1951 Crosley

It is a 1951 Crosley Super Sport, four cylinder, four-speed convertible. Bruce and his son picked it up from a man who has barns full of antiques, cars, trucks, gas pumps etc. Bruce turned 80 years old this January and he semi-retired only a year or so ago from the family construction business. He got bored a few months into retirement and decided he needed a new project, something fun to tinker on, something different. This has been a 100% frame off restoration Using Bruce’s Yankee value engineering methods. His Crosley has been taken down to its frame right down to the bare metal. Every system has been 100% rebuilt, fuel tank and lines, breaks and break lines, electrical harness, the engine and transmission rebuilt, as well as the body work paint and upholstery and his goal is to have it completely done by spring. One of his favorite items is the work he did to modify the existing tail lights. Bruce was a bit nervous that SUV’s and trucks would not see him on the road in front of them. His son Rick had a set of 1950 Pontiac tail lights he had picked up for a project he was working on that didn’t quite work for him, so he gave them to Bruce. Bruce built light buckets out of PVC piping and a bushing, he did it so the originals are still underneath unchanged. He painted them black and thought they were terrific just as is! Bruce did end up painting them the body color of the Crosley, as you can see from the picture they look great! The paint selection and upholstery selection is another part that Bruce really likes……he does not usually do things just like everybody else. In his research of 1951 Crosley’s he noticed that most were red with black tops, well he could tell that his Crosley had been green at one time and decided to go that way. He went to the paint store, they found a Crosley green color and that sealed it for Bruce. Now, a lot of the people on the Crosley club blogs are tied to restoring the cars exactly as they would have been originally, but not Bruce he enjoys doing things his way. Bruce went with green exterior, tan seats, tan door panels, ivory dash board, ivory wheel hubs and a light beige soft top. It looks beautiful! Every couple of weeks his son Rick goes down for a weekend to help with the Crosley and he is always amazed at how much his father still knows about cars. Much of the knowledge and know how Bruce drew on came from his memories with his father, working in his garage back in the 50’s. Bruce lost his father when he was fifteen years old, but everything that his father taught him and showed him stayed with him to this very day. Now he is passing his know how on to his children and his grandchildren. His son Rick says he has learned a lot and has had a lot of fun working with dad in his garage on his project. He’s heard stories from his dad that he had never heard before. I think this project has made my grandfather very happy and proud, he loves to share it. We hope you enjoy seeing these photos of this 1951 Crosley Super Sport.