I just purchased a 1929 and have found many things that don't add up. This car was purchased new in 1931 at the Oakland plant by my great grandfather. He owned it until atleast 1942. I have some old 16mm. family movies that show it but are only from a distance. my questions are, the car has sidemounts but the wheels are wood spoke and not steel. It has two cowl vents on top and two behind side mounts.The movies that i talked about were from 1937-42 and clearly show the side mounts and wood wheels so I don't think they were modified. Are there any more Durants out there with this set up? Ser# C6676

Where Are You From? Madras, Oregon

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes

Take a look at the photographs section under Durant and especially the 1931 614 of Odus Raymer. How does yours compare with this one? I know you said 1929 but if it was purchased in 1931 ???

Gord

Where Are You From? Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Right you are Gord .. one can't go buy purchase date or registration date. VIN / model would pin it down better and plant. My 1st 1930 614 was thought to be a 29. My 32 wavered as 31 / 32 614 / 618 until I saw J5222 and 614 on the VIN plate which put it as a 32 614. (1st pic told me that anyway)

I assume when you say not steel wheels you are referring to wire wheels unlike the disk wheels of the Chevy. Wood spoke were used to 1933 on majoriety of 31 and prior Durants, as the 1933 633 will show you in Photographs. Odus's car is sure an off beat to the main Durant line. However, Keith Reids 1933 633 wheels resemble Odus's with chrome ring as well.

C6676 is Oakland and appears to be 1930 614. (VIN's C101 - C7783) But Oakland had similar VIN's in 29 for models. Our C for 1931 618's was much lower. C1001 - C1363. I don't believe any 30's had cowl and / or side vents. Those were 29 and prior.

Do you have the VIN plate itself to show model type ? Perhaps a pic might help us.

I'm betting its a 1929 6-66 which had dual cowl vents on top see 1929 Deluxe Model 6-66 owner Carroll Holloway Montclair, California. and I see Franks 6-66 has them both sides. VIN range for 6-66 C1001 - C5200 and then Aug up C5201 to end. Pity both our VIN list and Terry's site is missing the end numbers.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1932 614 sedan

Norm,Gord. The body plate shows both 66 and the vin. The club list should make it a 29. The only photo that I can find of the Holloway car is the before and no after but it has steel and not wood spoke wheels. Acording to the club list my car was built after 8/29. I guess Oakland didn't produce Durant's after 1930. I just want to get it right when I go to reg. it as the current pink slip shows it to be a 31 and with the engine # as the vin#. Steve

Where Are You From? Madras, Oregon

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes

I was correct then it is 6-66 1929. As I said don't go by wheels. Yours may be standard with wood spoke. The one I mentioned is deluxe. Ah 1935 US after market parts catalogue. 66 with $3.90 each welled fenders or without $3.50 each. I don't get the US / Canadian 1935 catalogue, as they don't mention other than wood spoke wheels for pre 30. Seems the 66 has its own wood front $3.40, rear $3.30. We know pre 30 had wires also. Look further on the same page at hub caps and it mentions caps for wire wheels 63, 66, 70 as being the same for the three at $1.40 each. Line below that lists all the other models M2 - 75 at $1.25 each (wires) Of course caps for 66, 75 wood spoke at 50 cents each.

You check out the 1931 619 Lance restored owned by Charlie Spitz ? That was orig wood spoke. You had a choice of wire 5 bolt or 6 bolt, or wood spoke could be 12 spoke or 10 spoke. With or without side mount fenders. There is nothing cut and dried with Durant or Dominion Motors. I just chose the 619 as an example.

Is quite normal to find registrations after year of issue. IE 1930 but registered as 1931. The late Gord Taylor from NS had an early 1930 614 sedan but registration was late 1931, the year it was sold.

I expect your 66 was producted late 29 but not sold until 1931, so registered as a 1931.

Did you check out Terry's site of info on our cars. Needs a bit of tweeking with new info that keeps coming out of the woodwork.

http://www.durantcars.com/basics/history.shtml

I copied this for you from there, Durant Motors failed early 1931

December 17 1930 - the Oakland, California plant (Durant Motors of California) stops making Durant cars.
January 3 1931 - Durant Motors of California is renamed to De Vaux - Hall Motors Corp
March 14 - Charter granted to Dominion Motors Ltd.(formerly the Leaside Toronto Plant in Canada)
May 4 - Durant Motors of Canada dissolved, replaced by Dominion Motors Ltd
May - the Durant 619 is introduced Lansing only, but also sold in Canada I discovered accidently in an Ottawa Citizen ad Aug 1931
Late summer - all production of Durant vehicles at the Lansing plant had stopped.
January 30 1932 - Durant Motors files for bankruptcy

Only we in Canada continued the Durant but Dominion Motors and all Canadian Frontenac with cars out July 1931. Our last Durant was the 633 in 1933 and its still up in the air if promo or production at 8 or 15 made and if very late 1932 or actually 1933. Very little is known about the car except two exist and after market catalogues show parts for the 633.

The 614 / 618 stopped Dec 1931. Frontenac continued to 1934 as we discovered in two ad's for the 1934 equiped with Pullman feature and radio's as standard equipment. Dominion turned in its charter 1944 which ended the only all Canadian auto co since.

My VIN plate says made for Durant Motors Ltd by Dominion Motors Ltd, Leaside Ontario.

