1926 REO. Or my automotive ADHD is kicking in again.

It's story time, sort of. 

Chapter one: I have a 1991 Bentley Turbo R. I have wanted one since I was a teenager. It's a super fun car to drive. It's a neat car that turns heads. What I have found is, it's not a fun car to own. At least not for me. I don't particularly like complicated things. Particularly when the complication adds nothing to the experience. The Bentley is insanely complicated for no reason. While I enjoy driving it, I like cars I can either ignore completely because they just work, or tinker with endlessly because they are fun to work on. Unfortunately, the Bentley doesn't fit either of those. I also hate constantly worrying about scratching the finish. So I end up not working on it and not driving it. It's been sitting with a dead battery for 4 months now. With that in mind, I've been considering getting rid of it. 

Chapter 2: Some of you remember SanFord. I enjoyed working on it. It was simple and pretty easy to work on. I could tinker with it endlessly and I did. So my kids bought me a 1963 Falcon. It's the next project since the Mule engine swap is complete. The Falcon should be a hoot to work on much like SanFord. But, my eyes keep straying back to pre WW2 cars. The putt putt of the engines. The simplicity of the designs. I have been keeping my eye out for a while now and then this popped up on Marketplace.

Chapter 3: This is a 1926 REO. Recent engine rebuild. Runs, drives, everything works, everything is original, and as far as I can tell, everything is there. So a trade is in the works. One 33-year-old Bentley for one 98-year-old REO. The meeting is tomorrow. I'll let you know how chapter 3 ends then...

In reply to Toyman! :

But will it keep on lovin' you?

(Sorry, someone had to go there...)

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

I think we all went there.

Neat! I've had similar thoughts and look forward to how this works out.

In reply to Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) :

You know, I just realized yesterday that the band was named after the car. 

In reply to Toyman! :

Nothing gets past you! 

I like it, my Grandpa had a Diamond T Reo tow truck on the farm when I was a kid.  

It may have looked like this with a boom in the bed.

Neat car, but unless you have an old Ford it can be pretty tough to get parts for pre-WWII cars.

Do not do this. Seriously at least the Bentley is usable and mostly finished. It is a fantastic car and has a defined value, the REO has value ot you but not much on the market. 

At worst send me the price for the Bentley if you decide to skip on the REO. 

If all you have is a DD and a project, I can see a hesitation in buying the Reo.  But Toyman's got about all the bases covered so I say go for it!  Looks like a nice "Lets go out to breakfast" car.

Have fun and let me know the learning curve on the spark advance on the wheel.

Wait until you do work on the REO. It is like a different planet, everything is easy to remove and replace, no parts are available, and info on how to work on it is hard (impossible) to find. That being said it is fun, amazing that 100 years ago people were making these things and they are still working!

DO IT!!

Be aware that many things will have to be made for that car and the parts prices will reflect that.

That's probably a Continental 6 in there, I don't think REO was building their own engines. 

If you have any issues, feel free to reach out, I'm pretty familiar with those old things.

Don't get rid of the vacuum tank fuel system, they work great when they're working properly and those carburetors aren't made to handle the pressure from an electric pump.

I am so on board with this.

The Bentley was fun and cool but a pre war car is a whole new experience.......you have to do it.

A sorted, green, good condition Turbo R seems like it would be worth more than the REO.  Market for pre war is getting softer by the day.  It's cool and I get the interest though, if you have enough smaller roads around you to use it at appropriate speeds.  Any drive becomes an adventure and occasion.  

In reply to ShawnG :

That does look like a continental, same as the fire truck. I agree on the carb. It works silky smooth, it's funny though if you try to start it and it doesn't catch fuel will pour out of it. There is something magical about these things in their original state. 

In reply to NY Nick :

Updraft carb.

The fuel drains back out instead of puddling in the manifold.

Sonic said:

A sorted, green, good condition Turbo R seems like it would be worth more than the REO.  Market for pre war is getting softer by the day.  It's cool and I get the interest though, if you have enough smaller roads around you to use it at appropriate speeds.  Any drive becomes an adventure and occasion.  

Values on both are fairly soft. The Bentley is probably worth $15k or so. I see them as low as $8k and as high as $29k. The REO is very close to the same.

I think I'll have more fun figuring out how to fix and improve the REO with limited parts availability than I will throwing big money parts at the Bentley. 

We will see what tomorrow brings. 

I don't dislike the REO (I know zero about them, but have always dug the Diamond T trucks), but I do LOVE that Turbo R, particularly in that color.

Carry on.

FYI Diamond T and REO were separate brands.

They became Diamond REO when they were bought and became part of White in the 60s.

The auto manufacturer is named after the founder Ransom E Olds, as in Oldsmobile. 

The auto makers name is pronounced as one word "rio".

The band "REO Speedwagon" is named after a truck from REO. 

For whatever drug addled reason, the band name is pronounced "R.E.O.".

A Turbo R is on my list of cars I've always wanted. What makes it such a pain to own?

In reply to Toyman! :

One question:   WHEN THE HELL DO YOU SLEEP?

In reply to 914Driver :

I'll sleep when I'm dead. 

And so it begins...

I have deleted a few different attempts at saying something because I don't want it to come off sounding too negative, so I will just say.

I hope the Pre-war car experience is something you enjoy. I was astonished to learn how much I do not enjoy them. 

We work on a lot of them and I am the final QC when they leave, so I drive all of them. I have yet to think "That was something I like" It is always "How and why do people put up with that?"

In reply to Trent :

I was thinking the same. I love to look at them, and that's about it. I'm definitely not in the camp of wanting to drive one again.