OK OK OK.... I have an idea. You buy 4, and send each of us 1. You're still the winner, and we're all happy!
Hey @Ryan. First of all, it's very cool that you scored that pallet of NOS tool boxes. You now have a very unique commodity and the luxury of dedicated followers and members of the HAMB, that will gladly purchase the tool boxes from you, when the time is right! Count me in as well, even though there is no dedicated waiting list, or element of pre orders, I totally get that and can appreciate the reluctance to promise anything to anyone till the supply chain and logistics make it worth your time! Nice to know that at some point in the HAMB universe, possibly 100 fortunate HAMB members, will have an opportunity, to compete for a chance, to purchase/own a cool piece of history! Thanks from Dennis.
I realize that I am too late to get one of the non-available toolboxes but I have to let you know that this is about the best swag idea ever. Unreal.
Took another shot at Google... I found these on Ebay. Was not successful in copying a full sized image. Search Ebay for " Military property tag", a few will come up. Top line: BADGER A.A. PLANT Bottom line: U.S. PROPERTY EDIT: These are the style I remember. Russ
At the risk of losing out on the tool boxes entirely, my question, after watching the Super, Amazing, Fantastic Video that You took on the trip to your loft to show us the equally Amazing Tool Box Stash, what was all that heavy breathing I heard?
Nice try, Dennis, but you're going to have to get better at sucking up than that. To see how it's really done, check out post #41.
Hey @alanp561. No sucking up here intended! Those tool boxes are safe right where they are, till the supply chain situation gets better, you can be confident that none of those tool boxes are going anywhere! Grinning to my self here, I am surprised that a certain collector in Minnesota, hasn't cut a deal to procure them all !
This is a cool find Ryan. Now being something from 1957 one would be a cool match for my ‘57 Chevy stepside but not sure how to integrate it. Plus I don’t want to grab something someone else would have more use for. I do have a US Army property tag I got off a ‘57 Chevy parts truck I had. The holes may have been for something like that but it has 4 holes. May be similar as to what was on there. I also have a cabinet that has this for the US Medical Corps.
As in the past, The Boss, has laid it on the line for All to see. Novel idea, Right? Thanks for trying to offer something Special to the Hoodlums that have pretty much everything already, Carp. Oh, by the way, I'm in for one when they become available!
I have a large plastic Army First aid kit box in the trunk of my 57 Fairlane for tools and such . A metal tool box from 1957 would be sooooo much KOOLER . If there is a list and any tool boxes left add my name to it please .
I'm not doing any textile stuff until it's less of a pain in the ass to do... Even tees are hard to get right now unless you want a white or a black t-shirt... I'm just not interested. Remember, the merch I do is just shit that I want... I don't make it to make money. The other project I mentioned in the feature was a watch cap...
Ryan, I've watched the video a couple times trying to get as much info from the cardboard boxes as possible. It seems that the tool boxes were sourced from a place in Western NY called Leroy. Turns out that Leroy is just a few miles south and west of my hometown of Rochester. It is a very small community with its real claim to fame being it is the hometown of the Jello founder. Yep, Jello was originated and manufactured for many years right there in Leroy for a long time. However, that has nothing to do with the steel tool boxes, but I wonder if there is a historical society which could be of help in adding a little more to the story?
I need one of those boxes for the roadster when it’s done. apparel is a PITA right now. Almost impossible to get decent size runs in the same shirt. I’ve got a few ideas in my head that I’ve been putting off because I can’t get shirts. I might just resort to one-offs. Every one is different!
I know pretty much the entire history of the palette. The guy that got the other half also got the manifest. These boxes were shipped from a port in New Jersey in late 1957, arrived at a port in Houston in 1958, and were trucked to Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Fort Sam Houston refused the shipment and they were sent to a holding yard… where they sat from 1958 until 2019… that holding yard eventually got swallowed by the Air Force base and the pallet was found when they were taking inventory of lost and found. I was told the government was going to scrap the pallet, but someone into history took them instead… I got em from that someone in a super sketchy transaction in an apartment complex north of San Antonio.
It was gnarly man… so bad, that I asked to use the restroom and while in there, dropped a pin to my wife so she’d know where I was. The transaction went down about a month before Covid hit.
So the plot thickens! So if the connection still exists to the other guy, that got the original manifest, it would be cool to copy that original manifest, and include a copy of it, with every one of those tool boxes, IF and WHEN, the decision is made to make them available!
Here’s the unedited quick and dirty of it… Late one night, my phone buzzed and lit up my bedroom. I wasn’t quite a sleep yet, so I decided to take peak. It was a text from Ben with a link to a Facebook marketplace listing. The title of the listing was something along the lines of, “New Old Stock Tool Boxes from WWII.” The pictures, however, told a different story… It was just a cardboard box with the date of 1957 emblazoned on the side. I, however, am not a complete fucking moron and thus, don’t have a Facebook account. Luckily for me, however, the complete fucking moron that listed the tool boxes left his phone number in the ad. So the next morning, I called the number and was greeted by a gruff voice using a language similar to southern English. The man told me that he wanted $75 for each box and that I should call a guy named Matt first. So, I called Matt… Matt seemed confused. “Why are you calling me again?” Turns out Matt had just bought 100 of the boxes himself and I guess the guy that listed the boxes was using him as a reference… That’s all we could figure out anyway… As he hung up, Matt said something along the lines of, “Best of luck to you man…” I had no idea what he meant by that until I pulled up to the apartment complex where I was told to complete the transaction. The door of the unit was flanked by two flags (not gonna say what was on them) that were so big that they touched the ground… and when the wind blew, they blocked the door. I was literally tangled in a mess of flags as I knocked. A woman that hasn’t seen a mirror in years answered the door with a cigarette hanging from her mouth, but said nothing - just left the door swinging and walked back into what I presumed was a living room. “Hey, I’m Ryan. We talked on the phone. I’m here to take a few tool boxes off your hands?” I then heard a recognizable voice in the distance. “Come on in. Don’t touch anything. Be there in a minute.” So, I stepped into the living room and saw the lady again. She was sitting in one of those brown/orange tweed recliners, smoke hanging from chapped lips, watching a reality show of some kind - little girls dressed like hookers and dancing in front of over-weight mothers. To her right and propped up against a wall was an AR-15 with a 3D printed lower. I recognized it immediately because I knew the kid that did the g-code for the print. He worked for me before he was arrested for uploading said code to an online library. On the coffee table in front of her was a Hi-Point 9mm. In front of that and on each side of the TV she was watching were cardboard boxes stacked to the ceiling. Above the TV, was a another flag - this one black with a single gold letter front and center. This was the point that I freaked out internally and asked if there was a restroom I could use. The lady refused to take her eyes off the TV or mutter a word and just pointed behind her. I went in the restroom, texted my wife, flushed the toilet, ran the sink, and then acted like I was drying my hands on my pants as I left the room. By the time I got back, the man from the phone call was there. He was wearing jeans on the bottom and prison tattoos on the top. “Put that cash on the coffee table. I will count while you load the tool boxes. I will not help move the boxes.” And that was it man… I loaded those fucking boxes as fast I could, got in my truck, and got the HELL out of there. I completed a $7,500 transaction with fake visit to the washroom and two sentences. *** And I know… I tend to get crazy in these stories with my imagination. But I swear on my dad’s grave - this is EXACTLY how this shit went down.
That’s an awesome story! I’ve ended up in a few what the fuck am I doing here moments. One involves a guy telling us not to step on his “guard ants” .
The Jalopy Journal
