THE SAGA OF A TWICE-ABANDONED 1930 CORD L-29 BROUGHAM

The automobile is, at its core, nothing more than a tool for personal transportation convenience. Our entire existence with self-propelled vehicles can attest to that. We buy them new—full of shiny gadgets and conveniences—drive them for several years, pass them along to another driver, and then another, until one day that car is put to pasture in some way. Nearly three decades later, the old steed has become a collectible antique.

Need examples? We’re betting that 25 years ago, few would have suspected a 1998 Mazda MX-5 would be on sports car collectors’ radars today, or that 55 years ago Buick’s 1968 Riviera—which helped redefine the personal luxury car market a second time—would still be alluring. A further 10 years down the road, nobody gazed into a crystal ball seeking the future desirability of the newly minted 1958 Chevy Impala. Admit it—they were transportation tools. They were eventually cast aside by owners. Which explains, in part, how the modern “barn find” came to be. Even extravagant luxury cars such as a 1930 Cord L-29 Brougham met this fate.

Unveiled by E.L. Cord in 1929, the Cord L-29 was intended to fill a price gap between his Auburn line and upscale Duesenberg Model J. It was offered in just four body styles—Sedan, Brougham, Phaeton, and Cabriolet—with prices ranging from $3,095 to $3,295. Cord tapped into his modest luxury car empire and chose his Lycoming company to motivate the new series with a smooth and reliable 298.6-cu.in. L-head straight-eight engine rated for 125 hp As conventional as the arrangement sounded, however, the L-29 was revolutionary for its front-wheel-drive system. A novelty in both Europe and the States prior to the first World War, the unusual drive system had found new favor with several Indianapolis 500 race car designers, most notably Harry Miller. Cord secured Miller as a consultant and was the first to bring front-wheel drive to market as a commercially viable mass-produced automobile (ahead of Archie Andrews and his Ruxton).

The unconventional arrangement, strapped to a substantial X-braced frame, in turn allowed for incredibly dramatic styling. With the entire drivetrain up front, a long, elegant hood flowed into a body with a low roofline, which provided the illusion of a radically lowered profile despite then-typical ground clearance. The combined mechanical and styling effort began to amass concours d’elegance awards across Europe’s finest shows, hinting at commercial success that was sure to follow—were it not for the stock market crash two months after the L-29’s debut.

Prices were reduced to entice sales, and plans for improvements that were to be unveiled on the future L-30 were instead administered, in part, to the last of the L-29 models built in 1931. The last 157 examples were titled as ’32 models. The L-30 was, in turn, nixed. In total, 5,010 L-29s were built, interestingly just 10 more than what Cord had anticipated selling. Today, it’s estimated that 175 remain; the rarest and arguably most elegant is the Brougham, of which 10 are believed to have survived.

“This 1930 Cord L-29 Brougham is one of those 10. Honestly, it was a bit of a known car, but it was still technically a ‘barn find’ in that few people had seen it for many decades,” Shawn Coady says. Shawn is primarily a resident of Champaign, Illinois, though he winters in Florida. He has become intimately familiar with this “Full Classic” thanks to a fortunate chain of events that began when the L-29 was still in production.

“The best guess among marque experts is that the car was purchased new by a couple from an Iowa dealer in 1930. They didn’t own it very long, though. Apparently, the couple decided it would be a good idea to drive it from their home in the Midwest all the way to Florida a year later; as they approached Mayfield, Kentucky, the car broke down, at which point it was towed to J.T. Hail Cadillac in town. Cord didn’t produce a lot of extra parts, so after a day or two of looking at the L-29 the dealership mechanics told the owners they couldn’t fix it. So, the couple traded it in for a new Cadillac and went on their merry way,” Shawn says.

Unable to fix the Cord, mechanics pushed it onto the dealership’s back lot where the L-29 was soon spotted by local resident Galen Hargrove. Although his formal education concluded in fourth grade, Galen had earned a handyman reputation with a knack for fixing just about anything he crossed paths with. Galen inquired about the languishing, nearly new Brougham. The dealer staff made several attempts to dissuade him, but to no avail; they relented and sold the ailing car for a price somewhere between $25 and $60.

After securing the car, Galen returned on a bicycle with a toolbox in hand and went to work. Initially amused, the dealership staff was then dumbfounded when, 90 minutes later, Galen put his bicycle on the back seat of the Brougham, started the car, and drove off.

According to Shawn, “We know Galen drove the wheels off the car after he fixed it. The only known modification he did was swap the factory Schebler carburetor for a twin Ford Model A carburetor setup mounted to a cast-aluminum manifold that he fabricated. He would tell people the Ford system gave him about 8 more horsepower. He was also known to race the Cord between Murray and Paducah, Kentucky, on bar bets, boasting he could set all kinds of time records. Galen won all the time.”

