My ‘34 REO Flying Cloud Deluxe Coupe
Discussion
The REO joins the family. Picture is of my older sister, grandfather, uncle, and father who can’t be seen in this picture under the hood. I was still just a twinkle in my father’s eye.
There was never a time in my life that this vehicle was not connected to me in some way. The REO was originally purchased by my Dad in 1948 after he returned from the war. At that time the car was 14 yrs old and cheap. The REO Motor Car Company was devastated by the Depression and concluded producing passenger cars with the 1936 model. They continued building and selling trucks till after the war when they were merged with Diamond Manufacturing and trucks were made under the Diamond Reo moniker. Perhaps the most well known REO is their pick-up truck due to the rock band R E O Speedwagon adopting their band name from said vehicle.
Our REO came closest to the ever beckoning scrap yard when my dad slipped off an icy winter road in Michigan in 1953 into a ditch which crumpled up the front wings and bumpers to the extent that it was’t drivable and was too uneconomical to repair. Fortunately my dad didn’t junk it, he just had it towed home and went out and bought a replacement- a bigger one to boot as with now 3 young children in the family (myself being the youngest, born in Dec., 1951) as well as a yet again pregnant wife, the single seat REO was getting a bit tight. It did feature a rumble seat in the trunk/boot (the “deluxe” model upgrade) but in Michigan the weather did not encourage its use for a good 8 months out of the year.
As the family moved from town to farm to town the REO was towed along from garage to barn to garage like a stray dog that won’t leave you but you just can’t think of what to do with. My earliest memories of the car was when we lived at the farm located just outside of Ann Arbor, Michigan. It just sat like a forgotten statue in the middle of our hay barn which my dad, who worked in the city let a local farmer store some of his hay in. Us kids, now six in number would run up the running boards and front fenders, grab a rope that was tied to the rafters and, while avoiding the bruise inducing headlamps swing ourselves into the haystack. Meanwhile all the pidgeons were using it for target practice.
Fast forward to 1968, I’m a teenager at a time in the States when the muscle car era was reaching its zenith. I was working after school at the local McDonalds which became the rendezvous spot for all the locals to cruise in and display their fastest, newest, most powerful, most customized rides and I absorbed the atmosphere of it all in as hungrily and completely as I would ingest the double cheeseburgers and milkshakes when on my meal break. The REO at this time was exposed to the elements sitting beside our garage in the back yard facing the alleyway that ran down the rear of all the houses on the street.
I took an interest in the old girl, pushed it up into the yard, purchased a new 6 volt battery, 6 new spark plugs, poured some fresh petrol in the tank and pushed the starter button. Low and behold the 268 cubic inch flathead straight six fired up with a wonderful roar and engulfed the whole yard as well as the adjoining neighbour’s yards in a massive cloud of white smoke. The residual petrol in the tank had basically turned to kerosene. To this day, 50 years later I still remember the exhilaration I felt at that time. I had brought back from the dead a sleeping giant that I’d never seen alive before in all of my 17 year existence. At least I couldn’t remember it, being just two when it was retired.
The next step was to see about repairing the front end and getting the REO properly restored. There was an auto restoration firm in the town and they came by, looked over the car and gave me an estimate of, if I remember correctly around $1,700 to fix it up. I had a short conversation with my dad and he proposed to sign over the title to me if I wanted to pay for the restoration. Someone had previously seen the car sitting in the back alley and had offered him $1,000 for it. With my job at McDonald’s I had started to build up a nice sized savings account balance and had no plans for spending it, so it was agreed.
Long story short, all you readers will know what transpired next, right? The restoration took over three years, the bill shot up to $8,500 and I got so frustrated with the delays and charges that I stopped the work before it was complete and brought the car home. Two weeks later, the shop mysteriously burned down to the ground. In retrospect I wonder if it were my never ending payments that kept the firm afloat all that time.
