Restoration of the Reo Royale Victoria in Mexico

First, a little story on my car:In an old car show, I met a fellow car collector, Mario Turrent, who told me he had been offered a Reo Royale Victoria. After talking a while with him, I told him that if he didn’t go for the car, I would gladly get it. A few days later he called and offered the car. He was so nice that he had the car picked up in his own flatbed and pulled it to his home. He lent me his flatbed and I pulled it to my place, two hours away from his.

A few weeks ago, I received the visit of Juan Baca Latisnere, former owner of my Royale and Reo Club member, and it was a very interesting visit. He is 77 and very enthusiastic. He told me the story of my car. According to him, the car was purchased originally by a lawyer and former politician, Luis Chico Goerne. He was ambassador for Mexico in France, and during his days there, he purchased the Royale, which he saw at the Paris auto show. He brought the car with him when he returned to Mexico. I have no way to document any of that. What is a common known fact is that he was the Dean for the oldest university in America, located in Mexico city for a few years during the mid thirties. He had an old Hacienda (huge ranch) between the cities of Celaya and Salamanca and traveled in the Reo from Mexico city to the Hacienda. He had a Japanese attendant working for him, taking care of the Hacienda, and at somepoint, he left the car there. Brakes were taken apart and were lost, same as the 18” wheels. The Hacienda was left abandoned, no idea why, and it ended up being distributed by the government to peasants (a figure called Ejido down here in which several peasants share a piece of land) and the car stood there abandoned. Juan lived in the city where I live now, Queretaro, and was a traveling salesman. He enjoyed looking for cars, and he found the Reo sitting outside the Hacienda in 1967. He offered to buy it and picked it up in April 1967. He took it with him to Mexico city and had all the wood replaced by a local carpenter who by the way did a beautiful job but that is all that he did as far as restoration goes. He moved to another city, Toluca and took the car with him. At some point, he finds another Reo Victoria, a Flying Cloud, which he purchases and dismantles to get parts for his Royale.He was kind enough to look on his things for old pictures and sent me the couple I am attaching.... pickup day, April 1967

Fast forward till 1996, at an old car show Juan Baca meets a lawyer, Luis Angel Chico Gonzalez, who is the grandson of the original owner. Brief story, Luis Angel Chico ends up buying the car and taking it to another city, Leon in the state of Guanajuato. He restores the chassis but does not finish the restoration. 

Fast forward again to December 2013 and I buy the car... or let's call it my Christmas present. Hopefully this time I will be able to finish it… a task which will take a lot of time and money, and will need tons of parts and lots of help from fellow Royale owners.I brought the car to my place and stored it, made an inventory of the parts, and now I have an idea of what I have and what I need to find, which unfortunately is a lot of stuff.

In my quest for finding out and learn about Royales, I have visited and seen some people up to now:

John P.: He showed me his 3 Royales, Convertible coupe, Victoria and Sedan, and took me for a great ride in his sedan. He taught me a lot on the cars and kindly sold me several parts and lent me a few others to copy. Couldn’t have hoped for a better tutorial on Royales and a more worthwhile visit. I came back home carrying four wheels, a trunk lid, interior wood trim, and many small parts.

John M.: He sent me to his son and I was able to see his dismantled Victoria and took a good number of pictures to check on several details.

Kirk S.: I visited him and had a wonderful time seeing his collection and the wonderful work he does at his shop. I even got the greatest ride in my life back to my hotel! I couldn’t see his Victoria but Kirk had been kind enough to take a great number of pics from his car and share them with many of us Reo fans.

I know Royale owners must be a rather small community, but so far, these people plus some others via the internet, like A.J. or Mark, have really helped me a lot on learning about the cars we love. I am sure that with their help and that of the forum members, this will be an enjoyable process which in the end will get a gorgeous car (the cars itself are gorgeous and I intend to do a reasonably good restoration on it) back on the road. It will take a long time, as I want to gather the needed parts first, before I start actually working on the car (and I need to finish a couple of projects I am working on right now), but I am really looking forward to it.

Victor, that is fantastic history! Your car seems very solid and having the wood work finished already is a great start. Here in the U.S.A that would be a very very expensive job.

I'm looking forward to your future restoration reports. I will also update with my slow progress.

Thanks, guys! Yes, fortunately the wood was done and it appears to be very well done. That will certainly save me a lot of work, though I intend to remove it in some parts to treat the metal so it won't get any rust issues in the future. A few pics...

It looks like they did a pretty good job on the wood. Definitely saved you a lot of money. That would be at least 30k up here if not lots more.

Hi Kirk! Wonderful collection? Next to yours, it is almost nothing! But thanks a lot for your kind comments.

I am really working now on finding the information and the parts I need to restore the Royale, but not on the car itself, as I have some other projects which I need to finish earlier. I will only start really working on it once I have the majority of what I need... and I have found it incredibly difficult to locate the parts, other than what John kindly sold me or loaned me to copy.

The ACD museum is fabulous! I really enjoyed visiting it some 10 years ago or so. The curator was very kind and not only allowed me but helped me a lot to photograph details of a 1928 Stutz they had there, which were incredibly useful to understand better my car.

Best,
victor

Victor very interesting story about the history of your car . I agree JohnPhillips has helped me a lot with his guidance on all the Royale parts . a.j. and kirk thanks for your pictures and advice about details and history of the Royales .

What a find? Well, thanks, but I understand many people would not even think of restoring it... But I like it, and in fact I consider Royales to be one of the nicest designs of the classic era... and I am stubborn, so hopefully it will get done. One day not too far from here, God allowing, I will finish it. In the meantime, I am just collecting missing parts and doing some work that does not need the mechanics or body to be done. Once I have most of the parts, I will actively work on it.John was kind enough to lent me a full set of interior wood for a Victoria. I had a local craftsman copy it and I think he did one hell of a job. I am happy with the results... but pics are worth more than 1000 words, so here are a few... first the rear window garnish moulding that also is the smoking set.

The smoking set with one front door garnish moulding...

And now, a question: There are two indented lines, angled in a way that if prolonged outside the part, they would cross each other below the wood frame, at the center of the design in each piece. John once mentioned they were filled with lead. I would not like to experiment trying to put lead into my freshy made and very nicely varnished wood. Would anybody know if I can use some kind of paste or even only paint? Could anybody having a Royale do me a favor and check what his car shows?

Thanks!
Victor

And another one: I am missing the metal inserts for the ash trays, the lighter and the hinge for one of them... in case anybody has such hardware or could refer me to a source, I would be very grateful.

Victor, that looks great. I'm hopeful that craftsmen in your area are less expensive than here as that wood would be very expensive. I was told the hardware on the Royale was bought from a 3rd party and is shared with other cars. Posting a picture of the missing inserts on the AACA forum might yield some leads.

That is a a great idea, A.J., thanks!

Excellent wood work Victor , you said he was a craftsman . I wish the 8 -31 had the same wood treatment . I would have ordered a set .

We have continued to work on the car, but very slowly. We are now manufacturing the metal ash containers for the smoking set.Also, I recently bought a set of hubcap replicas from Pier Marta, in Argentina. By they way, it was his last set, but if there is enough interest, he can make more... he mentions he would need to make at least 3 sets.To me, they appear very well made (but I do not have an original to compare), and once I can locate or make the brass inserts or medallions, I think they will look great. Does anybody know if there are replicas of the center medallions made? Thanks!

Those look pretty good Victor. I think I remember some email maybe about a medallion project?

I haven't heard anything on the medallion project but it would sure be interesting. I don't have an original, but if I could get one, I would gladly look into the project.

Thanks!