Galen drove the L-29 until 1939, at which point he parked it in the tobacco barn on his Farmington, Kentucky, farm next to his private airstrip. It turned out Galen was also a private pilot. During World War II, Galen served the country as a military aircraft mechanics instructor, which left him stationed elsewhere. With the property unattended—and tire rations still strictly enforced— someone broke into the barn and removed the Cord’s two spares by sawing though the corresponding locking bars, which secured the spares to their fender-mounted positions.

After the war, the Cord remained stowed in Galen’s barn, untouched, until 1975. That’s when another local resident, Howard Brandon, approached with an offer to purchase the L-29, along with a few other cars and planes stowed on the property.

“Howard had a used car lot in town, but he also had a penchant for collecting low-mileage cars. It didn’t matter if it was an Oldsmobile or a Cadillac. If he came across something he liked, he would buy it and put it in his barn. When Howard saw the Cord, the odometer read 53,000 miles, but it’s likely the odometer had rolled over considering how much Galen drove it. Regardless, Howard bought it, but he did nothing with the L-29. He simply moved it from one tobacco barn to another and that was it. There may have been an intent to get it back on the road because he purchased a complete set of L-29 hubs, drums, and wheels. Instead, there it sat, with a whole bunch of other cars, until one day it occurred to him that he was getting older and none of his kids wanted the cars. So, he decided to liquidate the entire collection during a three-day sale in August 2007,” Shawn reports.

Like so many others, Shawn can attribute his appreciation for vintage vehicles to his father, Tom.

“My dad was a college kid in the Fifties living in Miami, Florida, so he was in the heart of everything European sports cars. Once the Seventies rolled around and those Fifties sports cars were approachably priced—and when he had a little bit of money—he started buying cars he liked and ended up with a significant collection. Several of his cars were displayed at concours events, including Pebble Beach.

“About 25 years ago, I attended the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance black-tie dinner with my parents and I was seated with Eric and Vivian LaVine, who founded LaVine Restorations in Nappanee, Indiana. I talked to them all evening about their business and whatnot, and left with their business card in my pocket,” Shawn recalls.

“Like my dad’s, my collection favors European cars, though it’s more eclectic than his was. I like a variety of makes and have restored several. So, when I saw the auction ad listing the L-29, it caught my attention. From an aesthetic and mechanical standpoint, I’ve always really liked them. The roofline is about eight inches lower than your standard Cadillac, because there isn’t a driveshaft or rear end hump. They turned a straight-eight backwards and stuck the transmission and rear end in front of it, so the L-29 wound up with a long, elegant hood line. I like it better than a lot of the other classic-era automobiles, so the L-29 was always one for me. I called the auctioneer, asked for more details about its condition, registered as a bidder, and bought it sight-unseen.”

Next came the task of retrieving the car, sold as it sat inside the barn.

“The auctioneer took a few creative liberties in describing the condition of the tires and wheels on the car. I sent my dad, along with a guy who works for me, to pick it up with an enclosed trailer, but when they arrived, the car was nearly buried to the axles in the dirt with tires that wouldn’t remotely consider holding air. They stood there trying to figure out how to extract it and load it up. Fortunately, Howard was there. He marched off to the other end of the farm, got his tractor, threw a chain around the Cord’s front bumper, and dragged it out of the barn. He was good with the tractor; my dad said Howard lined it up and between the tractor and the trailer winch they got the Cord inside without too many difficulties. My dad told me after, ‘I’m not going to pick up any more crap for you if you’re going to send me on missions like that,’ but I know he thoroughly enjoyed the venture,” Shawn says with a laugh.

Rather than ship the car out for an immediate restoration, Shawn embarked on a careful plan that consumed the next 10 years.

“I’ve restored enough cars to know that it’s not a good idea to hand something to somebody without all the parts, because you’ll be paying a lot of money for someone to sit online trying to find a door handle or something almost unobtainable. I knew what I was going to be getting into and fortunately the L-29 Brougham was a nearly complete, unrestored example. When my dad came back with the car, the original Schebler carburetor was in the back seat, and the spare set of wheels, hubs, and such were included. The car was still wearing the cut spare tire locking bars, too. I took my time to find correct replacement parts for anything that was broken, or for the very few that were missing. I also took the L-29 parts book and dumped it into an Excel spreadsheet that became a road map that said what every fastener and part was supposed to look like, and how it was supposed to be finished. I also took a lot of pictures of two other original unrestored cars that could be used as references. When I had everything ready in January 2016, that’s when I retrieved the LaVines’ business card. I knew exactly who I was going to call as a ‘Full Classic’ is a little out of my wheelhouse. This was a great car that needed to be saved, and done right,” Shawn says.

Join us next month as we explore the 1930 Cord L-29 Brougham’s comprehensive restoration.

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