Sep 1 (edited)

1929 Duesenberg Model SJ Sweep-Panel Dual-Cowl Phaeton by LeBaron on BAT

Read the description very carefully but this is a great car.

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1929-duesenberg-sj-lebaron-sweep-panel-dual-cowl-phaeton-sj-292-2158/?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Era_Digest

Sep 1, 2026

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Replies (32)

· Sep 1

I believe the supercharger is a reproduction.

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· Sep 1

Also a rebody!

· Sep 1

Shawn. It is real. I'll post more info on this car but this was bought by my Uncle Ted in 1966 from Ed Jurist. It has real race history.

· Sep 1

Perry, 1/2 of that body is original. From the back of the front doors forward.

· Sep 1

I was told that only the single carburetor superchargers were original.
I learned something today.

· Sep 1

Shawn, Out of the 36 original blown Duesenbergs I think around 1/2 dozen got the double carb pot. The issue is that 90% of the reproduction blowers used the dual pot so everybody always thinks that they are replicas when they see one.

Of course, few of the original supercharged cars still have their original supercharger, which is a separate problem.

· Sep 1

@alsancle This is my problem with Duesenbergs. There's lots of information out there but people seem very reluctant to share it. There's a lot of "why should I tell you?" going on.
When working on putting two of these cars back together, it was very hard to get any information. I feel like, because they were re-bodied or had questionable history, they were looked down on as if somehow it would de-value the other cars.
Duesenbergs are so well documented that nobody could falsify anything and get away with it.
What's wrong with making the parts bin cars more correct? They're still more Duesenberg than I'll ever own myself and it's not going to de-value a car with a better pedigree.
The more interest there is, the more support there will be and caring for them will be easier.
A lot of people who know a lot about these cars will not be with us much longer and information is going to be lost, thanks to a poor attitude.

· Sep 1

I agree. Personally, if I was putting a blower on a car I would go with a single pot. Historically, it has been tough for guys to get the reproduction blowers to work correctly, although I understand the second batch Brian Joseph did 15 years ago are much better.

· Sep 1

J-491X was originally supercharged (so I was told) but had a reproduction blower on it when I worked on it and I could not get it to stop leaking oil from the top bearing. After I left, the engine went to Straight 8 for overhaul and they found some issues with the reproduction supercharger that I wasn't aware of.

· Sep 1

Shawn, do you know if it was a Gephart blower or a Brian Joseph blower? My dad's car has an original pot on it with a Gephart lower end. It took hundreds of hours of machine work to get it to turn smoothly. He was very proud of it.

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· Sep 1

I believe it was one of Leo Gephart's blowers. It had the top with the dual carburetor inlet cast as one piece, rather than having the bolt-on section as shown in the pictures of the car in the original post.
I think the blower was installed when the car was re-bodied by Frank Heiss.

· Sep 1

I love the one piece eight port exhaust manifold and the two-carb setup with the Ram's Horn intake! That is the ultimate model J engine setup if you ask me. I did not watch the video about the whole history of the car. I will when I get time though. It does look to me like the firewall number may have been restamped. And it says in the description that the bellhousing was re-stamped. For some reason they stamped it SJ. I don't think that any of them were stamped with an SJ, even if they were supercharged. Just a j and then the number. It says that there is no number on the frame. Could the entire frame, or frame rail be a reproduction? It will be interesting to see what it goes for, it is really a great looking car.

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· Sep 1

I put one back together which had reproduction frame rails and a repro center crossmember. They are out there.

I would ask the seller to pull the crankcase breather and see if there's any numbers stamped on the crank.

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· Sep 1

Out of curiosity (not sure I have the means to spend right now) what do you make of the two tone red Blackhawk one mid-restoration for $300K?
- Dan.

· Sep 1

Dan, I'm forgetting which one that is but there are a number of Duesenbergs built up from floor sweepings. Basically an engine and everything else is new.

I saw this car when it was a bunch of boxes and frame rails laying in the shop floor. Lots of original parts from 6 different cars, the body was built from scratch, tremec 5 speed transmission.

This car is a rocket ship.
https://www.mecum.com/lots/1176392/1932-duesenberg-model-j-sweep-panel-dual-cowl-phaeton

· Sep 1

This car was purchased from Ed Jurist By Ted Billings in 1966 after Ed had brought it back from South America. That Engine is supposed to be the backup to the Mormon Meteor and was shipped to Argentina so the car could be raced. That is a real blower looks exactly the same as it did in 1966 when Ted took possession of the car. Leo Gephart did not start making reproduction blowers until the 1970s. This is a a great car with real race history in South America. The 1960s photo of the car being restored come from me.

· Sep 1

Here are pictures of the blower as delivered from Nyack to Ted Billings.

· Sep 1

You can see the front 1/2 of the body was still intact.

· Sep 1

Here is Ted working on the car in his basement circa 1979. I worked for his when I was in HS and got to touch this car and ride in it with him. It was scary fast.

· Sep 1

More photos in Argentina.

· Sep 1

Hershey.

· Sep 1

Great photos A.J.!!!

· Sep 2

Color scheme is much nicer now IMHO. What would you do with tires AJ?

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· Sep 2

Something I do not believe I have ever mentioned was that Ted traded his Mercedes 540K Special Roadster for this car. My dad and Ted had each bought 540Ks from the Toy Store the prior year and Ted was having a lot of trouble with the Special Roadster. He brought it back to Ed Jurist and traded towards the Duesenberg.

This is chassis number 189424.

· Sep 2

A bit early.. but i just tossed in a bid on the Duesy!!!

· Sep 2

Early and low.

· Sep 3

Wow! Back to how it shipped originally - sure is cool. Although I do admit I would have loved to have seen it restored to it's shortened race version!

· Sep 3

Peter, left in its "as raced" setup I think this would be a 4 million dollar.

· Sep 9

The auction will end today.. car is already over a million dollars.. i suspect it will go move up a bunch in the few minutes of the auction!.. My guess it is it stops at $1.6M and is a no sale.. Thoughts?

· Sep 9

I agree with you. I see a no sale above 1.5 somewhere.