I ran across this cool old photo that I thought you guys might like, I don't have a time line but it seems it's before the advent of the cherry picker. The overalls and the neatly trimmed hair makes me think late 50's, early 60's. HRP
My Dad did that around 1960. He and my Grandpa went to the junkyard and the yard owner turned the Olds on it's side so he could torch out the motor mounts. Then they took it home and installed it in Dad's '40 coupe in the small single stall garage out behind the house. My uncle also had a '40 coupe, but evidently he didn't value his as much. He wrapped it around a light pole.
When I was just over 20 years old, around 1973 or 1974 I'd guess, I bought a '40 Ford Tudor that already had a 389 Pontiac in it (maybe this is OT since it wasn't an Olds?). The car had an early Ford transmission (top shift) and still had the banjo rearend. I rebuilt the engine and did a lot of work to the car including stripping it to bare metal (oh and was it ever a solid car), did al the wiring and such. Finally had it driveable and took it to a show about 12 miles from home that the club I belonged to at the time was putting on. When I got it home it really strained to pull itself into the garage. Turns out with all the work I did to the car I never checked the rearend lube level. It turned out there was none. Needless to say, that began a lot more work I had to do the car. Thinking back to cars I've owned that '40 Ford would easily be either #1 or #2 on the list of cars I wish I would have kept. Lynn
Speaking of stuffing an Olds Rocket under the hood, here's my 41 Packard coupe with a 350 Olds in it. The Olds was a tight fit, had to relocate steering gear box, steering column and master cylinder among other things. the end result was worth it though with the stock 4.3 to 1 rear it's pretty quick off the line.
My buddy in high school in 1960 did that using his little brothers swing set. Yeah he bent it pretty badly.
I never installed a Olds engine in any of the 40 Fords I have owned in the past but the first one I swapped engines in was the V8 from a '55 Chevy (265). HRP
When I was a kid my Dad used an old swing set as a lift all the time. It was much heavier steel than they are made of nowadays, but he still braced the corners and added another bit of steel across the top. I think that swing set is still in the backyard.
I hear you, my Granddad used a heavy gauge swing for pulling and installing engines, just temove the swang and replace it when finished. This is the original A frame & swing he used. HRP
In the late '50's and until the SBC's became so, the cheap and plentiful Olds, and to some extent the Cadillac, was probably the most popular performance swap into any old Ford at the time. All of the adapters that you would ever need were available from many different manufacturers.
BTW, my Granddad (Highpockets) made small batches of non taxed moonshine in that barn, believe it or not his son was a motorcycle cop here in town and help make the stuff. Back on course, I watched and helped my granddad shoe horn a J2 Olds in a Henry J. when I was about 11 years old using that swing set I posted earlier, but I don't everyu remember him driving the car. HRP
This pic reminds me of something the old man used to talk about when I was a kid. He grew up in the depression, and he said people around here didnt let grass grow in the yard, if you did you were considered lazy. People swept the yards with a brush broom. Thankfully, I never had to sweep the yard, that was out of fashion by the time I came along. The first motor I remember ever seeing pulled, a 223 Ford six, came out with my swingset. The crossbar started to bend, and they stuck a big pry bar in the end to shore it up. Thanks for the memory.
We pulled engines right on the property line at my parent's house. Took the 2 fence rails down, hung a chain around a big oak tree branch. The chain was there from 1973 to when my dad sold the house in 1991. I had a borrowed Yale hoist that I used for years, the OG owner took it back around 1988 for good. Even neighbors borrowed the tree now and then. After the house was sold, I went past it and someone had chopped that branch... it must have been 9" in diameter.
A lot of Southerners over the years have resorted to using a huge tree limb for hanging a chain fall and pulled & replaced engines. HRP