to 15 cars per year out how many here cards does the museum have and how are they used all right so we have currently four education cars these were donated to the museum specifically not for the collection itself but to be used by the museum as what we call an education car these will take to school groups explain to kids what an auburn is what a a buick is talk about the design of the car let them get inside honk the horn move the windows up and down with the hand crank which is pretty funny to watch because they're used to pushing and holding a button explain kind of design of the car how these older cars worked versus cars today let them sit in the driver's seat see the the big steering wheel all the all the pedals that just aren't there in modern cars these days uh just a way to get the kids interacted with these cars see them running hear them running see them go down the road to help kind of spur that interest in these older automobiles in a non-coded year how many visitors does the museum get and how many of them get to access the conservation center the conservation center to repeat the question on a non-coveted year how many visitors does the museum get per year and how many visitors get to go in the conservation center on a non-coveted year we'll have between forty five thousand to fifty thousand visitors give or take and the collection conservation center is not open to the public this is very much a behind the scenes tour which we're more than happy to present we will let some of the public in on guided tours or by appointment or other specific circumstance but by and large except for the first room we started in which has large windows for people to see and we don't have visitors out here where is the museum located and how is it affiliated with the hilton head concourse all right museum is located we're located at 1600 south of wayne street in auburn indiana and we are affiliated with the hilton head concours we were invited to go there this year to bring the 1921 duesenberg model a which was the very first of duesberg passenger cars ever built but sadly that concourse had to cancel due to current circumstances so instead we agreed to do a series of video events on facebook live with the concourse with hilton head to get the people interested in museum get us out there a little bit show off behind the scenes stuff like this any new exhibits that we have just to keep the social media content going in lieu of attending the concourse this year all right well guys thank you very much for joining us i hope this was quite

Channel: HHIMotoringFestival

Views: 601

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival & Concours d'Elegance, Concours d'Elegance, HHI Motoring Festival, HHI Concours d'Elegance, Hilton Head Island Concours d'Elegance, Concours, Hilton Head Island Concours

Id: 4bYIuCdl26k

Length: 19min 6sec (1146 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 08 2020