Welcome to your November ClassicCar.com e-mail newsletter. This month’s newsletter is dedicated to Harley Earl. Who is Harley Earl you ask? Arguably the most influential person in the classic car industry! He is known as the “Da Vinci of Detroit”, was the father of the Corvette and Chief Designer for General Motors for 31 years and he’s most likely the reason why you love Classic cars so much. His fascinating story is here exclusively for you.

We also featured a book on Harley Earl’s life in our ClassicCar.com bookstore, along with two other outstanding books that would make an excellent gift this holiday for any hobbyist’s library. (Yes, Christmas is soon upon us!) Visit our bookstore at http://www.classiccar.com/book_main.shtml where you can find the best of the best classic car books and magazines all in one place. And for additional gift ideas we’ve collected some of the best posters from the Internet celebrating everything that’s great about classic vehicles and put them in one place for your viewing pleasure. Check out our new poster store at http://www.classiccar.com/posters_places.asp

We’re pleased to announce American Collectors Insurance as a new sponsor to our website. American Collectors Insurance and ClassicCar.com have had a long history together and we’re excited to have them back on our website in a bigger and better way than ever before. We’ve created an Insurance Page sponsored by American Collectors Insurance that offers you the opportunity to save money on insuring your classic vehicle. Get an instant quote and get answers to any questions you have about classic car or truck insurance. If you’re insuring your classic vehicle with someone besides American Collectors Insurance, chances are you are paying too much so be sure to check out our new Insurance Page at http://www.classiccar.com/aci_index.shtml –it’s your resource for everything you need to know about insuring your classic vehicle.

With winter fast approaching, our Tech Tip this month highlights everything you need to do to keep your cooling system properly maintained. Finally, last month $16,762,195.00 in vehicles were sold through our classified network. If you’re looking to sell or buy a classic vehicle visit the best Classic Vehicle Classifieds on the Internet at: http://classiccar.carfrenzy.com/classics/

In this issue:

1) The Harley Earl Story
2) Readers Corner: Great Classic Car gift books for the Holidays
3) Tech Tip: Cooling System Service
4) ClassicCar.com "Best Bargan" from the Classifieds

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Harley Earl - The “Da Vinci of Detroit”

Recently, General Motors resurrected an automotive icon from the past to help introduce the newly restyled Buicks for 2003. Today, Harley Earl is known only as a character in GM’s television commercials, yet his legacy as GM’s premiere design engineer is still very much alive. It is his vision that defines the lexicon of what “is” a Classic Car today.

Harley Earl was born on November 22, 1893 in Los Angles California, one of the first cities designed for the automobile. His father, J.W. Earl, was from Michigan and had worked there as a lumberjack. In 1889 the senior Earl moved his family to the west coast and became a coach maker, building carriages, wagons, and racing sulkies. With the advent of the automobile he founded Earl Automobile Works in 1908 and began making customized parts and accessories for cars.

The younger Earl attended Stanford University, but returned home before completing his engineering studies in order to focus on design and styling at his father's business. By the early 1920’s Harley Earl was designing custom auto bodies for most of Hollywood’s elite. His first notable project was a $28,000 streamlined car body for Rococo “Fatty” Arbuckle, Hollywood’s brightest star at the time. One of his more famous designs was a custom body with a saddle on the hood built for cowboy star Tom Mix.

Cecil B. De Mille, who owned several custom body automobiles, believed the success of the movies and automobiles went hand in hand. De Mille said the success of movies and automobiles reflected "the heart of motion and speed, the restless urge toward improvement, expansion, and the kinetic energy of a young, vigorous nation."

During this same period, Earl Automobile Works also provided custom bodies for the large Southern California Cadillac dealership owned by Don Lee. Impressed with the Earl’s success, Don Lee purchased the company. Becoming Don Lee Coach & Body Works, Harley remained as general manager, providing the design work and running the body plant. The business of supplying coach-built bodies for the luxury car market was lucrative and the Lee-Earl partnership prospered. By the mid 1920s they were turning out 300 bodies a year, shipping some bodies as far away as India and Europe.

