Buick Runabout still going 107 years later (+video)

“I grew up in a salvage yard,” Tracy Patton says proudly.

Her family was close friends with the Maupin family, which ran Maupin’s Auto Salvage with locations in Hutchinson and several other Kansas towns.

She loved to follow Henry Maupin around the scrap yard and especially liked to go on classic car outings with him.

“I just went everywhere with him,” she said. “He treated me like he was my dad. We went on Horseless Carriage Club tours around the Midwest. He would pull his old Buick with his 1948 Jeepster and when we got there, he would unload it and we would drive the 1908 Buick on the tour.

“He put the cars in my name when I turned 18,” she said.

After Henry Maupin passed away, both cars were stored at a friend’s place. The friend wanted to buy the antique cars, but Patton held onto them.

“I bought a house specifically with a three-car garage so I could keep them,” she said. She jokes that her husband, Scott Patton, a longtime vintage car buff himself, married her for her cars.

The Jeepster is gone, but the beautiful white 1908 Buick Model 10 Runabout is still part of their collection of automobiles. Amazingly, aside from a paint job and fresh pinstriping sometime in the 1940s, the 107-year-old car, bearing production number 494, remains in pretty much original, running condition.

“We’ve got two Model T’s. It’s sort of like a Model T, except this is a little older and actually a little more advanced,” Scott said. “It’s a lot faster than the Model T’s.”

Back in 1908, Ford was the only auto manufacturer that sold more cars than Buick, he explained: a total of 8,820 Buicks, half of them the Model 10, compared to a total of 10,202 Ford cars and trucks.

The Buick uses a similar 2-speed planetary transmission operated by means of three foot pedals, which can be a bit confusing because the pedals aren’t arranged in the same order as the Model T’s, Scott said.

What really sets the Buick apart, though, is its 4-cylinder overhead valve engine. The pushrods are externally mounted outside the block, and the rocker arms are likewise exposed above the twin heads of the engine.

Although the engine bearings are oiled by means of a pump mechanism, the valve train must be hand-oiled before each road trip with a squirt can, with all the oil eventually being slung off.

“It’s kind of like oiling the Tin Man,” Tracy said.

The engine displaces 165 cubic inches and produces 22.5 horsepower. It is mounted in a c-channel metal frame that carries the front and rear suspension on buggy-type springs. Most chassis parts are riveted together.

“They didn’t weld much back then,” Scott pointed out.

The Buick’s chassis spans 90 inches between the front and rear axles and rides on what are believed to be the original 30-inch by 3-inch wood-spoked wheels. A handcrafted hardwood steering wheel continues that theme.

The tires are classic “NonSkid” tread items. Drum brakes are mounted only at the rear of the Runabout.

A pair of beautifully contoured, diamond-tufted bucket seats are original equipment and there’s a small platform with a brass rail around it just behind the seats, sort of a pickup bed.

“There’s supposed to be a ‘mother-in-law’s seat’ back there,” said Scott, who has located a correct seat, but hasn’t installed it yet.

Being a “Brass Era” automobile, the 1908 Buick has plenty of shiny trim, from the Buick script and the radiator shell to the big carbide headlights, kerosene-fired cowl lights and the single red tail light. The carbide gas generator mounted to the driver’s side running board is also brass-plated.

“It takes a week to shine all the brass,” Scott said. “Tracy built covers to put over the brass to keep the tarnish down.”

The only major modification to the Runabout is the addition of a modern Volkswagen distributor and a 12-volt battery, for reliability. The Buick is still crank-started, though, and fires right up, producing a wonderful, rhythmic mechanical symphony as it eases down a gravel lane.

“We don’t get it out all that often, it’s pretty fragile. We fix and fix and repair and keep things going,” Scott said. “We take it to the bigger car shows around here, McPherson and Newton.”

When you consider that Theodore Roosevelt was president when their Buick Runabout rolled out of the assembly plant, at a hefty cost of $900, it is remarkable that it not only still exists, but that it actually still functions as a real road-going car.

This story was originally published July 24, 2015 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Buick Runabout still going 107 years later (+video)."