Everyone is getting there Crosley loaded up to head for the Nationals in July. Here is a load of 51-52s heading that way now
Even Carnation Milk is going to bring their
fleet of CDs for the Spotlight Class
Jim Hosking cleaning up his 51-52 CD
Convertible to take to Wauseon many years ago. Some of
you old timers will remember Jim as a member from years
ago that had some very nice Crosley parts for sale every
year at the Nationals. Mike Duffy sent me the picture's,
another old member that has come back to the fold and is
heading back to Wauseon this year.
Here is the Convertible at Wauseon in
Jim's flea market space. Jim is behind the table
selling. I'm guessing this was later 70s but not sure.
He later had a big yellow school bus to haul his parts.
Jim died back in 2018. Wonder if anyone standing at the
table will be at Wauseon this year.
Park Hunter(WI) tells his Crosley story
"Erick was 12 when we dragged the Crosley home from
Minnesota. It was an erector set. The dream was to drive
it to Wauseon... long deferred." An earlier shot of Erick as
part of my April CotM a few years back.
As many of us know some projects take
longer than others.
"Now he's 21, done with college, and
about to head overseas as a missionary for two years.
So we've been scrambling to get l'il Ole roadworthy,
and today he drove it to work at the Walmart Auto
Center. And here he is today. The mirror
was a birthday gift Erick bought me at Wauseon 2019."
Great job Park & Erick and good
luck on your future adventures.
Steve Eason of North Carolina arriving Monday at the Nationals. He draws a lot of attention on the road with his Hotshot. Not sure how long Steve was on the road, I know he had already been on the road for over a week. He went to the AACA National show in Auburn the weekend before and picked up a drivers plaque for the Hotshot. He had a couple more shows planned before he headed home.
Steve and his Hotshot in the line of
cars at the nursing home parade. Because of covid
restrictions at the home be didn't do our usual show but
just did a couple of slow laps for fairly large crowd of
residents that were out front to wave and smile at us
going by.
I heard Lil' Digger recently changed hands and thought
it would be a good time to feature it. It is on a Suzuki
Samurai chassis with a modified 1.3 engine and re-geared
drive system with Jeep YJ suspension. 
So I had Lil' Digger but what to put
with it then I remembered this photo taken in 1953. It
appears to be a 1949 Sedan Delivery being used as a pet
ambulance and hearse for the Happy Hunting Ground Pet
Cemetery. You can see the sliding windows and handle on
the back so it has a barn door rear entry. Seemed like a
good image to pair with Lil' Digger.
Clell Ballard is all by himself, as
the only member in Idaho. From the pictures you can tell
he lives in a beautiful area. Here is Clell's
description of his custom Crosley: "I created
a completely new coupe top for a 48 CC after the
building it was in fell down on it and the original
sedan top had to be cut off."
"You have never seen a Crosley with such a
unique appearance as what my car looks like now. It
looks like something Crosley should have considered
back when building cars." I have to agree
with Clell, it would have been a good seller back in
1948. 
Tater the early years??? The Buick
portholes used to be a popular addition to Crosley.
To the right is Tater owned by Martha Straube of Oregon. Click on the link for the front view.
To the right is Tater owned by Martha Straube of Oregon. Click on the link for the front view.
Martha, with a lot of help from Kenny
Bush rebuilt this 1947 Roundside from very poor
condition, into a real crowd pleaser at the many shows
Martha has taken it. Here is a front shot.
Richard Campbell post these pictures
and the question anyone know where the Little Digger is
today? "Over the course of three years (1957-1959), the
Little Digger was unbeaten in the HM class on the west
coast. Built by Chalmers Hall of Phoenix, Arizona, the
little Crosley-powered special took first in class
honors in ten of its twelve races. (It failed to finish
in the other two events.) The engine delivered 55 bhp at
8500 rpm. Transmission was a modified MG TC unit with a
Morris pressure plate. The body was assumed to be a
home-made aluminum shell. Weighing a mere 760 pounds
(wet), the Little Digger weight was evenly distributed,
with 48% front and 52% rear with driver. Wheelbase
84-inches, overall length 121-inches, width 50-inches,
track 44-inches, and height 33-inches. Speed at the
quarter mile was clocked at 84.6 mph, and top speed was
114 mph."
Above photo Copyright by Art Still, The
Digger was last heard of when it was trailered to Mexico
where Hall competed in a road race. One report says Hall
transplanted the engine from Digger to a Giaur that he
also took to Mexico after blowing the Giaur engine. If
anyone knows what happen to Digger after it got to
Mexico let me know and I will pass it on the Richard.
Our only Alaska memeber, Bob Picard,
sent this photo and story of his Gasporter, still in
use. "Here is a recent picture of my 1948 Crosley
Gasporter refueling my 1948 Stinson Flying Station
Wagon."
"I acquired the gasporter several years ago to be able to refuel my 1948 Stinson and my 1943 WWII Army spotter airplane. It was previously used for many years to refuel airplanes at the Lake Hood Seaplane base in Anchorage. As you may know, the gasporter was designed for refueling small aircraft with the driver/refueler standing up to drive. It is claimed to have a 200 gallon tank but I can only get about 190 gallons in it if I allow for expansion space. It was designed with a reinforced walkway atop the engine so that some high wing airplanes can be refueled without the need of a ladder. The fuel pump is powered by a PTO driven by a belt run from a double crankshaft pulley."