In 1926 Harley’s success with the Don Lee Cadillac organization attracted the attention of Fred Fisher, patriarch of the famed Fisher Brothers. His enthusiasm for Harley’s success with luxury cars eventually prompted Larry Fisher, president of Cadillac, to phone Don Lee and request that Harley Earl be sent to Detroit for consultation regarding the LaSalle.

GM had introduced the LaSalle that year to fill the price gap between the Buick and the Cadillac, but the car was a sales disappointment. Upon Harley’s arrival, the LaSalle project was removed from the engineering department and put in the hands of the newly formed design department headed up by Harley. The newly redesigned LaSalle for 1927 caused a sensation. Nearly 50,000 LaSalle’s were sold by the end of 1929, but sales never recovered from the depression years and production was discontinued after the 1940 model year.

Eager to capitalize on their successes, Alfred Sloan was determined to establish styling and colors for mass produced cars and Harley Earl would be key to that success. Known as the Art and Color Section, the creation of a separate styling department was a first of its kind in the automotive industry. In 1937, Harley changed his Art and Color Section name to Style Section, reflecting the new general focus on design which including creating and modeling studios.

Harley was innovative in his approach to the deployment of a design by introducing two types of design methods. One was a two dimensional rough sketch which consisted of line drawings. The other was to mock-up a design in three dimensional clay models which were presented to management for selection.

During the 1930s Earl continued to refine the LaSalle and Cadillac but one of his most famous designs of the era was the Buick "Y Job," widely recognized as the first "concept" car. (Buick officials said the division called it "Y" because so many makers dubbed experimental cars "X") The Buick "Y Job" is one of Harley’s most famous designs and is widely considered to be the first "concept" car.

Styling and mechanical features of the "Y Job" showed up on GM products, particularly Buick and Cadillac, through the 1940s. Created by GM Styling and Buick Engineering, the "Y Job" was designed by Harley and built on a production Buick chassis modified by Charlie Chayne, then Buick's chief engineer. Earl drove the "Y Job" as his personal car during World War II years.

The car reflected Harley's principles of longer and lower. It featured disappearing headlamps, flush door handles, a power-operated convertible top that was concealed by a metal deck when down, electric windows and wheels with airplane-type air-cooled brake drums.

The tailfin, a brainchild of Harley's, was first introduced on the 1948 Cadillac. Another Harley Earl creation, the 1950 LeSabre, embodied many design and styling concepts which would appear on GM cars throughout the '50s including the name, which became a Buick car line name in 1959.

Buick had so many ideas it wanted to try out in 1951 that it built two dream cars, the LeSabre, the brainchild of stylist Harley Earl, and the XP-300, which reflected engineer Charlie Chayne's approach. Both cars made impressive splashes with the press, but the LeSabre, with its jet fighter-inspired styling and flashy technical innovations -- such as a rain detector which activated the convertible roof to go up; made it a hit on the auto show circuit.

GM and Earl tested new ideas on the public with a traveling Motorama that toured the U.S. from 1953 to 1961. Among the ideas displayed were the prototype Corvette, the Chevrolet Nomad, and the Eldorado Brougham.

The "fabulous fifties" saw some of the most beautiful and some of the most outlandish vehicles ever made. One observer lamented, "Styling became tyrannical" and another said, "Chrome was god, and Harley Earl was its prophet."

Oldsmobile designer Richard L. Teague once told a story of having two sets of chrome designs for Earl to choose from. By mistake both sets had been put on the same design and Earl said, "Fellas, you got it." The car was produced with both sets of chrome overlays as the stylists shrunk in horror.

Teague said employees always called the boss Mr. Earl. "He demanded respect and he got it. All of us young guys were afraid of him. He kind of scared everybody half to death but he was still a terrific guy." At six feet four, he dressed colorfully, favoring light blue suits and two tone shoes. He loved to get his long body into his low prototype cars that he designed to accommodate himself.

The long pent up demand for cars caused by the Depression and World War II burst into exuberant excess in the 1950s. New expressways were built to accommodate all the new automobiles. They led to new suburbs with drive-in theaters and drive-in restaurants that allowed patrons to remain in their comfy cars.

But the 1950s and '60s were also a shaking out period for the manufacturers. Ten car companies became four. The casualties included Studebaker, Nash, Kaiser-Frazer, Hudson, Packard, Willys and Crosley. The powerful influence of Harley Earl for "lower, longer, wider" and with flashy fins beat down those who could not compete.

