Hi all: I wrote a article in the Durant Partner some time back on Higby (cannot remember when). Now I can tell new club members about the adventure.

In March of 2006 Michelle M. made a post on the forum about her dad wanting to sell this "old car" he had. He had bought it from a friend that bought it at an Estate auction in Spokane. We had pictures that came with the car showing it as a "mascot" at the University of Portland in 1957. I called him and I said I wanted to come over to see it. At the same Mike Linthicum called Joe. (Sorry Mike, I was only 300 miles away from Northern Idaho and you were way down in Florida)

There was 3 feet of snow at Spirit Lake and I would have to go over the Cascades to get there. I do not do good in Snow so we put it off till I was going to the Spokane swap meet in July. We met at the meet and I followed him to his house. That night I stayed in a motel in Spokane and decided to call Lance to give me advise. We decided to go together to buy it. I stopped at Bill Hoaglan's house the next weekend and he came to our rescue by going to Spirit Lake to get it. A few weeks later he brought it over to Monroe, WA so I could then bring it to Orting, WA.

A year or so later, Bob Krause in Long Beach bought Lance and I out. Mike Larsen of Vancouver said he would take it down to Bob. When Bob died, Bill came to the rescue to bring it back to Eastern Washington.

I like to think that Higby has the good life. Spending the Summers in Eastern Washington and the Winters in Yuma. ( should be so lucky) Now Higby has even been to Pebble Beach.

Bill did take Higby to San Diego for a club meet a few years back but he will have to tell all about Higby and the I-5 Freeway.

Gary

Where Are You From? Washington State

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes

Hey Gary, I'm over the fact that you guys skunked me. I told Joe I was very interested and wanted first right of refusal. Next thing I know you guys had it. It just wasn't meant to be at that time. At least it's still in the club.

Where Are You From? Oviedo, Florida

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1928 Durant Model 65 4 door sedan from Elizabeth, NJ Plant

I'm very glad that both flint's that Bob Krause's owned are still in the club. Also, both cars finished the west coast spring fling. Nice to see the car again bill.

Where Are You From? calif

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1924 flint/1927 locomobile 8-80

I was happy the "Higby" Flint ran well at the Spring Fling with it's retrofitted 14-L engine, I didn't have much of a shakedown run before the meet. I believe that James Star had the only problem on the tour, once we figured out that his Stewart Vacuum can wasn't cycling we were able to get him up and running by swapping parts from Higby's vacuum can as I was running with an electric fuel pump.

A brief History after I bought the H-40 Flint from Bob's son Dick Krause...At first I was going to give the Flint a full restoration then decided to just restore the '25 Flint back to 1957 when the students at the University of Portland (Iota Kappa Pi ) cleverly fixed the flint up for a Mascot Car and I would just have fun with the Flint for a few years...The Flint was pretty ragged around the edges, It needed a new top as well as the replacement of wood that was rotted from the top leaking, mostly around the rear window and back corners at the belt...The interior was original although the seats were covered with a blue plastic/vinyl, I made seat covers to somewhat match the old original door panels...The interior wood trim around the windows had been painted white and a couple pieces were missing....Although the original lettering on the splash aprons and the paternity crests on the doors had been painted over with black spray paint, I found that I could buff the black spray paint off and the detail came back nearly as good as new and required only some minor touch-up....When I picked the car up in Spirit lake for Lance and Gary the engine was running but seamed to have a vibration, and the clutch was slipping badly as I could hardly get the car up the ramp into the car hauler, I later found the springs in the pressure plate were collapsed was why the clutch was slipping and the vibration in the engine was from a slightly bent crankshaft near the rear main, also number 6 rod bearing wasn't the best...So with no parts available for the 6-W continental I decided to put the engine back together and drive the car easy and hope for the best....Well I found that the National meet in San Diego with freeways everywhere wasn't the place that you could drive easy, and then came that awful sound...Anyway, with the help of Phil, Bruce, and a couple of big marines that stopped by we loaded Higby up in the car hauler and headed for Yuma....What to do? After giving some thought I decided to upgrade the continental 6-W engine, the replacement engine would need to have an open bell housing, that pretty much would make it a 14-L (or 15-L) l knew Lance was about to modernizing his latest model 60 for freeway driving that they purchased from Gary K and was a very good running 14-L engine, I bought and installed that engine, I installed the engine without any modification to frame or cross member so that either a 6-W or a 14-L engine (with front adapter brackets) can be used...Oh, I also needed to install a rear dump manifold on the 14-L which Don sent up from Texarcana.

On an interesting note, a couple of weeks before the Spring Fling I took old Higby to the "Midnight at The Oasis" car show in Yuma, AZ, It is about a 1000 car show, one of the largest in the Southwest...I placed a couple different newspaper articles that Gary got from the archivist at the University of Portland newspaper from 1957 showing the flint after the students two month renovation, I was surprised to see people were elbow to elbow around the Flint all weekend, and were very much interested in the history of "Higby the University of Portland mascot car" as they were of the history of the Flint car itself... Bill

Midnight At The Oasis Car Show


Spring Fling


14-L conversion

Where Are You From? Leavenworth, WA / Yuma, AZ

Do You own a car built by Durant? '25 Flint H-40 2door / '25 B-40 Touring / '29 D-40 Coupe / '23 A-22 Touring