Hot Rods Parts In The Trunk

My avatar trunk was full of boxes of parts. Not a single piece was for my car.

I bought a '70 Nova from a guy for $275. No spare parts in the trunk that time, but upon cleaning up the interior found a bag of change under the back seat -- a bigggg bag. There was over $400 in it.

 

Ive gotten some pretty cool bonuses before, but coming from a family who has always had some sort of involvement with junkyards, Ive also witnessed the extra unwanted bag of garbage etc being thrown into the deal too just before coming back to pick the vehicle up

 

Bought a '46 Ford coupe sight unseen, friend delivered it to my place, said the trunks full of crap. "Crap" was re-chromed bumpers and 'gaurds, (wrapped in paper) a HUGE electric drill, (Clevland Electric tool co.) about 10 lbs of new nuts and bolts, an extra dash, (intact). A complete set of garnish moldings and vent windows. sold everything to fund the project, ('cept for the drill, it work's fine)

 

I found $30 stashed under a tear in the front seat of a 59 Fairlane I purchased.
I figure it was for emergencies such as being low on gas, beer or hookers...
Not much in the way of drugs around in those days.
After all he looked to be a clean living kind of guy...

 

I bought a rusty parts car for my '57 Chrysler. It came with a perfect pair of rust free fenders and a trunk completely full of spare '57 Chrysler parts. All kinds of random stuff; gauges, brake parts, extra trim, filters, and a half dozen tail lights. I was able to keep the pick of the litter of all the parts for my own car and sell off the rest.

We used its hood, dyed its padded dash black for my car... oh, and used its good running 392 Hemi. I sent it off to an old car junkyard a few months ago, but I'm still selling stuff off of it!

 

I purchased a '63 Pontiac Swiss Cheese in 1987 that the owner got burned out on 99% restored. Just minor assembly remained. The car had an NOS Delco battery in place and an extra NOS dry battery in the original box with acid still in it's container in the trunk. I still have that battery.

 

Most every old project I've gotten has been stripped of every valuable part needed to complete it, I've been collecting parts and pieces for almost 10 years on here to get my Tudor project done!

 

oh, yeah. When I bou ght this 63 Starfire I asked the seller..."Did you cut the rear coils to lower it?". He says
"Um, yeah"
Right. I got it home and opened the trunk to find it full of broken concrete blocks!

 

Hello,

When I sold the 1940 Ford Sedan Delivery in 1964, it had nothing in the huge back area, except for a spare tire and a scissors jack. There could have been tons of stuff, but it was a bare bones cruiser. The guy that bought it just wanted it to be out in front of his surf shop in Huntington Beach for advertisement. He did not care what was in the car. I set it up and he took the accolades.

But, a few months later, when I sold the 58 black Chevy 348 Impala, the trunk had some extra parts that came off of the original car.

The old 348 cam and hydraulics, 3 chrome pots for the carbs, manual progressive linkage, an additional spare 15 inch Buick bolt pattern rim plus the Buick pattern working spare. (Skylark wire rims had been on in 1963-64) and a note on the spare to remind him that it is not a Chevy bolt pattern on the Impala.

An old sound reverberation unit that made crazy, hollow sounds from the radio and a new can of Cadillac Blue Coral Wax. (I kept the old ½ used Blue Coral can, which I still have today.) By this time, I had switched to the easier on/off of the Classic Car Wax can. Finally, there was a set of near new, spark plugs for use at the drags only. My friend had taken the pair of 7” Bruce Slicks on Chevy rims earlier when he was at my Westside LB house.

Jnaki

I am sure the trunk stuff was a surprise. My friend had come over to my house to check out the car during the day and give me the cash. I delivered the Impala to him later that night at his gas station. When I arrived at his gas station, he looked at the seats and carpets. (I had taken off the Sure-Fit clear plastic seat covers) Then he said that without the clear plastic seat covers, the upholstery looked brand new. He said he was going to get some new clear covers the following week. He also mentioned his greasy work outfit of Levis and shirts.
The last look from 1965...
So, he never looked in the trunk when I gave the car to him and I said, “Goodbye, Thanks for the memories… as I left in a 57 Chevy Bel Air in 1965.

This 58 Impala should be noticeable today, if it is still in some kind of good shape. The rims and axles are a Buick bolt pattern, and the spare is a Buick rim. There is/was an original C&O Stick Hydro installed, 4:56 Posi-traction gears, a Racer Brown Cam and lifters, chromed valve covers/breathers, and a top chrome air cleaner plate. Finally, there was a solid 2x3” trailer hitch below the license plate. The original column stick shift with no gear selector letters on the panel for the C&O was still active. It was an original 3 speed column shift, so the selector window had a small aluminum plate from the factory.

