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A few years ago, Barney and Barbara Mendez went searching for his dream car, something muscular, flashy and powerful. At least that was the plan.
None of the cars they looked at passed muster. That is when Barbara Mendez saw an ad offering for sale a 1927 Dodge Brothers. Such a car wasn’t anywhere close to what they were seeking, but they decided to look at it anyway since it was near their Fresno, Calif., home.
What they found was a completely disassembled 1927 Dodge Brothers sedan. The seller was the son of the original owner who had taken the car apart with the idea of restoring his late father’s car.
As soon as Barbara Mendez saw the disassembled car she was sold. It took her husband a little longer to appreciate what the old car could eventually become.
So on October 2, 2007 the Mendez couple became the third owners of a car that was mostly in boxes and they had it hauled to a restoration shop in Fresno.
Beginning in 1928 the Dodge Brothers cars would be powered by six-cylinder engines. However, this 2,920-pound 1927 sedan is powered by a “Fast Four” engine. It rides on 21-inch wheels supporting a 116-inch wheelbase.
The spring steel bumpers are separated by 14 feet, 8 inches. The vinyl roof line extends past the windshield in order to provide a sunvisor for the front seat occupants.
Standard equipment on the 1927 sedan includes a jack, tool kit, two bumpers, an ammeter, an electric horn, a speedometer, a theft-proof transmission lock, a rear view mirror, a headlight dimmer and a rear spare tire carrier.
Both of the Dodge Brothers, John and Horace, died in 1920. Their well-known reputation for producing quality automobiles continued for several years, even after the acquisition by the Chrysler Corporation in 1928.
When virtually all of the parts and pieces of this particular Dodge Brothers vehicle were at the restoration shop a stroke of good fortune occurred when a 1927 shop manual for the car was discovered and purchased, which eased the reconstruction effort.
For three years the restoration slowly progressed. Both Mendez and his wife observed the assembly of the Dodge Brothers from the ornamental glass radiator cap to the spare tire at the rear of the car. A single combination tail/stop light is on the left rear fender.
All of the wheels are of the all-steel artillery model instead of spokes. All of the flat glass in the eight windows is plate glass.
The Dodge Brothers “DB” emblem is in both headlight lenses. Both running boards are protected by metal step plates where passengers would naturally step.
Beneath the engine hood is the “Fast Four” engine. A 6-volt electrical system powers such equipment as the ceiling dome light inside the car and the starter on the outside. If the starter fails, then the original hand crank provides a backup system.
The one wiper is vacuum-operated and is suspended from above the windshield in order for the windshield to be pushed open at the bottom for fresh air.
Only the two rear wheels are equipped with brakes and those are operated hydraulically. An ornate metal grate is in the rear floor to admit heat from the engine.
The engine happily functions when lubricated with 5 quarts of oil and 10 gallons of fuel in the tank.
When Mendez is seated behind the four-spoke wooden steering wheel he says, “I keep it around 40 miles an hour.”
The restoration was completed in three years and the restoration shop summoned Barbara Mendez for a final walk-around and brief test drive to ascertain if everything was as it should be.
Instead, she had the second owner, the son of the original owner, do the honors. He declared the restoration perfect.
– Vern Parker, Motor Matters