He said his most famous design, the fender tail fin on the LeSabre dream car, was inspired by an army airplane he had seen at Selfridge Air Force Base in Mt. Clemens during the war; a P38 Lightning-fighter:

"When I saw those two rudders sticking up, it gave me a postwar idea. When we introduced it, we almost started a war in the corporation."

The tailfin grew until it became a futuristic parody, sparking a war with other manufactures, each trying to out-doing one another with ever-larger tailfins.

By the time of General Motors' 50th anniversary in 1956, Harley Earl had directly supervised the design of more than 35 million cars. All told he indirectly influenced the designs of more than 60 million cars.

Harley held the chief styling job for 31 years, his staff growing from 50 to 1,100 designers at the time of his retirement. At his retirement in 1957, Harley reflected on his career:

"My primary purpose has been to lengthen and lower the American automobile, at times in reality and always at least in appearance. Why? Because my sense of proportion tells me that oblongs are more attractive than squares, just as a ranch house is more attractive than a square, three-story flat-roofed house or a greyhound is more graceful than an English bulldog."

Harley Earl died April 10, 1969, at age 75 after a stroke in West Palm Beach Florida. In his passing his legacy still lives in the Classic Car we love today and now we remember the man that inspired the hobby we all love.

Want to read more articles like this?

Readers Corner

• Harley Earl

This month’s newsletter is dedicated to Harley Earl, the father of the Corvette and Chief Designer for General Motors for 31 years. While we touched on his life’s work, we didn’t even scratch the surface. In Stephen Bayley’s biography of Harley Earl, he spotlights many more interesting and notable accomplishments of one the 20th century’s greatest automotive designers, better known as the “Da vinci of Detroit”.

Hardcover Edition: $24.95 - Free Shipping this Month.

Stephen Bayley’s biography of Harley Earl

• 50 Years of the Corvette

In celebration of 50 Years of the Corvette, we offer you or that someone special on your holiday list another outstanding collector’s book. Best-selling author/photographer Randy Leffingwell delivers this colorful and nostalgic of America's most famous and successful sports car. Witness Corvette's history-making 1953 Motorama debut, flash back to the fervor generated by the Stingray, and relive the excitement surrounding the Official Indy 500 Pace Cars, the ZR-1, and others.

Filled with previously unpublished Corvette stories along with never-before seen historical photographs that complement 100s of all-new color photos. From standard production models to seldom seen prototypes to such legendary racing models as the Sebring and the Grand Sport, Leffingwell documents their histories and offers up breath-taking new photographs. A full half-century of Corvette history awaits you!

As a side note, I purchased a similar book on Packard’s in 1993. I paid $75.00 for it and now it sells for around $300.00 as it is out of print and considered a collectors item toady. CC Editor

Hardcover Edition: $35.00 – Ships with 24 hours of order.

50 Years of the Corvette

• How to Restore Your Collector Car

First published in 1984, our bestselling restoration book has gone through a multitude of reprints while proving itself a trusty standby for automotive enthusiasts the world over. This reincarnation of that tried-and-true classic retains the same helpful hands-on advice of its predecessor, but is updated to include all color photographs, classic models through the 1970s, and advances in techniques, products, and laws governing modifications.

Excellent step-by-step instructions cover all areas of restoration--mechanical, electrical, bodywork, and more. And author Tom Brownell goes to great lengths to point out the materials, tools, and parts needed to get the job done correctly and on budget. From selecting a suitable restoration candidate to applying the final coat of paint, Brownell leaves readers with a thorough understanding of the entire process.

Paperback Edition: $20.97 - Free Shipping this Month.

How to Restore Your Collector Car

Tech Tip - Cooling System Service

Since the colder months will soon be upon us, there are several things that are critical in your vehicle's maintenance. And since the engine is the heart of your vehicle and directly affects its operation, here is what you can do to ensure proper engine life and performance. A vehicle's cooling system should be serviced seasonally to prevent premature engine wear due to extreme climate or engine temperature.