So, where is it today? So Cal? Midwest?

 

I went through a tool box in '42 parts truck and after clearing out pine cones found a useable interior light and a headlight ring that are hard to come by.
I sold a muscle car some years ago and filled the backseat and trunk with parts. I had a spare hood and trunk lid and the new owner did not want them even though I told him I could ship them free to his hometown in Manitoba.

 

Jnaki, my Uncle Charlie detailed cars for some side money. His brand of choice? Blue Coral! Always parked in the shade and let the car cool before applying Or Else. Thanks for that memory, I was probably 8 at the time. Chrome polish for the bright work and SOS pads for the whitewalls, what a way to spend an afternoon. Remember "curb feelers"? Carp

 

Hey C,
Blue Coral was the wax of choice for my brother's 51 Olds (Yellow first, then lime green) and the black 58 Impala. The Blue Coral was very touchy and it had to be applied in the shade, cool surfaces and in small areas at one time. If left on too long, it was a bear to get off. Sometimes another liquid wax had to be applied to get the caked on Blue Coral off. It was a lesson learned very quickly.
1960 cigar box container with the original Blue Coral.

That wax was so good. Since I was the one to apply it to the yellow, then lime green, Olds sedan, I learned quickly what to do, when the Impala came into the picture. But, one sleepy oversight and it was more trouble than it was worth. The Blue Coral worked well on chrome fixtures to keep the rust off, when living near the beach salty air, too.

Jnaki
When the Classic Car Wax came on the scene, I saw a demo at the LA County Fair in Pomona. It was so easy to put on, made the black hood display look like a million dollar wax job, and the cost was a lot less than the Blue Coral. The application was much better, so you could do the whole hood and top before taking the wax off. So, there was no choice but to switch over for better results.

I still have the last original Classic Car Wax from back in that time period.
1961-62

ON THE CURB FEELERS:
My dad had me put on some curb feelers on his big Buick sedan. My mom was shredding up the white walls when parking by a curb. It worked, but then my mom started driving up the curb, just to make sure she was not sticking out into the street. Curb feelers or not. When she got her own car, my dad had me take those curb feelers off of his car, as it made noise all of the time.
Ones that I saw in Goleta,CA back in 2017.

 

Years ago I bought a used 1961 Buick Skylark with the 13" rims, with so-so tires. The used car dealer had a Skylark 4 door sedan with the 15" wheels and nice tires that was going to the junkyard the next day. I asked about the tires, and he said if you want them, take them. I proceeded to jack up both cars, and make the swaps. When I realized that I needed the 15" spare tire that was in the trunk, which was locked of course, I had to go through the back seat area to use a screwdriver to pop the trunk. I was pleasantly surprised when along with the 15" spare tire there was also a Craftsman tool box loaded with tools, which also went into my trunk. The 4 door was junked the next day, and as I knew the used car dealer nothing was ever mentioned about the tools in the trunk. It was my lucky day.

 

Don't know if it counts, but I did wake up two raccoons sleeping on a baby hemi when I opened the hood of an old Dodge car that was setting in a hedge row. Don't know who was more surprised me or the raccoons?

 

There must be a "raccoons in cars" thread, surely?

 

I have bought a lot of cars in the USA , some with "surprises" many with good parts, but a Studebaker Lark I bought near White City, Oregon gave me the biggest surprise ever.
Bought it on line from New Zealand, and called in on my way to Bonneville to pick it up. (flew into Vancouver BC from NZ) . The surprise in the trunk was a big old Bull Snake...I ran a mile , when he crawled into view. There are NO snakes of any kind in NZ, this Kiwi freaked out!!. The PO told me Bull Snakes are harmless to Humans and only eat small birds and mice....He wanted to put him in another car in the yard to keep mice away!!. I told him to help himself, I had no intention of taking the bugger with me.

 

Well this is of parts in a spare tire well in a 1959 Chevy SW. I was working for a guy doing welding after school when a guy with a 1959 Chevy wagon came in wanting the rear quarter panel and spare tire well replace. He located another 59 wagon in a junk yard about 30 miles away. I and another guy went to the junk yard to cut out the required panels. We found the wagon sitting on top of another car. I was thinking bonus, no crawling under. As I started cutting out the panel the guy with me climb up to check if anything (like the spare tire) was in the well (I am surprise that the whole car did not come down on me). He yells to me that there is a bunch of junk in the well and back end of the car and starts throwing out the stuff. One of the items that hit the ground was a 1962 Rochester FI unit. At the time I didn't know anything about them, but did scarf it up to buy. What I was missing was the air cleaner and a spacer that went with the distributer. When we left we took the quarter panel and FI unit to the office to pay, the quarter panel was already paid for but the FI unit was not. The guy looks at it, turns around and looks at the board with parts and prices on it. Intake manifold 25 dollars and the carb 10 dollars. 35 bucks I walk out with it. to show you how worthless this was back then, in the late 60's----I asked a guy who was selling a alum intake and holly carb if he wanted to trade, he replied,, "whatever it was, he didn't need it". I ended up sitting on it for a few years until I cross paths with a person who did know everything about it and he did set it up for me. It ran OK, but no great guns plus it always sounded like a vacuum leak due to the cable running from the dist. to the pump. The sad part is that the alum spacer and air cleaner were probably in that old wagon.

