I had a nice conversation earlier today with the man that bought the DeVaux from San Diego some years back. A few years ago he sold it to thin out his collection. A man in another state is now selling some of his cars.

Going back on the history of the car it all started in Oregon. (Ross, take note of that). The man in Oregon (early 50's) was writing articles in "Popular Mechanics" in 1951 and/or 1952 on his conversion of a sedan to a boattail. He died and his projects went to a relative in San Diego. We know the story from there. Can these articles be found? I need help on finding Popular Mechanics of the early 50's.

That was all a "sales pitch" on a "salt flat racer". Just a DeVaux cut down to be a boattail. Maybe only the Hayes body tag and the grill shell were all that was left of the original car. He fabricated a new grill insert from pictures I sent him. (See how a old man forgets these things after only 6 years!)

The car is/was a good value at $10K. The Woodlites alone are worth about 5K. (He regrets letting the Woodlites go with the car. He uses them for many of his cars.

Can anyone help find Popular Mechanics from the early 50's?

Thanks, Gary

Where Are You From? Washington State

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes

Hi Gary .. while Forum was down I did a bit of snooping. Couldn't recall which mag you wanted and discovered both Popular Mechanics and Popular Science are online back to the 1800's on Popular Science and 1902 for Popular Mechanic's. Anyone can view the mags page by page online for free or download. Looked at a few of both for 1950 and 51 but didn't see the De Vaux. Don't know if there is a way to pinpoint the item.

At least there are only 4 PM a year and 300 odd pages per mag. All you do is click on the cover of year and it will give you the 4 mags that year.

Just hit me, another senior moment of many, wonder if either mag carried ads / info for our cars 1921 to 1934. Not sure Durant Motors put ads in mags as I didn't see any in the few Sat Evening Posts I have from 1900 to 30's or the odd PM I have late 20's. Dandy full page ads in colour on other vehicles in SEP and smaller black / white ones. Got a kick of black / white on cars 1900 to 1904 in SEP.

Anyway here are the two sites.

https://archive.org/details/popularmechanics

https://books.google.ca/books/about/Popular_Science.html?id=9SwDAAAAMBAJ&redir_esc=y

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? Dominion built 1932 614 Sedan