by DIANE SHAGER
(This story originally appeared in the December 1976 edition of The Registry)
Our Star came to us out of the blue. There had been no serious thoughts about becoming “old car” enthusiasts, One warm Sunday morning the ad just appeared before us and awakened a faint longing I had for a “neat old ear”. The price didn’t frighten us away, and the fact that it had a Continental engine only encouraged us as husband Paul, Is in the marine engine business and the Continental engine played a prominent part In the early marine trades.
We checked off two other local antique auto ads and headed off for a typical Sunday drive, enroute a Model T caravan passed with their occupants all sporting touring costumes. We made a quick dash to the nearest pay phone and checked out our list, The Star was the nearest and still available; the others had already been sold or had deposits down. The car seemed tiny next to the sellers 1929 Studebaker and
each of us did a grand job of resisting any show of enthusiasm for fear that the price might go up rather than down as we wished. The only problem with this tactic is that we each thought the other did not really like the car, and it was not until we had driven a good distance away, that we learned the unanimous choice was the Star.
We became the proud owners of a 1926 Star, model R. 4 door sedan, with body #C-44088 and a 15L Continental engine, #19795. Our first old car, “Felicia Fliver” is her name variations of this act, including the purchase of our second Star, a 1925 model M Coupester, (now in storage), were to be repeated five more times until lack of space finally put a stop to it. The 1925 Coupster is in dire need of repair and will be tended to as time permits. We have done a minimum of work to our original sedan, when the doors began to pop open during turns, we sought help and turned her over to a local re-upholsterer. Kurt Pearson at Pauls Auto Upholstery n Seattle, Washington, had to almost completely rebuild the wood in the top before applying the fabric. A complete new interior was installed. At the time this was done, we were not thinking of auto clubs or car meets so the colors or fabric are original substitutes. It is so easy to error when you are not informed, no we did not keep patterns of the top wood, nor did we think to save any of the original fabric so we could later compare if we did decide to change the scheme back to the original combinations.
The body has the original Persian Blue paint with black fenders. The interior had originally been a short pile type of mohair in a medium green with a blue/green pinstripe. The headliner and rug matting were gray, with a tint of tan to It.
Our sedan is equipped with an oak “Tilt-Wheel” shown in the normal position and in the raised position, cowl mounted parking lights have Smith lenses. Mechanically the oar is mostly original. We hope to some day remove the red paint on the sedan’s wood wheels, and refinish them in the original natural finish. In time, the car will also receive a new paint job.
In the mean time, our little 1925 Star Coupster waits in the corner of a storage shed. We hope to convert her trunk into a rumble seat and jazz her up a bit. Purists will cry out as we will most likely use a bright exterior color on her, but then the color can always be changed later.