 

Just a real nice porcelain sign..

 

bought an old clapped out 1954 merc. yrs. ago , not much in the trunk - but had a 3x2 Chrysler hemi intake under front seat (which is probably now worth more than I paid for the merc) crazy thing was there was no hemi in sight ?

 

That's funny!
But I am confused.....NZ has no snakes? But your neighbor has all the poisonous snakes in the world.....you must be at higher elevation than AUS.?

 

They're like Ireland... St Patrick (or was it Gandalf?) drove all the snakes out back in Merlin's time.

 

I bought my 65 Riviera as an almost finished project and the guy had parted out three 65 Rivis to build this one. When the deal was struck he gave me all the remains of the three parts cars along with the car I bought. That was more than I could handle. The car, trailer and the bed was filled with parts and I really had to limp that combo home all of 700 miles going really slow. I had 3 rearends, 2 ST400 transmissions, 1 401 and 1 425 Nailhead in parts, in the bed, the Rivi was filled with all interieur stuff and door skins, but I had to leave behind 2 hoods , 2 frames and 1 rustfree body. This pic was taken BEFORE we went to his warehouse and told to take all the parts I can.

 

Bought three 47-53 Chevy pickups to clean out a place this guy was leaving and as I was pulling out with the last one he said there were extra parts for them in the trunk of a Pontiac 4dr and to load them up. The parts included the triple side draft intake manifold and carbs and the cast iron dual exhaust for a six cylinder Corvette. This was in the mid 70's and I'd given the guy $800 for the three trucks so I went by the Corvette shop in Murphy, Texas and sold the Corvette stuff for $800 to give me free trucks. I wish I could buy them back for $800.

 

The most unusual and unexpected item I found in a newly purchased car came from a 1964 Mercury station wagon. As I was unloading it in my warehouse I thought I heard a squeaking noise. After checking inside and under the car I could not hear the noise so I closed up for the day. As I entered the building the next morning and taking another look at the wagon the noise was back and magnified. And it was coming from inside the car. I came to the conclusion it was Mini Mouse and her family less Mini. They were hungry. I was torn with the decision of letting them stay there until they died or find them and give them a humane ending. I decided to do the latter. You can imagine my total surprise when I uncovered 6 kittens, all just old enough to have their eyes open. I gathered them up and went straight to the veterinarian. They all checked out healthy so now what. I didn't want 6 kittens and told the vet. While I was there the word was getting around to pet owners bringing in their pets about the precious babies and one by one they were taken to a new home. I was only there a couple hours. So I paid the vet and went home very relieved. It was my lucky day!

 

This is a little O/T, but a buddy gave me a 70 Chevelle parts car one time that came with a trunk full including multiple axles, a disc brake setup for an A-body GM car, etc. Couldn’t beat the price on that one! Most cars I have bought just come with lots of “junk” that I end up keeping even once I sell the cars years later thinking I might need some of it in the future. That is one reason I have a semi-trailer full of crap in the back yard.

 

Bought a '37 Oldsmobile and the whole interior was about a foot deep in parts when I got it. Didn't find anything worth much, but a buddy and I had a good time (and drank a lot of beer) going through all of it.

 

OK, we've got beavers and clams. I must be getting too old. I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Bought a 56 Chevrolet from an Airman at Paine Field AFB, now the Snohomish County Airport, and in the trunk was 4 brand new Port-O-Walls, still wrapped in cellophane. Not my style, so they went right in the garbage can. I did find an R.G. Industries, 22 Magnum, 2 shot, derringer in a car in a wrecking yard. Had it for close to 40 years when a good friend wanted to "borrow it",and he stipulated it would be returned on his demise. Have't heard from him in almost a year, can't connect with him via the phone (does take a massage however, ???), and I have't been able to get over to where he lives. Hope to get it back, but I'm not counting on it. He was 81 last I knew, and he's probably passed on.
I am Butch/56sedandelivery.

 

Was t there,a fellow in the Detroit area who bought a car and in the truck found a Teamsters ball cap with JH inside and a curious reddy/brown stain?