Short-term-thinking previous owners once planned to turn Frank and Cindy Guzik’s 1931 Auburn 8-98A Custom sedan into a racy Speedster model, and then a rare Brougham two-door sedan. In the opinion of one Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg historian, the Guziks’ now-restored sedan may outlive these and other 1931 Auburns.
“Randy Ema’s mantra on the car is that it is going to be around long after all these other pretty ones, because most people don’t tackle the wood, and this is the only [sedan] that has had all the wood replaced,” Frank Guzik says.
Earlier owners sought to rebuild the Guziks’ Auburn sedan into a racier or rarer model worth more money, because it had long been neglected. By the time the Guziks bought the sedan in 1996, the paint was baked off, the wood was dry-rotted and the interior was trashed. Yet the car remained solid and intact, and that is what attracted the Guziks to bring the car home to Indiana and ultimately preserve it as a sedan.
The car originally went to Sacramento, Guzik said. He knows it then made its way to Bakersfield, Calif., and then Portland, Ore., both places known to be gentle on sheet metal.
“It was out in the desert in Bakersfield, California, for 35 years
