Posted 8 years ago
Missionman
(1 item)
My wife and I recently purchased a pedal car and I hope someone can help us with a few questions we have about it please. From searching the web, it appears to be a Steelcraft Zephyr model; however, we have not been able to locate one exactly like this one as it has headlights on it that appear to have worked originally (old wiring and bulbs inside the headlights). Was this an option or were they added at some point? How do you determine what year of Zephyr this is please? It is also missing a windshield and there appears to be several versions for this model...how do we determine which one would be correct for our car? Finally, the tires on this one appear to be different than a lot of others we have seen as they have a valve stem to pump them up (at least they could have been once :-) Were these an option? Sorry, I guess this is more than a "few questions" but any information would be greatly appreciated.
Welcome to CW!
It is a Steelcraft Zephyr and a very nice one. The trim on top of the fenders are actually the light for this car, non electric. The working lights you have I believe were added. They look like they may be GM parking lights from the late 30's -40's.
Steelcraft did mount headlight, again non electric, on several of the Deluxe cars but nothing like the ones you have.
Those are the correct hub caps. Not sure about the wheels, maybe post a photo of the wheel and add a couple more photos.
Hi AzTom,
Thanks very much for your response. I have attached some extra photos of the car, hope these help. Can you determine from them what year it was made? We love the rustic "played with" look of the car but have not had a lot of luck yet finding a windshield or horn with that same look. Also, did these cars have a tailight or some other piece on the back? (Ours has a small hole toward the center of the rear panel where maybe something was attached at one time). Thanks for your time.
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Ok, I did some digging in my ads and catalogs. from the info I have these were made from 1938 to 1941. The only year I could find an ad with the pneumatic tires was 1940. It is the Deluxe model but does not have the working head lights. The windshield is listed as chrome. I think I would get one of the new replacement windshield and artificially age it.
The old ads never show the rear of the cars so not sure about that. Where is the battery for the lights?
I really like your display of bicycle emblems. You need to start hanging around here and share some of that,lol
Tom, Thanks so much for all of your help/information..much appreciated. I am not sure where the battery would have been located, sadly all that is left is some of the wiring hanging in the fender area. I had thought about trying to run some LED lights to them but not quite sure how that would work yet. Tom, besides the pneumatic tires, did the Deluxe models have any other distinguishing features?Concerning the bicycle emblem display, all the credit goes to my late father as he collected those years ago and arranged them on that old board. He had a great eye and was a "Picker" long before it was a popular term.
The regular car has painted windshield, fender lights and bumpers, the Deluxe has chrome. The Deluxe also has 2-3/4 inch white side wall pneumatic tires. The Deluxe also says Swiss music box radio. I have never seen one so can't tell you anything about that.
The working lights you have could be bicycle lights. Check for any numbers on them. You may be able to rule out real car lights that way.
You do have a good one there.
Hi Tom,
The tires look so old I thought they had to be original but when you mentioned the Deluxe models came with white walls, I had to do some more checking. It turns out it does have white walls..for some reason they were mounted to the inside...neat find. Regarding the lights, if they do have numbers does that make them car lights or bicycle lights? Thanks again.
Very cool car and GREAT info AzTom !
After doing a lot more digging, I feel pretty certain that the headlights on our pedal car are actually parking lights from a 1940 Chevy. Thanks again AzTom for pointing out the possible GM connection. Although not originally part of our Zephyr, we love that someone went to that much trouble to make it very special for their child.