I eventually got the final restoration bits sorted out and the REO looked pretty good. The color was not original, but then I found out all the time my dad owned it, it was sporting a different color than the original. I wrote to a marque expert to try to find out about the car and I received back some good information. The car’s original paint color was “Jade Green”. All the time my dad owned it it was a chocolate brown. She was always called “The Old Brown REO” by us kids. Now it was two-toned. Main body was a sort of peanut butter yellow and the fenders were dark brown. I know what you’re thinking, but you must remember this was the 1970s now, did anyone have good color sense in that decade. Must I refer y’all to some of the British car colors of that era?
This REO came equipped with optional shatterproof glass, a tool kit, and of course the rumble seat which elevated it above the more common Business Coupe with just an empty boot. The car also sported as an $85 option the semi-famous “Self Shifter” which was introduced in 1933. This was REO’s earliest attempt at an automatic transmission. The Self Shifter was designed to attract the female customers (“Thirty-three and a third easier to drive”) because it involved less shifting and use of the clutch. The gearshift was a T-shaped handle mounted just under the dashboard. Pushing the handle forward engaged a pair of gears which changed up automatically at around 12mph. Pull the handle halfway back for “Neutral” then rotate the handle right and pull all the way back for “Reverse”. The clutch pedal was used purely to pull away and for stopping so as not to stall the car. The Self Shifter, although highly innovative for its time may have actually scared off buyers and the option was seldom purchased. The $2 million development cost was never fully recovered and it pushed the company closer to bankruptcy.
Right. Car’s looking good, time to get out and show it off. Unfortunately by that time I was immersed in the working world, living on my own, paying the bills and working massive hours. I did enter it in a couple local shows and took it to a couple national REO meets. Still working for McDonald’s, now out of the store and in middle management territory, I was asked by the company to put the car in some parades and have Ronald McDonald wave to the crowd from the rumble seat. Boy was I surprised when at the conclusion of one parade and away from the crowd Ronald pulled out a cigarette and started puffing away. Al, welcome to the real world. For the next 40 years the REO spent most of its time catching some shuteye in a rented storage lockup and collecting dust. I was just too busy and away too much (including a stint overseas with a different company opening restaurants from England, to Kuwait, to Indonesia) to do anything with it.
Fast forward again - you could probably fast forward my whole life and not miss much! - I’m back in the States with a British wife with my very own home instead of apartment and the REO is in the garage. We are now in the 21st century.
Another dilemma. The REO’s restoration is some 30 years old and showing wear. I want to use the car more than just going to local shows. I had purchased a trailer for whenever I went more than 20 miles with the car like to the national club meets because the REO is slow- maximum speed with just the two gears was about 40mph. But it was a pain to connect the trailer, load and balance the REO on it and find a place to keep the trailer whenever I moved. Besides being underpowered, the REO braked badly and was sluggish to handle. The 6cyl 268cu in motor just put out a measly 85 horses, the brakes constantly squeal (a problem with all REOs of that era, and the steering is best described as “agricultural”; you could turn it 180 degrees with out turning the front wheels an inch.
Six cylinder, 268 cu in flathead, chrome/nickel block. 85hp
Do I keep the car as original and use it rarely, or do I upgrade it, destroying its originality but have the fun of driving it when and where I please?
....to be continued.
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Correct. As president/chairman of Olds he got in a dispute with the board over a design change and there was a parting of the ways. As part of the separation agreement Ransom agreed not to use his last name in any other venture that he started up. So he used his initials. The factory was located in Lansing, Michigan which is about 150 miles northwest of Detroit. Most of the car sales were in the northeast part of the country. The car was larger and more expensive than the Fords and Chevys so very few dealerships were opened in the poorer South. Some Did find their way over to Australia and Europe. At one time sales rivaled those of Ford’s.
Wow, I'd never heard of REO, very interesting background.
I found this brochure illustration online, possibly the same model you have?
(pic from motorcities.org - https://www.motorcities.org/story-of-the-week/2018... )
I found this brochure illustration online, possibly the same model you have?
(pic from motorcities.org - https://www.motorcities.org/story-of-the-week/2018... )
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