I'll be dragging home a 57 in about the same condition come spring. I could use those doors, trunk and seat spring. Save it or sell it!
Thats a great start compared to alot of the cars in my area! If you ever get really bored... Get on craigslist, go to Ohio, then search the Cincy or Dayton area for old rides, That my friend would sell here for 1-2k. NO SHIT!!!!! I say get it!! Would be a great project.
You need to make that your new tag line,to go with your avatar I like old 60s ford trucks, Ive had sevral but.............ah nevermind
Your truck looks like the frame is broken just behind the cab.. Is that a Toyota ? They all rust in the same place...
I'm amazed at how many folks would be willing to take this on as a project. No title, shot full of 100 holes. Quarters and doors look wasted and chances are the roof didn't stay square (for new glass) by getting rolled down that hill. There's a ton of hours to get this thing back to the starting line. It really needs everything. I could see someone jumping on this in 20 years, but have tri fives gotten to the point of piecing together "puzzle cars", such as what is done with 20's-30's Fords, etc. (gather acowl, quarter, roof section, doors)? Seems there's still plenty of reasonable, unbuilt, tri fives that are much better suited as project cars. I like the idea someone stated of using this floor/foundation to save a convertible hulk that's been rusted up to the wheelwells. Maybe a High School or ROP body shop class project.
Personally I don't think I'd try to save this car as a whole but like I said earlier the floors & trunk pan as well as the frame are way better than anything we see in the north. Repop panels are expensive and don't fit right without alot of massaging so if it was me I'd cut out every bit of good metal and use it to save other cars. There's also just way too much missing on this car to try to put it back together unless you had a donor car for parts. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. My current 57 project is fairly complete but being a New England car, the floors need patching, the rockers are bad & the whole trunk pan is rotten. Fender bottoms need fixing, etc. All the lower parts that are exposed to road salt. Having something like this carcass to dice up would save me about $2000 I'm going to have to spend on Chinese repro panels.
Assuming the roof isn't destroyed (and even if it IS thats just another glitch.) a 2nd year bodyman apprentice could replace the outer quarters and outer door skins. The glass flip front, the glass trunk lid and the straight axle wouldn't be that tough either. Man...some of you guys who are putting this down as unrepairable junk must really have it GOOD! If I found that car I'd have it right side up and home by Saturday evening!!!
I'd pretty well bet that when that car was originally dumped there no one thought it was a classic and scrap value was so low that it wasn't worth the effort to haul it to a scrap yard. Lots of those cars got bought and sold really cheap back in the early sixties and many ended up the same way or if you were in central Texas in the late 60's early 70's they ended up as dirt track cars or supplied the frame for a dirt track car that was run at Heart of Texas speedway. The frame and dash look like they might help another car survive though And the rest could be strange enough yard art to piss off any snotty neighbor.
Ive never seen a convertible 55 gasser before.... If the roof wasnt square Id whack that bitch off (in a non dirty sense...)
I would love to have that frame and floor... I would start building up the frame/suspension/drivetrain while keeping my eye out for a donor body!
Dang thats just sad! I wish I was closer too . Being the vulture that I am I'd just hack off the B-pillars (thanks to my own stupidity on my own project), a few other odds & ends and leave the desert "art" where it stands....
My 40 Ford wasnt in much better condition. I ended up buying a frame. Looks like you might have the frame already ... Joe
X2 on this. We've all seen this link before, but this seems like an appropriate place to put it. If you think that '55 is bad, look at this. http://www.impalas.net/forums/showthread.php?t=686
Some guys are just afraid to really work on a project, or they're spoiled by too much rust-free tin. So a car that needs a second car to donate parts to put the body together is junk to them. Should be interesting to see what comes of this car.
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