According to Everco Industries, a leading manufacturer of automotive cooling system parts, one sure way to prepare the engine's cooling system for these extreme climate conditions is to have your local service dealer perform a few basic preventive maintenance checks during your next routine servicing:

1. Check for external leaks. Usual areas of leakage are water manifolds, radiator seams, water pumps, freeze plugs and all hose connections. The condition of radiator hoses should be carefully scrutinized for possible deterioration from age and/or wear from rubbing against accessory brackets, etc. Be aware that in many cases radiator hoses wear from the inside out, so outside appearance can be deceiving.

2. Check for internal leaks. Pull the oil dipstick and check for evidence of coolant. It will show up as minute droplets or sludge and should be easy to spot. This could indicate a cracked head, block or blown head gasket.

3. Check the radiator. This is the one component in your vehicle's cooling system which can quickly diminish the efficiency and durability of the engine. Check for obstructed air flow and clean any debris from the fins. Also check the radiator mounting for loose bolts or cracked brackets from vibration and stress.

4. Check the cooling fan. If the vehicle is equipped with a centrifugal thermo-static type fan clutch, it is important to spot problems before they occur. Check for wear by moving the fan blade back and forth. Over 1/4" of play in either direction could point towards excessive bearing wear. You should also turn the fan by hand. If it free-wheels or there is a rough grating feel as the fan turns, this could mean excessive fluid loss or bearing wear respectively. If any of these conditions exist or there is evidence of fluid leakage, the fan clutch should be replaced. If the vehicle is equipped with an electric cooling fan, a quick performance check can be made by turning on the A/C and checking to make sure it operates without excess vibration or noise. Also check all electrical connections for signs of corrosion, or physical damage. With the engine hot, check to see if the fan is coming on at the correct temperature and operating properly.

5. Check the coolant level and conditions. As a general rule the coolant level should be 1" to 2" below the radiator filler neck when cool. Use an antifreeze tester to determine the protection range of the coolant. It should be at least adequate for the geographic area where you live. If the coolant is over two years old or has rust in it, system flushing and refilling with new antifreeze solution is recommended and will be sufficient for most climates. The two year replacement interval is necessary to maintain proper rust inhibitor and other additive protection in the cooling system.

6. Check the radiator cap. If your cap is rusted or the rubber seal is dried out, it should be replaced. A pressure tester should be used to be sure the cap is operating at the recommended pressure level.

7. Check the thermostat. Remove the radiator cap and start the engine. Insert a suitable thermometer into the radiator neck. When the coolant level drops in the radiator, the thermostat has opened and is allowing circulation. Record the temperature on the thermometer and compare to the thermostat specifications. It should be no more than a few degrees either way of the actual thermostat setting. If you are not in the correct range, the thermostat will have to be replaced. Be sure to install a new gasket and inspect the thermostat seating area for corrosion and pitting.

8. Check drive belts. Visually inspect all belts for glazing or deterioration. These conditions usually are caused by wear but can be accelerated by improper adjustment, engine fluid spillage, lubricant leakage or improper belt sizing. Check the vehicle manufacturer's specification listing for proper belt size, tension and/or deflection specifications.

9. Check heater operation. A quick functional testing of the heater unit can save a lot of mid-season grief. Visually inspect all hoses for deterioration from age and wear. Also make sure hoses are not taut. This situation can cause leaks at the heater core. Check the floor under the heater assembly for signs of coolant loss. This could point towards a leaking heater core. Also make sure to check the heater valve. Check vacuum lines for leakage or deterioration. Lubricate all control cables, such as the heater valve control cable, etc. Last but not least, check all function switches and blower motor switches for proper operation. Having basic cooling system checks made during routine servicing can prevent costly breakdowns and inefficient operation of equipment during extreme climate conditions. Preventive maintenance is the key to being able to drive your car longer while reducing long term expenses.

How-To Manuals That Really HELP!

ClassicCar.com "Best Bargain"

Each month ClassicCar.com selects a unique car or truck from the Classifieds. This month we focused on “Bargains”. While there were many to choose from, we ran across Jerry Dunn’s 1950 Pontiac Streamliner Deluxe, Straight-8. It’s a beautiful car and fairly priced in “Good Condition”. You can view this Classic online by following the link bellow. Check it out!

ClassicCar.com Best Bargain