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Login to post Forums » Off-topic discussion » Auto Graveyard (name that car)

June 5, 2010 5:05 p.m. HappyJack New Reader

A buddy of mine asked me to look at his tractor that died in the back 40. As I drove back there I found a bunch of dead cars that my buddy said have been there since he bought the place 12 years ago. For some reason they are all upside down, and the frames are missing. Car you guess what they are? Some are obvious.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

There was also a random fender buried in the leaves that may or may not belong to car #8. I don't know.

All pretty much useless, but cool anyway.
June 5, 2010 5:07 p.m. neon4891 SuperDork

looks like wthe woods behind my fiance's parents house
June 5, 2010 5:14 p.m. Osterkraut Dork

New goal in life: own a place that has random old cars in the woods.
June 5, 2010 6:12 p.m. Woody SuperDork

I see a Ford F1 and maybe a 60 or 61 Galaxie.
June 5, 2010 8:37 p.m. novaderrik Reader

all i see is a bunch of rusted metal that isn't even good enough to take in for scrap.
June 5, 2010 8:43 p.m. Carson Dork

There are a lot, I mean a lot of cars in similar condition near the bottom of steep descents and ravines off the side of the road in the NC mountains. Cool mangled cars from the 40's, 50's, and 60's that didn't make the turn. I found a modified one that was probably moonshine bootlegger's car.
June 5, 2010 8:45 p.m. jrg77 New Reader

Think I saw an Impala...
June 5, 2010 8:46 p.m. DoctorBlade Reader

I see rust.
June 5, 2010 9:34 p.m. HappyJack New Reader

Well my best guesses are,

1 is obviously a Ford Pick up

2 Mercury Monterey Maybe a 63?( you can make out where the chrome used to be on the fender that said so

3 Chevy pick up

4 Impala. 59 I think

5 Some sort of Oldsmobile (because it says so on the grill)

6 63 Belvedere. Maybe?

7 No idea. Maybe a Ford Crown Vic?

8 62 Ford Fairlane?
June 6, 2010 7:01 a.m. ddavidv SuperDork

Nice challenge. I had to look up some for exact (or near exact) years but got them all. There is not enough detail on some to be year specific, but here ya go: 1. 51 Ford F1 2. 59 Mercury Monterey/Montclair 3. 53-ish Chev pickup 4. 59 Chevy 5. 59 Oldsmobile 6. 60 Ford 7. 57 Ford 8. 53-ish Ford And yes, the fender would go to that car.
June 6, 2010 9:24 a.m. 914Driver SuperDork

Why are they all upside down?

Dan
June 6, 2010 9:54 a.m. mad_machine SuperDork

did somebody turn the frames into trailers?
June 6, 2010 10:17 a.m. HappyJack New Reader

I dunno why they are upside down, other than the fact they are all missing the frames. So I assume they were flipped to get the frames. No idea why the frames are missing.

These are the way they were found. My friend who owns the property said they have been just like that ever since he bought the place 12 years ago. And obviously they have been sitting there a lot longer that that. A couple of them have licence plates from 1968.
June 6, 2010 10:21 a.m. HappyJack New Reader

In reply to ddavidv:

Wow good job Dave! Especially on 6, the 60ish Ford. I was think Belvedere, or Savoy, but the crease on the fenders wasn't right. I think you nailed it.
June 6, 2010 11:38 a.m. Trans_Maro Dork

3 is a '54 chevy.

The first digit in the serial number is the year.

Shawn
June 6, 2010 12:21 p.m. SVreX SuperDork

ddavid:

Awesome job!

I'll add one note:

4 is indeed a 1959 Impala. Your picture may or may not be correct. It is possible that it is either a flat top or a bubble top. Both were available.

1959 flat top:

1959 bubble top:
June 7, 2010 5:48 a.m. ddavidv SuperDork

Oh nit-pick why don't ya?

Postwar car ID is one of those great skills I have that generates zero income. The 1960 Ford was easy to ID but finding a photo of one was really tough. Those things must not have survived much.

When my folks had a mobile home on a piece of land for hunting in upstate PA, the farmer who leased the property to us had a couple cars like this (upside down, barely identifiable) along the one fence line of his field. There was even less left of those. One I was able to identify was a Fiat Multipla. How the heck a poor farmer in middle-of-nowhere PA wound up with one of those is probably an interesting story. I doubt there was a Fiat dealer within 200 miles even when they were still selling cars. All of the farms up there had collections of worn out, rusty relics because there were no junkyards to tow them to, so they just got stuck in a field or pushed into the woods. One neat collection that sadly got cleaned up before I hit driving age had one of these still in good, salvageable shape: I guess when scrap metal became valuable it finally made economic sense for them to haul them off.
June 7, 2010 5:56 a.m. HappyJack New Reader

Scrap metal prices are up around here, but I don't think there is much actually metal left of these things.
June 7, 2010 5:23 p.m. digdug18 HalfDork

You'd be surprised how much metal is left in those things. If it were me, I'd right them, and grab any bits that made it, like those hood ornaments, interior bits, etc. Parts that are getting harder and harder to find for die hard restorers. Then scrap them.

Andrew
June 8, 2010 12:03 a.m. 4eyes Reader

I HATE RUST
June 9, 2010 12:17 a.m. SVreX SuperDork

mad_machine wrote:

did somebody turn the frames into trailers?

Maybe on some, but probably not the Impala. It sat on an X-frame, not a ladder frame. It would make a really lousy trailer.
June 9, 2010 8:26 a.m. Streetwiseguy Reader

Other than a collage of trim bits, I don't think there is a ton of value there. Always fun to wander through places like that.

I didn't pay the $50 it would have taken to get a 59 Chev sedan delivery out of a yard in the valley when I was a kid. The damage was on the front end, so easy to find parts off a sedan. It would have been cool.

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