Hope we have been able to help a bit.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1932 614 sedan

Norm, thanks for the info. I have a little history on this car but a lot of it has come from one of my relatatives that is now 95. If you do the math he was very young when this car was new. Also a lot of history turns into folklore with time. He went with my great grandfather up to Oakland from San Jose to purchase this car in either Jan, Or Feb, of 1931. Durant was having a sale of a lot of leftover cars. This one originally was shipped to a dealer who went out of business along with a lot of others. This car could have been on the assembly line when the stock market crashed. When it left our family was about 1942 and I still wasn't born yet so my info. is all here say. I do have a tatterd copy of the orign. invoice but it was a carbon copy that was again copied back in the 40's on a ditto machine so it is very hard to read. I only collect cars that have some family tie. The rest are the same year and model of cars past but this Durant is the very same car. My DMV won't accept this old invoice as proof of year so I hope the club's list will help. Thanks to all of you. Steve

Where Are You From? Madras, Oregon

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes

Steve: If you have the time I would go to Salem because I think that is the head office for your DMV. When you deal with "Agents" as we have in Washington, they are hesitant to make a dicision. Twice I have gone right to Olympia and the folks at the counter have actually turned their screen around and showed me that they have pulled up our club website for reference. Gary

Where Are You From? Washington State

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes

DOT / DMV isn't much different here. I just wanted to get ownership into my name and I had the 1961 ownership signed off by the owner before the owner I bought it from. He had the car 40 yrs and never changed it over. Also bill of sale and appraised value of car as required for taxation. Doesn't matter what you pay for a car, its the higher of the sale price or what a valuator says its worth. First office wanted lawyers letter, Notaries, etc etc etc and gave up in frustration and cursed them in my mind. Waited a few months and went to a different office, with same papers and asked if I could correct the info from an I to a J to match the VIN plate, as well. No fuss, nothing at all. Scribble what you wanted it to say on a piece of paper, sign it, and hand it to her. I did. Few seconds later she said that will be $x tax and fees and here's your new ownership. No notary / lawyer and all the other hoops the 1st one was putting me through. She was even going to correct my historic vehicle plates to my correct address. I bought the HV plate's in the 70's to put on my 1931 Chevy canopy express truck, but didn't. Still in the plastic wrapping today. I said I'll wait to see if it even gets on the road, first.

Oh yes our family history stories, passed down by mouth. Know it all to well going back to the 1600's on a few lines. I found getting same stories from different rellies, there is usually a thread of truth when you put them all together. Its to find that thread.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1932 614 sedan

Gary&Norm; Thanks for the info, but in Oregon the one good thing is we are not a taxing state. So no problem with bill of sales. Also with getting it into my name. The problem is when you give them more than one thing to do. I want to get it Reg. with the correct year,(29 instead of 31) then the body # instead of engine # and last, my vintage 1929 Plates instead of their state issued plates. Then there is the sticker,,, for the sum of one dollar they want to sell you a sticker. Any one who knows what a vintage plate looks like, there is no place to stick it. I found a place and its not on the car.They don't really have and answer except they have to sell you one. I could probably do it in baby steps and keep going back but they want to also start over each time with the fees. Remember these poor people are public employees they are not required to have a brain. Steve

Where Are You From? Madras, Oregon

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes

Have fun ... nice to see it doesn't change state to state, province to province. Going through hoops presently to just have the house in my name after Diana's death. And it is "joint tenant" so auto to surviving person or persons, bypassing any estate or fuss, except Land Registry govmt employees. sigh. Tempted to do nothing and let the bills come in both names, as they have done for 43 years.

We used to be able to carry two plate's but it confused the poor dears. Current one prominently displayed and year of issue to one side. Or Historic Plate and again year of issue to one side. Now its one only of the three. Few of us old school still show two plates. Its not like they are daily drivers and the fuss now just to drive them to meets.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1932 614 sedan

Norm; Don't mean to do a name change on a Durant blog but try to get a car into the DMV data base that they never heard of. Guess a 1925 Rollin has never been reg. in this state. It took over 6 months to get my title. They even had to build in a title name for the pink slip. The best they could come up with was ROLL.The other problem was they had a hard time with a licence plate that only had 4 numbers. As near as I can tell it is the only Rollin still reg. in the USA and they couldn't copy their program from another states data base. I will give them a little credit as there are only 22 known to be left in the world and only 4 in the USA the other 3 are locked up which makes mine the last still on the road. This car even has more history than Durant. too bad they are all but gone. If interested try google and type in 1925 Rollin and click on old cars weekly. You will find my little girl and she's still purring. Steve

Where Are You From? Madras, Oregon

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes

Don't have to My encyclopedia of all cars 1885 - 1968 has the Rollin. Cleveland Ohio 1923 - 25. Four cyl and a small 6 was introduced 1925 too late to save it.

Seven different cars starting with the letters ROLL in the book. Rolland-Pilain, Rollfix, Rollin, Rolling, Rollo, Rollsmobile, and Rolls-Royce

Never mind neighbour across the street has a 5 cyl Chevy half ton, a couple of yrs old now, but bought new. MOT / DOT has no record of any current vehicle with 5 cyl in their data banks so reg it as a 4. Refused to acknowledge GM makes 5 cyl.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1932 614 sedan