Featured The Vintage Pedal Car Thread

From 1910 through 1970 young boys and girls took the sidewalks and streets in their own little juvenile vehicles that we today refer to as pedal cars. The level of design and detail of these cars might shock many people unfamiliar with this corner of the antique world. The cars featured in my first post are all from Murray Ohio Mfg in Cleveland OH. These cars were sold under the name of Steelcraft which was the consumer facing brand for Murray prior to WWII. These cars are each in original condition and are each 80+ years old.

 

"Antique Pickers" from the TV show, go NUTS when they find these in halfway decent condition!!!! How'd you ever find them so MINT!!!!?

 

Attached is a page from the 1937 Sears Christmas Catalog featuring two of the cars shown above. The maroon car in my original post was actually manufactured a year or two later when more chrome was included on the car.

 

Pedal cars have faced more obstacles than most antiques when it comes to maintaining condition. First, many of these cars were left outdoors and faced the elements. They were ridden by kids and usually handed down to for multiple generations to play with. They were often repainted or "customized" by kids. Then you have the scrap metal drives during the war years when many were scrapped. Then once it became a "hobby" to collect them, many ended up being restored. Mike and Frank go NUTS because they know the hidden value in their rarity, desirablity, and aesthetics.

 

To answer your second question: 22 years of searching, waiting, turning over every rock and never caring what someone else thinks they might be worth.

The car below was listed on Ebay. A heating contractor had to move his equipment into a client's garage because it began raining. During that process he found this 1936 Ford pedal car with working headlights. He bought it listed it as you see in the first photo. A good cleaning revealed that the dirt and grime had protected the paint for 85 years. He "picked it" for $300.00 and sold it for $3600.00

 

SO COOL!!!! And GOOD Question, Book!!

 

First let me say, that the picker that listed it on Ebay and sold it to me, was wise not to be the one to wash it. I was buying a lottery ticket in a way. I was HOPING and betting that it would clean up. First you begin gently with soap and water. You want any abrasive dirt removed first literally with a hose. I then sent this car to a restoration guy and had him completely disassemble the car. He used an automotive cleaning compound to really break through the grime. Even very fine steel wool is used. Then alot of buffing. Pedal car cars initially used lacquer paint on a thin gauge metal but by the early thirties the switch to enamel paints were made.

 

I think that's the rule for most antiques and both historical and cultural artifacts. Try not to wreck your own stuff. There are people that know how to handle all sorts of wood, metal, fabric, paper, glass, paint, etc. To me they are every bit as important to the collecting game. They are not simply restorers, cleaners, repairers, they are the preservationists. Just one guy's point of view.

 

I love the cars, and the background stories. And I also love the love you clearly have for them and the research you do.
This is what a collector does, love his/her field of interest and find out more about it. It is great that so many of us have found each other here, become acquainted with new interests, and recognize that appreciation in each other.
It is also such a relief to see your passion after so many people have asked us 'how much is it worth', rather than where and why was it made, the designs or skills involved, who made it and who for, etc.

 

Designers, unsung heroes whose names are often obscured by the brand or maker. Even more true in the world of industrial design. The iphones we hold in our hands represent the pinnacle in industrial design. Among all the things we collect whether decades, centuries or millennia old, design is what resonates with us. Design is what makes so many of us collect things that were never meant to be saved or collected. We see the ART, and we also see that this unique art can appeal to a larger audience if properly curated.

 

Thanks for sharing. Those are certainly neat.

 

I'll take the one for $9.69 with the free helmet and goggles - where can I pick that up at? LOL! But really, those are amazing -

 

These are beautiful but seriously, have you ever tried to ride them? How could you resist?

 

They are beautiful. Such craftsmanship on items that were originally intended for children. It's amazing.

 

The cars in my first post, were designed by Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky. A man who fled Russia after the revolution. He became an automotive designer and on multiple occasions won international acclaim for his designs for Cord, Auburn and Packard. In 1937 he was retained by Murray Ohio to create a new Streamlined Moderne line of juvenile vehicles. Sakhnoffsky also was the designer behind the Streamlined Moderne Heywood Wakefield furniture on display in the "home of tomorrow" at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. He designed much of the interior of the famed Earl Carroll Theatre in Hollywood and was a contributor to Esquire magazine for years on design and modernism. Attached: catalog page from the 1937 Steelcraft product catalog, also the cover of the 1939 Steelcraft catalog featuring Sakhnoffsky's Supercharger.