"I acquired the gasporter several years ago to be able to refuel my 1948 Stinson and my 1943 WWII Army spotter airplane. It was previously used for many years to refuel airplanes at the Lake Hood Seaplane base in Anchorage. As you may know, the gasporter was designed for refueling small aircraft with the driver/refueler standing up to drive. It is claimed to have a 200 gallon tank but I can only get about 190 gallons in it if I allow for expansion space. It was designed with a reinforced walkway atop the engine so that some high wing airplanes can be refueled without the need of a ladder. The fuel pump is powered by a PTO driven by a belt run from a double crankshaft pulley."
A vintage photo of another
airport Gasporter.
"The engine uses gas from the big tank
which means that this Crosley has the biggest gas tank
in the world. There is a scupper at the bottom of the
tank that holds about 3 gallons in reserve for the
engine that can't be pumped out when refueling the
airplanes. It works very well for what it was designed
to do. I remember seeing these trucks occasionally when
I was learning to fly in 1964 and I immediately
recognized what it was when I saw this one in Anchorage.
I just had to have it and now I'm glad I do."
Just a reminder that this years
Spotlight Class is Commercial. These two nice examples
were at the 2021 Nationals.
Brad Johnson(IN) is the owner of this motorcycle hauling 47 Roundside Pickup. The little Indian appears to have been originally a real minibike with most the engine parts there just no internals. It was on a carnival ride.
Brad Johnson(IN) is the owner of this motorcycle hauling 47 Roundside Pickup. The little Indian appears to have been originally a real minibike with most the engine parts there just no internals. It was on a carnival ride.
Tim & Lorilee
King(FL) are the owner/restorers of Willie a beautiful
49 Panel Delivery.
If all the trucks that are being talked about online, as Winter projects show, it may be the biggest Commercial class ever.
If all the trucks that are being talked about online, as Winter projects show, it may be the biggest Commercial class ever.
These two nice Crosleys belong to John
Roeser(IL). John didn't say what the event was where
these photos were taken but the policeman is taking a
careful look above to see if he needs to write a ticket.
The 47 Convert and 52 Sedan Delivery are in
parade ready shape. John writes "The 47’ was
bought new by my grandfather's secretary, then he from
her and me from him. When she owned it she drove it to
Florida and back from Elgin Illinois"
The 52 Sedan Delivery apparently
does double duty as a show car and delivery for John's
bakery. Hope we see it at the Nationals in the Spotlight
class in July. Not sure who the two young ladies are
posing with the delivery. John says he bought 52 from
Kap (Kapraun) 25 years or so a go.
Ran across these two photos and
couldn't resist making them my choice this month for
CotM. I wonder how two Chevrolet dealers thought it was
a good idea to use a Crosley to advertise their
dealerships. Above I would guess was in Texas based on
the dealer name and web search. A nice 51-52 CD Pickup.
Strong Bros Chevrolet was in Syracuse
New York and from the looks of the other cars in the
background this 48 1/2 Crosley wagon was fairly new when
it was used to promote Chevrolet. Nicely shows off the
white wheels they switched to in 1948. Maybe the dealers
were showing that you could upgrade from a Crosley to a
Chevy.
This is a Crosley powered Lewis
Shepard, I would call it a tug but not sure what it was
officially called.
It was for sale at 1999 Crosley
Nationals, not sure if it sold or where it is but
wouldn't it look great in the commercial spot light
class this year. What little I could fine shows they
also made fork lifts and hand operated pallet movers.
Later they merged with Hyster. Looks like it would be a
beast to drive with handlebar steering to a single wheel
and solid rubber wheels.
Hope everyone is loading up to head to the Nationals.
A nice load of 1947 CCs on Crosley's trick double wide on the top hauler.
If not the largest certainly the
longest commercial vehicle in the Spotlight Class at the
2022 Nationals was Paul Bryant's(IN) 1941 PreWar pickup
5th wheel dozer hauler..
Paul has a proper dozer to haul all
looking brand new and ready for the next work site to
push some dirt around to make a small pile.
Just to get everyone
thinking about the 2023 Spotlight Class, here are a
couple of FarmOroad pictures. The above factory
prototype still exists and is restored and lives in
California. It was brought to the Nationals a few years
ago after it was freshly restored.If you want to
know about this one check out the 2013
Nationals Photos.Hope all those FOR projects that have
been on the back burner get dusted off and started on
for 2023 Nationals.
This rig was built by the U.S.
Geological Survey department to measure river currents
on the Mississippi River. They chose the FarmOroad
because it was small enough to go on sidewalk of many
bridges. They used the rear PTO to raise and lower the
equipment and a manual hydraulic jack to adjust the boom
angle.
Hotshot at 1952 Watkins Glen, the
last year the race was run on surface roads.It
moved to a track in 1953 after 12 spectator were injured
and 1 was killed in 1952. Richard Campbell reports
number 4 was driven by Dolph Vilardi.
The car was entered by Candy
Poole, and Poole is shown kneeling next to the car in
the third
photo. Poole went on to build the
Crosley-powered PBX Special in 1953. The PBX won the
first H-Modified National Championship in 1954. 
Mike Powell posted these
pictures on the club Facebook page. Here is his
description "Crosley transmission & narrowed
axles, Wisconsin engine. My father built this for us,
still running today" - Mike 1954
Mike teaching his son how to shift.......60 years after his Father did the same for him
Dakota
Middleton (IN) is our current Youth Mechanic. Barry
Smedley is his mentor, to oversee, teach and help with
the restoration.
Dakota
was chosen by the board of directors to be the latest
Youth Mechanic and took possession of his project
at the Crosley Nationals in July 2022. Working hard on
his Hotshot.
